Matrix Games

Based on the award winning War in the Pacific from 2 by 3 Games and Matrix Games, the standalone expansion, Gary Grigsby’s War in the Pacific - Admiral’s Edition, adds significant improvements and changes to the original title to enhance game play, improve realism, and increase historical accuracy. With dozens of new features, new art, and engine improvements, War in the Pacific - Admiral's Edition is the most realistic and engrossing WWII Pacific theatre game available. The immense scale is 40 miles per hex with losses covering individual vehicles, aircraft, guns and squads. Since half the planet Earth is covered by the titanic Pacific struggle, the game is massive in scope, covering thousands of ships tens of thousands of aircraft.

There are 15 campaigns included with the game, which can be played against the computer opponent, hot seat, and by secure email. Combined with a robust and time-proven engine, War in the Pacific – Admiral’s Edition gives you the chance to fight the entire war your way on every level.

War in the Pacific - Admiral's Edition allows the player to experience one of the most massive conflicts history has ever seen on all fronts and in all forms:

• The War At Sea– The unparalleled realism in Admiral’s Edition includes critical hit locations for all weapons platforms and radar installations, individual armor locations for ships, and a wealth of performance and characteristics data. Additionally, each ship’s crew has an experience rating for day and night combat. Every ship from mighty carriers and battleships down to gun boats has a commander with his own strengths and weaknesses. The game includes thousands of ships chosen from hundreds of ship classes.
• The War in the Air- A wide variety of aircraft are included in the game, ranging from the awkward P-39 and the nimble Zero, to the heavy hitting B-29 and the extremely fast and powerful Corsair. Pilots and crews are tracked separately from aircraft and have individual skill, experience, and fatigue ratings. When pilots are in short supply, they can be placed into the pilot pool and reassigned to other groups using an intuitive and advanced pilot pool system.
• The War on the Ground- Troops are needed to maintain and garrison bases and to deprive the enemy of his bases. So, troops are handled with care. There are a substantial number of different types of land-based units which are mostly broken down to division and brigade level, but there are many independent regiments and battalions. These are all represented by different unit counters and have different capabilities and include engineers, combat squads, Marine squads, support squads, air support sections, Sherman tanks, Stuart tanks, motorized forces, a number of mortars and field artillery and many others.

Among dozens of additions and new features, some major new improvements to the Admiral's Edition include:

• An all new 40 nautical mile per hex map
• Numerous revisions to air combat/operations
• Revisions to naval systems, including revised cargo, troop carrying and load unload capabilities.
• An all new editor will also be included, which will add increases to slot ranges for many data components including aircraft, ships and ground units.
• Ground system enhancements like movement related changes and a more robust combat system
• A revised OOB for the master scenario which improves its historical accuracy and realism

The boxed version of the game will also come with a full color 332 page manual! Please note: The original War in the Pacific game is NOT required to play Admiral's Edition.

• An all new 40 nautical mile per hex map covering the entire Pacific theater and off-map bases 

• Six new scenarios, including a new grand campaign with meticulously researched orders of battle Improved naval operations, including waypoints, mid-ocean intercepts, new ship classes and devises and a greatly improved ship upgrade system, engine vs. system damage, new ship art and realistic new port limits for ships, cargo and repairs

• Improved air operations, including more realistic CAP, more detailed and realistic dogfighting, an improved pilot skill and replacement system, persistent plane damage and more realistic plane maintenance, improved fog of war, new aircraft art and over 500 airplane types 

• Improved land operations, including transportation networks defined by hex-side, new operations modes for land units, dynamic zone of control, tactical movement, improved fog of war and overstacking rules for atolls and small islands. 

• Improved economy and industry to reflect more realistic operations as well as more historical balance 

• The most historical and detailed order of battle for the Pacific War ever put into a wargame! A new scenario editor, built from the ground up to make scenario and mod-making easier, with expanded slot limits, text search and upgradable unit TO&Es Printed 330 page FULL COLOR manual (boxed copy only)

Review at Historia Games
8.0 / 10 - War in the Pacific is a great game, complete and complex, reserving a lot of surprises, bringing a concept rarely used in the turn-based wargame. Unfortunately, the lack of tutorial and a obscure manual seems to reserve it to a handful of highly motivated players.

Review on Cyberstratege
7/10 - [Translated from French] WitP-AE is a real improvement over WitP and it probably will satisfy lovers of the original with its realism, tactical finesse, and additional immersion.

Review on PC4WAR
9.5/10 - [Translated from French] I very much appreciated the increase in realism without the loss of playability.

Review on Gamer's Hall
9/10 - [Translated from German] For lovers of the Pacific war, Admiral’s Edition is already a compulsory purchase, but also fans of detailed strategic simulations will find the game pleasurable as well… I have no doubt that we are dealing with a contender for the strategy title of the year.