Guadalcanal Victory Conditions
The objective cities for this scenario are given in the “Victory Totals” form (2.jpg). It’s interesting to note that the name of this scenario, Guadalcanal, is not among them. After examining the list I really don’t see any of the objectives that are obvious targets for the opposing sides. Maybe Dutch Harbor for the Japanese; but I don’t immediately see any obvious targets for the allies at this stage of the war. However; in addition to the objective cities there are “Special”, or additional, victory conditions for this scenario, which I found in the “Help” section of this form under the section:
Guadalcanal Special Victory Conditions
Each player gains the following victory points at the end of the game:
• 5 for each friendly controlled objective hex that was enemy controlled at the start of the game (and 0 for any others).
• 4 for each enemy CV destroyed.
• The US/CW/France player scores victory points, if at the end of a turn there are less than 5 Japanese convoys in the China Sea or South China Sea. The Allies receive VP equal to the number of convoys less 5 there are in each sea area each turn.
• 2 for each friendly controlled oil resource point that was enemy controlled at the start of the game.
• 1 for each other friendly controlled resource point that was enemy controlled at the start of the game.
The player with the higher total subtracts their opponent’s total and compares it to the following table to gauge the level of victory:
• Decisive: 21+
• Substantive: 11 - 20
• Marginal: 6 - 10
• Draw: 0 - 5
So the destruction of an enemy CV is worth 80% of the capture of an objective city controlled by an “opposing player” at the start of the scenario. As the Japanese player my focus will be on destroying more US carriers than I lose and on protecting my convoys in the China and South China Seas. It’s interesting to note that as the Japanese I only need to be concerned with the loss of my larger (CV) carriers and not my smaller (CVL) ones. As the allied player I will put my effort into raiding attacks against Japanese CVs and convoy; but only (hopefully) when the odds are in my favor. As I write this it occurs to me that the strategies that I plan are pretty much those attempted by these two belligerents at this stage in the war. And if I understand my history correctly, the Japanese over the course of this scenario lost the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu (16 pts for the allies) at Midway and the US lost the Lexington at the Coral Sea, Yorktown and Dutch Harbor at Midway (13 pts for the Japanese). That’s a net of 3 points for the allies, which is a draw! So, as fought historically this scenario was a draw. Though, history as I understand it gives the victory “for this scenario” to the US (or allied player).
