U-Boat Captain, Advanced Edition

U-BOAT CAPTAIN, Advanced Edition is a solitaire, tactical-operational level game covering individual German World War 2 U-Boat patrols and combat encounters, 1939-1942. This edition (44 pages) comes with full rules, optional and advanced rules, eight U-Boat Displays, map, logsheet, 37 counters, and Reference Cards, along with with several historical scenarios and campaign games (of various lengths), extensive examples of play, historically rated U-Boat "aces", and Designer's Notes.   The game has the feel of a miniatures rule set, but with boardgame format.  Utilize  various historical German U-Boat Types (Type VIIA, VIIB, VIIC, IXA, IXB, IXC, IIB, and IID), each rated for fuel capacity and consumption, number of torpedoes carried, deck gun characteristics, and durability/survivability.  Conduct monthly partrols to various locations (North Atlantic, Norway, the Arctic, Spain, West Africa, etc.) from 1939 through 1942 and try and achieve the most tonnage sunk you can, without being sunk yourself.  In each patrol, you wiill sail to your area of operation... conduct daily patrols/searches...if you have an encounter, decide when/if to attack (watch out for escorts)... if you attack, perform the attack sequence and launch torpedoes, or use your deck gun. When fuel starts to run low, or your boat has accumulated too much damage, you can sail back to port for refit and rest, before beginning your next patrol.  Sink at least 100,000 tons of allied shipping in your career and earn for yourself the coveted Kinight's Cross.

This Minden Battlegame book (Volume 11) emphasizes high playability combined with authentic historicity to produce a game that plays quickly but retains a strong historical and authentic narrative. As such, U-Boat Captain aims to be your "go to" game for authentic WW2 submarine action covering the Battle of the Atlantic. The game system often reflects the "risk versus reward" nature of the theater, as it places you in the role of a U-Boat commander, working with your crew to employ good tactics in an effort to sink allied shipping, while avoiding being sunk yourself. 

This Advanced Edition retains the game system as published in Panzerschreck #19, and is fully compatible with it.  It adds new U-Boat types and additional rules, providing players with a comprehensive game that covers the war years from 1939 through 1942, the pivotal period of the Battle of the Atlantic.  Can you be a successful U-Boat Captain?

U-Boat Captain, Advanced Ed. is now available in PDF format.  Designer:  Gary Graber.  Publisher:  Minden Games,

Dawn of Iron: That Devil, the Arkansas!

Dawn of Iron: That Devil, the Arkansas Battle Pack

The attached battle pack expansion covers the successful career of the CSS Arkansas on the  waters of the Mississippi River in 1862. The history and ships includes both the first duel with the USS Carondelet and Tyler on the Old River, and the Arkansas' daring run past the Union fleet outside Vicksburg. Inside you will find:

• History & Maps of the Battles (5pgs)

• 2x Historical Scenarios

• 1x General Play Mission (inspired by the battle)

• 15x Ship Cards (Contains formats for A4 and US Letter paper sizes.)

• 8x New Upgrade Cards (A4 and US Letter paper sizes)

• 2x New Orders Cards & Tokens (A4 and US Letter paper sizes)

About Dawn of Iron Expansion Packs

This is an expansion for Dawn of Iron: The American Civil War at Sea. Inside you will find some history and maps about a famous naval event during the American Civil War, some scenarios for you to recreate it, and ship cards that you can use with this pack and your other games. You will need a copy of Dawn of Iron: The American Civil War At Sea, 1861-65 to fully use the contents of this pack.

Confederate Gunboat Rams, 1/600 and 1/1200

  Coal & Guns! Spanish Ships 1885- 1905

This volume contains Spanish “ship cards” for the rule set  "COAL&GUNS!". In order to play with them you need the basic rulebook.

COAL&GUNS! is a three-dimensional tactical naval wargame for the era of the so-called "Pre - Dreadnought".

Above all, it wants to be a very simple and fast way to arrange on the table some models of those picturesque ships that marked the transition period between sailing ships and warships as we know them today.

It was a short period of only a few tens of years, between the end of the 19th century and the very first years of the 20th century (conventionally from 1880 to 1905), but which, from a technical point of view, was literally upset by new inventions or applications that followed one another at a frenzied pace.

The intensive use of steam energy, the construction of increasingly efficient breech-loading guns, the production of enhanced explosives, the invention of the electric motor and the radio, the use of torpedoes, the continuous development of steel armor and aiming devices are just incredible examples of applied technology that changed the way of waging war at sea in those few years.

The shipbuilding industry, of course, had to keep up and in less than half a century they passed from sailing ships to battleships, through a series of intermediate stages that made the obsolescence of the projects very rapid.

All this caused the flourishing of projects among the most imaginative and disparate that have ever been seen, with ships that were a synthesis, with different shades, between the pomp and romanticism of sailing ships and the solid reality of steel, the dirt of coal and the cold effectiveness of modern technologies.

Those vessels, especially in the bright pre-war colors, with white or black hulls, wooden decks, light or ocher superstructures, bright yellow chimneys, red or green keels, gold finishes, were a triumph of Art Nouveau style applied to instruments of death, often destined to be torn apart by the cannon fire of opponents who are perhaps less attentive to aesthetics but with the most advanced technology.

From a wargame point of view, playing with these ships is very interesting, because they are often very different from each other and because, despite being equipped with powerful guns, they did not fight at unimaginable distances on the gaming table.

The individual ships of the different nations, even within the same fleet and the same category, have great differences between them in terms of armament and armor, so the game can become quite varied and exciting.

Here, on a 180 x 120 cm table you can use models in 1: 2400 or 1: 1500 scale, in order to allow a good representation of the ships involved.

COAL&GUNS! is very simple and intuitive and the heart of the system lies in the “status” cards of the ships.

Drawing free inspiration from the very nice Brigade Models steampunk rules “Imperial Skies”, we tried to create a very linear and pleasant game system, but with rational mechanisms that, even in a few rules, aim to give you the flavor of that way of fighting.