Silent Victory Campaign / Playthrough - GMT Games - Wargame - WW2 US Solitaire Episode 7 - Patrol 4

We head out on our fourth patrol in our 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 3
Known Errors
24:50 - Initially missed a +1 DRM on the Escort Attack Chart but remembered it a minute or so later.
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 Episode 7 - Patrol 4

[@BatteryH1862]

Hope you remembered to tie a broom on the periscope when you entered the harbor. A "clean sweep" in the submarine service in WW2 meant a completely successful mission, including sinking every ship you engaged. The amount of damage you sustained may have hampered your promotion however.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I was just reading about that in Ian Toll's Pacific War trilogy. I'll have to get a broom for the next campaign with this game. Sometimes it's a good trip. :)

[@ParkeraNZ]

Wow just WOW! Talk about pushing your luck and somehow god knows somehow surviving by the skin of well your hull ha ha. I think maybe that Subcom may want a word with you in regards to the state of the sub and thus missed the promotion. When you decided to reengage those small ships I was like WTF are you nuts?! Really enjoyed this and made me miss my days playing Silent Hunter 3 on PC evading the DDs.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! Attacking again seemed like a good idea at the time, but yeah, maybe that was a touch risky. Part of my thinking was that there wasn't too much left they could damage that hadn't already been damaged, so we'd be pretty safe if they really hit us hard again. That might not have been ... the most logical thinking. Glad we pulled through, though! :)

[@thecustardprophet8434]

I can't believe you went in for a second go at those ships!! Right call in the end, I guess that's why your commanding the sub!

[@ZillaBlitz]

I think it could easily have gone sideways, but I liked our odds with being able to escape on a 7 or less. Didn't work out, but we managed to get away with a six, so I'll take lucky. :)

[@dmikulec]

@@ZillaBlitz He who dares, wins. ... If you don't win, you get a Navy funeral.

[@HissyCat]

Love these narrative style wargames and you do a great job building the tension.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, HCS! This series of games does a great job of creating a narrative, don't they? And I'm always impressed at the variety of patrols despite the relatively simple system.

[@HissyCat]

@@ZillaBlitz They do, but you really bring out the story. You keep it from being too dry. =)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad to hear that. That's one of the reasons I wanted to create this channel, was to explore the ability of games to tell interesting stories. It's been fun to do. :)

[@HissyCat]

@@ZillaBlitz You are very welcome. I look forward to Mondays...lol

[@ZillaBlitz]

Always a day worth taking the sting out of, glad I can help a bit. :)

[@whovian223]

What a gutsy mission! I thought things were going to go really badly.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, a couple of damage rolls one way or the other and it could have turned out really badly for us. We seem to have a rather durable submarine, though! It can take a beating. :)

[@Obalcan]

Very nice. Now we are doing the game justice.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I think that was my favorite patrol so far, yes. I liked the decisions the game tossed at us. Some fun thinking on risk vs. reward. :) Hoping we can keep hanging on, although I can't imagine we can take so many hits going forward and still come back. We need to cut back some on getting pounded. :)

[@soloboardgaming]

That was a super-mad patrol, really successful by any standards. And home in time for tea and medals too! Fun series! :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, SOLO! It always surprises me how different the patrols can be, and how a patrol can go from super quiet and fast to "OMG Here We Go!" in the span of one patrol box. :) Thanks for stopping in!

[@coyi51]

Your certainly doing far better than me at this stage of the game, Nov 42 I had only managed to sink 13200T & 1 mine laying mission. I found it became easier as the game progressed but did have a close moment towards the end with an escort it took me an age to avoid. It appears the dice & game gods are on your side and long may it continue for you, good hunting with the rest of the game. Beneath The Med finished at the start of Patrol 6 (Jan42)could not escape the escort which was causing more and more damage, then rolled the double 6 & the Hydrophones added one and down we went. I had three lengthy refits, 2 x 3 month & 1x 4 months. I used Foca sub , all missions laying mines & only 6Torpedos. Managed to sink 4 ships including a capital (no10 on the chart) and somehow managed five hits on her giving me a marginal victory (36700) Just ordered They Fell Like Stones (Isanddlwana) & spotted the for sale box on the way to checking out and picked up Storm Above The Reich for £40, normally £86+ so well happy. Final bit are Compass games expensive in the US as this side of the pond looks like you will need a bank loan.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I feel like we've been pretty lucky to sink the larger targets we've seen so far. The "target tonnage" feels like it's harder to come by in this game, for sure. To have 40k with only 8 ships sunk feels pretty fortunate. ~ Beneath the Med sounds interesting, nice work scratching out a victory! I'm liking how the two games I've played so far are pretty different. ~ Yes, Compass Games are definitely in the higher end of the price ranges here in the US, but they just had a long multi-month sale on their site where most things were marked down quite a bit. I've noticed some resellers sell Compass games here at similarly discounted prices.

[@Solkills]

Skipjack took some hits there but a good hunting noneless ! And nearly 2k subscribers, hang on there :D

[@ZillaBlitz]

I thought for sure we'd be adding you to the crew for the next journey with all those hits we were taking. But not a single crew injury! Fingers crossed we can continue to take hits like that without one of them causing a death spiral. We got pretty lucky with the things that got hit. :)

[@Solkills]

Fortunetly, no more flooding hits too haha

[@ZillaBlitz]

@@Solkills Yeah, that was getting a bit close! Fortunately, we made all the repair rolls. That could have gone very differently.

[@Stumptonian1]

Not too hairy this time - an interesting mission.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I don't know, we beat up the Skipjack pretty good, but yeah, she seems to take a beating and still keep on going. Maybe there is a certain kind of luck in that. :)

[@rebornlegend1456]

Interesting video...

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Vishal!

[@janos5408]

Honor is cold comfort in a watery grave.

[@ZillaBlitz]

This is an excellent quote, Janos! That's exactly what Executive Officer Wallace told me (in a bit more wordy way) as we were contemplating attacking the DD Minatsuki. :)

[@NefariousKoel]

Just a note for rules clarification; when any of your diesel engines are out, you have to roll for Encounters two times in each Transit box (due to lower travel speed). As opposed to the normal 1 per.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Good to know, thank you Koel! :)

[@michaelstearnesstearnes1498]

That was a gutsy attack with damaged diveplanes especially in the Japanese home islands. Have a beer on me. Try to upgrade to a 5 in. Deck gun asap.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! In retrospect, that might not have been the brightest move, but I'm glad it worked out. And I'll take you up on that beer ... as soon as my hands stop shaking. :)

[@jeromyfisher297]

Emergency Dive or exceed crush depth is what a captain would do in Adverse conditions. I feel a sub that is Restricted in movement would constitute four exceed test depth. I think your living dangerously in some of these attacks, if you get caught up in depth charge attack cycle, it is tough to get out of it. Maybe easier to do what the boat is capable of to avoid the cycle in the first place. Either way I’m with you Capt.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I will take "Living dangerously" as a compliment. :) But yeah, we probably could have thought twice about that last attack. My general thought is that we should go in if we can get a 7 or better for the escape detection roll. That gives us a better than 50% chance to get out untouched. But we'll see how it holds up over many patrols. We've were certainly courting disaster on this one. :)

[@uwebech5825]

Well that was a nail-biter wasn't it? The fangs were out again I see. :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

We certainly got lucky in that last attack. That could have gone sideways pretty easily, but we live to fight another day! :)

[@wayneclingman2328]

We lived a good thing

[@ZillaBlitz]

Just a flesh wound! :)

[@ramonalonso3554]

Excewlent patrol

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! We got lucky with those last torpedoes, but I'll take the luck sometimes. :)

[@duncanrae466]

They can't say the Skipjack was afraid to mix it up. By the time its all fixed you'll effectively get a new boat.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Haha! Yes, they'll be a lot of new parts on this one, won't there? Who needs a new boat when you can just replace 50% of your existing one after every patrol! :) Hoping we're not costing you too much money?

[@duncanrae466]

Let me count the beans, you keep upping that tonnage.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sounds like a deal! (And not sure why but YT had sent a lot of your comments to "Held for Review" and I just noticed them all there. :)

[@duncanrae466]

My TikTok is a bit political... Could be why. Also I have been known to engage rather that shrink from folks who post things I disagree with. Your page is free from such discourse so I respect that. One of the reasons I like it so much.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Lolz, it put this one in the same category, but I noticed it a bit more quickly. I added you now to the "always approve comments from this user" list, so maybe that will help. I thought you were already in that, as I tend to use that pretty liberally.

[@hal8517]

How do you perform a submerged attack without batteries. The electric motors run off the batteries and the only way to generate electricity is with the diesel engines , which means you have to remain on the surface? ???

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sorry, I don't know the answer to this one. :)

[@heavydecibel]

Submarine mondays are the best mondays, even though this is tuesday...

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Andreas! And yes, it was definitely Tuesday in some parts of the world when this went up. Submarine Monday/Tuesday? :)

[@heavydecibel]

@@ZillaBlitz Haha, this was uploaded on monday over here to be fair, I just didn't have time to watch it until yesterday. Great fun to follow this series, too bad this game (and also The Hunters) has been sold out in Sweden otherwise I would have bought it on spot.

[@ZillaBlitz]

It's back in the GMT P500 queue, so at some point in the near future it should be reprinted. That should help! :)

[@dogtags2010]

Those dice needed changing. The amount of snake eyes is beyond belief

[@ZillaBlitz]

I think I switched the dice out by this point? Statistically, they did seem right on the border of being unbalanced. I water tested them too, before swapping them out.

[@DragonsAteOurName]

After all that damage you went back to get more ships??? I mean, it paid off, but maaaaaan!!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Maybe not my brightest decision? I don't know, for whatever reason it felt like we were going to be okay. In retrospect, maybe we were a bit lucky. :)

[@DragonsAteOurName]

@@ZillaBlitz But you were okay! So… it paid off!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Bit lucky, and I did like the fact that we'd start at a 7 to escape detection. That feels like a good place to be. Even if you miss the first time, you're at a 6 or less for the second attempt, usually.

[@DragonsAteOurName]

@@ZillaBlitz True, the odds are good in that regard

[@garyengelman7867]

Are your batteries OUT or damaged? If out, how can you move. Are you not dead in water on electric? You would need to surface without power and start the diesels!! Run on surface till port. If damaged, does that affect your ability to maneuver and cut you speed? If speed is cut does that affect detection and evasion?

[@ZillaBlitz]

I think the game simplifies things (damage, systems, etc.) for gameplay's sake. I might point you to the game Uboot, which is a more detailed submarine simulation. :)

[@garyengelman7867]

@@ZillaBlitz Still your batteries were dead not damaged. But thanks for the tip.

[@ZillaBlitz]

@Gary Engelman The only consequence for inoperable batteries in the rules is a lack of evasion during escort/air attack (+1). I see your point, for sure, but consequences that you mention just aren’t in the game.

[@garyengelman7867]

Thanks, I understand.@@ZillaBlitz

[@NefariousKoel]

Since Electric engines are only used while underwater, perhaps the dive commands could be solely handled by the electric motors and dive via putting negative trim on the ballast (if the dive planes were inop)? It would certainly be a slower dive and the sub would only drift on leftover momentum once the diesel engines were shut off prior to the dive. So it still wouldn't travel very far forward. All depends on what can potentially be run directly from the electric engines with whatever power was left, and when exactly the damage happened.

[@dmikulec]

If your batteries are out, doesn't that mean you cannot submerge?

[@ZillaBlitz]

I don't have the game handy at the moment, but I don't recall that being the case.

[@dmikulec]

@@ZillaBlitz Don't get me wrong. I love the game videos and I am not that familiar with the game, but it seems like no batteries means you can't do anything submerged. Then again, if it is not explicitly fordidden in the rules, then you can do it.

[@ZillaBlitz]

For sure, I didn't take it in any way other than curious. :) I actually had the game out this evening for another video and took a look at the rules. The only negative effect of the batteries out is a +1 modifier to enemy air and escort attacks. :)

[@dmikulec]

@@ZillaBlitz The rules must be followed! 🙂