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Crewmen 1 U-boat Numerous Targets
Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941, Germany swiftly joined its Axis partner and
declared war on the United States on Dec. 11, 1941. Admiral Karl
Dönitz, commander of Germany’s much-feared u-boat fleet, altered
his strategy to bring the maritime war to America’s east coast.
Where once he relied on German submarines preying on supply convoys
on the open Atlantic Ocean, now he deployed long-range Type-IX
u-boats to prowl the American coastal waters along which freighters
and tankers sailed to convoy assembly points in the Canadian
maritime.
Initially u-boat commanders took advantage of
America’s unprepared defenses, hunting easy targets with few
patrols and even coastal cities lit up, ignoring wartime blackout
precautions; but the Americans quickly mustered their forces for war,
increasing their patrols by aircraft and destroyers and ultimately
chasing the German u-boats from the East Coast and back into wolf
pack formations to prowl the North Atlantic once again.
Operation Drumbeat is a solitaire game in
which a player assumes the role of a u-boat commander sent to hunt
shipping along America’s East Coast in early 1942. The player plots
a course on a grid map like the ones used by German submarine
captains to travel to the patrol area and hunt targets. A series of
charts helps simulate the chances of running into American patrols,
encountering freighters and tankers, and attacking them with
torpedoes and deck guns. Each turn equals one day; the player tracks
the u-boat’s progress in a log much like actual German submarine
captains used. How many ships can a captain sink before his u-boat
runs out of torpedoes…or luck?
Praise
for Operation Drumbeat:
“Classic and new at the same
time, Operation Drumbeat is a must-have for the solo gamer!”
– John Fiore, Solo Nexus
“Enough history and rules to make
it interesting and not bog you down…. The game has high replay
value…. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. You get a lot of value for only a few
dollars outlay.”
– Gunther B.
