Silent Victory – U.S. Submarines in the Pacific, 1941-45
Last week, in a fit of spring cleaning, I suppose, I managed to clean off my solo gaming table. I was eyeballing Spirit Island and Unmatched: Tales to Amaze as likely candidates to pull out on the newly cleaned table, but instead my hand, surprising us both, pulled Silent Victory from the shelf.
I went with it, mostly because I figured it was my hand, so I probably ought to pretend I’m cool with whatever it does. And also because I remembered I started a game last year but never finished it.
I often say I don’t like war games with modern settings; and I, for the most part, don’t. But Silent Victory isn’t a war game- it’s a solo role-playing game where you take the role of the captain (and crew, really) of a World War II submarine.
This game is in the series that started with The Hunters: German U-Boats at War, 1939-43, a.k.a. “The Hunters” series. I own The Hunters and also Beneath the Med: Regia Marina at Sea 1940-43.
Tambor Class Triton
My bold submarine Lieutenant Commander took command of the Tambor Class submarine Triton in December of 1941.
The first patrol was mostly quiet, but was declared a success when the Triton encounted and sank the warship Kuretake. After the attack on the Kuretake, the Triton took on some damage to her hull from the ensuing depth charges from the Japanese fleet.
After refit and repairs, the Triton’s second patrol was equally quiet, encountering only a passenger ship, which was sunk near the Marianas.
The third patrol became a key moment for the Triton and her crew, encountering and sinking the cruiser Ōi.
On the fourth and final patrol of the Triton, setting out in October of 1942, she tank the tanker Tokyo Maru and then was successfully depth charged after sinking the destroyer Kishinami.
Despite lasting less than a year in the service of the US Navy, the game took around 3 hours to play. A lot of this was due to the fact that Silent Victory has a lot more sub-vs-warship action than the other game in the series that I’ve played, The Hunters. Three of the six targets I encountered over 4 patrols were warships; if I hadn’t attacked these, my patrols would have been unsuccessful- but attacking a warship is very dangerous and the evade/escape efforts after each attack could be quite time-consuming.
I had a great time with Silent Victory. I’ll probably get it out again soon and try for a “full” career. But there are some other things I want to get on my table first.
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