The Game
At Essen 2024 I bought two games by Japanese designer Yasushi Nakaguro, 300 and Port Arthur. They are in the same series, and they are the first and second games respectively. Port Arthur was first to catch my attention at the Ares Games booth, because of the beautiful cover. That led me to browse further and I then found 300 too. Port Arthur is about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. In history, Japan defeated Russia. This marked the rise of Japan as a world power, and also exposed the weakness of Russia. In the game, Japan plays the aggressor and in the early game has a stronger fleet than Russia. Russia has to send its Baltic Fleet, but they only arrive in the second half of the game. The Japanese army needs to push for advancement on the mainland, while its navy supports them and also prepares for the arrival of the Baltic Fleet.
The little wooden soldiers are the Japanese army. The game is played over just 6 rounds. Every round, Japan may attempt to transport up to two armies to the mainland. However in this game the Japanese army is just supporting cast. The stars of the show are the Japanese navy and the Russian navy. The job of the Japanese navy is to transport and support the Japanese army, and the job of the Russian navy is to disrupt that. The Japanese army is under time pressure. At the end of Round 6, if they do not advance to Mukden (capital of Manchuria, modern day Shenyang), they automatically lose. Only if Japan meets this prerequisite will victory points be compared to see who wins.
This is the Japanese navy. The die value at the bottom left of a counter is the speed of the ship. When you have multiple ships in a sea zone, they automatically form a squadron, and the speed of the squadron is the speed of the slowest ship. This squadron speed is important for two things. It determines how easily a squadron is able to move to an adjacent sea zone, and it determines the turn order in battle. The number at the bottom right is the firepower. Naturally, the higher the better.
The counters are double sided, the back side being the damaged side. A ship can get damaged in battle. If it cannot return to a port with a shipyard at the end of a round, it also becomes damaged due to lack of maintenance and resupply. The small dots at the top right are the damage points a ship can take before being sunk. An undamaged ship flips to the damaged side with only one shot, but a damaged ship usually takes more to get sunk.
The board is simple. There are only six sea zones. Japan itself is treated as one port, and it is directly adjacent to five of the six sea zones. Russia has three different ports. At the end of a round, every ship must return to port. For Russia, where the ships can return to depends on which sea zone they are in. Controlling sea zones will score you points. Some sea zones only score points for Russia. At the end of Round 6, you determine victory by checking who is ahead in points. The point scoring is done as a tug of war. You only track who has more points net and not the cumulative points (i.e. like Twilight Struggle).
Every round Japan deploys first. You deploy as many ships as you want from your port. You can leave some in port if you want to, but note that during the action phase of the round, movement requires a die roll and is not guaranteed to succeed. Japan also needs to decide how many transport ships to send to deliver armies to the mainland (maximum two). You hope to succeed in protecting the transport ships. In case you fail and they are sunk, Russia scores points. Russia only deploys after Japan is done, so Russia can react to and counter what Japan does. Japan sets the stage, but as Russia, being able to respond to what your opponent does has its advantages too.
The action phase is unusual. You don't just take turns. You don't know whether there will be a next turn, and you don't know whose turn it will be. To determine whether there will be a next turn, both players roll a die each. If the die rolls are the same, the round ends. Otherwise, the player with the higher die roll takes a turn. If the round is about to end, the player holding the initiative marker may veto that by surrendering the initiative marker to his opponent. That means if both players are keen to take turns, the round will go on, with the initiative marker changing hands. However this initiative marker is very important, so surrendering it is not taken lightly. Also, often one of the two parties will want the round to end. If you are at an advantage, you will want the round to end sooner so that your opponent can't catch up. If you have set yourself up for a major offensive, you will hope to get a turn so that you can execute your plan. If a player gets a turn but does not want to do anything, for example his ships are already well positioned and he doesn't want to move them or initiate an attack, he can choose to do nothing, but his opponent will get the turn. So the game will not be stuck with a player wanting to do nothing but getting the turn all the time.
On the board there is a track for the Japanese army. One location here is Mukden, and the Japanese army must capture this for Japan to be eligible for victory. The track must be filled step by step by army units which land successfully on the mainland. Other than Mukden, some other locations give various benefits to Japan, e.g. scoring points, damaging the shipyard in Port Arthur, and even destroying Port Arthur.
Players score points by controlling sea zones. Japan also scores points for specific progress made by its army. Russia scores points by sinking transport ships. One thing Japan can do is to blockade Port Arthur. This restricts Russia to deploy ships from Port Arthur by only one step. Normally it is up to two steps. Blockading Port Arthur costs Japan one point per round. Japan must decide every round whether it wants to blockade Port Arthur for the next round.
The game is a contest between the two navies. The Japanese navy must support its army in advancing on the mainland. The Russian navy is not as strong in the early game and might need to rely on guerrilla tactics, harassing Japan in the backyard sea zones. They need to survive and slow down the Japanese as best they can while waiting to be reinforced by the Baltic Fleet.
The Play
I played this with Han, and we were both new. Playing Japan was probably going to be more interesting so I asked him to play the aggressor. I played Russia, and I knew in the early game I would be in a more passive and reactive position. It was hard for me to stop Japan from shipping troops over. My fleet was not as strong as the Japanese. So Japan made steady progress on the mainland. Han wanted to prevent me from running around his backyard scoring points, and split up his fleet to protect more sea zones. I was conservative and decided to mostly keep my ships together. I took the opportunity to do a focused attack on his smaller squadrons. I had an advantage in these battles because I had more ships in the sea zone. Han's die rolls in the early game were atrocious, and he suffered several painful defeats.
I enjoy the element of uncertainty in the game. It's difficult to plan anything long-term, because you don't know when the round will end, or whether the next turn will be yours. I think this beautifully captures the uncertainty of war. You can't even 100% count on being able to move your squadron. Movement requires a die roll. There is no pinning, so movement is fluid. Guerrilla warfare is viable. If you are lucky enough, you can keep running around without getting forced into battle. In small scale battles it is hard to inflict damage. I find the uncertainty exciting and also realistic. War is not neat and tidy like most boardgames are. One interesting rule I like is how squadrons are automatically merged when they meet. Unless they are in port, ships which come together must stay together. This means if you have a slow ship, it will bring down the speed of the whole squadron. I wonder whether this rule is there because in the navy you're not supposed to leave your friends behind.
When the Baltic Fleet entered the fray, things looked worse for the Japanese navy. Despite the successes of the Japanese army on the mainland, the situation at sea was dire. Eventually Japan surrendered early and we ended the game at the end of Round 4. History was rewritten.
Every round Japan may send up to two transport ships to the mainland. If both land successfully, Japan will place two army units on the track.
The Japanese army track has 7 locations, and it branches. However there are only 6 army unit pieces. So it is impossible for Japan to use all the locations. The Japan player will need to prioritise which locations to capture first and choose which one to omit.
This narrow strip is the round tracker. Ships from the Baltic Fleet will arrive in Rounds 4 and 5, and they are placed here during game setup.
The Thoughts
This is a game with a lot of character. It's short, and the rules aren't very complicated, but it tells a vivid story. The core mechanism on taking turns is interesting and I am fascinated. I like the uncertainty and the need to be flexible and adjust plans as the situation evolves. Sometimes you are anxious about the round ending earlier than you want, and sometimes you pray hard for it to end as soon as possible. I like how the board situation is fluid.
Port Arthur is still a wargame. It is short and simple, for a wargame, but it is still more complex than a typical Euro-style family game. There are detailed rules which make the game more flavourful, which you probably won't find in a typical family game.
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