A Very Tough Year...!

Empire of the Sun posted its lowest ever player count since its inception in 2005 with only 7 total participants. After one round of Swiss, we had our 4 semi-final players. Three hours later the final table was set with Chris Byrd and Chris Crane facing opposite, both former champions of the event.

Final match

Chris Byrd took the Allies and I the Japanese (JP). Turn 3 opened with the standard amphibious assault on Guadalcanal followed up with the usual dispersal moves for the JP fleet and ground unit repositioning for the Allies. The JP had the last card play of the turn, it was a 3 OP card (Operation KE) and it was an interesting decision point. One way is to play it is for China Offensive, which is virtually guaranteed to work. It puts down an early VP for the JP and signals to the Allies that China is going to be in play for this game. However, another way to play it is to move off the SS Bde from Lae to Rabaul or Bougainville to save it for a possible spoiler attack into New Hebrides or Australia later in the game. This is mildly risky because the Allies had already reinforced Port Moresby, so if the subwarfare roll was successful next turn the JP wouldn’t go first and the Allies would have an easy attack into Lae with his first card play.

Roughly even odds either way as the Allies could easily draw one of his two China cards next turn and the China Offensive play becomes nullified. In the end, I chose to play the 3 OP card for Operations and moved out the SS Bde from Lae, figuring I was likely to get another 3 OP card next turn and I could play for China then.

Turn 4 starts and I was way wrong on both counts. My hand was filled with 1 or 2 OP ineffective cards and the Allied subwarfare roll hit (40% chance). The Allies went first and Chris marched into Lae immediately. Shifting gears, the JP went full defensive, because now it was required to slow down the Allied land march as much as possible.

Turns 4, 5 and 6 were all of a similar theme. The Allies would march and capture a port or an airfield and the JP would crush air units in reaction and try to follow up with low OP card play air attacks on vulnerable ground unit stacks only to have the Allies make every intel check along the way. I drew no War in Europe cards or my China card or even another 3 OP card until Turn 6. The Allied advance was slow due to my efforts, but methodical and successful.

At the end of the last turn, I had a card in Future Offensive and a card left in my hand when Chris played his final card on a, fortunately for me, unsuccessful AA attack on Bougainville. This opened a door to victory for me. The VP count at the time was +5. The Allies had gained Guadalcanal, Lae, Wewak, Hollandia and Rabaul and the JP had moved the China marker 1 to the left. So +4 on ports and +1 for China for a total of +5 (Allies winning). The JP needed just one point to squeak out a victory and Chris had left an opening in his back field. The New Hebrides were only guarded with a single air unit (1 MAW) in Efate and Espirtu Santo was entirely open with no units in the hex. My first turn SS Bde play to Bougainville had given me an opportunity and, better still, I had the cards to pull it off. In FO was Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and the last card in my hand was Rear Admiral Matami Ugaki. The two most powerful MI event cards for the JP in this scenario.

I put together a massive attack, ultimately pinning every air/naval stack on the map I could. [BB Yamato] and [CV Shokaku] escorted the [SS Bde] on the amphib attack to Espirtu Santo. I needed Ugaki to do it, so that is what I played. I just needed one thing to go right between the SR roll, the Intel roll, or the A/N battle itself in order to win the game.

Veteran players will note that in playing Ugaki, I wouldn’t be able to play my FO card, but I knew I was only going to get one shot at it because Chris would activate any number of naval units (pinned though they may be) in reaction and plug the hole if the landing didn’t work. I needed the extra activation to pin units. I spent a solid 15 minutes setting everything up. Board set; it was time to roll some dice…

SR roll: Allies made it; battle hex created on Espirtu Santo.

Intel roll: Allies made that too. Allies react with the only two units I couldn’t pin, [BB Washington] and CVE Sangamon. It’s 18CF for the JP vs 14CF for the Allies. The odds are in the JP favor here!

Battle roll: Allies roll a 1x and the JP roll a .5x and the game is decided for the Allies. The 1x sinks [CV Shokaku] and .5x flips the CVE Sangamon. The JP are 2 CF short from winning the A/N battle and this stops the [SS Bde] landing.

Congratulations Chris Byrd! A tight game right to the end.