Good books on Pacific War
Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 5:45 pm
There are no doubt many good books on the Pacific War (for example "The Pacific Campaign" by Dan van der Vat is interesting), but most are not very useful for reference purposes. For example, say you want to know where were the other Japanese fleets during Pearl Harbor? The game gives a list of ships and their locations (which sea zone) using the unit maintenance menu, but will not tell you what ships were in which fleet and where they were headed.
A very good reference for this game is the "West Point Atlas for the Second World War: Asia and the Pacific" from the West Point Military History series (I got it in a bookstore). The book is essentially only big maps (the book format is 14x11 inch), but very useful. For instance one map shows "Major Japanese war objectives and planned opening attacks". I don't know how you could play the Pacific Campaign scenario without this map, that shows the locations of fleets, the objectives of each area and the perimeters, unless you are a lot more knowledgeable about the Pacific War than I am.
In case you don't have the book, want to play this campaign and don't have a clue on what to do except attack Pearl Harbor and conquer China, you need to use the two fleets near the Philippines to invade them, and the fleet near Malaya to invade multiple points there with a view to taking Singapore, while quickly taking Bangkok. The latter is the only supply source in the game for supporting the offensive in Malaya until you take Singapore, so make sure you take it.Once this is done use some of the same forces to invade NW Borneo.From there you are aiming for Sarawak and the Celibes, and maybe even Australia (probably not).The Japanese defense perimeter didn't extend further East than the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, and you might be wise to do the same.
The lack of any supply source between Bangkok and Singapore cold lead to gamey tactics for the Allied player until Singapore is taken (that is a helluva long supply line), so the Japanese player should be cautious when playing this pbem against a wily Allied player.
Henri
A very good reference for this game is the "West Point Atlas for the Second World War: Asia and the Pacific" from the West Point Military History series (I got it in a bookstore). The book is essentially only big maps (the book format is 14x11 inch), but very useful. For instance one map shows "Major Japanese war objectives and planned opening attacks". I don't know how you could play the Pacific Campaign scenario without this map, that shows the locations of fleets, the objectives of each area and the perimeters, unless you are a lot more knowledgeable about the Pacific War than I am.
In case you don't have the book, want to play this campaign and don't have a clue on what to do except attack Pearl Harbor and conquer China, you need to use the two fleets near the Philippines to invade them, and the fleet near Malaya to invade multiple points there with a view to taking Singapore, while quickly taking Bangkok. The latter is the only supply source in the game for supporting the offensive in Malaya until you take Singapore, so make sure you take it.Once this is done use some of the same forces to invade NW Borneo.From there you are aiming for Sarawak and the Celibes, and maybe even Australia (probably not).The Japanese defense perimeter didn't extend further East than the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, and you might be wise to do the same.
The lack of any supply source between Bangkok and Singapore cold lead to gamey tactics for the Allied player until Singapore is taken (that is a helluva long supply line), so the Japanese player should be cautious when playing this pbem against a wily Allied player.
Henri