During the summer and fall of 1944, history’s greatest naval battles raged in the western Pacific Ocean, as the United States fought to finally subdue the Japanese Empire, and the Imperial Navy put up fanatical resistance to the last possible moment.

Leyte Gulf is one of the largest wargames ever published, and it covers both of these battles plus many more. It’s part of our Second World War at Sea series of operational-level naval games.

There are 22 scenarios, five of them battle scenarios that use only the tactical map, and 17 operational scenarios. You can read a preview of them here.

The huge number of pieces represent every significant ship and airplane that fought or could have fought in the Western Pacific in 1944 and 1945. Well-known ships like the destroyers Johnston and Hoel, the escort carriers of Taffy Three, and the Japanese super-battleship Yamato are all present. So are some ships never completed, like Yamato’s two sisters or the American Montana-class battleships. And the Japanese even get a handful of jet planes.

Leyte Gulf includes:

25”x25” tactical map
Three 35”x24” operational maps
2,170 game pieces
24-page series rule book
24-page scenario book
Two player aid cards
Six organizational cards