Fatal Choices (2014)

Fatal Choices: Wargames, Decisions and Destiny in the 1914 Battles of Coronel and Falklands is an experimental history using authentic naval wargames to examine choices made in the World War I battles of Coronel and Falklands

“And now began the saddest naval action of the war (Coronel). Of the officers and men in both the squadrons that faced each other in these stormy seas far from home, nine of ten were doomed to perish.”

-- Winston Churchill

This autumn marks the centennial of The Great War. Among the most dramatic sagas in a dramatic season was that of the German East Asia Squadron under Rear Adm. Maximilian Graf von Spee. Stranded by the sudden outbreak of war on the other side of the world, Spee’s squadron evaded enemy forces for months. Dispatched the raider Emden to harry British trade in the Indian Ocean and then handed the Royal Navy its first defeat in battle in 99 years off the shore of Chile near Cape Coronel. That devastating defeat sent two British armored cruisers to the depths with their entire crews at trifling cost to Spee’s squadron.

The stunning defeat provoked the British into sending two of their new battlecruisers thousands of miles from the European theater to search for and destroy Spee’s squadron. Spee and the British squadron met at The Falklands just five weeks after Coronel. This time it was Spee’s squadron which was annihilated.

For a hundred years historians and naval officers have debated Spee’s choices and those of his opponents and speculated about what might have been. Fatal Choices looks at the course of the actual campaign and considers how it might have played out differently. But more than that, Fatal Choices applies the discipline of authentic naval wargames to evaluate those what-ifs under realistic constraints. And it provides the reader with the tools to see for himself how the battles may have played out.

By special arrangement with noted author and wargame designer Larry Bond, Fatal Choices contains an extract of Bond’s superbly authentic and comprehensive Fear God & Dread Nought naval wargaming rules providing the reader with all the rules, ship forms and tables needed to refight the historical battles and several credible what-ifs. See For Yourself scenarios examine historical battles such as Coronel and the Cocos Islands, as well as possible alternative fights such as Spee running into the Australian battlecruiser HMAS Australia or the old battleship HMS Canopus. Other scenarios examine what might have happened if the modern armored cruiser HMS Defence had joined the British squadron in time for Coronel or if Spee had a ventured to attack the British ships while they were coaling in Stanley Harbor instead of attempting to flee.

Fatal Choices also includes another entire set of rules, an extract of Minden Game’s NavTac fast-play naval wargaming rules for those readers who are new to naval wargaming or pressed for time.

The Kickstarter edition of Fatal Choices also includes a special set of laser-cut ship counters including all the ships mentioned in the scenarios as well as play aids.