1941–1945: Singapore (TSWW)

SINGAPORE! is the sixth title in the immense (in acclaim as well as size) TSWW Game Series.  Singapore is our first Pacific Theatre Title, and is shipping as this is written.

Singapore! is the all encompassing operational game dealing with what started as the ill fated ABDACOM Theatre, and ended as the victorious South East Asia Command.

Go to the Singapore product page

The game includes the appallingly poor Allied performance in Malaya, Burma, and the Dutch East Indies, as well as the long drag towards victory over the tenacious (some would say fanatical) Japanese forces in South East Asia.

The game includes the following:

MAPS
22 TSWW Standard (18″ x 26″) maps – although to be honest 3 are a little smaller than that, but you get the idea, its not small….plus one 1/8th sized map (to get all of Borneo in the game), so 23 maps…. On the map area are Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Sumatra, Thailand, Laos, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Cambodia, and Java, as well as most or part of China, India, Borneo, and Vietnam. Celebes Island and Halmahera are in the North East corner of the map, but most of New Guinea is off map, and will appear in Operation Watchtower, whilst Timor is in the far South Eastern corner of the map area.

As is normal with large TSWW games, the map areas are designed to split into smaller segments to permit players with limited room to enjoy the Singapore! game experience without recourse to wall papering their house, or buying an aircraft hangar!

The maps are to the same standard as Mare Nostrum, Merkur, and Balkan Fury in terms of the map art, and have the plasticised finish standardised with the release of Operation Merkur.

COUNTERS
10 counter sheets with 2800 world class counters covering the British, Chinese, American, Australian, West and East African, Indian, Japanese, Dutch, Thai, and Vichy French militaries that so bitterly contested the region during the campaigns from 1941 to 1945. In addition to the base forces the game includes a variety of what if units for all the major powers, showing what could have been deployed had more resources or political will have been shown.

ORDERS OF BATTLE
Singapore! is the only game to our knowledge available that shows the entire campaign area in one box, and as such has a variety of modules to entertain and challenge board war gamers:
1. The Grand Campaign
2. Malaya 1941 (the Japanese invasion of Malaya)
3. Burma 1942 (the Japanese invasion of Burma)
4. Sumatra 1942 (the Japanese invasion of Sumatra)
5. Java 1942 (the Japanese invasion of Java)
6 Timor 1942 (the Japanese invasion of Timor)
7. Battle of the Java Sea (the disastrous Allied riposte to the Japanese invasion of Java)
8. The evacuation of Java (Nagumo goes South)
9. The Indian Ocean Raid (Nagumo goes West)
10. Ceylon (the planned Japanese invasion of the island, scheduled for mid to late summer of 1942)
11. First Arakan (the British counter strike into the Arakan, 1943)
12. Second Arakan (the British offensive into the Arakan, 1944)
13. Kohima/Imphal… The Road of Bones (the Japanese invasion of India, 1944)
14. Burma 1945 (the 14th Army supported by the Sino-American forces under General Stillwell’s operations to open the Ledo Road, and the liberation of Burma
15. Operation Zipper (the planned British invasion of Malaya)
And a whole lot more. We have crammed in a total of 23 modules and scenarios – some are very small to help you learn the TSWW system, whilst some are pretty major games in their own right. Not a lot left to say… except we will be putting up 2 more modules (which simply did not fit in the box) on our list at yahoogroups (etsww@yahoogroups.com) just as soon as we get a spare moment…

Additionally we provide significant Japanese air and naval assets for what if play, which, given that the Combined Fleet spent significant periods of time in the Lingga Roads (just south of Singapore) is not that silly when you stop and consider it… and it may also be why for extended periods the British Eastern Fleet was heavily reinforced, despite not being engaged directly with its Japanese counter parts.

RULES AND CHARTS
These are in effect, the gold standard for the TSWW system, incorporating a variety of revisions, as well as modifications and additions to the logistical system to enable it to illustrate not just the tremendous difficulty of operations in the jungles of Asia, but the magnificent achievements by the USAAF and the RAF in over coming the difficulty of aerial resupply of two capable armies in the field. The charts clearly reflect the same processes and include significant new work on the Japanese forces.