Great video, Zilla! You sold me on the game. Just placed an order for it. Cheers!

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Hi Joe! Good to hear from you! I would love to see some of your videos on the game. Time for a full 200-hour campaign game video, LIVE! ;) And I'm glad you liked the video. :)

I love the name of Campaign 3a: "Wooden Shoes and Iron Men". Great call-back. Shoot. I don't need it, but I may have to go seek this out.

@ZillaBlitz

10 ай бұрын

Haha! Yes, I skimmed over that name and so it didn't register, but yeah, that's downright clever! Kudos! :)

I get my copy next week! Thanks for the info 😊

@ZillaBlitz

5 ай бұрын

Very nice, happy hunting!

Good video. Your 'First Look' videos are the best in the genre. Much appreciated.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the kind words, Paul! I'm happy you found it helpful. :)

Dear Compass Games....I watched this video and ordered the game. Sub war is my favorite genre.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I'm happy you liked it and found it helpful! It's one of my favorite genres too. :)

Excellent first look. I don’t have room to keep this setup so played the campaign on Vassal. Pretty simple gameplay and it doesn’t take long to learn it. For those who’ve played games like this and get attached to those units being put at risk, you definitely feel it when a high performing sub is lost. Not long after the SW came out, there was plans for a SPX module to enhance the tactical aspect. Here’s a quote from BGG about it: ‘’The Single Patrol eXpansion kit is an add-on product to Silent War. It expands the patrol game into a more detailed experience by providing more detailed control over loadout, submarine operations, key crew, and combat resolution. The principle displays portray a cutaway of two classes of Submarine, a Gato, and an Early S class (S3, such as the S-44 of Dinty Moore fame) on which operations are managed. Moreover, there is an enhanced submarine centric rosetta (relative position) display which acts as a TDC/game-play aid such that the angle and approach of a submarine, and the choice of the number of torpedoes fired at one or more targets can be calculated and resolved.’’ Unfortunately it looks like it won’t ever happen unless enough interest is shown. With all the success of solitaire submarine board games very similar to SPX, maybe it can still become reality.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the info, very interesting. I can see how Vassal would be a great help for this, as the 200-hour campaign would be a challenge. It sounds like great fun though. :) That expansion kit sounds interesting, although I'm not sure I'd want to make the sub battles longer in an already long campaign. I wonder if it would be better suited as a standalone game?

Wonderful first look Zilla. Thankyou so much

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

My pleasure, great fun to make, thanks for stopping in!

VERY interested in how this plays! One of my great-uncles was a torpedoman aboard the USS Seawolf when she was sunk (accidentally, by an American destroyer). I think learning that family history as a kid made me interested in WW2 which led me to wargaming....so this would kind of bring that full circle. There are a number of sub themed games out there and I've been pondering which to buy. I like the idea of managing the whole fleet in this one.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing! I can see how that story could impact a life, for sure. It was the most dangerous service during the war for the US, with I think 25% of submariners lost at sea. This one is a very different take on submarine combat, for sure. I'm curious to see how the game flows. I could see it being really fun to see some of your subs rise in success.

Amazing overview, thanks. Just got it in the mail yesterday.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it! :)

Oh jeeze...there goes my credit card. Great summary, Zilla. I too like N. Africa, Pacific theater and subs. I may try planting this seed in my wife's head! Thanks for doing these! -Dan

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Haha! Yes, those 3 things are pretty hard for me to resist too. And this one is even harder because LOTS of subs. :)

Looking forward to a play through & pleasantly surprised by the cost this side of the pond. Many thanks for the informative review.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Definitely a lot of value in the box for this one! Glad to hear it's not crazy expensive on your side of the pond. :)

I just received my copy in the mail today, so perfect timing! Now I just need the time to play it...

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Nice! I hope you enjoy it when you get it to the table. :)

Great overview! Just picked up the original version for a great price so looking to get into it very soon! This version looks awesome!

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Oh, I hope you like it! If you're bargain hunting, now's probably a great time to get 1.0, yes. :)

Great review my friend love the honesty and your passion

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Thank you, Rob, much appreciated. :)

@Resilio67

8 ай бұрын

This is not a review, but only a “first look”! As the title also says!

wow. looks pretty cool. I love anything ww2 era submarine

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I'm punching the US sub counters now, just so much fun to go through them all.

Definitely wanting to get a copy of this. Tried to convince my wife to get this for me as a gift when it was on KS :) Didn't work. Are we going to get a 200 hour series on this?🤣 (Oh. I'd be down btw)

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

A 200-hour game would probably be a 400-hour to 600-hour video series, if the standard ratio holds true. I will start now. ~ A video series would be super fun to do, but I think I'd have to come up with a way to reduce the amount of video content, obviously. :)

@SoloBattles

11 ай бұрын

​@ZillaBlitz I bet you could do this. I suspect a lot of the game is rinse and repeat. The first few turns would take longer as everything is new, but eventually you reach a point where you are only covering highlights. Obviously, it would be long, but you can easily edit out 99% of the actual time. 200 hours down to 2 hours = +/- 2 hours. Right?😉

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I do want to explore more longer replays on the channel eventually. The Save South Vietnam series was like that and I think it worked pretty well. I think there is potential to do longer games, but you've just got to get the cutting/not cutting balance correct. Maintain tensions, narrative, etc.

@SoloBattles

11 ай бұрын

@@ZillaBlitz Ah yes, the editing bit. I spent nearly 12 hours over the last two days editing my latest 90 minute Austerlitz game down to 10 minutes (including a 1 minute animated replay)!

@SoloBattles

11 ай бұрын

Posting at midnight tonight.

Fantastic overview of this awesome game. I’ve been playing this game since 2006 w 1.0. Just finishing my first short campaign of 2.0 and really love the new version.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Thanks! And good to hear that you like the previous version and are enjoying this one as well. It'd be a dream to play the full campaign. :)

@chrisschall5834

11 ай бұрын

@@ZillaBlitzit did take me a full year of actual time to play the full campaign. I had to use vassal because I couldn’t keep it set up that long. Plus, vassal really speeds up play especially w reseeding the war period cups.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Good points on Vassal, yes. I can see how that could be important for a campaign this long, although something deep inside wants to play it on a table. :)

There's a fine line between simulation and decision making. I found Silent War to be just slightly on the simulation side of the line: not quite enough player agency. Contrast that with RAF: slightly on the decision making side of the line.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Interesting, I'm curious to see how this new version plays. I think the "aggressiveness" rule is new, as are a few other things.

@lakingsgeek

11 ай бұрын

Oh, that's interesting. Does that mean you can order the captains to be more or less aggressive, even at the very beginning of the war? I understand it took some time before Dudley Morton and Richard O'Kane demonstrated the value of being very aggressive with their sub. @@ZillaBlitz

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I think so? I don't recall, offhand, whether there are restrictions on how you can use it early on. I recall reading that better captains can switch two levels in combat, but normal captains can only go up or down one level. So if you start aggressive, a regular captain will take 2 turns to get to cautious.

I imagine you are somewhat excited for this one. Submarines and all. I also suspect we'll be seeing it on the channel and I'm all ready for that!

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I'd love to bring it to the channel at some point, that'd be great fun. It looks like a fantastic simulation. I don't know if I could do the 200-hour campaign though. :)

Great video ! can be followed by a let's play who knows ! 😀

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I would love to do one, but there is a hefty list in front of it. :)

Good to see the Royal Navy represented! That might swing it for me.

@ZillaBlitz

10 ай бұрын

It's definitely cool how they have a number of small campaigns with the British and Dutch, yes. :) Unfortunately, I think the game is sold out now.

@Jackdaw5

10 ай бұрын

Fortunately it's still to surface on this side of the pond, so hoping I can get a copy soon!

@ZillaBlitz

10 ай бұрын

Aha, makes sense, good luck!

I also have 'Thunder Below'. Some of the most exciting WW2 action was U.S submarine warfare. Anyways Fluckey was my fav. Wonder if 'Barb' is in the game?

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Yes, every US sub is supposedly in the game, and I know I clipped the corners on Barb, I remember that one. :)

@Phalanx11

11 ай бұрын

@@ZillaBlitz The first air conditioning in history was on the Gato class...

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

That's cool!

Wow dude this game looks absolutely amazing. I can’t decide if I will wait until you do a play through of it or just go ahead and dip into my cash stash and order it now. You did such an awesome job explaining that a friend who’s not even a gamer was so impressed they are encouraging me to buy the game. Maybe to borrow it. 😅 Thanks again sir.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Definitely an amazing looking game, and thanks for the kind words on the video! I'm not sure when I'd be able to create a gameplay video for the game, so I wouldn't wait for that, unfortunately. I'm getting closer to being caught up on obligations, but not yet. :)

@KevinA2112

11 ай бұрын

@@ZillaBlitz well I understand trying to catch up. My finger is currently hovering over the check out button to order this awesome game. 😉

I have ordered this (UK) plus own the original. I see from BGG they missed out the weather counters...

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Whoops! I just took a look now, looks like you are correct.

OMG another Sub game, you know how I am a sucker for most things subs especially WW2 times. Loved this video and boy what a great looking game. Any chances this will make it to the channel?

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I think this looks great fun to play. I'm not sure when it might make it to the channel, but my list of commitments is getting shorter. :)

Can't wait for my copy. I have the orginial.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Nice! But Who is Mychal the business entrepreneur?

I can already imagine myself becoming fixated on playing the campaign version, reading all the rules, spending a lot of time reading up on the history and etc, only to get through 10 to 20 hours and then fixating on another game lol

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Haha! Sounds like every time I tried to play Skyrim. :) Well, except that one time I finally finished the campaign. :)

@allegedlycaleb

11 ай бұрын

Talk about a great game! I recently started playing the main campaign of GMT’s The Battle for Normandy, and I’m only expecting to play it halfway through before I move on to something else since the scale is just so massive.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Ha! Good luck! You can make it to Paris!

@AmosDohms

6 ай бұрын

I've played the the MacArthur's navy scenario in the original game, gives you most of the experience while majorly cutting down the time it takes to play. I think it took me less then 35 hours for the whole war. Just a great thing to do to relax for an hour or two every couple days.

As incredible as this looks I have no idea how to even begin sorting all those counters into something sensible

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I'm working on that now, subs by date of arrival in the war, Japanese ships by type, and markers by function. It's actually going pretty well... so far. :)

From how you are describing it it seems to be your holy grail, I am also waiting for it and I am very curious about this work. Unfortunately the game has errors in the manual and in some counters (even some missing counters, see weather events), everything will be fixed soon.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Ha! I'm not sure I've found the holy grail, but it's definitely a great looking game, and super intriguing. :)

@chrisschall5834

11 ай бұрын

No worries, the game plays fine as is. Not as bad errata as many other games out there.

@Resilio67

8 ай бұрын

See BGG, the manual is filled with errors!

Looks great and I am looking forward to the game. I think the main map should be cleaner , like most other games. It looks overly colorful and a little distracting at all of the bases. Regards

@ZillaBlitz

10 ай бұрын

Interesting observation on the map. It's definitely colorful. I think the real test will be how it functions in play. Thanks for stopping in!

@AmosDohms

6 ай бұрын

The board is definitely a mess visually, but it I found that it works great it practice. Everything is very clear and easy to see once you get going.

Lets do this !

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Fire all torpedos!

Go Vikings !

@ZillaBlitz

9 ай бұрын

What a crazy game this past weekend, eh?

@thenomad531

9 ай бұрын

@@ZillaBlitz I have to confess....Ive been so buried with work that I took Sunday off to sleep. We're building the new Police Training Facility in St. Paul right now. Lots to do in moving previous tenants around. One day you'll have to swing in for a beer. Im a half block from Brits pub.... till soon mate....loved the Submarine unboxing... Garrett

What are you doing it is past 11 pm here!

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Still middle of the day here. :)

I'd be interested to know what it plays like, Zilla - I've got the first version, and every time I open the rulebook, my brain shuts down.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Yes, I'm very curious how it plays too. I think the updated rules might be easier to follow if they've been reworked from the original perhaps?

I have this ordered and bought a bottle of Excedrine to have handy when I read the rules... I just want to know how the heck to store all those subs and ships!!!

@ZillaBlitz

6 ай бұрын

Awesome! Have fun! In case it helps, here's a storage kit solution from Cube4Me that works for this game: cube4me.com/product/silent-war-2-0/ I actually think it's very manageable from a rules standpoint, it's just that there are a lot of subs with lots of turns. So I think from a complexity standpoint, it'll be fine.

@jumpmaster82nd.

6 ай бұрын

@@ZillaBlitz In your opinion is it able to be customized to play out as a lone sub (ala Silent Victory) or wolfpack or do you need to play it as intended to realize its depth and scope?

@ZillaBlitz

6 ай бұрын

There are lots of single patrols campaigns (about 1-2 hours) that can be played, but the game is more designed for the operational level, where you are controlling lots of subs. So while you can play the single sub patrols and have fun, I think playing the multi-sub campaigns is more fun. :)

@jumpmaster82nd.

6 ай бұрын

@@ZillaBlitz I'll probably stay in the kiddie pool for a few patrols and get my sea legs! Thanks for the info on the trays! Looks like you need them for this beast!

@ZillaBlitz

6 ай бұрын

Oh, I'd definitely recommend doing the simpler patrols first to learn the game, yes. For larger games, those tray kits are lifesavers. (Disclaimer though. I've teamed up with them as a channel sponsor because I like their trays so much.)@@jumpmaster82nd.

An excellent look inside the box! Just on the surface (pun intended), it looks like a case of far too much of a REALLY good thing -- at least for me. Cut the degree of detail and variety of play options in half, and I think I'd be all over this. I do have to say, however, that the price point looks like it offers fantastic value for 2.0. One other thing... I was a bit confused when trying to reconcile Compass' "Medium to Medium-high complexity" with your "4.5/10" Complexity estimate. Perhaps I don't understand how your rating system works. I do think it would be very helpful if you could post a list of games you've reviewed along with the complexity ratings you gave -- so that one could compare ratings title vs title, and so perhaps gain a better understanding of how complex game A might be in comparison with game B.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the feedback on the complexity. I admit it's probably not as fine-tuned as it might seem, part of the reason being that it's a guess based on what I can see in the rules and components. Frequently my ratings will change as I play a game, sometimes by a lot. But, I think your main point stands in that I could create a complexity scale with examples at each level or so. That'd be a fun little project.

I played the sister-game, Steel Wolves, about the German WWII U-boat campaign. The convoy action game play was really streamlined and fast play, but the fact remained that you had to manually set up every convoy where you have a contact. After Sept. 1941, having taken the French Channel ports, the set up got so tedious, I just lost interest. It became like going to work every day and I started to hate playing it. Finally I said, why am I torturing myself "playing" something that is so tedious. So love/hate. GREAT game system. Would be a FANTASTIC computer game. But that grand campaign? Just be aware of what you're signing up for.

@ZillaBlitz

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing the thoughts on Steel Wolves. I wonder how different the systems are in Silent War. Definitely some things to keep in mind. :)

How the heck is it already sold out?!😮

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Yeah, that was fast!

@DonaldEdwards-wf6oh

8 ай бұрын

I manged to find a copy!!🎉 Should be here in three days!

Waiting on my copy... Review was very good... "Dive...dive...dive..."

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Thanks! Emergency Dive, for sure!

@edwardpresutti2941

11 ай бұрын

@ZillaBlitz yes and I should have added the Claxton horn sounding alarm...

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Oh, I was playing the Claxton in my head as I was reading that.

Looks like the game is sold out already 😞

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Whaaa? Sold out already?! Wow, that was fast.

The box art is a screenshot of Silent Hunter 4 PC game, poor or no anti-aliasing included. Pretty lazy on Compass' part, although it obviously doesn't have any bearing on the game itself.

@asyncritus

11 ай бұрын

Not true. Brien Miller posted an explanation of how he created the box art on BGG. Silent Hunter was definitely an inspiration for it.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

I don't know the back story but it's not the same image as Silent Hunter 4's cover.

@lakingsgeek

11 ай бұрын

@@ZillaBlitz I didn't mean the same cover art as SH4. I mean it looks like someone took a screen shot of SH4 in game and used it as the cover art for Silent War. I'm not 100% sure so I probably should not have stated it so unequivocally Att the very least the cover art could have been a LOT better, especially when you compare it to the rest of the graphic design inside the box. Oh well, still interested in the game but I keep telling myself i have to stop buying games I don't have time to play.

@lakingsgeek

11 ай бұрын

@@asyncritus I saw that just now. Still could have been better. If i ever break down and buy the game I might design my own cover art.

@ZillaBlitz

11 ай бұрын

Ah, I see now, thanks for clarifying. I don't know why I assumed you meant the "cover" art for it. The box cover art for this game is a bit ... less than the art for the game in general, yes.