A First Look At Combat Commander: Pacific

Combat Commander: Pacific

I'm spoiling myself a little this month having bought my second new game, Combat Commander: Pacific, a GMT release.

World War II is one of my favourite periods in history to wargame and the Pacific is one theatre that I have yet to play in in any boardgame beyond Memoir '44.

I'd expected to get there with ASL, but didn't get past Starter Kit scenarios, which don't currently cover PTO. With Combat Commander: Pacific I hope to have struck a balance between rules accessibility (which full ASL for PTO doesn't have in my opinion) and an engaging PTO experience.

CC:P is a standalone product and the third volume in the series behind CC:Europe and CC:Mediterranean. It has been published with a refined and updated rule-set and on the whole received positive community reviews (gaming gang / bgg).

CC:P Big Box

The box is a big one when compared to my other GMT titles, probably to hold the three decks of cards included. The full contents list is as follows:

Six thick paper double-sided maps. (17" x 22")

352 large counters. (5/8")

280 small counters. (1/2")

220 cards - One U.S. fate deck, one Japanese fate deck and one Commonwealth fate deck.

CC:P Counters

A 32-page rule book.

A 32-page play book.

A display track.

3 double sided nationality cards.

2 player aid cards.

CC:P Box Contents

Commonwealth, Japanese and U.S. fate decks

Fate cards represent the heart and soul of CC:P as a card-driven wargame which uses no actual dice.

A Sample U.S. fate card

Actions/Orders can only be played via in-hand fate cards, whereas other required "events", "random hexes", "sighting marker movements" or "dice rolls" are covered by drawing a fate card from the required deck and taking the result directly from that card.

e.g. Here a dice roll request would be a 1:6 and the event would be Medic.

I'm looking forward to giving combat Commander: Pacific a run out, although for now it's probably behind FAB Sicily in terms of play order.

Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea

As with previous volumes in the Combat Commander series, CC:P has had an expansion released, Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea. I've ordered a copy from Boardgame Guru.

> Further scenarios for CC:P also appear in the latest C3i magazine.
> The GMT listing for CC:P, including living rules and the VASSAL module, can be found here.

> A full list of Combat Commander scenarios can be found here.


As always too many good games and not enough time to play them! Until next time good gaming!

Update 01/08/12

A quick update as the Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea arrived today. It includes six new maps and fourteen new scenarios themed on the contrasting coastal and highland fighting in New Guinea between January '42 and July'44.

New Guinea: Battle Pack #4

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