Second World War at Sea: Bismarck

About the game

What is Second World War at Sea: Bismarck?

From the Avalanche Press website: The British Home Fleet tried to stop her, but Bismarck’s guns ripped apart the battle cruiser Hood. The pride of the Royal Navy went to the bottom of the Denmark Strait southwest of Iceland and Bismarck disappeared into the fog. But HMS Prince of Wales had managed to hit Bismarck below the water line, and she left behind her a slick of fuel oil. The British Home Fleet relentlessly tracked the German warship, and she finally sank beneath a hail of gunfire. This Second World War at Sea game has one of the larger operational maps in the series; the North Atlantic is a big and empty place. There are two 34x22-inch maps, covering the area from north of Iceland south to the latitude of Spain. The tactical map is a generic blue field of hexagons, used to resolve surface combat. There, ships maneuver and fight using their gunnery and torpedo factors. Each player rolls a number of dice according to the ship’s capabilities, hitting on a result of 6. Gunnery and torpedo damage tables give the results: ships can suffer damage to engines, hull or armament. The game includes 24 pages of rules and 12 scenarios which feature not just the Bismarck chase, but also the North Atlantic raids made by the German warships Admiral Hipper, Admiral Scheer, Gneisenau and Scharnhorst.

How it plays

Mechanics

On the shelf

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Questions players ask

Questions to bring to BoardGameBrain

• How do setup and the first turn work in Second World War at Sea: Bismarck?
• When does scoring happen and what ends the game?
• How should the table resolve an unusual timing or rules interaction?