"Rule Sets for WW2 in the Pacific" Topic

I have recently dug out my old 20mm Japanese figures. I was wondering what rules would work best for the Pacific theater, especially Burma and New Guinea in that scale. I prefer gaming at the operational level (multi-battalion). I have a copies of Command Decision 3 and an older Spearhead. Don't know anything about Blitzkrieg Commander. I know they advertise the rules do cover the Far East theater.

Where in the PTO other than the areas you cite would
one find operational level campaigns ?

Would the Philippines be a candidate ?

I think New Guinea would be perhaps the only one,
although there were large formations in the CBI theater
some of the actual combats were smaller.

Rapid Fire would certainly work. I would wait for their newly announced 3rd edition.

FFT3 might also be a choice.

Sergeants Three has K-Bar and Bayonet and M1 and Ariska, both low level games.

For pacific, I'd actually be inclined to stick with Command Decision, unless you want substantially more figures on the table.

It puts more emphasis on infantry and morale which I think would be vital for Pacific.

Command Decision Test of Battle games has one scenario book for the Philippines campaign and another one covering various battles in the islands and Burma.

My rules Combat Action Command have a Pacific 1942-43 Supplement covering the Solomons Campaign. These rules really accentuate the differences in Troop Quality so for example the Marine Raiders defending at the Battle of Bloody Ridge can actually hold off the attacking Japanese.

My other rules, Skirmish Action, were actually designed to be used with any unit size/scale so one figure could easily represent a platoon or company. To the gaming purest that may not sound plausible but it actually works. Data for Pacific are included in the basic rules set. The system has general scenarios and rules for building army lists so you can recreate any battle.

Lee

> FFT3 might also be a choice

Normally I would recommend it but the Japanese in WWII are one of the few major nationalities that does not have an army list for. Strange since US Marines are listed.

Thanks for the info. Actually the Philippines Campaign of 1944-45 was the second largest effort (by manpower) for the US Army in WW2. There was more troops in the Italian Campaign but that included other allied forces. Nearly 1.25 million US troops overall in the Philippines.

I'm not looking for divisional size battles, but at least multi-battalion games.

You could try ostfront – fully covers Japanese and US forces (and Chinese) so you can easily game the pacific and Burma. Its aimed at quick play and large scale, and designed with 20mm in mind. The Japanese army list comes with 6 scenarios for pacific battles like amphibious landings or battles in dense jungle.

Quick fire rules are free, with simplified army lists included:
link

And the main rules are here:
link

What does each stand represent in Ostfront?

In Ostfront each stand represents about 25 men. For the veteran Assault Infantry, it represents 10 – 12 men.

Infantry are usually deployed in platoons, represented by 2 stands deployed within 1" of each other. They can act individually after the game starts, so its more of an organizational and army list building thing than a functional in-game restriction.

Appreciate it!

Thanks for info on Ostfront; downloaded the quick rules and will be looking at them.

I would recommend Rapid Fire Rules. Hope it helps.

Take care

Andy