Uncommon Valor: Campaign for the South Pacific

Matrix Games has joined forces with legendary game designer Gary Grigsby, Joel Billings and Keith Brors of 2by3Games to bring to you the ultimate operational campaign of the south pacific. Uncommon Valor is the first of a three game series. We are sure that Gary Grigsby fans will not be disappointed. You will find that you are not just playing a game but running a war! Uncommon Valor is a completely new operational game covering the campaigns for New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland and the Solomon chain from May 1942 to the end of December 1943.The scale is 30 miles per hex and the attrition factor is individual vehicles, guns and squads.Phases are one day, composed of two 12-hour impulses.A turn is composed of 1 to 7 phases, at the player’s discretion. He may also choose continuous play and may interrupt that by pressing a key.


Naval Detail Never Before Achieved

Uncommon Valor has naval detail never before achieved in a game of this scale. Besides critical hit locations for all weapons platforms and any radar installations, individual armor locations and a wealth of performance and characteristics data, each ship’s crew has an experience rating for day and night combat. Every ship from mighty carriers and battleships down to Japanese barges and American PT boats has aCaptain, with his own strengths and weaknesses. The game includes hundreds of ships chosen from over 200 ship classes. These include fully functional seaplane tenders, gunboats, destroyers, mine layers and mine sweepers, light cruisers, heavy cruisers, capital ships, submarines, tankers, cargo ships, transports and many others. Ships take incidental damage from rough weather and mishap, as well as battle damage. Ships can also make repairs while under and there is an option for superior Allied damage control. All have proper steaming ranges, based on accurate fuel consumption ratings and fuel stowage capacities. Ships can be formed into task groups of up to 25 ships, although smaller ships and smaller task groups are harder to spot and easier to coordinate. Radar can be used increase the chances of surprise. Task groups can be given a variety of missions, including cargo, aircraft transport, surface action, bombardment, air combat, mine sweeping, mine laying, anti-submarine patrol and troop transport. Task groups can be given orders to return if attacked or to ignore attacks and continue on the mission, to stay on station or to return to base after mission completion. They can be given orders to go to a base or a location at sea or to follow a friendly fleet. Submarines may be orders on combat patrol or assigned special operations missions, including troop or supply transport andmine laying. A fleet commander isassigned to each fleet and may be exchanged for adifferent officer by the player,any time the fleet is docked. The choice of fleet commander can affect the fuel consumption rate, combat and non-combat capabilities of the fleet.

Air Power You Can Feel

The game deals with aircraft in a similar fashion. A wide variety of aircraft are included in the game, ranging from the awkward P-39 and the nimble Zero, to the heavy hitting B-17E and the extremely fast and powerful Corsair. Pilots and crews are tracked separately from aircraft and have individual skill and fatigue ratings. Every squadron and group has a commander, whose inspiration characteristic can help reduce fatigue and get more aircraft into the air. Air formations can be assigned up to two mission options, a primary mission and a secondary mission, each morning. Each formation may be assigned a different target or mission. Missions include combat air patrol, search, anti-submarine, sweep, escort, attack airfield, attack port, attack troops, training, camera recon, naval interdiction and supply transport. Seaplanes and cargo aircraft can also transport troops. They can also be assigned to fly at a specific altitude. Air groups from aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers can also be transferred to bases and air groups at bases, if properly trained canoperate fromaircraft carriers. Aircraft are very useful in locating and attacking enemy fleets or bombing enemy bases and airfields. Combat air patrol can brunt the effects of an air attack or even turn a group around, if they deal out enough damage. Air strikes may not find the target at all, especially in bad weather or against naval targets at extreme range. Each base operating aircraft will need crews to repair and reload the aircraft. These are called base forces and in addition to maintaining the aircraft, they maintain the airfield and runway. A shortage of support units in the base force can ground many of the aircraft stationed there. Airfields are rated according to the runway. A small dirt field will produce many more crashed landings than a large concrete runway, even among experienced pilots. And, of course the player will have to keep the forward bases well supplied, if the air groups are to be of any value.

It Will Take More Then Just Fighting Forces

Troops are needed to maintain and garrison bases and to deprive the enemy of his bases. So, troops are handled with care. There are a goodly number of different types of land-based units. For instance, American divisions have a headquarters, three regimental combat teams andan engineer battalion. These are all represented by different unit counters and have different capabilities. Units include engineers, combat squads, Marine squads, support squads, air support sections, Sherman tanks, Stuart tanks, motorized forces, a number of mortars and field artillery and many others. There are a myriad of different organizational tables of equipment for the various units. For instance, the Sasebo 5th AA Battalion has: 75mm AAA x 4, dual 40mm AAA x 2, 13mm AAA x 10 and 14 support squads. Troops may be ordered to move, defend, bombard or make a variety of attacks. Engineers may also expand airfields or ports or repair damage done to these and build fortifications. Vehicular travel, while rapid, is limited to primary roads. Foot troopscan travel on secondary roads or up to 50 miles into the jungle. Anti-aircraft units can shoot at aircraft or troops. Medium and heavy artillery can target units for bombardment and can also shoot at ships, as can costal batteries. All land-based units have leaders and are also affected by leaders to whom there unit is subordinate. Troops use a lot of supply and keeping them supplied can be quite a challenge, if within enemy bomber range. The game uses a novel automatic supply system. The player can create supply fleets and place then under computer control. The fleets will then try to go back and forth, supplying bases, as needed. Since the system is not abstracted, the player may take control of these fleets at any time.

Campaigns

There are 19 campaigns included with the game, which can be played against the computer opponent, hot-seat, by secure email. The player may also create campaigns of his own, using the Campaign Editor. The player can choose many game options concerning limited intelligence, music and sound effects, the length of pause between messages, the types and number of messages shown, the length of the turn and other factors allow the player to tailor the game to suit his playing style. Campaigns include a 1943 campaign, two 1942 campaigns, a battle of Coral Sea scenario and many others.


Game Data:
Complexity: Advance - Grognard
Field of Play: Operational
Historical Period: World War II
Theater: South Pacific
Unit Scale: Battalion - Individual Ships & Planes
Turn Play: Selectable 1- 7 day turns
Players: 1 or 2 Players
Computer AI : Either Side
TCP/IP: No
PBEM: Yes
Game Editor: Yes

System Requirements:
OS: Windows 95 / 98 /Me / 2000 /XP
DirectX 8.0
Pentium II 400 MHz CPU
64MB Ram
16 Bit Direct Sound Compatible Soundcard
8MB Video Graphics Card
16Bit Color
8x CD-Rom
900 MB Free Hard Drive Space

Text (c) Matrix Games & 2by3Games