From: "Andrzej J. J. Cierpicki" Subject: Honour Alone HONOUR ALONE - Hong Kong 1941 Let's face it, the fall of Hong Kong does not suggest itself as being a particularly viable subject for a balanced wargame. However, in a market that has seen dozens of titles covering familiar battlegrounds and is desperately searching for fresh topics to please jaded palates, it comes as no great surprise that someone has finally designed a board wargame on the invasion and capture of Hong Kong. Honour Alone is produced by the Pacific Rim Publishing Company under the trade mark of "Just Plain Wargames", a line of games designed to be cheap, cheerful and playable in an evening without burdening players with complex or weighty rules. The 24" x 19" map, on a hex scale of 550 yards, is somewhat bland but serviceable, and predominantly covers the island of Hong Kong, with only parts of Kowloon and the New Territories being provided to allow the Japanese player to deploy his artillery. The 300 counters are colour coded to differentiate between Japanese, British, Canadian and Indian troops, Royal Navy, and of course, local volunteers. Additionally, HQ units have, because of their importance in game play, the box section of their counters coloured white for ease of identification. Of the 12 page rule booklet, essentially only half is taken up by rules, the remainder being concerned with background information, players notes, set-up details and two artillery support sheets (which need to be photo-copied before play). Whilst the rules are quite clear and generally error free, there is a need to cut, paste and mount several counters which were incorrectly printed or missed from the counter sheet; a minor annoyance which however does not detract from the overall good value of the game. Not only are counters provided to indicate units that are out of supply or command, but there is a redundant provision of markers to indicate combat odds and modifiers to strength values; these are seldom if ever used. The game ignores the early stages of the campaign during which the Allied forces were steadily pushed back from the Chinese border in a series of short and sharp actions, and concentrates on the period immediately following the withdrawal of the Rajputs to join the garrison of Hong Kong. The action commences on the morning of the 16th December, and proceeds in half day turns until the latest possible conclusion, on the evening of the 27th December 1941. The earliest the Japanese can launch their amphibious assault is the afternoon of the 17th December, when only 8 units can land. Thereafter, the numbers steadily increase each turn to a maximum of 42 on the morning of 21st December. Additionally, the Japanese player must secretly give 3 turns notice of his intended initial landing. He must therefore carefully weigh the length of his preparatory bombardment and size of initial force, against the time he will have to achieve his objectives. To meet this assault, the Allied player must deploy his meagre forces to best advantage; artillery in the hills and well away from the expected landing sites, pill-boxes covering expected approaches, and at least one reserve, probably in Wong Nei Chong Gap, to act as fire brigade. As in all classic siege games, the defender has to few troops to cover all possibilities, resulting in tense games were both bluff and luck play an important part in the final outcome. The Allied player's position is, in game terms at least, not entirely hopeless. In addition to being able to deploy most of his forces face down at the start of the game, a number of units, decided by the throw of a die, are deployed off map with their actual locations noted secretly. The Japanese player is, in the standard game, limited to only one landing site, thereby making the safest option a route away from the Allied coastal artillery, i.e. by the shortest path, straight across Victoria harbour. Inevitably, Japanese artillery bombardment will concentrate on pill-boxes (which get a bonus attack against amphibious landings) and naval guns covering the approaches of the landing force. There is some scope for bluff at this juncture; a concentrated bombardment in one area which precipitates an Allied defensive redeployment of troops, could be followed up by a landing in another, weakly held area. Once ashore, the Japanese must rapidly form a bridgehead and vigorously push inland to secure their major objectives: the fresh water reservoirs of Aberdeen, Wong Nei Chong Gap, and the two at Tai Tam. The historical option of cutting the Allied forces in half, by pushing through the Wong Nei Chong Gap, is probably the most certain to prove effective. The Allied player will have to counter the Japanese threat by holding the two passes at all costs, assuming of course that the Japanese does not take the risky, if not foolish, decision of running the gauntlet of naval guns, by invading the south side of the island. After perhaps an initial attack to contain the Japanese bridgehead, the Allied player will seldom during the remainder of the game have the opportunity to attack with sufficient odds to make it worthwhile. His decisions concerning the allocation of defensive artillery barrage will be the most significant to the outcome of the game, the effective use of his 8 artillery battalions will signal the difference between victory and defeat. Unfortunately, for the Allied player, beginning with the fifth turn following the initial Japanese landing, there is a significant chance of ammunition depletion. Each battalion must roll each turn thereafter to see if it runs out of ammunition. If it does, it is removed from the game and replaced by a corresponding crew platoon. The loss of Allied artillery will precipitate a rapid conclusion to the game, with each Japanese attack almost certain of being successful. In addition to the employment of regular troops and artillery described above, rules are provided to cover the use of air units (Japanese only), tanks and armoured cars, engineers (necessary to form the Japanese bridgehead), machine gun companies (which initially man the pill-boxes, but may be later reformed), trucks and bren gun carriers, and Head Quarters (HQ's). Not only do HQ's coordinate attacks by providing supply and command to troops within 6 hexes, they are important in terms of victory conditions, providing 1 victory point to the opponent when lost in battle. Each reservoir provides 1 V.P. to the Japanese player, with a bonus of 1 point for owning all four. Additionally, 1 V.P. is awarded for every 7 Allied and 10 Japanese companies eliminated. At the end of each turn the Allied player must roll two dice; on an adjusted roll of 15+, the Allies surrender and the victory chart is consulted. The Japanese win if they have suffered no greater than the indicated losses for that game turn, e.g. fewer than 22 companies on or before the 22pm turn. The Allies win if at the conclusion of the game they have not surrendered, or in the unlikely event that they have inflicted massive Japanese losses. Any other result is a draw. In conclusion, Honour Alone is a respectable and solid effort which will bear repeated play. Be warned however, it will not be to everyone's liking to take the Allied side which suits only players of tenaciously defensive dispositions, or alternatively people with sado-masochistic tendencies. Andrzej Cierpicki