by Tommy McGuire, 15 April 2021 ~ #UnboxingDay
GMT just recently released another game about the battles in the North Atlantic in WW2. Atlantic Chase got a lot of attention at Connections Online because of the WATU panel, and also because the Wargame Bootcamp guys showed it off in one of their learning games.
click images to enlarge
The infamous errata sheet. One page, at the time, taped to the box.
Fortunately, behind the errata sheet, there is a box. With cover art.
And mysterious Morse code.
The back of the box has the usual information. Solitaire suitability high, complexity medium.
One does get one’s money worth with Atlantic Chase. It has contents for days.
A full counter sheet, with ships and markers.
Another half counter sheet, with more ships and markers. They are hefty and well cut—I had a hard time taking these pictures without the counters falling out of the sheet.
Three hefty letter-size books: the rules, a set of tutorial and example play scenarios, and advanced rules.
And two more books with solo and two player scenarios.
Each side has a task force display sheet, where the ship counters are kept during play. The task force areas match the colors and markings of the wooden pieces used on the maps.
There is also an inset map sheet with close-ups of the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea on the back.
Two multi-sided base game player aids, an advanced rules aid, and two campaign game aids.
And a selection of wooden pieces. The white bits are German and the others Allied. Each task force is identified by the varying number of lines on each piece. Cylinders represent a task force whose position has been localized to within a hex; rectangles represent task force trajectories across the ocean.
There is also a bag of black pieces labelled as spares.
Finally, the mounted map, with many more tables and aids to play.
The map does not represent the Atlantic ocean, though. Instead, it represents a combination of the maps in British and German headquarters, with pins and lines of string marking the locations and trajectories of task forces or convoys.
The rules are well laid out and heavily illustrated in full color.
The tutorial has similar quality, including both the scenario, references to the rule book, and an example of play. It also include historical notes from the few months before and the earliest days of the war.
I am impressed with the quality of the materials. The errata consists mostly of things that would not affect learning the game or play. Cross references to rules are clear, in blue boxes with page numbers. Plus, there is that bag of spares bits to play with.
Thanks for joining this month’s #UnboxingDay with the Armchair Dragoons and we hope you enjoyed our recon of our recent acquisitions.
You can always leave us your feedback in our #UnboxingDay thread, or in the comment area on this article, below.
The regiment also occasionally musters on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and occasionally at a convention near you, once we’re allowed to hold them again.
My copy arrived today!