When I was but a wee, young pre-grognard, one of the travel games my parents gave me was a deck of the Top Trumps playing cards. That particular deck was naval combatants; I read—and memorized—every data specification on every card. I knew all the stats by heart which made playing against me horrible as I always knew what my best stat was. Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare (Dan Verssen Games, 2008) is not exactly a Top Trumps card game but it is an abstracted card game of naval combatants that players will likely excel at playing the more they study their fleet.
I picked up my copy of Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare at the 2024 Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly swap table. My copy was open yet complete with the cards still in shrinkwrap. The rule book for Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare is a mere 12 pages. The rest of the contents are 220 cards (110 Fleet cards and 110 Action cards) and two six-sided dice. The fact the game ships in a “standard” bookshelf wargame box means you have a Splendor-like packaging situation; aka “small game, big box.”
Playing Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare is incredibly simple. Pick a fleet, arrange a fleet, draw Action cards, play Action cards. Repeat until somebody has sunk enough points to be the winner.
Although the Fleet cards are based on real-world navies, that is about the extent of “realism” in playing Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare. There are nine national fleets represented ( Argentina, China, France, Japan, Norway, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, and Soviet Union). While one certainly can play scenarios with “historical” opponents it is not a requirement.
Combat in Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare is (thankfully) a step beyond Top Trumps. Broadly speaking, players play Action cards to “activate” weapons on ships. The attack will usually score some number of hits. Players defend their ships using a combination of Action cards and inherent defensive capabilities that usually require a die roll to determine success. Action cards can also be used to Reinforce a fleet by paying to bring new Fleet cards into the battle.
The basic rules of Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare are simple to learn and easy to play. While one has to read the rules, in play most actions are cued by icons and other symbology on the cards. This makes for somewhat intuitive and quick play. There are three Optional Rules in the rule book and I strongly recommend using the first one, Air Strike Row Defense, which to me should be a basic rule. The fact that it is an Optional Rule illustrates the simplicity of the overall game.
The second tagline for Modern Naval Battle: Global Warfare calls the game, “The Fast-Paced Naval Warfare Simulator.” Fast -paced? Yes. Simulator? Well, Modern Naval Battle: Global Warfare will likely find use in my collection as a “filler” or travel game. Filler in that I can slap it on the table in a half-hour before dinner with the RockyMountainNavy Boys or travel as in an easy to pack game that can fill part of an evening or time waiting for transportation or an event to roll around. A part of me asked myself if the game could be used as a tactical combat resolution system—a simulator if you will—in a larger operational or strategic game but the level of abstraction is so high I am very leery of using it as such. No, Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare is what it is; a small abstracted game of naval combat that is to be played for fun.
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Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
This game is actually a reworking of the “Modern Naval Battles” game Dan Verssen created and published in the late 80s under the company “3W”. I own that one too, and the early 90s “Modern Naval Battles II” which added campaign rules. The 2008 Global Warfare version of the game streamlined the system and improved it a good bit, but I miss the campaign rules so we’ve adapted them here and there. The artwork and production values for the 2008 game are much better too. And yes, this game is essentially a more detailed version (and better version) of the old AH “Naval War” game, which I also own.
Sounds like slightly more sophisticated version of the Avalon Hill game Naval War
You are not the first to make that observation 🤔