Speaking of historical abstraction…
MOAR EMPIRE OF THE SUN
Here is where people who try to learn Empire of the Sun get confused, so I’ll explain this part in detail:
I now move my activated units. The naval units get 5 movement points (MP) per Ops point. The ground units get 1 MP per Ops point. The air units get one “leg” of movement per Ops point. What is an “Ops point?” It’s the number on the top left corner of the card I just played. Recall that it’s a “3.”
That means my naval units get 15 MP, my ground unit gets 3 MP, and my air units get 3 “legs” to use their extended range (the red number on the middle right side). Each leg must begin and end at an air base. So for my 2nd Army Air Wing in Peiping (for example), it has an extended range of 4. For its first leg it moves three hexes to Shanghai. For its second leg it moves three hexes to Tainan (on Formosa). With its third leg it moves three hexes to Clark Field on the Philippines. It is now within range of Manila, and I can declare Manila a battle hex and include that unit and the activated unit that started in that hex, the 5th Air Wing. That’s 44 combat factors against Manila and that means problems for the USA.
My air fleets from Formosa go first to Hanoi, then to Kota Bharu, while the Saigon air fleet flies to Kuala Lumpur. That’s 20 + 16 + 16 = 52 combat factors over Singapore, which is my second battle hex.
My army in Hong Kong is a ground unit, so it gets three MP, right? Yes, if it were moving by ground. But it isn’t – it’s going to invade Borneo. That means it needs to use Amphibious Assault, and thus moves like a naval unit. Thus, it gets 15 MP, and moves over water hexsides only. It sails southwest from Hong Kong so that it is three hexes from the Philippines, then sails south to the northeastern tip of Borneo, then around the Borneo coast until it gets to the target, Bandjermasin. Note that this is THREE hexes away from the Dutch air in Tjilitjap, and thus outside its AZOI as well. Since there is no Allied unit in the hex. I do not need to declare it as a battle hex. I just invade.
The path is important. Note the under rule 6.4 Aircraft Zone of Influence on p. 12, it states that, “Ground units conducting amphibious assault may not enter or exit a ZOI (8.44).” This is actually a typo: the rule itself is actually 8.45 B, on p. 18. It states: “An Amphibious Assault unit may not enter or exit a hex within an un-neutralized opposing aircraft Zone Of Influence.”
I could do one of two things here. The first would be to send an aircraft carrier to Hong Kong and escort the 17th Army through any AZOI. But the problem with that is even though my card is a 3-Ops, that only gets me 15 movement points. And the closest CV can’t get to Hong Kong and then to my intended invasion hex with 15 MP. So the second option is to stay out of any AZOI. That I am able to do. Note the path from Hong Kong to Bandjermasin.
Tom actually has air units at Manila (one hex south of my Zeroes) and at Menudo (two hexes south of CVL Zuiho). But my Zeroes neutralize the AZOI around Manila in the hexes traversed by my 17th Army, as does the Zuiho for the bomber based at Menudo. Note that even though the Zuiho is not activated for this operation, its AZOI still counts. The unit itself hasn’t gone to sleep–it’s still carrying out routine ops, and its air contingent neutralizes the Allied air (which also isn’t activated, btw).
Had the invasion hex been within the AZOI of one of Tom’s units, AND within the reaction range of one of his headquarters units, Tom could have made a “Special Reaction” die roll (see 7.27 on p. 14) and, if successful, he could have placed a battle marker on the hex. He could then have reacted a naval unit in there, and because I had no escorting naval unit, I would have had to turn back (and would have lost a step, which on that reduced army would have resulted in its destruction).
But the hex is outside of AZOI, so Tom is helpless there. He can only make a reaction roll for the rest of my operation, which has to be less than or equal to the “Intel value” on my card. Because it is a large operation, it’s pretty easy to detect. Tom just has to roll a 0-7 on a d10 to succeed. Because I moved within his AZOI at some point in my move (in this case, I moved aggressively into his AZOI in several cases) he gets a -2 to his die roll. That should mean he can’t fail, but because a “9” is always a failure on Intel rolls, he just needs to roll 0-8. Which he does.
Tom now gets to activate one HQ and use its Efficiency value plus the Ops value of the card I used for my operation to activate units. Here is his problem: he can activate the Malaya HQ (Wavell). That HQ can only activate Commonwealth units. He can activate the Dutch HQ (ter Poorten) in Tjilitjap. That HQ can only activate Dutch units. He can activate the SW Pacific HQ (MacArthur). That HQ can only activate US units. (Hey, what about SEAC? Sorry – there is no battle hex within its command range (10 hexes). So it canna do nuthin’. Same with the US CentPac HQ at Pearl Harbor.)
This is what I see as part of the genius of Empire of the Sun. If there were an Allied HQ that could activate multiple nationalities, it could send units of different nationalities to different battle hexes. Certain people here have (with some justification) complained about the power of ABDA (the joint American-British-Dutch-Australian command) in terms of activating units, but to me, it’s not about what ABDA can do as much as what you can’t do without ABDA: generate a coordinated response. The resistance in the Far East can only be described as heroic (you should read some of the Dutch accounts) but they were in no way able to effectively resist the Japanese, and neither is the Allied player if the Japanese player plays effectively. But with mistakes … the resistance might get stronger. That’s the kind of thing that a game needs to allow in order to punish mistakes, and the activation problem is an elegant illustration of this. While playing Empire of the Sun, there will be time after time when you think, “that’s a pretty neat way of showing that.” This is one of those times.
