In the cold, grey wastes of the North Atlantic....

With the imminent arrival of the remaining ships for my North Atlantic project (at least for the first phase) I have endeavoured to get myself 'back in the zone' by attacking the naval section of my library and also revisiting Barry Carter's excellent book on naval wargames. One thing I have been keeping a weather eye open for to support this project is a copy of the excellent Avalon Hill game: Bismarck.

A classic board game with an excellent search system.

The game has a basic, an intermediate and advanced version with the latter using counters on a tabletop rather than than a board - rather like Jutland but with a lot more detail. The principle reason I was keen to gate a hold of a copy of this is for the search system and its associate components.

There are two search boards - one British and one German with unique data for each side contained therein. Note the use of offset squares rather than hexes.

On the map boards are used in conjunction with individual ship counters or air assets. Counters also exist for task forces. Essentially one needs to be in the same grid square to initiate combat which is then resolved on the tabletop (or on the battle board is using the basic game).

I have at last managed to track down a copy of this game that will not require me selling body parts to finance. I have also tracked down a rather better copy so will own a couple of sets. 

The expression 'they are like bananas, they always come in bunches' springs to mind....