UBOOT The Board Game is a real-time tabletop game of WW2 submarine warfare. An underwater cooperative war thriller that allows 1 to 4 players to assume the roles of the Captain, the First Officer, the Navigator, and the Chief Engineer on board of a type VIIC U-boat. The game is enhanced by a companion app, allowing for an unprecedented level of realism, as well as a challenging enemy A.I. which will push your skills to the limit. The action unfolds both on the strategic and the tactical scale, always demanding teamwork, efficient crew management, and quick situation assessment.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
STEAM App Update & Printer-friendly Game Books
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 10:33:21 PM
Hello Everyone!
We hope that you had a good rest during the holidays, and now you are ready to return to regular patrol duties! With this short update we want to provide you some materials that you have asked for.
STEAM App Update
We've added a newest version of the app on STEAM, following the previous iOS and Android updates.
Sorry for the delay!
What’s new:
Save game functionality added.
Czech language edition added.
„Finish mission” button bug fixed.
Enjoy!
Printer-friendly Books
Here are the 1.2 version game books in printer-friendly version:
We have already sent the 1.2 files to our language partners, to let them provide you the newest version of the game rules for download.
Martin Wallace’s Rocketmen
And last but not least: PHALANX has just started a new Kickstarter campaign, for a fast-paced deck-building tabletop game of modern space exploration. Please click on the image below and check out Martin Wallace’s Rocketmen!
Happy hunting!
Iron Wolf Studio & PHALANX Team
Good News From the Front
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, Dec 04, 2019 at 10:25:52 PM
Hello Everybody,
It was a long time in the making, but we can finally give you the new version of the U-Boot app (Android version was already released, iOS and Steam versions should be available next week). Featuring the long-awaited mid-game save functionality, we are confident that this version will allow you to enjoy U-Boot without the fear of losing your mission progress. It doesn’t matter if your phone shuts down, the app resets in the background, or whether you accidentally terminate it by mistake - in all these cases, your saved game will allow you to continue the mission straight away.
We considered several different approaches to the case, and, in order to mitigate the most serious risk (i.e. loss of mission progress in the middle of the game), we opted for an autosave every 60 seconds. This way everything is recorded, including enemy positions, torpedoes in the water, etc., so even if your device experiences a technical issue, you can still go back to your saved game very quickly (without having to recreate the situation on the board from some odd checkpoint from half an hour ago). You can also save the game manually at any time by pressing the ‘save and exit’ button in the game’s menu.
In addition, we have eliminated a few bugs here and there, including the issue with the ‘finish mission’ button (which would sometimes remain blocked even if the U-Boat were not under attack anymore). We have also included a few reminders regarding the 1.2 rules, so as to make sure that more people will be playing in accordance with the updated ruleset (you can download them from here: https://uboottheboardgame.com/downloads/ or buy a printed version from here: https://phalanx.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/211867). We are confident that this version of the rules befits the current app very well and we hope that you will have lots of successful missions using it.
Last, but not least, we hope that our friends from the Czech Republic will be happy to hear that we have added a new language option for them in the app. It is great to be able to reach out to new audiences and we are very excited that more and more people continue to play and rate the game, giving U-Boot a strong 8.0 on BGG. We would like to thank you once more for all your kind words and for the incredible support we have received, and we hope that you will enjoy the game even more, being confident that your mission progress is safe at all times.
Alright, that’s it for today. We hope that our efforts to improve the game will meet your expectations. We will continue working on this project for as long as it is possible, and the word on the street is that Iron Wolf Studio has even been thinking of an expansion. Do you think that would be a good idea? Please let us know in the comments!
And, as always, happy hunting!
Iron Wolf Studio and PHALANX
PS. We have just started a new campaign, which is very important to us, as the game is our in-house design. This is a hybrid game, a cross of euro and war game worlds. Please click on the image below and check out 1941. Race to Moscow!
Thank you!
Michał & PHALANX Team
Lessons Learned
over 5 years ago
– Tue, Jun 25, 2019 at 02:15:58 AM
Hello Everyone!
With our u-boats reaching the shores of Australia, campaign fulfilment is almost complete. It has been a long time in the making, but the shipping operation is finally coming to a close. And, while on the one hand it is a moment of celebration, then on the other hand it is a good time to look back on the mistakes we have made in the course of the project and learn from them, so that we can give you a better experience next time.
Our biggest production mishap was the lack of a disposable component tray that would keep all the unpunched components in place during shipping. This oversight resulted in a large number of complaints (the project had a ⅓ higher complaint rate than our previous projects) and, consequently, reduced your unboxing satisfaction. The reason behind this issue was not related to savings, however, but to an omission. As our top priority was making sure that all the components would fit into the game box after the hull assembly, we totally forgot about holding them in place in transit. Therefore, while you can store all the pieces in the box with no problem, then some copies that went through the hands of the most brutal couriers had their cards scattered and counters unpunched - sometimes with damage sustained in the process. Luckily, most of the games arrived in top condition, but this is a lesson learned nonetheless… From now on, we will include a transport tray in every game we publish, even if it ends up in the trash the moment the game is unboxed.
The second most widely commented issue was the card protector size. We chose protectors that fit the cards rather tightly, because in our previous campaign - Hannibal & Hamilcar - some backers complained that the protectors provided were loose. Therefore, when approving protector size before sending the cards to the printer, we chose a closely matching size. For plenty of backers it wasn’t an issue at all, but many of you who prefer wider protectors were not happy that we chose the ones we did. Once again, lessons learned - we should probably refrain from offering card protectors in our future campaigns and let backers decide for themselves on this matter.
Another problem that we experienced was the shipping delay. Although we promised to deliver the games by the end of 2018, the whole process lasted until June 2019, so 1-6 months late. This happened due to both internal and external reasons. The internal ones were connected with delays in design, development, and production of the game. The external ones were unexpected delays caused by our shipping partners. For example, the Port of New York and New Jersey dispatch delays forced us to change the whole US shipping plan and cost us plenty of money, as well as an additional month. The lesson that we have learned here is to plan development and production even more cautiously, accommodating longer timeframes in anticipation of unforeseeable circumstances. From now on, we will estimate even longer lead times than reasonably expected, as both game dev and shipping will inevitably fall behind - it is not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘how much’.
Another item on our list would have to be communication. We decided to pursue a no-spam policy, keeping our updates short and rare. We tried not to bore you to death with the same information over and over again, but we may have overdone it, as there was a substantial number of backers who complained about the lack of information. We believe we have learned the lesson. From now on, we will take additional care to highlight the most important information in every update. We will also attempt to make more frequent updates, especially when it comes to shipping.
Apart from production and logistics-related issues, we have also learned a few major lessons in software development, and the first of them was ‘things always take much longer than planned’. And we mean MUCH longer. The first time we really felt it was when we had to completely re-scale the game’s world after the KS campaign. For those of you who might not know, U-Boot was quite a different game before the KS. It was constantly running in compressed time, which not only allowed us to streamline certain combat situations, but also to have much longer missions in the game. But the public was not fond of it and requested a genuine real-time game in the course of the KS. As a result, we had to rebuild the app from the ground up and recalculate 90% of the values that related to time and space. Unfortunately, not only did it take much longer than planned and put the whole development six months behind schedule, but it also dramatically changed the rhythm and the pace of the game, forcing us to redesign certain core mechanics, such as the Captain’s activation rules. You can only imagine what kind of crazy time we went through, working around the clock on rebalancing and re-scaling the whole game, while adapting missions to the new system and rooting out bugs at the same time.
And the worst thing about it was that it all snowballed on us very late in the development process. Initially, rebuilding the game world size didn’t seem like much, but once more issues piled up, we eventually got stuck between a rock and a hard place: on the one hand, we didn’t want to release a half-baked product, but on the other hand we knew we could not delay the release any further. The delay in shipping bought us a little bit of time, but at some point we had no choice but to give it a go: although rebalancing was still being done and certain functionalities were far from ready, we understood that further delays would have caused more harm than good.
And so, the ‘early access’ version of the app was released. It got off to a rocky start, but luckily we were quickly able to pinpoint and fix the most serious issues that we did not manage to tackle earlier. It has to be stressed, however, that we wouldn’t have been able to make it without the tremendous help from the community. Especially on BGG, where a number of incredibly active supporters were willing to share their time and expertise to help us make the game better for everybody. We will never forget that and we cannot thank you enough for your continued support and generosity. It was hard work, it was a tough time, but we have collectively managed to make U-Boot the game it is today. And we believe we will continue to do so for as long as there are people who are willing to play it.
At the same time, we would like to apologize to all the Apple device users who had to wait considerably longer for the app than the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the Appstore approval process can take time, and we were especially unlucky, because we got turned down a number of times without being given clear-cut guidelines of what we were supposed to amend. On top of that, the whole process took crazy amounts of time, but given the game’s theme and nature, we understood that it had to be scrutinized very thoroughly. Thankfully, the app has been available on all the promised platforms for quite a while now, but we have definitely learned a lesson here.
The last software-related issue that caused us substantial trouble was the save functionality. Due to the different pace of the game before the campaign, we envisioned much longer missions, spanning across several weeks, with a couple of save points allowing you to record your progress (just as we promised during the campaign). However, as the nature of the game had changed radically and the pace of the whole experience slowed down a lot, we realised that our mission design would need to be completely reworked too! As a result, we had no choice but to break the missions up into smaller chunks, and turn the save points into boundaries between the shorter missions that you have in the game now.
With tons of additional work cropping up, lots of bugs to get rid of and the deadlines approaching, at some point it became clear that sacrifices had to be made. We could either keep the full-blown save game feature, but at the cost of leaving gameplay unpolished, OR put our main focus on the gameplay at the cost of delivering game save in a simplified form. As you might presume, we went for the latter, because there was already a possibility of saving the game between missions - exactly where the save points were originally intended!
Upon consulting the case with the IT team, it seemed like it was the only option to go for. There was still a lot of work left on the core game elements, and as gameplay has always been our top priority, it felt like the right thing to do. And, even though it was definitely the lesser evil, it later backfired on us, because the extent of app stability issues proved to be bigger than estimated, especially on the older and less reliable devices. Therefore, while the vast majority of our backers did not perceive that as a problem, then again some were disappointed with that aspect of the game, and some even went as far as calling us dishonest, implying that the lack of in-game save was a purposeful omission and an attempt to lie our way out of campaign promises. And while we think we did not deserve such accusations, then the fact remains that sacrifices had to be made.
However, we also made that decision because we knew we could make amends in the near future.And it is with great pleasure that we can announce that we will be introducing an upgraded game save feature in our nearest update! The cost and lead time of this functionality has already been estimated and implementation will begin as soon as the design is ready. What we can already tell you is that the improved game save feature will be based on checkpoints and will be implemented specifically for each mission, so that their key moments and general pacing can be taken into account. We will keep you posted on all the developments in this field, so please stay tuned for more information.
Regardless of the good news, we would like to say that we are very sorry for all of the project’s shortcomings and that we will do our best to amend them. Our customer service is working around the clock to send out all the missing or broken pieces, and the game dev team are constantly looking into ways to improve your gameplay experience. It has been an incredibly demanding project, and although some of the challenges have taken us by surprise, we nevertheless believe that it is a success. We have managed to publish a unique game, introducing an all-new genre into the realm of board gaming. We have manufactured 22.000 copies of this game in 8 different languages in a single, joint production. We have developed the most complex supporting app in the history of boardgaming. We have managed to immerse our players in a real WW2 submarine warfare experience. We have made our mistakes and learned our lessons. We have been through fire and brimstone, but we believe it was worth it. It was an experience that we will always remember, just as we hope you will remember our game. We are incredibly happy that we have managed to bring this project to a conclusion, and we thank you for giving us such an opportunity.
Living rules
Still, our work is far from over. As promised, we will be here to support the game, in both its physical and digital aspect. We are currently working on a reprint, and to that end, we have prepared an updated version of the rulebook. You can download it here:
If you have any remarks, please mark them directly on the files, using the Dropbox tools. Thank you!
We hope to keep this campaign page alive, announcing every major update: both rules and app-related. Please keep your subscription to this project page, and it might so happen that one day we will announce an expansion for U-BOOT... If you want to keep this project alive, please share your feedback in your social media channels, at gaming groups, and at BoardGameGeek.com (please rate the game there!).
And, speaking of our next projects...
Europe Divided
As you may know, we have spent our first weekend of June presenting our latest and future games at UK Games Expo 2019 fair in Birmingham. We met many of you there - thank you for stopping at our booth! For all who wasn’t there, here is a nice OnTableTop video preview, where Jaro is presenting U-BOOT and our other projects: Europe Divided, Nanty Narking and Race to Moscow:
David Thompson’s and Chris Marling’s Europe Divided is currently on Kickstarter - you can find it here. It is a card-driven strategy game on the post-Cold War European geopolitics, that starts where Twilight Struggle ends, and brings you a tense, 2-player gaming experience in just 60-90 minutes. It’s a skill game as ruthless as nowadays diplomacy. Highly recommended for all serious gamers!
Right, that was a really long update, but I guess a project of this magnitude deserved it. Again, please accept our sincere thanks for your commitment and support. Without you, it would have never happened.
This means that the app is now available across all the platforms that we promised during the campaign.
News for the Pacific and ‘the Rest of the World’ crews
We are terribly sorry you still haven’t received your games and we feel obliged to let you know why. The issue is that in order to provide what is called ‘friendly shipping’, we have to wait for a confirmation on customs procedures from FedEx. We have decided to switch to air freight for Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the Rest of the World in order to shorten the time in transit. However, that last bit of information mentioned above is required to make sure that no customs fees are imposed onto you.
We have delivered the ‘smoke test’ parcels to Australia and New Zealand on May the 7th, and yet, until now, we still haven’t received the final statement from FedEx. The games and delivery boxes are all assembled and ready to be shipped, but we need to obtain the information from FedEx to be able to send them to you.
As soon as we get this sorted out, the parcels will be sent out immediately with an ETD of ~14 days.
Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.
All best and happy gaming!
Iron Wolf Studio and PHALANX
PS. Please visit our booth 2-205 at UK Games Expo this weekend! We will be there, happy to answer all your questions.
U-boats sighted in US coastal waters!
over 5 years ago
– Fri, May 10, 2019 at 03:05:23 AM
Hello Everybody,
Our U-boats have already reached the coast of the United States, and the resounding ‘Paukenschlag’ marks the beginning of a new chapter of our journey. The official US release of the game is planned for the 23rd of May, many of our US backers have already opened their boxes, and the first British merchant ships are already being sunk by our fellow submariners from across the pond.
The US games are being shipped by Anchor Express, so please check this name when looking for tracking notifications in your mailboxes (or look for your FedEx tracking number in the BackerKit pledge manager).
As you are reading these words, we are shipping the games destined for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Non-EU European countries, Africa, Asia, South America and the Rest of the World. You will receive a shipping notification from FedEx. The games will be airfreighted, so hopefully you will receive them by the end of the month (with Canada and non-EU countries in the first wave, and Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa and Asia in the second wave).
We have been waiting for this moment for a long time, working hard to refine the game before presenting it to a wider audience. Consequently, we are very happy to confirm that we have managed to roll out version 1.0.4. of the app just in time, so that everybody can now enjoy a better and improved version of the game (Android and iOS are already available, with Windows PC and MacOS versions rolling out on Steam on the 23rd of May: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1078800/UBOOT_The_Board_Game/).
It seems that we have managed to get rid of most pesky bugs, and we are confident that the most recent release of the app will give you many hours of top-notch submarine warfare experience. At the same time, we would like to express our utmost gratitude to all our backers from Europe who received the game earlier, and who kindly agreed to try out the ‘early access’ version and offer their feedback. Once again, please let me say that your input has been invaluable, not only allowing us to rethink certain solutions, but also instilling a lot of confidence that we took the right path with U-Boot. It has been a highly experimental project, but many enthusiasts of the subject are already saying that we have managed to capture the essence of submarine warfare in our game, which makes us very happy.
What is more, you will now be able to enjoy the full content that we have prepared for U-Boot: a total of 7 highly replayable missions, preceded by a training exercise. Each of them focuses on a different type of operation and will require a lot of knowledge and skill to achieve good grades. The missions can be played independently, in ‘linked mission’ mode (where they form two separate mini-campaigns) or in the full-blown ‘campaign’ mode, where you play through all of the missions and receive an aggregate campaign score.
Furthermore, the game has been upgraded with a number of features, some of them even beyond what was promised during the campaign (like functional deck guns). Below you can also find a list of all the improvements and fixes that we have implemented since the game’s ‘early access’ release:
NEW FUNCTIONALITIES AND CORRECTIONS:
Missions 5-7 added.
Escort hydrophone range increased.
Whispered lines added.
Chief Engineer's maintenance tasks randomized.
Wolfpack attack added.
The TDC button is greyed out during stormy weather.
Aircraft flight pattern and hitpoint count corrected.
When choosing the Enigma code, you can go directly from A to Z.
The information in the center of the screen during a hull breach does no longer appear.
When changing speed underwater, the ‘crew in position’ question points to section 6 (instead of 5).
The Diesel engine sound has been turned down.
‘App tutorial’ available during the game from the app menu.
‘Quit’ button added to the main menu.
BUG FIXES:
iPad display issue fixed.
88mm target selection fixed.
The sextant can no longer ‘get lost’ on the map.
Even with the above implemented, we are well aware that this is no time for complacency. We are focusing our efforts on working with the community in order to iron out the little creases that still remain. We have currently slowed down slightly, awaiting initial impressions from our US backers. As soon as we are confident that we have gathered enough information on how we could improve the game, we will keep making it better and better.
For now, however, we will need to wait and see how U-Boot is received both by reviewers and the general public. Will it take the charts by storm, or will it run silently and remain a hidden gem for U-boat aficionados? Will there be another print run, or maybe even an expansion one day? Only time will tell. Right now, we are happy to return home after a very long and exhausting patrol. It has been an incredible adventure and we would like to thank everybody very much once again for believing in us and allowing us to make the U-boat game of our dreams (and, hopefully, of your dreams too).
What lies ahead
Alongside U-Boot app support, Iron Wolf Studio will now begin working on a new project. While we cannot say much at this point, we can already assure you that it will be another big and ambitious undertaking, once again tearing down the walls between genres and combining high level of immersion with demanding gameplay. PHALANX, on the other hand, is working on other projects from the war / war-euro / conflict simulation game genres: Europe Divided, 1941 Race to Moscow, Fire in the Sky and a new edition of the renowned Successors of Alexander the Great! This will be a great year for all serious gamers!
