Steam Torpedo: First Contact Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview and Goal of the Game
• Setup
• General Principles
  • Compartments
  • Type
  • Compartment Actions
  • Durability Points
  • Oxygen Supply
  • Sections
  • Sea Sectors and Submarine Figures
  • Crew
• Turn Sequence
  • 1. Recovery Phase
  • 2. Action Phase
• Manoeuvring
  • Example 1: Manoeuvring
  • Example 2: Manoeuvring
• Using the Crew
  • Example of Compartment Activation
  • Exceptions and Important Clarifications
• Action Results
  • Conditions for Starting Actions
  • Targeting
• Attack Results
  • Example of an Attack
• End of the Game

Components

• Rules
• 2 cardboard submarine figures with stands (1 per player)
• 20 compartment cards (10 for each submarine)
• 10 crew tokens (1 ship commander and 4 sailors per crew)
• 50 double-sided oxygen and damage markers

Overview and Goal of the Game

Steam Torpedo is a tactical game about military submarines for two players.

Before meeting the enemy face to face, each player builds their submarine using 10 compartment cards representing its equipment.

On the game area, each submarine is a cardboard figure showing its position relative to the enemy submarine (in front, behind, or beside) as well as the distance (close or at range).

During the game, the players use 5 crew members to activate the submarine's compartments. This triggers various actions, including ones that allow you to inflict irreparable damage on the compartments of the enemy submarine.

A player wins if they destroy the enemy submarine's control room (central post) or eliminate all members of the opponent's crew.

Setup

1. Each player builds their submarine by choosing 10 compartment cards as they wish, including the control room (central post). A submarine cannot contain two identical compartments.

   For first games, we strongly recommend using the ready-made compartment sets for the submarines. Each set is marked with the corresponding faction symbol in the lower right corner of the compartment.

2. When each player has chosen 10 compartments, each player:

   • Places their submarine figure in the centre of the play area. The submarines are placed side by side and oriented in the same direction.
   • Lays out the 10 compartments in front of themselves at random, in 2 rows of 5 compartments. We recommend shuffling the compartments and placing them face down (with the Up Periscope logo up) before turning them over.
   • The control room compartment must be placed in the centre of the bottom row. To do this, if necessary, the player swaps the compartment placed in that spot with the control room. After that, the player may swap any 2 compartments once more (not touching the control room) to improve the submarine's configuration.
   • Places the 4 sailors and the commander face up on the control room.
   • Places oxygen markers (the reverse side of the damage markers) on the marked oxygen supply spaces in their compartments.
   • Damage markers are placed next to the play area.

3. The players decide themselves who goes first.

Prepare for battle!

General Principles

Compartments

A submarine consists of 10 compartments. The characteristics of a compartment are: type, action, durability points, and oxygen supply.

Parts of a compartment card: durability points and oxygen supply (top), action (text and symbols in the middle), type (card frame colour), faction symbol (lower right corner).

Type

There are four types of compartments:

• Standard compartments (grey-beige).
• Engine compartments (black-yellow) - have an engine that affects the speed of the submarine (see "Manoeuvring").
• Armoured compartments (green) - allow you to reduce the amount of damage from enemy attacks (see "Attack Results").
• Test compartments (blue) - can be used during the opponent's turn (see "Action Results").

Some compartments can be used for attack. They are marked with an attack symbol (a red burst) and are called combat compartments.

The control room (central post) is both an engine compartment and a combat compartment. The control room cannot be chosen as the target of compartment actions.

Compartment Actions

If a compartment's action contradicts the rules of the game, the text on the compartment card takes precedence.

There are two categories of actions:

• Attack with combat compartments;
• Other actions described by the text on the card.

If a compartment is activated, the player must use its actions (except when the text on the compartment card allows them not to).

Durability Points

Compartments usually have from 1 to 3 durability points (gear symbols).

A compartment is considered damaged when it has at least 1 damage marker on it.

A compartment is considered destroyed when it has no durability points left. Crew members in it are destroyed, and the compartment itself is turned face down.

When a compartment takes damage, the player places damage markers on it according to the amount of damage inflicted. The markers are placed on the durability point symbols.

The durability points of the control room are an exception. Players may deflect any attack by replacing all damage with a single damage marker, which is placed on the control room's durability point symbol (see "Attack Results").

Oxygen Supply

Some durability points may contain an oxygen supply. They are shown by a special symbol (a durability gear with bubbles).

Before the game starts, the players place 1 oxygen marker on each such symbol in the compartments of their submarine.

At the start of each of their turns, a player must remove 1 oxygen marker from one of their compartments.

If a player has no oxygen markers at all in their submarine, the entire crew dies, and the player therefore loses.

Sections

The 10 compartments form 4 sections of the submarine:

• The Bow consists of four compartments at the front of the submarine;
• The Stern includes four compartments at the back of the submarine;
• The Port side (left side) includes five compartments on the left side of the submarine;
• The Starboard side (right side) includes five compartments on the right side of the submarine.

Sections depend on the direction of the submarine figure chosen during setup.

Submarine sections diagram: the Bow is the two outer columns (four compartments) on the side the submarine figure points toward, the Stern is the two outer columns (four compartments) at the opposite end, and the centre column belongs to neither. The Port side (left) and Starboard side (right) are each one full row of five compartments; the figure sits between the two players' rows.

Sea Sectors and Submarine Figures

The built submarines are represented in the game as 5 sectors, separated from each other by the columns of compartments. These 5 sectors represent the area of combat operations (sector 1 through sector 5, left to right).

Sectors are used to measure movement speed and to determine the position of a submarine.

The figures determine the position of a submarine relative to the enemy. During the game a submarine can be in front of, beside (in the same sector), or behind the enemy submarine.

Submarines are close when they are in the same sector or in adjacent sectors. If there is at least one empty sector between the submarines, they are at range.

Illustrations: submarines close - the opposing figure in the same sector, in an adjacent sector on either side; submarines at range - figures in sectors 1 and 3, or 3 and 5.

Crew

Crew members play a key role in the outcome of the battle, since they set the submarine's compartments in action.

Crew members have two states:

• Ready (the portrait on the token is visible): the crew member can act.
• Exhausted (the portrait is not visible): the crew member cannot act (with some exceptions).

Tokens: sailor ready, sailor exhausted, ship commander ready, ship commander exhausted.

When a crew member dies, their token is returned to the game box.

Turn Sequence

Each player's turn is divided into two phases.

1. Recovery Phase

The active player removes 1 oxygen marker from one of their compartments.

The active player may make all exhausted crew members ready by turning their tokens portrait side up.

2. Action Phase

The active player may perform the following actions (in any order):

• Manoeuvre the submarine (the figure);
• Use crew members (to move them from one compartment to another or to activate a compartment's action).

Important exception: on the first turn, players cannot activate compartment actions (including using them as a reaction to the opponent's turn).

When the active player has played their phases, it is the opponent's turn.

Manoeuvring

During their action phase the active player may manoeuvre once (move the figures on the play area).

The speed of the submarine (the number of movement points) equals the number of engine compartments (black-yellow) in which there is at least one crew member (ready or exhausted).

One movement point is used to move either submarine figure into an adjacent sea sector. Only the active player's submarine is considered to be moving. A submarine cannot leave the battlefield. Thus, the maximum distance between the figures is three unoccupied sectors.

Example 1: Manoeuvring

It is Bruno's turn (he plays the Panzer La Rochelle). He decides to move his submarine. Four of his crew members are in three different engine compartments. This means the submarine has 3 movement points. Bruno moves his Panzer La Rochelle 2 sectors and uses the third movement point to move the enemy Talion submarine.

Example 2: Manoeuvring

It is Bruno's turn (he plays the Panzer La Rochelle). He decides to move his submarine. Four of his crew members are in three different engine compartments. This means the submarine has 3 movement points. Bruno uses 2 of them to move his Panzer La Rochelle to the other side of the enemy submarine.

Using the Crew

On their turn, a player may control the members of their crew before or after manoeuvring the submarine.

A crew member who is ready may do one of the following actions:

A. Move. Crew members use movement points (both a sailor and the ship commander have 1 movement point) to move to an adjacent compartment of the submarine. Movement may be vertical, horizontal or diagonal. A crew member cannot enter a destroyed compartment or move through one. When a crew member finishes moving, they become exhausted.

Example of crew movement: a sailor in the middle compartment of the bottom row can move into any of the compartments adjacent to it, including diagonally; the sailor is then turned exhausted.

or

B. Activate a compartment bearing one of these symbols (the activation symbols on the card), doing the following:

• Move the crew member who activated the compartment to any adjacent compartment closer to the control room (if the activated compartment is directly adjacent to the control room, the crew member moves into the control room);
• Turn the crew member's token exhausted side up;
• Apply the compartment's action.

Example of Compartment Activation

On his turn, Ludwig (Talion) decides to activate the Gatling gun compartment using sailor no. 1. This sailor must move closer to the control room. Ludwig can move him into one of two compartments: the observation post or the anti-propeller chain. Ludwig decides to send him to the observation post. Then he turns the sailor to the exhausted position. After that, the action of the Gatling gun compartment is used.

Exceptions and Important Clarifications

The ship commander is a special crew member who may, immediately before or immediately after their action (moving or activating a compartment), move into an adjacent compartment. This ability cannot be used during the opponent's turn.

When a crew member uses the control room, they stay in it.

A crew member cannot activate a compartment if:

• There is no suitable target for using the compartment (see "Action Results: Targeting");
• After using the compartment, the crew member cannot move toward the control room;
• An enemy crew member is in the compartment.

If a member of your crew ends up on the enemy submarine, they move by the normal rules but cannot use compartments.

Action Results

Each compartment has its own action. The text on the compartment card describes the necessary conditions and target restrictions for starting this action. The compartment can be used only when these conditions are fully met.

An enemy in a compartment prevents the compartment from being used.

If the target of a compartment's action is a crew member, either a sailor or the commander can be chosen. If the target is a sailor, the commander cannot be chosen.

Conditions for Starting Actions

Each symbol means specific conditions for starting compartment actions:

Presence symbol (white square): The action of this compartment is possible if at least one crew member is in it (it does not matter whether they are ready or exhausted). The action is applied only once per turn regardless of the number of crew members in the compartment. Moving a crew member toward the control room is not required.

Activation symbol (arrow toward control room): The action of this compartment is possible if at least one crew member in the ready state is in it at the start of the turn and then activates it, moving closer to the control room (see "Using the Crew"). Each crew member in the compartment can use the compartment once.

Special cases:

• Symbol "1": Such compartments can be used only once per turn.
• Symbol "x2": Compartments with this symbol can be used simultaneously by two crew members in the ready state (including as a reaction). The effect of such use is doubled (for example, instead of two attacks of strength 2, one attack of strength 4 can be made).

Reaction symbol (arrows back to the control room): To apply the action of this compartment, you can activate it:

• during your own action phase. In this case this symbol is equivalent to the activation symbol above;

or

• during the opponent's turn, using a crew member (ready or exhausted). This use is called a reaction.

A reaction can be made only immediately after the opponent activates one of their compartments (and its action) or immediately after the opponent manoeuvres their submarine.

On a reaction, all crew members return to the control room in the exhausted state.

Several compartments with the reaction symbol can be used in response to a single event - for example, the movement of the enemy submarine or the enemy's use of a compartment.

Targeting

The targeting restrictions look as follows:

• A diagram shows the position of your submarine relative to the enemy submarine:
  • Target straight ahead, close
  • Target behind, close
  • Target at range, straight ahead
  • Target at range, behind
  • Target on the port (left) side, close
  • Target on the starboard (right) side, close
• The section of the enemy submarine that is the target: Bow, Stern, Starboard side, Port side.

Actions marked close can be used only if the submarines are in the same sector or in adjacent sectors. Actions marked at range apply only when there is at least one free sector between the submarines.

Attack Results

An attack is the result of the action of a combat compartment.

Attack sequence:

1. Check that the attack is possible (attacking player). The attacking player compares the position of the submarines and the distance with the requirements of the combat compartment. If the actual position does not match the target requirements, the compartment cannot be activated.

2. Activate the compartment (attacking player). A crew member uses the compartment in which they are located (2 crew members in the ready state may simultaneously use a compartment with the x2 symbol).

3. Determine the attack strength (attacking player). The attacker calculates the strength of the attack and any bonuses. The strength of the attack depends on the number of attack symbols on the compartment, as well as on the number of active crew members in it (if the card has the corresponding symbol) and other actions written on the card.

4. Determine the armour level (defending player). The defending player evaluates the armour level in the section that is the target of the attack (Bow or Stern, Port or Starboard side).

   The armour level is determined by the number of armoured (green) compartments in which at least 1 crew member (ready or exhausted) is located at the time of the attack, plus any bonuses.

   Armoured compartments protect only the section of the submarine in which they themselves are located. A compartment can belong to different sections - for example, the Stern and the Starboard side.

   If damage to a compartment is the result of an attack not aimed at that compartment, the armour value is not taken into account.

5. Replace the damage (defending player - optional step). Once the amount of damage the attack carries has been determined, the may decide to replace the damage. In this case all the damage of the attack is not counted, but the defending player places on the control room.

Example of an Attack

Ludwig uses a combat compartment that can inflict 3 points of damage on the stern section of Bruno's submarine.

Bruno has an armoured compartment in the stern, and 2 sailors are currently in this attacked section.

The stern will take 2 points of damage (3 attack points - 1 armour point = 2 damage points).

In this section there are 3 destroyed compartments and 1 compartment with only one durability point left. In this last compartment are 2 sailors.

Bruno has two options:

Option 1: replace all the damage by placing 1 damage marker on the control room;

Option 2: distribute 2 damage points across the attacked section. The first will destroy the last compartment of the stern (and the 2 sailors in it will die). The second cannot be distributed in this section, since all the compartments will be destroyed. Bruno would then have to replace it at the cost of damage to the control room.

Bruno chooses option 1 and places a damage marker on the control room.

End of the Game

A player wins if they destroy the enemy submarine's control room (central post) or eliminate all members of the opponent's crew. A player whose submarine has no oxygen markers left loses (the entire crew dies).