Publisher/Date:
Multi-Man Publishing (2024)
Product Type:
Scenario/Map Pack
Country of Origin:
United States
Contents:
3 x 11" x 16" unmounted double-sided geoboards (20a/b, 21a/b, 22a/b), 10 scenarios on cardstock.
MMP’s Action Pack #19, Roads to Rangoon, the latest in the long-running series of scenario/map packs, is the sequel to Action Pack #9: To The Bridge!, which debuted a decade earlier. That pack was a themed pack, with its scenarios focusing on tactical actions from the early days of the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1941-42. This pack continues its retelling of the campaign, focusing on actions in March 1942 (one outlier scenario takes place in late April). Will the series continue? One could easily get two more scenario packs out of the 1942 campaign (which did not end until the remnants of the Chinese Expeditionary Force made their way out of Burma in late May 1942), but at a rate of one pack every 10 years, many ASLers might not live to see the end.
Both this pack and its predecessor were designed by veteran ASLer Gary Fortenberry, who also debuted the 11″ x 16″ double-sided geoboard style in Action Pack #6. The three geoboards that come with Roads to Rangoon are also “Gary-style” geoboards (20a/b, 21a/b, and 22a/b). They all have the high-quality graphics that have become standard for MMP-produced geoboards.
One might think that an Action Pack with a PTO theme would feature boards that are broadly suitable for actions set in the PTO, but this is not really the case with Roads to Rangoon. Certainly, the Pacific War was a vast conflict that took place in many areas other than dense jungle. Settings such as Burma, Luzon, Java, and China, among others, were densely populated and well-developed (developed compared to other Pacific regions, if not necessarily to Europe or North America). Board 20a/b is a river-bend board, featuring a wooden-buildinged town nestled against the bend, and an estate with multi-hexed stone buildings on the other side of the river. It’s a pretty specialized board, which limits its general usefulness; one has to wonder if perhaps including a river-bend overlay might have been a better solution.
Board 21a/b is slightly more compatible with PTO terrain, though to make it a wilderness board would require overlays to blot out five buildings and three walled-in areas (which is a lot of overlays). The rest of the board is dominated by large fields of grain/kunai, lots of jungle/woods and brush/bamboo, and several small hills. It does pose interesting tactical puzzles. The board is perhaps best suited as an East Front board.
Board 22a/b is another river-bend board, this one heavily dominated by dense urban terrain. It’s a board that could easily represent areas of Manila or cities in China but has limited utility in the PTO. Designers are more likely to find uses for it with scenarios set in Europe.
With these boards, there are now four different river-bend boards out of the 22 total 11″ x 16″ boards. That’s a very high percentage of river-bend boards (there are no “straight” rivers on any of the 11″ x 16″ boards). The system may be “set” on river-bend boards for a while to come.
Ten scenarios come along with the boards. Eight of them feature the Japanese, primarily fighting against British, Indian and Burmese forces, although there is one Chinese-Japanese action. Two scenarios feature the Burmese Independence Army, either fighting on its own or alongside its Japanese allies.
The scenarios are a pretty even mix of small, medium, and large-sized scenarios. None of the scenarios are huge and most are pretty playable. The scenarios are small in the sense of map area: all but one of the 10 scenarios are conducted on a single 11″ x 16″ geoboard (or just part of one). One scenario uses one whole geoboard and part of another. No “standard” 8″ x 22″ geoboards are used at all. To play all the scenarios in the pack, one needs boards 3a/b, 5a/b, 7a/b, 9a/b, 12a/b, 14a/b, 15a/b, 20a/b, 21a/b, and 22a/b. The geoboards introduced in this pack are used in only four scenarios, which is interesting.
One action has Air Support, another uses Night rules, and two scenarios (sort of) have OBA. Four scenarios feature SSRs designed to force HIP Japanese units to reveal themselves by conducting Banzai Charges at a certain point in the game (which, in a practical sense, means that the Japanese player will need to reveal them before then). Scenarios designed by Gary Fortenberry are sometimes infamous for complicated or involved victory conditions, though in this pack, this tendency is (mostly) under control. The Japanese are on the attack in only three scenarios (but conduct a counterattack in a fourth), which is interesting given that operationally and strategically the Japanese themselves were on the offensive.
Many of the scenarios look interesting. A number of them present a traditional ASL PTO situation, in which a small force of Japanese or British/Commonwealth squads, plus 1-3 vehicles, face off against a smaller number of opponent squads, plus 0-3 vehicles. There are many classic ASL scenarios that have this basic situation. AP208 (The Lion, Driven) is rather different, featuring different Japanese and British forces set up in or entering from different areas, creating a complex “parts-in-motion” situation. The previously mentioned counter-attack scenario is AP210 (The Driven Draw Blood) [there seems to be a lot of “driving” in this pack]. The scenario starts with a pretty strong British force of 10 squads and 5 light AFVs advancing against a small mixed Japanese/Burmese force of 6 squads, while on turn 4 (of 7), an 11-squad/2 light AFV Japanese force shows up to settle scores. The Japanese win at the end if they control one specific and 9 other multi-hex buildings (the scenario is a city-fighting scenario on the city/river-bend geoboard 22a). One scenario, AP211 (The Doomed and the Damned), features one of your Humble Author’s favorite units in World War II, the elite Chinese 200th Infantry Division. The scenario portrays the Chinese forces as including three T-26 tanks, but I believe all the T-26s had to be left behind in China, as many bridges along the route from Kunming to southern Burma could only support the lightest AFVs, with the result that only Chinese CV-33s and FT-17s saw action in Burma.
Overall, Roads to Rangoon looks quite attractive, with a number of playable scenarios, although scenario designers may be disappointed with the narrow usages for some of the included geoboards (which are not used a lot even in this product).
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