Good write-up by first time player:
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1911917/first-contact-uboot-board-game
This report is spot on!
and saves me a longer and surly not so good formulated write-up
I played 45 min as first officer (the phone App operator) at the Spiel.... we leaving the harbor to go on Feindfahrt and navigate to a position and patrol until the first contacts and closing in to chase.
if you can somehow assemble 3 friends in the mood nearby (or all drive to a city with a cheap but decent hotel in the middle for all participants) and are able to get all RL interdictions out of the way for that eve. (put away the cellulars!) i reckon it can be very immersive. its a simulation and it can put
real stress on you, almost like work.
also this is not a "we all build a chair-circle and discus the solutions"-game, the captain calls the shots (all shots) and the officers have to get it done asap ..somehow with the always spare and sparer resources
the app permanently generate events where crew member have to be dispatched to help with maintenance or repair and so missing on the lookout or other duties (i found the rate of failures on a normal non-submerged sail and not in combat a little high and made-up for the game purpose, but that was in October and so just a Alpha version of the game, ... i am sure the developers honed a lot in the meantime)
i didn't saw a day night circle in the app generated VR of the tower and periscope ... i only saw the day version, and you literally turn your head and body around with the phone as binocular to check the horizon to see 'a dot' in the direction where the look-outs had announced a contact and then switch to a 7x magnification to identify the sightings...
what was not in the game in October (i asked that) was using the deck gun for sinking a merchant usually at night, which was a SOP in the early years.
