Golden Journal No. 43:
SWWAS: River Plate
Designer’s Notes by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
April 2022
With Golden Journal No. 43: River Plate, we broke somewhat from our usual pattern. Rather than craft an alternative history expansion for a historical wargame, we have a historical expansion for an alternative-history wargame.
Tropic of Capricorn is a complete game out of our Second Great War alternative-history story arc. In this different world where U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ended the Great War in late 1916 through mediation (something he actually attempted to accomplish), a new world war breaks out in 1940. South American allies of the European powers are sucked into the conflict: Argentina and Chile are on the side of the Allies, while Brazil sides with the Central Powers.
We continued the story with Tropical Storm, an expansion book that added another map and still more ships and airplanes. That book wrapped up the alternative-history story, but with that map added to the one from Tropic of Capricorn, we now had enough watery real estate to show at least part of the fateful 1939 cruise of the German armored cruiser Admiral Graf Spee.
Despite having had years to prepare for a commerce-raiding cruise, and having built a ship specifically designed to carry it out that mission, the Germans didn’t perform particularly well in this small naval campaign. She sank nine Allied merchant ships before she was cornered in the Rio de la Plata estuary off the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. After an inconclusive battle with three much smaller British cruisers, her captain chose to scuttle her rather than risk fighting the British again.
That’s the situation in Second World War at Sea: River Plate. The German player has just one warship, plus a supply ship to keep her fueled and armed. The South Atlantic doesn’t provide a whole lot of merchant traffic, at least not out in the open sea. But Buenos Aires and its neighboring ports handled a huge amount of cargo in 1939 – chiefly agricultural products feeding a Europe that had mobilized its own farmers for war – and so in the waters off the River Plate (as British sailors called the Rio de la Plata), the German cruiser could find many prizes.
Admiral Graf Spee is not a balanced warship; she has more firepower than she needs to destroy merchant shipping, but not the protection or speed to truly stand up against Allied warships – at least if they’re hunting her in packs. The Axis player is going to look at that primary gunnery rating (for her six 280mm/11-inch guns) and be tempted to slug it out with the British and French heavy cruisers pursuing her. The big guns aren’t nearly as huge an advantage as it at first appears – but maybe they’ll be enough.
The Allied player has just one ship that clearly outclasses the German cruiser. The battle cruiser Renown is bigger, faster, and wields much bigger guns. Individually, the “treaty cruisers” that make up most of the pursuing forces – heavy cruisers with six or eight 203mm/8-inch guns – have about the same protection as Admiral Graf Spee, more speed (which will allow them to dictate the range of an engagement) but less firepower. That last is somewhat deceiving; even their guns will poke holes in Admiral Graf Spee’s tin-plated hull if they can get close enough.
But there’s a lot of ocean out there in which to hide, and not so many heavy cruisers, especially if the Allied player keeps them together in task forces of two or three ships to assure the defeat of the German cruiser. On the other hand, the Axis player can’t win by just skulking around the broad South Atlantic – eventually, Admiral Graf Spee is going to have to come hunting for Allied merchant shipping. And there are only a few places where that can be found.
Helping the Allied player seek the German cruiser are a pair of aircraft carriers, Ark Royal and Hermes. Their aircraft can extend Allied searches, and following British doctrine of the time for countering commerce-raiding warships, can try to slow down the German cruiser with a torpedo or bomb hit. Neither carrier has a huge air wing; Hermes carries barely more planes than a cruiser’s seaplane detachment.
Tropic of Capricorn and Tropical Storm have a pair of oversized maps, together covering the eastern coast of South America from Patagonia to southern Brazil and a large swath of the blue South Atlantic. The action will center on the Argentine ports – that’s where the rich prizes are to be found, and therefore that’s where the German raider will be found.
All of the playing pieces – both the new ones from Second World War at Sea: River Plate and the handful of markers you’ll use from Tropic of Capricorn – are the die-cut and silky-smooth type we’ve made the standard in our games for some time now. These are, quite simply, the finest pieces anywhere in the wargame world. They’re cut with ultra-sharp blades that allow the use of minimal forces; that in turn means that the flip side hasn’t been struck and mangled by the force of ten thousand sledgehammers, like most wargame pieces. Printing is extraordinarily sharp, and we’ve had to greatly upgrade our artwork to match: colors are rich and vibrant, with clear details. And they have a smooth coating that makes them a pleasure to handle.
You get to play with them in six scenarios, including the historical Battle of the River Plate and the full-scale Hunt for Admiral Graf Spee. As we’ve done in other Second World War at Sea games, we also have shorter operational scenarios picking up the action at key moments (like the German cruiser’s final advance into the Rio de la Plata estuary) and battle scenarios depicting actions that could have resulted from the operations (and were probably likely to happen, but did not).
Second World War at Sea: River Plate is a unique product. It turns our only stand-alone alternative-history game (the rest of them are expansions) into a historical simulation. The chase of the Admiral Graf Spee is a cat-and-mouse affair; while the mouse does have teeth, the balance of power flies the White Ensign. It’s exclusively available to our Gold Club.
The Golden Journal is only available to the Gold Club (that’s why we call it the Golden Journal). It’s $12.99, exclusively for members..
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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published zillions of books, games and articles on historical subjects.
He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and his dog Leopold, who is a good dog.
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Despite having had years to prepare for a commerce-raiding cruise, and having built a ship specifically designed to carry it out that mission, the Germans didn’t perform particularly well in this small naval campaign. She sank nine Allied merchant ships before she was cornered in the Rio de la Plata estuary off the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. After an inconclusive battle with three much smaller British cruisers, her captain chose to scuttle her rather than risk fighting the British again.
That’s the situation in Second World War at Sea: River Plate. The German player has just one warship, plus a supply ship to keep her fueled and armed. The South Atlantic doesn’t provide a whole lot of merchant traffic, at least not out in the open sea. But Buenos Aires and its neighboring ports handled a huge amount of cargo in 1939 – chiefly agricultural products feeding a Europe that had mobilized its own farmers for war – and so in the waters off the River Plate (as British sailors called the Rio de la Plata), the German cruiser could find many prizes.
Admiral Graf Spee is not a balanced warship; she has more firepower than she needs to destroy merchant shipping, but not the protection or speed to truly stand up against Allied warships – at least if they’re hunting her in packs. The Axis player is going to look at that primary gunnery rating (for her six 280mm/11-inch guns) and be tempted to slug it out with the British and French heavy cruisers pursuing her. The big guns aren’t nearly as huge an advantage as it at first appears – but maybe they’ll be enough.
The Allied player has just one ship that clearly outclasses the German cruiser. The battle cruiser Renown is bigger, faster, and wields much bigger guns. Individually, the “treaty cruisers” that make up most of the pursuing forces – heavy cruisers with six or eight 203mm/8-inch guns – have about the same protection as Admiral Graf Spee, more speed (which will allow them to dictate the range of an engagement) but less firepower. That last is somewhat deceiving; even their guns will poke holes in Admiral Graf Spee’s tin-plated hull if they can get close enough.
But there’s a lot of ocean out there in which to hide, and not so many heavy cruisers, especially if the Allied player keeps them together in task forces of two or three ships to assure the defeat of the German cruiser. On the other hand, the Axis player can’t win by just skulking around the broad South Atlantic – eventually, Admiral Graf Spee is going to have to come hunting for Allied merchant shipping. And there are only a few places where that can be found.
Helping the Allied player seek the German cruiser are a pair of aircraft carriers, Ark Royal and Hermes. Their aircraft can extend Allied searches, and following British doctrine of the time for countering commerce-raiding warships, can try to slow down the German cruiser with a torpedo or bomb hit. Neither carrier has a huge air wing; Hermes carries barely more planes than a cruiser’s seaplane detachment. 
All of the playing pieces – both the new ones from Second World War at Sea: River Plate and the handful of markers you’ll use from Tropic of Capricorn – are the die-cut and silky-smooth type we’ve made the standard in our games for some time now. These are, quite simply, the finest pieces anywhere in the wargame world. They’re cut with ultra-sharp blades that allow the use of minimal forces; that in turn means that the flip side hasn’t been struck and mangled by the force of ten thousand sledgehammers, like most wargame pieces. Printing is extraordinarily sharp, and we’ve had to greatly upgrade our artwork to match: colors are rich and vibrant, with clear details. And they have a smooth coating that makes them a pleasure to handle.
You get to play with them in six scenarios, including the historical Battle of the River Plate and the full-scale Hunt for Admiral Graf Spee. As we’ve done in other Second World War at Sea games, we also have shorter operational scenarios picking up the action at key moments (like the German cruiser’s final advance into the Rio de la Plata estuary) and battle scenarios depicting actions that could have resulted from the operations (and were probably likely to happen, but did not).
