What’s in the Box: Pacific Victory 2nd Edition

Pictured: Pacific Victory (Second Edition) by Columbia Games

Earlier this year Columbia Games successfully Kickstarted the second edition of the very popular, but long unavailable, Pacific Victory. This month fans of this classic block game of the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War 2 began receiving their copies. 

As my copy has just arrived as well, now is a good time to unbox this great looking game and show everyone what’s inside. Since I’m a blogger and not a YouTube vlogger, this unboxing is presented via photographs. Nevertheless, it should be clear to see the quality of the components and design. A full review of the game will be given in a future post. 

Happy to see that Columbia kept the first edition cover art by Eric Hotz.

Nothing like a big bag of blocks to sticker! 132 blue, orange, brown and yellow blocks.  Pictured here are the 24mm blocks offered as an upgrade for Pacific Victory.

The optional mounted map board is an available option that is considerably thicker than the standard card stock 25.5 x 33  map pictured below but both are beautifully illustrated and significantly larger than the first edition. 

Second edition labels feature artwork by veteran illustrator Christopher Moeller. 

Rule book is consistent with Columbia’s normal quality: well organized, featuring  examples of game play and under 15 pages of actual rules. Several scenarios are also included for shorter campaigns or the full WW2 PTO scenario. Back cover also lists the Sequence of Play and Unit Data and order of combat battle.

All 132 blocks labeled!  From left to right: Japanese, Chinese, British, Indian, Anzac and U.S. forces.

Board set up for the  June 1942 scenario!

Plenty of room for 24mm blocks if those are your preference. 

Columbia Games even makes a cameo appearance up in Washington. 

Exclusive: Columbia’s Next Kickstarter is Another Victory for Fans

Pictured: Victory: The Blocks of War by Columbia Games

Fresh on the heels of their successful Kickstarter campaign for the second edition of Pacific Victory, Columbia Games is set to announce next week another big victory for their fans. Victory: The Blocks of War, a classic Columbia title which (in many ways) set the stage for both Pacific Victory and Wizard Kings (in its design and concept), is about to get even better.

While the base game for Victory is not changing, I’m hearing that it will be offered at a reduced price as part of the Kickstarter campaign. Even more exciting, however, is the news that this WW2 era strategic game will be seeing the re-release of the Elite Blocksets, with their array of torpedo bombers, engineers, supply units, and more. Additional forces will be a part of this Kickstarter as yellow and brown blocks are set to be added to the Victory line up as well.

For those not familiar with the game, Victory is a simple to learn and simple to teach World War 2 era game of coordinated combat featuring land, air and sea units played on geomorphic maps, 4 of which are included in the base game. Like Columbia’s Wizard Kings, Victory: The Blocks of War is a system as much as it is a game. It also serves as a great introduction to war gaming due to its fast pace and brief rules set.

More to come about this once the campaign launches...  

Look at all those blocks from the base set!