Attack Sub - A Schweig! heartily recommendation

Attack Sub



It was suggested to Courtney F. Allen (designer of the remarkable Up Front) to create a game based on the film "Hunt for Red October", as he was currently working on a Cold War naval game, which however was never published. In the design-notes Allen points out that the game was supposed to be tense, fun, simple (in a wargaming sense) and good looking. So he chose it to be a card game and ironically he being quite modest says "the game has at least succeeded in the last requirement".

Game play:

One player has one or more submarines, and the other player has one or more surface ships and/or submarines. Some surface ships can launch helicopters. You can play one action per sub/ship/heli per turn from your hand. There's a whole array of actions, but they are very easy to wrap one's head around. For example you have passive and active sonar (the famous "pinging" ) at your disposal. There are helicopters and some nifty submarine gadgets, which of course only certain ship types can bring into play. The cards are also used to resolve any attempt you try in the game (the number on the top) and damage (the words at the bottom). The cards were printed in the colors black, white and red; that's even less colors than the cards in Wrasslin'. But I think it fits, because a game about the cold war should have artwork from cold war times.



Comparison with Up Front:

This is a game about submarine warfare, so most of the complexity created by ordnance weapons or terrain in Up Front is missing. I can't say if this is good or bad, but as I have both games I don't care really. Still Attack Sub can be played with anyone and anywhere and I can explain it in 5-10 minutes. Things the games have in common is how the cards are played (one action per ship per turn and the random number draw) and an abstract movement system (a ship records the contacts enemy ships have on it on its display, not the other way round).



The "blue square" ship doesn't see the USS LA at all, the "light blue star" ship knows something is there, but can't make out its position, while the "olive green cross" ship has achieved a position to launch a moderately successful attack.

How this game shines:

This game is AT. It's simple (again in a wargaming sense), fun and tense. Why is it tense? Each player tries to locate enemy ships as fast as possible, without necessarily being detected oneself. Once you have established contact you have to ponder whether to attack hastily or to spend more time setting up a careful and effective strike. Every submarine player should be crapping his panties when the surface fleet player has three helicopter aloft. Why is it fun? The most carefully set up attack can go wrong, yes even backfire (damaging your own systems), and any feeble attack can sink the John F Kennedy with one lucky hit. A storm can ground all helicopters. The various scenarios are all very interesting. They range from a short and simple submarine duel, over a submarine wolfpack trying to attack freighters or the JFK, to a renegade Soviet ballistic submarine trying to nuke American cities (okay fun in a wicked evil way).

Important Note:

Attack Sub is out of print, but please don't go busting heads over this game on ebay.

Nice take on this one man.

I would like to note: this is an OOP Avalon Hill game but it's often found at the same price point as Luftwaffe, Richtoffen's War, and 3rd Reich [i.e., $12 or less] as opposed to Up Front or Dune. Be patient and you should be able to pick it up for a song...

looks cool winning one on ebay now... anyone who outbids me will have nasty things said about them!

-M

Thanks man

Its not a bad game at all. I ended up trading my copy off since 2 player games don't get pulled out much around here (besides, the guy initiating the trade offered Civilization - how could I say no?).

I seem to recall that the way Helicopters worked was really oddball, though. Also, you forgot to mention the Falkland scenario - complete with two Argentinian subs!

Yes, the Falkland scenario is fun, but it's also the shortest. You can play it in about 10 minutes. It features the famous San Luis, a German diesel submarine, which during the Falkland campaign attacked British ships six times (without success though), but was never caught.

The helicopter rule per se is not complicated. But it is a little tricky, because you have to take note whether during a random card draw (to resolve any attempt) a helicopter card is drawn. And then when bad weather comes up, you also have to check every turn whether the weather clears. You also have to remember that every time the carrier moves, you have to make a helicopter check. So those a tricky little things to remember, but otherwise the helicopter rules are neither complex nor nonsensical.

I remember seeing this one at the store a few years ago. It looked intriguing, but I never picked it up.

Are there solitaire rules for it?

There are no solitaire rules, but this game is simple enough for me to find players for, so I don't end up playing it solitaire. I played one solitaire game though to grasp the rules, but I didn't finish it, because as I said the rules are simple. Avalon Hill rated this game with 1 of 4 boxes filled in complexity and 0 of 4 boxes filled in solitaire suitability.

Malloc wrote:

looks cool winning one on ebay now... anyone who outbids me will have nasty things said about them!

-M

I'm pretty sure you just bid one the one I had on watch. I'll wait for the next one