The group gathered at Fantasy Books & Games for something a little different this Wednesday as we did a deep dive into the “Thunderball” game rules by MSD Games.
The scene was the underwater scientific habitat run by world renowned Marine Geologist and Axe throwing champion, Dr Michael Randant and his team of deep sea scientists and Mah Jong players who had made a breakthrough discovery. The rarest of rare earths “Unobtainium” had been found and all the world’s governments wanted it, with the best means of securing it being their crack teams of deep sea divers.
It was every man for himself as each player controlled two divers in their quest to get to the habitat, find the “Unobtainium” and get it back to their edge of the board and the surface.
The underwater plants proved to be no obstruction for our players as they moved with grace and determination towards their goal.
Here the diver in the blue wetsuit has found the precious metal, but is about to be greeted by the diver in the black wetsuit.
The players rolled 3D6 for each of their two diver’s activation points and could move when their number came up serving as the initiative systems of the game with each figure receiving two potential bounds within each turn to move or perform other actions., such as searching for the mineral, or combat. Action points (APs) are important in the combat phase of the figure’s bound as they generate the number of dice to be rolled by the attacker or a defense bonus by the target of the attack. If you are near an opponent it is best to weigh your options and perhaps keep a few AP’s handy to beef up your defense.
There is action aplenty outside the habitat as the battle rages over the precious metal with several players joining in. The green D6’s represent the level that the diver is at, the red D6 and chenille stem represent a wounded diver. A white D6 on the figure stand indicates a diver with the mineral. Combat is resolved by comparing the Attacker’s dice roll vs a modified defense number of the target. The attacker must beat that number on their roll. Beating it by an additional four points creates an extra wound for the defender.
There was spears flying and melees on both sides of the habitat.
The game ended when Dave M got his “Unobtanium” off the board, followed soon by Ray R. The players all agreed that it was best that we didn’t play the rules for sharks this time around.
Thanks to all the players who came out to try this underwater skirmish game for something different. Our Thanks also to Fantasy Books & Games for their continued support.
