This one was a game that I had desperately wanted to play last year but just have not gotten around to doing so. It is still on my unplayed pile and I have clipped the counters so I just need to do it. Carrier Battle: Philippine Sea is a solitaire simulation of the largest carrier battle in history, fought during the invasion of Saipan during World War II in June, 1944. As the U.S. commander, the player will maneuver their task forces and conduct air searches in a tension-packed contest to find the Japanese carriers before they locate and attack yours. Simple game mechanics control Japanese movement and determine the timing and strengths of their attacks. You will not know that a Japanese air strike is headed your way until it is detected by radar and you scramble your fighters to intercept.

The game has a total of nine scenarios. 4 learning scenarios take you through the rules by programmed instruction using slices of the real battle. The other 5 are full-scale, fully replayable games. These include 1-day scenarios for each day of the action, a 2-day scenario for the whole battle, a hypothetical scenario presuming different US plans, and a hypothetical scenario in which Midway was never fought and the Japanese come armed with the full Pearl Harbor striking force.

Carrier Battle: Philippine Sea is based on Carrier: The Southwest Pacific Campaign – 1942-1943 from Victory Games but is a new, standalone wargame.

-Grant