Silent Victory Campaign / Playthrough - GMT Games - Wargame - WW2 US Solitaire Episode 2

We complete the second half of our first patrol of this solitaire playthrough of Silent Victory (GMT Games, Consim Press) WW2 (World War 2) solitaire game (wargame historical game war game board game), a United States (US) submarine simulation board game. Patrol 1b
Known Errors
- I skipped over a roll to see if the encounter was day or night. No impact on the outcome.
- I skipped over a roll to check for increased flooding at the end of a combat round. No impact on the outcome.
- I mistakenly thought that we couldn't get both a Bronze Star and a Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia on the same patrol, but you can. I'll adjust this on the next patrol.
Crew List and Waiting List:
tinyurl.com/y7...
#wargaming #silentvictory #gmtgames
Gregory M. Smith
boardgamegeek....
World War 2 combat game submarine uboat
solitaire game
submarine simulation u-boat simulation
Silent Victory Campaign / Playthrough - GMT Games - Wargame - WW2 US Solitaire Patrol 1b

[@maxwellsilver6032]

Zilla, I just stumbled across your channel recently searching for solitaire war games to buy. Being an old wargamer from away back, ( in my 60's now ) I'm always looking for something new and also a new perspective. Your enthusiasm and love for what you do along with your knowledge is why you have another subscriber my man! Great channel Zilla! Will be looking forward to future content. ....and greetings from Western Canada!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Hi Maxwell - Thanks for the kind words and always happy to have Canadians here. :) My apologies it took so long to reply. KZbin sent your comment to spam for some reason and I just saw it now. :)

[@rodento3220]

When you miss it is your first officer who botched the firing solution not the guys stuffing tubes. (As a retired Torpedoman Chief Petty Officer I know this to be true) I was one of those guys stuffing tubes. Love the game and love that you are doing this Just binge watched "The Hunters" series. Loving it!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Oh, good to know, thanks! I was largely improvising on some of the roles in a submarine, but will definitely try to remember that for the next run! :) And thank you for your service! I can't imagine how much courage it takes to be in a submarine.

[@davet010]

Dave T is handed the Skipjack's repair list. Flicks through pages 1-3. Looks back at Zilla. Breathes deeply. Nods.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sorry about those scratches, Officer T! I hope you weren't planning on free time in the next two months. :) And I think something is wrong with the torpedoes. Feel like we had more hits than explosions. Just a hunch.

[@uwebech5825]

Good patrol Commander! Nice aggressive play and I could tell your fangs were sticking out of the bottom of your keel. :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Uwe! I feel good that we fired all 24 torpedoes, and I'll take 3 ships sunk like that any day. If we can lock onto a convoy like that a few times we might have a successful campaign. :)

[@whovian223]

Good start! And I backed this and the Hunters now that they're on the P500 reprint list. I will have all the sub games! :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yes, I'm glad to see them back on the list. I always feel sad when someone says that they are looking to play one of these but then can't buy it anywhere at a reasonable price.

[@michaelstearnesstearnes1498]

Good patrol Zilla! Of course any patrol which brings you back home safely is a good patrol. You might want to check that danged flow chart for future reference. If you are following a damaged ship under escort you still have to roll for day and night. (Section 9b2). Also (and most frustratingly) you must name your targets prior to changing day to night. (Sections 2 &3 respectively). This seems to be one of Greg Smith's little cruel quirks. Hope you don't mind my critique. I can't recount the number of times that I've lost a convoy by following this procedure then rolling a 5 or 6! You can almost hear G.S. laughing in the distance. Anxiously awaiting your future reports. Best wishes.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Michael, and thanks for pointing out potential errors. I appreciate it, as I want to keep improving at playing the game. I'm not quite following your points, though, as I don't have a 9b rule section in Silent Victory. (I only have numbers for rules references.) According to sections 9.7.5 and 9.7.6, about following damaged ships, I think I executed things correctly in this patrol with regards to following the damaged passenger ship. Any chance you could point out the timestamp where you think I made a mistake and the specific section of the rules that is problematic? Thanks!

[@Obalcan]

@@ZillaBlitz yes, damaged ships with escorts are followed automatically and the player chooses (day or) night. Michael is in the wrong.

[@ParkeraNZ]

Like the name Skipjack. Another fun episode

[@ZillaBlitz]

It's always fun when you get the boat home. :) Really excited for better torpedoes in a few patrols. Assuming we make it that far. :) We'll be out to sea next Monday again. Onward!

[@freakyzed8467]

Thank you for making this content. Such a neat game, and your energy is infectious!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for the kind words, FreakyZed! These are great fun to make, too. :)

[@DragonsAteOurName]

The Skipjack! That's a good name, looking forward to its adventures. Shame you couldn't sink the large freighter, but alas, you've already gotten a lot of tons in!

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm excited for a year or two in the future, if we make it that far, when we have torpedoes that actually work. :) But I'll take that patrol any day, it's a good start, and it felt good to at least fire all our torpedoes. :)

[@DragonsAteOurName]

@@ZillaBlitz Oh yeah, those dud rolls are killing soooo many attacks

[@setSCEtoAUX]

Argh, sorry we couldn't get those repairs done, skipper.

[@ZillaBlitz]

It's never easy fixing some of these things in the middle of the ocean, we'll get 'em next time! :)

[@rickthacker8750]

Really enjoy the content, ty

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Rick! I really enjoy creating it, too. :)

[@wayneclingman2328]

Thanks so much fun !

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sure thing, bummer we couldn't get that big passenger ship but a successful patrol on the whole. On to #2! :)

[@wayneclingman2328]

@@ZillaBlitz Next Patrol !

[@ZillaBlitz]

It'd be fun to run into a notable ship like that again in the same campaign. Odds are pretty low with the greater number of targets in this game (300 per category), but I suppose it could happen. Be nice to get another chance at the Tatuta Maru. 17k tons is a big ship.

[@michaelstearnesstearnes1498]

Thanks for your reply to my post. The numbers that I was refering to are on the sequence of play listed on the combat mat. As I understand it, you can only change from day to night after rolling for the ships. If I understood your video, somewhere around the 11:00 minute mark you seemed to have changed to night before listing the ships in the convoy. Again it's quite possible that I misunderstood. Sorry if I did. It's only a very minor critique. Again, best wishes.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Ah, that makes sense. You're right, but if you switch to night on a convoy attack you have to re-roll all the ships when you engage the convoy at night anyway. Because of that, if I know 100% that I'm going to shift to night, I'll just skip rolling up the ships for the day, as I'm not going to attack them no matter what they are. If I'm not sure what we'll do, I might roll up the convoy to see what targets a daytime attack would present to us. If there is a really good target, we might go in. I think there might be a time or two in The Hunters were I rolled up the ships for the day, but rather than showing them, I've just said, "There weren't any particularly interesting targets in there, so we're going to try to shift to night and re-engage." But yeah, if I'm positive we're shifting to night, I just skip rolling the ships for the day to save time.

[@coyi51]

I must admit you have done far better than I did in the early stages, rolled so many duds thought the dice were loaded. looking forward to the next patrol. I bought a copy of the Hunters (Consim) of BGG and picked up The Hunted & Beneath The Med in the sales. Going to make February Submarine month. Entertaining as always.

[@ZillaBlitz]

That sounds like a fun month, Coyi! It sounds like you've had a lot of fun gathering up a collection, and now playing them will be even more fun. :) I'd be curious to hear how it goes.

[@garyengelman7867]

I have to say, it's your game, BUT. I would not split my shots up like you do, especially considering duds. Nevertheless, thanks for all the play thru.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for the advice, Gary! :)

[@michaelstearnesstearnes1498]

Again, thanks for the prompt reply. The beautiful thing about Greg Smith's games is their flexibility as well as simplicity. Good luck on your future patrols. The good news is that the dud rate improves but so does the Japanese tactics! Trade in that Salmon as soon as possible.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sure thing, Michael. Thanks for the question. I was digging in the rulebook to confirm the re-rolling of targets when shifting to night, and I wonder if that's something I ended up confirming on Board Game Geek. But yeah, I think we'll try to shift out of the Salmon as soon as we can. I really want six tubes in the front. :)

[@rickthacker8750]

Thanks!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks so much for the kind super thanks, Rick! It's very much appreciated and kind of you to do that. Made my day! :)

[@thecustardprophet8434]

What an impressive start!

[@ZillaBlitz]

And so close to a real booming start. If we could have just gotten that large passenger ship too! So close! But we'll get back out there and try again. :)

[@manuelkooijman5757]

The Skipjack is a fine name. Almost picked it for my sub, but I went with USS Trout and its commander Josh Manning. The dud rates will improve but some my torpedoes still go wide. The detection rates do get difficult into ‘43 and ‘44. Happy sailing everybody.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I was noticing that they switch to 50% dud rate later in 1942, which would be much appreciated. :) The 2/3 dud rate is pretty brutal. :)

[@GeneralJackRipper]

0-4 is pretty standard for early war Mark 14's.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, about a 1 in 4 chance they'll hit and explode correctly, so I imagine we'll see more 0 for 4s going forward. :) The nice thing is that we have a lot of torpedoes to fire. I'm not sure what we'll do going forward, because there is now a +1 roll on detection if we come in on the surface at night, so it's starting to get riskier to fire both fore and aft torpedoes. Maybe we'll submerge and fire both, that might be a good compromise. Got to stay positive, can't let the duds get us down. :)

[@duncanrae466]

To: Cdr Zilla Re: fish It's an accomplishmnet in itself to come with every torpedo having been fired at a live target. Congratualtions on a successful patrol. Now go up your tonnage. Lcdr Rae SubPac s1

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, sir! Any chance you could launch an investigation into the dud rate on these torpedoes? I think it'd be easier to up the tonnage if more of a good shots actually blew things up. :)

[@duncanrae466]

I have assurances from the eggheads that the problem is being addressed but I don't have clearance to view the estimated timeline.

[@myk646]

Hello from Sweden. Magnus here. I enjoy your missions, U-86 and The Skipjack. Your pronunciation of Japanese is very good. Do you speak Japanese?

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Magnus! I'm glad you enjoy them! I do speak Japanese, although at times the Japanese ship names in the game are a bit tricky to connect to their real counterparts. I think there might be some typos, and there are a few different romanization forms for Japanese which can make it tricky to find the correct historical name, and there aren't the best records back then. :)

[@myk646]

@@ZillaBlitz Very cool. Have you lived in Japan? I am SwedishJapanese, Japanese passport, but I don't speak it. About 20 years ago I lived in Tokyo while I studied at a university there. BA, History Major.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Very nice! Yes, I lived in Japan quite a while ago, and actually, lived in Sweden for a year and a half too. My Swedish used to be conversational, but gosh, it's just awful now. I can barely make sentences any more. :)

[@myk646]

@@ZillaBlitz You've been around! 😄 Time to start practicing our lost languages then, my friend! I am very curious now of course; what brought you to Sweden and Japan?

[@ZillaBlitz]

For Sweden it was school, and then I worked in Japan after that. Those are really the only two places I've lived outside of the US for extended periods of time, though, so not really a super world traveler. I really enjoyed my time in Sweden, such a fantastic country. :)

[@Stumptonian1]

Your luck with the dud rolls is bound to change, right? So close to sinking that last one ...

[@ZillaBlitz]

Hi Peter! This episode we were unlucky, yes, but not by that much. 8 torpedoes at an 8 or less roll with a .67 dud rate equals 1.9 successful hits on average, so our 1 hit was a bit unfortunate. I don't recall how many hits we had last episode but I'd guess we were pretty close to expected hits. I think it's just really hard to hit things successfully with these torpedoes. Things get better later in '42, and I'm super excited about later in the war. If we could upgrade to a sub with 6 forward tubes, we could potentially get 10 shots off with reasonable chances to hit. That could be CARNAGE on a convoy! Mu ha ha. :)

[@charleslatora5750]

👍👍👍

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Charles!