RockyMountainNavy, 27 January 2025
Joint All Domain Operation (JADO) from War Drum Games (2024) is a wargame series that is quickly growing on me. At first glance the game appears to be an operational-level treatment of modern combat in the West Pacific. As one digs a bit deeper into the design, however, you discover that while the time and distance scale of the Naval-Air set (4 hour turns, 75 km hexes) appears very operational-scale the sheer amount of detailed information on the counters—and the rules that use it—makes gameplay more like a Grand Tactical-scale simulation. Yet, while information density on the counters is high, the reality is that most of the game mechanisms of JADO run directly off the counters making them the most important class of components in the game.
Today I am going to deep dive into the counters of the first set, JADO Block 01A, both to assist myself in learning the game and to show you part of what JADO offers.

JADO Block 01A (seen upper left in above image) is a Naval-Air set depicting a Taiwan campaign. The companion Land set, JADO Block 02B, is shown at the upper right in the image above is the land portion of that same campaign. The lower row of games is JADO Block 02A & B which are the Nav-Air and Land set for the “Northeast” theater better recognized as the Korean Peninsula. Both blocks use the same core game system which, in the absence of knowing what the system is called, I named “JADO by d10″ in recognition of the game’s core resolution mechanism which uses a d10 for most everything. [I will deep dive into the core game mechanism “JADO by d10” in a later post.]
JADO 01A countersheets
JADO 01A comes with five countersheets; four (4) sheets with 130 counters at ~9/16″ size (520 total counters), and a fifth sheet of 154 game markers at ~1/2″ size.
Sheet 1: The U.S. forces (M-Faction) are green; the Taiwan forces (T-Faction) are in a lighter blue.


Sheet 2: This sheet is for the PLA forces (Z-Faction).


Sheet 3: More PLA/Z-Faction forces. Here one can also see the weapon units (green with faction-color outline) as well as submarines (black with faction color on bottom).


Sheet 4: A grab-bag sheet. Looks like it could be updated counters for the latest edition. Note the darker blue counters for the Japanese (R-Faction) as well as some game markers.


Sheet 5: Game markers.


What’s that?
Broadly speaking, counters in JADO represent platforms, weapons, facilities (aka targets) and game markers.
- Platforms
- Surface Ships (large/medium combatants are single ship, small combatants may be flotilla; groupings of amphibious shipping less major amphibious platforms)
- Submarines
- Aircraft (each counter represents 10-12 combat platforms or 1-4 early warning, reconnaissance, or other support aircraft)
- Land Combat Units (few because in the Nav-Air set they mostly function as targets; complete rules for their use are in the Land set)
- Weapons
- Air-Launched
- Ship-Launched
- Ballistic Missiles
- Facilities
- Airfields
- Radars
- Surface-to-Air Missiles
- Game Markers
- Turn Markers
- RCS Markers (for noting aircraft loaded out)
- Task Force Markers
- Air Patrol Markers (Short & Long Range)
- Suppression Markers
- Electronic Warfare Markers
- Altitude Markers (for aircraft missions flying Low/Medium; no marker is default High)
- Targeted Location Markers (Area & Point)
Info dense
As you can almost certainly tell—and I have mentioned numerous times already—the information density on JADO counters is very…dense. Often times there is information on both the front and back of a counter. For example, here is a naval ship counter.

Note also that certain combat units in JADO use a Firing Base Table that lists the weapons available (including combat factors and ammunition). In the above example the Firing Base Tables on the left are for a Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type-055 guided missile destroyer (DDG) and a U.S. Navy (USN) Arleigh Burke-IIA DDG. The table on the right is for a PLA HHQ-9E surface-to-air missile (SAM).
Exploding (air) heads
If you are already thinking the ship counters for JADO are too info dense and complex, wait until you see the aircraft and weapons units.

Flipping the data
The above images do not fully convey the small size of the counters in JADO. The fact that all the game data is on the counters, even on both sides, leads to fiddly play. For example, the rules talk about the double-sided ship counters this way:
Naval units usually have a double side. Ship units have abundant data; anti-aircraft range and protective values are printed on the back. When involved in combat you will need to flip the ship unit to view. (2.03 Naval Units)
Generally speaking, the front of an air unit in JADO is used for air detection, movement, air-to-air combat, and protection. The back of the counter is the “offensive” side for detecting surface targets and striking them. Weapons Units are, essentially, air units that are launched by another platform before placement on the map.
Linking and sizing the competition
Not only are the counters for JADO dense with various factors, they also use colors and shapes to convey even more information. For example, look for a small dot next to the Air Detection factors on the upper left side of the air unit counter. That is a Data Link of which there are four different types (None, Ordinary, Advanced, Control Node). Data Links are used to share detection data and coordinate attacks.
Platforms and weapons in JADO are also rated for their Radar Cross Section (RCS). Although a bit hard to discern on an individual counter, looking at a complete sheet it is easier to see the darkened corners of various air units. Aircraft and weapons come in five RCS sizes; Extremely Small, Ultra Small, Small, Large, and Fairly Large. Surface ships also have RCS but do not use the Extremely Small category. The RCS size impacts the range of possible detection and in turn combat.

In more than a few cases the color of a counter edge or factor or image of a counter in JADO is important. Not only is every JADO faction a certain color, but the color of some factors/illustrations also conveys information as in a special ability or the like. For example, in the YJ-83K Weapon Unit above the gold silhouette means the missile is supersonic.
If there is a saving grace regarding the counters for JADO it is that the layout and formatting of the counters are relatively consistent across the multiple factions and platform types. Coupled with a relatively simple combat resolution system (usually a single d10 die roll) this actually makes JADO a bit easier to learn.
Dense but useful
I admit that most of my comments so far seemingly criticize the counter design in JADO. To be clear, let me assure you that, while the information on each counter is admittedly dense, it actually is easy to use in play. The consistency in layout between units helps and each factor is in many ways directly tied to a needed die roll. As fellow JADO aficionado @BWargamero on X said, “the counters for me are the key to the system.” That statement is quite correct as most of the adjudications accomplished in play directly use a factor from a counter with very few instances needing to reference a chart or table.
I think that will be the subject of my next JADO deep dive; an exploration of the core game mechanism which I have come to call “JADO by d10.”
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Damn, these counters need to be about 2″ on a side for as much stuff jammed in there!
Agree…