by Keith Tracton, 5 March 2026
I sat down to play this beautiful copy of Iwo Jima: Hell on Earth by Neva Game Press. Let me start of with this: this is an elegant graphic design and an elegant game design wrapped into one package. It’s really what I love to see when the designer and team put their minds to it. You can see it in the precision of the choices for the size of the box, pre-rounded, the puzzle-piece thickness map, and—come on—it’s got cloth bags that you really use during the game; they’re not just for storage.
And even includes art on the inside of the box to thematically tie all the components together!
Game setup is well-described and easy, as 90% of it is right off of this one setup map. If you can copy it to the game map, you can set it up in about 10 minutes or less. There are some rules for randomizing the Japanese setup, of course, and what goes in what cloth bag and what is stacked outside of them ready to go into those bags, but the setup is very fast and clean. I appreciate that, especially in a solitaire game.
The goal of the game? Seize Mount Suribashi and the three airfields on Iwo Jima. It’s only a nine-turn game, so don’t be deceived: it’s going to be quite a press for the US Marines to seize everything in a timely fashion. Turn one, the Marines at the beaches with a two regiment floating reserve you can see in the lower right corner of the picture. The Invasion begins!
The Marines had a tough time getting off the beaches, only gaining two individual hexes inland toward Airfield Number One and taking casualties on half the regiments. You can recover casualties, but then you’re using one of your regiment’s (unit’s) two actions in a turn, and as mentioned, it’s only a nine turn game.
This is the latest episode in a running playthrough of Iwo Jima: Hell on Earth from Neva Game Press; you can find the links to all published episodes at the end of article
The sequence of play allows for multiple actions by the Americans interspersed with the Japanese responses. By the end of turn one and the start of turn two, Mount Suribashi is isolated but still has a significant garrison and some tough fortifications to get through. A couple of the US units that started the game with four steps only have one left, so we’re going to have to use some actions to attempt to reinforce with some replacements. We committed the floating reserve right out of the gate, as soon as there was room on the beachhead!
At the start of Turn 3, the beachhead begins to widen. The floating Reserve regiments that were committed helped stabilize the beachhead and clear away the central locations of the Japanese holding the beachhead back. The offensive against Mount Suribashi grinds on, about to confront the strongest of its defenses. On the right flank, four regiments are looking to break open the front and seize Airfield Number One.
Turn four. Not quite halfway through the game, and the pace of the Marines’ offensive has picked up. Success at Mount Suribashi freed up two regiments as they swung back to their right to clear the top of the island. After seizing Airfield number one as well, the Marines set up and coordinate their special weapons to try and keep the speed up. One of the beautiful things about this game is the special weapons for a particular regiment can be allocated to other regiments if multiple regiments attack. Artillery support can come from two hexes away! Classic Corkscrew and Blowtorch tactics—flamethrowers and armor to clear tough Japanese defenses—are reflected by having a regiment that has supporting armor and a regiment that has supporting flamethrowers attack the same target to get a bonus.
Mount Suribashi secured, the Marines turn to the right and link up top to bottom of the island. Advancing slowly, but they did manage to seize Airfield number two! Their casualty rate is moderate. The weather, if you can see the counter in the middle bottom under the five, is not great, which limits supporting off-map bombardment gunfire. The other counters on the turn track reflect either US reinforcements or Japanese reinforcements or events that can help. The three command counters to the lower right are what is available to enhance US attacks besides their special functions on the counters themselves. They’re only allowed to use five of those all game long, and they’ve used three as exhibited by the three off map. Also in the lower left corner, you can see the Japanese casualties are mounting. Just so you know, the Japanese cloth bag holds a random set of strengths for unknown Japanese forces. If the US attacks an unknown Japanese force, there is a possibility of a Banzai charge in response!
So here we are at the start of Turn 6, and I’m realizing that things are about to get so much tougher. There’s a whole lot of island left; Airfield number 3 is deep within it, and there’s a lot of defensible terrain and a lot of Japanese between the Marines and their final objective. By the way, there is also an objective of clearing the island of Japanese, at least that’s halfway done. But again, we’re already on Turn 6. Fortunately, the weather turns good, which, combined with the Airfield captures, both increase the Marines’ bombardment value, which can only help. One subtle but very effective design choice in this game is that each Japanese unit is rated for the type of defenses it’s in, no matter what terrain it’s in.
There are “A”, “B”, and “C” defenses. “A” defenses are when they’re in caves, which is their best defense. There are various modifiers for the different types, although with “C” it’s pretty much just trenches, and they don’t get a bonus for that. But again, the Marines have to keep up the pace, and that means more casualties!
Turn 6 went well! The Marines advanced like a reverse Battle of the Bulge, seized the airfield, and now I have to figure out how to clear the rest of the island. The Japanese have suffered a tremendous number of casualties, and my casualties are building, but there are a lot of Japanese left at the pace of this game. Again, the weather cooperates at the start of Turn 7, which can only help.
I’ve taken enough casualties that one of my regiments has cycled back to the reserve. But there’s a lot that happens in the three-turn race to clear the island by Turn 9, and I will finish that narrative in the next article!
Iwo Jima: Hell on Earth AAR
PART 1 ~ PART 2
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