by Billy Riley, 17 December 2020 ~ #UnboxingDay
I’m a bit in the middle about this one. On the one hand, I like the idea of a submarine game. On the other, it’s a “story” game…much like Queen of the Skies or Target for Today – games that I couldn’t get on with.
However – the claustrophobic setting of this pushed me over the edge. I held off on The Hunted 1943-45 (the sequel) until I decide whether I like this or not. Keep yer eyes open
click images to enlarge
Box Art
Box – Rear
The rear of the box shows some blurb about the mechanics, lays out the situation as it stood in 39 through 43, some detail on the game as a commander of a U-Boat, contents and details on mechanics – including Replayability set to Very High which is always welcome
Rules
Not an overbearing rule book. 19 pages with an additional 3 pages for Optional rules. There’s also some prints of the counter sheets (handy for when you misplace a counter), Designer Notes and a Historical Brief outlining some of the top U-Boat commanders.
U-Boat Combat Mat
Player Aid Cards
There are 4 double sided Player Aid Cards.
Patrol Charts
There are two Patrol Charts and the types of submarine that you command determines what chart you should use.
A Patrol Log Sheet
Dice
Commander Cards
There are 16 double sided THICK (and I mean thick) Commander cards. One side shows the Commander’s history and the other shows some game advantages
These link to the Historical Brief in the manual where I mentioned you get to see the top 10 U-Boat commanders – though there are only 8 cards (the second side has the same commander)…I wonder why they left out Gunther Prien and Georg Lassen (( and 10 in the list in the manual)?
Counter Sheet
Yep – I said sheet – singular. There’s only one sheet of counters. To be honest, that’s a relief after punching and clipping Fields of Fire Vol 1 and Fields of Fire Vol 2
U-Boat Cards
There are 4 double sided U-Boat cards on decent card stock. They show various parts of the submarine, the damage it can take, it’s weapon loadout, the patrol zones and status of the crew
The cards specify the dates these machines came into service
Bonus Material Card
This card show a list and gives an explanation of the bonus material in this 3rdPrinting.
So that’s The Hunters 1939-43. I look forward to being able to get this on the table…but I say that to all my games.
Thanks for joining this month’s #UnboxingDay with the Armchair Dragoons and we hope you enjoyed our recon of our recent acquisitions.
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