Arctic Convoy:
Publisher’s Preview
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
May 2024

When we started upgrading our Second World War at Sea titles, I left off Arctic Convoy, as it matched what I expected from our games, at least at the time. But then we made games like South Pacific and Midway Deluxe, and I saw that even Arctic Convoy could stand some improvements. And since the scenario book had to be laid out again when we shifted to Playbook format, I had the opportunity to re-visit the game.

Arctic Convoy is a big game, with two operational maps, divided into offset square sea zones, that cover the far northern seas from Iceland to Siberia. They don’t overlap with the North Atlantic maps from Bismarck, as the Bismarck maps were drawn using a different global projection and we needed with a fresh projection from the North Pole to keep Iceland and Archangel at their proper relationship.

And we have just over 2 1/2 sheets of playing pieces, with all the expected ships and planes. The Germans don’t have many warships, but then, they don’t really need many. There’s a lot of gray water in which to hide, the weather’s going to protect them from Allied air searches, and they pretty much know where the convoys have to pass. The Allies have most of the Royal Navy, plus a large contingent of American ships and Canadian, Polish and Soviet vessels, too. There’s even a tiny Norwegian element and a lone Australian ship.

For once in the Second World War at Sea series, the Germans have air superiority. Except for some long-range search planes and a small Red Air Force element, the only planes the Allies are going to deploy over the convoys are those they bring with them. Aircraft carriers are vital to cover the merchant ships, yet in the abominable weather they will have a hard time keeping their planes aloft.

But the heart of the game, like any game we make, is the story we tell using those maps and pieces. And this is where Arctic Convoy has changed for the Playbook edition and where, I think anyway, the game truly shines.

The previous edition had 26 scenarios; 20 of those were operational scenarios (the ones that use the ocean map, where you move the task forces and try to find or elude the enemy) and six were battle scenarios (taking place only on the Tactical Map, where ships move and fire at each other with guns and torpedoes – operational scenarios can also give rise to battles). That’s a lot of scenarios for most wargames, and it was a lot for Arctic Convoy as well.

The existing operational scenarios do a good job of covering the story of the Murmansk Run, from the fall of 1941 until early 1944. The famous convoy battles are in there: Battle of the Barents Sea, North Cape, PQ.17 and many more. There are also lesser-known actions, like German-Soviet destroyer clashes along the coast of Lapland and the armored cruiser Scheer’s raid along the Soviet north coast.

In terms of play, the Allies are usually trying to push convoys along a known route, in the face of enemy aircraft, surface ships and submarines. The Axis has only limited force, but can concentrate it at a single point. The German surface fleet can actually muster a respectable force, with the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst supplemented by cruisers and destroyers. In the dark northern waters far from any air bases, there are plenty of opportunities for surface action.

The game’s scenarios are almost all based on operations and battles that actually took place. But that doesn’t truly tell the full story of what happened: if the game doesn’t address what could have happened, then you don’t get to see why the historical participants acted as they did. At its best, a wargame design can illuminate participants motives by showing, rather than telling, what they hoped or feared might happen and thus making it clear why they acted as they did.

And that’s where the game format can be useful in studying a historical event. “Stupidity” is the weak or lazy historian’s answer to events they don’t understand. Stupid people most definitely rise to positions of great power; I can hear one prattling on over the radio news program running the background while I work. But very intelligent and experienced people can make decisions that, in retrospect, appear to be stupid – often because of factors they did not know about at all, or were aware and gave them too much credence, or too little. Or simply through stress, or poor information flow, or just an unlucky day.

It's hard to quantify that in a monograph (academic-speak for “book”), but a well-done game can present the player with the decision tree and show some of the factors that don’t always make it into the history books. Rather than lazily reaching for the “stupid” label, we can dig deeply into the “Why?” of an event. Why was a decision made, the way it was made, at the time it was made?

We try to highlight those moments, and one method of that is the “snapshot” scenario that picks up the action not at the beginning of an operation or battle, but at a key moment. The more intriguing operational scenarios, like that covering the ill-fated Convoy PQ-17, get a full-length scenario for the voyage from the convoy’s formation in Iceland to arrival in Murmansk. We also pick up the action before First Lord Sir Dudley Pound’s fateful order for the convoy to scatter and its escorts to abandon them, allowing the player to try forcing them through despite what the Admiralty believed to be superior forces hunting them, and another snapshot after the abandonment, as the individual merchants struggle to survive.

Without a snapshot, it’s unlikely for any scenario to unfold exactly as the historical events, and thereby present players with the same decisions faced by the participants. Press hard after what seems to be a convoy, at the risk of surface battle against a superior or even slightly inferior foe, knowing that a damaged ship is unlikely to make it home? Send the convoy waddling forward even after enemy heavy ships are identified, trusting in your escorts to see them safely through?

Along with the snapshot scenarios, the battle scenarios help tell the story, too. And we have plenty of them; at least one battle scenario accompanies every operational scenario. So you’ll get to fight with the German battleship Tirpitz, which fought no battles and is best known for her role as a high-value target for British airmen. We get to see why the British were so obsessed with sinking her – she truly is an enormous threat to the Allied convoys and their escorts.

Despite increasing the size of the scenario book by almost 40 percent, it was still difficult to fit everything into its pages. And that’s really how it should be; any story worth telling is worth telling completely.

You can order Arctic Convoy (Playbook Edition) right here.
Please allow an extra four weeks for delivery.

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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 a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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