Stripped Down for Parts: PQ-17: Arctic Naval Operations 1941-1943

 

Note: Here I am unboxing a decade-plus old game, checking to see if the designer snuck some gold brick in while nobody was looking. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go watch Cardboard Commander’s recent video on his YouTube channel.

 

I have in my study a literal pile of games I have been meaning to write up unboxing posts. I’m hoping to clear some of that backlog between now and the Christmas break, but something arrived today that I knew would be jumping the queue when it arrived.

A copy of PQ-17: Arctic Naval Operations 1941-1943 (GMT Games, 2009) showed up at an interstate game store that specialises in estate collections. This is one of those classic GMT games that has a dedicated following – popular enough for an expansion pack, Norway 1940 (GMT Games, 2022) just a few years ago, but it’s unlikely to see a reprint in the near to mid-term. Naval games are a bit of a niche market within the niche market of wargaming. I’ve been pulling my horns in – or at lease trying to resist temptation when it presents itself – but PQ-17 seems to be a bit of a Flying Dutchman on the second-hand market, so I had to set fiscal prudence aside this one time.*

PQ-17 simulates the action in the Norwegian and Barents Seas in 1941 through 1943, when supply convoys carried much needed fuel and materiel from the United Kingdom and Iceland to the Northern ports of the Soviet Union under the Anglo-Soviet Agreement and eventually the United States’ Lend-Lease program. The game’s title comes from the most ill-starred of these convoys, of which only eleven of the thirty-five ships that set out from Iceland made it all the way to the Russian ports of Matochkin, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.

Box top.

PQ-17 came out in 2009, and its appearance fits the period. The cover is classic Rodger McGowan, but it’s a little different from many of his more famous box work. The box-top background is a solid Imperial Blue, and It features an offset illustration (worked up from a photo) of the view over the stern of a British destroyer among a convoy, with a couple of German bombers added for flavour. The green of the choppy Arctic waters and the Lavenders and violets of the scudding clouds and darkening horizon are perfectly framed by the blue of the background. To thew left of the illustration if the title, piled upon itself like cargo that has shifted during evasive manoeuvres, and in the bottom left corner the red GMT logo also pops against the blue.^† This might be my new favourite McGowan cover illustration.

Box back. 

The box-back has a foundation of Uranian Blue and features a full representation of the game map at the top, and a written description of the game play, highlighting some of the features of the game. The lower right quadrant is given over to a pale butter-coloured box presenting the Game Contents, Scale, "Game Meter" and Credits, as well as some sample counters presented in their actual size. We’ll be going over all the contents, so I’ll leave off that for now. The Scale tells us that each turn represents twelve hours on the ocean (two turns to a full twenty-four hour day, though this means less when travelling in hazardous waters in either perpetual day or night for much of the year), and each hex represents an area 96 nautical miles across. The game’s Complexity is rated at a five out of nine, while Solitaire Suitability is a one out of nine, though there is evidence in the BGG discussion of the game of brave souls managing familiarisation games solo, using concocted randomisation techniques to conduct the Axis search parts, reportedly with some success.

 

The Rule Book.

The rulebook is presented in black and white, on a heavier matte paper (feels like about 90gsm or so), well laid-out and profusely illustrated (both functionally and decoratively (and runs to thirty-two pages. The actual rules come to just twenty-four pages. The remaining pages are taken up with a Cover/Table of Content, three pages devoted to the game components, a through two-page Index, and an Extended Sequence of Play on the back cover.

Rule Book (sample spread). The second Edition rulebook coming with the Norway 1940
expansion will be colour throughout.

God is in the details. Both the Rule Book and the Play Book feature an Extended
Sequence of Play on their back covers. That is a nice surprise. 

Comments on BGG suggest some folks have had difficulties with the original rulebook. GMT and designer Chris Janiec have since released an expansion for PQ-17, Norway, 1940 (GMT Games, 2022) which includes a rewritten and expanded Second Edition rulebook. The store from which I bought PQ-17 also had a copy of Norway, 1940, but my budget wouldn’t quite stretch to that as well. But GMT has made a copy of the second edition rules available as a pdf on the PQ-17 product page. Norway, 1940 looks like something I will want to grab sometime though, and not merely for a sense of completion.

The Play Book. Nine historical scenarios, one full-year campaign, and a random
scenario generator; it's the gift that keeps on giving. 

The Play Book shares the same material qualities as the Rule Book, and also comes in at thirty-two pages. The scenario content runs to sixteen pages, including a Scenario Format guide and a couple of optional rules. Also included are a similar cover page with Table of Contents, a nine-page Extended Example of Play, five pages of Designer’s Notes, a partial bibliography, and a duplicate of Extended Sequence of Play featured on the last page of the Rule Book.

PlayBook (sample spread).

PQ-17 is an Operational-level game, and the first nine scenarios cover historical operations covering actual convoys or events in hindsight referred to as battles. The tenth scenario is a toolkit for developing random scenarios, thus extending the game’s replayability, and the final scenario is a Campaign game running from the beginning of March, 1942 until the first of January 1943.

Scenarios 11 & 12. I haven't investigated this, but I don't know if this sheet came with the
original set or if it was added later. Drop me ka note if you can shed some light on this.

Additional scenario (with a pair of extra counters), published in C3i.

As mentioned earlier, I bought this copy second-hand, presumably from a deceased estate. While the previous owner never actually got to play this copy of PQ-17, we can deduce that they had a bit of a completist streak; included in this set was a cardstock addition that isn’t listed on the manifest, adding two more scenarios to the set, plus another scenario and two counters from an issue of C3i magazine. At this point, I don’t think I’ll ever get to play the full year campaign game, but to play the original nine historical scenarios from the Play Book plus the three bonus scenarios may just be an achievable goal.

Wooden blocks. These are about the size of Commands & Colors infantry blocks.

Sticker sheet.

PQ-17 comes with a bag of blocks in blue and light grey, 58 in all, and a sheet of stickers to apply to said blocks. The blocks are single-sided, and do the work of representing where forces are, or where they might be, on the map. Air assets and various makers (all counters, which we’ll get to next) are also used on the map.

While simple and functional the map is really quite attractive. Well, I think so. Along with the play or manoeuvre area, it offers a key to the map and other game elements, tracks for noting prevailing weather and ice conditions, as well as holding boxes for the ports and airbases dotted around the various coastlines.

Counter Sheet 1 - Allied naval assets.

Counter sheet 2 - Allied and Axis (grey) naval assets.

The game boasts four counter sheets, two of 1” square ship, flotilla, and convoy counters, and two sheets of round counters designating air assets, as well as a half-sheet of half inch markers. The large ship markers don’t appear on the map, but are rather grouped into Task Forces and Convoy groups. The ship and flotilla counters have numbers marked on one or more of their edges and rotate like a Columbia Games’ unit block to indicate relative damage taken and the sea-worthiness of the vessel. The one-inch counters feel more like tiles, but they should; each one represents an artificial island populated by brave fools facing death every time they set out of port.

Counter sheet 3 - Allied air assets.

Counter sheet 4 - Axis and Soviet air assets.

Counter sheet 5 - half-inch markers.

The counters are printed on white-core cardstock, a little thinner than you would expect to see in a current GMT game. I don’t personally have an issue with the lighter counters. They should still be thick enough to manipulate without too much difficulty, and they will clip up nicely (and the air assets won’t need clipping at all).

 

The PQ-17 map. As usual apologies for the poor photography on display in this post.
This picture doesn't do justice to the elegance of functionality
inherent in this game map.

The game map covers the area of operations – the Norwegian and Barents Seas – and their bordering coastlines, along with the ports and airbases crucial to play. The hexes are big, representing 98 nautical miles side to side. They are big enough to accommodate multiple representative blocks. The map is where the operational part of the game takes place. In their turn, each side moves their assets and attempts to successfully search or evade the opposing forces. When combat does occur, it may be dealt with in different ways. Air to surface or submarine attacks are abstracted to a set of die-rolls. Surface actions between ships are played out on a battle-board (which we will also get to in due course).

The Force Displays are where a lot of the bookkeeping happens. Well, to be fair, the introduction of the Force Displays and maritime asset counters eases the substantial bookkeeping you would otherwise need to do to run the game (compared to, say, Flying Colors (GMT Games. 2003)). These provide a visual display for water-borne assets with which you can group the ships together and represent a group with a single block on a wide expanse of ocean.

The force displays, battle board, and PACs are all printed on the same weight cardstock, which in turn is comparable to most GMT games. They are all sturdy enough for consistent referral at the table but light enough to keep the overall box-weight lower for freight considerations.

The game comes with a whole pad of Planning Sheets. These look more daunting
than they actually are.

Operations for each side are plotted out on a Planning Sheet at the beginning of a scenario. This is also where the rest of the bookkeeping is done; the Planning Sheet helps the players record the composition of their Task Forces, track their Command Point (CP) spend, Victory Points gained and interceptors lost through the course of play. The game comes with a pad of these sheets, each double-sided. I, of course, will insist on keeping the pad pristine and run off copies of the sheet top use instead. Don't judge me.

The Battle Board, where the operational game gets tactical.

PQ-17 uses a battle board for surface engagements – air bombardment and Sub/wolfpack attacks are handled more abstractly. The battle board is a concept born out of The War at Sea (Jedko Games, 1975), and used in a bunch of naval wargames since, from Holdfast: Pacific (Worthington Publishing, 2017) to Atlantic Chase (GMT Games, 2021). This simplifies the action but still builds in options for some basic manoeuvres.

The outer panels of the Axis Player Aid Card (PAC).

The game comes with two bi-fold (11” by 17”) Player Aid Cards, marked individually as the Allied and Axis PACs. The outer panels of the PACs are identical (except for their identification) and offer all the tables you’ll need for every aspect of combat between ships, Submarines and aircraft. 

Inside the Axis PAC. The two PACs are nearly identical, but for the Order of Battle
(of course) and the Random Events Table. Bad things happen (sometimes uniquely)
to both sides.

The differences are inside the fold; the two PACs boast their own Campaign Orders of Battle (exclusively for the 1942 Campaign game), a Random Event Table exclusive to that faction, and a Special Conditions Chart (this is consulted after a die-roll during the Random Event Segment of each turn (the sea is a harsh mistress).

The Weather and Ice PACs, because it's not enough to have planes and subs chasing
 you, the whole environment is trying to sink your ships.

PQ-17 also brings a matching pair of Weather and Ice PACs. The front side shows the incredibly thorough Weather Table – results run from ≤1 to ≥20 over twelve columns for each month of the year – and a short explanatory table of Weather Effects. The verso presents a Unit (explanatory) Chart Ice Table and an Ice Effects explainer, a Reconnaissance Chart and a Variable Start Table.

Axis and Allied card decks.

Sample cards. Each deck comes with a Reminder covering the Reconnaissance
and Shadowing and the limitations of movement for Wolfpacks.

There are two 40-card decks that come with the game, one each for the Allied and German players. Cards are drawn when an enemy asset is searched for during the Reconnaissance Phase, and to check for possible damage to the player's own ships underway. This simulation is as much a fight against nature as it is the enemy.

 

The game comes with five d10s and a signed packing slip, an elegant gesture from
a more civilised age. Not pictured are the two rolls of baggies that came with
this copy. I don't know if every copy came with two rolls, but I'm sure
they'll come in handy.  

PQ-17 comes in a standard two-inch box, with baggies and a set of five ten-sided dice (numbered 0-9) The dice are quite nice, but . The box is admittedly a little thin-panelled and the side-panels have bowed out a little bit – a common enough occurrence in this weight of cardboard. It still does the job, but it’s a reminder to be grateful for GMT’s improved box standards from the last maybe five or so years.

There’s quite a bit to the game in terms of contents, but it’s mostly light card-stock PACs and the paper map. I’d like to eventually get a Cube-4-Me storage set for this game. I checked, and yes, they do have a curated set of counter and card containers for PQ-17, which impressed me. I'm just concerned about whether everything from Norway 1040 will manage to pit into the box as well.

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This unboxing feels a little thin to me on detail compared to my usual unboxing efforts, where I try to convey a little more of how the parts interact and how the game will play out on the table, or at least how it’s meant to. Part of the reason for that is time - I’ve had this for a couple of weeks now, but I’ve and a few things on the go, so I haven’t had much time to get spend with the game. The expansion for PQ-17, Norway 1940, includes a Second Edition rule book (in glorious full-colour).^ Norway 1940 is now on its way to Casa Dyer as I write this, so at this point I may as well wait for that to read, instead of struggling with the “difficult” first edition. What do we say to fiscal prudence? Not today!

* Actually, I had to set it aside twice; I grabbed second game from the store on the same order. I told myself I was actually saving money on postage. The economics of self-deceit.

† While I was writing this up, I happened to notice the bottom edge panel. This end must have been the one showing on the previous owner’s shelf – there GMT logo has faded with sun-bleach to a very pale pink, but the Uranian Blue has stood up admirably.

^ Norway 1940 arrived just as I was marking this post up for publication. A replacement rulebook, an extra play book, two more sheets of counters (plus another half-sheet of half-inch markers, supplementary PACs and a campaign board for the land battle for Norway. The expansion brings three more scenarios to the table and a Norway Campaign game.