The Hunters: German U-Boat at War, 39-43 AAR

[PanzersEast]

YEAR: October 1940
UBOOT TYPE: Type VIIC
PATROL: 1

I am currently waiting for my boxed version of the game, however I have started learning the game in ZunTzu and thought I would do an AAR of my first patrol.  I have selected Oct. 1940, and assigned to a VIIC U-boat.  I will keep my running log and I am unsure of how many patrols I will do, or if I will last through all of them.... we shall see.


Provisions and torpedoes are stored and crew is assembled.  The U-boat has been cleared for sea.


Setup for VIIC Oct 40

First Patrol and I have a Trained Crew
No Awards
Roll for starting Rank 1940 (Oberleutnant 1-2 / Kapitänleutnant 3-6)

(8 ) G7a Torpedoes (Steam)
(5) G7e Torpedoes (Electric)
(10) 8.8cm Deck Gun Rounds
(U) Unlimited 2cm Flak Rounds

Crew Complements
44 Crew
(1) 1WO
(1) 2WO
(1) LI (Engineer)
(1) Doctor

PE

[PanzersEast]

Patrol: 1
UBoot: U221
Date: October 1940

Now that my Uboot is previsioned and cleared for sea, l roll to see my starting rank and my patrol area.  I roll an 6 which afford me the rank of Kapitänleutnant and then a 7 which assigns me to the British Isles. 





I setup the board to reflect these rolls and then I begin my patrol (British Isle Row Under Patrols section).  Unfortunately we will be leaving from Western France which means we have to traverse the Bay of Biscay.  This historically became increasingly dangerous to travel both day and night as the technology advanced through the war.

Because we mush cross the Bay of Biscay we must roll for an encounter chance.  As you may notice that as the war goes on, we progressively take off our roll increasing our chance for an encounter.





So I rolled to see if we encounter any aircraft and rolling a 7 reveals we safely make it out of the Bay en-route to our patrol zone.  Next we move the counter into the British Isles box and begin patrolling.  I bring up the [E1] Encounter Chart and start hunting ships.





ALARM!

A roll of 8 reveals we have intercept a lone ship.  And reading the Explanation of Results says( Ship = Roll for ship size and ID. No Escort).





I roll to see what type of ship (1-3 = Small Freighter / 4-5 = Large Freighter / 6 = Tanker.  I roll a 3 for Small Freighter.

Referencing the [T1] Small Freighter Target Roster and rolling a 55 indicates that she is the SS Lehigh and weight 5000 gwt.





Small Freighters take 2 damage to sink so I move the counter to 2 under Target 1.  I also roll to see wether it is night or day and I roll a 5 which is Night and I flip the counter to night (1-3 = Day, 4-6 Night).




We are set to begin our attack.

[PanzersEast]

PATROL 1 cont

Since the ship is alone I choose to close the gap to Close Range giving us a bonus and to call out the deck gun crew to begin shelling the ship (deck gun can only be used on unescorted ships). 

So I but a counter down and resolve the combat round.  I have decided to preserve my torpedoes for now on larger targets.



I roll an 8 and looking at the chart [U1] at close range an 8 or less scores an hit.  So we are one hit away from sinking our second target.

We are only allowed to fire 2 shots per round so we roll for our second shot.  I roll an 10 and miss.

Now we have to roll for an possible encounter.  This simulates the ship radioing for help and help could arrive in terms of a plane or an escort.




Now we have to refer to the Encounter chart for Add'l Round of Combat and the possibility of aid coming to the stricken ship.

Luckily I roll an 8 and I am free to proceed with another deck gun attack in which I score another hit and sink the ship.

Lehigh / 5000 gwt - Small Freighter (Sunk)


We proceed to two other patrol locations before we encounter another lone ship which I sink with deck gun fire. 

Kumasian / 5000 gwt - Small Freighter (Sunk)


The rest of the patrol there were no contacts and proceed back to port without incident crossing the Bay of Biscay.  Time to resupply and head out again.

[Nefaro]

I've still not finished my first captain's career.   I think he's sitting at about 110k tons sunk, and a couple promotions in a VIIB which has been cruising since the start of the war. 

I believe he's at or close to '41 now but I cleared off the table to make room for a multi-player game awhile back and haven't set it back up.  Luckily The Hunters doesn't take up much space.  :D 

It's also not very complex once you get the motions down, which is generally good.  So it flows quickly.  However, I felt that the convoy encounters could've used a bit more elaboration.  The way you set up a convoy in Silent War, by drawing some unrevealed ship counters and lining them up in a few rows to represent the targets that are in range, is a nice system.  The Hunters could use something similar instead of, or in addition to, rolls on a table.  It would lend more nail-biting mystery and some interesting cases of destroyers getting the jump on you - the main reason I would want it.  Right now, in Hunters, you just make a random roll on an Escort table with some modifiers. 

It's good for some light solitaire gaming, even in a coffee table-sized space.  The digital modules also come with everything you need so you don't even need to bust out the box if you want to play it on the laptop instead.

[BanzaiCat]

Wow, this looks great! Good work, PE.

[PanzersEast]

YEAR: NOV1940
UBOOT TYPE: Type VIIC
PATROL: 2

(8 ) G7a Torpedoes (Steam)
(5) G7e Torpedoes (Electric)
(10) 8.8cm Deck Gun Rounds
(U) Unlimited 2cm Flak Rounds

Crew Complements
44 Crew
(1) 1WO
(1) 2WO
(1) LI (Engineer)
(1) Doctor


Since we did not suffer any damage last patrol we can quickly refit and replenish the uboot.  At minimal we are in port for 1 month.  So, with spirits high and the uboot cleared for sea we head out and this time we (roll) are assigned to once again go back to the British Isles but first we must traverse the Bay of Biscay.





Unfortunately our long awaited return to sea was cut short by the arrival of a welcoming parting, an British patrol plane.  So we rolled for for an attempt to crash dive (6 or more), however we did not see the aircraft in time (4 rolled) so we man the flak gun.

The first round of combat is a simultaneous firing of both the Airplane and the Uboot Flak gun.  First the Airplane, as you can see above the aircraft was successful in hitting our Uboot, however they also get a +2 modifier which totaled 4 hits..... Not Good for Crew MORALE!!!


We now roll to assess the damage and the following is a result of the attack:

Port and Starboard Diesel Engines knocked out  (can attempt to repair at sea)
(1) Damage to our Hull (cannot repair at sea)
Dive Planes Damaged

So this is going from bad to worse.






Our turn for revenge and we manage to shoot down the aircraft.... but the damage is done.  Chart [A2] Die roll of 3







Looking over the damage and being only in the Bay, I decided to return to port for repairs.  I could roll to see if we repair the engines, however if we fail the roll we are at a negative modifier and the dive planes as well.  The hull damage cannot be repaired at sea.

So, while back at port I am looking at 3 months to repair the damage to my Uboot and who know how much to my PRIDE!!!!




PE

[PanzersEast]

Wow, this looks great! Good work, PE.

Thanks, I really enjoy the game.


PE

[BanzaiCat]

I looked it up, but could only find a copy on eBay. For $28. So mad at being broke right now, but first world problems I guess.

Anyway, looking forward to more.

[Nefaro]

I looked it up, but could only find a copy on eBay. For $28. So mad at being broke right now, but first world problems I guess.

Anyway, looking forward to more.

They already sold the batch they just finished printing a little over a month ago?

Man.. this has been a problem with some releases lately.  ???  You almost have to pre-order or get them as soon as they come out, else you'll be stuck digging around for a used copy of which the price will start skyrocketing once people find out the supply of new ones is out.

I was looking to pick up a couple games awhile back only to find that the publisher was out and the ones being sold by individuals had already hit three times the original value.

[BanzaiCat]

Maybe I missed something, Nefaro. I don't have the money for it right now anyway, so I didn't look too closely. I was more trying to get a feel for how much it was going for overall.

[Nefaro]

Maybe I missed something, Nefaro. I don't have the money for it right now anyway, so I didn't look too closely. I was more trying to get a feel for how much it was going for overall.

Shouldn't be too pricey relative to other tabletop games.  There isn't a lot to it.

[bayonetbrant]

Maybe I missed something, Nefaro. I don't have the money for it right now anyway, so I didn't look too closely. I was more trying to get a feel for how much it was going for overall.

http://www.gmtgames.com/p-471-the-hunters-2nd-printing.aspx

[BanzaiCat]

My Google-Fu and click-fu is weak today.

[PanzersEast]

Got mine in the mail yesterday.... good quality and an slither addendum on corrections to the rules.  Nice layout and good counter quality.


PE

[Nefaro]

Hey PzE.

What are you using to track your patrols & tonnage in ZunTsu? 

I don't think the module comes with anything you can enter your info into.  I believe the vassal one does but I like the ZT version's ease of use and it looks better. 


You inspired me to set up and continue my patrol with my FKptn, who very nearly perished in his last patrol of '41 after being the focus of all the convoy escorts while in a Wolfpack.  I should've just aborted before attacking but there was a damn 14,700 ton merchant ripe for the picking.   :D

I had to look up the crew quality indicators on the general crew skill counters.  I now have 'Elite' crew since most of my previous crew skill increases rolls were for general crew quality increases.  I recalled seeing a description of what each letter was but it was not in the rulebook.  The damn thing just said, "DRMs are as shown on the tables".  Well.. I wanted to be sure it wasn't missing.  Sure enough I found out where I had seen the crew quality letter descriptions - on a web preview from pre-release quite awhile back! 

Here is the General Crew Skill counter indicator descriptions, in case you were wondering:

F= Flak Fire modifier
D= Diving modifier (on crash dive rolls for aircraft encounters)
A= Hit Probability DRM for All Weapons (aka 'Attack'.. this is the penalty for having a Green crew, which you can only get from having a regular 'Trained' crew skill and having three consecutive unsuccessful patrols)