The ad copy for The Pacific War: Deadly Battles of Combined Fleet certainly grabbed my attention:
Pacific War: Bloody Battle!! Combined Fleet is a strategic simulation centered on the actions of “admirals.” Players take command of either the Japanese or Allied forces, allocating resources to admirals and aiming to control key areas. Though simple, the game incorporates critical Pacific War elements: the importance of southern resources, the distinction between carrier and surface battles, the tactical role of Japanese submarines, Allied submarine commerce raiding, B-29s, and kamikaze special attack units.
The long-awaited folio edition reprint includes variants from BANZAI Magazine Issue 13, plus new rules expanding gameplay, such as secret Indian bases, the British Pacific Fleet, Operation Vengeance (the Yamamoto assassination), and the “Symbol of Showa.”
Covering the war from its 1941 outbreak to its 1945 end, gameplay lasts about 90 minutes. Leading unique admirals with varied parameters like rank, tactical value, command value, force areas, and control points, can you achieve victory?
Featured in BANZAI Magazine Issue 12 (February 2022)… .
Thanks to Bonsai Games publisher Yasushi Nakaguro (@yasN2010 on X) I acquired the newest 2025 folio edition of The Pacific War: Deadly Battles of Combined Fleet.
The Pacific War: Deadly Battles of Combined Fleet is packaged in a nice two-folder folio.
For a wargame with such a strategic sweep the contents of The Pacific War: Deadly Battles of Combined Fleet are rather sparse: a 12-page rules (the back cover of which is a planning map), two double-sided player aids, a half-sheet of 99 counters (~7/16″), and a quad-fold paper map.
The quad fold map for The Pacific War: Deadly Battles of Combined Fleet lays out in landscape format at ~16.5″ x 23 3/8″ and supports players sitting on opposite sides of the long edges.
Given the past track record of folio titles by Japanese designers from Bonsai Games, such as the excellent Kinmen 1949, I look forward to The Pacific War: Deadly Battles of Combined Fleet. That is, however, once I translate the rules and Player Aids. Thankfully, Generative AI tools are supportive of this effort, though I will have to wait until the Japanese language pdf of the rules are posted (coming by end of July) to start. Once that prep work is done then play can commence. I am sure to comment on those impressions here in the future.
Feature image courtesy RMN
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