Game: Torpedo Run!

Thread: Re: Hey! That’s my battleship! (Torpedo Run!, a review)

sauceybugger — 2008-07-25T08:04:01+00:00

darlok wrote:

Demolition Derby: this likely isn't the exact name, but it was basically a set that gave you two vehicles. a vw bug and a pickup truck, both had the ripcord with the big wheel in the of the vehicle and the object was simply to send the cars careeming towards each other and when they hit head on they each had a bumper in the front that was a trigger when pushed would eject pieces of the vehicle everywhere. it came with jumps and the paramount moment was when/if you could get them to smash in mid air. ah good times...

Oh my god!

I had this, I still have the bug, but not the zipper pull to rev the little baby up.
Wonder what happened to the rest of it.

Thread: Re: Hey! That’s my battleship! (Torpedo Run!, a review)

sauceybugger — 2008-07-25T08:01:13+00:00

I have two copies, try it with 4 players, 2 aside.

After 1 game when I was young, a kid had to wear an eyepatch for a month.

Thread: Re: Hey! That’s my battleship! (Torpedo Run!, a review)

unixrevolution — 2008-07-23T15:21:42+00:00

darlok wrote:
broken subs aside, this game was such a fun romp.

It's such an easy formula for sucess that it amazes me how we dont see the applications in more modern day toys.

Shoot + Explosion + Competition = Fun

Three favorite toys/games from my youth all apply here:

Crossbows and Catapults
Torpedo Run
Demolition Derby: this likely isn't the exact name, but it was basically a set that gave you two vehicles. a vw bug and a pickup truck, both had the ripcord with the big wheel in the of the vehicle and the object was simply to send the cars careeming towards each other and when they hit head on they each had a bumper in the front that was a trigger when pushed would eject pieces of the vehicle everywhere. it came with jumps and the paramount moment was when/if you could get them to smash in mid air. ah good times...

This is like the Incredible Crash Dummies toys i ~~had~~have.

Thread: Re: Hey! That’s my battleship! (Torpedo Run!, a review)

darlok — 2008-07-23T13:43:57+00:00

broken subs aside, this game was such a fun romp.

It's such an easy formula for sucess that it amazes me how we dont see the applications in more modern day toys.

Shoot + Explosion + Competition = Fun

Three favorite toys/games from my youth all apply here:

Crossbows and Catapults
Torpedo Run
Demolition Derby: this likely isn't the exact name, but it was basically a set that gave you two vehicles. a vw bug and a pickup truck, both had the ripcord with the big wheel in the of the vehicle and the object was simply to send the cars careeming towards each other and when they hit head on they each had a bumper in the front that was a trigger when pushed would eject pieces of the vehicle everywhere. it came with jumps and the paramount moment was when/if you could get them to smash in mid air. ah good times...

Thread: Re: Hey! That’s my battleship! (Torpedo Run!, a review)

ketchupgun — 2008-07-23T13:30:33+00:00

I had this game back in the 80s...the problem I had with it was the trigger on my subs always fell off and thus made it very irritating (literally) to keep shooting.

Fireball Island, it was not.

Thread: Re: Hey! That’s my battleship! (Torpedo Run!, a review)

pete belli — 2008-07-23T09:09:53+00:00

Nice review.

There isn’t much depth to be found here despite the presence of submarines...

Especially problematic was the warping that occurred near the folds, because not only did it cause the seams to split apart, it would also cause the discs to go flying up in the air and right over the top of the target ships. With a poorly-aimed (or well-aimed?) shot, you could even hit your opponent in the face.

The trial lawyer vultures would hit the mother lode with this game in 2008.

Thread: Hey! That’s my battleship! (Torpedo Run!, a review)

Woelf — 2008-07-23T00:40:53+00:00

This is one of several childhood favorites that I recently rescued from my parents’ basement.

Torpedo Run! is an action and dexterity game that was published in 1986 by Milton Bradley as part of their short-lived “Floor Wars” series. This game is vaguely similar to Crossbows and Catapults, but instead of a medieval theme with players facing off as opposing armies, Torpedo Run! takes on a much more modern naval theme. Each player takes the role of a lone attack submarine, with the goal of sinking the opponent’s surface fleet before losing their own.

Rules
The rulebook is only five pages long, and of that only the last page and a half covers how the game is played. All of the rest is devoted to assembly of the ships, with highly-detailed diagrams showing exactly how everything fits together, so there is little to no room for confusion.

The rules themselves are fairly basic. Each player chooses a submarine and a matching fleet (one battleship and three small escort ships), takes a set number of discs (torpedoes), and then heads to either end of the enormous board. Once there, the ships are arranged in predetermined patterns and the submarines are loaded.

Someone says, “Ready…Aim…Fire”, and chaos erupts as both players start shooting simultaneously. Submarines must remain in their designated shooting zone, but can be moved anywhere within that area that a player wishes. When a player runs out of ammo, they gather up discs that are now scattered everywhere in the vicinity, reload their sub, and commence firing. There are no turns or rounds; this is a free-for-all.

The goal is to sink all of the opposing player’s ships by hitting all of the target spots. The first player to do so is the winner.

The rulebook does include two alternate game options: one that involves moving ships around, and one for solo play. Rules are also included for four-player team games, with the extra players acting as “ammo experts”, but all that position entails is picking up the loose discs and giving them to the shooter. While it might save the shooter a few seconds here or there, it’s the functional equivalent of playing a two-player card game with a “teammate” whose sole purpose is to draw cards for you. If you have more than two players, you’re better off just having a round-robin tournament. Anyone sitting out during a round can still collect the loose discs without being assigned to a “team”.

Components
The first thing you notice about this game is the gigantic box. The overall dimensions are a whopping 35” x 17” x 2 ½” (inches). Certain game companies, particularly Fantasy Flight, are known for making games with large boxes, but even the largest of those are dwarfed by Torpedo Run!. I have never seen any other board game come in a box even close to this big. What makes it even more impressive is that this was a mass-market game, not a limited run game or an oversized special edition version of an existing game.

It definitely would have been an eye-catcher sitting on the shelf in the games section of a local retailer, and that alone probably sold numerous copies, but I can’t help but wonder if the sheer size also lead to the downfall of the “Floor Wars” series. Milton Bradley likely had to pay a premium for taking up shelf space that could easily have held two or three smaller games. Plus, parents had a built-in excuse for not buying it for their disappointed children – it was too big to fit into the car and/or the child’s room (even if it wasn’t).

The sole reason for having such a large box is to hold the even more humungous board. It folded in two places, which made it nearly three times as large as the box when laid flat. With overall dimensions of 46 ½” x 34 ½” (inches), it’s obvious why they called this “Floor Wars” – few household tables would have any hope of holding it, so the floor is the best place for it.

The top side of the board was colored blue to look like the open ocean, and was covered with large, white gridlines (spaced just under 4” apart) to assist with placing the ships and to provide spaces to move into if you used that variation. Near each end was a thick white line that marked the limit of where players could move their submarines. They could shoot from anywhere behind the line, but could never cross it. Adding to the nautical theme is large compass rose in the center and a series of semaphores printed along both sides. I’m not familiar with their translations so I can only guess at their meanings, but based on how they are arranged they are likely just letters or numbers arranged in ascending/descending order.

Unfortunately, the cardboard used for the board was much too thin for its size, so warping quickly became a serious problem. Especially problematic was the warping that occurred near the folds, because not only did it cause the seams to split apart, it would also cause the discs to go flying up in the air and right over the top of the target ships. With a poorly-aimed (or well-aimed?) shot, you could even hit your opponent in the face. Initially, the warping could be played off as waves deflecting the torpedoes, but that only worked for a short time before the game became unplayable. Fortunately, you don’t need the board at all. Any decent-sized table or floor space will work as long as long as it is flat, smooth, and doesn’t have any major seams or cracks that would deflect the discs. A strip of masking tape can be used to mark the lines that submarines cannot cross, and the ships can be placed however you like just as long as the setup is approximately the same for both players. As an added bonus, without the board the entire game will easily fit into an average shoebox or similar-sized container with plenty of room to spare, which makes it infinitely more portable.

The ships and submarines are made of plastic and come in two colors, dark gray and tan. The smaller ships (5 1/2 inches long) each have one target slot at the bottom, while the battleships (14 1/2 inches long) have five each. On the top of the ships above each slot is a hole, into which fits the pieces that get blown off when a torpedo disc hits the corresponding slot at the bottom. The mechanism for launching the pieces is remarkably simple. Pushing the piece into the hole puts tension on a small rubber band, which in turn provides just enough force to hold a clip on the base of the piece against a small ledge. When a disc is fired into the target slot it bumps the base of the piece, pushes it off the ledge, and then the rubber band catapults the piece into the air. The “exploding” pieces create an excellent visual effect, and provide a nice instant reward for a well-aimed shot. They usually work correctly, but sometimes a piece will get snagged on the rubber band or it won’t get hit hard enough, so the piece only lifts up slightly instead of launching or it doesn’t trigger at all. While the former is usually easy to spot with a simple inspection of the ship, the latter can be frustrating because having one disc lodged in the target slot will almost always prevent others from entering it enough to actually trigger a hit. As the rubber bands get old you will sometimes see the same effect even when it does trigger properly. The game did come with a few spares, but at some point you’ll probably have to go shopping for more of the proper size. Craft stores and hobby shops are a good place to look, but resist the temptation to buy rubber bands that are significantly stronger than what came with the game. Although seeing pieces fly up and hit the ceiling, an overhead fan, or even a bystander can be good for some laughs, it can also quickly result in lost or broken pieces as they fly out of sight or come crashing back down on the floor.

The submarines are essentially just disc launchers. On top is a large round chute to hold extra ammo, and on the bottom is an opening where the shots come out. The firing mechanism is a simple rubber band powered slider; pull it back, take aim, and release to shoot. They work correctly most of the time, but since they are just molded plastic and not finely-machined parts they do have a tendency to backfire, especially at high rates of fire. It’s usually easy to fix by pressing the slider parts back together and reloading the sub, but it wastes precious time if you’re running low on ships and your opponent has a good aim.

The discs are made of hard, red plastic, and are slightly smaller than two pennies stacked on top of each other. The box shows 36 in the component list, but my copy is short a few. That’s no surprise considering how quickly they can get scattered (and lost) around the room during a game, plus the fact that this game is over 20 years old.

Gameplay
Games of Torpedo Run! play fast and furious. It rarely takes more than a few minutes even if players are aiming their shots carefully, but could be over in as little as thirty seconds with some practice. You often spend more time picking up all the little bits and pieces that have been scattered throughout the room than actually playing, but that time can be reduced significantly if you have a few other people around to catch them before they get too far away or slide underneath nearby furniture and appliances.

After a few plays, players will become more proficient at aiming their subs and could reach a point where upwards of 50% of their shots will be hits. That might seem like it would take the fun out of the game, but it really just increases the tension because every shot becomes that much more important. It also leads to some interesting anti-sub warfare. If you see your opponent lining up a shot and you time a shot of your own just right, you can actually block or deflect it. It usually happens by accident the first time, but with practice it becomes a viable tactic. A variation on that is to attack the enemy sub directly. You have a moving target, but if you do manage to get a shot into the sub itself it will be all-but-guaranteed to interfere with the next shot it takes, and might even cause a backfire!

Conclusion
Overall, Torpedo Run! is a fun action/dexterity game that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. There isn’t much depth to be found here despite the presence of submarines (sorry, bad pun) and the best “strategy” is to have a better aim than your opponent, but it plays quickly enough that you can easily pull it out and play a few rounds in between other games or any time you’ve got a few minutes of free time to kill.

I had a lot of fun with this game when I was younger, and I’d really love to rate it much higher, but even the incredible satisfaction you get from seeing a ship “explode” with a direct hit plus the nostalgia bump can’t make up for the poor-quality board, the occasional malfunctions, or the fact that there are so many other games out there (filler or otherwise) that are just plain better.

Hardcore gamers will probably want to look elsewhere, but if anyone else happens to run across an inexpensive copy of this somewhere it’s still well worth getting even to try it out just once.

Rating: 6.5

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fractaloon — 2007-06-28T02:58:30+00:00

The back of the box.

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ronster0 — 2006-09-23T07:37:37+00:00

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ronster0 — 2006-09-23T07:34:25+00:00

Time for the final shot!

Thread: Re: Torpedo Run- the story behind the photo

RichardC — 2006-07-07T01:36:13+00:00

I'm no newbie to death and destruction....I've melted and firecrackered quite a few army men in my lifetime......

Thread: Re: Torpedo Run- the story behind the photo

volnon — 2006-07-06T21:58:33+00:00

Believe me, if we had had any we would have tried it! I like the way you think!

Thread: Re: Torpedo Run- the story behind the photo

RichardC — 2006-07-06T21:05:38+00:00

have you tried adding firecrackers to the torpedoes for some real excitement?

Thread: Re: Torpedo Run- the story behind the photo

volnon — 2006-07-06T20:39:55+00:00

True, but we really were whores for excitement! We wanted to see ships explode, not dud torpedoes hit ships. In our fantasy world at that time there were no such thing as "dud topedoes", although we all know in reality they occured very often in ww2. We wanted to see death and destruction! We were evil! And a bit drunk...

Thread: Re: Torpedo Run- the story behind the photo

RichardC — 2006-07-06T20:18:07+00:00

the ships not exploding when hit could add to the realism....a lot of torpedos where duds back then, and didn't explode when they hit the ship....you could call it a "lucky break" for the target ship....

Thread: Re: Torpedo Run- the story behind the photo

DoctorWu — 2006-07-06T15:35:01+00:00

This story sounds so much better if you're looking at the "Twister" picture of you, and reading your note in the voice of Tommy Chong.

Thread: Re: Torpedo Run- the story behind the photo

berserkley — 2006-07-06T14:42:06+00:00

So who took the photo?

Thread: Torpedo Run- the story behind the photo

volnon — 2006-07-06T01:31:28+00:00

I posted the photo of my big game of Torpedo Run! here on BGG in June of 2006, over 15 years after the photo was taken. I remember the game session well- my little brother rarely visited me in FLA, and he brought his brother-in-law with him. I lived alone in a crappy little house near Flager Beach FLA, and when he arrived with his bro-in-law I knew the holidays (it was right after X-Mas) would be much brighter... especially since I had bought myself some new games to play! As we sat and had a few beers, TV playing noiselessly in the background as the stereo boomed pink floyd, I brought out the Torpedo Run! game. The huge size of the box impressed them, and having to play it on the floor was enough to make them want to get at it at once! I had already been playing it solo to learn the rules- - so we began the game immediatly. Being as it was to be a 2-player game, I was the gamemaster.

I got out some candybars, chips and beer to keep the dumb floor game amusing. I do not condone drinking and gaming... nor do I condemn it. Sometimes one does what one does to make a party atmosphere. Especially while crawling around shooting at plastic ships on the floor.

I demonstrated to them how to shoot- as seen in the photo- not really getting on the floor to aim or anything. Just showed them how to hold the ship and release the fired plastic disc. After that they were on their own. I watched as they took turns shooting and missing...once or twice a ship would get hit and not "explode". I took a few minutes out to file down the "firing pin" of the ships to make them "explode easier". The game was close, with both contestants (as seen in the other photo with only 2 people in it), having a good time and taking the game only half-way seriously. My brother (the dude on the right) ended up winning- barely.
Although they enjoyed the game, both admitted it was dumb and stupid, made for kids and not adults. That said they still wanted to play it one more time with the newly fixed more-sensitive ships.

The game is simply enough- be the first to "blow-up" all of your opponents ships with the plastic discs, and you win the game. It is a big floor game, and the ships don't explode sometimes even with a direct hit. Buy it only if you can find it cheap- it is OOP at this writing, and if you find it I am sure parts would be missing.
In the photo you will see candy bar wrappers in the ash tray,a crappy X-mas tree, an OOP Feed Me! game on the coffee table, Busch beer (drank only by people of legal age) on the floor, and yes, I am the skinny guy (not so skinny anymore) in the middle acting like I'm playing twister.

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volnon — 2006-06-27T01:03:20+00:00

Even using his skills gained from playing "Twister", there was no way he could master "Torpedo Run".

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volnon — 2006-06-24T15:59:16+00:00

With enough beer, even the hillbillies enjoyed the strange floor game.

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Regai — 2006-06-09T01:36:08+00:00

Picture of the battleship compared to Axis and Allies for size comparison.

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hoffcorp — 2005-12-06T19:30:08+00:00

Back of the Torpedo Run box.

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hoffcorp — 2005-12-06T19:30:08+00:00

Closeup of the massive board.

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hoffcorp — 2005-12-06T19:30:08+00:00

Box, Board, Ships, the "torpedos", and the Manual, basically everything.

Thread: User Review

cdwalkley — 2004-04-26T15:59:38+00:00

Torpedo Run is a fun action game in which each player commands a submarine which they use to try and blow up their enemies fleet.

The components consist of a huge cardboard playing area, coloured blue (of course!) with a grid imposed upon it. Each player gets one set of ships (Grey or Brown) and a submarine. The ships have various numbers of blow apart turrets depending on the size of the ship. Under each turret is a slot to aim for. When one of the submarine's red discs enters a slot with enough force, the turret pops off.

In the basic game, the ships are set up and players just blast away as quick as they can in order to be the first person to destroy the enemy fleet. There are two variants. One involves players firing a limited amount of discs. When these are all gone, any surviving ships move one square across the board on the way to safety.

The game does play quite well, and the way in which some of the turrets pop off is impressive. Game play often favours the player who shoots the quickest, although someone who is skilled enough to score a handful of good hits stands a very good chance of winning.

One of the biggest drawbacks is the playing surface. The board itself folds up in thirds. This can make it somewhat uneven when laid out. When combined with the fact that the board tends to warp, this problem can be quite significant.

This aside, it is a very fun game with a great theme and excellent ship pieces. Of its type, I'd say it is not the best, and I'd probably favour playing Crossbows and Catapults, but it is by no means bad for a fun kid's game.

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2001-10-12T17:40:32+00:00