2005 · Against the Odds
Publisher's blurb:
As 1941 moved from winter into spring, and then into summer, it was becoming increasingly apparent that war was coming to the United States. Most American political and military leaders viewed the Nazi war machine in Europe as the most menacing of all, and fear that US intervention/involvement may come too late grew with each passing month. Most who viewed the escalating conflict in Asia felt that diplomacy and economic sanctions could bring Japanese aggression on that continent to an end, and even if military force was needed, US and western military prowess would make short work of the armed forces from the empire of the Rising Sun. The sudden and devastating attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, the devastating air raids in the Philippines the next day, as well as the loss of Great Britain's battleships Repulse and Price of Wales brought the war home in a shocking and horrifying manner.
Despite the pre-war warnings and plans only in the Pacific, the Phillipines, and China there were Americans ready and able to fight the Axis forces. Of those, only a small group of American mercenary airmen and ground crew who were desperately outnumbered, led by man who had been vilified and disdained while in the US Army Air Force, met with success in the opening weeks of the war.
Chennault's First Fight appears in Against the Odds Magazine #12, by designer Paul Rohrbaugh. Chennault's First Fight covers the Pacific War's opening, when a small group of American mercenary airmen and ground crew, desperately outnumbered and led by a man (Claire Chennault) who had been vilified and disdained while in the US Army Air Force, found their operations repeatedly crowned with success.
Chennault's First Fight covers the first weeks of war in Burma, from mid-December 1941 to the Fall of Rangoon in early March 1942. The focus of the game is on the aerial battles, but the ground campaign is also covered, albeit on a simpler level.
Air units represent groups of 6 to 8 aircraft, while ground units are mostly brigades and regiments. The area map stretches from the Indian Frontier to French Indochina and from the Himalayas to south of Rangoon. An interactive turn sequence keeps both players hopping. There are two levels of air combat resolution, basic and advanced. The basic level has up to 3 rounds of air combat that are resolved on a "battle board" that also uses area movement. The advanced combat resolution system uses a hex map with more turns, very similar to the classic AH game Richtofen's War.
