- Original Release: 1965
- Developer: Tri-ang
- Publisher: Tri-ang
- Platform: Board Game
This board game is exactly what the title describes: it lets you play out the Underwater Battle from Thunderball. The game came with pre-painted miniatures, so my Tabletop Simulator version uses some simple royalty free models to represent them,: they’re not accurate, but they get the job done.
Each side has a boss (Bond or Largo) and a squad of frogmen. Bond and Largo can move six spaces, while the rest can only move four. There’s also a SPECRE submarine, which Largo has to escort to Miami or Bond has to capture and take to the US Warships. After you move, you then roll the dice and you can use this to move sharks.
Fighting is quite simple: each larger red square is a “fighting zone”, if opponents are in one you tally up the “fighting score” for each side: 1 for each basic Frogman, 2 for Bond/Largo. The SPECTRE sub reduces the rider’s score by one. If it’s your turn, you can also use sharks to add to your score. The losing side is killed. It’s a very simple system that removes luck from the equation.
It’s a simple game that is almost pure strategy – with the slight exception of dice to help with the unpredictable nature of sharks. The physical figures also look good, so it’s a nice spectacle as well.
Where to get Underwater Battle from Thunderball
Browse Games By Year
Unreleased, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969
1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979
1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
