by Zachary Grant, 18 May 2023 ~ #UnboxingDay
Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific, the much anticipated game by Sebastian Bae has finally arrived. Quoting from page two of the rule book, it states, Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific, “explores hypothetical scenarios of conflict between the U.S.Marine Corps (USMC) and the People’s Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps (PLANMC) in the year 2040 and beyond”. Let’s take a look at the contents to see what all the excitement is about.
Game Box
The box is 2.5 inches deep, sturdy, and weighs in at almost 5 lbs, (4.9 according to our kitchen scale), so there is a lot in the box.
click images to enlarge
The artwork conveys this is a game about near-future war and it looks good. I especially like how the game is described as “A Grand Tactical Educational Wargame” in the lower right hand corner. How many games in your collection make that claim?
The back of the box has thumbnail images of the four game maps, examples of formation trackers cards, JCC cards and counters, along with a description of what you are purchasing. All standard back of the box information.
So, what’s in this box that weighs so much? Let’s find out.
Here’s a birds eye view of all the game components. That’s a lot of stuff!
The game ships with ten, 20 sided dice, five of which are red and five are blue. The dice are of good quality and if the battle starts to turn against you, I think they would make good projectiles to hurl at your opponent.
Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific uses wooden blocks and disks. The blocks are a quarter of an inch square and the disks are half an inch in diameter. They are well made and come in seven different colors.
There are two counter sheets in this game. One set of counters represents the PLANMC and the other represents the USMC. They come with pre-rounded corners, are ⅝ of an inch in size and are nice and thick. They look great.
Next is the Submarine Operations Tracker. This is on a thin sheet of paper and the same information is printed on both sides. You’ll want to make copies, or laminate a couple, because you need to record information on it for each game and you’ll use them up if you don’t.
There are three identical player aid cards in the game that are made of good cardstock.
Here are some examples of the formation tracker cards. There are A LOT of formation tracker cards in the game and I’m not going to show you each separate card. The quality of the cardstock is good and the information is clearly presented.
Littoral Commander uses cards, a lot of cards! There are Event cards and Joint Capability Cards, (JCC), for both the PLANMC and the USMC. The colors at the top of the cards are important as they indicate their function. For example, red is Fires and purple is Interception.
There is a Rule Book, (version 1.7) and a Scenario Book. They are both bound with saddle stitch binding. The rule book uses SPI Case; however the scenario book does not. The rule book has a table of contents and three appendices, one of which is a glossary of terms. There is no index. The rule book uses color images to good effect and the quality of the paper is very good.
Here’s the Series Rule Book
Here is the Scenario Book
Finally, we have the maps. There are four different maps measuring 24” x 31”. They depict a different area in the Indo-Pacific region. The quality of the paper is good and there is some sort of finish to the maps that give them a durable feel. The colors are vibrant and the text is easy to read. The only concern I have is the colors representing the major roads and secondary roads might blend in with the colors depicting the different kinds of terrain.
That covers what’s in the 5 pound box of fun. Did you get a copy? Have you started playing it yet? Head over to the Dragoon Forums for Littoral Commander to let us know what you think about the game.
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With trembling hands and eager zeal,
I unbox a wargame with great appeal.
Countless components I behold,
Strategies yet to unfold,
In this box, a battlefield surreal!
