David Buckland - 10:36pm Aug 13, 2000 PST (#289 of 290) A REVIEW OF PANZERSCHRECK #4: BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC Introduction Panzerschreck, for those not in the know, is Gary Graber's magazine which, in its own words "Publishes variants and solitaire rules for popular boardgames, especially those of the "classic" variety, with an emphasis on simplicity and playability." Just as important is the solitaire game included with each issue. After getting off to a flying start with the excellent little game Reichstag: The Fall of Berlin, Panzerschreck seemed to lose its way somewhat with the next two games: the unfortunate Nuremberg: Snakes & Ladders (aka Trial of the Century), and the flawed The Barbarossa Campaign (though optional rules from the designer have addressed some of the problems in this game). It is nevertheless pleasant to be able to report that Mr Graber has returned to form with Battle of the Atlantic, in Issue 4. Also included in the magazine is a more conventional two-player game, Berchtesgaden: The Alpine Redoubt, on what might have happened had the Germans seriously tried to defend the much-rumoured redoubt in the final stages of WW2. I cannot comment on this latter game, having yet to play it, but the issue is worth it for the solitaire game alone. Battle of the Atlantic (hereafter BotA) is a strategic-level game of the crucial period of 10 months from August 1942 to May 1943, in which the historical battle was decided. With monthly turns, the player takes the role of Dönitz, with the game system handling the Allies. The designer feels that this is the first game to cover the U-Boat war at this level, other games on the subject being either tactical (eg. TAHGC's Submarine), or at a more operational level (SPI's Wolfpack), or with relatively little relationship to the actual course of events (TAHGC's Atlantic Storm). Components This is a DTP game, and while the components are serviceable, they are not up to the standards of Rob Markham, Simulations Workshop, or Ivy Street Games. Nevertheless, the counters are a step up from the previous Panzerschrecks, looking more professional and less cut-and-paste, helped by the larger (0.6") size. Without claiming to be an expert in this area, the icons used for the U-Boats, Escorts, and Air units look suspiciously like modern, rather than WW2-vintage examples, but this is minor issue, with no effect on play. The U-Boats counters represent 4-6 operational boats, while the Allied air and sea units are a more abstract measure of size and effectiveness of Allied ASW measures. A set of cards which, like the counters, is intended to be mounted, and which fulfil a range of game functions, completes the package. The map (11" x 8.5") is of card, rather than the paper used in previous issues, but as a consequence is black-and-white (well, light blue and black), rather than colour. For game purposes, the Atlantic is divided into seven areas, in which the battle will be refought. Those with the most shipping, but sadly where the Allied forces cluster in larger numbers as well, are the two ends of the crucial US - UK link: the North Atlantic in the east, and Newfoundland in the west. The other areas are Iceland and the Bay of Biscay (in both of which the Germans will get some assistance from the Luftwaffe's Condors), the Mid-Atlantic (ie. US to the Med), the Eastern Seaboard (of the US), and the African Coast. Victory Conditions In order to win, the Germans have to meet a series of exacting requirements. Firstly, they must not lose more than half the U-Boats in play during any one turn. Since they must also sink Allied shipping (see below), and as the more aggressive the U-Boat, the more ships it will sink, but the more likely it is itself to be sunk, the Germans are on the horns of a dilemma here. Secondly, they must prevent a secure convoy "lifeline" being established between the US and the UK. This means tackling the Allies in the North Atlantic, where they are strongest, and the likelihood of U-Boat casualties is therefore higher: the less stomach the Germans have for the fight in this crucial sector, the quicker the lifeline will be established. Thirdly, the Kriegsmarine must sink an average of between 400,000 and 500,000 tons of Allied shipping per month, and at least 600,000 tons for three consecutive months. These are tough targets, although the optional rules do contain plenty of suggestions for balancing the Victory Conditions. Turn Sequence First, the Strategic Phase, and an important decision for the Germans: do they concentrate upon producing more U-Boats, or fighting the technological war? The latter has important implications for the turn sequence itself (see below), but Doenitz desperately needs more U-Boats as well, especially at the start. There follows a Random Event Phase, with the usual mix of good and bad events from the player's point of view: on the one hand, there may be a successful wolfpack ambush, or better torpedoes - on the other there may be reduced shipping in a particular zone, or the Allies may place a Convoy marker (four of these means that the "lifeline" to the UK has been established). Next are the two phases that are the heart of the game: the Allotment & Placement Phase, and the Attack & ASW Phase. In the former, the player decides where to deploy active U-Boats, and the game system allocates Allied Escort and Air units to the various zones. This allocation is managed via two separate card draws, with varying numbers for each zone. But while the numbers vary from card to card, some areas are more heavily guarded than others: the North Atlantic and Newfoundland are the Allied priorities, with the Eastern Seaboard and the African Coast bottom of the list. The escorts are always fewer in number than the air units, so for example a card might place 8 escorts, but 19 air units in the various sectors, depending upon when the card was drawn. The exact sequence in which the Allies and the Kriegsmarine place their units depends upon the current status of the Allied Technology Advantage (ATA) index. At the start of the game, the order is: Allied placement of escorts and air units, then German placement of U-Boats, then convoy attacks by the Germans, then the ASW Phase in which the sea and air units attempt to sink the U-Boats. This sequence is the one which most favours the Germans, as they are able to see the Allied deployment before deciding where to place the U-Boats (there are no movement restrictions - the player can place operational U-Boats in any available sector). As the Allies inexorably gain the technological upper hand in the course of the game, this placement sequence will alter. In the intermediate stage, the Allies place sea escorts first, then the German U-Boats are deployed, then Allied air power. Towards the end of the game, the Germans may be forced to deploy with no foreknowledge of Allied dispositions. The same pattern is repeated in relation to combat, aka the Attack and ASW Phase, the resolution of which is also tied to the ATA index. In the early stages, the U-Boats will wreak their havoc first, then the Allies get to try to sink the submariners. In the middle turns, the sea escorts will fire first, then the U-Boats, followed by the air units. Towards the end, the Germans will probably be firing last, assuming that they survive the Allied ASW. Obviously, the Germans benefit the earlier in the sequence they get their opportunity to sink Allied shipping, before Allied countermeasures can take effect. In deploying his U-Boats, the latter-day Dönitz has two main choices to make. Firstly, where to place them. This will depend to some extent on his knowledge of Allied escort dispositions (which is vitally affected by the turn sequence described above), but also on the need to challenge the Allies where they are strongest - in the vital North Atlantic sector. Not only is Allied shipping more concentrated here, so tonnages sunk are likely to be higher, but it is only by contesting the North Atlantic that the Germans can hope to prevent the establishment of the secure convoy "lifeline" between the US and the UK. The second key choice is how aggressive to make the U-Boats. There are three choices in each sector (Aggressive, Normal, and Shadow), and there is a not too surprising trade-off: the more aggressive, the more Allied ships will be sunk, but the more likely it is that the U-Boats themselves will be sunk by Allied ASW. In any event, the best result possible for the Kriegsmarine from a single U-Boat is 200,000 tons, but this is unlikely: between 50,000 and 100,000 tons would be good scores, and all too frequently less than 30,000. Following resolution of U-Boat and ASW attacks, the next phase determines, via a card draw, whether the crucial ATA index advances, from 0 at the start to a maximum of 6. If Dönitz is at Lorient, rather than at HQ back in Germany (a decision made by the player at the start of the turn), then the chance of the Allied technological edge growing is roughly halved. Nevertheless, the index cannot be reversed, and the best Dönitz can do is slow down the process. The other side of the coin in terms of Dönitz's location is shown during the subsequent U-Boat Production Phase, again determined by a card draw, which will yield from zero to three U-Boats, plus one if the U-Boat chief is at HQ in Germany. In the penultimate phase of the turn, the player determines whether any aces were created, this depending upon the amount of tonnage sunk: the more ships going down, the more likely it is that one of the U-Boats will gain the Ace rating. This confers a benefit in future Attack Phases. David Buckland - 10:37pm Aug 13, 2000 PST (#290 of 290) REVIEW OF BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC (contd.) Finally, there is the possibility that the Allies will make progress towards the establishment of the US-UK convoy "lifeline": this is less likely if the Germans have contested the North Atlantic, since surviving U-Boats in the sector affect the dr6 in question. Other rules cover surface raiders and milch cows, while the optional rules contain several proposals for altering the balance of the game, as well as contributing some interesting embellishments, such as Rudeltaktik (wolfpack tactics) and Green Crews. Game Play As well as meeting the various victory criteria, and avoiding the Allies building their "lifeline", the player is essentially working against the clock. Both the steady accumulation of Allied technological advantage via the ATA index, and its effects on placement and combat, and several other factors (eg. the Allies are more likely to place convoy markers in 1943 than 1942) mean that the Germans have to do well early on if they are to win. On the other hand, the U-Boat fleet starts weak - only 6 operational U-Boat counters, and pressing too hard too soon may well mean that the Germans are never able to reach their tonnage targets. If placed in Aggressive Mode, which of course increases the possibility of losses, and assuming that the Kriegsmarine initially avoids the dangerous waters of the North Atlantic, this means an average of roughly 50,000 tons sunk per U-Boat, which is well short of the monthly average of 400,000 to 500,000 required. However, choosing to boost U-Boat production (placing Dönitz in HQ) will mean that the Allied technological advantage snowballs more quickly, and once the Allied air units are firing before the U-Boats, the game is up for the Germans. So, from the very start, the player is placed in a dilemma, and given some difficult decisions: particularly about where to "place" Dönitz, and how aggressive to be with U-Boat fleet. I have tried any number of different approaches: for example, concentrating on U-Boat production in the early months, while keeping losses down, then challenging the Allies for control of the North Atlantic, while Dönitz concentrates on the technical battle. Or, alternatively, maximising efforts to keep the ATA index at its lowest level, while attacking more aggressively with the U-Boats - and innumerable variations on these approaches, and others. So far, I am still searching for that elusive German victory: the 600,000 figure in three successive months being amongst the hardest conditions to achieve. The Game as History Gary Graber was apparently aiming for a game at the War At Sea level. The complexity levels are not that dissimilar, and I think he has done better than that in terms of the game as history: the results of BotA are not wildly different from those of the actual course of events, while WAS is a fantasy (though a great game). I have never managed to equal the record of 743,000 GRT sunk in November 1942, but the monthly tonnage totals seem not too discrepant from what the German submariners actually managed. On the other hand, whether the historical Battle of the Atlantic would have been won if the Germans had met the victory conditions set in the game is a moot point. The British calculated that the loss of 600,000 tons per month over an extended period (ie. more than the three months they need to achieve in the game) would have overcome them, while the Germans estimated 700,000 tons. Recently, some historians (eg. Michael Gannon) have claimed that these figures are too low, and that the rate of US ship launching would have required the Germans to sink about 1.3 million GRT a month: an impossible target. But even if the game 'victory' might not have meant an actual win for Dönitz, had his U-Boats been able to achieve this level of sinkings historically, one can still view the victory conditions in BotA as valid, on the usual grounds of doing better than the historical counterparts. Given that BotA is not aiming to be the last word in complexity, it is not surprising that some factors I would myself have liked to be included do not feature: for example, the mid-Atlantic "Gap" does not appear, and the difficulties of operating U-Boats at long distances from their bases (and of keeping them operational in general) are glossed over: the entire U-Boat fleet will go wherever the latter-day Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote decides they should deploy. Conclusion Any paper solitaire wargame runs the risk, if the designer is not careful, that players will end up with the feeling, for all their efforts, that they might as well have rolled a dr6 at the start: 1-3 we win, 4-6 the game system wins. BotA, with its crucial tonnage totals mere figures on a table, may strike some this way (lacking, for example, the more visceral appeal of WAS, where enemy vessels are nice big counters, and sinking them means their removal from the game board). It might also be argued that one of the key decisions the players make - concentrating on either U-Boat production, or the technological war - is a false one, in that these were not mutually exclusive choices for Dönitz (though he was very much a one-man band for much of the Battle of the Atlantic). However, I am still, after a dozen or so attempts (which last an hour or so, for the most part), trying to beat the system with different approaches; still experimenting with different strategies - and resolution via that single die roll looks some way off yet. There are not many wargames I have managed to play that often, and still wanted to come back for more - and even fewer that cost only $12.