From: Markus Stumptner Subject: Re: Ultra and First Blood: Guadalcanal (was submarines in strategic games) >Speaking of G-canal games, what about GMT's Op Shoestring? Played it a few times (never to completion), and found it quite unsatisfactory. The hidden victory conditions are a great concept, but range in difficulty from trivial to "impossible unless you've won anyway", so luck plays a large role. Still, a good idea to keep the other side guessing. The Japanese dummy units (good idea per se) can be used to keep the US away from the airfield for a week after landing (!), but otherwise the land system is OK, and offers a lot of tactical options due to the distinction between assault and maneuver combat. The game is very long, though, and combined with the very abstract naval/air system, a few dierolls in the naval game can effectively determine the course of the game, not to speak of the fact that if you roll low enough, the US invasion fleet will return to Noumea on the first turn without attempting a landing (a feature that usually produces incredulity in first-time players :-). Ironically the effects are so strong because the influence of the naval game on the rest (landing troops and supply) is actually well modeled. Apart from being luck-dependent, the naval game is also unrealistic (which does not automatically follow from its being abstract, as I never get tired of pointing out). The sequence of play means that a player who wasn't found can use all his planes for strike escort, as a player who does not find the enemy carriers on his one dieroll per sea zone never gets to strike back that week (this contradicts every single carrier battle in the period). Plus the Japanese can keep their whole fleet (Yamato and all) in Guadalcanal waters permanently. Even massive carrier attrition in the carrier battles would not send them away. In reality, they were manifestly incapable of a permanent presence because of the drain on fuel. Finally, problems with the land OOB. The game is missing about half the Japanese 38th division - a major fraction of the strength the Japanese had allocated for their November offensive. A game for fanatics (because of the length) and fans of tactical games who don't really care about the unreal history. For those who'd like to diddle with the naval game, I did come up with a few rules that connect the Op Shoestring naval/air game with the 3W Henderson Field land game (which plays in a fraction of the time without being appreciably less convincing in the overall course of events, but as published rigidly adheres to the historical reinforcement pattern, and does not go beyond November). It was an experiment, but it works, sort of. The naval rules are still problematic, but at least they now afflict a six-hour land game instead of a 30-hour land-game. It's easier to break off and start again. If someone is interested, mail me; I'll see if I can dig the rules up. Markus