Guadalcanal first impressions

I am working on a game right now just to see how long a non VP game takes.
The US won via VP’s 15-13 but I kept going. The game board looked more like a draw then a US victory. US held three islands and Japan held three islands and both navies were still able to carry on the fight, in fact the Japanese were about to land troops on New Georgia to try to retake it.

Seems like the VP game is real short, I also have not been able to damage an air field yet in order to slow down the VP rush.

On the other hand I am really fond of this game, it seems evenly matched depending on your purchases and deployment. Battles go back and forth and the first airbattle we tried opened eveyone’s eyes, its dangerous to be a pilot in the south pacific!

I kind of like the battlebox and am going to try it with AAP, substituting the aa gun for armor.

On the other hand while “no hit doesn’t hit” might work well, often in combat your weapons are aimed at something and often hit something else. In the pacific spreds of torpedoes were fired at ship A only to miss and hit ship B and sometimes even ship C. When I was a USMC tanker most of the time I hit (or missed cleanly) what I aimed at but sometimes I hit other things and many times I had to “spray and prey” as they call it. I could see how you could fire at an enemy tank but instead kill the enemy troops nearby…enough of my early 90’s “war” stories.

My son and I are just playing our second game today.  Yesterday’s game was called on account of cluelessness.  We played several things the wrong way.  Unfortunately, I blame this on the rulebook not being fully developed with playing examples and situations that will certainly occur not even being mentioned in the rules.

I think this is a quality game.  The appearance that a game will proceed quickly once we understand the rules is a plus because I couldn’t get him to stick with a full game of AAR.  I received only one red chip, not the ten indicated in the rulebook inventory.  I think the cruisers are too close to the size of a battleship, but that is because the destroyers are much too big to begin with.  Downsizing cruisers and destroyers would improve the game for me.  I also think more fighter aircraft need to be included because when you deploy a carrier, you want to place two aircraft pieces on the carrier, not an airplane and a chip.  Then you need at least six additional fighters, one for each airfield you are likely to use (I think realistically controlling five might be the max that ever happens in a VP game).  I really love the battlebox.  I hated the situation where an opponent selected his infantry and empty transports.  This system is a nice balance between randomness and focus.  I always thought, especially in sea battles, that a player should have a chance to focus on particular ships.  It also creates the right feeling of making escort ships relevent.  There is good reason to have plenty of destroyers to pick up the random hit nto assigned to a missing battleship, or transport.  It also gives a player a chance to hit the loaded transports which I find more satisfying from a realism perspective.

My son is rather timid and as the Americans has not made much of a fight.  Unfortunately, my forces will build up (4 islands to 2 islands) and he will see they need to act with more purpose early.  Studying the game, though, I see that it will be difficult for the Japanese to hold four islands through two turns.  It appears to me the US will easily capture all of Guadalcanal and Melita on turn 1 and could build an airfield on Melita on turn 1 if they dare.  Turn 2 will often see Santa Isabel fall to the Americans, unless the Japanese protect her too much, when New Gerogia will fall to the Americans instead.

The arrangement of the sea zones presents problems for the defender.  There are just too many ways for an agressor to make progress and little opportunity for the defender to block him.  This then appears to lead to a massive naval battle when niether side wants to make such a gamble.  This really captures the feeling of tension and importance Guadalcanal represented to the Pacific war.  Many folks heard about the Battle of Midway and know it was a turning point in the war.  But few understand the significance of Guadalcanal as the Marine Corps victory that accomplished the same thing in the island campaigns.

I’d have liked some changes to the ships, and a few more fighters, but I give this game two big thumbs up!

You could always contact AH Customer Service to get your missing red chips.  Alternatively, you could buy a copy of Battle of the Bulge (which I’m sure you’d enjoy), and use the red chips from it, since they don’t get used anyway.

or raid a Yahtzee  game  :lol:

Early Impression after my first two games.

The battlebox is loud and the twelfth die doesn’t always settle into the neck.

Air units don’t live long.

Subs are cool if they sink things otherwise you are better off with a destroyer for 1 more IMO. Although if your opponent is still in Revised thinking they might send aircraft after them when the planes would be better off somewhere else. :-)

The game shouldn’t be long enough to worry about getting some sort of shuck-shuck going from your base card to the front. It is two turns from the slot (szH) or (SZI) back to base and 2 points for a supply to deploy to board or three turns back to board without the supply and unless the fight is at Guadalcanal or Malaita that is too slow. It is 2 points for a new TRN. If you want to get land units from the base to the front you will need more TRNs or DST along with the additional land units.

@frimmel:

The battlebox is loud and the twelfth die doesn’t always settle into the neck.

You could always try my battle strip.

@Krieghund:

@frimmel:

The battlebox is loud and the twelfth die doesn’t always settle into the neck.

You could always try my battle strip.

I caught that the other day. It is pretty slick. Did you make up the dice order from Chessex special or was it a standard thing they do?

It was a custom order.  I don’t remember the exact cost, since I ordered some other stuff with them, but I think it was around $3 per set of twelve plus shipping.

Could you post the file you used to print the strip?  :-)

The forum allows several file types to be attached to a post. Size limit is 256 KB.

Pretty Please.  :-)

I’m not quite ready to punt on the battlebox but I did miss handling dice and I didn’t get to use my cool- Yoper Special Dice Tower.

I too have had problems with the battlebox.  I find frequently the 11th-12th dice don’t always settle properly.  Also on a couple of occassions when shaking the box the sleeve has opened and a few of the dice flew out knocking units around the board.

I like the “battle strip” idea…I may give that or something similar a try.  Can the same results (probability) be achieved with fewer dice (i.e six)?

Great info being shared in these forums; Thanks.

@frimmel:

Could you post the file you used to print the strip?  :-)

I’ll probably post it on BGG this weekend, along with instructions.

@Krieghund:

@frimmel:

Could you post the file you used to print the strip?  :-)

I’ll probably post it on BGG this weekend, along with instructions.

Here it is: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/29393

@Krieghund:

@Krieghund:

@frimmel:

Could you post the file you used to print the strip?  :-)

I’ll probably post it on BGG this weekend, along with instructions.

Here it is: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/29393

Thanks.  :-)