Wolfpack: Optional Rules

In my work on Mike Bertucelli’s Wolfpack as player-aid-card designer and co-developer, I must have played over 50 patrols. When I started playing, I was a terrible sub commander. My crews got wrecked time and again by Allied escorts, and I had trouble sinking enough shipping to stay ahead of the victory point requirements for each war period. This game is tough! But slowly I learned to be a better commander. I took fewer unnecessary risks, I carefully chose my u-boats’ positions, and I coordinated their attacks. My crews started returning more often, and my tonnage increased. I still loved the game, but playing didn’t induce the same level of terror it once did.

And we found that the online game community agreed. Several players posted reviews of Wolfpack that claimed the game could be too easy, especially once you worked out certain strategies. So working with designer Mike Bertucelli, the Wolfpack team revisited the game we loved and spent time designing several optional rules for Wolfpack. We looked for areas where we could tighten the game’s model to more accurately depict the intensity and uncertainty of submarine warfare that is everywhere in the historical record. We didn’t want to redesign the game, we wanted several optional add-ons that could be used as “challenge modules” to increase the challenge of the game. You’re free to play with some, all, or none of them at a time.

While testing these optional rules, I found that the new patrols were by far the most difficult I had ever done. I missed the VP threshold for War Period 1 (for the first time!). In another disastrous patrol, I scored 0 VPs (also a first): I lost one U-boat on approach, two more on approach were dropped by a fast convoy, and terrible luck denied my remaining fourth u-boat any success. And I was losing u-boats like a novice skipper. Some of these were due to bad luck (like getting caught on the surface on the approach map by an unfitted corvette during night/bad conditions…). But most losses were due to me pushing my luck too far because the clock was ticking and I was short of the VPs I needed to continue playing, exactly the play and narrative tension this game delivers so well.

These optional rules were directly responsible for most of those losses. They not only increase the overall difficulty, they make it much more difficult to plan with any certainty and thus game the system. While we cannot (and should not) try to design away those moments when it seems like every torpedo hits home, there are no duds, and the escorts are cluelessly patrolling miles away, those moments should be rare. I want to feel the terror of the Battle of the Atlantic once again.

Optional Rules Overview & Commentary (“BM/MB” by developer Bruce Mansfield and designer Mike Bertucelli and “DK” by playtester David Kurtz):

TPs May Not Affect Torpedoes Once Disengaged

Summary:

A u-boat may not use TPs to repull torpedo to-hit, detonation, and damage results unless it is currently on the Attack Map

Commentary:

BM/MB: TPs represent the ability, talent, experience, and luck of the commander and his crew to affect the outcome at hand. If you slip away early, you should lose this opportunity.

DK: This rule changes the risk vs. reward calculation for players when deciding whether to disengage if you have torpedoes in the water. Do you avoid risk and just trust luck on your attack cards draws? Or stick around to try to influence the outcome with your Tactical Points?

Unlimited Escort Radar Search Range

Summary:

Escorts fitted with radar have no range limit when searching for surfaced u-boats. Escorts that make contact on a u-boat further than six spaces away must first close with their target before attacking.

Commentary:

BM/MB: Even early radar sets gave Allied escorts much greater accuracy compared with visual search and at a much greater range.This puts every surfaced b-boat at risk and incentivizes running at periscope depth to lower this risk. This makes it harder for U-boats to outrun Escorts while on the surface, something that rarely happened historically.

The chance of radar contact while at periscope depth is still quite high (70% during good weather, 50% during bad), so this will definitely stifle u-boat attacks, even with one escort on the far side of the attack map. To compensate, an escort that does make contact must close within six spaces before attacking its target u-boat, which will give u-boats spotted by a distant corvette or destroyed an extra turn to get down.

DK: This is one of my favorite options, because it dramatically alters your behavior and thinking and makes the attack map a lot more risky. If you have lots of good TDCs on targets when an escort appears on the attack map, the decision whether to crash dive (and lose all your hard work) or stay near the surface and risk radar detection can be agonizing!

A U-boat Under Escort Request May Not Disengage

Summary:

During movement, a u-boat may not disengage from the attack map if there is an escort request marker (either normal or targeted) in its quadrant.

Commentary:

BM/MB: Historically, u-boats that managed to infiltrate a convoy still had to escape the area, they could not “teleport” to safety. This rule makes every u-boat on the attack map vulnerable to escort attacks in the turns following a torpedo attack, increasing the risk of u-boat loss. This also delays the turn of exit, making it more difficult for u-boats to hunt stragglers. Both of these effects are in line with historical accounts.

Coupled with the increase in radar range, surviving the counterblow after a successful torpedo attack is no longer a walk in the park. Players will likely see a dramatic increase in u-boat losses; though we believe this also better reflects the historical record. And u-boats that “shoot and scoot” to avoid any escort request markers that turn are trusting to luck when using the optional rule that prevents disengaged u-boats from spending TPs.

DK: This is most impactful once torpedoes start hitting targets and escort request markers appear. It dramatically alters how the end of patrols play out. It also forces the player to switch from being the hunter to being the hunted, using the tools they have to elude any escorts that appear on the attack map, rather than just running away automatically. It does extend the length of patrols, because you will often have to play them out to the (potentially) bitter end.

Additional Escort Request on the Attack Map

Summary:

During the escort movement phase, pull a visual search. A ✔︎ result places an escort request marker in a random space on the attack map.

Commentary:

BM/MB: The historical record is full of escort commanders complaining about jittery merchant crew seeing u-boats everywhere they looked — they didn’t just send up “help me!” flares for confirmed sightings. So there was always a chance that an escort would be called to investigate a phantom sighting, with a real (and yet unseen) u-boat hoping it would remain hidden.

This optional rule introduces a chance that an escort might appear on the attack map, a chance that is out of the players’ hands. U-boats that remain on the attack map for several turns to line up the perfect shot now run the risk of being caught and sunk before they’ve launched their fish.

The rate of visual search success is pretty low, so this extra escort request is relatively unlikely. However, this chance increases as conditions improve, so players who spend Flotilla Points to get day/good (in order to snipe merchants from the edges of the map) run the greatest risk here.

DK: While this does not happen often, it can really ruin your day when it does. And its absolute unpredictability is part of its charm; it means you are never guaranteed safety. This is best used in conjunction with “Unlimited Escort Radar Search Range” optional rule, so you have to make hard decisions about whether you stay on the surface or at periscope depth when a jittery cargo ship unexpectedly summons an escort, even if it’s in another sector!

Uncertain Torpedo Speed

Summary:

For torpedoes firing at speed 2 or 3, draw a matching R# to determine its actual speed.

For example, a u-boat fires an early war G7e torpedo at a target that is 7 spaces away. The listed speed for this torpedo at that range is 3. The player pulls R3, gets a 2 result, and places a General Info 2 marker on top of the torpedo counter: it will detonate in 2 turns.

Commentary:

BM/MB: We think of torpedo speed numbers not as a measure of distance but a measure of time, and not only of the time it takes a torpedo to run its route! Since the only in-game effect of torpedo speed is to determine the timing of an Allied response to the attack, torpedo speed is really a measure of how fast a given merchant crew is able to call for help. Pulling a 1 result on a long-range shot doesn’t mean the torpedo moves at some breakneck pace, rather it means that the crew on the targeted ship remained calm under fire and called for help quickly relative to other torpedo attacks around the same time.

This optional rules makes it much harder for the players to coordinate their attacks for a “time on target” effect and makes it harder to “shoot and scoot” at long-distance targets, since now there’s a chance of an escort request marker being placed before the u-boat has a chance to disengage (especially when using the “no disengage while under escort request” optional rule).

DK: If you use only one of these modules, make it this one (though you should do it in conjunction with “A U-boat Under Escort Request May Not Disengage”). Due to the sequence of play, subs firing 2 and 3 speed torpedoes are often able to disengage before their torpedoes detonate, significantly reducing risk. With this rule, there’s a good chance one or more of those torpedoes will strike home before you can disengage, and an escort request will get placed. It forces you, as a u-boat captain, to face the repercussions of your actions.

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