The Refuge: Terror From The Deep is a new board game that takes the plunge in a WWI game of sea monsters and sub-nautical explorers.

But, just as the Kraken lies beneath the waves, there is a story that waits below the surface of this game.

John Brieger of B&B Games Studio took the time to tell us a little about the inspiration behind this game.

Is Their Truly A Terror From The Deep?

The Refuge: Terror from the Deep is a stunning miniatures board game in which steampunk divers race to escape from a giant kraken off the coast of Scotland. It packs all the action of a monster movie into 30 minutes of card-driven adventure.

And the wildest part — it’s based on a true story.

The year is 1918 and the world is in the grips of WWI. A German submarine, the UB-85, surfaces near Ireland and begins to run on the surface.

While surfaced, UB-85 is shot down and sunk by the HMS Coreopsis. Many aboard perish, but some of the survivors ha a curious tale to tell: the reason that they hadn’t dove to avoid the British patrol was that they had been attacked and damaged by a mysterious sea monster.

The captain of the downed U-boat reportedly described it:

‘This beast had large eyes, set in a horny sort of skull...It had a small head, but with teeth that could be seen glistening in the moonlight. Every man on watch began firing a sidearm at the beast, but the animal had hold of the forward gun mount and refused to let go.’

The wreckage of the UB-85 was rediscovered off the coast of Scotland in 2016 when engineers for Scottish Power found it while surveying a sea bed for a cabling project.

Who knows whether the story is true - but The Refuge: Terror from the Deep uses it as a launching point for a rollicking deep sea adventure. In the world of The Refuge atomic weapons were invented during WWI — and the secrets to winning WWII before it begins may be aboard the wreck of the UB-85.

The Refuge: Terror from the Deep comes with seven incredibly detailed steampunk divers, an enormous 80mm kraken, and sixteen deadly tentacles. They are sculpted by UK based sculptors David Whitaker and Tom Lishman. David's work includes minis for Lord of the Rings: Journeys into Middle Earth, Moonstone, and more. Tom has sculpted for games such as Dark Souls: the Board Game, Descent 2nd Edition, and Godtear.

The Refuge: Terror from the Deep had a successful run on Kickstarter, gaining well over its funding goal.