Fighters of the Pacific

I really liked what Fighters of the Pacific is trying to do: mass air battles in the Pacific theatre of the Second World War, without letting luck make the decisions for me. It has clearly divorced itself from realism, and I would not hand it to a wargamer looking for a simulation — nor to someone who already finds the airplane equivalent of Undaunted too abstract.

Its core is straightforward and can be explained in around five minutes: I move my formations and set up air battles across hexes, in a system where tactical choices matter rather than a lucky die roll. That makes the game very approachable, without meaning that it lacks decisions or cannot generate tension.

The element that sets it apart most for me is altitude. Compared with Battle Beyond Space, which has a similarly no-luck system for fighting on hexes, altitude here adds something extra to the clashes and makes the gameplay more interesting. Formations can become a little tiring, but overall the flow of the air battles is great fun.

I have not tried all of the material yet, such as carriers, islands, and flak, so I am reserving judgement on the complete picture. Even so, I am happy with what it already is. I do not know whether I would recommend it to people with no love for the genre at all, but the rules are simple enough that reading them gives you a clear idea of what you are getting.