First Impressions - The Hunt

The Hunt

The Hunt is a two-player naval wargame set in the Second World War based around the hunt for the German pocket battleship, the Admiral Graf Spee. Historically, the concluded with the scuttling of the ship after the Battle of the River Plate when the ship’s captain felt they had no chance of escape when the time they had in the neutral port of Montevideo expired. Ironically, we had the same outcome. The game is published by Salt and Pepper Games and was funded on Gamefound.

The game has been lovingly made, and the components are great quality. The board is clearly printed and well constructed, and the is a mix of cardboard counters for ships and naval forces and wooden counters for damage and hints to the Graf Spee’s location. The artwork is evocative and the cards come with sleeves. There’s a small screen for the German player to hide their movement record.

A few turns in, and already the merchant ships are sinking.

The game is asymmetric, with hidden movement and driven by cards. Both players start with a hand of five cards; the Royal Navy always draws back to a full hand, but the German player is limited to drawing back to three cards unless they are within a hex of the Altmark, their supply ship. If that’s the case, they can redraw a full hand, but that will give their location away to some extent, as they have to tell the British player how many cards they are drawing.

Victory is achieved for the Germans by sinking five merchant vessels, or doing more damage than the British if brought to battle. The Royal Navy wins by getting five merchants to safety, by doing more damage to the Graf Spee than they receive, or by playing the “Scuttling in Montevideo” card in response to the German player playing the “Montevideo” card in the final round of the battle. Most of the British forces have an advantage in battle.

British forces closing on the Graf Spee (which is within one hex of the yellow hint marker)

The advantage in the game shifts towards the Royal Navy throughout. At the start, only one patrol force is in play, but by the end, three forces can be operating.

There are usually two merchant ships in play, but the German player has a card that can force additional vessels to leave port. They move one hex per turn to different locations.

The German player goes first and plays cards for either their event status, or for action points. Events do things like force a merchant to restart its journey, add calm weather for better searches or move the British forces (based on false radio messages). Some event cards are one-shot and have to be permanently discarded once used.

When played for action points, the cards allow movement, searches, repair of the ship’s sea plane or building of reserves. Movement is a maximum of three hexes (costing 1,2 or 4 action points). The Altmark (which cannot be attacked) is not hidden and moves once per turn, but the Graf Spee can move twice (move, attack, move). The Graf Spee has hidden movement; the German player must declare how many action points they are spending honestly, but doesn’t have to move any or all of the hexes (i.e. they spend 4 action points and must tell the Royal Navy commander this, but they could stay in the same place or move up to three hexes away). Once the Graf Spee moves after an attack, it disappears again.

Searching requires 2 action points, and then a dice roll. If a d6 rolls 5+, the German player finds or sinks the merchant vessel. If the German player uses the sea plane, they get +2 to this roll. However, the plane must be repaired before being used again. Only a single search and attack can be carried out each turn. Repairing the sea plane costs an action point, and requires a dice roll higher than the number of permanently discarded cards the German player has. If you roll badly, the plane is permanently lost; as the game progresses, the likelihood of this happening increases.

Finally, the German player can lay a reserve of up to two action points, which effectively means they can run for two hexes or carry out an attack even if their hand is poor.

The British player starts their turn by moving merchant ships towards their destinations and adding in an extra ship if they’re lost any. They follow this with a card phase like the German’s but with subtle differences. They can move each force (with the same costs per force as the German player). Each of the forces can search to find the Graf Spee in the space they are in at the cost of a single action point. The chance of finding the commerce raider is the same as finding a merchant ship, but without the option of a sea plane to help. If the Graf Spee is found, it is brought to battle which triggers the end game.

The British player can also spend an action point to use the intelligence actions which are found on most of their cards. These either force the German player to place a hint marker on the board within a hex of the Graf Spee, or give the Royal Navy a bonus on their search roll. This action can be picked multiple times and up to three hint markers placed. The markers are removed once the Graf Spee moves.

The Royal Navy can increase the forces deployed by spending 2 actions points to advance them on the strategy track; this can only be done with one of the two reserve forces. Once the force completes the track, it is deployed. Typically, the new forces have an edge in combat.

After the cards phase, the British player redraws their entire hand. 

If brought to battle, both players redraw to five cards in their hand. The players play cards for their action point value in five rounds. The British player adds the value from the force that’s engaged. The loser takes a point of damage; ties mean no damage. If a card has a battle event, then it is played as well as the action value. The player with the least hits wins (and on a tie, the Royal Navy prevails). 

The final battle

In our game, I was lucky and drew high cards, which meant I was ahead enough that the “Montevideo” card that the eldest played wouldn’t have shifted the game enough that I would have lost even if I hadn’t responded with the “Scuttling in Montevideo” card.

Overall, this was a short, tense game that nails its theme well. At no point did I think I was winning as the Royal Navy. N felt he had the advantage right until I played an event card that forced him to discard and made his location pretty obvious. It feels balanced and fun.

Recommended.