This are some of the house rules that I have found useful in running A&A Pacific games in my summer gaming class. The kids playing are 6th through 10th graders, and not experienced wargamers for the most part.

The game is expanded to 6 countries, with normally a team of 2 or 3 kids per country. The countries are the US, British India, Australia, the Netherlands/Dutch East Indies, China, and Japan. In order to have a chance at winning, the Allied players have to work together. I tell them that they win as a group or lose as a group.

SET UP AND IPC:

The Dutch player gets two destroyers, two submarines, one transport, the infantry units on the Celebes, Java and Sumatra, and one fighter on Java for units, in addition to the standard set up. The Dutch receives the IPCs from the purple areas for a total of 9. However, it never receives less than 5 IPCs courtesy of the oil refineries on Aruba and Curacoa, and the Dutch merchant marine. The Dutch player purchases equipment from the US, and it appears at Perth in Western Australia. This fairly accurately reflects the situation in the East Indies at the start of the Pacific War. For Dutch units, I use the German units from Axis & Allies: Europe.

The Australian player loses the IPC from the purple territory, but New Zealand is valued at 2 IPC, and New Caledonia receives a value of one IPC because of the nickel ore production there, for a total to Australia of 13 IPC.

India has the same IPC total to start with. China receives 2 IPC for Chinese territory and one for the Burma Road, and in addition receives one 6-sided die roll for Lend-Lease supplies being delivered via the “Hump” air lift over the Himalayas. The Chinese player makes his own spending decisions, and one Lend-Lease certificate will buy one Chinese infantry unit, other costs as normal. The Chinese may not buy ships or tanks, however. For additional Chinese units, I use the Russia units from Axis & Allies: Europe.

The island of Japan receives the IPC for the Ryukyus and the Bonin Islands, giving it a total of 7. Japan has the same total IPC value.

The US always receives 75 IPC, ignoring the convoy routes and the Philippines.

I have made up Lend-Lease production certificates, and each Allied player receives a number of credits based on a 6-sided die roll. The roll is made at the start of each players turn, and the certificates may be spent the following turn, or accumulated in order to buy specific equipment. Lend-Lease certificates can be traded among players, and normally are used to cement diplomatic agreements.

UNIT COST CHANGES:

The cost to the Japanese of armored units in 12, rather than 5, to reflect the difficulty Japan had in producing tanks during the war. However, if Japan takes Borneo, the cost of building naval units is reduced by 2 IPC per ship, and if the Japanese take Malaya, the cost to build aircraft units is reduced by 2 IPC per aircraft. This greatly motivates Japan to take Borneo and Malaya, in addition to the IPC value. Note, this bonus does not apply to the Allies.

When the US buys an aircraft carrier, the planes are included in the 18 IPC cost, in order to simulate the enormous aircraft production of the US. If the Indian, Australian, or Dutch player accumulates enough Lend-Lease certificates to purchase an aircraft carrier solely with those certificates, the aircraft are also included in the 18 IPC cost.

UNIT COMBAT CHANGES:

All Japanese infantry take two hits to kill when defending, but only one hit to kill when attacking. This is to simulate the Japanese fighting to literally the last man. Normally, when a combat units takes 30% losses, it is no longer combat-effective. This did not apply to the Japanese.

Air attacks and naval bombardment can not destroy infantry units, but can destroy artillery and armored units. Air attacks and naval gunfire support function in the same manner as artillery, and give the infantry unit supported a plus one or plus two on the attack roll. Naval gunfire support may not be combined with artillery support. It is one or the other. However, neither aircraft or naval units have an independent attack like an artillery unit.

These changes make Japanese infantry very hard to kill, and force the Allied players to have a large superiority when attacking a Japanese force.

BRITISH COORDINATION:

The Indian player controls all units in and to the west of Malaya, and the units in sea zone 46. The Australian player controls all units in and to the east of Java. If units move from one sphere of control to the other, control of the units changes as well.

Overall, the rule changes have worked well, and the outcome so far has been one Japanese victory (a successful amphibious assault on India), one stalemate (the US player concentrated on building a large military and did not use it), and two Japanese losses. One of those was ruled following the second turn, when the Japanese player had failed to take the Philippines, failed in his attack on Borneo, and lost over 130 IPC worth of units in the first round. The other occurred when the Japanese player committed heavily to China, and did not take the Philippines on the first turn. By the end of turn 2, the Japanese players had lost 7 transports, a total of 5 fighters, and enough other units that recovery would be virtually impossible. In these last two games, the entire Allied player team worked together, rather than at cross purposes, in order to achieve the win.

The students get a much better appreciation of how difficult it is to coordinate things among 5 groups when fighting a war, and also get a good lesson in resource allocation with how to best utilize the Lend-Lease certificates that they receive. They also learn how critical transports are to the success or failure of their game. With a single Japanese team, and the multiple Allied teams, the game is pretty well balanced.

ADDITIONAL POSSIBILITIES:

I may try a couple of more things. One is to use the carrier in either the Attack Expansion game or the Axis & Allies Classic game to simulate an escort carrier carrying only one fighter. Second, I may go to country specific purchase and combat charts, so as to get better differentiation between units and countries. The Japanese infantry unit would be cheaper by one IPC, obviously the tank units would cost more for the Japanese, along with the battleship and bomber units. I am also giving consideration to having a smaller antisubmarine escort unit available for all players to purchase, again using units from the Attack Expansion.

Those of you who think that these rules too heavily tilt the game in favor of the Allies need to remember that I normally make the most experienced gamer the Japanese player, and getting 5 groups to cooperate is not an easy task.