FAQ

Q: Everytime I play, I seem to end w/ an allied marginal victory. Is it possible for the Japanese to win?

A: Historically Japan had no chance for a military victory, and even the Japanese high command knew this. This fact makes it difficult to develop reasonable victory conditions for games on the grand strategy of the Pacific War.

One common approach is to give Japan a fixed number of free victory points. Martin Nelmes (Nusku) reports that he has excellent success with the following VP scale which amounts to giving Japan 4 VPs.

16+.....Japanese decisive
11-15...Japanese marginal
6-10....draw
1-5.....Allied marginal
0.......Allied decisive

Some people advocate bidding VP for the right to play the allies.

Q: Monsoons seem very limiting. Is that right?

A: Yes, they are a major drag since they lock down a huge portion of the map where you want to fight.

Q: Midway was one of the most important events in this war, but this game doesn't simulate it well.

A: Individual battles fall below the scale of the game. Each turn spans 3 months, and so you should consider a turn to represent a campaign, not a battle. The game does a good job of capturing the campaign for Guadalcanal, and also the campaign up the Solomons to Rabaul.

Hopefully CG will release a game with smaller scale focusing on some of these campaigns in more detail.