Convoy Ships

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- Convoy Ships -

“Campaign” is a type of battle typically played only at the Annual Championship (NATS). From the IRCWCC rules: “The purpose of Campaign is to recreate scenarios reminiscent of those conditions which naval powers faced during the time period from 1905 to 1946 when they attempted to attack or defend strategic land objectives. The safe passage of convoys and the control of surrounding waters in a war zone were often the crucial factors in the successful outcome of a campaign in war time. Campaign tries to simulate those crucial times of difficult supply and sea control in a game which is easy to play and highly enjoyable for all involved. The conditions being replicated during Campaign include the maintenance of water borne supply lines while at the same time trying to deny those lines to enemy forces. The fleets battle for control of the sea lanes and receive points for successful convoy missions, and the protection of troops and supplies on land.”

Essentially, the majority of the points in Campaign are scored by completing convoy ship runs. Though conceptually simple and requiring drive and rudder control alone, building a reliable convoy ship requires the same level of attention that building a reliable warship requires. Convoy ships are meant to have maneuverability disadvantages (they travel much slower than fighting ships and have relatively small rudders especially on the larger ships), so that they require protection and are more huntable by capital ships. There are few resources on convoy ships, which is why I am writing this article.

First, a few rules and other factors that should be considered:

Convoy ship scoring: Convoy ships score various points for completing runs which scales with ship length. The table below is scoring as of 2025. Each “run” is completed by driving from one “port” to the other, while being on the water for a minimum of 5 minutes. The first 30 seconds of which the ship is not a viable target while it gains “sea room.”

Holes don’t matter: Holes in convoy ships (and for that matter combat ships) are not counted and scored in campaign as they would be in a Fleet Battle. The only thing that matters is whether the ship is able to complete a run or not. This is important to keep in mind when attacking convoy ships. If you don’t think you can realistically put enough holes in the ship to disrupt the run by sinking it, then those shots might best be saved for a different target. Another strategy, however, is to shoot ships to some degree, forcing them to repair damage and thus slow down how fast it can cycle runs.

Sinks don’t matter: In the current rules, a convoy ship being sunk is not something that negatively impacts scoring. It does make that run not completed of course and prevents those potential points from counting. For the sake of transparency and completeness, combat ship sinks do matter however and though similarly holes are not counted or scored, the sink value of the ship is scored.

Speed: Convoy ships are considerably slower than warships, all of which are only allowed 34 seconds over a 100-foot course.

Rudders: Rudder size is determined by length. Compared to warships the rudder size is considerably smaller. The table below is as of 2025.

Ship variety: Campaign provides for a wide variety of different ships that otherwise would not be built within our hobby. Aircraft carriers, oilers, hopsital ships, seaplane tenders, referigerator ships are all not really viable combat ship, but can get on the water in Campagin.

Observations: My observations regarding campaign and building of convoy ships are as follows:

1. The very large convoy ships are actually hard to sink in 5 mintues. Though there is typically significantly more target area on convoy ships in the 60+ inch long range, the amount of reserve buoyancy in these ships is large, and inflicting enough damage to put it down is very difficult. Shooting these ships is wortwhile though as forcing them to patch slows down the cycle time and decreases the total runs they will complete. My advice when targeting these is always to try to spread damage out so patching takes longer, and shoot it enough that they can’t just go for another run without patching, but not enough that wastes all of your ammo.

2. The very small convoy ships are often quite manuverable and difficult to put damage into, clearly however they are at a disadvantage in terms of point scoring capacity. Some captains use the little convoy ships to try to “touch” warships which in campaign forces them to come to shore for 30 seconds. I have my own opinions about the honorability of this tactic, especially when they target warships significantly outside of their own vicinity.

3. Getting the convoy ship to sink level is extremly important. This is where construction tecnhques matter. The ship needs to be built so that it settles as evenly as possible both from front to back and from side to side. Even if it barely limps its way back to port, if it makes the run without decks awash, the points count. The placement of internal components such as batteries and putting in effective water channeling can significantly impact this. It really takes repeated sink testing and adjustments to optimize level sinking.

4. Most convoy ships should be built as light as possible with as much reserve buyancy as possible. Keeping superstructure light helps. Usually, the penetrable area will extend to most of the depth of the hull to maintain 1 inch below the water line/45 degree compliant. Like all ships, if you can find a way to float the hull before you build it out entirely, it will help determine where to cut the pennetrable windows down to.

5. Single shaft convoy ships are at a disadvantage in my opinion. The torqure roll of the single shaft in an otherwise fairly light ship will all to easily cause the ship to settle with a list as it sinks.

Hikawa Maru

Seriously, who doesn’t want to shoot the hospital ship?

Hikawa Maru

In my opinion, wood hulls are superior for convoy ships because they do add some degree of buoyancy from the wood itself that fiberglass hulls can’t. There are several important aspects of convoy ship construction that you can see on this picture. The penetrable windows are incredibly deep, going to either the 45 degree angle but at most 1/2 inch from the bottom of the hull in this model. Internal armor for my convoy ships is always plastic soda bottles, strong but very light. The stern has motors and rudder gear, that is about it. The rails along the middle of the ship are for attaching Velcro to hold batteries in place. This ship can be tipped upside down to dump out water and be placed right back on the water to go again, which is a huge advantage in terms of keeping repeat convoy runs cycling as fast as possible. I’ve found this ship to settle much more reliably with the balsa bilge water channeling. Also, there is water channeling in the extreme bow.

4 sisters