U-BOOT THE BOARDGAME

After unpacking I realized that you need a lot of space for this game. The boat itself is 90 cm long and if you want to place the game components properly, you need a bit of space.

This game is about a class VII C submarine. In this type two different engines were used – both operated with diesel – one is the MAN MV 40/46 and the other is the Krupp F46.

Specification of the MAN MV 40/46

 – single-acting 4-stroke diesel
– M6V 40/46 (6 cylinder rowmotor) rowmoter)

– 1050 hp at 470 rpm as a naturally aspirated engine
– 1400 hp to 1600 hp at 470 to 490 rpm with charge

Specification of the Krupp F46

– similar to MV 40/46; Bore 400 mm, stroke 460 mm
– Single-acting 6-cylinder 4-stroke inline diesel engine with supercharging   (Roots compressor)
– 1400 to 1600 hp

Of 40,000 German U-boat soldiers of the Kriegsmarine, 30,000 have remained at sea forever. One of them was my great-uncle Paul (Paulchen) Meier.

Paul was only 20 years old at the end of the war in 1945 and he has been missing ever since. The last location announcement of his boat was the Atlantic off Norway.

The Game comes with a 1:72 Paper-Modell of the boat – thats approx 90 cm.

It consists of a total of 17 individual parts – for transport, it can be easily disassembled into only 3 parts

I try once to contrast some of the individual section of the boat model real photos

If you want to dive deep into such a topic, then you need to read specialist literature. A standard work on submarine warfare is that of Clay Blair, an American author. He has been spying and gathering material for years. Two volumes with a total of over 2000 pages of specialist knowledge – that will take a while.

Even the titles of the two books provide information about the course of the U-boat war for the Germans.

• ISBN-10: 345312345X
• ISBN-13: 978-3453123458

This game comes with – suprise – no dices, but approx 100 cards and more than 200 tokens – of course.

I agree with Justin and do not like either zip bags to store these things so i have to find another solution.

First, I try to convert a small wooden box (9x7x13 cm) – which already exists for one Euro in the craft shop – into a material box, as it was used on submarines. The color should be about gray-black (I use tinting colours) – then I still need Kriegsmarine – signs and ropes on the sides as handles. I would like something similar for the whole game.

To steer a boat you need a crew and these are beside the officers also simple sailors.

On board submarines of this class were between 24 and 40 crew members. And only the captain had a small niche separated by a curtain. All the others had to share the beds – after guard duty.

I want to paint these figures and there is a problem. When priming with spray, I over-paint the color of the bases. But they are assigned in the game.

– Green for the navigator
– White for the captain
– Blue for the first officer
– Brown for the first engineer

Simply making the assignment according to the shape of the base is no solution, because then the poses no longer match the action.

So I’ll have to work through each one in turn.

There is a novel adaptation about the experiences of a German submarine crew in World War II – the film is called “THE BOAT”, dates from 1981 and has won several awards.

I highly recommend this film for those who want to experience the subject first hand. On youtube there are a lot of English-language excerpts.

for example, this alert diving

As announced, i pimp some little wooden boxes to store the tokens, markers and so on…

I painted this really cheap boxes with a mix of black and white and then I have attached a few hanging hemp rope on the sides.

Maybe I personalize the boxes for the Captain, the Navigator, the First Officer and the Chief Engineer……

I am not sure at the moment – do i need inlays ?

In the small town of Heikendorf near Kiel / Germany there is a memorial to the fallen German submarine men.

At this memorial, the names of all fallen and missing German submarine soldiers of both world wars are listed

From 1939 to 1945 there were 30,003 fallen soldiers and 739 sunken boats.

As i told before, in this game the colours of bases have a meaning.They are assigned to a specific officer and of course must remain after painting. I tried to reconcile the basic color of the figure with the base color so as not to create too much contrast. And of course, the uniforms should look the way they look when used on a submarine for weeks, oily.

 the all-in-pledge upgrades for enviroment and supply – gives the game a bit more 3D feeling

Even though the submarine board game is already coming in a smart box, I’d like to wrap it up a bit more navy style overall . Now I have finally found a cheap and usable wooden box in the hardware store

I will decorate the box and provided with inlays, so that I can safely store everything from sea water and transport even in rough seas.

Everything is in the box – and a bit more. I still need a cover for the inlays, and then I remembered Bob Ross …..

Now I can pack everything – all I have to do is paint the markers …