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OK, the first two skirmishes in the Guadalcanal campaign didn't give me a good feel for what the Japs are all about since I kept shooting at construction workers. The defense of Henderson field was unreal when the regulars and SNLF showed up. Great feel to it since it was freakin' intense but a couple of questions:

1. You just can't kill Jap morale can you? I'd chew up a squad it it just kept coming back for more. This is a 100% annihilation type thing when you fight them.

2. Are Jap snipers just the top of the food chain? These guys kill tanks, gets an unreal number of kills on INF and are dman near impossible to kill. What is the bestway to dispatch these cats?

3. Jap Squad Type B. Is this unit for unit the best INF squad in the game? The 17 guys, the super morale and then those dman knee mortars do terrible things to my supression level.

4. Thank god for Stewarts and Alligators. I'd have been shoved right off the ridgeline if my two M3's hadn't been on that hilltop burning up all their ammo and the LVT's with their 4 MG's rock hard as well (although jap mortars kills them like flies).

5. On the USMC squads, should I upgrade the .30 MG squad into a normal marine squad. The extra shots and grenades seem vital since I don't get long range kill zones all that often to explot the MGs and in close rnage they seem no better than rifles.

6. Naval guns, I think I recall this thread but the Jap 8" guns are out of control. A human oppoent could have just annihilated me with those guns since any given round they fired anything in their path got killed/supressed. Ditto airpower. I swear aerial bombardments and naval fire were not their effective.

ILCK, I both respect and detest my Japanese enemy--now, if you're playing Bruce's campaign, he intentionally made this a "hard" campaign. I usually play the long WWII campaigns, and I'd recommend that you try one at some point.

As for point 1--yes, you must sometimes kill them to the last man.

Point 2--the Jap snipers are good; again, you just have to kill them by whatever means available.

Point 4--against infantry, the M3 Stuarts, the 75mm GMcs, and even 37mm ATGs (using HE canister rounds) are very effective.

Point 5--upgrading the MMGs to regular line infantry, esp. in this campaign, may be a good idea. In 8.2, the USMC MMG and HMG sections have either Thompson or Reising SMGs as secondary armament. They need to be stacked with a rifle squad for best use in jungle fighting. An alternative is getting a few .50 cal M2-HBs--the only problem is, they are not very mobile.

(Historical commentary: it would've saved many lives had the M1 Garand and Bazooka been part of the USMC's TOE in 1942. The USMC high command's conservatism is partly to blame for this. The Springfield was more rugged, and it was feared that too much ammo would be wasted with the semi-auto M1 Rifle. Thankfully, they saw the necessity of a higher rate of fire for line infantry and an increase of the size of the rifle squad in 1943. )

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

ILCK, I both respect and detest my Japanese enemy--now, if you're playing Bruce's campaign, he intentionally made this a "hard" campaign. I usually play the long WWII campaigns, and I'd recommend that you try one at some point.

Yep, I've got tons of respect for them as well but the glee of watching thee Stuarts cut down clumps of them was also good so I understand the respect and hate part. If by Bruce's campaign you means the Guadalcancal camapign from the game, not a mega campaign, then that is the one I'm paying and yes, it is VERY hard. I've gotten 2 draws in all 3 battles although in the last I held all the VH's and killed 10-1 so I'm not sure what a win would be.

Japs and the Marines- never ever surrender.[X(]
Just imagine if the jap snipers had the boys AT Rifles.JS II's wouldnt even stand a chance, let alone shermans and stuarts.[:D]

Yeah, MOTHER, I still don't think the PTO gets the attention it deserves. Apart from the obvious Allied contribution by the USMC, we also had the US Army, the ANZACs, the Brits, the Filipinos , the Chinese and others not represented in SPWaW. They all contributed to the victory in the Pacific, and they all need to be recognized. The Filipinos I will single out here--they contributed units to the regular US Army (The Philippine Scouts), as well as their own army and the guerrilla units that resisted the Japanese occupation. All of these units are represented in the game. The following is a word doc that was meant for inclusion into the game:

Notes on the Philippine OOB:
Glenn Higginbotham 1/16/04

The PI designation refers to both the native Philippine units that served as guerrillas during the Japanese occupation and during the Philippine Insurrection of the late 19th-early 20th century. They are primarily for scenario designers. For more information, go to this website: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... ippine.htm

The PS units are special. The Philippine Scouts were actually a part of the US Army, and were armed as US regulars. For more on their history, refer to this website:http://www.philippine-scouts.org/History/history.html

The PA represent the Philippine Army, such as it was, organized by American advisers and equipped mainly with obsolete American weapons, mostly of WWI vintage.