@DonDebelak said in Axis and Allies Guadalcanal a flawed game.:

Re: Combat in GuadalcanIal?

I find Axis and Allies Guadalcanal a very flawed game. In a battle where planes attach ships, in the air combat the phase, which you have to do even though no planes for the enemy are present, the planes can’t kill a ship, - not on the battle box -but the ships can kill the plane. So ships get two chances to kill the planes and planes only get one chance to kill. That is unfair.

This is incorrect. First the sea units fire at the air units, and then the air units fire at the sea units. The sea units do not get 2 chances to hit the air units.

In a land battle where only planes are attacking, there could be ships on the zone next to the island, but they can’t kill anybody because the battle box only has land units listed.

True, sea units cannot hit air units attacking on land.

Ant the planes can kill land units without land units being able to fight back.

This is not entirely true. While antiaircraft guns are the only land units that can fire at air units, they do so before the air units can attack. This makes it unwise to leave your land units within range of enemy air attack without the protection of antiaircraft guns and/or air units.

I’m not playing this game again.

That is, of course, your choice to make, but you probably owe it to yourself to read the rules again and correct your errors in execution before writing this game off.

I hope this helps.

@PrivateerPuffin Supply tokens are not units, but they can be loaded during the Reinforce, Repair, and Deploy step. Your example is legal.

@Krieghund Thank you

$60 preorder, expected April 2024 release.

https://renegadegamestudios.com/axis-allies-guadalcanal/

From the web page:

“Classic Axis & Allies gameplay set in a more focused theater of war: the Solomon Islands in August 1942.
Play as the United States or Japan in this head to head battle for 2 players!
Use the Battle Box to roll your dice during attacks!
Over 170 plastic miniatures included!
Updated the mini sculpts for several of the pieces to make them more appropriate for the setting of this game.
Airstrips tokens are updated to have control markers for US & Japan on either side. Nine Damaged Tokens have been added to show when these airstrips are damaged.
Updated rulebook to add any clarifications and FAQs since previous printing.”

You should add sea planes to the game without using figs and tacs. But then as the war went on the normal planes can find the ships. For tac bombers if sea planes and or ( fig, tacs ) find ships and or subs, they get a first strike shot for first round only. Attacker picks the target.
So tacs FS hit surface subs @3 and ships @3. If the tac misses the sub, then it can dive now. If tac misses and sub dives then any destroyer in same sea zone gets a depth charge drop @2. On 2nd round or later all tacs attack and defend @2 since they dropped there payload.

I’ve been using this tac, sub and DD thing for years.

Here is a second variant for adding Seaplanes to the game – this time without a bonus attack round. This variant can only be applied when playing with the optional rule of Hidden Movement.

Players secretly plan all sea movements (including freighters, destroyers and their cargo). Seaplanes are sent out - with the limit of maximum five sea zones and two seaplanes per sea zone. Submarines may be moved to scout ships. No attacks at this time! Dice are rolled separately for seaplanes and submarines: The result determines how many and which ships the opponent must reveal in that sea zone - i.e., he must reveal (= execute movement for) one ship of each category that either remains in or is moved to that sea zone. The following assignment applies: 1 = one freighter, 2 = one freighter + aircraft carrier each, 3 = one freighter + aircraft carrier + battleship each, 4 = one freighter + aircraft carrier + battleship + cruiser/destroyer each. On a roll of 5, the seaplane returns to base because it missed the enemy; on a roll of 6, it is destroyed. For submarines, a roll of 4, 5 or 6 means no enemy sighting. Thus they cannot sight cruisers and destroyers. Optional: for every die roll of 1, a seaplane may force a submarine that has remained in or moved to its sea zone at this point to submerge instead of having the enemy to reveal a freighter. Example 1: Japan rolls a “1” and a “3” for its two seaplanes in sea zone H. The US player must reveal the following units, if available: 2 freighters, 1 aircraft carrier, and 1 battleship. He does not have to reveal the planned movements of the other ships in sea zone H. Example 2: The US rolls a “2” and a “5” for a seaplane and a submarine in sea zone G. Japan must reveal one freighter and one aircraft carrier, if available. It does not have to reveal a second carrier or any other ships. Starting with the First Player, players move their bombers, tactical bombers and fighters. Only now the remaining naval movements are executed. Submarine attacks are also done in this step. This also applies to subs used for scouting in step 3 (unless they have been forced to submerge). Following the submarines, as usual, the battles take place in the order of air, sea and land combat.

Everyone is kindly asked to playtest and report on both variants. Depending on my gaming buddy, I will give both variants a try. Perhaps the first variant without using Hidden Movement, the second variant using this optional rule.

@frimmel

Amen. You are absolutely right about that one. My first Guadalcanal game also took way longer than expected. But we were both rather unprepared and thus it was our fault. With a few games played I do like Guadalcanal a lot. It is different, but very balanced. Battles can be a nail-biting experience, especially when a lone enemy subs preys on your carriers or transports.

@krieghund
ok tks

@krieghund

Thanks. I guess he missed it.

@the_good_captain – Thanks for the help!

This is good stuff. I really appreciate the color balance in your version.

-Midnight_Reaper

@krieghund

Brilliant ! Thank you so much

@krieghund thx

There are only enough (double sided) control markers for the islands included in the game. However, your solution would work if you have another A&A game that you could get control markers from.

Rarely do I play Guadalcanal but I am going to use that system…I have the colored dice already

I find the idea of adding Tactical Bomber intriguing and given the fact that Axis & Allies Guadalcanal came out before the separation of bombers into Tactical and Strategic I think makes this a excellent concept. Given the details from A&A 40 that Tactical Bombers represent dive, and torpedo bombers it would make sense to add this unit to A&A Guadalcanal. For the record I have just recently purchased A&A Guadalcanal off ebay and have not yet been able to play the game other dabbling on my own.

That said there would need to be limitations set namely that Bombers (Betty and B-17) are now Strategic Bombers, and can only attack airfields and ground units no longer Sea Units. The new unit the Tactical Bomber is able to attack both Sea and Land units, and has targeting ability including supply tokens. The Tactical Bomber would also be both carrier and land based. The Tactical Bomber would move between the Strategic Bomber and Fighter units. And being that Air Combat is the first phase of combat it would have first strike ability on its target similar to the submarine.

Taking into consideration the historical aspect the SBD Dauntless dive bombers were very effective against the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Solomon Island campaign. Most naval battles were fought without either ships coming within firing range on each other.

In summary I think Tactical Bomber should be included with a cost of 4, Air Attack of 1, Sea Attack of 2, Land Attack of 2, and select target.

What are everyone else’s thoughts?

Thanks,

Was wondering if anyone’s created a file for the Guadalcanal game boards. Since it’s out of print I have no qualms over printing my own vs. the nearly $150+ I’ve seen private sellers listing this game at. Thanks all!

Re: Map for Guadalcanal?

The BIG E got his battlebox.