Stats:
No. of players: 1
Amount of time to play: 90-150 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 10 minutes

U-Boat Leader Rules Description:

U-Boat Leader is a submarine simulation board game. You must choose your fleet and take on enemy ships. The better you perform the higher you score.

U-Boat Leader is published by DVG and is the latest release in their Leader series. If you have played other games in the Leaders series then you are already familiar with the basics of U-boat Leader. For those of you who have not, I’ll go over the basics now.

U-Boat Leader is campaign based and you can choose whether you’d like a short, medium or long campaign. You have access to different ships and Special Option points to spend on them based on the campaign map and campaign length you choose.

U-boats come in different experience levels and some have special abilities. The more experienced a u-boat is the better it attacks and deals with stress. Stress will affect your u-boat negatively. Each u-boat has three states: okay, shaken and unfit. If your u-boat is shaken it will be less effective when attacking and evading. An unfit u-boat cannot attack or perform special missions.

Leftover Special Option points may be spent on upgrading your torpedoes, get extra supplies and help you search for enemy convoys. These points may also be spent on Special Missions. Special Missions allow you to gain victory points in exchange for ammo.

As you move u-boats around the map you draw Event Cards. Event Cards may add stress to your units, halt your movement or even get you more victory points.

After moving your u-boats can search for convoys to attack. These battles are placed on the tactical map. Sometimes convoys have escorts to deal with u-boat attacks and in later campaigns they even have tactics to help improve their odds.

If there are other ships in your area you can radio them. You roll a die and if successful, form a wolfpack. The ships that hear your call are placed on the tactical map and join the attack.

Escorts try to detect your u-boats. If they find you all ships with guns attack you. You are harder to hit if submerged and can attempt to perform evasive maneuvers. Failing the rolls you need to take evasive action adds more stress to your crew though. If you don’t evade and are hit by the enemy you take stress damage. An enemy that rolls high enough may even sink your u-boat.

Finally you get to attack any ships in your range. If you are on the surface you may fire both your ready torpedoes and your guns. Sinking enemy ships will get you victory and experience points.

Once all your units search their areas you can refit them. Any boats that gain enough experience can level up. You can load torpedoes from your stored area to your ready area, recover from stress and go to port. Going to port will end a patrol. The number of times you may patrol is determined by the campaign and campaign length.

You continue to move and search for enemies until your last u-boat is at the patrol limit or sunk. Then you tally your victory points and see how you rate. Different campaigns have different rating scales.

A Quick Review of U-Boat Leader:

U-Boat Leader is pretty complex at first, but once you have gone through a couple turns you should have the flow of the game down. You should probably keep the rules close by as there is a lot to keep track of. My description above really is just the basics and does not go too deep into U-Boat Leader.

That said U-Boat Leader is not complex for complexity’s sake. The rules make sense and fit well with the theme. You’ll just want to read the rules then play a round or two with the rules close by before trying a full campaign.

The components and art are excellent and the rule book is easy to understand. Unfortunately there are some errors in the rulebook, but you can download an updated rulebook from the DVG website.

The tension in this game makes is very exciting. You’ll spend turns hoping to not be detected by escorts then unleash a flurry of torpedoes. After attacking you are easier to detect and you may find yourself running from many attacks once detected.

It is also nice how you have control over the length and difficulty of U-Boat Leader. Later campaigns are harder and victory points won’t come easily.

If you enjoy naval battles and themes or WWII war games you should try out U-boat Leader. Fans of the Leader Series should enjoy this one too.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction N/A
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 5 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6