The Mediterranean Sea is a critical global artery for trade, and an avenue for attacking or protecting the countries in its littoral. As the Cold War deepened, the US Navy took over its protection from the fading British Royal Navy. The nascent blue-water fleet of the Soviet Union was designed and built to challenge US control of both the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The result was a series of confrontations in the Eastern Mediterranean through the 1970s and 1980s, any one of which might have touched off a massive naval campaign.

Sixth Fleet Deluxe Edition shows a hypothetical NATO-versus-Soviet struggle for the Mediterranean during the last decades of the Cold War. It is primarily a naval-air conflict, with some elements of power projection using ground forces. The game map is divided into sea and land areas to control the action. There are two 15-turn scenarios, one for the 1970s and one for the 1980s, with the later introducing improved ships & aircraft. Victory is based on controlling vital areas and inflicting losses.

The game system is based on Decision Games’ Red Dragon Rising, with players taking actions that combine movement and combat. Each player has one action guaranteed per turn, while extra actions can be gained or lost, depending on the situation. The combat system uses a common mechanism to model relative combat abilities in four types of warfare: anti-surface ship, anti-air, anti-submarine, and anti-ground. Units are rated for each of these types of combat. They also have electronic warfare ratings, which represent the ability to acquire targets and jam enemy sensors, and determine the order of combat.

Sixth Fleet Deluxe Edition updates the game first appearing in Modern War #41, offering new map and counter artwork, a mounted game board, updated rules, new player aid cards, and a campaign analysis article. The game provides players with a wide range of forces and decision making. You can play out a Med War in an evening and find out how you would have done in a great naval campaign that might have happened.