Very nice podcast – thank you.
I only just finished listening.
I had one very exciting experience with stealth mechanics during a couple of games of Axis & Allies War at Sea. Let’s see how much I remember…
A friend of mine invited me and another mate to play a battle of War at Sea against each other while he took the role of game master.
He actually built a beautiful & huge table (approx. 6’ x4’) that resembled a part of the pacific theatre, to be more precise Guadalcanal (Cape Esperance, Savo Island & part of the Florida islands).
We then got control of a fleet (Allied & Japanese). These fleets were not historically accurate to create a level playing field.
The stealth aspects came into play through some ingenious ideas of his.
1. We only knew the composition of our own fleet. The enemy fleet was a total mystery to us.
2. We were allowed to spend “Fleet Points” for naval intelligence. You pretty much traded ships for the knowledge what you were up against. A certain number of points spent allowed a D20 roll on a naval intelligence table – if you were lucky you got some awesome info, if you were unlucky you got worthless info or even false info. (only the GM saw the outcome of the roll and I rolled horribly)
3. The hexes on the huge playing field were numbered and each player got a big map on which he had to plot the course of his ships. The maps were “see-through”. That way the GM only had to put them on top of each other to see if a sighting occurs.
4. After each turn the GM controlled if a sighting occurred. If yes the naval /aerial unit(s) were placed on the playing field. Surface units stayed visible to make the game a little more playable. Submerged units were able to escape detection by running from units with ASW capabilities. Aerial units would disappear once out of detection range.
5. Submarines could either be surfaced or submerged. Submerged submarines could only be sighted / attacked by units with ASW, but also had a drastically reduced detection radius. Submerged submarines were able to “disappear” again by running from units with ASW capabilities. Once outside their detection range the models would be taken from the playing field and the course would be plotted again on the map.
6. I’m forgetting a lot of house rules here + it was very long ago and I don’t really remember where the official rules stop and the house rules start.
All of this resulted in a very exciting and tense battle that felt very realistic (as far as A&A WaS goes). I enjoyed it a lot. The GM also had an exciting time because he was sort of omniscient and saw the movement of both fleets (+ possible catastrophes, blunders and so on).
It took a lot of time because it was a huge battle and we had to track the course of the units on the playing field + on the maps. On the other hand it took not as much time as we thought because the existence of a GM helped to speed up the game.
At first we kind of stumbled into each other, but it soon changed into a game of “hide your carriers as long as possible”.
It was a very balanced game that ended in a draw – even after I depleted most of his fleet.
In the end a contingent of his submarines found my carriers while a gamble of his played out perfectly. Faulty naval intelligence and a screen of heavy units led me to believe that his carriers were hiding close to the Florida Islands… Well, they weren’t and I was only saved by the bell.
