Best 3 Games with…Hidden Movement!

I love exploring different mechanics and game styles in these Best 3 Games with… Series! It gives me an opportunity to think back on games that I have played and enjoyed that focus on the chosen mechanic. And in today’s entry, I am going to share games that I have enjoyed that use Hidden Movement! This can include several different types of movement including hide and seek, search and destroy or even programmed movement. Usually in these type of games, one player controls the hidden elements and the other is desperately trying to find them. We have played many games that use this mechanic but here are the three that I really have enjoyed.

3. Sniper Elite: The Board Game from Rebellion Unplugged

Sniper Elite: The Board Game is a hidden movement game based on the iconic video game series by the same name. In the game, one player takes the role of the Allied sniper, who is trying to make their way past the German guards by stealth or violence while up to three other players control squads of German soldiers, striking a balance between defending their objectives and hunting the sniper. The game is a very interesting and well done game that is very tense and difficult for both sides. We played it several times in one sitting with 3 players and had a great time.

The crux of the game is the hidden movement used by the sniper to move around the board to meet their objectives. They have the ability to move a certain amount of squares per round but do not have to move their full allotment. So, this means that the defending players can somewhat count the number of squares on the board from their entry point and at least keep an idea of about where they are at all times. Also, if the sniper ever takes a shot at the German guards, their location will be identified with a noise marker and then the German players will aggressively converge on that location. This doesn’t mean that they will automatically find the sniper as they have to continue to hunt and deduce where they hidden but it gives them an idea.

The game also is a bit about gaming the system. If the defenders don’t know where the sniper is located, the sniper player should take it easy and try their best to stay hidden. If the defenders are blocking the sniper or are in the way, you will have to make the decision about when to start shooting. Taking out the defenders will cut down on the searchers you have to evade and forces them to waste one of their precious actions placing their units back on the board.

But remember that when you are shooting, you have to consider what it is you are saying to your pursuers. You can’t allow these shots to reveal your exact location or your goal. It is wise to take your first shots near the wrong objective, and then make the decision to keep shooting as you slowly pivot toward your real objective. Another important element is to try to keep the defenders unaware of your first goal. To that end, you’ll need to spend the first few turns bouncing between the zones on the board. If you enter in at a white location you should then move to a black spot and stay in black until they use their intel to figure out that you’re in black every turn, and will deduce that you are definitely going for a black objective. And since you weren’t in black or red before, you must have entered from white, and they’ll start blocking accordingly. This is very important for both the sniper and the defenders to understand and truly becomes the best part of the game. The game within the game of guessing, feinting, stopping, stalling, and then staying where they don’t expect you to be.

Sniper Elite is a really well put together game based on the hit video game and the designers took great care to insert the importance of hidden movement at the heart of the design. This is very much a game and I really loved the tension and strategic discussions that the players had together as the game unfolded. Just great fun this one!

Here is a link to our video review of the game:

2. Bomber Command: The Night Raids, 1943-1945 from GMT Games

Bomber Command: The Night Raids 1943-1945 is a game of the night war in the skies over the Reich during World War II. The game recreates the great RAF bombing raids against the heart of Germany and the defense of the German Luftwaffe’s night fighter arm. This game is a follow up effort to Nightfighter (2011) by GMT Games. Based on an air combat system derived from the award-winning Downtown and The Burning Blue ‘raid-scale’ games, Bomber Command details the tactics of night fighting.

The game is designed for 2 players, with one player controlling the RAF and the other playing the Germans in their desperate attempt to protect the Reich and its industrial heartland. Strategic bombing during World War II began in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and the Luftwaffe began bombing cities and the civilian population in Poland in an indiscriminate aerial bombardment campaign. As the war continued to expand, bombing by both the Axis and the Allies increased significantly. In September 1940, the Luftwaffe began targeting British cities in what became known as The Blitz.

The trick to the British player doing his job well is trying his best to outwit the German player with cleverly and unconventional plotted raids and decoys.  This means that they cannot always take the safest and most direct route to the target but must make sure to risk the dangers of spotlights, antiaircraft fire and interception and infiltration by German fighters.  In the meantime, the German player is very frantically trying to locate the main raid and destroy as many bombers as possible to lessen the impact that the bombing run will have on his cities.  This is truly a difficult and almost fruitless effort as despite his best efforts, bombs will make it to the target and will reduce their cities to heaping piles of flaming rubble.

The RAF player then is asked to plan out the ingress and egress routes they will fly with their main bombing run as well as their various decoy mosquito raids.  I love that you not only have to plan how to get to the target, but have to figure out a way to get back safely! This is accomplished by drawing the paths on a planning sheet with a pencil (I recommend using different colored pencils as the routes will intersect and cause confusion) to take the bombers from your bases to their eventual targets.  Raids are moved secretly on the plotting map, 2 hexes per turn. Various technologies in the form of cards come into play to generate detections, with both sides selecting from a starting hand of 8 (each player has a deck of 55 cards, with some only applicable to one scenario), with which to influence the outcome of the raids and air battles as the sides come at each other.

You will want to remember several key factors as you plot out the course of your bombing runs. Your main force is the way you will score the majority of your VP and it must be difficult to detect and protected well by your mosquito raids. This means you will want to delay when each of your raids takes off and stagger them over the game. This will keep the attention and focus of the Germans on multiple raids and not only 1 or 2 raids increasing the chances of success. Your mosquito raids should not be only directed at short range or easy targets. You should plan for at least 1 short range target in order to make sure you get a few VP but you will want to make sure you have a medium length target as well as an additional long range target to confuse and occupy the Germans. Your main raid should not simply plan to take the path of least resistance to the eventual target city. This will make it easy to anticipate for the German player and easier to infiltrate and weaken its effectiveness. Strategically plan to fly over search light areas and even flak emplacements but then change direction in order to confuse and shake any pursuit. In your routes, plan to confuse. You should avoid straight lines but zigzagging your way toward the target. Also, identify the German fighters, their relative strengths and locations and anticipate their reaction to your decoy actions. This will allow you to avoid them as much as possible. Understand you will be identified and targeted by several German fighters and will most likely also be infiltrated. Plan to save some of your more effective cards for this event and take the fight to them with such cards as “Serrate”, “Corona Jamming”, etc.

Bomber Command is a great game, partly because of the hidden movement, the mission planning and the tension of the journey to target locations. But it is just a very interesting, thought provoking design that we have have enjoyed playing.

1. They Come Unseen from Osprey Games

At its heart, They Come Unseen is a secret unit deployment and hidden movement game with asymmetric victory conditions. Asymmetric is a fancy way of saying that each side has different conditions for victory. As the NATO player, you’re controlling two diesel-electric hunter-killer submarines that have the mission of destroying four assigned targets in the form of Soviet Ice Stations or bases. These targets are randomly assigned by drawing 4 target cards out of a possible 6. This way, the Soviets will never know exactly which 4 targets you are after making them have to spread their resources thin and try to anticipate those targets. The NATO player controls their submarines from behind a screen that hides a smaller version of the game board in order to hide your movements while controlling and tracking the depth of your submarines. The submarines can reach depths of up to 600′ in increments of 200′. The submarines must also watch carefully their level of battery charge as movement requires energy.

The battery charge is in essence the fuel for the submarines and as it nears depletion, the only way to recharge is to perform a “snort” maneuver, which is the term used for describing the submarine surfacing to charge the batteries. This necessary maneuver temporarily exposes the submarines to the Soviet player and the Soviets use that knowledge to be able to track their movements somewhat, although it is very frustrating thinking you know where he is only to have no contact on your sonar net!

The hunt and the game of hide and seek is really the meat of the game. Sonar searches and the movement of the subs at different depths are the tools that each side has at its disposal to survive and accomplish their mission. I love this part of the game! I always try to judge how good a game is by how it makes me feel as I play. Using that as a yard stick for They Come Unseen, the theme is excellently integrated into the gameplay and is oozing out of every one of its portholes. The hunt is by far the most thematically tense aspect of the game. If you had ever hoped to experience what it must be like to be 600′ below the surface in a steel cylinder with concussive blasts from depth charges missing you by mere inches, look no further. But the game is not just tense for the submarine captain. The Soviet player also frets over whether the submarines have slipped through their net and made their way to freedom.

The main game board is color-coded and marked to indicate depth with deep water being dark blue and shallow water being lighter blue, so the NATO player is not only having to watch the movements of the Destroyers, but also must figure out how deep to run and for how long in order to maximize their movements or to sufficiently decoy the hunter into thinking they are where they aren’t. The subs can only move 6 squares in shallow water so this is definitely something they must be aware of and must be taken into account by the Soviet player as well as they attempt to keep tabs on the subs. There is the constant pressure of a dwindling battery supply, the impending necessity to recharge, which as mentioned previously means surfacing and giving away your location, the desire to remain hidden for as long as possible, and the struggle to continue pressing toward the ultimate destruction of four Ice Stations.

The actual sonar searching is an exciting and frustrating part of the game. The player moving the Destroyer pauses and places a multi-colored sonar template on the starboard and port sides of his ship. These two templates feature four different colors, one for each quadrant of the sonar search. If the submarine is hiding in one of the four quadrants, when asked during the search they must say “Contact Green”, “Contact Red”, etc. which then gives the possible location of the submarine in 9-12 ocean squares depending if it is forward or aft. The sonar net offers a 6 x 7 square coverage but there are blind spots.  The line of squares between the 2 templates and under the ship are great hiding spots; I know from experience!

The sonar nets allow great coverage of the ocean but leaves many nooks and crannies for the submarines to hide in. I loved the searching aspect….although it was extremely frustrating, as all hidden movement games are! They Come Unseen is a truly great war game that has thought of all of the factors involved in a Cold War Era sub hunt game. Excellent design, great components and especially a lot of FUN to play! I truly loved the tension and the narrative that is created as you play through the game. After playing, I was physically and emotionally spent and felt as if I had been in a steel cylinder beneath the waves for 3 hours being rocked by depth charge after depth charge. 

So those were my 3 Best Games with…Hidden Movement! and I hope that you enjoyed what I shared and also got into the spirit of the post and started thinking about games that you have played that use the mechanic. There was a non-wargame game that I wanted to include in Hunt for the Ring from Ares Games as it is a really fun and tense game of cat and mouse as well set in one of my favorite fantasy settings. The Hunt from Salt & Pepper Games was also quite good and I would recommend it for a tense hidden movement game. What are your favorite games that use Hidden Movement?

-Grant