Forecast: Rainy, with a Chance of Malaria---Playtesting Joe Carter’s Devil Boats: PT Boats in the Solomons

July 1, 1943.  You find yourself at a haphazard base on the northern tip of the island of Rendova in the Solomons.  Your orders? Command a squadron of up to four PT-boats (MTBs) in support of naval and land operations in the chain through nightly patrols against the Japanese-held islands to the northwest.  Your missions will range from landing or evacuating coast-watchers to torpedo-duels with full-strength destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy.  Your ultimate goal is to accomplish your missions while keeping the guys in your squadron alive.

I first made the acquaintance of Joe Carter through Board Game Geek forums on Greg Smith’s game Silent Victory, and Ian Smith’s outstanding Raiders of the Deep. He posted a number of well-designed rule variants for both games, and we exchanged comments on a variety of topics.  Eventually, I learned he had designed a solitaire game of his own.  I congratulated him on what looked like a good game and he invited me to play-test it prior to its commercial publication.  At first I had to decline as demands of my job and some homeowner projects were keeping me very busy.  Several weeks later some of the life-pressure was off and I finally took him up on his offer. After printing out the rule books and tables and assembling the game components he provided I was set.

   

To begin with, there is enough historical detail in the game that tells me Joe did his homework and knows his subject.  One of my favorites is the “malaria roll,” made before each mission.  If you fail the roll, a member of the crew of the command boat (yours) has come down with malaria and needs to be replaced at the last minute.  If the infected crew member happens to be you, the game is over.  This potential mission complication is historically accurate.  In his book At Close Quarters, John D. Bulkeley relates how malaria took hold among the PT squadrons in the South Pacific, particularly as the Japanese cut supply lines and malnutrition and exhaustion set in among the crews.  It is one of many factors in the game that can affect personnel capabilities, and losing an ace gunner to a mosquito bite can ruin your night by weakening your crew on a crucial mission.  Dysentery is another tropical pleasure which can rear its debilitating head during a mission, possibly leaving a crew member “combat ineffective” for the duration. 

In my opinion, weather should always be a factor in historical wargaming, particularly in naval warfare where Precipitation, Wind and Sea State can effect everything from navigation to detection and gunnery.  Devil Boats has a good weather generation system that is straightforward and accurate in terms of weather’s effects on a mission, whether it simply reduces detection range or is severe enough to fragment the squadron formation, leaving you short-handed.

The combat system in DB involves a number of charts and die-rolling, but it is not cumbersome and once you get the rhythm of it, it rolls along smoothly.  The progressive effects of damage to both targets and your squadron are logical and balanced, and the system works well for the various types of combat situations you find yourself in.

 

On any given one-night patrol, you may find yourself cruising to your target and back encountering nothing stronger than a rain shower.  Other patrols, you end up wondering if the whole IJN hasn’t been vectored in with orders to take you down.  I like that, because you never know when leaving the dock what you are going to run into; even a “dull moment” is never dull, especially when you are sailing into danger in what is, in essence, an armed, 80-foot Chris Craft. 

There are several different kinds of missions in DB, which is also a factor in keeping life interesting.  There is nothing quite as stimulating as idling your command boat among coral reefs trying to evac someone while small coastal artillery is dropping shells around you, or as making a balls-out, before-God-and-everybody torpedo run at an IJN destroyer.  Many of the missions are just downright hairy, and you begin to understand why William White’s old book about the boats was titled They Were Expendable, because you start to feel as though you *are.* And therein lies the main challenge of the game, because you are taking a rather fragile combat craft into some insane situations, and the main protection you have is your speed and your maneuverability; Devil Boats requires a bit more sense of discretion---a more deft touch---than a slug-it-out-between-armored-dreadnoughts game.

So, that is the game I have been enjoying over the last two months or so.  It is about to be offered by Compass Games (link at left), so keep an eye out for its appearance in the coming months.