I just got Pacific 2nd edition and was confused about something on the setup. It says China gets a fighter to start, however there are no Chinese fighter pieces. I thought this might be a misprint since the unit identification chart shows that China only has infantry. But then I searched this site and it appears the Chinese fighter is a legit part of the game.
My assumption is that since the U.S. backs China, I would place a U.S. fighter? And if so, who controls it? The China player or the U.S. player?
I think the single fighter for China is basically meant to represent the Flying Tiger squadron of American volunteers who were serving there prior to the U.S. entry into the war. So no, it’s not a misprint, and yes, you’d use a U.S. fighter plane sculpt. You could even (as a nice touch) borrow a P-40 Warhawk sculpt from the 1941 game and use it for that purpose, since the Flying Tigers flew P-40s.
Thanks for the quick reply. I thought that might be the case. So is it controlled on China’s turn or the U.S. turn?
It’s Chinese controlled, and can not be replaced.
Another thing you could do for the Chinese fighter if you would prefer it to be the same color as the Chinese troops is get one from Historical Board Gaming. They have these Allied Supplement sets in several different colors. One of them is called Celery Green which is the same color as the British pieces in old copies of Revised. This color is very close to the same color as the Chinese infantry pieces. The Allied supplement sets include P-40 fighter planes. You don’t even have to get the entire set because HBG sells these pieces individually. You can pick up 2 or 3 P-40s and there you go! Your very own Chinese fighter unit.
As for Artillery, HBG also has these Neutral sets in several colors and one of them is a yellow-green color. That color is a little brighter than the Chinese infantry, but it works okay with them and certainly is different from the US artillery. The Neutral sets have an artillery piece called a “75 Veld” which I think is Polish or Belgian but works fine for Chinese since they mostly had older stuff anyway.
