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Returning to Tenkatōitsu

I recently opened up Tenkatōitsu again and played through the Battles of Nagakute and Yamazaki. It was good to see that even after more than a year of not playing the game, I still remembered the rules pretty well. The games played differently than the my first experiences, probably because the rules were second nature and I could focus a bit more on strategy.

The Yamazaki scenario had some interesting moments. For the first half of the match, Akechi Mitsuhide (the defending side) secured a comfortable Victory Point lead. His defenses held remarkably well. Hashiba Hideyoshi struggled with some nasty dice rolles that saw his armies suffer heavy losses. At this point, Akechi became a little overzealous and missed a good opportunity to retreat into the castle to wait out a siege. Hashiba made a comeback and started wiping out Akechi’s forces, quickly overtaking Akechi in victory points.

Hashiba’s army started to get crowded behind the front lines. I’d be interested to see other strategies to avoid the traffic jam that is likely to occur for Hashiba’s troops.

Before long it became clear that Akechi’s only hope was to pull back and try to eke out a draw rather than outright defeat. The most exciting part of the match happened when a retreating Akechi pulled Hashiba to a vulnerable position all by himself. Akechi pounced: all three units of Akechi’s clan were able to surround Hashiba. The dice were rolled and Hashiba… took some damage but managed to scrape by with his life. If Hashiba had died there, Akechi would have won regardless of Hashiba’s Victory Point total. Even though Akechi ultimately lost, it made for a memorable match.

Those familiar with Tenkatōitsu will likely know that leaders only die if their unit is wiped out and they fail to make a leader loss saving throw (rolling anything other than a 5 or a 6 on a six-sided die). That’s a %66.7 chance of losing the game based on the loss of one unit.

I decided to take a break instead of playing through the Sekigahara scenario. I’m looking forward to trying that battle again since I remember liking it the best out of the three scenarios included. Granted, it’s easily the most complicated and the largest in terms of the armies involved.

A New Game to Learn

While browsing around for other board wargames that might be interesting, I stumbled upon Empire of the Sun, a game about the Pacific War between the Allies and Empire of Japan from 1941 to 1945. The game has been around since 2005, meaning that it’s not too difficult to find cheaper copies available second-hand. I decided to buy a copy of the second edition (first printing) and see if I could puzzle my way through the rules.

Learning a new game can be tough, especially when it’s complex.

Re-reading my thoughts about other board wargames I was interested in trying back in 2021 (see the third paragraph from the bottom of this play report), I recognize now that I’m a little wary about buying games that were published more than thirty years ago. I’m sure there are plenty of great games from those periods, but I worry about how long the components will last. Will cardboard that was made in the 1970s or 1980s hold up for much longer? Perhaps it’s an unfounded fear. For the time being, I’ll continue to focus on games that were printed more recently.

Tenkatōitsu and Empire of the Sun are incredibly different. EotS is a strategic-level game, meaning that the scale is far larger (one hex in EotS is equal to about 150 miles and unit sizes vary but can be as many as tens of thousands of soldiers). On top of that, there are political systems that are absent from Tenkatōitsu. For one, the Allies need to keep track of the Political Will tracker, which measures the willingness of the American public to continue fighting the war. If it’s at zero when a turn ends, the Americans are forced to enter negotiations and the Empire of Japan player wins.

While Tenkatōitsu boasts about 534 counters, EotS only has 280 counters. Yet the games use their counters differently. For example, if players want to go through the full Pacific War almost all 280 counters will come into play. Players will likely never use all 534 of Tenkatōitsu’s counters.

EotS features a card-driven system. It allows for a high degree of replayability due to the high number of hands possible. Players take turns using cards either as Operations or as Events. It’s a great way to force players to consider their strategies carefully. Every card has an Operations Value ranging from 1 to 3. This number determines the amount of units that can be activated and their allowable movement points. The cards act as a limited resource from one turn to another. For example, only Event cards allow players to declare more than one battle hex at a time. Declaring multiple battle hexes can pin down armies that would otherwise be free to react to the main objective the player has in mind.

The components are a sight to behold.

The rulebook included with Tenkatōitsu was translated from French to English. There are occasional typos and phrases that sound a little odd. Yet the rulebook is moderately easy to follow for someone new to the hobby.

EotS is a lot more complicated. It’s been necessary to go back and re-read different sections more than once. Some of the more difficult concepts to get used to are the procedures for activating units, tracing supply lines, and determining Zones of Influence (ZOIs). I’ve found the rulebook a little difficult to parse at times. Thankfully, there’s a wealth of tutorials online.

The physical components are pretty solid. The mounted map is fantastic. It makes a sheet of plexiglass unnecessary. The cards are well designed and easy to read. While I like the colors used for the units, I wish that the counters had been cut as well as those in Tenkatōitsu. Granted, this printing predates that game by about two years. Eventually I might have to clip some of the corners of the counters that have extra bits of cardboard fluff – a process that I do not look forward to (I can easily see myself cutting a little too much off a counter). There’s a lot more counter stacking in EotS, meaning that having clipped corners might be worth it in the long run. The only other major downside to having the first printing version of the second edition is that the box is quite small. The counters will have to live in a separate plastic container for the time being.

The board looks great.

Starting in the second edition, a system was included to offer solitaire players an opponent called “Erasmus” (named after the evil robot from the Dune sequels). Erasmus is a set of rules and flowcharts to follow to make decisions for either side. Erasmus will never contravene the game’s normal rules, making it one way to learn some basic strategies.

Despite the complexity, I feel like I’m slowly getting a handle on the rules. It’ll take longer to understand what each side should be focusing on from turn to turn, but that’s part of the fun of playing. Peeking at what Erasmus would do in a given situation might offer some help, at least until I develop my own play style.

After playing a few turns physically, I downloaded the Vassal module for EotS and ran through the sample 1941 turn included in the rules a second time. Vassal is an application available at no charge to play board games. Being about to toggle the Zones of Influence is really helpful. It’s also nice to let the computer set up the scenarios for you. Of course, that process will become quicker as I become more familiar with the units and the map.

The Vassal module is well made.

Japanese history has always been a favorite, especially the Meiji period and the contradictions that emerged in Japanese society. The Meiji elites decided to adopt Western technology and concepts with the intent of expelling Western powers from the Japanese Empire’s sphere of influence. There was a determination to preserve Japanese traditions and customs (and invent new ones in the process; see the book Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan by Takashi Fujitani). Yet by adopting Western ways of viewing the world (including, for example, imperialism) did Japan not lose some of its unique, pre-Meiji Restoration identity?

Japanese history, like all history, was not preordained: any number of paths were possible for Japan. Reading about the Pacific War reveals the fierce disagreements among the elites about what the Japanese Empire should prioritize. Some hardliners wanted to conquer all of China. Others voiced concerns about over-extending Japan’s limited manpower and resources. In many instances, cliques of the Imperial Japanese Army essentially forced the government in Tokyo to pursue more aggressive land grabs.

Overall, I’ve been enjoying my time with EotS. It’s been fascinating to compare it to Tenkatōitsu. There’s a lot of variety in the board wargame genre. EotS might be my upper limit for complexity. We’ll see how I feel after I get a better grip on the rules.