GUADALCANAL by Joni Nuutinen
LINKS:
⊕ Play Store
⊕ Amazon
⊕ free
⊕ local APK
Guadalcanal, an inhospitable island located in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, had never interested anybody... Until in 1942 Japanese built an airfield for their push towards Australia. This forced the US to send in the Marines and destroyers to seize the airfield - to which Japan reacted by sending troops and more naval power - to which Americans reacted by sending more reinforcements and warships - to which Japanese reacted by sending more warships and troop transports... Soon the two empires were engaged in a cut-throat battle both on land and on water for the control of this godforsaken island.
⊕ Taking place in: 1942-08
⊕ Map size: 2400 = 60 x 40
⊕ Specials: Japanese try to ship in new troops that can be attacked while in naval transport. Warships vs Warships battles to secure seizing the island.
⊕ Released: 2016-07
WELCOME:
Battle of Guadalcanal is a turn based strategy game set on the Pacific theater during the Second World War. You are in command of the American forces, which in their first amphibious offensive, are tasked to seize the island of Guadalcanal where Japanese are building an airfield (later called Henderson Airfield). Both sides try to ferry in reinforcements and supplies to the island to gain an upper hand, while using their Destroyer task forces to block the efforts of the other side.
VICTORY CONDITIONS: The object of the game is to control 100 Victory Points as quickly as possible.
UNIT MARKINGS: Lower left corner shows HPs (Hit Points), upper left corner dots shows the number of MPs (move points), right side has several type of markings: warnings on red, attached resources on white, ground information (what's under unit icon) is marked on green. Zooms buttons (Z) are located on upper-left corner.
COMBAT core concepts: adjacent units critically support each other in battle: encircling is often more efficient than using brute-force direct attacks.
TMP-system: By controlling Key Tactical Locations (green diamonds) you will gain TMPs (Tactical Move Points), which can be used to move between two hexagons sharing Tactical Route (green line between the hexagons) without losing regular MPs.
SCENARIO DESIGN NOTES:
Japanese Navy will have a bonus during the first turns to reflect the historical surprise they achieved. 8–9 August, two groups of screening Allied cruisers and destroyers, under the command of British Rear Admiral Victor Crutchley VC, were surprised and defeated by a Japanese force of seven cruisers and one destroyer from the 8th Fleet based at Rabaul and Kavieng and commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa. In the Battle of Savo Island one Australian and three American cruisers were sunk and one American cruiser and two destroyers were damaged.
Special Tokyo express unit type (both ship and ground combat unit): Ships that, if not destroyed by American destroyers, will land as infantry reinforcement units on the island of Guadalcanal.
Japanese naval and ground will start to dwindle down as you get closer to 100 turns, so if you manage avoid destruction and slowly consolidate and move forward, you will be in prime position to start push onwards.
First US amphibious offensive in WWII: Reduced destroyer movement and combat ability during the first turns to model the naval operations which took place.
Names are written wildly differently depending whose maps and from what era you look at, so there might be some inconsistencies.
Cities represent towns, key mountains, important points on the shore line, plus holding the upstream locations of rivers.
First minor Japanese reinforcements sent to Guadalcanal are assumed landing safe, the later major landings are modelled as fleets, which can be intercepted by US Naval forces.
Reinforcements: Time table of reinforcements on both sides have been tweaked to prevent long unreasonably dull periods.
US Troops only receive supplies via Supply Ships (which after landing turn into supply depots. Japanese troops receive supply from towns (thanks to their hostile attitude towards locals).
Since most of the warships included in this half-year-campaign were American, all Allied warships are marked as US warships to reduce number of icons needed.
Please notice that General can turn 10 TMPs into Operational Movement (as the campaign progresses and you control more Key Tactical Locations the number of available TMPs increases).
TIP: During the first stage, focus on seizing Henderson, do not go around advancing to all the directions, since this will leave your front line too weak to take on the inevitable counterattacks.
TIP: Later in campaign is it a huge help if you manage to sink enemy troop transports before they reach Guadalcanal. If not, more bloody fighting in the jungles.
Scenario Specific documentation that includes links to more generic documentation on how the game series and the underlying game engine works.
To get a feel play the free turn-limited demo version (sideload or Amazon App Store), while screenshots are available on the app stores. No ads or tracking in these either.
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⊕ FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about game series overal
⊕ Developer Log: tidbits about military history and scenario updates
⊕ Sortable Table of all campaigns