Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Harpoon simulates modern naval warfare. Its rules tell how ships and aircraft move, detect enemy contacts, and attack them.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Line of Sight
Visibility between pieces determines valid targets, movement, or effects.
Measurement Movement
Measure physical distance to determine how far pieces may move.
Secret Unit Deployment
Place or assign units secretly before their positions are revealed.
Simulation
Model a real or imagined system through detailed cause-and-effect rules.
Read the full game description
Harpoon simulates modern naval warfare. Its rules tell how ships and aircraft move, detect enemy contacts, and attack them. Weapons inflict realistic effects, and proper naval tactics produce accurate and believable results. The die-cut counters included in the game make it possible to take this game home and start playing. Tom Clancy's books Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising used Harpoon as a source. (The game was not based on the books.) To quote from the Author's Note in Red Storm Rising "(Harpoon)...served as a primary source for The Hunt for Red October" and "... a macro-wargame or campaign game which, using the" Harpoon system, would fight out a new Battle of the North Atlantic. I thought this was fascinating and we began talking about building a book around the idea...'. Larry Bond is given co-copyright to Red Storm Rising.