Wolfpack: The North Atlantic Convoy Struggles review

Introduction

Wolfpack: The North Atlantic Convoy Struggles October 1941- March 1943, is a mouthful, but it aptly describes what the game is – a cooperative sub hunter set during the early years of World War II.

I’ve always been a submarine junkie. From reading Tom Clancy novels like “The Hunt for Red October” to playing submarine simulations in the PC. So I was ecstatic when GMT Games announced a new submarine game set in World War II promising a new an engaging style of play.

What’s in the Box

The games comes in your typical 3-inch thick bookcase box from GMT. However, it weighs much heavier, owing to the amount of content in the box. The main board is a large 34″x22″ doubled sided board. There are also 4 double sided U-Boat player boards, 240 cards divided into 6 decks, a campaign information pad, 9 player aids, a 76-pae Rulebook and a 24-page Playbook.

All in all, this is the best quality game I have had a chance to play from GMT.

U-Boat Type VII ready for patrol

Silent Hunter

Wolfpack: The North Atlantic Convoy Struggles October 1941- March 1943 is a solo or cooperative game for 1 to 4 players. Set in the middle years of World War II, the player is in charge of German U-Boats tasked with sinking allied ships. The heart of the game is a U-Boat Patrol, where up to 4 U-Boats approach, attack and attempt to sink as many allied convoy ships while evading or attacking allied escorts guarding the convoy. It is a cooperative tactical game with a flowchart controlling enemy ship movement and escort attacks.

2 sub game setup

The game is procedural – the players follow a turn order sequence in the player’s aid. The game is basically played in 2 segments, The Approach and The Attack. During turns 1-7, the players start at the edges of the map known as the Approach, as they attempt to close towards the convoy at optimal angles. The U-Boats enter the main map, known as the Attack Map, where they tactically maneuver around the convoy, sinking ships, while trying to avoid the escorts. Once the U-Boats enter the Attack Map, they stay there for the remainder of the Patrol.

Sequence of Play on game board and Player Aid to it’s right

During the Approach, the U-Boats maneuver on the outer edges of the map, trying to close in to the convoy in the most optimal angle of attack. Escorts can search for and attack them during this phase, and the U-Boat’s main defense is crash diving to depth. They may attack the escort, although this is usually not a good idea.

As the U-Boats enter the Attack Map, the convoy ships are slowly revealed. Wolfpack uses decks of cards to resolve game effects.

For a U-Boat torpedo attack, the player draws Combat Card and locates the appropriate “to Hit” number based on convoy speed and weather conditions. Next, the player pulls an Angle DRM Card and rotates it upside down and places it horizontally on top of the Combat Card, this will give a size modifier to the attack. A 2nd Angle DRM Card is placed horizontally on top of the first one and gives an angle “to Hit” modifier. The torpedo TDC marker is placed next to the cards. Finally, a Battle Card is pulled to generate a random number. If this number is equal to greater than the “to Hit” number and all its modifiers, the torpedo has hit its target.

Torpedo 2 from U-Boat X hits it’s Medium Ship target and sinks it

Distance and time are fairly abstracted in the game. You will see the general locations of submarines and convoy ships on the Attack Map. But escorts and torpedoes are tracked by time on target markers, indicating how many turns before they reach their respective targets or how long the escorts are searching for the submarines.

Markers are used to track time and distance

The convoy ships (your targets) don’t move on the map. To simulate the convoy moving forwards, all other elements – the submarines, escorts, torpedoes are moved downwards at the end of a Turn.

It is difficult to give comprehensive details on gameplay since there is so much going on in a typical turn, but you can check out this video playthrough to get a better feel for a typical gameplay turn. The Rulebook and Playbook can also be found here.

A New Way to Wage War

Wolfpack does some unique things for submarine games and wargames in general. For one, it skips the often boring portions of sailing around a vast ocean, trying to find a convoy. Instead the player is taken straight into a convoy encounter as the U-Boats approach the convoy for attack. The Approach segment itself is also heavily abstracted, which for me is a good thing, as this is catching-up (to the convoy) and positioning phase, and tends to have less action.

Just like Mike Bertucelli‘s other game, Tank Duel, Wolfpack does away with dice and charts, to be replaced by an ingenious system of multi use cards. Aside from streamlining the game, it makes Wolfpack look more modern. Each deck of cards contain a plethora of information, from random number generation, to angle of attack modifiers. Graphic design and art aid in making these cards easy to understand and gorgeous to look at. I particularly like the use of cards for number generation as it can “standardize” RNG, aka you won’t have a string of 1’s or 10’s (in a d10) that players dread on a die roll. You could count cards to help you game the system though, so this could be an issue for diehard simulation fans.

Multiuse cards galore

Wolfpack includes a substantial Campaign. U-Boat crew can gain experience or get KIA during sorties, and enemy escorts get increasingly deadlier as the war progresses.  It tells a compelling story of the German U-Boat flotillas and their struggles and triumphs. But at it’s heart, Wolfpack is a tactical game. It is procedural – players follow a set turn order sequence, but this is not a game on rails. Unlike other campaign driven World War II games, where players seem to be at the mercy of die rolls and charts, a player’s input has significant effects on how the Patrol ( and Campaign) play out owing to it’s tactical focus. Players act and enemy pieces react according to the flowchart algorithm and players then respond to these.

However, Wolfpack is not a straight up tactical simulation. The designer saw it fit to emphasize the action heavy aspects of U-Boat warfare by emphasizing the Attack phase. I think this is a great design decision that keeps the action and player engagement flowing while diluting the more mundane aspects of a submarine patrol. As mentioned by Mike Bertucelli in his designer notes, although he tries to achieve as much realism, his primary focus is fun and playability.

The game comes with superb player aids. During a Patrol, you will be using (only) 2 of these aids. Phases and flowcharts are explained and well illustrated. However, the game is not easily to learn. As is common with GMT games, you have a Rulebook and a Playbook. The Rulebook is an extensive, well-written rules reference while the Playbook teaches you how to play. But unlike other GMT games, the Playbook of Wolfpack doesn’t describe the play of one full game turn/s (Patrol) but shows examples of the different phases of a game a turn. This leads to some confusion as you can’t connect one phase to the next. The game is best learned watching the different playthrough videos while cross referencing the player aid. That being said, the game is not particularly complex once a player has had a couple of games. There is a fair amount of chrome and a bit of fiddliness owing to it’s simulation roots, but none of these are overbearing and all make mechanical and gameplay sense.

The player aids may look daunting at first, but are very well made

With many things going on in a turn, the game is not short. A typical solo game would take 2-4 hours, depending on the number of subs on Patrol. Multiplayer games can potentially go faster since players can do simultaneous play for the non-Convoy and ASW phases of a turn. Unfortunately, I was only able to play the game solo for this review.

Tank Duel, the designer’s previous game, was a fairly easy to learn game, accessible to non wargamers. In fact, it made a good entry point (especially for tank warfare) for boardgamers curious about wargaming. I was hoping that Wolfpack would be the same entry level game for submarine warfare. However, the steep learning curve, more complex flowchart and turn structure, and length of game does not make it entry level, even for a wargamer. A revision of it’s Playbook for the inevitable 2nd edition, will help in making this game more accessible.

Type VII U-Boat W suffers crew casualties and damage from a 6-card pull Depth Charge attack by the escort

That being said, Wolfpack: The North Atlantic Convoy Struggles October 1941- March 1943 is still a triumph in wargame design and presentation. It’s superb component quality, unique multi use cards, streamlined tactical gameplay and story driven campaign make it a must have for anyone looking for a submarine game. And even if you aren’t a sub nut like me, take the time to learn it and you will be rewarded with one of the best wargames of 2024.

Review Score: 8.75/100

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