Axis Empires: Dai Senso! – World War II in Asia & the Pacific, 1937-45

About this board game

Axis Empires: Dai Senso! – World War II in Asia & the Pacific, 1937–45 is a 2–3 player strategic wargame with an approximately 900-minute playing time, covering Japan’s struggle from the opening clashes of 1937 to the final days of World War II.

Rather than beginning with the familiar 1941–45 operational war, Dai Senso! starts at the border clashes at Marco Polo Bridge and Nomonhan. Players take the perspective of Imperial Japan as it pursues complete domination, or hakko ichiu, while deciding whether to confront China, Russia, the British Empire, or the United States.

The game adapts the playable and unpredictable Krieg! system to the conflict in Asia and the Pacific. Strategies are formed by cards belonging to three factions: the Axis, the Soviet Allies, and the Western Allies. Your decisions shape a conflict that can reach the titanic battles of Midway, Guadalcanal, and Leyte, as well as the firestorms of Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

Play moves through three escalating stages:

• Pre-War: mobilize forces and engage in diplomacy.
• Limited War: open conflict begins.
• Total War: all-out warfare determines the struggle for victory.

Dai Senso! can also be linked with its European companion game, Axis Empires: Totaler Krieg!, for the joint Axis Empires scenario. Together, the games offer a global view of World War II, putting the fate of the world in the players’ hands.