I was interested in playing PB just for the Malaya campaign, as that was my main interest. So I was keen to see DG's take on it, having previously played the old S&T version and being greatly disappointed.

Of course, I accepted that PB would have a lower resolution of game design by necessity being a compromise design required to encompass three very different types of battles from Malaya to Bataan to Guadalcanal. Perhaps too ambitious a task but nevertheless, a proposition which I accepted.

But unfortunately, even cutting PB that slack was not enough. The Malaya-specific rules seemed to be just haphazardly tacked on to the general rules. Moreover, some of the general rules, when applied to the Malaya game, created some very weird situations.

First, the strategic movement rule, coupled with the inaccurate map, created Formula 1 Japanese units, zipping down the Malayan superhighway. Moreover, the inaccurate map with its connection of roads (which did not exist historically) allowed the Japanese to casually switch units from the west and east coast, obviating the need for any historical coastal hook.

Second, the "no retreat result" CRT meant that there was hardly any real decisions for the Commonwealth to make. They don't not even have the option of playing a delaying game of trading space for time, because once combat is joined, the Commonwealth will take casualties.

So given a choice of standing on the Malayan peninsula or in Singapore, the Commonwealth will choose to stand in Singapore. So this means they will just retreat all the way to Singapore and hope for the best. As for the Japanese, there's no need for fancy manoeuvres. Just mass the troops, arty and planes and they'll blast through the Commonwealth.

Third, once the Commonwealth get to Singapore, here's where the game becomes completely weird. The Japanese can assault from only one hex. So it becomes one big stack vs another big Commonwealth stack on Singapore. You have a series of meat-grinding dice-rolling and the victor is the one who rolls better. As units get hit, you just rotate them with those not engaged and keep going until the Commonwealth is ground down or the game ends. Why bother?

Fourth, very poor quality of proofreading and ambigious situations created by the rules. Just look at the commendable and valiant effort by Mark Mokszycki, who has compiled errata, Q&As and other clarifications here on BGG and CSW (here's a GG, Mark!). And despite this, there remains ambiguities (and questionable whether it's worth finding answers to them anymore).

So this is a bad game, even if you cut it some slack that its rules has to stretch to cover three very different battles.

What can we learn from this?

1) The Malayan peninsula campaign and the subsequent assault on Singapore are two very different situations and wargame designers come to grief when reconciling these two battles into one ruleset. Rather than come up with rules to tie these two battles into one holistic game, maybe designers can consider focusing on specific battles like Slim River (like Perry Moore's Slim River) or the Battle for Singapore (like Peter Schutze's Illusionary Fortress).

2) Percival was not an idiot. He was no Rommel but he wasn't incompetent. He just had a lousy job to do with very little support or understanding from his superiors. Percival also had major C&C problems with his most capable and powerful forces, the Australians (well, with one Australian - AIF Commander Gordon Bennett). The amazing thing was not he had spectacular defeats, but that he held the Japanese as far north for as long as he did. When designing a Malaya game, keeping Percival's performance in context is important.

3) Following on (2), rules regarding movement and combat should be carefully crafted to ensure the Japanese become overly powerful, so much so that the Commonwealth player, even if he faithfully repeated Percival's manoeuvres, cannot even replicate the historical result (bad as they were). I mean, forget about Muar, in PB, the Commonwealth forces would be wiped out by Slim River! Sadly, it's pretty easy to go overboard and make the Japanese too powerful.

4) If the Japanese are overly powerful, the game design will never get to explore the real crux of the Malayan campaign, i.e., historically, Percival had orders from London to hold the Japanese as far north as possible. An impossible task, admittedly, but one which Percival tried to execute as faithfully as possible. But in PB and the S&T game, there is no way for the Commonwealth player to attempt this. He has no choice but to do the big bug-out to Singapore starting from Turn 1 or lose the game. I would like to see a Malaya game which gives the Commonwealth player the correct opportunities to hold the ground as best he can in Malaya and takes into account those orders from London.