My Initial Lessons Learned on Guadalcanal

[Builder_Chris]

Granted, I’ve only played the game twice so far, and both times I was the Japanese, but I thought having “forward” airfields on the islands of Santa Isabel and New Georgia would help to “assert air superiority” closer to the islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita.  If it is a good idea to build airstrips on those islands, it must only be a good idea late in the game, because both times on turn one I built a forward airbase, once on Santa Isabel and once on New Georgia and loaded them down with infantry and artillery and some AA Guns ASAP and both times they proved to benefit the US more than the Japanese.

I could not hold them and managed to do nothing more than give away perfectly good airfields that I couldn’t take back or damage. And the one turn that I did manage to land any of my own aircraft on either of them, they proved to be no kind of threat to the US forward positions.

So I’m guessing after only two  games and not having read a lot about the other strategies of the game yet, that its better to build your first airstrip on Bougainville and your next airstrip on Choiseul and than fight for the other islands and concentrate on taking or damaging the US airstrips somehow while looking for opportunities to take out their capital ships.

cool fun game though!

[dinosaur]

I believe building an airfield on Santa Isabel is too ambitious.  I like to build an airfield on New Georgia on turn 1, and I would think you should be able to hold it.  My biggest problem is that I don't have tough competition to evaluate the different options.  However, I am beginning to think Japan can win with an aggressive building strategy and using subs if the US gets too close with their carriers.

[timerover51]

You could try and do with the Japanese did historically, and that was to build on Bougainville first, and then on New Georgia.  They did establish a small floatplane base on Santa Isabel, but never built any airstrips on Choiseul, Santa Isabel, or Malaita.  Having been there, there is really no place on those islands for air strips, without massive amounts of earth-moving and first buiilding a harbor to put supplies ashore, and then somehow building some sort of road net.  The Japanese did a lot of their airfield building by hand, with a minimum of mechanical equipment.

[frimmel]

The US has to take Santa Isabel, Malatia and evict the remaining Japanese from Guadalcanal on turn one. They have to get even on reinforcement points.

I think the Japanese are better off on turn 1 being in a position to contest New Georgia if necessary, they can get enough together to make it unattractive to the US, but moving the supplies back to build an additional airfield on the island they start with an airfield on. (Map is fuzzy in my head for some reason today.) 

The game is short and both sides must move fast but at the same time remember they can't win it on turn one. IMO.