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    Early U-Boats For The Hunters: Roll Oberleutnant Kapitanleutnant

    Uploaded by

    Brett Chamberlin

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Early U-Boats For The Hunters: Roll Oberleutnant Kapitanleutnant

    Uploaded by

    Brett Chamberlin
    40 views7 pages

    Original Title

    EUBv1_3

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    40 views7 pages

    Early U-Boats For The Hunters: Roll Oberleutnant Kapitanleutnant

    Uploaded by

    Brett Chamberlin

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 7

    EUB v1.

    Early U-Boats for The Hunters

    U-9. Source: Wikimedia Commons


    EUB.1 Overview. For those who either wish a more historical beginning to their Hunters campaigns, Or who
    are just a bit masochistic, I offer these rules for using some of the U-boats that were employed during the
    early stages of WW2.

    EUB.2 Starting Rank. Roll 1d6 for your starting rank.


    Roll Oberleutnant Kapitanleutnant
    1939 1 2–6
    1940 1–4 5-6

    EUB.3 Randomly Determined First Boat. If you like, you can randomly determine your start U-boat by
    rolling 2 dice and consulting the following table:

    2-3 4 5 6 7 8 9-11 12
    IIA IIC IID IIB VIIA VIIB IXA IA

    EUB.4 Patrol Table for Type II Boats. Use the table printed on the Type II U boat mats instead of the normal
    U Boat Patrol Table [P1].

    EUB.5 Some classes of Type II boats tended to patrol closer to coastal waters than others, so when
    determining target ship size for Type II boats, roll 2 dice and use this table. A Coaster has a tonnage of 2d6 x
    100. Any coaster of less than 1,000 tons will be sunk with one hit.
    5 or less 6-9 10-11 12
    Coaster Small Freighter Large Freighter Tanker

    Dice Roll Modifiers:


    For single (unescorted) ship: -1 Type IIA -3 Type IIC: +1 Type IID: +2
    EUB.6 Minefield Results. One month after your U boat has successfully completed a Minelaying mission,
    roll 2d6 to determine whether any ships have been sunk.
    Roll Ships Sunk Modifiers
    5 or less None Type II -1
    Type VIID +1 Type XB +3
    6–8 1
    9 – 10 2 1939 +1 1941 -1
    1942 -2 1943 -3
    11 + 3
    1944 -4 1945 -5

    Now roll 2d6 to determine the tonnage of the ship sunk.


    Roll Ships Type Notes
    1 Trawler (100 tons) Coaster = 2d6 x 100 tons.
    2–4 Coaster
    Modifier:
    5–9 Small Freighter 1939 = -2.
    10 - 11 Large Freighter
    12 Tanker

    Historical / Design Notes. Minefields laid by U boats were quite effective in sinking Allied ships. This shouldn’t come as
    a great surprise as the mines were often precisely laid in known choke points outside harbours. U boat commanders,
    however, didn’t like mine laying – possibly because they couldn’t immediately perceive the results of their efforts.

    In the last three months of 1939 twenty two minelaying missions were made – mostly by Type II boats. These sank an
    average of 1.4 ships per mission; a total of 104,000 tons. The British progressively improved their mine
    countermeasures techniques throughout the war, reducing the effectiveness of mine laying missions.

    The -2 modifier for the ship type table is because in 1939 German magnetic mines could be too sensitive, resulting in
    them exploding when very small ships passed overhead. From 1940 onwards the magnetic mines’ sensitivity was
    dialled back, resulting in them only exploding under suitable targets. The probability of a ship being sunk was not
    directly proportional to the number of mines sown by a U boat as once a ship had struck a mine other ships could be
    alerted to the presence of a minefield and countermeasures could be put into place, eventually resulting in the removal
    of the minefield by mine sweepers.

    Regarding the number of reload torpedoes carried by Type II boats, authorities differ, with some stating 3 reloads and
    others stating 5. Given that the boats were originally designed for training / coastal work I have opted for 2 reloads son
    the assumption that even if it was possible to cram 3 into the boat, on a war patrol into the North Sea or the Western
    Approaches it is likely that extra room would have been needed for crewmen and supplies etc. Players who disagree are
    welcome to give their boats 3 reloads.

    Nigel Hodge
    August 2015

    Many thanks to Alexey Borodkin and Ian Wedge for the graphics. We have made use of silhouettes of the U-boats (thanks to Alexey
    for these). Players who want colour profile pictures of the boats can probably find them readily on the internet, but we haven’t used
    them in order to avoid contravening copyright.

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