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The last great "victory" for the Japanese in WWII... Everyone knows how the Battle of Midway totally changed the war in the Pacific. A closer examination suggest that the Japanese tide of victory really "ebbed" when they failed to take Port Moresby. But what campaign really stands as their "high tide?" That would be their conquest of the Duth East Indies, which represented both the expansion and most especially the securing of vital raw materials (both oil and rubber) that the Japanese went to war to obtain.

A quick look at the story of this campaign suggest the Japanese won easily against the hasty ABDA alliance (American, British, Dutch, and Australian), with its varied mix of modern and obsolete weapons and widely differing priorities. But a closer look shows that this was a much closer campaign, stretching the Japanese to complete. With a few breaks, the Allies might have held on.

Now you can take that "closer look". Can you do better? Find out for yourself. Forlorn Hopes covers the entire two-month campaign for the region, using a system that fully integrates air, sea, and land operations. Derived from the popular titles Chennault's First Fight and Operation Cartwheel (Both published by ATO, this game gives both sides difficult choices in facing their different challenges.

The Allies are spread thin and facing multiple routes by which the enemy can attack. They know the maxim that "those who defend everything defend nothing", but deciding what not to hold is difficult . You must make the Japanese pay for every gain. The Japanese face an enemy already in control of much of the battlefield and fighting with their backs to the wall. They have a schedule crunch and must weigh the benefits of using high cost assets to gain objectives. The cost of success at too high a price is long-term failure (and who will tell the Emperor?).

Both players can choose to increase their available forces (with units that could have taken part in the action). But the reinforcements come at a cost in victory points that could tip the scales to the enemy. Both sides are charged with usign assets as effectively as possible. This is not an easy win for either side. Forlorn Hopes delivers the extra size and contents you expect from an ATO Annual, plus an expanded magazine that provides insightful reading into what happened, and why it happened.

Bonus item: While the hunt for the Bismarck is well known in WWII lore, when the war broke out in 1939, the most pressing problem for the Allied navies was to hunt down and destroy the German "panzerschiff" Graf Spee. This "pocket battleship" was designed to be too quick to catch with heavy ships, and too powerful to engage by lighter forces alone. A mini-game enclosed with this issue matches the elusive raider against its historical foes and gives the Allies the option to use additional ships (at a cost in victory points).

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