The Hunters Campaign / Playthrough - GMT Games - Wargame - U-boat Solitaire Patrol 9

[@ZillaBlitz]

Hi all! I have a question I'm wondering about... I'm curious how the sound is for everyone, especially the balance between the background audio and the voice? Is the voice too low, the music too loud? How about the sound effects? Some of them I like kind of loud, realizing it might drown out my voice for a few seconds, but I like the impact of them in some places. Any thoughts would be welcome, thanks!

[@setSCEtoAUX]

I'd prefer the music a little lower throughout, and the sound effects either lower or shorter. For some reason, simultaneous talking and loud noises kind of annoy me; I'd love it if you paused talking for a shorter sound effect (or paused at a strategic point in the effect, like when the ship hits the bottom). I'm asking a lot, because I can' t imagine how you'd put that together without it taking hours, but you asked what I liked. :)

[@PatricksTacticsTutorials]

I think you can reduce the music volume by 5-10%. It can sometimes creep up to overtake you. Also, my OCD screams when you start the ships on their Sunk marking and move them upward to the Target number. You are sending them downward to Davy Jones! 😄

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Patrick! I'll play around with the music/audio setting a bit. I think it's probably more the variability with the voice mic, but I'm going to aim to amp up the voice a touch. Much appreciated. :) Oh, is that not moving the ship counters correctly? Hahaha! Who knew! :) I think when I was first looking at the game I saw someone doing it that way and I never considered doing it another way. To be honest, I like going up because then I know exactly how many hits I have to put on. Moving down will mean looking at the values on the vertical columns and the ship's tonnage values to determine when it's sunk. I'll think about this though, maybe I can put a marker chip down on the square where the ship would be sunk. Thanks!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Jim! Listening through it last night after editing, I was thinking that the voice seemed a touch low, so that seems to be a direction to head in. And I'll play around with the sound effects too. There are a couple in particular that seem pretty loud and long. Making them shorter might be harder than making them softer, but I tend to agree with what you're mentioning. Thanks for the feedback!

[@PatricksTacticsTutorials]

I thought that might be the case. It's a very subtle design for effect.

[@metalipunk1]

Hi Zilla! Thanks a lot for all yout playtrough vidéos. Honnestly I get involved like if I was watching à sport match! Anyway....you speak about fate of your U Boat. Yesrerday I continued à long campaign on Raiders of thé Deep (same creators as the Hunters series..silent Victory...but for the U Boot of 1914 -1918 Compass Games is the editor of the game not GMT for this one of the serie) It was Jan 1918...after à campaign started in 1916 on Pocket U Boot (type UB1...only 2 torpedeos and a 37 gun hard to sink anything)... whatever on Jan 1918...got à 1.1 so..2 on the random event table. My U boot was attacked by à Q Ship..and sunk. The crew of the Q Ship get the me and my crew aboard their vessel, but..then....shot us down. The worst thing to happened. Heart breaking for m'y crew and my poor Lothard Schroder...after 2 years in the English Channel

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, metalipunk! I'm glad you enjoyed the playthrough videos. ~ And wow, that's too bad about your Raiders of the Deep UBoat! It'd come so far! Are you going try again?

[@metalipunk1]

@@ZillaBlitz 🙂 it's on the way. The dices have told me to start on august 1914. 4th Flotilla. Emden. Patrol zone for the entire war is British Isles. U Boot type U19. UBoat number U26. LeutnantzurSee Herbert Hoffmann. 4 toperdoes in forw tubes. 2 in aft tubes. 2 in stocks. 1st patrol. Capital ship!! (On august 1914, it means à convoy of the 4 capital ships of the time (Aboukir, Crecy. Hogue, and one another. 12k t each)... they are not escorted but armed. I can't attack surfaced (the rules explains that it was too dangerous at this time). So I fired 2 topedoes on the Aboukir. One hit one dude. "Bugger" as you say. New round. Escort is on the way "bugger" (again). 2 more topedoes. One miss. One dude. (Smells like sh..).Detected. 3 hit incoming (escort try to ramm me). Hull hit. 2 flooding. Whatever I fired my 2 last torp with aft tubes. 1 hit 3 damage. One dude. Just one more hit and she will have sunk !....but no more torp. Can't follow to engage with the 88. (Submerged attack mandatory)...so...I went back to Emden with à sad face.

[@ZillaBlitz]

But what an adventure! So close! :)

[@DragonsAteOurName]

Another succesful patrol! And I think this U-Boot has a really good Kapitän. You make all the right decisions!

[@ZillaBlitz]

An alive Kapitän is starting to feel like a good Kapitän! I feel like it only takes one wrong decision before ... GAME OVER. I'm really curious to see how the second half goes, or at least the part we get to see of it. Thanks for coming along for the ride! :)

[@DragonsAteOurName]

@@ZillaBlitz Or a few unlucky dice rolls. But that's the game!

[@thecustardprophet8434]

This series is fast becoming my favourite on KZbin!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Custard, that's high praise coming from a YT creator and connoisseur such as yourself! I'm glad you're enjoying it. Maybe we'll see some wargaming content on your channel at some point as well? :)

[@charleslatora5750]

Understand completely.

[@charleslatora5750]

Silent Victory. Pushed. Had done 2 earlier this yr. Did 8 straight cruises. Subconscious says stop. Pushed on thru the tiredness(pushing midnight)...cruise#11 minefield. All hands lost. This weekend Hunters back to my table. Trying to get all my solos played, up to 10 missions each.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, all it takes is one time where you push beyond prudence. Even with that, I could easily see us getting stuck in an endless cycle of detection and depth charges that could finish us off. I dread 1942 and 1943, those look brutal. Good luck with The Hunters! I'd be curious to hear how it turns out. :)

[@uwebech5825]

@@ZillaBlitz I actually have a campaign half way through the war in Silent Victory with a decisive victory already in hand and most of the medals and awards earned except the biggie and I'm considering retiring to a desk job. Just to say that I did that at least once in my games...lol. I'll decide soon. Greed and ambition can get you killed in this game PDQ. 😎

[@ZillaBlitz]

@@uwebech5825 Wow, that's awesome! And from what I understand incredibly difficult to get. Most excellent work, watch out for that last bit of greed! Does Silent Victory get easier as things go on? So the hard part is surviving the beginning?

[@manuelkooijman5757]

Am really enjoying your play throughs of this game. It inspired me, an avid hobby boardgamer but not really a wargamer, to buy Silent Victory which is the game about the US submarines in the pacific. It will arrive before the weekend so I know what I’ll be doing this Saturday.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Awesome, Manuel! Thanks for sharing. I hope you enjoy it, and Silent Victory should give much the same experience as this game, of course. I'd be curious to hear how it goes, and fire away if you have questions as you're learning. :)

[@Obalcan]

Manuel, excellent. Make sure to find my unofficial errata for it on the forum - official one is lagging behind. One more thing from me that you can use is the sub upgrade schedule table which is lacking in the original game which immensly helps knowing what one needs to upgrade and when. Enjoy!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Nejc! I'll have to take a look at that errata sheet as well. :)

[@soloboardgaming]

Great to hear you talk about the emotional involvement. I feel that often and it's always the sign of a darn good game design! Loved your "Bugger!" when you took the hull damage, funny! :) Isn't it cool how the damage from the air is modelled, gun and crew exposed and therefore real thematic?! Great patrol!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, SOLO! I think the air damage being realistic was more luck than anything else, and it's using the same damage chart as from depth charges. :) But yes, now that we're approaching the halfway point in the campaign, I'm starting to feel invested in the U-Boat. Honestly, those air attacks are the scariest because with a +2 modifier a roll of an 11+ sinks the U-Boat. I feel like that's the most direct way we can get a game over. I'm glad we've got the lucky horseshoe. :)

[@Stumptonian1]

Great mission, but I believe you forgot to roll for 'dud' on the Bengore Head

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Peter! Just checking, I think I got them all in. For most of the shots I rolled 3 dice to include the dud roll. There was one I forgot on, and I calculated and applied the damage. But then I remember that I forgot and retroactively rolled for the dud check shortly after I applied the damage. But I don't think that was the Bengore Head. I can check more though if you've got a time for when it happens? Thanks!

[@Stumptonian1]

@@ZillaBlitz 22:06

[@Stumptonian1]

my bad - the hit roll at 21:30 took care of that.

[@ZillaBlitz]

No worries at all. I might roll four dice at once at once going forward too. That was suggested by a BGG viewer. Going to think on that a bit. :)

[@charleslatora5750]

👍👍👍well done.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Charles! The Dice Roll gods seem to still be shining on us. :)

[@vaele723]

Good patrol, nice job! Not as action packed as the 8th mission, but that's kind of a difficult bar to surpass at this point, though that also means it was less dangerous. But I have no doubts that the longer we survive, the harder things become. Exciting stuff for sure. :P

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm not sure I could handle it if every patrol were like #8. :) That was crazy. I do think that the back half of the campaign will be very different from the front half. I can't imagine we'll have too many more patrols where we don't get attacked. The numbers just keep getting worse and worse. Fingers crossed we can keep going!

[@davet010]

I think the progress of these missions does illustrate the increasing odds against a U-Boat making it home. I've not yet sprung for The Hunted, but I can imagine that being an ever-spiralling nightmare, even just crossing the Bay of Biscay.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Good points, yes. It's just a nudge harder here, then a nudge harder there, but if we make it to 1943, all those little tweaks add up and I can see it being really challenging. I'm really curious to see how The Hunted is modeled, because the real numbers from the back half of 1943 to the end of the war were just brutal for U-Boats. So many U-Boats sunk and so little tonnage sunk.

[@uwebech5825]

@@ZillaBlitz The end of the war is where I usually switch to long range engagements at night and submerged. Anything else will usually kill you pdq.

[@uwebech5825]

The Hunted and Beneath The Med are a whole new level of pain and frustration. 😎

[@ZillaBlitz]

@@uwebech5825 Thanks! I was wondering about long range, as that extra -1 would come in handy. At a certain point it looks like detection gets insanely hard to escape.

[@Obalcan]

Yeah, just had two campaigns in The Hunted ended up by me being sunk. First one on my 2nd patrol, and the second one on my 3rd patrol. It is brutal. Enjoy your The Hunters campaign because when you get to The Hunted it is gonna be over quick... ;)

[@uwebech5825]

Awesome patrol Captain. Good tactical choices throughout. Don't forget that you can repair between engagements of the same convoy after following. I think 🤔

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Uwe! Yes, I just forgot to repair stuff on this patrol, and thanks for the reminder! I blame the stress of command. :)

[@coyi51]

How infuriating not to have had the dice roll camera on, would have loved to see you sink the capital ship. Now really desperate to get my hands on this game, probably one of the best solo games I have seen.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, there have been a rare couple of times where that's happened on minor things and I've not noticed it until editing. For those I've either just recreated the roll or not shown the dice roll camera. The fairest thing to do probably would have been to do something similar here, but maybe next time. I think I'll make a specific house rule for how I handle those to be consistent.

[@wayneclingman2328]

We are a lucky ship

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yes sir, our general luck seems to be holding up pretty well, although it would be nice to get a capital ship under our belts. And I hope you're keeping up with your training. There is a rumor that First Watch Officer MacLeod might be getting his own U-Boat, and you've come highly recommended as his replacement.

[@wayneclingman2328]

@@ZillaBlitz Great to know ! Glad the checks cleared !

[@duncanrae466]

Sir, I may have broken my hand... (sigh) diving for cover. Permission to lay to sick bay.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Officer Rae, permission granted. We'll see you in a few weeks as we start training for our 10th patrol. And rumor has it that First Watch Officer MacLeod might be getting his own U-Boat, in which case I'll be recommending that you be promoted to First Watch Officer. Just a heads up.

[@duncanrae466]

He's a fine officer sir and I am up to task when it is ready for me

[@patricksweetsir9025]

Use your deck gun more 10 shots only use 2 everytime

[@ZillaBlitz]

I haven’t played in a bit but I believe you can only use 2 “shots” per round.

[@rusty-sb1jy]

Cannot hear what you're saying over the sonar pings.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for the feedback