#u-boat wargamers

[jasonraish]

Huge key art (18,750px aka 62.5 inches wide!) for U-boat Wargamers on Sky History UK. January 1943: Britain is on the brink of starvation from ruthless Nazi attacks on merchant ships. The Navy cannot spare any men. Enter the WRNS (Women’s Royal Navy Service) to war game the tactics to defeat the enemy U-Boats.

[redeyedroid]

CW for war.

How Do You Hunt a U-Boat, or: How a Scottish Lesbian Became a Leading Expert on Anti-Submarine Warfare.

The Allies - and here, I'm mostly talking about the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy. More Jack Hawkins in The Cruel Sea than Tom Hanks in Greyhound. Because it was the British and Canadians that did the bulk of fighting in the Atlantic - had a lot of problems when it came to sinking U-Boats, even when they roughly knew where one was. For one, the primitive and less sophisticated forms of sonar (asdic, in the parlance of the day) the ships of the time were equipped with had blind spots. The sonar pointed forward and the depth charges were pushed off the back of a ship. A clever U-boat commander, and many of them were, would move away and make the destroyer or corvette miss.

One way they solved this was by developing a system called hedgehog. A spigot mortar, firing a pattern of bombs ahead of the attacking ship while the U-Boat was still in sonar contact. The bombs exploded on contact with a submarine, cracking it open and allowing immense water pressure to crush the hull and kill the crew. (Just over 40,000 Germans went to sea in U-Boats in the Second World War. About 75% were killed. It was, by far, the most dangerous service to be a part of in the Second World War.)

That's just one of the issues - and there were many - the men at sea had when it came to hunting U-Boats, in this case a technical one. Solved with engineering in a very typically British way (a part of British wartime R&D decided spigot mortars were the solution to every explodable problem), but there were others that could not be fixed by a man in a white coat.

Questions about U-boat tactics. Questions about how to predict where the Germans would be. Human questions that required human answers to be found.

Militaries love to play games as much as they love bombing around fields in tanks. You can predict a lot from a game, if the game is played honestly. Very famously, the Japanese wargames before Midway were not played honestly. And, well...

Enter Western Approaches Tactical Unit. Based in Liverpool, Western Approaches was where the Battle of the Atlantic was co-ordinated. And on the top floor, Captain Gilbert Roberts played games to try to divine German tactics. And he did so with a staff made up of young women in the Women's Royal Naval Service. Wrens. One who joined in 1942 was a 19-year-old called Janet Okell, another a chartered accountant in her twenties by the name of Jean Laidlaw.

Roberts and the Wrens played games. Working collaboratively, they refought battles, plotting out the courses and fates of convoys and ships to work out the tactics used by U-Boats, and when they had, they played more to develop countermeasures, trying and rejecting existing tactics and replacing them with ones of their own design. Ones that worked. Then they taught those new tactics to the men who commanded the ships and escort groups that sailed the Atlantic, running courses that lasted 6 days, Monday to Saturday, for over 3 years through the worst, most critical phases of the Battle of the Atlantic. Roberts the ringmaster as the Wrens made it work for the thousands of men who went through the course. Men with years of seagoing experience from all the Allied navies. Canadians, Americans, Australians, British, South Africans, Poles, French. Up to 50 at a time. All receiving instruction and training from Wrens, playing games against them on the floor of WATU, courses plotted in chalk, with cotton wool representing burning ships, deferring to the tactical knowledge of women in their teens and early twenties who never commanded at sea. One of those officers, Nicholas Monsarrat, later wrote the novel of The Cruel Sea.

On one occasion, Okell and Laidlaw played against Max Horton, the admiral commanding Western Approaches, himself a distinguished submarine commander from the Great War.

Playing from behind a screen as escort commanders, with Horton the U-Boat, they sank him 5 times in a row. As they stood there sheepishly, having humiliated their commander, Horton accused them of cheating. They had not. They had not needed to.

The existence of the unit was well known. A picture of Roberts hung in U-Boat HQ with the words "this is your enemy" on it. But WATU's success was as much down to the Wrens and their - sometimes instinctive, sometimes learned, most often both - tactical expertise.

The courses ran until July 1945, long after the U-Boat threat had been crushed. Many of the Wrens who served in the unit transferred out after a short or even a long time, but Okell and Laidlaw remained part of WATU until the end.

We don't know much about Jean Laidlaw. The memoir she left was unthinkingly thrown away by her nephew after her death. Few of the Wrens left any record of their time at WATU. She went back to work as a chartered accountant after the war and lived with her partner, Beryl, then alone, quietly, until she passed in 2008. I hope she continued to play games and I really hope she continued schooling men on how to win.

[the-crimson-king]

Hey y'all, it's that time again - I'm spring-cleaning through the hobby cupboards and clearing out anything I haven't used in over a year.

[whovian223]

New to Me - April 2021

New to Me - April 2021 @gmtgames @AnkamaGames @Boardgame_girl1

April was not a good month of gaming for me. In March, I played a bunch of live games on Boardgame Arena to really pad my stats and it was a lot of fun. In April, however, I didn’t even really do that. I did play 7 games, though, including revisiting some games that I haven’t played in ages. The BGA edition of Alhambra, for example, is exquisite! But I first played that about 8 years ago, so…

[sjrresearch]

Why Not Wargame World War I or Vietnam?

Historical Wargaming, like many hobbies, has fads. One year, Ancients might be big, or it may be Colonials. The next, World War II. But two periods have not, at least in my own observation, gotten their day in the sun. At least not in US wargaming circles (and I will be speaking almost exclusively to that, as I am less familiar with, though still knowledgeable of, the British wargaming scene). 

These periods are the First World War and Vietnam. Both were major conflicts with plenty of research materials available (unlike, say, the Grand Chaco War). Both have libraries of rules and boardgames written for them, but neither, at least not at the cons I’ve attended, are quite the attention-getters that other conflicts do. Why is this? I have some theories as to why.

Just a disclaimer, this is mostly an opinion piece, and your mileage may vary. 

American and British Views of the First World War and Vietnam

Let’s face it. Most American wargamers are patriotic folks. We want to play wargames where “our boys” feature prominently. World War II more than fits that bill. World War I does not. By the time the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France in strength in early 1918, the German Army was on its last legs. The Americans arrived in theatre in time to push the Germans off the proverbial cliff when the last German offensive in the west failed. Our active participation in the First World War was barely six months. Our fleets fought no major battles, and by the time we were shuttling troops to Europe, the U-Boat and raider menace was a shadow of what it used to be. In the air, American heroes were made, such as Frank Luke and Eddy Rickenbacker, but they, too, missed the worst of the Allied fortunes of the previous year.

In short, while American forces improved the overall strategic position of the Western Allies, the US Army was poorly prepared for the modern battlefield. Many of the American offensives, in the beginning, used the same types of massed frontal assaults that the British and French had abandoned the previous year due to the horrific casualties involved. The US Army often had to buy equipment from the British and the French to supplement their own needs, as our own industry had not geared up for war by the time the war ended.

In short, our role in the First World War was a minor one, relatively speaking. And that carries through to American wargamers. British wargamers learned a quite different lesson about the First World War from their school classes and their families than we did. We had 4 million men in the military for the First World War, half of that went to France, and half of that saw any combat. Compare that with the Second World War, where you had 15 million Americans in the military. So, for many wargamers of a certain age, they were more likely to have a World War II veteran in the family at some point than a World War I veteran. 

In Britain, this was different. Over 5 million men in Great Britain enlisted, which was almost 25% of the male population at the time. Add in the fact that the British lost almost 750,000 men worldwide over four years and the United States lost 110,000 in the space of five or six months, a different image of World War I appears. In the US, it is a conflict we do not game much because nobody pays much attention to it (though, with recent movie releases such as 1917, this seems to be changing). In Britain, World War I is seen as a national tragedy. It is of boys being sent off to the slaughter at places like the Somme and Passandachele. And since Britain is in many ways the “mecca” of hobby wargaming, it is inevitable that a feeling of “No, that’s just not something we want to game out” took hold for an awfully long time.

Moreover, the Western Front was not a war of movement except at the very beginning and end. That is why most boardgames on World War I tend to concentrate either on other theatres (the East is extremely popular), 1914 or 1918. Miniatures games tend to center around the same, or game out the war in the air or at sea. 

Vietnam is the opposite in so very many ways. American participation in the conflict was massive from the beginning, and the conflict lasted ten years. Approximately 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam, and the war showcased some advanced weapons systems on both sides. But it was an unpopular war at home that tore the social fabric of the time asunder. Wargaming in this country truly came of age in the 1970s, and Vietnam was still seen as a “dirty” war, again, one not worth gaming. In British wargaming circles, Vietnam has been big and never really stopped being big. I remember all my British “glossies” (slang for the British Wargaming magazines, named as such for their glossy covers) full of articles on Vietnam. 

There was a small uptick in gaming Vietnam in the mid-to-late 1980s in this country, as various movies came out from Hollywood, but the nature of the conflict is not easy to game. Vietnam epitomized the old saying about combat: “Long periods of boredom punctuated by short, sharp moments of sheer terror.” There were long periods of time where patrols would go out and find…nothing. Then a patrol would go out, and all hell would break loose. That is not easy to game. That is the larger truth at the tactical level about counterinsurgency. It’s not how many guerillas you kill, but it’s what you do to use “soft power” to undercut their support. That said, I have seen some good miniatures games on the subject, but most board games on Vietnam seem to be focused on the strategic and operational levels. 

Add in the popular beliefs about Vietnam and the men who fought there. None of them were true, but the media popularized them in the day, and popular opinion demonized the soldiers who fought there. Going back to fads, it was not hard to see why American wargamers to this day get a little queasy about gaming Vietnam.

Availability of Games and Miniatures

I am happy to say that times are a-changin’, as the old protest song from the Vietnam-era goes. Perhaps with World War I, there are no veterans in living memory, and there’s better history being done now (especially new history on the tactical innovations developed on the Western front putting an end to the pernicious myth of half-trained boys being slaughtered by uncaring commanders). And with Vietnam in this country, we are starting to see more Vietnam veterans opening up about their experiences and game designers and rules writers listening to them. 

So, here is an overview of what is out there both board gaming and miniatures-wise:

Board Games World War I

Ted Racier has written quite a few games on the First World War. It is not a period I game for the most part, but I played the 1918 game back when he published it in Command magazine. I personally think it was one of the three best games Command ever published, and I am glad to see GMT is bringing it back.

We all know what I think of this game, and I think it was a welcome window into the strategic realities of World War I. It is still one of the best Card Driven Games of all time.

I do not own this game, but the premise of doing a worldwide game of the First World War does intrigue me. It seems to put proper focus on economics and diplomacy, with the war of movement slowing down into an attritional model. All in all, it looks good, but if someone who has played it could let me know how it plays, that would be appreciated.

This game has been out for a while, and I had also heard a lot of buzz about it when it was released. Clash of Arms could have had a solid game in this, and I played it once. The rules needed a lot of work and probably could have used the “living rules” concept that other game companies used.  

Board Games Vietnam 

A note, this is not all-inclusive as there are a lot of Vietnam board games out there. I had to cherry-pick which ones would be of the widest possible interest. 

For a while, this game by Victory Games was the game on the Vietnam War. It was truly a monster game and covered every aspect of the war, from pacification to how dedicated the combatants were. It was well-designed and state of the art for its time. Sadly, it is out of print and not cheap to come by, but it is worth it if you can find a copy.

Downtown is probably one of the best games on what goes into planning and running an air campaign out there today. GMT still has the game in print (it is one of two games on Vietnam I own), and I have played it on VASSAL a few times. I really do like it. The designer, Lee Brinscombe-Wood, has gone on to write An Elusive Victory (The Arab-Israeli wars in the air) and The Burning Blue (The Battle of Britain), and Red Storm (A hypothetical Third World War in the skies over Germany) were also written all using the same rules system. The game details well the frustrations faced by the Americans over the skies of North Vietnam. You can purchase a copy here.

Mark H. Walker did some really neat work with his Lock ‘N Load series, and one of the first games in the series was about Vietnam. Lock N’ Load is a system that is at the same level as Squad Leader but is a bit simpler to play, but no less nuanced nor fun. I own the 1st Edition of Band of Heroes and will one of these days go out and get the new versions of the series. All of them play the same, with an emphasis on putting tactical decisions into the hands of the player, keeping the game moving and fun, with most scenarios taking no more than an hour or two. You get all the troop types: US Army, USMC, ARVN, NVA, VC, and yes, even Australians (for those wanting to game out the movie Danger Close). You can get a copy here. 

Meatgrinder is a game from the folks at Against the Odds magazine about the last stand of the ARVN at the town of Xuan Loc in 1975. The rules are beautifully written, and the articles that come with the game are incredible reading at times. It is games like this that remind us that there was still a war going on after the US pulled out in 1973, and the fall of South Vietnam had consequences. And it is just a great story of a hell of a stand. You can purchase a copy of the issue and the game here.

This was the game that was on everyone’s minds when it came out in 2014. The COIN series is an innovative set of games designed around a common rule set that games out insurgencies like Cuba in the 1950s, Columbia in the 1990s, and Afghanistan today, as well as Vietnam. I have yet to play any of the COIN games, but I want to. They are all highly recommended and address the problem of counterinsurgency quite well in a strategic context. You can purchase a copy here.

Miniatures Rules for World War I and Vietnam

Richard Clarke has a reputation with Too Fat Lardies for putting out good rules with card-driven mechanics. It is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it can produce a good game. I haven’t played Through the Mud and the Blood myself, but it has very good information on the various armies of the Western Front and the tactics they used, with the rules author making a fine argument that the tactical innovation opened up the stalemate of the Western Front in 1918 (it did). Too Fat Lardies’ products can be found all over the internet or in PDF or physical format on their website.

Peter Pig’s rules are meant for larger-scale fights, where each stand of troops is about a company in size, and the 6’x4’ board is sub-divided into squares and plays something like a board game. I will not say it is my cup of tea but may swear by it. You can buy digital copies via Peter Pig.

There are several rules for World War I also on Wargames Vault, and some, like Westfront, sound intriguing, but take a look for yourself.

Even though Force on Force is still sadly out of print, their Vietnam sourcebook and rules were probably one of the best rules sets out there for gaming the Vietnam war. Happily, PDF copies are still available for sale from the publisher for $20.00. You will need the base rules to play as well, but those are also available on PDF from the publisher.

Two Hour Wargames (THW) has been blurring the line between RPGs and Wargames for a while now and promising (and delivering) games in under two hours. Their Vietnam game is no different, as the game is centered around the idea of your “character” controlling a squad, and like most THW products, the game has very simple rules. There is also a campaign generator for scenarios you can play out on the tabletop. It is a great fun, pulpy take on Vietnam and is well worth the $20.00 price tag. The rules are for sale in PDF and can be found here.

Next week, we’ll discuss miniatures themselves, as that’s going to take an entire article in its own right!

 --

At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.

--

(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

[mann-at-arms]

The Loyal Manx Volunteers

Set up in 1914 and made up of able-bodied men unable to serve in the armed forces of Britain, Loyal Manx Volunteers bear many similarities to the Local Defense Volunteers and Home Guard of the Second World War. Armed with second-line and surplus rifles and uniforms, the general impression one gets from the photographs available on the iMuseum(1) are some very dedicated amateurs wearing a motley arrangement of clothing and remaining on-Island for the duration of the First World War. Their duties were largely based on guarding the camps used for the internment of so-called “Enemy Aliens” during the war, such as at Knockaloe and along the promenades in Douglas and Ramsey, along with regular reservists and soldiers from Liverpool. 

My intentions are to somehow wrangle these chaps into a wargaming scenario of sorts; what if a German U-Boat crew or ship somehow ended up lost in the Irish Sea and beached on the shores at Ballaugh, having fooled the Royal Navy but found themselves lost in the thick mist around the Isle of Man. Tsuba/Empress Miniatures have a wonderful range of German sailors intended for the Weimar-period revolts and all that which would serve quite well as lost Imperial German sailors. 

Representing the Loyal Manx Volunteers is another matter entirely. There’s a real mish-mash of uniforms that seem entirely at odds with the rest of the British Army, though it looks like at least some Volunteers were wearing Service Dress. Here are some pictures to illustrate the problem:

Rather Victorian looking men and lads who I think are armed with Martini-Enfields/Henries, I could see myself using a mixture of Perry plastic Zulu Wars soldiers to represent the leather gaiters and uniforms - but then where does one find the hats? 

Greatcoats and field service caps - I’ve never seen anything like them in miniature, which leaves me with a rather troublesome situation. Do I mangle some greatcoated metal miniatures with Glengarry caps and pass ‘em off as Manxmen? I’m not sure yet.

The relatively reassuring sight of Service Dress provides some comfort. These chaps are more easily represented by the classic WWI miniatures available out there, though my current concern is the fact that the Loyal Manx are using Long Lee-Enfields, and while the difference between the two isn’t obvious to most people and not much of a bother to the rest, it’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t sit quite so right with me. 

Decisions, decisions. At least those perfidious Krauts get representation!

[euanrutterart]

The practice, while commonly associated with British submarines, is not restricted to them. During World War II, Allied submariners working with Royal Navy fleets adopted the process from their British counterparts.[57] While operating in the Mediterranean, the Polish submarines ORP Sokół and ORP Dzik were presented with Jolly Rogers by General Władysław Sikorski, and continued to update them during the war.[58][59] At least one British surface ship recorded their U-boat kills through silhouettes on a Jolly Roger.[60] The Australian submarine HMAS Onslow flew the Jolly Roger in 1980, following her successful participation in the Kangaroo 3 wargame as an opposing submarine: the flag bore the silhouettes of the seven surface ships involved, as during the exercise, Onslow had successfully ‘sunk’ all seven.[61]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_Roger

[diversegaminglists]

Historical World War 2 Games

Started out as a content warning list but needed to become its own list because of the sheer size of it.

This is still a WIP and all suggestions and corrections are encouraged.

101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy

1939

1941: Counter Attack

1941: Frozen Front

1942: Joint Strike

1942: Pacific Airwar Franchise

1943: Kai

1943: The Battle of Midway

1944: The Loop Master

1945: Airwar

1945 I & II: The Arcade Games

‘43 - One Year After

50 Mission Crush

Ace of Aces

Aces of the Deep Franchise

Aces of the Pacific Franchise

Aces of War

Aces over Europe

Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943

Achtung Spitfire

Achtung Panzer: Operation Star

Across the Rhein

Action in The North Atlantic

Action Stations!

Admiral Graf Spee

Advanced Destroyer Simulator

African Desert Campaign

Afrika Korps

Airborne Assault Franchise

Airborne Hero D–Day Frontline 1944

Air Conflicts: Aces of World War

Air Conflicts: Air Battles of World War

Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers

Air Conflicts: Secret Wars

Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting

Airfix: Dogfighter

Air Legends

Air Raid: This is Not a Drill

Allied General

Anglo-German War 39-45

Ardennes Offensive

Ardeny

Ardeny 1944

Armageddon Squadron

Arnhem: The 'Market Garden’ Operation

Artillery Brigade

Assault Wings 1944

Atlantic Patrol

Attack on Pearl Harbour

At the Gates of Moscow 1941

Avalanche: The Struggle for Italy

Avalon Hill’s Squad Leader

Axis & Allies Franchise

B-17 Franchise

B-24

Battle Academy Franchise

Battlefield 1942 Franchise

Battlecruiser

Battle for Midway

Battle for Normandy

Battlefront

Battleground 1: Bulge - Ardennes

Battleground: Ardennes

Battle Group

Battlehawks 1942

Battle Islands

Battle of Britain (1982)

Battle of Britain (1985)

Battle of Britain (1999)

Battle of Britain: 303 Squadron

Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory

Battle of Britain: Memorial Flight

Battle of Europe

Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge: Tigers in the Snow

Battleship 88: Iron Hero

Battles in Normandy

Battlestations: Midway

Battlestations: Pacific

Battlestrike: Force of Resistance

Battlestrike: The Road to Berlin

Battlestrike: The Siege

BBC Battlefield Academy

Beyond Normandy: Assignment: Berlin

Beyond Pearl Harbor: Pacific Warriors

The Big Three

Birds of Steel

Bismarck

Bismarck: Death of a Battleship

Blazing Angels

Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII

Blitzkrieg Franchise

Bomb Alley

Breakthrough in the Ardennes

Brothers in Arms Franchise

The Bulge: Battle for Antwerp

Call of Duty

Call of Duty 2

Call of Duty 3

Call of Duty: Finest Hour

Call of Duty: Legacy

Call of Duty: Road to Victory

Call of Duty: United Offensive

Call of Duty: World at War

Call to Arms

Campaign

Cannon Strike

Carrier Strike: South Pacific 1942-44

Carrier Aces

Carrier Force

Carriers at War

Chain of Command

Chain Of Command: Eastern Front

Clash of Steel: World War II, Europe 1939-45

Close Assault

Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far

Close Combat: Cross of Iron

Close Combat: Gateway to Caen

Close Combat III: The Russian Front

Close Combat: Invasion: Normandy - Utah Beach to Cherbourg

Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem

Close Combat: Panthers in the Fog

Close Combat: The Battle of the Bulge

Close Combat: The Longest Day

Close Combat: Wacht am Rhein

Codename: Panzers Franchise

Combat Command

Combat Command 2: Danger Forward

Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord

Combat Mission 3 - Afrika Corps

Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines

Commandos: Strike Force

Commandos 2: Men of Courage

Commandos 3: Destination Berlin

Company of Heroes

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Company of Heroes 2

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault

Company of Heroes 2: Theater of War - Case Blue

Company of Heroes 2: Theater of War - Southern Fronts

Company of Heroes 2: Theater of War - Victory at Stalingrad

Computer Air Combat

Computer Ambush

Computer Bismarck

Computer EastFront

Counter Action

Crete 1941: Fallschirmjager

Crusade in Europe

Daisenryaku Franchise

Daitōa Mokushiroku: Goh

Damage Inc.: Pacific Squadron WWII

Dam Buster

The Dam Busters

Das Boot: German U-Boat Simulation

Day of Defeat

D-Day (2004)

D-Day (1984)

D-Day (1992)

D-Day: America Invades

D-Day: Normandy

D-Day: The Beginning of the End

Deadly Dozen

Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theater

Decision in the Desert

Decisive Battles of WWII Franchise

Deep Strike

Desert Commander

Desert Fox

Desert Rats Franchise

Destroyer

Destroyer Command

Dive Bomber

Dnieper River Line

Dogfight 1942

Dogfight: Battle for the Pacific aka Pacific Warriors II: Dogfight

Dogs of War (Unlicensed Axis & Allies adaptation)

D: Ōshū Shinkirō

Down in Flames

Dreadnoughts

Dunes of War

Enemy Front

East Front & East Front 2

Eastern Front

Elite Forces: WWII - Iwo Jima

Elite Forces: WWII - Normandy

Empire

Eric Young's Squad Assault: West Front

Escape from Colditz & the remake Coldiz Escape! (Not affiliated with the 1970s Coldiz TV show)

Europe Ablaze

European Air War

Europe in Flames

Faces of War

Fall Weiss

Fall Weiß 1939

Fathom's 40

The Few

Field of Fire

Fighter Ace 3.5

Fighter Command: The Battle of Britain

Fighter Duel

Fighter Squadron: The Screamin' Demons over Europe

Fighting Steel

Fire Brigade

Fire Mustang

First Battalion

First Over Germany

Fortress Europe: The Liberation of France

Frontline Franchise

Gary Grigsby's Pacific War (1992)

Gary Grigsby's Pacific War (2000)

Gary Grigsby's War in Russia

Gary Grigsby's War in the East: Don to the Danube

Gary Grigsby's War in the East: Lost Battles

Gary Grigsby's War in the East: The German-Soviet War 1941-1945

Gary Grigsby's World At War

GATO

Germany At War: Barbarossa 1941

Gewetensvragen

G.I. Combat: Episode 1 - Battle of Normandy

Goh II

Great Battles of WWII: Stalingrad

Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-1943

Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-43 - America in the Atlantic

Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-43 - Super Ships of the Atlantic Great Naval Battles Vol. II: Guadalcanal

Great Naval Battles Vol. III: Fury in the Pacific, 1941-44

Great Naval Battles Vol. IV: Burning Steel, 1939-1942

Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal Campaign

Guderian

Hearts of Iron Franchise

Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe

Hidden & Dangerous 2

Hellcat Ace

Hellcats Over the Pacific

The Heroes of the 357th

Heroes of the Pacific

Heroes of WWII

Heroes Over Europe

Hidden and Dangerous Franchise

High Command: Europe 1939-'45

The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific

The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific

History Legends of War: Patton

HMS Cobra: Convois pour Mourmansk

Hunter Killer

iBomber

iBomber Defense

iBomber Defense Pacific Il-2 Sturmovik Franchise

iPanzer '44

Iron Aces

Iron Aces: Heroes of WW2

Iron Cross

Iron Front: Liberation 1944

Iron Storm

Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy

Iwo jima

Jagdstaffel

Jagdverband 44: Screaming Eagles

Jane's Combat Simulations: Attack Squadron

Jane's Combat Simulations: WWII Fighters

Kampania wrześniowa

Kampfgruppe

Kikō Shidan

Kishi Densetsu

Knights of the Desert

Lancaster

Lead Soldier

Legends of War: Patton's Campaign

Liberty Wings

London Blitz

Luftwaffe Commander: WWII Combat Flight Simulator

Making History: The Calm & The Storm

Making History II: The War of the World

Malta Storm

Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

Medal Of Honor: Airborne

Medal of Honor: European Assault

Medal of Honor: Frontline

Medal of Honor: Heroes

Medal of Honor: Heroes 2

Medal of Honor: Infiltrator

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Medal of Honor: Underground

Medal of Honor: Vanguard

Men of War

Men of War: Assault Squad

Men of War: Condemned Heroes

Men of War: Red Tide

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: WW II Pacific Theater

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator: WWII Europe Series

Midway Campaign

Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan

Military History: Commander - Europe at War

Mortal Skies: Modern War Air Combat Shooter

Moscow to Berlin: Red Siege

Mud and Blood 2

Muzzle Velocity

Nations

Naval Assault: The Killing Tide

Night Gunner

Norm Koger's The Operational Art of War Vol 1: 1939-1955

North Atlantic Convoy Raider

No Surrender: Battle of the Bulge

Objective: Kursk

Offensive

Officers

Operation Apocalypse

Operation Europe: Path to Victory 1939-45

Operation Crusader

Operation Iceberg: The Battle for Okinawa

Operation Market Garden

Operation Thunderstorm

Operation Whirlwind

Order of Battle: Pacific

Order of Battle: World War II

Order of War

The Outfit

Out of the Sun

Overlord (1994)

Overlord: The Invasion 6th June 1944

Over the Reich

P-38 Lightning

P47 Thunderbolt

Pacific Fighters 

Pacific Gunner

Pacific Storm

Pacific Storm: Allies

Pacific Strike

Pacific War

Panthers in the Shadows

Panzer Attack

Panzer Battles

Panzer Campaigns: Bulge '44

Panzer Campaigns VI: Korsun '44

Panzer Campaign VII: Kursk '43

Panzer Commander

Panzer Command: Ostfront

Panzer Corps Franchise

Panzer Elite

Panzer Front

Panzer Front Ausf. B

Panzerfront: Barbarossa 1941-1945

Panzer General Franchise

Panzer Grenadier

Panzer-Jagd

Panzer Killer!

Panzerkrieg: Burning Horizon 2

Panzers East!

Panzer Strike

Panzer Tactics DS

Panzer Tactics HD

Pathway to Glory

Pathway to Glory: Ikusa Islands

Patton Strikes Back: The Battle of the Bulge

Patton vs. Rommel

Pearl Harbour

Pearl Harbor: Defend the Fleet

Pearl Harbor Encounter

Pearl Harbor: Strike at Dawn

Pearl Harbor Trilogy: 1941: Red Sun Rising

Pearl Harbor: Zero Hour

Pegasus Bridge

The Perfect General Scenario Disk: World War II Battle Set

Piotrków 1939

Plane Arcade

Power at Sea

Protivostoyanie: Opaleonniy sneg

PT-109

P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations

P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations II

P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations IV

The Pure Wargame

Pursuit of the Graf Spee

Red Orchestra Franchise

Reach for the Skies

Red Skies

Red Skies: Von Stalingrad nach Berlin

Red Thunder

Rising Storm

Rising Sun

Rising Sun: Imperial Strike

Road to Moscow

Rommel: Battles for North Africa

Rommel: Battles for Tobruk

Rowan's Battle of Britain

RUSE: The Art of Deception

Rush for Berlin

Rush for the Bomb

Russian Front II: The Kursk Campaign

Russia: The Great War in the East 1941-1945

S2: Silent Storm

S3: Silent Storm - Sentinels

Sands of Fire

Search and Destroy

SeaWolves: Submarines on Hunt

SeaWolves II

Second Front: Germany Turns East

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe

Secret Weapons Over Normandy

Sega Ages 2500: Vol.22 - Advanced Daisenryaku: Doitsu Dengeki Sakusen

Sherman M4

Sid Meier's Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies

Silent Heroes: Elite Troops of WWII

Silent Hunter Franchise

Silent Service

Silent Service II

Sniper Art of Victory

Sniper Elite Franchise

Soldiers at War

Soldiers: Heroes of World War II

Special Operations

Spitfire

Spitfire '40

Spitfire Ace

Spitfire Attack

Spitfire: The Battle of Britain

Spring 1944

Squad Assault: Second Wave

Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942

Steel Panthers Franchise

Storm Across Europe

Strategic Command 2: Blitzkrieg

Strategic Command 2: Patton Drives

Strategic Command 2: Weapons and Warfare Expansion

Strategic Command: European Theater

Strategic Command: WW II Global Conflict

Strategic Command: WWII Pacific Theater

Strategic Simulations: Commander's Collection

Strategic War in Europe

Strikers 1945

Sub Battle Simulator

Sudden Strike Franchise

TAC: Tactical Armor Command

Talonsoft's 12 O'Clock High: Bombing the Reich

Talonsoft's West Front

Tanke Da Juezhan

Tank Operations: European Campaign

Tanktics

Tank Warfare: Tunisia 1943

Task Force 1942

Team Assault: Baptism of Fire

Theatre of War

Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943

Theatre of War 2: Centauro Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943

Theatre of War Collection

Their Finest Hour: Battle of Britain

Time of Fury

Third Reich (1992)

Third Reich (1996)

Tiger Hunt

Tigers on the Prowl

Time of Fury

Tobruk: The Clash of Armour

Torpedo Fire

Total Victory: Victory or Defeat

Trench Warfare - Mod for Wolfenstein 3D

Typhoon of Steel

Unity of Command

UMS II: Nations at War

Uncommon Valor: Campaign for the South Pacific

Under Fire

Under Southern Skies

Unity of Command: Stalingrad Campaign

Up Periscope (1983)

Up Periscope! (1986)

U.S.A.A.F. - United States Army Air Force

V for Victory: Utah Beach

V for Victory: Gold-Juno-Sword

V for Victory: Market Garden

V for Victory: Velikiye Luki

Vulcan: The Tunisian Campaign

War Birds Franchise

WarCommander

War Diary: Burma

Wargame Construction Set II: Tanks!

War in Russia

War in the Pacific: The Struggle Against Japan 1941-1945

War in the South Pacific

Warship

War Times

War Thunder

WarZone 3: WWII Edition

Western Front: The Liberation of Europe 1944-1945

White Death

Winds of Steel

Wings of Destiny

Wings of Fury

Wings of Prey

WolfPack

World at War: Volume II - Stalingrad

World War II Combat: Iwo Jima

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin

World War II: Frontline Command

World War II General Commander: Operation: Watch on the Rhine

World War II: Pacific Heroes

World War II: Panzer Claws

World War II: Panzer Claws 2

World War II: Sniper - Call to Victory

World War II Trivia

World Wars: European Conflicts

World Wars II: Pacific Conflicts

Wulfpack

WW2 Air Force Commander

WW2: Time of Wrath

WWII: Battle Over the Pacific

WWII Battle Tanks: T-34 vs. Tiger

WWII: Desert Rats

WWII GI

WWII Online: Blitzkrieg

WWII Tank Commander

[bigboard]

PC wargame title PRON

PC wargame title PRON

Wargamer posted a nice write up on 2017 upcoming PC games: “UBOOT (Deep Water Studio) Describing itself as Fallout Shelter on a U-Boat, UBOOT promises to be one of the most unique sub-sims around. Taking a heavy amount of inspiration from the classic Das Boot, you control a U-Boat in the Atlantic during the Second World War and you have to keep a close eye on your crew if you want to survive.…

[jasonraish]

My first job of the year was this huge key art (18,750px aka 62.5 inches wide!) for U-boat Wargamers on Sky History UK. January 1943: Britain is on the brink of starvation from ruthless Nazi attacks on merchant ships. The Navy cannot spare any men. Enter the WRNS (Women’s Royal Navy Service) to war game the tactics to defeat the enemy U-Boats.