The Hunt for Red October board game surfaces on Indiegogo

Scottish accents at the ready: a board game based on the film adaptation of The Hunt for Red October has dived onto crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

Taking its prime inspiration from the 1990 movie starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, rather than Tom Clancy’s 1984 debut novel, River Horse’s two-player game spreads the American-Soviet subterfuge across a two by 1.5-foot board covered in hexes, with the US player attempting to sneak across the map to reach the American coast or a NATO ship without being spotted – and before DEFCON goes to 1. Each match is estimated to take between an hour to two hours.

‘POSSUB’ (‘possible submarine’) tokens track the potential location of the naval vehicles, with the Red October’s captain Marko Ramius able to deploy a variety of ability cards to help dodge the Soviet seekers.

An alternate second mode allows the title to be played like a wargame, with the first side to score 40 points winning the scenario. Points are earned by destroying enemy units and moving ballistic missile submarines into ‘first strike’ positions, with players aiming to reveal the hidden craft ahead of their opponent and open fire.

The hidden movement title has been designed by Warhammer, Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and Terminator Genisys Miniatures Game creator Alessio Cavatore, who picked up an Origins Award as part of the team behind Battleground Europe’s historical rules supplement.

River Horse is looking for a relatively modest sum of $7,000 for the game, which is planned for release, fittingly, next October.