Campaign Update

BruceAZ_MatrixForum · Post by **BruceAZ_MatrixForum** » Thu Feb 01, 2001 6:58 am

For those of you that enjoy a good pacific battle or love infantry scenarios, I have the campaign for you!

I will release my "Guadalcanal 1942" campaign in a week or so. We have finally finished inputting and evaluating all the suggestions and recommendations many of you have emailed to me over the last two months. I took all suggestions and forwarded them on to the testers for consideration. Many of your ideas we tried to incorporate into the basic game play.

I want to give credit to the testers that took their personal time to evaluate what I had designed or suggestions from the forum: Steve Averey, Ed Irani, and Lu Pham. Thank you for all your suggestions and especially the time commitment.

A special “Thank You” goes to Will Bill for his encouraging words and willingness to answer my dumb questions. Being a former Marine and a “real” Matrix Veteran, your input and patience was really appreciated.

Here are the highlights of this 9 battle campaign.:

You will start your adventure as a battalion commander on Red Beach, 7 August, 1942. Your command will be attached to the 5th Marines initially and various Army and Marine units throughout the campaign. This campaign is not an exact historical recreation. I have altered for wargame play to allow varying outcomes. You will play many of the same key Guadalcanal battles but some events or places have been altered to allow advance play or improve strategy. It is significant for each player to read all introductory notes before each battle as there are clues and tips that will help you in your fight. This is a game of pure infantry warfare where strategy, capable forward observers, mobile reserves and a strong defensive line will make the difference between success and failure. Fast, light infantry with tough combat engineers in support are your key elements to be successful. The maps are very authentic except for two where we had to make some minor changes.

You will start with the initial landing on Red Beach and advance inland. Japanese bombers out of Rabaul will harass your forces day and night. After achieving your initial objectives, you are ordered to seize the airstrip and surrounding heights. You must be careful at all times as a Japanese counterattack is present in nearly every scenario. BANZAI! You dig in and defend Henderson Airfield including Lunga Ridge (Bloody Ridge) overlooking the airfield from the southwest.

You attack toward the Matanikau River but are recalled to defend the airfield perimeter once again and bear the full weight of the vaunted 2nd Sendai Division. After a successful counterattack, you move into a unique “patrolling” scenario and then assault the remnants of the 2nd Division at Koli Point.

This action leads you to the assault on the heavily defended Japanese fortifications known as the “GIFU.” This is the toughest battle faced by your Marines. Caves and fortifications abound. Can your mobile landing force envelop the line and force the issue? The Code of Bushido is very alive in this battle.

Your final assault is against the base camp at Cape Esperance. You will fight one tough battle against the “Yano Battalion” made up of Japanese Marine volunteers to fight to the death for the Emperor! Quickly seize the beach objectives and you will prevent the Japanese 17th Army from escaping. Failure to gain the initiative and you will witness the Japanese Navy evacuating the remnants in a last salute of defiance.

A Marine Chaplain picked up a diary of a Japanese Captain that described the ordeal of the 17th Army:

Those that can stand will last 30 days.
Those that can sit up will live three weeks.
Those that cannot sit up will live one week.
Those that urinate lying down will last 3 days.
Those that have stopped speaking will last 2 days.
Those that stopped blinking die tomorrow.
Those that die for the Emperor will live forever!

His platoon, buried in a cave, died to the last man defending a ridge that was defending the approaches to Cape Esperance.

Good Luck!

Bruce
Semper Fi

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"The most important element in war is man. And there are no tougher men than my China Marines." Major Gen. Archer 'Archy' Vandegrift, 1st Marine Division

Dagobert · Post by **Dagobert** » Thu Feb 01, 2001 7:09 am

Nine battles? Guadalcanal? very cool.

Panzer Capta · Post by **Panzer Capta** » Thu Feb 01, 2001 7:48 am

Looking forward to it Bruce. It will be nice to see a Pacific Campaign scenerio.

Wild Bill · Post by **Wild Bill** » Thu Feb 01, 2001 10:17 pm

Wow! It sounds really great, Bruce. I have an inordinate interest in the Pacific and am very excited about seeing this one come to light.

It should prove to be very entertaining. Where are you going to post it?

Glad I could be of some help!

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

LeibstandartePzD · Post by **LeibstandartePzD** » Thu Feb 01, 2001 11:07 pm

Wow! So many great campaigns coming out in a short time period. Looking forward to this Pacific campaign. Should be a nice break from Wild Bill's Russians beating the crap out of me on the Victor's.

Thanks for all your hard work BruceAZ!

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Former member of the 8th US cavalry and a grandson of a Leibstandarte tanker. Former name on these boards was Leibstandarte.

Warrior · Post by **Warrior** » Fri Feb 02, 2001 12:31 am

As one of the testers, I can tell you it is a real challenge. Bruce did a truly excellent job on this campaign, I was on the edge of my chair the whole way.

BruceAZ_MatrixForum · Post by **BruceAZ_MatrixForum** » Fri Feb 02, 2001 6:26 am

I really had not gone there yet. I wonder if Tankhead and/or Fabio would be willing to post it on their sites? I will ask them. Any thoughts?

I should be done with the final version in about a week. I still have a list from two testers to work off and respond to three emails from Matrix players with suggestions.

Bruce
Semper Fi

BruceAZ_MatrixForum · Post by **BruceAZ_MatrixForum** » Sat Feb 03, 2001 6:07 am

[QUOTE]Originally posted by LeibstandartePzD:
Wow! So many great campaigns coming out in a short time period. Looking forward to this Pacific campaign. Should be a nice break from Wild Bill's Russians beating the crap out of me on the Victor's.

Thanks for all your hard work BruceAZ!

I know what you mean. My tank losses are everywhere in WB's scenarios! I guess its always the "surprise" that I really enjoy. It creates a true war-game effect.

Good luck with my Guadalcanal campaign. According to the testers, you will need it! You will find out hard a defense they can put up!

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"The most important element in war is man. And there are no tougher men than my China Marines." Major Gen. Archer 'Archy' Vandegrift, 1st Marine Division

Bing · Post by **Bing** » Sat Feb 03, 2001 8:23 am

LeibstandartePzD: Buy a lot of rocket launchers in Victors, beat the godless Commies at their own game. Currently, I am using 14 x 4.5" rocket sections in my Victors core. Oh, what a glorious racket they make! And how very nice it is to see them taking out all manner of halftracks, trucks, AA units, and Russian tanks though not with great frequency. What they do and the reason they are valuable, is that rockets will slow and discourage the Soviet advance; when I gain two or three turns in this manner I often am on my way to a DV.

Just my way of dealing with the tactical situation, when I served we called it a "field expedient".

Bing

LeibstandartePzD · Post by **LeibstandartePzD** » Sun Feb 04, 2001 4:15 am

Bing,

Thanks for the advice. I have actually started using a combination of rockets and tamk busting aircraft to hammer the godless pigs. Starting to get better results but I know to always keep an eye pealed when Wild Bill is involved.

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Former member of the 8th US cavalry and a grandson of a Leibstandarte tanker. Former name on these boards was Leibstandarte.