War in the Pacific (Second Edition) (2006)

On Sunday, 7 December 1941, the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by Japanese aircraft. For the next four years, Allied task forces engaged elements of the Imperial Japanese fleet throughout the ocean. Marines and army units began their program of island-hopping, wresting from the Japanese the empire that they had expanded in every direction.

War in the Pacific is a multi-level simulation of the Pacific theater of operations during World War II. The game enables players to recreate the entire course of the war with the US, from the opening Japanese attack on 7 December, 1941 to the climatic Allied assaults in the closing days of 1945. Representing some 30% of the globe, the strategic maps let players move and engage in combat on all levels: air, ground and naval. War in the Pacific is not a simple game; there are a number of rules and concepts that will, at first, be unfamiliar to a majority of players. But playing through smaller map sections and scenarios enables the player to become familiar with the mechanics of the game.

This is a reprint edition which substantially expanded the original's components. Components: 7 full size (22 x 34") strategic maps in full color, new tactical maps with nearly 338 individual islands for new ground units to fight over, 32 die-cut counter sheets, nearly 9,000 counters showing all types of units from the Pacific Theater, rule books, chart books and assorted displays and player aid charts.

The rules have undergone significant change with greatly increased emphasis on detail in combat while removing the detailed logistics system that was the focus of the old game and replacing it with a command point system modeled after Victory Games' "Pacific War."

The order of battle is significantly more detailed. Leaders on many levels (and whose combat performance may be unpredictable), often serve to limit players' ability to affect the outcome of every battle to the Nth degree. A player's assignment of the right task force commander (for the right force at the right time), may spell the difference between a tactical victory and defeat.

The ground combat system has been completely revised, substituting a step-loss system adapted from VG's "Pacific War." Pitched battles on islands and atolls are now resolved, including maneuver, on expanded tactical maps in six different scales, rather than simply being abstractly represented in a single hex on the strategic maps.

War in the Pacific's original air and naval systems are retained, in their essence, albeit with substantial modifications and above all added chrome in combat. Thus the game still feels like the original in those two aspects.

The game comes with the grand campaign and some small introductory battle scenarios.

• Rulebook I (rule 1.0 to 25.0)
• Rulebook II (rule 26.0 to 62.0)
• Scenarios & Campaign reinforcements
• Examples of Play, Optional Rules & Designer's Notes
• Chartbook I
• Chartbook II