U-Boat Captain: Solitaire WW2 Wargame

Cracking solitaire war game

Advanced ed. PNP Straight forward 'macro' level campaigns for individual u boat. Feels very much like you are writing your Captain's Log of events, not a minute by minute tactical action simulation. There are a number of strategic decisions to be made during each encounter - range you will attack, number of torps to fire, will you continue attacking if you've spotted multiple targets and such. As with most Minden titles, the rules are well written and easy to comprehend. Charts are presented in the body of the rules- great for learning, but does require some page flipping during play for the lesser used charts.

Enjoyable, especially if you are looking for a fun solo that isn't a brain burner.

Another Minden naval game - this time we go under the waves during WWII . . .

Another brilliant Minden game. About 4 pages of actual rules plus charts. Lots of “extras” in the pdf. I found Hunters etc. to be a bit heavy, so really like this unique and low-complexity treatment. Top notch rules-writing as usual.

A lot of dice rolling. Its ok if you like the kind of games, where the result of a roll is another roll that maybe lets you re-roll the first roll. The campaign system with the cards is the strongest point in my opinion.

The options to choose one or the other approach within an encounter are there, but mostly end up in a +1 here or a -1 there for some of those dice rolls. The 4 different kinds of Boats (from which 2 are identical to other 2) differ in their load out, with the IX being overall superior. There is also a kind of progress that is displayed in two stats: the level of the Captain and the level of the crew. Sadly these levels play only a minor role in certain circumstances (of those... you know... dice rolls).

The rules are very clear written and for an enthusiast easy to understand. However I ended up flipping the pages many times to get from one table to the other. If you seriously want to play this game, design your own player aid with all tables, that fits on one page.

Recommendation: If you want a tight, clever and enganging WW2 game with subnautic theme on a tactical level with campaign gameplay, I heartly recommend you By Stealth and Sea. Sure its 40-50 moneys more than the PnP of U-Boat Captain, but as a first time customer of "Panzerschreck", I was a little disappointed for what I got for my 20 moneys (Iam well aware that I bought the whole magazine, not only the game, but I mainly bought it for U-Boat Captain).

What would I recommend to the designer, Gary Graber, for future projects? One test per step is enough to get a satisfying outcome for the player.