Empire of the Sun (EotS) is Mark Herman's third card driven design since he brought the system to the hobby in We The People. Empire of the Sun is a strategic level look at the entire War in the Pacific from the attack on Pearl Harbor until the surrender of Japan. Empire of the Sun is the first card driven game (CDG) to move the system closer to a classic hexagon wargame, while retaining all of the tension and uncertainty people have come to expect from a CDG. Players will be cast in the role of MacArthur, Yamamoto, Nimitz, and Mountbatten as you direct your forces across the breadth of the globe from India to Hawaii and from Alaska to Australia. This is represented on a map based on a 1942 equal area projection of the entire theater of conflict.

As in other games using the card driven game system, players try to maximize the impact of their cards even as they hide their intentions and traps from their opponent. The player is faced with a wide set of clear strategic decisions. The focus of Empire of the Sun is on directing major offensive axes of advance. The Japanese early in the game are challenged to achieve their historical expansion as Allied forces race the clock to react with their in-place forces trying to achieve maximum damage to the hard-to-replace Japanese veteran units.

Combat in Empire of the Sun is based on successfully bringing superior combined land, air, and sea forces to bear in a two-tiered combat system. The first tier is the resolution of air-naval combat, the second tier focuses ground combat. The resolving both tiers results in one side prevailing in battle.

A key variable in determining strategic victory is the level of U.S. political will. The Japanese will win the game by forcing the U.S. into a negotiated peace, which was not achieved historically. The Japanese attain this by knocking countries like India, China, and Australia out of the war, while inflicting massive casualties on the United States. The delivery of the A-bomb on its historical schedule is not a guarantee, often necessitating Operation Olympic and the ground invasion of Japan. It is often in its darkest hour that the Japanese find victory in Empire of the Sun.

Empire of the Sun scenarios were designed with the busy enthusiast, grognard, and competitive tournament player in mind. Empire of the Sun was designed to be played n yearly scenarios (1942, 1943, and 1944) of three turns each that play in under two hours. If you are a fan of CDG's, Empire of the Sun takes the genre into a familiar, but new direction. If you are a fan of classic hexagon wargames, this game has all of the features that brought you to this hobby in the first place, but with a new level of replayability and excitement . The game is comprehensive, but simple to learn.

• TIME SCALE: 4 months per turn
• MAP SCALE: 150 miles per hex
• UNIT SCALE: Brigade, Division, Corps, and Army

• DESIGNER: Mark Herman
• DEVELOPER: Stephen Newberg
• MAP & CARD ART: Mark Simonitch
• COUNTER ART: Mark Simonitch, Dave Lawrence, & Rodger B. MacGowan