Coast Watchers: Allied Field Intelligence in the South Pacific, 1942–1943

Description

"The Coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal, and Guadalcanal saved the South Pacific."

- attributed to Admiral William Halsey

Coast Watchers is a game of hidden information, field intelligence, and cat-and-mouse operations in the South Pacific during World War II. It recreates the struggle between Allied coastwatching teams operating behind enemy lines and Japanese forces attempting to locate, suppress, and outmaneuver them.

The History

After the Great War, the Australian Navy developed a volunteer coastwatching service to monitor unusual ships and suspicious activity along Australia’s shores. With colonial mandates over New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, these coastwatching stations became an early warning network against surprise attack.

Each station relied on a heavy but relocatable teleradio, usually one or two Australians in command, and a local network of indigenous scouts, spies, sentries, messengers, carriers, and canoe men. What began as a warning system soon became something far more dangerous.



When Japanese forces invaded the region shortly after Pearl Harbor, many coastwatchers found themselves operating as spies behind enemy lines. Capture could mean execution. Yet through adaptability, courage, and local support, the coastwatchers became highly effective field operatives.

They reported Japanese military buildups, rescued fleeing civilians and stranded Allied air and naval crews, harassed Japanese patrols and barges, and helped guide amphibious landings and overland marches during the Allied counteroffensive.

"Forty bombers heading yours."

- Coastwatcher transmission to Guadalcanal

Most critically, the coastwatchers provided Allied forces with distant early warning of Japanese air and naval sorties, including raids on Henderson Field and the movements of the famed Tokyo Express. In effect, they served as human over-the-horizon radar, giving Allied defenses the time they needed to prepare, react, and survive.

Their reports also helped conceal the role of Allied codebreaking. When the Allies seemed to know too much, the public and the enemy could attribute that foreknowledge to the coastwatchers already being hunted across the islands.



The Game

Coast Watchers puts players into this intelligence struggle between Allied field teams and Japanese hunters. Standup blocks conceal coastwatching stations, guerrillas, refugees, and stranded Allied crew. The recessed game board holds the blocks securely in place, preserving hidden information and preventing accidental reveals.

Facedown counters conceal the buildup of Japanese forces. The coastwatchers must observe those forces and report them to headquarters before Japanese operations can slip through the Allied intelligence net. Other counters show where Japanese patrols are searching for coastwatchers, or are drawn from a cup to resolve Japanese searches and Allied delivery missions.

Each side uses Mission cards. Allied Missions assign side tasks to the coastwatchers, while Japanese Missions define secret military objectives for victory points, including air and sea operations that the coastwatchers must detect and warn against.

The Japanese player seeks to hunt the coastwatchers while building up military readiness and guiding operations. The Allied player must gather intelligence, evade patrols, rescue personnel, complete missions, and keep the warning network alive.

Players also draw Asset cards, providing special abilities that can enhance actions and may also contribute to victory points.

Coast Watchers includes 15 standalone Situations and 4 campaigns that link them together. These Situations cover the Japanese advance into the South Pacific in early 1942 through the neutralization of the great Japanese base at Rabaul by the end of 1943.

Game Details

• Players: 1–2
• Playtime: 1–4 hours
• Setting: South Pacific, 1942–1943
• Game Type: Hidden-information wargame / intelligence operations game
• Series: Recon Series
• Publisher: GMT Games

Components

• One 22" x 17" Mounted Game Board with recesses
• Two 5" x 7" Patrol and Delivery Chit Mats
• 64 Illustrated Blocks
• 15 Pawns
• 90 Playing Cards
• Eight 8.5" x 11" 2-sided Situation Sheets
• Two 11" x 17" 2-sided Player Aid Foldouts
• One 11" x 17" 2-sided Solitaire Play Foldout
• Two Sheets of 2-sided 5/8-inch Rounded Counters
• Scoring Sheets
• One Rulebook
• One Playbook
• Box, Insert, and Baggies

Credits

• Game Designer: Volko Ruhnke

• Game Developers: Todd Quinn & Mike Sigler

• Illustrators: Matthew Wallhead, Wouter Schoutteten, Robert Altbauer, and Tomasz Niedzinski