Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940

The Empire of Japan versus the United States

AXIS & ALLIES ARTICLES

FEATURED CONTENT

MANUFACTURERS

GAMES

RETAILERS

Are You Game.com

WEBSITE STUFF

How to Play Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940

Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 is a deluxe expansion of the original Axis & Allies: Pacific board game sold by Avalon Hill. Axis&Allies Pacific 1940 rolls time back one year from the original game, while adding rules that were first used in the popular Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition. New units are added, while the roles of the Chinese and ANZAC forces are expanded. Like all other Axis & Allies games of the past generation, Pacific 1940 is designed by Larry Harris.

Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 Rules

The Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 rules give the players more tactical options with the use of mechanized infantry and tactical bomber units. China is given more units than in the original Axis & Allies: Pacific spinoff game, while the forces of Australia and New Zealand are combined to give players a playable new member of the Allied force: the ANZACs.

Other key rules from the original Pacific Axis & Allies game remain. You'll be able to employ kamikaze attacks to even more effect with expanded rules. You air and naval bases take on greater importance than before, while convoy disruption gets a rule update. Finally, the rulebook pays more attention to neutral nations, which is an addition I've wanted to see for years.

Axis & Allies: Pacific Instructions

One major revamp and improvement is the "Scramble" rule, which is derived from the Combat Air Patrol rule of the original Pacific game. Also, Victory Points aren't used anymore. As this might imply to those who've played the classic version of Axis and Allies: Pacific, the game mechanics have been reworked considerably to give the Japanese a reasonable shot at winning.

The game setup involves a "Political Situation" rule. This stipulates when two countries are at war with one another. In the beginning, Japan and China are at war, but Japan is not at war with the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, or ANZACs. In fact, the United States cannot enter the conflict until after 3 Japanese turns, unless the Japanese use their sneak attack ability on someone. The United Kingdom and ANZAK forces can declare war before turn 4, but this allows the Japanese to retaliate without bringing the Americans into the war, so you better plan your attack well or be punished for jumping the gun.

Convoy zones play a big role in play. If you own a territory in a sea zone, but enemy naval units are in one of the convoy zones nearby, this can reduce the amount of income you get from that territory. Finally, if you invade a neutral country, units are placed on their territories to defend (unit numbers written on the board).

Why Start Axis & Allies: Pacific in 1940?

1940 was a pivotal year in Japan's quest to found an empire in the Far East, though the shooting war with the United States didn't start until late 1941. In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded France and the Low Countries (Belgium and Holland), which had fateful consequences throughout Asia and the Pacific rim. Conventional wisdom assumed that England and France were a match for Germany, much like they had been in the First World War. But while the old French generals who came to power in WWI were still in charge in 1940 (and wedded to obsolete warfare theories), the German general staff was a generation younger and more willing to embrace the new theories of mechanization, air power, and combined arms--in effect, blitzkrieg. Using a new type of warfare, Germany knocked France, Holland, and Belgium out of the war in 6 weeks time.

This had tremendous consequences in the Japanese sphere of interest. France had its empire in Indo-China (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), while Holland controlled the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). England, with its empire in the south and east Asia (India, Burma, Singapore and Malaysia, Hong Kong) and allied dominions (Australia, New Zealand), was now hard-pressed by the Germans and fighting alone against the Axis. Fresh off its defeat in the Battle of France, most people in the world thought England was going down to defeat. In this moment when the European empires who had controlled Asia for so long were suddenly defeated or imperilled, the Empire of Japan found itself as the strongest power in East Asia, with the major temptation to seize control of the imperial holdings of these European states. 1940 was the time when the pace to world war quickened for Japan.

Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 Strategy

It's in this scenario that 2 to 6 players find themselves. Japan is mired in mainland China, able to defeat any conceivable Chinese forces Chiang Kai-Sek or Mao Zedong can throw at them, but unable to deliver the knockout blow to either. Should Japan try to end the war in China or move south into Southeast Asia and the East Indies, where Japan can conquer resources like tin, iron, rubber, and oil to become self-sufficient, but faces a host of scattered, yet still proud, opponents. Meanwhile, the threat of U.S. armed intervention (or embargo) threaten to undermine what Japanese soldiers have died for since it first went to war in 1931.

In Axis & Allies: 1940 Pacific, you have the option to pursue the same "North Strategy" the Japanese Army wanted to pursue: to attack Russia. In the game, Russia remains a looming menace in the northwest. Due to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 and the Russian defeat of the Japanese in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in August 1939 (around the time of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), Japan viewed Russia as its traditional enemy. The Battle of Khalkhin Gol (a disastrous defeat for Japan) discredited the Japanese Army's northern ambitions, so the Japanese Navy's "Southern Strategy" to strike into the Southeast Asia, the East Indies, and South Pacific became the preferred strategy. Since this war game is set back in 1940, though, you have the option to choose either strategy, which was being debated at the time.

When playing Japan, you have several big decisions to make. The first is whether to continue the one-on-one war with China. While China can't create many units, it can spawn armies at whim and is virtually impossible to knock out of the war. Also, it's provinces usually aren't worth enough to win the war alone, so if you go after China alone, you allow the UK, US, and Anzacs to build up their forces. But if you go after the Aussies or the British, you risk bringing the U.S. into the war prematurely. Still, this is how you build up income and resources, so it tends to be the main strategy. If you are a non-US ally, your goal is to slow the Japanese advance and stay in the war long enough for the American industrial might to be felt. The Americans' income can't be fully accessed until they are at war, which is a good reason for the Japanese to keep them out of the war for as long as possible.

Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 is a much different game than the original Axis & Allies: Pacific game, so don't assume one is the other. If you match this game with the Axis & Allies: Europe standalone game, you can recreate World War II on a grander scale than just playing the original game.