Black Hell: The Battle for Los Negros Island, February-March, 1944

“The island is lousy with Nips” –February 27th Message from the US Alamo Scouts to General Walter Krueger that more Japanese were on Los Negros island than reported.

Before fleeing Corregidor, General Douglas MacArthur pledged to return to the Philippines. It was first necessary to retake New Guinea and at least neutralize the Japanese fortified base at Rabaul. Taking the island of Los Negros and its airbase at Momote would cut off Rabaul’s ability to received supplies from Japan or elsewhere, and allow the US-led forces to advance for an offensive to retake the Philippines. US Intelligence thought the island was only held by a small Japanese garrison made up mostly of ground crewmen and laborers. Instead, the island was held by a Japanese army garrison composed of many veteran troops whose numbers nearly exceeded those of the US force tasked with taking the island. What ensued was a protracted and violent fight. Perhaps you can do as well or better?

Each copy of Black Hell is composed of the following:

• Two 11 by 17 inch map sheets • 110 double-sided un-mounted counters • 7 pages of charts and tables • 9 pages of rules

Players will also need a standard deck of cards and one D6, one ten sided die (D10, treat a die roll of 0 as ten and not zero), to play the game. Units are mostly companies, a turn represents 1 day of time, and a map hex is one third of a mile across.

-description from designer