|
|
Back in the
70s, designers used to say that you needed one of the three NsNATO,
nukes, or Nazisto sell a modern-period wargame. Thus began a trend that has pretty
much continued to this day. There are all manner of games that allow you to battle as or
against the Huns on the east and west fronts of World War II, and you dont have to
search far to find games pitting NATO against whomever seems threatening this week. And
many of these games sell very well (for wargames). On
the other hand, games set in the World War IIs Pacific theatre just dont. The
Japanese have always been wargaming box office death, the equivalent of a Judd Nelson
direct-to-video movie. Ive never been able to figure out exactly whythough I
think it might have something to do with tanks. As everyone knows, Germans and tanks go
together like chicken and waffles. If you play a game with Nazis in it, you just know that
sooner or later youre going to see some enormous and very stylish Tiger or Panther
tanksand it doesnt hurt that you get to throw Shermans and T-34s up against
them, either. On the other hand, the Japanese didnt have all that many tanks, and
the ones they did havemostly Type 97s with 47mm gunslook pretty sad in
comparison to a King Tiger or even a Mark IV. And
the Pacific theatres terrain didnt exactly favor the blitzkrieg tactics of the
European battles, either. Forget the dashing Pattonesque end runs. Much of the theatres
fighting took place in some of the most thoroughly inhospitable terrain
imaginable--jungles, mountains, and swamps were the least of it. It was a grunts
war: up close, personal, and nasty. This is
witnessed, of course, in the theatres two most enduring imagesthe banzai
charge and the opposed amphibious landing, both of which consisted of getting a bunch of
insanely brave guys to charge into concentrated fire. Actually, its great stuff, but
it just hasnt sold games. Not enough tanks. Thats all I can figure. And so it was pretty gutsy of Talonsoft to release Rising Sun, the latest (and probably last) installment of their excellent Campaign Series. Rising Sun is a platoon-level game covering the Pacific War from 1941 to 1945. It includes about 40 scenarios, and youll find almost every significant battle in there somewhere: a partial list of scenario settings includes the Aleutians, Biak, Bougainville, Buna, Burma, Guadalcanal, Guam, Leyte, Pelelieu, Imphal, Kohima, Kwajalein, Malaysia, New Guinea, the Philippines, Okinawa, Tarawa, and Saipan. Rising Sun also includes seven campaign games. Four of the campaigns are linked and based upon pre-designed historical situations: they allow you to command either the Aussies in New Guinea, Japanese in the Phillipines, or Americans in the Guadalcanal campaign and Operation Olympic (the projected invasion of Japan). Three of the campaigns are dynamic and cover Burma, the Philippines, and Luzon, and can be played as either side. In the dynamic campaigns, you can also choose what level of command you wish to take, and your units will gain experience as you progress through randomly generated scenarios. With most of the scenarios running to 20+ turns, theres a lot of gameplay here. If youre familiar
with the Campaign Series, then youll feel right at home with Rising Sun. If youre
not, Rising Sun is a standard Igo/Ugo turn-based wargame. Though more complicated than,
say, Panzer General, its nowhere near as arcane as, say, The Operational Art of War.
In boardgame terms its a lot like the classic Panzerblitz in both scale and
complexity. In fact, Rising Sun is a nice intermediate step for wargaming beginners who
want to move up from the wargame lite category. This is made easier by the games
excellent and user-friendly documentation and tutorial. Clearly, Talonsoft has learned
their lesson since the initial offering in the series, East Front, was released with
virtually no documentation; Rising Sun comes with a very clear and helpful 188-page
manual. Though the mechanics and
interface of Rising Sun are an awful lot like East Fronts and West Fronts,
gameplay is very different. First, as I said, most of the games are grind-it-out infantry
battles. Secondly, a slew of new features captures the essence of island fighting,
including a great set of night-fighting features. Since many of the epic battles in the
Pacific were fought at night, Talonsoft has included rules for firing starshells, firing
at gunflashes, and limited line of sight. When I played the Guadalcanal campaign, several
of the scenarios revolved around Japanese night attacks on my Marines as they attempted to
hold the frayed perimeter around Henderson Field. Ive played a lot of Guadalcanal
games and many of them are excellentespecially GMTs Operation Shoestring and
The Gamers Matanikau--and the superb implementation of night fighting rules in
Rising Sun raised it a cut above even those games. Since the Japanese player could also
launch banzai charges, it made for some tense gaming as swarms of Nipponese
troops suddenly appeared from the darkness, overwhelmed my thinly-spread outposts, and
infiltrated into my rear areas. Rising Sun also includes rules for some of the nastier
fortifications the allies ran up against during the Pacific War, including caves. In fact,
many of the scenarios will involve prying stubborn Japanese defenders out of well-prepared
positions, so its well worth playing through the boot camp scenario on
bunker busting before trying them on. And then there are the amphibious landing scenarios.
My favorite stand-alone scenario is Tarawa: Line of Departure, and its an absolutely
brutal battle. After playing it, youll understand why the Marine casualty list
occasioned calls for a Congressional investigation. The bottom line: gameplay in Rising
Sun is first-rate. Most Pacific War wargames
have failed to appreciate the theatres unique qualities, but Talonsofts
inspired tweaking of the Campaign Series game engine has given us the first realistic,
immersive, and thoroughly enjoyable PC game of the war against Japan. Graphically, Rising Sun maintains the
Campaign Series usual excellence. You can zoom maps to several levels of
magnification, and the closest 3D view looks like a miniatures game. Sound is excellent as
well, with Japanese and Western music tracks available, and the sound effects are up to
Talonsofts usual high standards. Multiplayer is supported for modem,
TCP/IP, IPX, and Play-by-Email, though oddly only five of the scenarios are balancedthat
is, most of them are best played by one side or the other. Heres hoping for more
balanced two-player games in an expansion pack. The downside? Well, other than the
limited number of two-player scenarios, I cant think of any. Uh, theres no Iwo
Jima scenario. But this is probably understandable, given the battles scale and the
fact that it isnt really a great gaming scenario anyway. So the real downside is
that this might indeed be the last game in Talonsofts campaign series, especially
given the recent exodus of its hardcore wargame design team. That would be a shame,
because Rising Sun is in my opinion the best game in the series so far, and the one that
best demonstrates the engines surprising flexibility. I wasnt sure the CS
engine could move successfully from Europe to the Pacific, but it has done so with flair,
and I can think of plenty of other subjects Id like to see the engine brought to
bear onVietnam, for instance. If youre one of those that habitually pass on
Pacific theatre games, pick this one up; Rising Sun is a superb wargame by any standards. |