When Talonsoft suffered a major talent hemorrhage at the beginning of this year, it seemed like just another death-knell for the wargaming industry. Following Hasbro's digestion of the troubled AH franchise last year the prospects for any company putting out serious wargames (you know what I mean - hexes, turns, and tanks) seemed to be fleeting.
But there remains a melancholy joy in Mudville, because the campaign series has (in all likelihood) ended with on a magnificent note with the production of Rising Sun*. Set in the Far East, Rising Sun picks up where the previous games in the series left off (East Front, West Front, the much-needed EF2). Formerly, the games covered the European Theater extensively but had never reached further east than Stalingrad - until now.
* Note I'm talking about new games - Talonsoft has announced Rising Sun:Imperial Strike as their first battle pack supplement to Rising Sun.
Rising Sun covers the eastern theaters of WW2 with the comprehensiveness that has become a hallmark of the campaign games. Page after page of tables in the manual details unit statistics covering everything from IJA tanks to the famed Ghurkas.
RS is an evolutionary title, not revolutionary - a novelty in the computer gaming field where people seem to feel that change for changes' sake is
desirable. Not here. Talonsoft has developed and matured the rules and AI systems to a fine pitch of perfection and it makes good sense to leave it alone. Instead, they've contented themselves with adding the additional units, terrain (including paddies, palm groves, and reefs) and a few minor rules to better simulate the close-quarters, intense and terrifying combats particular to the Pacific.
The first major rule change is a well-thought out (and AI-implemented) night combat system. In any previous scenarios night could only be declared by the scenario designer by artificially restricting the sighting range. In RS however, if a concealed unit fires at night it is marked with gun flashes, allowing enemy units to target it (albeit with a firing penalty). Further, now in addition to smoke capability a side has a quantity of starshells which are terrifying if you are massing for an attack and you hear the "chuff" of a starshell firing and suddenly your sector is visible. Ahhgh! Interestingly, the AI seems to understand the nuances of night combat, keeping contact with light units and massing stronger troops (as a reserve or attack force) just back out of visual range.
The second rule change is caves. Famed for their tenacious defense of cave complexes in the Pacific, Japanese troops are allowed to move (at the cost of a full turn's actions) from one cave hex to another within 3 hexes which can provide nasty surprises for an assault that doesn't take this into consideration.
Finally, the third main rule change is the Banzai! attack - usable only with a leader present, he checks against his morale and if he passes all units in the same hex can perform a devastating Banzai assault (accompanied by a chilling "banzai!" sound effect). The rule effect is that a successful Banzai attack immediately fatigues the unit, but then TRIPLES the units close-assault value. I've had weakened IJA platoons banzai platoons of light tanks and drive them back with severe casualties. Obviously, with the remaining fatigue (and further penalties that reduce the effectiveness of cover for attacking banzai troops) this is a suicide tactic in the open or in daylight.
Other than that, there are of course national characteristics that are applicable to the Japanese such as higher leader casualties in combat, high morale, and a relative lack of heavy weapons. Typically due to terrain, their
opponents will likewise lack tanks and other support weapons making Rising Sun the most
infantry-focused of the series (a fact which I think people will like, since the WF and EF2 games tended to become very tank-dominated by the middle of the war).
Since the game plays (aside from the above rules) identically to West Front, I'm going to invite you to check out that
review for a comprehensive explanation of the mechanics of how the Rising Sun/campaign series systems work.
There are two more points that I think are critical to the gamer considering purchasing one of these games generally, and Rising Sun specifically.
One of the most underrated and under appreciated factors that go into the commercial success of a game (and its 'fun factor' on your computer) are the scenarios. It's self-evident that it doesn't matter HOW good the game may be, if you have crappy, lopsided scenarios that are no fun to play the game will (maybe deservedly) die a quick death.
I don't know if I've ever seen a collection of scenarios that are more completely researched, exhaustively
play tested or more carefully balanced than the scenarios accompanying the campaign Series games (truth in advertising moment: I was briefly a scenario playtester for the first WF scenario supplement until I couldn't keep up with the time
commitment). I'm not kidding at all - there are a vanishingly small percentage of scenarios for these games that are not nail-biters to the very last 1-2 turns...sometimes the very last fire phase. I cannot overstate this. As far as I can tell, every singe scenario is winnable, and each time that I've lost I can usually point to an event or chain of them that was the critical point in which I made a bad choice. The AI doesn't cheat, the engine doesn't shade things in favor of the computer; no, it's a simple matter of the very hard work of the teams of playtesters and scenario designers that make these games the success they are.
Concomitant to the dedication of the beta/testing teams, is the dedication of the company. TS has, for example, put up a new original RS scenario - some of them very, very good - in it's War Room every week for the last 7 weeks. They also host a vibrant and active forum (whose login system I hate, by the way) for all of their games. They have regularly and consistently issued patches to fix bugs or other errors that have managed to sneak into the game. There are many (nominally successful) computer game companies that do none of these things - for a corporation to do all three? Outstanding. The only thing for them left to do is to produce the "WW2 Campaign Series" bundled game, allowing you to build that hypothetical "Germano-Japanese Invasion of India" scenario using any of the OOB lists in any of the games. I'm looking forward to it already.
I'll say without fear of contradiction that these games (EF1 excepted) taken collectively
represent the best games available for simulating WW2 tactical combat. Bar none. If you have the slightest interest in World War 2 tactical combat, quickmarch immediately to the store and get this one. Congratulations Talonsoft - everyone who buys one of these wins.
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