May 04, 2019

Panzer Campaigns Japan ’45 – Operation Olympic Released!

Hi All,

We’re excited to release the 22^nd game in the Panzer Campaigns Series; Japan ’45 – Operation Olympic.

This game release is dedicated to Dave ‘Blackie’ Blackburn who passed away in January 2016. Dave was instrumental in building many of the Tiller games from 1999 to just before his passing. Dave was the ‘Blackie’ in the Saunders and Blackie partnership that built essentially all the Panzer & Modern Campaigns games for John Tiller Software. Vale Dave!

This game has been both the longest and quickest in development of the series. Longest in that it was started by a (reluctant) Glenn Saunders on a request from John Tiller back in the ‘noughties’ and quickest in that Bill Peters took over the game back in the summer of 2018 and completed it in approximately 9 months! Bill inherited a map and order of battle, but no scenarios other than a ‘Getting Started’ test. The game ships with forty-four scenarios, testament to Bill’s efficiency and his ready team of play testers who quickly helped identify the best way to model the various considerations for a landing on the Japanese Home Islands.

Japan ’45 is specifically focused on the invasion of the Southern Japanese island of Kyushu. The Allied aim was never to fully conquer the island, but to take enough land to build airbases. This was to provide sufficient air cover to cover the invasion of the main island of Honshu. The game covers the landings using the planned forces for Operation Olympic, an operation that was only cancelled with the dual dropping of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan ’45 is built to the same standard as the ongoing Gold updates to the Panzer Campaigns series and ships with;

A game scale of 1 hex = 1 km, 1 turn = 2 hours, and with battalion and company size units.
44 Scenarios covering all sizes and situations, including specialized versions for both head to head play and vs. the computer AI.
The master map covers most of the island of Kyushu (87,720 hexes) where Operation Olympic would have taken place.
The order of battle file covers all of the forces that would have taken part in the campaign.
Order-of-Battle and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.
Sub-map feature allows the main map to be "chopped" up into smaller segments for custom scenario creation.
Gold standard images for unit art on both sides, including guns and vehicles covering all of the forces of the Allied and Japanese armies involved in the operation.
Design notes which cover or include the production of the game, campaign notes, sources and a scenario list.
Gold standard game graphics including terrain, in game counters and 2D & 3D units as well as the toolbar icons.
Gold standard sounds.

The teams at Wargame Design Studio and John Tiller Software are excited to bring you this new Panzer Campaigns title after a seven year hiatus and are confident, it won’t be as long before the next one.

You can see more on the game, download the design notes and maps as well as purchase it from the Japan '45 Product Page.

Following are some screenshots taken from the game (all can be clicked to view full size);