The Wargamer

Introduction

Empire of the Sun is a strategic level card driven turn based board game portraying the Pacific Theater of World War II from December 1941 to August 1945. There are three campaign games starting in December 1941, January 1942 and January 1943 respectively and three year long scenarios for 1942, 1943 and 1944. Taking the role as the war leaders of either the Japanese or Western Allies, players use cards to launch offensives that allow them to maneuver fleets and armies across a hexagonal map board spanning from the Indian Ocean to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The cards can also be used to simulate aspects of the war, to include the initial Japanese offensives in late 1941, inter-service rivalry and the allied code breaking ambushes such as the Battle of Midway. The card driven nature of the game represents limited resources, forcing the players to always make choices as there is never enough to go round. The designer’s intent was to focus on the war at the strategic level, thus much of the action is abstracted to a level that may disconcert gamers more used to tactical and operational level mechanics. Offensive and Reactive movement and combat as well as supply are probably the areas that have caused the most controversy in this respect. The victory conditions have also sparked much discussion, the onus being on the Western Allies to ride out the initial Japanese onslaught and then launch a series of counterstrikes (without suffering excessive casualties) that will allow the conquest of the Japanese home islands before the end of the campaign. Empire of the Sun is a fascinating synthesis of new concepts as well as Mark Herman’s previous work in both card driven games and Victory Games’ War in the Pacific. It may prove to be the classic treatment of strategic level warfare in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Plot and Presentation

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Empire launched a series of attacks on British, Dutch, Australian and US forces in the Pacific Theater that rivaled the earlier German blitzkriegs in Europe. Surprise attacks spearheaded by naval and land based air power on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines destroyed or disabled much of America’s land based air and naval forces in the theater. Over the next six months, the Japanese overran Burma, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, Guam, Wake, New Britain, and much of New Guinea. They inflicted tremendous losses on the Allied forces while suffering few setbacks or casualties of their own. With these conquests came the natural resources needed to support the Empire that the Japanese home islands could not provide.

The tide of conquest was halted in May and June 1942 when Allied reactions to Japanese offensives, abetted in many cases by intelligence such as Ultra, defeated attempts to take Port Moresby in New Guinea and Midway Island in the Central Pacific. More importantly, the Japanese lost irreplaceable aircraft carriers and air crews, blunting their offensive capability.

The next year saw a battle of attrition, as both sides mounted offensives and counter-offensives throughout the theater. By mid-year 1943, The Japanese had lost the battle for Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and Buna in New Guinea, had been forced out of the Aleutian Islands, and were generally on the defensive everywhere. The US submarine campaign against Japanese shipping was well underway, threatening to cut Japan off from the resources so recently acquired by force. Four general Allied offensive areas developed. In the Southwest Pacific, it was a drive up the Solomon’s chain and in New Guinea with the goal of liberating the Philippines. A Central Pacific drive would liberate Guam and give the Allies bases from which to launch long range bomber strikes followed by the invasion of Japan itself. In Burma, the last Japanese invasion of India would not be turned back until early 1944 and it was not until early 1945 that an overland supply route to China, the last offensive area, was reopened. Resource constraints dogged both sides throughout the conflict. The Japanese Army and Navy were constantly at odds over the balance between China, Burma and the Pacific. The Allies possessed more resources, but in addition to allocating amongst the four areas, had to determine the split between the Pacific and European Theatres. Combined arms were the key to victory in the Pacific, whether air and land power in China, Burma, and India or air, naval, and land in the Pacific Ocean.

In hindsight, the Japanese were not capable of defeating the Western Allies. Even with the majority of Allied forces arrayed against the Germans, the Japanese were soon vastly outnumbered. Realistically the best they could hope for was to make the war so costly that, combined with German successes, the Allies would agree to a negotiated peace. This was not to be, however, and the Allied offensives continue to gain momentum. Major Japanese bases, such as Rabaul and Truk, were neutralized and bypassed as Japanese forces were decimated and the ring tightened. The end of 1944 saw the invasion of the Philippines and Guam/Saipan in the Marianas Islands, which put the Allies in B-29 bomber range of Japan. The capture of Iwo Jima and Okinawa followed in preparation for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, set to commence in November 1945. The strategic submarine and bomber campaigns continued to remorselessly isolate and destroy Japan’s infrastructure and population. Japan appeared willing to fight on, however, the combination of atomic bomb attacks and the Soviet Union’s entry into the war in August, 1945 finally persuaded the government to surrender.

Empire of the Sun depicts all of the major elements found in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The overwhelming nature of the initial attacks, the combined arms nature of the conflict, intelligence, Japanese resource requirements, strategic submarine and bomber warfare, the relative strength of Japan in regards to the Western Allies, political will, the war in Europe and the CBI (China, Burma, India) theater.