Guadalcanal scenario: took Lunga & Tulagi, what now?

[Randy Stead]

One other thing... This time I am not sending engineers and supplies to build up Koumac. I have moved an AVD to Koumac and transferred one squadron of Catalinas there to give them a few extra hexes of reach into Coral Sea. Do I need to send anything else to support the Catalinas? For example, a supply ship? The AVD itself does not load supply, so I don't know how it will support the Catalinas, which if based at Noumea would need supply to operate. I feel as if I am missing something in this little operation. Do I need to unload some supply at Koumac? Logically my brain says yes.

[RangerJoe]

No, just load the AVD with 170 units of supply and it will then support 6 float planes or flying boats.

[Ambassador]

One AVD or AVP is usually not enough to support one squadron, unless the squadron has many fragments and/or is depleted.

You see the improvement on your first turns, in your second run of the scenario ? This will help you, and that’s also why I advise running a few weeks/months of the full campaign with no real involvement before starting in earnest : seeing how events will unfold will avoid a lot of early errors, whose consequences only appear visible after such a time.

[Randy Stead]

Yes, I am seeing improvement already, which means I learned a few things. I did not follow several of the moves of HarPlonked in his YouTube video. I did learn a few things from him, though, which means it was worth it. The inadequacies of this scenario obviously reflect the logistical challenges of the Allies at the time. People may forget, but this was the first serious push back on land against Japan, or at least in that part of the theater. The Americans learned a lot about what to do to properly support an amphibious assault and it led to greater success in later operations, not just there but in Europe, too. They developed special ships, vehicles and honed the operational aspects of such operations. I don't think operations like Iwo Jima would have come off so well if not for the first fumbling, tenuous landings such as Guadalcanal.

This scenario is also valuable in teaching you what not to do. One of the biggest challenges in this scenario is getting enough engineers and base forces to Lunga and Tulagi to get those bases up and running. The player finds himself having taken those two bases and then having to figure out what to do next. Or at least a new guy like me does, which is why I started this thread. When I get into playing the full game and I get to where I have to plan such operations, I shall have to concentrate my landing ships at optimal operating bases, well stocked with supply and units prepped for the targets. This will not be easy, but if you plan it properly it is attainable; and this scenario will have taught me how to do it. So, it has indeed been a worthwhile scenario to play, not once, but twice.

[Randy Stead]

I might still improve Koumac again, but just enough to make it large enough to unload one freighter's worth of supply now and then, to keep the AVD from having to go back and forth. What about aviation support for a 1 or 2 AVD, will it provide enough support to keep a squadron of float planes in operation. I know in a land base you can open the display and see how much aviation support you have and need, but how do you do this in a dot base with only ships supporting the planes?

[RangerJoe]

You can have the base request supplies. If you have an air HQ, you can also just transport part of it to another base for to support air operations.

[Randy Stead]

I'm at a loss as how to load AVD Ballard with supplies. If I click load tenders on this list, I get the message was unable to load. If I dock it I get no ability to load supplies at the dock as the text is greyed out. How am I supposed to load supply onto this ship to get it to operate as a tender servicing planes?

[RangerJoe]

Are you sure that it is not already loaded? Post a picture if you would, please.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

I might still improve Koumac again, but just enough to make it large enough to unload one freighter's worth of supply now and then, to keep the AVD from having to go back and forth. What about aviation support for a 1 or 2 AVD, will it provide enough support to keep a squadron of float planes in operation. I know in a land base you can open the display and see how much aviation support you have and need, but how do you do this in a dot base with only ships supporting the planes?

Look at each of the ships and you can see how many float planes they can support.

US AVDs and AVPs typically support 6 planes each requiring at least 2 ships to provide full support to a single full PBY squadron.

US AVs typically support 24 or 36 planes each.

The US has 2 AVs that have a capacity to operate float planes at sea like Japanese CS ship types. They have a tiny 4 plane capacity which is perfect for operating a rebuilt cruiser FP squadron. The ships are the Langley and Wright.

The Dutch have a plethora of tiny, short legged AVPs with tiny AV support. Several have a capacity of 1 for operating planes at sea.

[Randy Stead]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Are you sure that it is not already loaded? Post a picture if you would, please.

I would if I knew how. I hit the Print Screen button while in the game but when I go to Clipboard it is empty. Not sure how to do this. Instructions would be very much appreciated as this is something I have never done.

[Randy Stead]

Okay, I think I figured out how to take the screenshots, now I have to figure out how to get them to show up in a forum post. Do I need to link them from a photo hosting site?

[Randy Stead]

Ballard is an AVD and shows as having capacity of "0" whereas Manley and McKean are APDs in the listing directly above it and show capacity of 180 each. I know there are not aircraft tenders, but I mention them as showing they have a small capacity to hold supply. Is it possible that Ballard, while being a tender, has no ability to hold supply? Nothing I do can get it to load supply so I am wondering if it is even capable of loading supply.

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

I'm at a loss as how to load AVD Ballard with supplies. If I click load tenders on this list, I get the message was unable to load. If I dock it I get no ability to load supplies at the dock as the text is greyed out. How am I supposed to load supply onto this ship to get it to operate as a tender servicing planes?

Just to be sure : do you try to load it in Noumea, or is it in Koumac already ? You need to have supplies (and the port still needs to have available ops points)

There’re two methods to load an auxiliary ship like an AVD or an AV. First one is classic : you create a TF and select load supplies.

Second one is easier and more specific : when in the list of ships in port screen, you hit the « load tenders » button, and they should get enough supplies to fill them.


For Koumac, you’re better off using amphibious TF with a lone, small xAK or xAKL than a transport or cargo TF.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

Okay, I think I figured out how to take the screenshots, now I have to figure out how to get them to show up in a forum post. Do I need to link them from a photo hosting site?

About the AVDs - don't forget to set them to "Do Not Unload" or they will just unload their supply immediately after loading it.

To post a picture:

Open a post using the "reply" button on any post in the thread. DO NOT use the "quick reply" at the bottom of the page as it does not allow for picture embedding.

Type your text to go with the picture, then click the box next to "Embed picture in post" and click on the "Click here to upload!" text.
That will open a small window in which you "browse" to the subdirectory where you have your picture. Choose the picture by clicking on it (called "Open" in the instruction) then keep clicking OK until the text and picture is posted.

[HansBolter]

He may need a minimum post count threshold (500?) before he can post images.

They also need to be jpegs.

[RangerJoe]

At ten posts, you should be able to post pictures.

[RhinoDad]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

To add to my previous post... I wish to find a map that will be "for keeps" as well as investigate the AI updates I have heard about. In other words, I wish to take this game beyond its out of the box condition and tweak/mod it to my satisfaction as I have done with other games over the years, such as Silent Hunter 3, another favourite of mine, once I remedied the stock version into something playable and enjoyable once the bugs and ugliness were eliminated, reduced, enhanced. And then there the other tools available which I have not even touched yet, such as trackers; don't know what they do or how to use them or even if I have the ability and inclination to make it worthwhile using them. It's already challenging enough just learning the game itself.

One last question or two: is there a key you use to pull up where all of your shipyards are? Can you pull up a list of the initial and SPS of all the bases and dots in the game, aside from compiling all this data manually? At its core this game is a compilation of databases so perhaps there is an easier way to access this information without visiting every hex in the game?

Tracker
open up bases export to CSV
Open up CSV file in excel
Sort by what ever you are looking for

I will copy bases to different tabs then delete columns and sort by what I want the sheet to show.

i.e. Port sizes, Airfield size, Repair yards, Resources/Oil/Supply, Garrison Requirements

These I print out and save in handy reference binder for use when playing game

[RhinoDad]

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

Thanks. I rationalize it in my mind as the PPs being equivalent to favors owed and sustained barrage of pleading and whining. It seems kind of hokey the way it is depicted in the game but it does discipline the player to only "request" what is really needed.

Think that PP serve at least two purposes, both historically and gameplay.

In allied case it prevents player from moving all forces around in manner only suitable for complete non historical style.

As you probably have noted many players play a-historically in order to get better results from game engine. Or act like they are coming back in time from the 1950's with full knowledge of how things actually worked out. One purpose I think is to slow things down so the players do not just move everyone about and abandon areas that were garrisoned like west coast US, Australia, Burma, Philippians, Malaya. The civilian governments forced the military to station large amounts of assets on home front to protect from innovation; even though on west coast that would not be possible early war, it was all the Japanese fleet could do to get the carriers to Pearl Harbour for the attack and to do so they had to get approval to operate in very unsafe inefficient manner. Not something they would do in war. You can drain down these reserves but slowly over time as was historical. The troops were slowly released to go fight. It forces at least some commitment in defense of an area.


Also it forces the allied player to fight not fully as one but as different entities with a somewhat common goal. Chang was not looking for an allied victory he was looking to save China and remain in power. British were looking mainly to protect and retake British holdings were not all that interested in China. Dutch were looking to hold onto Dutch colonies, also not that interested in China. Australians were initially into British goals but began to feel once again betrayed by British and moved towards American side. US was key on in defeat of Japan, saving China, Australia and not so much British, Dutch colonies.

These troops that are restricted are usually units that were not under the command of the area leader such as dugout, Nimitz.

They also limit the number of forces that you can maneuver. With commands that were rather top down the allied nations could not order every unit to move and undertake action. The PP slow this down. Some of the old paper/chit games required and administrative activation cost/unit in order to move or attack. The top command staff is only so big and can only handle maneuver of so many units. So PP slow down the response time of the allied player to Japanese action. Historically the allies were very slow to react and maneuver, PP puts some of this in place.

[RangerJoe]

Something tell me that you do not care for MacArthur.

[RhinoDad]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Something tell me that you do not care for MacArthur.

Not caring for him would be a polite way of putting it. Will not even use his name. But he was a good peacetime general.