P.T.O. IV: Pacific Theater of Operations
Encyclopedia
P.T.O. IV released as in Japan, is a World War II
-themed strategy
for the PlayStation 2
and PC
produced by Koei. It focuses on naval combat in the maritime theaters of World War II, encompassing the Pacific Ocean
, Mediterranean Sea
, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean
, with the option of playing as one of four major maritime powers of the time: Germany
, Japan
, the United Kingdom
, or the United States
. P.T.O. IV is the latest game in Koei's P.T.O. series.
in December, 1941. If the player commands the Imperial Japanese Navy
, he can choose whether to attack Pearl Harbor or not.
Campaigns occur in two phases: Strategic and Tactical. The Strategic phase involves long term planning of the campaign and deployment of forces. At the beginning of the month, objectives and progress towards meeting them are evaluated or set. If a given objective is met in a timely manner, additional money is earned by the player. Based on where the targeted region is located, at least a month is required to complete the objective. Commanders may be awarded with a Golden Anchor, a Silver Anchor or a certificate as a reward for their actions during these invasions. Resources can be allocated towards ship and aircraft production, R&D, or to other allies as material assistance, which may or may not be reciprocated in kind the next turn depending on the ally's resources. Ships can be organized into fleets and transferred to regions. Aircraft can be assigned to airfields or aircraft carriers, or airfields can be built in regions.
After this phase is complete, the Tactical phase occurs. This involves ship movement from region to region and combat if opposing fleets encounter each other at sea (opposing fleets are moving from adjacent regions towards each other) or in a region when a fleet invades. For a naval battle, victory occurs if all the enemy's deployed ships are destroyed or retreat within 72 hours. For an invasion, victory for the attacker includes destroying or forcing all opposing enemy fleets to retreat and destroying all existing enemy airfields within 72 hours. If the attacker fails to do this even if all enemy ships are destroyed within the time limit, the defender still holds onto the territory and the invading fleet retreats back to the region it invaded from.
, or Germany or Japan for the Axis
. At the start of the game however, the player has the option of choosing allies, enabling the creation of alliances that did not exist such as Germany and the United States for example, to be played for the campaign.
Smaller naval powers such as the Royal Australian Navy
, the Royal Canadian Navy
, and the Regia Marina
, are played by either the United Kingdom's Royal Navy
or Germany's Kriegsmarine
. The Soviet Navy
and the French Navy
do not appear as naval powers in either scenario.
and Ethiopia
(both under Italian rule), the United States controls territories in the Caribbean Sea
and South America
(both independent), while the United Kingdom controls Canada
and Australia
(both Commonwealth
). The focus of Campaign mode is to capture enemy territories while defending one's own, reducing the number of ports under enemy control to zero. Territories produce four types of resources: money, iron ore, oil
, and aluminum for the power that controls them. Money is used to fund construction of ships and aircraft, and fund R&D of new technologies or ship and aircraft types. Iron ore is used for ship construction, oil is used by ships for movement, and aluminum is used for aircraft construction. Capturing territories thus increases the resources available to a player while denying their use to the enemy.
Each power has one home port, to which newly-manufactured ships and aircraft are stationed upon completion. During the Strategic Phase, aircraft may be transferred to any region, while it takes ships or fleets several weeks to travel from region to region. There are also 14 key regions throughout the world which are vital strategic ports with repair facilities for ships. As not all ports have this capability, control of these key regions is crucial in order to maintain the fighting capabilities of one's fleet at sea with less turnaround time for ship repair when ships are damaged in combat. The invasion of a central naval port in itself however, does not guarantee the surrender of a naval power, and may require the entire surrounding region to be occupied before starting the invasion.
as the dominant warship in naval warfare. Battleships however, may be sunk by either heavy gunfire from other vessels, or being bombed repeatedly by carrier and land based aircraft. The game also increases the effectiveness of submarines, enabling submarine fleets to dominate sea battles during the initial engagement.
Ships are organized into fleets, which can comprise up to 16 ships. Up to three fleets can be deployed by each power in battle, with up to 96 total ships committed to a battle. Fleets begin deployed in a column of two ships abreast with the strongest ships as the vanguard and the weakest in the rear. The deployment of fleets may cause problems during combat when a fleet becomes stuck and individual ships are unable to maneuver to redeploy (for example, due to a land obstacle), causing fragmentation of a fleet.
Another type of ship that can be constructed but not controlled is transports. These are used for transporting resources from territories to home ports. They can be interdicted by submarines.
, carrier fighters, bombers, carrier bombers, torpedo bombers, carrier torpedo bombers, scouts, and seaplanes. Each power starts out with a specific number of models of each type deployed to the territories under its control depending on when the campaign starts. Additional models or types can be built, and advanced designs and capabilities become available after completing R&D, for example jets and advanced radar
.
Aircraft can be deployed to airfields in a territory or to aircraft carriers, although some larger ships like cruisers and battleships can carry seaplanes for scouting. Territories can hold up to three airfields, which must be constructed prior to basing aircraft there. Aircraft so based during an invasion act in a defensive role against the invading fleet (s) or enemy aircraft if deployed, and can be used to scout for enemy fleets during the day. After enemy fleets are found, the land-based aircraft will then sortie to bombg attacking vessels or fend off bomber attacks. Because one of the victory conditions of capturing a territory is destroying its existing airfields, a means of negating the effect of defending aircraft is to invade a territory at night when the aircraft are grounded and destroy the airfields before daylight if their locations are known. Only land-based flying boats can attack submarines. Effectively, during a daytime invasion, bombers can be sent to destroy both airfields and defending fleets, while fighters defend against enemy bombers.
and Erich Raeder
for Germany, Louis Mountbatten
and Andrew Cunningham
for Britain, Isoroku Yamamoto
and Chūichi Nagumo
for Japan and Husband Kimmel and Chester Nimitz
for the United States. Each commander may be assigned to various classes of warship from submarine to battleship in order to increase its effectiveness. Commanders are limited to which types of ship they command depending on their rank, thus officers of rear admiral rank and below may not be able to command a battleship and certain aircraft carriers until they are promoted. This can happen whenthe ship under their command performs well in battle. They can be killed in action if the ship they are on is destroyed in combat before they have the chance to transfer to another ship. Once a power is defeated, all the surviving commanders of that nation change allegiance and become controllable by whichever power defeated them, although they are all demoted to the rank of lieutenant commander
.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-themed strategy
Strategy video game
Strategy video games is a video game genre that emphasizes skillful thinking and planning to achieve victory. They emphasize strategic, tactical, and sometimes logistical challenges. Many games also offer economic challenges and exploration...
for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
produced by Koei. It focuses on naval combat in the maritime theaters of World War II, encompassing the Pacific Ocean
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Theatre of World War II
The African, Mediterranean and Middle East theatres encompassed the naval, land, and air campaigns fought between the Allied and Axis forces in the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and Africa...
, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, with the option of playing as one of four major maritime powers of the time: Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, or the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. P.T.O. IV is the latest game in Koei's P.T.O. series.
Modes
There are two modes of gameplay: Scenario and Campaign. The former involves fighting historic naval engagements as either the attacker or defender with the option to continue in campaign mode if certain conditions are met to emerge victorious. If the player starts with the latter, the objective is to achieve victory for their chosen nation and alliance by controlling as many of the 50 regions into which the world's oceans and sea lanes are divided into as possible. Campaigns start either with the initial outbreak of World War II in September, 1939, or after the Japanese attack on Pearl HarborAttack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
in December, 1941. If the player commands the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
, he can choose whether to attack Pearl Harbor or not.
Campaigns occur in two phases: Strategic and Tactical. The Strategic phase involves long term planning of the campaign and deployment of forces. At the beginning of the month, objectives and progress towards meeting them are evaluated or set. If a given objective is met in a timely manner, additional money is earned by the player. Based on where the targeted region is located, at least a month is required to complete the objective. Commanders may be awarded with a Golden Anchor, a Silver Anchor or a certificate as a reward for their actions during these invasions. Resources can be allocated towards ship and aircraft production, R&D, or to other allies as material assistance, which may or may not be reciprocated in kind the next turn depending on the ally's resources. Ships can be organized into fleets and transferred to regions. Aircraft can be assigned to airfields or aircraft carriers, or airfields can be built in regions.
Naval powers
The player has the option of playing as one of four major World War II maritime powers: the United Kingdom or United States for the AlliesAllies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
, or Germany or Japan for the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
. At the start of the game however, the player has the option of choosing allies, enabling the creation of alliances that did not exist such as Germany and the United States for example, to be played for the campaign.
Smaller naval powers such as the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
, the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
, and the Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
, are played by either the United Kingdom's Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
or Germany's Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
. The Soviet Navy
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...
and the French Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
do not appear as naval powers in either scenario.
Territory
Each power starts out with a certain set of territories depending on whether the campaign starts in 1939 or 1941. Some of the powers control territory that they actually did not at the time. For example, Germany's territory includes LibyaItalian Libya
Italian Libya was a unified colony of Italian North Africa established in 1934 in what represents present-day Libya...
and Ethiopia
Italian East Africa
Italian East Africa was an Italian colonial administrative subdivision established in 1936, resulting from the merger of the Ethiopian Empire with the old colonies of Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea. In August 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to Italian East Africa...
(both under Italian rule), the United States controls territories in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
(both independent), while the United Kingdom controls Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(both Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
). The focus of Campaign mode is to capture enemy territories while defending one's own, reducing the number of ports under enemy control to zero. Territories produce four types of resources: money, iron ore, oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
, and aluminum for the power that controls them. Money is used to fund construction of ships and aircraft, and fund R&D of new technologies or ship and aircraft types. Iron ore is used for ship construction, oil is used by ships for movement, and aluminum is used for aircraft construction. Capturing territories thus increases the resources available to a player while denying their use to the enemy.
Each power has one home port, to which newly-manufactured ships and aircraft are stationed upon completion. During the Strategic Phase, aircraft may be transferred to any region, while it takes ships or fleets several weeks to travel from region to region. There are also 14 key regions throughout the world which are vital strategic ports with repair facilities for ships. As not all ports have this capability, control of these key regions is crucial in order to maintain the fighting capabilities of one's fleet at sea with less turnaround time for ship repair when ships are damaged in combat. The invasion of a central naval port in itself however, does not guarantee the surrender of a naval power, and may require the entire surrounding region to be occupied before starting the invasion.
Ships
There are several types of warship available: battleships, battle cruisers, fleet aircraft carriers, light carriers, escort aircraft carriers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. Materials cost and length of completion time varies with the battleships costing the most and thus taking the longest time to construct, with submarines being the cheapest and having the shortest turnaround time. Each power starts out with a certain number of ships of each type. More can be constructed, and existing types and new models can be upgraded and created when R&D in certain areas is developed. The game places emphasis on battleships while limiting the effectiveness of aircraft carriers, thus not reflecting the realities of World War II which saw the decline of the battleship and rise of the aircraft carrierHistory of the aircraft carrier
Aircraft carriers are warships that evolved from balloon-carrying wooden vessels into nuclear powered vessels carrying dozens of fixed and rotary wing aircraft...
as the dominant warship in naval warfare. Battleships however, may be sunk by either heavy gunfire from other vessels, or being bombed repeatedly by carrier and land based aircraft. The game also increases the effectiveness of submarines, enabling submarine fleets to dominate sea battles during the initial engagement.
Ships are organized into fleets, which can comprise up to 16 ships. Up to three fleets can be deployed by each power in battle, with up to 96 total ships committed to a battle. Fleets begin deployed in a column of two ships abreast with the strongest ships as the vanguard and the weakest in the rear. The deployment of fleets may cause problems during combat when a fleet becomes stuck and individual ships are unable to maneuver to redeploy (for example, due to a land obstacle), causing fragmentation of a fleet.
Another type of ship that can be constructed but not controlled is transports. These are used for transporting resources from territories to home ports. They can be interdicted by submarines.
Aircraft
The following types of aircraft are available: fightersFighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
, carrier fighters, bombers, carrier bombers, torpedo bombers, carrier torpedo bombers, scouts, and seaplanes. Each power starts out with a specific number of models of each type deployed to the territories under its control depending on when the campaign starts. Additional models or types can be built, and advanced designs and capabilities become available after completing R&D, for example jets and advanced radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
.
Aircraft can be deployed to airfields in a territory or to aircraft carriers, although some larger ships like cruisers and battleships can carry seaplanes for scouting. Territories can hold up to three airfields, which must be constructed prior to basing aircraft there. Aircraft so based during an invasion act in a defensive role against the invading fleet (s) or enemy aircraft if deployed, and can be used to scout for enemy fleets during the day. After enemy fleets are found, the land-based aircraft will then sortie to bombg attacking vessels or fend off bomber attacks. Because one of the victory conditions of capturing a territory is destroying its existing airfields, a means of negating the effect of defending aircraft is to invade a territory at night when the aircraft are grounded and destroy the airfields before daylight if their locations are known. Only land-based flying boats can attack submarines. Effectively, during a daytime invasion, bombers can be sent to destroy both airfields and defending fleets, while fighters defend against enemy bombers.
Commanders
Each power has a set of historic naval officers and admirals, including Karl DönitzKarl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...
and Erich Raeder
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder was a naval leader in Germany before and during World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Großadmiral — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz...
for Germany, Louis Mountbatten
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS , was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
and Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope
Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Browne Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope KT, GCB, OM, DSO and two Bars , was a British admiral of the Second World War. Cunningham was widely known by his nickname, "ABC"....
for Britain, Isoroku Yamamoto
Isoroku Yamamoto
was a Japanese Naval Marshal General and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of Harvard University ....
and Chūichi Nagumo
Chuichi Nagumo
was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and one time commander of the Kido Butai . He committed suicide during the Battle of Saipan.-Early life:...
for Japan and Husband Kimmel and Chester Nimitz
Chester Nimitz
Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz, GCB, USN was a five-star admiral in the United States Navy. He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet , for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas , for U.S...
for the United States. Each commander may be assigned to various classes of warship from submarine to battleship in order to increase its effectiveness. Commanders are limited to which types of ship they command depending on their rank, thus officers of rear admiral rank and below may not be able to command a battleship and certain aircraft carriers until they are promoted. This can happen whenthe ship under their command performs well in battle. They can be killed in action if the ship they are on is destroyed in combat before they have the chance to transfer to another ship. Once a power is defeated, all the surviving commanders of that nation change allegiance and become controllable by whichever power defeated them, although they are all demoted to the rank of lieutenant commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
.
External links
- Official PS2 version website
- Official PC version website
- P.T.O. IV: Pacific Theater of Operations IGNIGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
page - P.T.O. IV GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
page - Review: P.T.O. IV GameProGameProGamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
review