Subject: Pacific War replay - Naval Battle of Guadalcanal From: ROBERT M TITRAN I played the above scenario with another one of my regular opponents, my second FTF game, his first. As the Allies, I planned to use what I've learned in the Coral Sea scenario and halt the expected Japanese advance toward G'canal an odd number of hexes away. Then I would advance my carriers to within airstrike range, sink the Japanese troop transport before troops could land, and continue to launch devastating airstrikes vs. enemy capital ships as I withdrew. Didn't quite work out that way. My opponent surprised me by moving his task forces from Rabaul north then east, meeting up with task forces out of Truk and advancing on G'canal from the east. I took my two task forces (a main battle group including a CV and 2 BBs, and a lighter group including my troop transport) to the west side of G'canal. While my main group was harassed by Japanese subs, the smaller force avoided enemy units and I landed my troops on G'canal uncontested. My task forces snuck through the shallows west of G'canal while repeated searches failed to locate the Japanese transport. I did locate a powerful force of battleships and light carriers, and was able to inflict heavy but non-fatal damage to a CVL. Allied ships returned to open water north of G'canal as daylight returned (I was terribly worried that I'd face Japanese torpedoes in a restricted water short range nighttime naval action), but were unable to locate the Japanese transport still. A brief surface battle vs. a small IJN task force put a few hits on a Japanese destroyer and an Allied CV before the Japanese withdrew. While the surface battle took place, all remaining Japanese ships converged on G'canal. Not good. I failed to detect them. Even less good. Japanese troops disembarked while airstrikes (also undetected...) were launched against Henderson airfield. While the airstrikes did some damage, the ensuing naval bombardment did a lot of damage. The airfield was interdicted and all Allied planes were lost. At this point I could do no better than a draw. The Japanese, however, could win only by sinking more capital ships than they lost. With only a few battle cycles remaining, the IJN player didn't feel he could sink more ships than he'd lose (I was a little ahead of him here), so we called it a draw. Elapsed time, including punching the appropriate counters and setting up - just under 4 hrs.. I think I know what some of my mistakes were, but I'd like to hear others' comments before I get into those. Bob Titran rmt66@juno.com Last Played - Pacific War, Up Front, For the People ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]