Rising Sun Unboxing

At noon on August 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Parachute Battalion came ashore on Gavutu, a tiny island off Florida in the Solomons. There weren’t enough landing craft, so they went in four hours after the landings on Tulagi, and the Japanese were wide awake. There were only 397 of them, lightly armed, and nobody had told them they were outnumbered. By nightfall they held the hill on Gavutu, but the Japanese flag was still flying over Tanambogo across the causeway.

That fight is the campaign game tucked inside the 2021 reprint of Rising Sun. It’s ASL‘s Pacific module, and this box is a monster.

Getting It

It’s about three and a half inches thick. I could barely fit it under my camera. Rising Sun combines two original modules, Code of Bushido from 1990, for the Japanese, and Gung Ho! from 1991, for the US Marines and the Chinese. This reprint adds the Hell’s Corner map and the Gavutu-Tanambogo campaign game on top.

MMP lists it at $225, and Ritterkrieg has it in stock at the same price. That’s pricey. It’s also a lot of stuff. As usual, the links are at the bottom of the article.

Contents:

• Seven 8″ x 22″ mapboards, boards 34 to 39 and 47
• The Gavutu-Tanambogo HASL map and the Hell’s Corner map
• 16 pages of overlays
• Eight counter sheets, 1,892 counters
• 32 scenarios, plus five more on the Hell’s Corner map
• A revised Chapter G for the PTO, about 50 pages
• Chapter H notes for the Japanese, Chinese and landing craft
• Chapter Z for the Gavutu-Tanambogo campaign game

It isn’t a complete game. You’ll need the ASL Rulebook, and some scenarios also use boards from Beyond Valor and other modules.

I dug my old copies of Code of Bushido and Gung Ho! off the shelf for comparison. Here are their covers. The boxes are 30 years old and still look great. Sitting on a shelf untouched will do that.

One gripe. The sticker that says Hell’s Corner is included isn’t just on the shrink-wrap. There’s another one stuck right on the box, and collectors who like their shelves pretty won’t be happy. Good news, though… a hair dryer lifts it off cleanly.

Three Armies in One Box

Eight counter sheets give you the whole Japanese, Chinese and US Marine Corps orders of battle, plus early-war US Army. The Chinese personnel sheet was printed a little off center. The rest look good, with clean die cuts and the larger, easier-to-read fonts of the newer reprints.

You also get a pile of PTO goodies, like caves, pillboxes, landing craft, LVTs, bulldozers and beach markers. There’s even a “Rising Sun proof of purchase” counter. No idea what it’s for.

There’s no Marine Chapter H, because the Marines use the American vehicle and ordnance notes from Yanks. Read your Chapter H notes anyway. Seriously. Every vehicle and gun has quirks, and your opponent will happily use the ones you skipped.

Seven Jungle Boards

Boards 34 to 39 and 47 are all built for the Pacific, but most of them can pass for somewhere else. With the right terrain rules, the palm trees, kunai and woods turn into orchards, grain and forest.

Board 36 is gnarly. I’ve played on it, and with all the hills and streams in play, the lines of sight are a real headache. Expect knife fights. Board 38 is the most open one, and board 39 is a massive hill covered in jungle. Board 47 has a big depression with hills looking down into it.

Then there are 16 pages of overlays. Rice paddies, a big jungle hill, swamps, huts and a graveyard are all in there, along with a whole stack of beach and ocean overlays for landings. I already cut my old ones on my wife’s cutting machine, so these might stay in the box. VASL wins this round. Just drop the overlay where you need it.

From Shanghai to Guam

The 32 scenarios run from Shanghai in 1937 to Manchuria in August 1945. They cover China, Burma and India, Malaya, the Philippines, New Guinea, the Solomons and the island hop across the central Pacific. Burma, Bataan and the Solomons get their own insets, since the fights there are packed so close together. The numbers match the scenario table right under the map.

Red markers are the fights where the Japanese attack, and blue ones are where the Allies or the Soviets do. Scenarios 59 to 74 come from Code of Bushido and Gung Ho!, and 145 to 160 came from other out-of-print publications. MMP updated them for balance and errata.

Japan on the March

The early war belongs to the Japanese. Shanghai in Flames is the Chinese 524th Regiment holding the Sihang Warehouse in October 1937 to cover the retreat. The Drive for Taierzhuang is the spring of 1938, and there’s an AAR of it here on the site. A Stiff Fight puts Gurkhas in front of the drive down Malaya. In Ramsey’s Charge, the 26th Cavalry Philippine Scouts make the last mounted charge in US Army history at Morong in January 1942.

KP 167 is Bataan, and The Rock is the Japanese landing on Corregidor in May 1942, against a scratch force of sailors, soldiers and Marines. My Corregidor Map Spotlight covers the island itself. Hazardous Occupation even pits the Japanese against Muslim guerrillas on Mindanao.

The Eastern Gate is one of my favorites. It has a little bit of everything, which is why I used it in my VASL 101 lessons to build a setup from scratch. On the Kokoda Trail is August 1942 at Deniki in New Guinea. Red Star, Red Sun goes all the way back to Nomonhan in July 1939, when the Soviets taught the Japanese a lesson they never forgot.

The Long Road Back

Burma gets a big share of the pack. Today We Attack and Jungle Citadel put the Chinese on the attack, at Toungoo in 1942 and Bhamo in late 1944. Orange at Walawbum and Smith & Weston are Merrill’s Marauders in March 1944. Broken Bamboo, OP Hill and Last of Their Strength are the Chindits and the Marauders deep behind Japanese lines. White Tigers is Ningthoukhong, on the road to Imphal.

In the Pacific, the Marines get their beaches. Hell or High Water is the landing at Cape Torokina on Bougainville, and Cibik’s Ridge is a classic, with a reinforced Marine platoon holding a knoll above Empress Augusta Bay. Munda Mash is New Georgia, Sea of Tranquility is the moonscape of Peleliu, and Bloody Red Beach is Guam in July 1944. Army units get a turn too. The Bushmasters is New Guinea, Shoestring Ridge is Leyte and Battlin’ Buckeyes is Luzon in 1945.

The latest fight in the box is Smertniki, on August 13, 1945, with a Soviet tank brigade racing for the railroad bridge at Mutanchiang in Manchuria. And Bungle in the Jungle, the British in Burma in 1942, wins best title.

Gavutu and Tanambogo

The Gavutu-Tanambogo campaign game first came out in the ASL Annual ’93b, and MMP updated it and threw it into this reprint as a bonus. The map is about 24″ by 18″, with Gavutu and its docks joined to Tanambogo by a causeway, and little Gaomi island offshore. This is the VASL version.

Three scenarios play on part of the map. Grabbing Gavutu is the paratroopers’ landing. Tanambogo Nightmare is B Company of the 2nd Marines, thrown back that night. In Take Two, the 3rd Battalion and a couple of tanks finish the job on August 8. Chapter Z has a short set of special rules and a small campaign game that uses the whole map. For a closer look, see my Sand and Blood overview.

Hell’s Corner

Hell’s Corner first appeared in Special Operations #3 in 2010. It’s the fighting along the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal, from August to October 1942. The map is bigger than I expected, about 4 feet by 3 feet with oversized hexes, roughly six boards’ worth.

A river winds through the jungle down to the beach, with a small village of huts, hills looking down on it, a one-log bridge and a coast road called the Government Track. There’s no campaign game, just five scenarios on different parts of the map with straight PTO rules. My Hell’s Corner unboxing has the details.

Where to Buy

MMP: Rising Sun

Ritterkrieg

Debriefing

Rising Sun is a huge box. You get three armies, seven boards, 16 pages of overlays, 32 scenarios, a revised Chapter G, and two bonus historical maps with their own fights. This was my first copy of Rising Sun. I’d been getting by on Code of Bushido and Gung Ho! for 30 years, and I’m glad I waited for this one.

If you’re new to the Pacific, read Chapter G first, then start small. Cibik’s Ridge plays on a single board and teaches you how the Japanese fight. Save the beach landings for when you’re comfortable with the jungle.

Academy Out!

GET TO THE CHOPPA…!!!

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