Robot Viking

Earlier this week (Dec. 7, specifically), we marked the anniversary of Japan’s attack on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than 2,300 Americans were killed on the “date which will live in infamy.” Everyone has their own way of respecting and memorializing both those who lost their lives and those who fought on — being gamers, we tend to play out tactical and strategic simulations, replaying history or reshaping it and playing “What if.”

There are lots of ways to run a Pearl harbor simulation: you could use miniatures, old-school wargames with cardboard chits, or even create a role-playing scenario with the players acting as high-level military leaders and politicians reacting to escalating Japanese-American tensions prior to the attack. If you approach it from a tactical level, you’re looking at a large number of naval units and many Japanese Kate, Val and Zero dive-bombers, torpedo bombers and fighters (plus some American B-17s, which, for the most part, burned on the ground).

While the classic Axis & Allies boardgame technically begins months after the historical Pearl Harbor attack, the game’s initial set-up all but guarantees that the Japanese player’s opening gambit is a similar attack. For more detail, you could play the newer Axis & Allies: Pacific version.

If you’re looking for something with a longer timescale and more flexibility for alternate history scenarios, check out Udo Grebe’s Pearl Harbor, which was released through Command and Strategy Magazine, but can also be purchased as a boxed set. This is in the mold of a classic wargames, beginning well before the historical attack by playing out Japanese aggression in China and all that eventually lead to the sneak attack. You could have the Japanese invade Australia or the west coast of the U.S. if you want to deviate from history.

Also titled Pearl Harbor is the classic Game Designers Workshop game, first published in 1977 and somewhat difficult to find these days. This is a very high-level strategic game, more about the acquisition and allocation of resources than planes and ships. A large group can play, splitting responsibility even for different elements of the same nation’s military. It’s interesting to see how realistically conflict between allies or even between the Japanese Navy and Army can break out among the players.

At a purely tactical level, you can collect some miniatures from the Axis & Allies: War at Sea sets and create your own Pearl Harbor scenario. Where other games make an abstraction of the battle, with A&A minis you can see each individually named ship and maneuver it for maximum effect. It certainly makes you feel like a fleet commander.

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