[REVIEW] Pacific War

Pacific War is a classic board game designed by the acclaimed game designer Mark Herman. The new edition, published by GMT Games, takes players on a thrilling journey through the Pacific Theater of World War II. With its detailed mechanics, attention to historical accuracy, and engaging gameplay, Pacific War is a must-have for any strategy board game enthusiast.

One of the things that make Pacific War stand out is its attention to historical detail. The game covers the entire Pacific War from 1941 to 1945, including all the major naval and land battles that took place in the region. Each counter in the game represents a historical unit, and the game board accurately reflects the geography of the Pacific Ocean and the surrounding countries – although you have to get used to slightly different perspective 🙂 The historical accuracy of the game is further enhanced by the inclusion of a detailed rulebook, which provides historical context and explanations for each of the game’s mechanics.

But Pacific War is more than just a history lesson; it’s also an incredibly engaging game. The game’s mechanics are designed to simulate the fog of war and the challenges faced by both the Allied and Japanese forces during the war. Players must balance their resources and make strategic decisions to outmaneuver their opponent and gain the upper hand in battle. The game’s turn-based system – with advantage and disadvantage players – and combat mechanics are intuitive and easy to learn, but also allow for a high level of strategic depth.

Pacific War is also highly replayable. The game includes several different scenarios, each of which presents a different challenge for players. For example, the Pearl Harbor scenario allows players to recreate the surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet, while the Midway scenario challenges players to recreate the pivotal battle that turned the tide of the war in the Allies’ favor. In addition, the game includes a campaign mode that allows players to play through the entire war, from the initial Japanese invasion of the Philippines to the final Allied victory in 1945. With so many different scenarios and ways to play, Pacific War offers endless hours of gameplay.

Finally, Pacific War is a beautifully published game. The new game board and components are high-quality and visually stunning, with detailed illustrations and artwork that help to immerse players in the world of the Pacific War. The game also includes player aids and reference cards that make it easy to keep track of the game’s mechanics and rules.

So would you stand-up to the task and manage to crush your opponents in the skies, on the land and seas?

The game in essence is a 2-player title; still, it is very much suitable for the solitaire plays – especially in case of smaller scenarios.

You can gradually become familiar with the Pacific War systems first in the Solitaire Engagement scenarios (15-30 minutes each), then fight your way through increasingly panoramic Battles (1-2 hours), Campaigns (3-5 hours), and up to truly epic Strategic Scenarios (many, many hours 🙂 ).

This is not an introductory Wargame; having said that, the core set of rules, allowing you the play of Engagement and Battle scenarios is definitely manageable for every wargamer with some experience. Campaign and Strategy set-ups might require much more time investment and can stretch a bit even grognards.

• I love the attention to historical detail which is evident in this game; we have detailed map, units – most of them represented by single counter – a lot of historical comments and explanations in rulebook. In addition, the game mechanics support the historical research, and although this is of course simplification, to large extent we can feel what the fighting in the Pacific was.
• One has to stress that this is an incredibly engaging game! Especially all the search and hidden mechanics information plays very nicely – when you try to spot and identify the enemy Task Forces and even then – when you launch your airplanes and pray to get through CAP and Flak fire.
• Having so many types of scenarios – Engagement, Battle, Campaign and Strategic ones – each of them containing multiple set-ups, one can immediately see how highly replayable this title is.
• One thing which changed a lot from the previous 1985 edition is of course quality of components – maps, rulebooks, counters, player aids. Especially, when I look at this beautiful mounted map and truly gasp in awe.

• Some of the larger battles / scenarios can be really time consuming – not only to play, but even to set-up. Read: you might not have space, time and energy to play each and every set-up in the game; having said that, 75% of all engagements should be played without any such issue.

• Make sure to use errata – unfortunately, even with new editions, some of the scenario set-up has errors.

In my humble opinion, for every wargamer who is interested in the Pacific theater during WWII. Maybe not as the first, introductory game – it might be too much – but once one gets his hand dirty with lighter titles, this is position definitely worth trying.

• My articles on the blog

• Pacific War Training Materials

• BGG page