Battle of Saipan

Joni Nuutinen

About this game

Battle of Saipan 1944 is a turn based strategy game set on the Pacific theater during the Second World War. From Joni Nuutinen: by a wargamer for the wargamers since 2011

Summer, 1944: You are in command of the mostly-Marine American task force with orders to seize the island of Saipan, so that it can be used as a base to launch B-29 air strikes against the Japanese home islands. The ensuing battle -- which included the U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and the U.S. Army's 27th Infantry Division -- saw both the largest Japanese tank battle and the biggest banzai attack of the Pacific War.

As you gain control of the units while they are still in the landing ships, you can redirect the flow of reinforcements to your liking. This allows quick spreading of the beachhead but also makes it easier to overextend your landing.



FEATURES:

+ Historical accuracy: Campaign mirrors the historical setup as much as possible while being challenging and entertaining.

+ Thanks to a huge amount of in-built variation and the game's smart AI technology, each game provides a unique war gaming experience as each roll of dices will slowly but surely guide the flow of the scenario in a different direction that the previous play-through.

+ Settings: Various options are available to alter the look of the gaming experience: Change difficulty level, choose icon set for units (NATO or REAL) and cities (Round, Shield, or Square), decide what is drawn on the map, change font, unit and hexagon sizes.

+ Clever AI: Instead of attacking on an obvious straight line towards the target, the AI opponent understands encircling, smaller tactical tasks, trying to hold a coherent front line, etc. and the AI tries to balance all these various aspects in its game plan.



In order to be a victorious general, you must learn to coordinate your attacks in two ways. First, as adjacent units give support to an attacking unit, keep your units in groups in order to gain local superiority and win battles. Secondly, it is rarely the best idea to use brute force when it is possible to encircle the enemy and cut off its supply lines to supply cities instead.

Join your fellow strategy gamers in changing the course of the Second World War!



"The Battle of Saipan was a baptism of fire for the American military. It was the first time that we had faced a Japanese defense force that was prepared to fight to the end. It was a harsh and costly battle, but it was a victory that was essential to our ultimate success in the Pacific."
-- Samuel Eliot Morison is his book History of United States Naval Operations in World War II

Ratings and reviews

Great solo game.

This is a battalion-level simulation and it's a bit more straightforward than other Pacific battles in the Conflict Series. Keeping your troops supplied plays a role, of course, but there's no enemy navy trying to sink your supply ships; even so, I had to have my HQ units loot supplies a few times (each) to avoid running out. As you advance north, the island narrows and you'll probably find that while you were struggling at first, you have more troops than you can get to the action towards the end, especially because the terrain is pretty constricting. It's interesting to read the names of the auxiliary units the Japanese throw at you as they run out of combat units, from tank units without tanks to airfield and port maintenance crews. All in all, not the most attention-grabbing in the Conflict Series, nor particularly challenging, but a solid entry in an outstanding series.

Classical wargame lovers should enjoy this title. Be prepared for the long fight!

What's new

+ Bombarding Japanese artillery or HQ might result MP-loss
+ Setting: Enable/disable Defensive Combat Dialog popping-up results from AI phase when a unit with B1/B2 tag is selected
+ Unit Tally tracks what % of combat did end up in: win/draw/loss/escape for the player
+ Animation delay before combat result is shown (player side)
+ Unit Tally shows list of units the player has lost (data collected since version 3.4, so not instantly full list)
+ Map: Added dozen labels
+ HOF refresh