1941–1945: Operation Watchtower

OPERATION WATCHTOWER is the tenth game in the TSWW series. It will cover the South West Pacific theatre, dealing with the Japanese thrust towards New Zealand and Australia, and the first major Allied counter offensive launched by Pacific Command against the critical island of Guadalcanal.

Go to the Operation Watchtower product page

Watchtower is the all encompassing operational game covering the campaigns in the Celebes, New Guinea, New Britain and the Solomon Islands chain from 1941 to 1945… The game will marry directly to the Singapore! maps.

Operation Watchtower will include the following components:

MAPS
16 TSWW standard maps (18″ x 26″ approx) as well as 3 smaller maps providing coverage of the Celebes, New Guinea, Truk, New Britain, The Solomon Islands chain, and New Caledonia. In addition small elements of Australia will be on map on the fringe to the South West of the playing area.

The maps are designed as usual in the bigger TSWW games to split into smaller zones permitting players that do not own aircraft hangars to play the game via its modules.

Map research, which has commenced, will be to the usual high standards associated with the TSWW game system, and will be presented on the superb plasticised map type pioneered by Operation Merkur.

COUNTERS
With a minimum of 3360 counters on 12 countersheets, the game will cover in detail the forces deployed to this area by the Australians, British, Dutch, Japanese and, critically, the United States.

As is usual the game will include a variety of what if counters and assets for gamers to explore the potentiality arising from alternate resource allocations or different political approaches to various dilemmas.

ORDERS OF BATTLE
The game will follow the Mare Nostrum presentation of Axis, Allied and At Start booklets, providing state of the art research and timelines enabling you play the game with confidence that the units directly relate to those in our other products.

It is currently planed to include:
1. The Grand Campaign
2. The Invasion of the Celebes
3. The Japanese Invasion of New Britain
4. The Japanese Invasion of New Guinea
5. The Japanese thrust to Guadalcanal
6. The Battle of the Coral Sea
7. Operation Watchtower
8. Fortress Rabaul
9. Savo Island
10. The Battle of Santa Cruz
11. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons
12. The Battle of Guadalcanal
13. The Battle of the Bismarck Sea
14. The Allied thrust towards Buin up the “slot”
15. The Allied counter offensive in New Guinea
16. Hollandia

We may also include other game modules as time and concepts permit!

RULES AND CHARTS
The game will ship with the latest variant of the core rules, but with abridged political and economic rules. Charts whilst system wide again will be abridged to enable players to enjoy this title in its own right, as well as part of the over all series.