EUB v1.

Early U-Boats for The Hunters

U-9. Source: Wikimedia Commons

EUB.1 Overview. For those who either wish a more historical beginning to their Hunters campaigns, Or who
are just a bit masochistic, I offer these rules for using some of the U-boats that were employed during the
early stages of WW2.

EUB.2 Starting Rank. Roll 1d6 for your starting rank.

Roll Oberleutnant Kapitanleutnant
1939 1 2–6
1940 1–4 5-6

EUB.3 Randomly Determined First Boat. If you like, you can randomly determine your start U-boat by
rolling 2 dice and consulting the following table:

2-3 4 5 6 7 8 9-11 12
IIA IIC IID IIB VIIA VIIB IXA IA

EUB.4 Patrol Table for Type II Boats. Use the table printed on the Type II U boat mats instead of the normal
U Boat Patrol Table [P1].

EUB.5 Some classes of Type II boats tended to patrol closer to coastal waters than others, so when
determining target ship size for Type II boats, roll 2 dice and use this table. A Coaster has a tonnage of 2d6 x
100. Any coaster of less than 1,000 tons will be sunk with one hit.
5 or less 6-9 10-11 12
Coaster Small Freighter Large Freighter Tanker

Dice Roll Modifiers:

For single (unescorted) ship: -1 Type IIA -3 Type IIC: +1 Type IID: +2
EUB.6 Minefield Results. One month after your U boat has successfully completed a Minelaying mission,
roll 2d6 to determine whether any ships have been sunk.
Roll Ships Sunk Modifiers
5 or less None Type II -1
Type VIID +1 Type XB +3
6–8 1
9 – 10 2 1939 +1 1941 -1
1942 -2 1943 -3
11 + 3
1944 -4 1945 -5

Now roll 2d6 to determine the tonnage of the ship sunk.

Roll Ships Type Notes
1 Trawler (100 tons) Coaster = 2d6 x 100 tons.
2–4 Coaster
Modifier:
5–9 Small Freighter 1939 = -2.
10 - 11 Large Freighter
12 Tanker

Historical / Design Notes. Minefields laid by U boats were quite effective in sinking Allied ships. This shouldn’t come as
a great surprise as the mines were often precisely laid in known choke points outside harbours. U boat commanders,
however, didn’t like mine laying – possibly because they couldn’t immediately perceive the results of their efforts.

In the last three months of 1939 twenty two minelaying missions were made – mostly by Type II boats. These sank an
average of 1.4 ships per mission; a total of 104,000 tons. The British progressively improved their mine
countermeasures techniques throughout the war, reducing the effectiveness of mine laying missions.

The -2 modifier for the ship type table is because in 1939 German magnetic mines could be too sensitive, resulting in
them exploding when very small ships passed overhead. From 1940 onwards the magnetic mines’ sensitivity was
dialled back, resulting in them only exploding under suitable targets. The probability of a ship being sunk was not
directly proportional to the number of mines sown by a U boat as once a ship had struck a mine other ships could be
alerted to the presence of a minefield and countermeasures could be put into place, eventually resulting in the removal
of the minefield by mine sweepers.

Regarding the number of reload torpedoes carried by Type II boats, authorities differ, with some stating 3 reloads and
others stating 5. Given that the boats were originally designed for training / coastal work I have opted for 2 reloads son
the assumption that even if it was possible to cram 3 into the boat, on a war patrol into the North Sea or the Western
Approaches it is likely that extra room would have been needed for crewmen and supplies etc. Players who disagree are
welcome to give their boats 3 reloads.

Nigel Hodge
August 2015

Many thanks to Alexey Borodkin and Ian Wedge for the graphics. We have made use of silhouettes of the U-boats (thanks to Alexey
for these). Players who want colour profile pictures of the boats can probably find them readily on the internet, but we haven’t used
them in order to avoid contravening copyright.