Guadalcanal FAQ
SCN004
designed by "Nikademus"
This is a port of the original stock Guad-Mod created for stock a year or so ago. It's primary objective is to put the respective commanders in as much of the shoes of the actual players as possible. "Watchtower" as the operation was known to the Allied side was also called "The Shoestring campaign" and for good reason. Unlike typical campaign scenarios, devices, fuel, shipping and supply are not available in abundance allowing the player to do whatever they want when they want it.
Given the objective, the philosophy in game terms comes down to what I call "limited options." Players will be faced with bottlenecks in logistics which will curb usage of assets and force advance planning and conservation of effort. The Allied Player will also have reduced control over ground assets and will need to "buy" units to deploy as they see fit. This represents the cost of doing business vis-a-vis the "chain of command" where competing priorities between rear area and forward bases must be reconciled. This is also a balancing factor since the Allied player starts off with a major advantage in ground troops over the Japan player, and subsequently receives still more greater reinforcements.
Specific modifications for the scenario are as follows:
1) Both sides get a much reduced daily allotment of fuel and supply. Run your ships around too much and your going to have problems. Allow a build-up and you can "surge" and/or operate portions of your fleet more or less continuously.
Floyd and I have been playing this scenario as PBEM. During that time I've done very few operations (I've been saving fuel since early on)... and I mean I've played very conservatively. Some Fast Transport runs, a few for moving supplies and troops from Truk to Rabaul. 2 CV operations; but the majority of the time in Port ...
OCT 15, 1942
According to my Tracker calculations I'm using about 3500 on shipping (not counting most of my naval fleet still in port) and get 2K a day. Also, at present I'm in an offensive posture with Amphibs out of port, but I repeat the gas-guzzling BB/CA's are stuck in port. Additionally, 9 SS's can't leave port because of fuel and all TF's have refuel off (this is how bad it has gotten)...
My fleet is down to 44% bunker and I have 9K fuel (spread sparely) across a few bases. I need 160,000 fuel to fill those bunkers.
I'm hamstrung by ever increasing fuel supply problems; I believe that while Nikademus has tried to make this a more historical "shoestring" scenario; fuel has been cut too drastically for the IJN IMHO. I can't even keep the FT's (Tokyo Express) to Guadal at this rate.
Maybe he would like to have another look at it or not...[8D]
I know you can mod the hell out of this, but as it is an Official Scenario - I wanted to just post something, so others are aware of my experience playing this.
