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Vast Strategic Simulation of WW2 in the Pacific

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 19
Date: October 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

No one can accuse game developer Gary Grigsby of thinking small. "War in the Pacific" is the ten-year remake of his earlier strategic-level simulation of the Allied-Japanese conflict, "Pacific War", covering every theater and operation between 1941 and 1945, from Pearl Harbor, Singapore, Australia, and the Aleutians, to Nagasaki and Manchuria, or, if necessary, Operation Olympic, the planned invasion of Japan. This is about 1/3 of the earth's surface divided in 60 mile hexes. Until "Harpoon 4" arrives (probably when the first men land on Mars) this is the only strategic air-sea-land simulation of such scale.

In a 2003 interview with The Wargamer, Gary Grigsby wondered out loud whether in developing "War in the Pacific", he had bitten off more than he could handle. Incredibly, every individual ship (from carriers to PT boats, subs and transports), aircraft squadron, and operational ground unit (typicaly battalion scale) is separately deployed and controllable by the human player (subject to tactical AI), or operationally controlled by the computer. It is an greatly expanded version of "Uncommon Valor", which covered the "tipping point" of the Pacific war from mid-1942 to early-1943 in the Solomons-Coral Sea region and preserved as a subset of "War in the Pacific." In addition to the hundreds if not thousands of operational units in play, in the larger campaign games (not limited to a specific theater such as the Coral Sea), there are economic production and political decisions to be made, on such matters as aircraft and factory upgrades.

The game includes a impressive library of data on every ship, aircraft and ground unit. Airpower is critical; each squadron is accounted for with leaders, planes in service, repair or reserve, supply and support. The computer tracks each air sortee and even keeps track of individual pilot performances, even those unfortunates flying the fixed-carriage P-26s expected to tangle with Japanese Zeros in 1941. These squadrons require ground support units or you wind up with a pile of spare parts. These individual battles are spread over thousands of miles, and make enormous demands upon the computer to process thousands of strategic and tactical decisions and combat resolutions. The game progresses in one day turns (which can be extended to as many days of continuity as desired) which are in turn broken up into 12 hour "pulses." Within each pulse there are over a dozen phases guided by the computer for movement, air combat, naval combat, ground combat, reinforcement, upgrade, repair, supply, etc. The AI is up to the task, but palpably strains the limits of the microprocessor (to destroy your computer, it can play itself). Fortunately (for the processor, that is) graphics are rudimentary except for the map, data and orders displays, which are an enormous improvement from "Pacific War." Otherwise, combat animation (which can be turned off) is from the DOS age of Harpoon I and disposable.

"War in the Pacific" succeeds as a historical simulation and accurately models the inalterable truths of the actual Pacific war:

1. Airpower trumps seapower. Examples abound: Pearl Harbor and the sinking, several days later, of the Price of Wales and Repulse off Malaya, and 1944 Leyte Gulf. In the period from December 1941 through May 1942, Japanese land-based long-range aircraft, backed by carriers, doomed the British in Malaya, the Dutch defense of the East Indies, and any possibility of resupply of the Philippines by the U.S. By 1944, the U.S. carrier task forces operated like "death stars" smashing Japanese bases or surface fleets at will.

2. There is almost no such thing as a successful static defense. Stationary bases, whether Singapore, Corregidor, Truk or Iwo Jima accomplished little for the defenders except heavy casualties if assaulted, or starvation if circumvented.

3. Logistics is king. In the Pacific, armies ultimately died through lack of supply. In the Philippines, the Japanese defeated a far larger US-led army in 1942 which literally starved to death. From 1943 on the U.S. likewise must carefully monitor supply and transport of its forward bases.

Given its complexity and faithful modeling of the war, the "gaming" aspects of this simulation are not for everyone. It's like one of those 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. At 1 day turns, the entire war comprises over 1200 turns, and the computer taking at a few minutes to complete all of the AI decisions and combat resolutions for each unit - whew. And in the end, absent multiple naval disasters such as the loss of every U.S. carrier in 1942, the Japanese will inevitably follow a gradual parabolic course from early success to decline under the barrage of U.S carriers, land-based bomber onslaughts and amphibious invasions. Obviously the computer's strategic AI will make mistakes - a common one is exposing carriers in single task force strikes - but it is likely to be a better logistical opponent. A small complaint is that after zillions of hours of completing a full scenario, there is no movie, music, flags or even a "banzai", just a little text message giving you your point score. Hmph.

The fact that this is one of the most expensive computer games on the market ($80) suggests that Matrix Games recognizes the audience to be limited to hardened computer grognards.. Without some understanding of the actual Pacific war and its campaigns, the scope of the game is bewildering, and you will make the same mistakes as the actual commanders - such as sending surface fleets to attack Japanese convoys without aircover in 1941, or as the Japanese, directly tangling with massed US aircraft carriers. Surface ship combat is rare and rarely decisive. Except for amphibious attacks on island atolls, ground combat is prolonged and deliberate. A single turn can take fifteen minutes to several hours (if you insist in twaddling with each unit), so the outcome of even a single landing or naval sortee will extend over an evening's worth of turns Unlike many wargames, many turns will pass before good strategic moves are rewarded, or bad strategic moves (like leaving Allied troops strewn around northern Malaya in 1941) punished. There is little instant gratification except for a submarine managing to pump working torpedoes into a capital ship or loaded troop transport, the surprise airstrike, a Midway, or the rare one-sided surface engagement.

Gary Grigsby deserves much credit for this effort, which I suspect will remain a boutique game given its dissimilarity to other war games and its enormous complexity. However, it is a valuable simulation for students of the Pacific conflict, and for the moment, the only one around.

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