Stuck at Guadalcanal (US Pacific)

[Russkly]

SPOILERS

Hi,

I've searched ths forum for help in winning this scenario, but it seems that everyone's experience is different based on their previous performance in the campiagn.

I start with 2 x DDs, 1 x CA,1 x Patrol Boat, 1 x M3, 1 x Australian Commandos, and a couple of other non-combatant units.

Plus of course what the scenario gives you in terms of ground and naval forces, which I imagine is standard.

I then have about 230 requisition points and enough inf. command points to buy a couple of inf. units. No more.

I can deply no a/c.

Well, naturally, the naval force gets its butt kicked pronto.

Then the Japanese recce a/c arrive (because I didn't take out the airbase on Tulagi doh!) and their inf. counterattacks.This attack is then aided by medium bombers with fighter escort.

I defend Henderson Field manfully and eventually the airfielf is completed (bye bye Sea Bees at that point) and I buy a P-40 with my precious req. points. No /c available from my core units for some reason, so I had to pay for it.

Can't land to refuel and rearm while there's a land unit on the field though, so the fighter is toast, because I don't want to lose the entrenchment level of the inf. guarding the field. It wasn't making much headway against the medium bomber anyway.

Gradually supply becomes scarce, and therefore the ground units become almost impotent.

The field is taken. The campaign is lost.

I have tried this many, many times with all sorts of different approaches wihtin the limits of my core force and the req/command points available, but no dice. Never get past Turn 20 or so.

Anyone got any guidance or a savegame, please! I can't face restarting the whole campaign to see if an improved performance might help me through this obviously tough, tough tough scenario.

R

[GoldenTalon]

Try deploying some mines around the outside of the field to stall attack. Watch for engineers and attack them before they defuse minefield. Wait for ships to leave before deploting any arty as you don't want them hit by naval fire. Also need one anti-air unit.

[Russkly]

Thx for the advice, GoldenTalon.

I'll try getting some engineers and laying mines around the field, and I'll also get them to blow the two bridges as a delaying tactic.

Problem is that I only have enough ground unit command points to deploy a couple of units.

I have no arty at all.

I tried buying an AA unit (37mm), but it was useless.

Perhaps I simply haven't done well enough in the campaign to that point to have sifficient forces/resources to win this scenario?

[LukeTheSp00k]

Air is available from your core units, but for some reason the game unticks them being visible in the menu. You have to tick the air box at the top to get them to pop up.

Here's how I held Henderson Field:

-One marine unit each on the two roads leading to the airfield from the west, two hexes from the base on the west side of the river.
-One Heavy Infantry on Edson's Ridge, the hill south of the airfield surrounded by jungle on 3 sides
-One 105mm Artillery battery on the hill hex behind that(can cover all but the eastmost river crossing from there)
-One marine unit on the hill two hexes from the 2nd (from the north) eastern river crossing
-One marine unit at the coastal east river crossing

These units, as a rule, didn't move from these spots unless they were retreating under pressure, so as not to lose their entrenchment.

I used the non-core infantry you get at the start plus a core tank unit as a mobile reserve, moving them wherever needed to hit enemy troops when they try to get through the gaps between my strongpoints or to kill off near-death units that backed off. I don't spend resources on reinforcing non-core units so eventually they died, and I replaced them with a second tank unit.

The artillery unit is critical btw, as I found. Your troops will be under such heavy attack that their efficiency will suffer, and the only way to prevent collapse is to similarly batter the enemy's troops with artillery fire.

You need your planes to stay up, so they have to be able to land and repair. That means you can't have defenders at the airfield itself, which basically means you can't allow any enemy unit to ever have a path to the airfield. So you have to basically hold them at least two hexes from there - basically, you have to hold the perimeter you start with, as you can't call in enough troops to cover a larger one.

You need two fighter units at least. Unless you have the scrambling specialization (I took field medics instead), the first one you put up will get jumped on takeoff, but once the enemy fighter units gets to less than 5 strength it usually flees, so if you have the flight school specialization that gives your unit 2000 XP from the start, you should be able to drive it off anyway. However, you'll then, practically speaking, need a second one to drive off the bomber. Since the resources for that aren't immediately available, you'll basically have to wait the bomber out until it's fuel starts running out and it leaves before you can safely land and repair your first one.

One thing I did learn is that at the end, when the Japanese attacks are all defeated, you basically have to choose whether to buy a bunch of ships to defeat the Japanese armada, or a bunch of motorized troops to quickly sieze secondary control points - you don't have the resources to do both. I was an idiot and tried to do both, and ended up only getting one secondary point and sinking one enemy battleship, while my entire fleet got swamped because, not having played the scenario before, I didn't know just how many ships I was up against.

[Russkly]

Thx for your help, TheFilthyCasual.

Actually I managed to crack it last night by buidling a perimeter around the field and the village, blowing the bridges to the east and west, laying lots of mines outside that perimeter, protecting the high ground south of Henderson (as you suggested) buying a 105 and a 37 AA as soon as possible, and later deploying my core carrier with a couple of torpedo bombers.

The fleet was instrumental in helping beat off the infantry and armour attacks.

My fleet got ♥♥♥♥♥♥ when the Japanese reinforcements arrived, but I sank both BBs with my a/c.

Not sure how the loss of my fleet will affect me going forward, but I can't face trying it again and (as you suggest) using the req. points to bolster the fleet rather than the ground forces (I didn't capture all the secondary VPs anyway!).

[Tom]

try and do all secondary objectives on all missions if possible some affect the mission your playing such as less ships and less aircraft