The Endorsement: Worthington’s Pacific Theatre

  

 

The Old School Wargames arm of Worthington Publishing currently has a Kickstarter campaign running for three games in the company’s Travel Games line. I’ve made no apologies for being a fan of Worthington’s output generally in the past; they generally produce really nicely put together games on the rules-lighter side, and that play in between one and three hours, which suits my personal gaming circumstances. Their travel games stick to Worthington’s lane, except they are smaller (about the size of a big pencil case), and tend to play out in a shorter time frame.

Full disclosure: I don’t own any of Worthington’s travel games, and I haven’t had the opportunity to try any out, either (I’ll come back to this). I haven’t promoted their Kickstarter campaigns in the past, but this is a special case. 

Task Force templates for Midway Solitaire. Photos are taken from the KS campaign page.

The current campaign offers three titles covering different aspects of the war in the Pacific; Midway Solitaire (a new title, not to be confused with the solitaire Battle of Midway game released in World at War magazine (Decision Games) in 2017 and repackaged as Midway Solitaire Deluxe in 2021),  a reprint of one of their first travel games, Pacific War 1942 (Worthington Publishing, 2024),and a refashioned Tarawa 1943 (Worthington Publishing, 2021). 

Anyone who has been reading A Fast Game from the start will know that Tarawa 1943 is one of my all-time favourite fast-playing solo games. It’s been out of print for a while, the Worthington folks are innovators, reimagining this classic block game as a small, travel-friendly game with a smaller footprint with cardstock components replacing the blocks, but maintaining the depth and intensity of the original game. 

The refashioned Tarawa 1943 map. Neoprene maps are available for all three games
as add-ons, if that's your thing.

Tarawa is the only one I can speak to personally. There is a wealth of content available on YouTube regarding Pacific War 1942 – a quick search brought up play-throughs by Zilla Blitz and the Player’s Aid, as well as a short review by Grant from TPA. But I can wholeheartedly endorse Tarawa 1943. 

You don’t have to buy all three games – there are options for backing just one or two if you prefer, though shipping overseas favours multiple purchases. At time of posting there is about sixteen days remaining on the campaign, so check it out.