Carrier Battle: Philippine Sea

About the game

What is Carrier Battle: Philippine Sea?

"Carrier Battle: Philippine Sea" is a solitaire simulation of the largest carrier battle in history, fought during the invasion of Saipan (June, 1944). As the U.S. commander, you maneuver your 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. Four learning scenarios take you through the rules by programmed instruction using slices of the real battle. The other five are full-scale, fully replayable games. These include one-day scenarios for each day of the action, a two-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 (Victory Games, 1990) but is a new, standalone wargame. —description from the publisher

How it plays

Mechanics

On the shelf

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Questions players ask

Questions to bring to BoardGameBrain

• How do setup and the first turn work in Carrier Battle: Philippine Sea?
• When does scoring happen and what ends the game?
• How should the table resolve an unusual timing or rules interaction?