Pacific War

Grand Strategic World War II Game for Two Players
Designed by Mark Herman
Published by Victory Games (1985)

I purchased this game when it first came out in 1985 and have spent many hours looking at the components and attempting to make sense of the rules. I have had a long-term interest in playing World War II games that have a Pacific Theatre focus. While I have played tactical games such as Banzai and operational games such as Midway and Flat Top my real interest has been strategic games and I have played Victory in the Pacific, Fire in the Sky, WWII: PTO, Empire of the Sun and World in Flames. I have had, and in some cases still own, other games such as A World At War, War in the Pacific, Pearl Harbour and Empire of the Rising Sun which I have never played. Pacific War is still in the later group, despite recent efforts on my part to make it through the rules so as to be able to play the game before writing this review – but it just hasn’t happened.


My initial and overwhelming reaction to the game for 23 years has been that there is so much to it that I haven’t really known where to start. The rules, themselves, I find overwhelming. I normally quite enjoy reading the rules of games and most times will finish the rule-book with some idea of how the game works. It hasn’t happened that way with Pacific War.

Let me tell you what comes in the box:
1 Rules Booklet (56 pages)
2 Scenario Booklets (20 pages each)
2 Map-sheets (only 5 scenarios require the use of both maps)
9 Counter-sheets (2340 counters)
2 large Player Display Sheets
2 large Chart & Table Screens
1 Operation Display Sheet
8 Force Displays
1 Record Sheet Pad
1 Ten-sided Die
1 Counter Tray (I actually use three counter trays and everything except the die fits into the box perfectly).

The game comes with 21 scenarios which can be divided into Engagement, Battle, Campaign and Strategic scenarios. The Engagement games (5) each take about 15 minutes to play and are solitaire games specifically designed to make it easy to learn the game, one subsystem at a time. The Battle games (8) add a game concept called an “Operation”. Each battle scenario is One Operation – one player will be the Operation Player and their opponent will be the Reaction Player. The third level is the Campaign game (6). At this level you have 2 or more operations conducted sequentially – the Campaign will use all of the rules but Command Points are predetermined by the scenario instructions. The Strategic game (2) uses all the rules and allows you to fight the entire war – the number of Command Points will vary depending upon many factors, some of which you may have some control over.

The Rule Booklet
The first 31 pages are devoted specifically to the Engagement and Battle games – 9 of these pages are devoted to examples of play. The final 23 pages are devoted to the Campaign and Strategic games.

Engagements & Battles
These types of scenarios use an abbreviated sequence of play – it is outlined on a single page of the rules. The full sequence of play used in the Campaign and Strategic games takes up two full pages of the rule booklet.

Activation & Linking
In the Campaign and Strategic games you must spend Command Points to activate units to do almost anything and units must be linked to a command source. In the Engagements and Battles all units are considered activated and linked at the start of the scenario.

Game Play
The central focus of the game is Naval/Air Operations. One player moves his units, slowly, one-hex-at-a-time and so giving his opponent the opportunity to search for the enemy in every hex that they enter. This continues until either the task force is sighted or the active player decides to stop. Then inactive player then has the same number of moves as the previously active player. There is a lot of dice-rolling regarding searching. The game certainly has the feel of wanting to locate the enemy and hit them before they can locate and hit you. Even during your opponents turn there will be no down-time as you need to be watching everything they do and reacting as much as you will be allowed by the rules and the current situation.


All of the previous information I have gleaned from the rules book. It really is very detailed (maybe too detailed). It has plenty of examples – I feel that I actually probably have a reasonable idea of how the game does work, but the way the rules are presented just does not fill me with a desire to rush to the gaming table and start playing. Often times, after reading a rules-book, I just can’t wait to start playing the game. I don’t really know what it is about Pacific War that has had it sitting, unplayed, on my shelves since 1985.

I’m sure that there must be a good game in there – I just can’t find it. I like Mark Herman’s other designs and I like the quality of Victory Games. I find the subject matter fascinating. The physical size of the game is no greater than some other games I have played and really enjoyed.

I think what I really need is for someone who knows how to play the game to invite me over to their place so that they can teach me how to play. As I have stated already, I am quite happy to sit and read rule-books but I just don’t enjoy this particular set of rules and it continues to leave me with no interest in sitting down and playing the game solitaire.



"Dead Men Tell No Tales - Nor Do They Read Rule-books!"