Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setup
• Winning and Losing
• Game Principle
• Objective Setup
• Player Turn
  • 1. Moving the Command Pawn
  • Resupply
  • Resupply Tokens
  • Resupply Die
  • Fuel
  • 2. Activating an Action Card
• Icons and Action Card Effects
• Enemy Cards
• Icons and Effects of Enemy Cards
• Japanese Soldier Tokens
• Defeating an Enemy
• Enemy Turn
  • 1. Resolving Enemy Attacks
  • 2. Advancing Enemy Cards
• Completing an Objective
  • 1. Turns of Play
  • 2. Seizing an Objective
• Hill 89, the Final Objective
• Difficulty Adjustment
• Icon Reference
• Historical Context

Game Components

• 25 Action cards
• 15 Reinforcement cards
• 1 Resupply card
• 10 Objective cards
• 16 Known Enemy cards
• 10 Unknown Enemy cards
• 10 Scenario cards (I–R)
• 2 Mine Field cards
• 10 Numbered tokens
• 4 Health tokens
• 18 Resupply tokens
• 7 Fog of War tokens
• 10 Damage tokens
• 9 Round tokens (+1/-1)
• 1 Command pawn
• 17 Japanese Soldier tokens (2, 5X)
• 7 D10 Enemy dice (6 red, 1 black)
• 6 Action dice
• 1 Flag token
• 1 Flagpole tile

Setup

1. Place the 10 basic Action cards in two rows of 5 cards, face up, leaving a gap for an Enemy row between them.
2. Place a Numbered token on each Action card: 1 to 5 for the top row and 6 to 10 for the bottom row in reverse order, as shown.
3. Shuffle the Objective 1, 2, and 3 cards into their own separate decks, then draw one card from each deck, face down. Place the Hill 89 objective face down to the left of the two Action rows, then place your drawn Objective 3, 2, and 1 cards on top of it to form a face-down Objective deck running from Objective 1 to 4. Return all unused Objective cards to the box. Place the Flag token and the Flagpole tile above the Objective deck. The Hill 89 objective will always be the 4th and final objective.
4. Each Objective card has a letter on its right edge (I–R) that tells you which Scenario card to use during that Objective. Place the Scenario card, face up, with the matching letter beneath the Objective card.
5. Place the Resupply card. The area containing the Action, Enemy, Objective, and Resupply cards is called the battlefield.
6. Place the Japanese Soldier tokens. Place the Fog of War, Suppressed, Damage, Sandbag, and Resupply tokens in reserve near the battlefield. The Resupply tokens must be shuffled and kept face down.
7. Shuffle the Reinforcement cards and set the deck down, face up. Then draw and place 3 cards face up next to the deck, forming the Reinforcement row. Place a Resupply token, face up, on each card in this row.
8. Shuffle the Unknown Enemy cards and place them in a face-down deck. Then place the Known Enemy cards in a pile.
9. Place an Action die, showing its 1 face, on the Resupply card. Place all Action and Enemy dice in a die reserve near the battlefield.
10. Place the Command pawn.
11. Place 4 Health tokens, 1 Sandbag token, 1 Modifier token, 1 Reroll token.

Winning and Losing

To win the game, you must complete all 4 objectives, finishing with Hill 89, within the number of turns allotted for each objective. A turn ends each time you move the Command pawn from the last Action space to the first. If you fail to reach the 4th objective before the end of the last turn, or if your health falls to 0, you lose the battle.

Game Principle

Okinawa is played over a variable number of turns. On their turn, the player rolls and uses Action dice to move across the battlefield, activating their Action cards along the way, and completing objectives. At the end of the player's turn, it becomes the enemy's turn to attack.

Objective Setup

To start the game, draw and reveal the top card of the Objective deck. The card provides several elements:

• A. Turn limit: the number of times you may move your pawn through the rows formed by your Action cards before the objective ends. Place the Flag token next to this number on the Flagpole tile. In this case, it is placed next to the 2.
• B. Number of Action dice allowed: the number of Action dice you will roll and use during each turn for this objective.
• C. Scenario: place the matching card, face up, beneath the active Objective card. Some cards only activate their effects at specific moments, such as the start or end of a turn; other cards activate immediately and only once for the Objective.
• D. Soldiers: the number of Japanese Soldier tokens used for this objective.
• E. Known Enemy cards: the Known Enemy cards to bring into play for the objective. They are placed in the order shown on the Objective card, in Enemy space 2, then 3, and so on. In this case, you would take a Known Enemy card G from the Known Enemy reserve and place it in Enemy space 2, then place Enemy F in space 3, and finally Enemy G in space 4. Enemy space 5 is left empty.
• F. Unknown Enemy cards: when numbers replace letters, this tells you how many Unknown Enemy cards must be drawn from the Unknown Enemy deck and placed face down beneath each Known Enemy card. In this case, you would place 1 Unknown Enemy card beneath Enemy G in space 3. Note: if the Unknown Enemy deck is empty, shuffle all discarded Unknown Enemy cards to form a new deck.
• G. Upgrade: before starting an Objective, if the card bears this icon, flip one of your Action cards to its veteran side.
• H. Objective location: the place where the battle takes place.

Note: the Command pawn is automatically placed on Action card 1 at the first turn of a new objective.

Player Turn

At the start of each turn, flip face up any Enemy cards that are no longer hidden beneath another card. Then roll a number of Enemy dice (D10) equal to the number of Japanese Soldier tokens present on the battlefield.

Then roll the number of Action dice specified by the active Objective card. You must roll all available Action dice once at the start of each player turn (they cannot be re-rolled).

There are two basic types of actions you can then perform by discarding Action dice:

1. Move the Command pawn
2. Activate an Action card

You may perform either of these actions as many times as you like, in any order, as long as you still have Action dice left to spend on them. All available Action dice must be used to perform actions during your turn.

1. Moving the Command Pawn

To move, select and discard an Action die of any value, then move your Command pawn a number of cards equal to the die's value.

Your Command pawn always moves from one Action card to the next in numerical order.

Die values range from 1 to 4, and the full movement value of any die selected for movement must be used.

For example: the Command pawn is currently on Action card 4, and a 2 and a 4 remain. The 2 can be discarded to move the pawn to card 6, or the 4 to move it to card 8, passing over a Resupply along the way.

Resupply

Whenever you move your pawn past the Resupply card, you may immediately take a Reinforcement card from the Reinforcement row, along with the Resupply token sitting on it. Then draw a new Reinforcement card and a new Resupply token to replace the ones taken.

Note: the Resupply card and the Objective deck do not count as spaces — the Command pawn never stops on them.

After making your selection, you may either:

• Replace an existing Action card in any Action space with the Reinforcement card, removing the replaced card from the game, or
• Forgo the Reinforcement card, removing it from the game.

In some cases, a Reinforcement card (e.g., the "Machine Gun Team" Action card) takes the place of two cards. In that case, choose 2 adjacent Action cards and remove 1 of the 2 numbered tokens for the rest of the game.

Resupply Tokens

Each Resupply token you earn offers a unique advantage that you may choose to use at any time (unless stated otherwise). Resupply tokens are removed from the game immediately after being used.

• Promoted to Veteran: choose an Action card currently on the battlefield and flip it to its veteran side. This may be the card the Command pawn is currently on.
• Sandbags (during the enemy turn only): discard a token to block 1 point of damage.
• Grenade: Immediately inflicts 2 damage on an enemy (Soldier or Vehicle/Structure) that has no Fog of War token.
• Binoculars: remove a Fog of War token from any Enemy card present on the battlefield.
• Medical Pouch (during your turn only): recover 1 lost Health by flipping a Health token from its skull side back to its heart side.
• Action Die Modifier: add or subtract 1 from an Action die's value. You cannot go above 4 or below 1. This can be used at any time during your turn, including during the initial roll of Action dice.

Resupply Die

At the start of the game, an Action die is placed on the Resupply card. Throughout the game, on your turn, you may remove the die from the card and place it in your die reserve without rolling it. During your turn, if there is no die on the Resupply card, you may move a die from your die reserve onto the card, keeping the same number face up, then use the die on a later turn.

You may remove a die and add another one during the same turn.

Note also that the upgraded side of the Machine Gun Team card has the same icon and lets you place an unused die on it, which can be used on a later turn.

Fuel

Once a card with this icon is activated, rotate it 90 degrees. The card cannot be reactivated until your Command pawn passes over the Resupply card. When your pawn passes over Resupply, rotate all rotated cards back.

For example, if you spend 3 dice to activate the Sherman M4A3 to neutralize 3 soldiers, the card is then rotated 90 degrees and cannot be reactivated again until after passing the Resupply card.

2. Activating an Action Card

To activate an Action card, you must first have your Command pawn on the card you wish to activate. You may discard an Action die of any value to activate the card once, and you may activate it multiple times by discarding dice in an ascending numerical sequence (by discarding a 2, a 3, and a 4 you can activate the same Action card three times).

For example: The player has rolled a 1, two 2s, and a 4, and wants to activate the Demolitions card their Command pawn is currently on. If they discard the 4, they can only activate the card once, since they have no 3 to discard before it. However, if they discard a 1, they can immediately discard a 2 as well to activate the card a second time.

Note: once you have activated an Action card one or more times, it cannot be activated again this turn. However, if your Command pawn is still on the same card at the start of the next turn, you may activate it again.

Each activation of an Action card lets you resolve all the icons and written effects shown on its lower half. However, Action cards that attack and deal damage to Enemy cards may only target a single enemy per activation. If an Action card effect cannot be resolved, that effect is ignored during the activation.

Icons and Action Card Effects

• Wounds: Inflict the number of damage shown on this icon to any Soldier-type enemy present on the battlefield — whether an Enemy card or a soldier token — regardless of its position. Damage cannot be split between Enemy cards, and the target must be visible (no Fog of War token).
• Partial Destruction: Inflict the number of damage shown on this icon to any Vehicle/Structure-type enemy present on the battlefield, regardless of its position. Damage cannot be split between Enemy cards, and the target must be visible (no Fog of War token).
• Scout: For each icon on an activated card, remove 1 Fog of War token from any face-up Enemy card on the battlefield.
• Elimination: For each Action die, immediately eliminate one visible Soldier-type Enemy card or 1 Japanese Soldier token. After one or more activations of a card with this effect, rotate it 90°. It can only be reactivated by discarding an Action die.
• Sandbags: gain a Sandbag token. It has the same effect as the Sandbag tokens from Resupply — discarding it to the reserve blocks 1 damage (it is not removed from the game like Resupply tokens).
• Medical Pouch: gain a Medical Pouch token from the reserve. It lets you recover 1 Health during your turn. When used, discard it to the reserve.
• Total Destruction: Has the same effect as the Destroy a Soldier ability, except it destroys a Vehicle/Structure-type enemy instead.
• Heal: Recover 1 Health.
• Repositioning: gain a Repositioning token. You may discard it at any time to swap the positions of 2 Action cards. When used, discard it to the reserve (it is not removed from the game like Resupply tokens).
• Modifier: gain a Modifier token. You may discard it at any time to add or subtract 1 from an Action die's value. You cannot go above 4 or below 1. You may use it at any time during your turn. When used, discard it to the reserve (it is not removed from the game like Resupply tokens).

An Action card may carry a variety of other effects. When this is the case, follow the card's text when you activate it. For example, the F4U Corsair card "can destroy planes."

Note: the number of tokens of a given type you may hold is limited by what is available in its reserve (i.e., 2 Sandbag tokens maximum, unless you also have Sandbag tokens from Resupply).

Enemy Cards

Each Enemy card has certain characteristics:

1. Arrows: these indicate the directions of the Action cards that can potentially be attacked during the enemy turn. For example: on page 4, if this card is in the center, the Action cards potentially under attack are 2, 4, 7, or 9, depending on the position of the Command pawn.
2. Type: indicates whether the enemy is Soldier-type or Vehicle/Structure-type. The number indicates the amount of damage needed to remove this card.
3. Enemy Health: the amount of damage an enemy must take to be defeated. When you deal damage to an enemy card, place Damage tokens on the card to track the damage inflicted on it. Note that if an enemy's Health icon shows no number, that enemy cannot be attacked normally and can only be removed when the condition written on the card is met, or if it is defeated using a special Action card effect. For example: the Kawanishi N1K-J Enemy card is only removed when the current objective is completed, or when it is destroyed by an Action card with the "can destroy planes" effect. Depending on the result of its D10 roll, this card will move to the far right end of the upper or lower Action row.
4. Fog of War: the number on this icon corresponds to the number of Fog of War tokens you must place on the Enemy card when it is revealed for the first time. These tokens must be removed to damage the Enemy card.
5. Damage: this icon on an Enemy card indicates that you take 1 damage if you are in the Action space(s) targeted by the card during the enemy turn. The targeted Action cards are indicated by red arrows or by other effects written on the card.
6. Special Effect: Some Enemy cards have a unique effect, most of which occur during enemy turns. For example, the Pill Box card absorbs the damage that attacked Japanese soldiers would otherwise take, until it is destroyed.

Icons and Effects of Enemy Cards

• Die Effects: if an Enemy card has this icon, you must roll 1 enemy die for it at the start of your turns to determine what effects the card will have during the enemy turn. This can result in a change of position for the Enemy card, its targeted Action spaces, and so on.

• Movement: this icon indicates that the Enemy card will move to the right of the upper or lower Action row every time the card's effect is resolved. If an Enemy card is already in the position it should move to, it stays there. Cards with this icon apply damage and effects to the entire Action row next to which the enemy sits during the enemy turn.

  When a battlefield card is uncovered as a result of a move, it is immediately flipped face up.

  For example: once the Kawanishi N1K-J card is face up, roll the corresponding black enemy die at the start of each player turn. Depending on the result, it will move to the upper or lower Action row and inflict 1 damage on every Action space in that row during the enemy turn.

• Suppressed: When an Action card has a Suppressed token, it cannot be activated. To remove a Suppressed token, you must discard a die without using it.

Japanese Soldier Tokens

Whether generated by an Objective or by an Enemy card, Japanese Soldier tokens are always placed in Enemy space 6.

Japanese Soldiers each count as a Soldier-type enemy with 2 Health, and must be defeated before the end of the last turn of Objective 4. When you deal damage to a Japanese Soldier token, flip it to its red side to track the damage inflicted, instead of using Damage tokens. When 2 damage has been inflicted on a Japanese Soldier token, discard it to the reserve.

At the start of each player turn, roll an Enemy die for each Soldier token present on the battlefield. Place this die on the Action card matching the number rolled.

If the number rolled matches a removed Action space (see Resupply), the die is discarded.

Several enemy dice may be placed on the same Action card.

The maximum number of Enemy dice that can be rolled and placed is 6.

Defeating an Enemy

To defeat an enemy, you must either inflict damage equal to or greater than its Health value, or destroy it with a destruction ability. Any damage-dealing effect can only target a single enemy, so excess damage cannot be transferred to another enemy.

As soon as an enemy is defeated, it is removed from the battlefield. Known Enemy cards are returned to their pile, Unknown Enemy cards are discarded next to the Unknown Enemy deck, and Japanese Soldier tokens are returned to their reserve.

Note: if defeating an Enemy card reveals a face-down card beneath it, do not reveal it immediately. It will be revealed at the start of your next player turn.

All ongoing effects on Enemy cards remain active until the enemy is defeated.

For example: the Anti-Air/Tank Gun blocks the actions of all of the player's plane and tank cards until it is destroyed.

Enemy Turn

Each enemy turn, you must:

1. Resolve the enemy dice and card effects for all enemies currently face up on the battlefield.
2. Move the face-up Enemy cards if any of them has an empty enemy space to its left.

1. Resolving Enemy Attacks

Random Attacks

First, the enemy dice rolled for random strikes by Japanese soldiers and placed on Action cards at the start of your turn deal damage. If your Command pawn is on an Action card holding one of these dice, take 1 damage for each die there by flipping a Health token to its skull side. All Enemy dice are then discarded to their reserve.

Enemy Cards

The effects of all Enemy cards on the battlefield (including the effects of dice rolled at the start of your turn) are then resolved in order, from left to right. After resolving a die effect on an Enemy card, discard the corresponding die.

Most of the time, Enemy effects deal a certain amount of damage to a targeted Action card. If your Command pawn is on one of the targeted spaces, you take the indicated amount of damage. Each time you take damage, flip a Health token to its skull side for each point of damage taken.

Reminder: If at any point all 4 of your Health tokens are on their skull side, you immediately lose the game.

2. Advancing Enemy Cards

After the attack, face-up Enemy cards advance as far left as possible to fill an empty space (2, 3, or 4) left by the removal of an Enemy card.

Face-down Enemy cards stay where they are during this process and do not count as empty spaces.

Once all face-up Enemy cards have advanced, there may be newly exposed face-down Enemy cards on the battlefield. These will be revealed at the start of your next turn.

Note: this means Enemy space 2 always contains at least one Enemy card, unless all Enemy cards have been defeated.

Once you have resolved the effects of all enemy cards and dice in play, the enemy turn ends and it becomes your turn again.

Completing an Objective

Reminder: if you have earned Sandbag tokens, you may discard them during the enemy turn to block 1 damage each.

After resolving the effects of all Enemy cards and dice in play, the enemy turn ends and it is your turn again.

An objective is reached either:

1. At the end of an enemy turn: if you have completed the number of loops around the battlefield allotted by the current Objective card.
2. Immediately: if you have defeated all enemies on the battlefield before completing that number of loops.

1. Turns of Play

The Turn Limit icon shown on Objective cards indicates how many complete loops your Command pawn may make before the objective ends. Each time you move your pawn from the last numbered Action card in the bottom row to the first Action card in the top row (or beyond), move the Flag token one space up on the Flagpole tile, indicating the number of loops you have completed.

Once the flag has reached the number on the loop counter matching your current objective's turn limit, finish your turn and carry out one last enemy turn, after which the objective ends automatically:

1. All enemies remaining at that point (cards and tokens) withdraw from the battlefield and are moved to a designated fallback zone next to it. All Enemy cards removed this way are placed in a face-down pile, and all removed Japanese Soldier tokens are placed alongside it. Beware — these enemies will return later.
2. Reveal the next Objective card and follow its setup instructions.
3. Begin a new player turn, leaving the Command pawn on its current Action card.

Reminder: each new player turn begins by rolling the enemy dice present on the battlefield.

2. Seizing an Objective

If you have defeated all enemies before reaching the current objective's turn limit, the following steps occur:

1. Your turn ends immediately.
2. Move the Command pawn to the first Action card in the top row.
3. Reveal the next Objective card and follow its setup instructions.
4. Gain a Reinforcement card and a Resupply token, as if you had just passed the Resupply card.
5. Begin a new turn.

Hill 89, the Final Objective

This objective works the same way as the other objectives, with the following exceptions:

• Move all Japanese Soldier tokens from the Fallback Zone to Enemy space 1 of the battlefield.
• Shuffle all the cards from the Fallback Zone with 4 random cards from the Unknown Enemy deck.
• Then place them one by one, face down, into Enemy spaces 2 through 5, from left to right, repeating until they are all placed.
• Finally, place the Known Enemy cards H, E, B, D in Enemy spaces 2 through 5, from left to right.
• To succeed at this objective, you must defeat all enemies present on the battlefield before the turn limit.

Difficulty Adjustment

To make the game a little easier, start the game with 2 Sandbag tokens instead of 1 and/or add an extra Action die to your die reserve for Objectives 1 and 2. You may also replace 2 Rifleman cards with Reinforcement cards during setup.

To make the game a little harder, start the game with no Sandbag tokens and/or add 1 or more Unknown Enemy cards to each objective.

Icon Reference

• Refuel
• Recover 1 Health
• Damage
• Rotate the Card 90°
• Vehicle/Structure
• Fog of War
• Soldier
• Suppressed
• D6
• Starting Card
• Reinforcement
• Upgrade
• Roll D10
• Movement
• Turn
• Repositioning
• Reroll

Historical Context

An invasion of Japan was planned for 1946, and the first phase of that plan was the conquest of Okinawa. In March, the Kerama and Leise islands (southwest of Okinawa) were taken. On April 1st, the landing took place on the beaches of Hagushi Bay, on Okinawa's western coast. The 3rd Amphibious Corps landed north of Hagushi and the 24th Corps to the south. That day, 50,000 Marines had gone ashore on the island and established a beachhead 14.5 km wide and 4 km deep.

On April 3rd, the Japanese defenses to the east were breached and their positions encircled. The 3rd Amphibious Corps fought the Japanese in the north of the island until April 20th, by which date Japanese resistance in the sector had been completely wiped out.

However, the bulk of the fighting took place in the south, along the Naha-Shuri-Yonabaru line. Japanese resistance seriously slowed the 7th and 96th Divisions. On April 19th, the 27th Division engaged in fighting that lasted until April 30th. On May 4th and 5th, Ushijima launched a counteroffensive on the right flank of General Buckner's Tenth Army. In it, 6,200 Japanese were killed for only 714 Americans.

Buckner attacked on May 11th, after the 96th Division had replaced the 7th on the left wing. The fighting was fiercer than ever; not a single yard was won without paying dearly for it. On May 29th, the town of Shuri was taken by the 6th Marine Division (in the center of the island). The 24th Corps completed its breakthrough to the east. It was then that the Americans carried out a new landing.

The 6th Marine Division landed on the north coast of the Oruku Peninsula and launched an offensive against the troops of Vice Admiral Ota. It took the Americans 10 days to overcome Japanese resistance, eventually seizing Kunishi Ridge (to the south).

The island was taken on June 21st, though pockets of resistance held out until July 2nd. In this fighting, the Japanese 32nd Army had been annihilated. The Americans counted 8,513 killed and 31,807 wounded. During this battle, Japanese aircraft relentlessly attacked US Navy ships. 1,900 kamikazes managed to sink 36 ships, damage 368 more, and kill 4,900 sailors. This fighting cost the Japanese 7,800 aircraft and the Americans 763. In total, the Japanese suffered 110,000 killed, 17,000 wounded, and also more than 100,000 civilian deaths.