They say “Better Later Then Never”. And I fully agree, discovering one by one true “jewels” of boardgame hobby. Recently I had pleasure to “taste” something really huge – namely Empire of the Sun. I will be quite honest – there are not many players in my group with whom I can try to tackle that pretty complex game. Still, there are some and Kuba – who is fascinated by War in Pacific in general – agreed to join the endeavor.
Other Empire of the Sun materials: - Empire of the Sun REVIEW - 1943 scenario - first attempt - session report - 1943 - second attempt - session report - South Pacific Scenario - session report
After reading the rules like twice and watching fantastic YouTube movies explaining the game mechanics, we plunged into the world of land, naval and air warfare spanning almost half Pacific and half of Asia. As players well experienced with Card Driven Games we grasped the mechanics pretty quickly – which does not mean that we had to look-up rules from time to time.
We rolled for the sides and Kuba took command of Japan while Allied forces were under mine leadership. As suggested, we took 1943 scenario for a starter (click to enlarge):
Here I would like to mention that I am finding EotS Vassal module quite useful and helpful, especially in depicting what happened during the game. So below you can see two theaters, where majority of our fights took place.
China, Birma, India (CBI)
Kuba, historically, attacked furiously on the CBI front:
However, I managed to trick Kuba there – during his large offensive, I have counter-attacked with air forces which resulted in two Japan armies being destroyed. Of course, my plains also suffered, but it was worth it – especially for the morale of poor British soldiers being constantly attacked here. However, the joyful moment quickly passed away, as Kuba managed to amass new forces and in the end destroyed the British aircraft carrier.
New Guinea & Solomon Islands
On the other hand, in Salomons and New Guinea it was me who had the five minutes of glory:
There was not much that could stop me in New Guinea and I managed to “steamroll” through the whole island, eliminating two Japan armies in the process without any causalities on Allied side. Unfortunately, two unsuccessful landings on New Georgia costed me two old aircraft carriers. Yamato and its fleet was still strong and able to inflict huge causalities during counter-attacks.
It was our first game and one turn used up whole evening. We felt that it would be fantastic too see what would happen next but simply time limits did not allowed for this. But despair not! We already had second meeting, where we managed to play whole 1943 – and session report form this is already in progress 🙂
PS. You might check how our second attempt went – the report is ready: 1943 over Pacific – EotS for the second time. Enjoy!
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