THE HUNTERS (2^nd ed) by GMT Games

This is a combination After Action Report (AAR) and review of GMT Games' THE HUNTERS, written by Connecticut Game Club member Byron Bond in January of 2015.

Fate Proves a Lonely and Fickle Hunter

My type VIIB U-boat sailed from Brest in June 1941 on its seventh wartime patrol. I'd been her captain since September of 1939 which made her something of an old cow. It also contributed to being assigned tedious mine laying missions off the coast of Britain. I had long felt that a promotion to a type VIIC http://www.consimpress.com/image-gallery/the-hunters/14991456 would show my crew capable of vastly improving on our lackluster record of sinking eight vessels amounting to perhaps 65,000 tons of shipping to that point. One does one's duty by going to war with the weapons at hand however.

On our first day out in the (no longer safe) Bay of Biscay we were strafed by an enemy fighter which came from out of nowhere at wave top height. It disables our flak cannon and even holed our old cow's tough hide. The death of my 2nd watch officer was much the greater loss however. I had come to rely on Wolfgang's experienced eyes more heavily than even I realized; before we'd recovered from the first, a second attacker dove on us from out of the sun, strafing the deck crew preoccupied with Wolfgang's body, and smashing the aft torpedo door. With a second dose of hull damage and the loss of two key weapons I was at a crossroads. Should I continue on to our Atlantic patrol zone without the use of a deck gun and almost half our torpedoes, or return to base for repairs?

Such a decision cannot be made solely on a material basis! A good captain will factor in the morale of his crew. To that point it had achieved a respectable record, but other boats were coming home with bigger tallies to warmer welcomes from the base commander. I felt though that we were (past) due for a change in our luck. A demonstration of willpower would lead to ultimate triumph and inspire confidence in the crew until the tide turned. I knew that such a change was forthcoming because I had trained my officers for it.

After informing my officers the hull was compromised I told them we would nonetheless press ahead -- a decision which seemed to pay immediate dividends. Quite soon after we reached our zone of patrol we came across the enemy but our position relative to his convoy was disadvantageous. There were four potential targets but due to our trailing position only one was a large freighter. It being well after dark I choose to approach on the surface and ordered a medium range bow shot with G7a torpedoes. I would have elected to close the range further if the old cow's hull was unmarred; as that was not the case I had to be careful of the depth charging by the escorts. I gave instructions to aim three of the torpedoes at the large freighter and a fourth at a small bulk carrier.

I held my breath as the wakes began to converge with the targets. Two were to miss outright but a pair hit the large freighter amidships...followed by silence. Damn. DUDS! Worse, despite my extra precautions her escorts latched on to us immediately. We escaped their attack with only superficial damage but evading the depth charging meant giving up on the convoy. I can feel the crew's disappointment as we return to our patrol pattern for luck had been against us again.

Faster than any of us could ever have anticipated the Janus headed nature of fortune made itself known. Running on the surface in the dead of night to recharge our depleted batteries we stumble on the dream target of every submarine captain. The silhouette suggests not just any aircraft carrier but the most famous of them all -- HMS ARK ROYAL. She is a very large target but also heavily escorted so, again, I elect to stay at a medium torpedo range but submerge to increase the odds of evading the ever more tenacious Allied escorts. I fire my last three G7a and add a G7e torpedo as the unsuspecting carrier cooperates (with my aft torpedo tubes unavailable, I thank God!) by crossing our bow.

Given our difficulties with faulty detonators I cross my fingers. It will likely require all four warheads if I have any hope of sinking ARK ROYAL. But then with an incredible series of explosions all the tension in our boat is vented in a spontaneous cheer. Not only have all four weapons struck home and detonated, but they provoke the unmistakable fiery blister of secondary explosions. Transfixed by her demise I watch the giant flattop roll over through the periscope. Humiliated by our intrepid attack, the furious escorts drive us into a steep dive during which the boat is subject to a brief hammering. A near-miss costs us one of our diesels and the crewman who gave his life to prevent the leak of diesel fuel. But with his death our luck recovers. As if they are chasing his ghost, subsequent drops by the destroyers take place further and further away.

After a third round of detonations I begin the process of creeping away. The escort eventually gives us up for dead and we make our best speed back to Brest, this time disdainfully dodging the Allied patrols in the Bay of Biscay...for now the old cow is a giant killer!

Pass in Review

I ordered THE HUNTERS (2^nd edition) from the GMT Games via their P500 program. For those unacquainted with this convention, the P500 is a subscription model that is more or less a precursor to Kickstarter campaigns in that commitments to buy a game are solicited prior to the project going to print. (The difference is that your credit card is not charged until after GMT has the games in hand and ready to ship.) The second printing had over a thousand precommitted customers. To me this is an indication the first edition received good word of mouth.

THE HUNTERS is a solitaire game on the U-boat war from 1939 to 1943. It follows in the footsteps of B-17 QUEEN OF THE SKIES, the venerable solitaire wargame (re)published by Avalon Hill. After a few evening's play my enthusiasm for the game motivated me to take up a pen. The small footprint makes it an easy game to play solitaire. I can set it up on the kitchen table (the cold having driven me out of my wargaming basement,) and finish a typical mission in roughly fifteen to thirty minutes.

The goal of the game is for your ersatz U-boat commander to survive patrols until 1943 at which point he will hopefully be transferred to a desk job. I won't go through the entire sequence of play as you can read the full rules here http://www.gmtgames.com/p-471-the-hunters-2nd-printing.aspx), but a turn consists of rolling for encounters and deciding how to handle them. Unlike B-17, where you made relatively few substantive decisions, it actually feels like you have a degree of control over your destiny here -- or at least of the risk side of the risk/reward game. Should you attack immediately or risk losing the contact by waiting until dark? Will you employ guns or torpedoes? How many? Which targets? Will you navigate through the escort screen for a better shot (and perhaps discover a juicier target) or play it safe at the risk of missing? When your boat is damaged do you continue or abort?

Over time, survival means your crew improves and you might be promoted or possibly be assigned a new boat. This lends the game a real narrative feel. Looking over the log of my alter ego, Fergattenkapitan Klemperer, I see that he skippered his boat on 7 patrols, sinking 8 merchants for a total of 65,500 aggregate tons before his big success. Two of those were mine laying missions however. Those are a drag because prior to being expelled the mines prevent the loading of torpedoes. Thus your boat will only have a chance to sink targets of opportunity enroute home.

The Fergattenkapitan also spent a mission inserting an Abwehr agent. Though he kept his suspicions to himself he privately believed that such unglamorous assignments were a sign senior command was not pleased with his tonnage. Of course sinking a British capital ship changed everything for Klemperer...

Regression to the Mean

After winning the Knight's Cross Fergattenkapitan Klemperer toured the fatherland for four months as a model "experten" while his boat was repaired. He was pleased to receive the Type VIIC he had been coveting upon his return to duty. He was allowed to retain much the same crew with which his successful career was to continue. There is no dispute but that by dint of his considerable professionalism he developed a wardroom full of skilled disciples. The other side of the coin was a high transfer rate among lesser ratings. Command is not a popularity contest but some felt his Prussian rigor prevented his men from cohering into a truly veteran or elite crew.

Klemperer continued to patrol the Atlantic in his VIIC. Following his next great success, which was the sinking of HMS EMPRESS OF BRITAIN, an ocean liner of 42,300 tons, Oak Leaves were added to his Knight's Cross.  It was to prove his penultimate mission. Slated for promotion to headquarters the following month, in May of 1943 he sortied again. Immediately after torpedoing a 7600-ton freighter from an inbound convoy Klemperer's craft was the target of a devastating depth charge attack and never heard from again. Oil and debris fields suggest the boat was lost with all hands. (In game turns I rolled a modified "13" which is an immediate "Sunk" result on the attack table. This was ONE MONTH short of achieving "Victory" in the game, which is defined as "survival until June 1943.")

So, including his last, F. Kapitan Klemperer entered the rolls of U-Boat heroes with 18 patrols. He sank 24 vessels for 247,300 aggregate tons of shipping. Those 24 ships included HMS ARK ROYAL (22,000 tons) and EMPRESS OF BRITAIN (at 42,300 tons, the largest historical liner sunk during WW2). He survived several depth charge attacks, including another that required 4 months of refit to make his boat seaworthy again. He was posthumously awarded the "Swords" device to his Knight's Cross. Compared with historical commanders that would make him the 2nd highest after Otto Kretschmer. Klemperer was not universally liked but he was a survivor against long odds until they caught him...virtually at the finish line.

For my next game I think I'll start with a Type IX boat which opens up patrols to North America, Africa, and the Med.