ORIGINAL: incbob
Well. I hate to do it, but it is time to call this AAR done.
I intended to take this to completion, but really cannot. I am going to start over and maybe my 3rd game I can do.
There is just to much I did not know. I did worry that starting an AAR on my first Guadalcanal game was biting of more than I could chew, but I thought I had a handle on Naval and was good with Barbarossa.
Things I learned.
1- Know your units. Smaller/Lessor units might be better than that one bigger/better one.
During setup I chose some class 5 CV air units since they were the better air unit. The problem is this left me with a unit I could not use and and since I did not choose the lessor air units with the smaller class I was left with CVs with no planes.
Yes, the US's size 5 CVPs are for the Essexes. which don't exist yet at the start of the Guadalcanal campaign. In Global war, the CW's CVP pool is agonizing. They start the game with empty carriers, and it is hard to fill them. If the Japanese build all their CVL's, they will find it almost impossible to provide them all with planes.
2- Know your supply routes.
I did not realize all the sea zones that I needed CPs in and did not know how many CPs I needed in each sea zone. This is a deficiency because I do not know production that well.
The Guadalcanal scenario has special rules, which I do not know. You have to read the scenario booklet to get the Guadalcanal rules to figure out where CPs are required for victory points.
3- Supply is harder to come by in the Pacifc.
At least in Barbarossa supply seemed easy to figure out and once a unit got OOS it was rather easy to get it back into supply. With tthe Pacific once you loose control of a sea zone all units out of supply on an Island can be out of supply so you have to be careful.
4- Multiple Impulses
For Japan and the Allies in the Pacific you just cannot do all you need in a single Impulse. Even a Combined choice doesn't give you enough actions to do it what you need. You end up having to prioritize your actions and go over multiple Impulses. I felt this a lot more in the Pacific than I did in Barbarossa.
5- Your gonna fight.
Early game US/Japan is interesgting in that in the early game neither the US nor the Japanease want to loose units. The US /because they have so few and the Japanese because what they loose is difficult to replace. Yet, for the Japanese you have to put your units in harms way to prevent take avenues of attack away from the US. As for the Allies if you want to stop the Japanese you have to place your units in harms way. The result is that you are going to fight a battle like Midway win or lose.
6- Not enough Units.
I mean I understand you never have what you want, but I was shocked by the lack of something simple like CPs. I figure you need at least 2-3 CPs per sea zone to keep supply lines open in case of subs. But the US barely has enough to go from the US to the south Pacific.
The number of CPs to have in a sea zone you are just using for supply, not production, is one (1). Having one or two extra will not help, because if an opposing submarine force finds you, you will likely lose multiple CPs. Don't give the enemy multiple CPs to kill. Instead, try to have multiple routes your supply can go through. The Coral Sea is an unfortunate choke point; it is hard to get around it. The enemy will knock out a CP here or there; just be prepared to replace them as quickly as possible.
The same goes for air units and land units. The Guadalcanal scenario was is set in May/June 42, yet as the Japanese I could not put units in the Philippines or other places you might suspect there would be units.
7- Concentration or Spread Out.
This is a question that I did not get answered and probably never will. Do you hit them where they aren't? Do you have one really big force or do you divide your forces and try more than one operation at at time.
An example is of this is the Allied side in this AAR. Do you combine the CW and US carriers into one large group to resist the Japanese or do you le the US resist while using the CW carriers to strike elsewhere? As the Japanese if you combine your units you have a force that will be daunting for the US and CW combined. However, if you do this you leave yourself open to being attacked where you aren't. On the other hand if you split your forces you risk being defeated in detail.
It is very hard to make a naval offensive when there is parity of forces. Land based air is key. You can operate if you have it; advancing to where you don't is very problematic. (Except for submarines, who more or less have to.)
I thought I knew how to play this game....
