War @ Sea: U-Boat Terror Update

At Battleground Games one of the gamers playing War at Sea, Steve, has developed a U-Boat fleet that fixes most of the weaknesses in the one I showcased in Axis & Allies War at Sea Axis U-Boat Terror.

I’ve hounded him for his list and he finally posted it today on Battleground’s Axis & Allies Message Board.

I first encountered his U-Boat Terror in a small 100pt game. Steve fielded the following totaling 101pts:

2x U510
2x Stuka
2x Karl Galster
1x Vittorio Veneto

Steve’s tactic was for the Subs to range ahead of the Battleship and her escorts (two Z 20 Karl Galsters) and provide cover/disruption of enemy fleet. The Stukas are exactly what they are…bombers of opportunity, either they sit on the land airbase and wait for a lone ship or just easy pickings or they get thrown at the biggest thing right away since there won’t be easy pickings. Other than that he used the fleet like anybody else; move up, take objectives and move on.

It was a close game but ultimately won by a slim margin. That aside I knew his fleet would be very difficult to beat at a full 200pts. Steve flipped through my collection to upgrade his 101pts to the 200pt behemoth below:

2x Kondor
2x Koln
2x Stuka
4x Karl Galster
1x Scharnhorst
3x U510
1x Vittorio Veneto

The beauty of Steve’s 200pt U-Boat Terror is immense. The U510s deploy 5 spaces into the board. They grant Wolfpack on them (+1 Torp dice) and control the center of the map near the objectives, denying the opponent 150pts. The Kondors fly near enemy ships, 1 space away, and Pinpoint the ship (+1 Torp dice against target) giving the U-Boats a greater chance of sinking the vessel. The U-Boats will have 4-5 dice, each, of Torpedoes depending on distance from target.

The Stukas will dive bomb the Destroyer escorts, and even Cruisers. At worst they tie up enemy aircraft. The Scharnhorst and Vittorio Veneto are the power hitters. Keep them back to fire at range 4. The Koln will move up and snatch objectives.

The main downside to this fleet is its susceptibility to air attack. Your opponent can field an overwhelming number of planes, especially if Americans, to sink your U-Boats. If they do, they won’t have enough points to sink into power hitters to take out your two battleships.

Even in that instance the you hold the advantage. There’s been a lot of talk about the power of Battleships and aircraft in this game. But, we cannot underestimate the U-Boat. They struck terror in the hearts of WWII mariners and they can strike terror into the hearts of War at Sea gamers.

Blog Redesign & Improved Searching

This has been worked on for awhile and at last we have a new skin for the blog.  We got rid of the old one because it cut articles off and there was a bug in it that made it look bad.

The new skin is blue, which keeps with our color scheme, and is easier to read.  We hope you will like the new skin.  If you have any problems don’t hesitate to contact us.

This brings us to another change that will help you find content easier.  In the past you had to use our search bar, type in what you were looking for (just like in Google) and sift through the results for the actual article.

That way isn’t bad but it isn’t quick.  Now, we have a better way.  At the bottom of each article you will see a  bunch of words.  You may see words like “Miniatures Games” “^Raven^” “War at Sea” and “Warmachine” plus many more.

Those are tags, if you’ve used flickr or digg you know what I mean, and you can click on them.  Clicking on the Announcements tag, that appears at the bottom of this article, will immediately show you all Announcements we’ve posted on the blog.

The main benefit of this is that you can more easily find all articles for a particular game.  We are working to retro-fit this for all of the older articles.  We guarantee that all articles from June 1, 2007 onwards have this feature working.  It may take a little time for the older articles to get updated.

Don’t hesitate to leave a comment telling us what you think about these new features.  Remember, to leave a comment just click on “Add a comment” at the bottom of any article.

Games Workshop Errata Archive

Ever wondered if a rule could be made clearer? Ever thought something seemed unclear? If so, you need the Games Workshop Errata Archive.

The GW Errata Archive has the most up to date Erratas for every army in their 3 main systems of WFB, 40k, and LoTR.

You can find this treasure trove by going to GW Errata Archive.

Games Workshop Release Dates until 2009

Greetings one and all. I want to note, first and foremost, that although some items on this list are confirmed as releases and that some of the dates are confirmed doesn’t mean anything. This list should be considered as a rumor until the items come out.

Also, I want to credit Warseer as the origin of this list. My hat off to them.

Warhammer Fantasy

WFB 7th Ed (Sep 06)
WFB O&G (Sep/Oct 06)
WFB Empire (Mar 07)
WFB Campaign
WFB Campaign (Nagash – new minis for some races – including CD Character (could be the 2 handed axe mini)
WFB VC (Oct/Nov 07)
WFB HE (Mar 08)
WFB Skaven (Q4 08) (could change places with DE)
WFB DE (Q2 09)
WFB Chaos Dwarfs (Q3 09)

Warhammer 40k

W40k Eldar (Nov/Dec 06)
W40k DA (May/Jun 07)
W40k Orks (Aug 07)
W40k CSM (Dec 07/Jan 08)
W40k Dark Eldar (Q3 08) or could be Blood Angels
W40k Space Wolves (Q1 09)
then indeterminate in 09
W40k ?/CSM (maybe chapter specific)
W40k Campaign (Summer?)
W40k ?/CSM (maybe chapter specific) (Christmas?)


Lord of the Rings

LotR (as yet un-named) (Sep 07)
LotR (allegedly “the Hobbit”??)

iTunes Problems Updated

Some listeners have complained that iTunes is not updating properly. It will show the description of the latest show but it will not have the latest show to match.

To fix try one of the following:

1) Unsubscribe and delete all local copies of our show in the iTunes directory (or if you backs them up for archives, put them in another directory outside iTunes).

Close iTunes, then restart it.

Resubscribe and it should be corrected.

2) Uninstall iTunes.

Then re-install it. Sometimes when you install iTunes all of its scripting components don’t get properly installed.

If you tried both of these and neither works then let us know at our Feedback Page.