The Wargamer

Gameplay

The graphics and sound in War Plan Pacific are quite basic but well crafted.  There are only a few screens depicting either the entire map, ships in port or patrolling the port, or combat.  The music appears to be original work, but does a good job of setting the mood for the game. 

The few screens required to navigate the game mean that players will quickly learn the ins and outs of War Plan Pacific.  As a turn-based grand strategic game, gameplay consists of forming task forces and pointing them toward an island or port in the Pacific (Ceylon, is technically in the Indian Ocean, but everything else in the game is in the Pacific, so let’s stick with it for convenience).  Capturing islands is the name of the game, but there’s a catch.  A task force can be sent to an island – if the island is friendly the role is to patrol, if held by the enemy, it’s a raid.  The only way to capture an island is to assign a transport to a task force.  Japan has a relative abundance of transports, the Allies not so many.  Much like history, Japan’s role early in the game is to secure the three critical islands where oil is produced: Borneo, Java, and Singapore, each of which adds a month of oil stock if held by Japan.  It begins the game with a six month oil reserve and without doing anything will lose a month of oil each turn.  Clearly one of the Allies’ victory conditions is to starve Japan of oil; if Japan’s oil reserves ever fall to zero, the Allies win.  There is a catch – Japan’s oil reserve is reduced by one (each) if the Allies hold Leyte, Luzon, and Formosa.  Needless to say a lot of action unfolds around these six islands.

Oil isn’t the only victory condition, however.  The Allies can also win through strategic bombing of Japan.  Beginning in October 1943 a strategic bombing campaign of B-29s will automatically ensue if the Allies occupy any of the following islands:  Marianas, Leyte, Luzon, Okinawa, and Iwo Jima.  For each of these islands the Allies occupy one point is added to a Strategic Bombing score each turn.  If that score reaches 25, Japan surrenders. 

The Strategic Bombing of Japan.

Japan, too, has victory conditions.  War Plan Pacific models things quite abstractly, but always with a purpose.  One way Japan can win is to cut the Allies’ sea lanes between the West Coast and Australia.  If one of the three islands is occupied (Samoa, Fiji, and Espiritu Santo) and can be held for six turns, Japan wins.  The assumption here is that these sea lanes fed the forward lines in Australia, and more importantly, the Allied submarine warfare on Japan’s merchant marine.

The final victory condition for Japan has two parts.  The simplest is time.  If Japan can hold out until August 1945 it wins.  There is another, more complex way that has to do with the ratio of Japanese vs Allied ships compared to the number of functional B-29 bases.  The exact formula isn’t expressed in the documentation so the Japanese have an incentive to preserve as much of their navy as possible and keep the Allies off of the three B-29 islands.

The AI in War Plan Pacific is aggressive.  It tends to bundle task forces into one major bundle and then sends it to wreck havoc on a single target.  The up side is that if this one major task force can be avoided, the player will likely have a good chance of succeeding at whatever he wants.  The down side is that if a small to mid-sized task force bumps into the AI’s large one, it’s best to withdraw quickly.  On a couple of occasions I tried to go toe to toe in the hope of attriting the AI’s force – it didn’t usually work. 

This is a fairly significant engagement.  Note the close matchup of air power,

but the Allies' total dominance on the surface.  If I can get close, I'll be able to put some hurt

on the Japanese fleet, but I've got to survive their air cover.

Combat models history in that the side with the greatest air power usually fares the best.  When two forces meet both sides have the opportunity to set the range at which they want to engage: air or surface.  A third option to withdraw is also available, the success of which depends on how close the two forces are to each other; the further apart they are, the more likely withdrawal will be successful with minimal damage.

Air combat always takes place first (assuming at least one side has planes).  There can be up to five rounds of combat.  Movement on the map is point to point, and each point involves a port or island on the map.  If one side brings a transport, an invasion of the island or port will be attempted, assuming one side stick around long enough and survives the air and surface ship defenses. 

The AI has been programmed to “know” what the high value targets are (according to the game’s documentation): Carriers, Transports, and Convoys.  But, as with history, just because an air group wanted to hit a Carrier didn’t mean it would succeed.  So the game has a randomizing element.  The result is that watching combat resolution feels very real.  There’s always an element of surprise.  If the two sides air forces are evenly matched luck will play a large role.  If one side has air supremacy, then it won’t be long before the other’s flattops are pointing toward Davy Jones’ Locker. 

Most every turn reinforcements show up; in the case of Japan it’s never enough, in the case of the Allies it’s an embarrassment of riches, especially later in the game.  Playing against the AI can be amusing if the player keeps a cool head.  Because the AI tends to aggregate its forces into one major task force, as the Allies the best method to win is to grab two of the three islands that reduce Japan’s oil stock: Leyte and Luzon, then grab Borneo which would give the Japanese one point of oil.  This results in a happy stalemate with the AI, where the player can then haggle over Java and Singapore until his forces build up enough that he can stand toe to toe with Japan in one huge task force.  Until then, it’s best to try to play cat-and-mouse with the AI, striking where Japan’s major task force is not, hitting their home islands from time to time to tie up a portion of the Japanese Navy in home patrol, and generally trying to build up your own bases to defend against a surprise appearance by the AI.

Winning as Japan is a tougher nut to crack.  I’m still working on a successful strategy, but that doesn’t make the game any less fun for losing.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to play online against another human; playing humans is always more challenging than the AI.  The game supports it and I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

Summary

War Plan Pacific is a terrific game.  Fun, fast, and gives a real feeling of history, this is a masterpiece of abstraction.  Gamers looking for something light to start and finish in an evening should find it satisfying.  My only reservation about the game is replay.  It is certainly fun to play four, five, six, even a dozen times.  But I wonder how frequently I will turn to it in three months.  For the last several days I’ve enjoyed the heck out of playing it, and I’m sure I’ll return to it at some point.  Longevity is the only question I have about War Plan Pacific; there is a scenario mod guide that’s been released, and with the scenario editor, gamers can brew up their own games.  Whether that will be sufficient to keep this on hard drives for months on end is something only time will tell.  Yes, I did experience one bug.  It is annoying but not show-stopping, and gamers shouldn’t let that turn them off.  The components aren’t the best either, but as a friend put it to me: all I care about is that the disk works.  It does, and I’m sure I’ve got an extra jewel case to give it a home.

As it stands, War Plan Pacific is great.  Addictive, accurate, fun, and fast – wargamers seeking light fare can’t do better.  I love these kinds of games and I can’t wait to see what KE Studios cooks up next.

An Allied victory all in an evening's work.

System Requirements & Reviewer’s System

General minimum requirements:

♦  Celeron 1.6 MHz or equivalent

♦  512 MB RAM

♦  Minimum 199 MB hard drive space required

♦  DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video System

♦  1024x768x24 bit color resolution

♦  6X CDROM

♦  Windows XP or Vista

♦  Windows compatible sound card