Gameplay advice sought - US Marines Guadalcanal

[thgmusic]

I’m playing on the middle difficulty level. I’ve had some good success with the other secondary objectives, but can’t seem to find a way to down 5 Japanese aircraft.
I’ve tried using my 2 Wildcat fighters. Also tried a combo of 1 fighter + an AA gun guarding the fuel depot and Henderson field.

I like to get the secondaries. I’ve finally figured out after several tries how to hang on for the whole scenario and not get wiped out! So, it would help my obsessive nature if I could figure out how to down the 5 aircraft.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Brad

[gunnyjs]

I tried that too about 5 times it is a joke the enemy planes run away and you don't have enough planes and time to get them.

[PoorOldSpike]

I've never achieved the 5 jap planes secondary objective because I've always had my hands full in just trying to achieve the Primary ('Defend Henderson Field'), but if I decided to try to trash the 5 I might try something like this "spider web" cunning plan below.
The 4x 90mm AA guns cover the fuel tank, the dozer and Henderson, and should make mincemeat of any jap plane in conjunction with the two Wildcats.
Buying that little lot will still leave you with plenty of purchase points and command points (red circled bottom right) to buy a decent infantry perimeter.
(You also get a dollop of extra purch points and ground cmd points on tns 10 and 17)
Later, when the 5 jap planes have been downed, you can start disbanding the AA guns to get refund points plus extra command points.

[thgmusic]

Thanks. I’ve never had that many points going in. I’ve thought about that strategy, though. Maybe I’ll try it one day for laughs.
I appreciate the quick response, guys!
Brad

[PoorOldSpike]

Thanks. I’ve never had that many points going in..

My screenshot is from the standalone scenario, but if you were talking about the campaign I haven't a clue about that because I'm strictly a scenario-only player..

[GabeKnight]

Any ideas?

Yeah, this scenario has one of the more "tough" to achieve secondary objectives in the game IMO, together with the scen counterpart in the Pacific DLC. My advice is to deploy fighters only in the beginning and you'll probably need an AA unit as well. I remember those missions to have an impeccable timing with fresh enemy air reinforcements always arriving just in time when my dogfighters needed to return to base to refuel and repair...

I've copied the following from an older thread; rezaf's talking about US Pacific DLC, scenario "Guadalcanal":

Is it just me or is it (other than in the Japanese campaign) often neccessary to actively disobey your orders if you want to achieve some secondary goals in the US campaign?
[...]
Then in the next scenario you defend an airfield under construction for 35 turns and only are allowed to go on the offensive for the remaining 15 turns - there's no chance in hell to reach the secondary objective cities all the way across the map in that timeframe. Maybe with paratroopers, but I still haven't been able to afford any.
The only way I see to succeed is to disobey your initial hold-the-ground orders and start marching some troops westward right away and try to defend the airfield with a skeleton force.
Since there's a ton of japanese attacking, this might be kinda tricky, but I can't see any alternative ('cept Paras).
[...]
1st Scenario designer: Let's hit the player with a 100% numerically superior japanese attack. *chuckles*
2nd Scenario designer: Are you crazy? Let's make that 300%. *mad laughter*
1st Scenario designer: Right! And let's hit his navy with a superior japanese navy as well.
2nd Scenario designer: But what if he somehow overcomes the odds and could use them for defensive bombardment?
1st Scenario designer: Yeah, that's a concern. Let's just take his fleet away from him no matter how well he does!
2nd Scenario designer: Hilariously devious. You know what, how about we give him back his fleet peacemeal eventually, and then ...
1st Scenario designer: ... then, right when he feels he might use them to support his defense, we spawn in a huge fleet with a battleship and all.
2nd Scenario designer: Hehe, exactly. And then we give him three transports with marines and tell him to use them to capture faraway objectives he couldn't even reach in time at full speed.
1st Scenario designer: And then we spawn another huge fleet with a battleship and all in his path so he can never make it.
2nd Scenario designer: But what when he somehow manages to dispose of the first battleship fleet and thus can cover his transports?
1st Scenario designer: Ah, I dunno. Let's just copypaste a bit and spawn in another of them battleship fleets for good measure.
...

First of all - I wish we had the luxury of having TWO scenario designers

(Original thread: Fantastic game - here's my first impressions)

My screenshot is from the standalone scenario, but if you were talking about the campaign I haven't a clue about that because I'm strictly a scenario-only player..

Just asking to be sure, but you do realize what a campaign actually is in OoB, right? That a campaign contains single scens and such, I mean.

Sure, the campaign has a predefined order, being less flexible, but you can't play as aggressively as you can in single scen mode, where you don't have to care about the progression and/or destruction of your "core" forces at all.

EDIT: Sweet nostalgia with this mission...did a quick run, couldn't restist

Deployment

Screenshot 872.jpg (959.09 KiB) Viewed 2602 times

[GabeKnight]

Played as single scen, so it's not an ideal deployment and run for a campaign playthrough, but it was fun. I'll attach the replay if interested (though it may not work, as it's beta). Maybe it'll help or give you some pointers at least, although be warned, I've played annoyingly defensive here.

The AA units were super uneffective against the Jap large planes, I shouldn't have bought the second one, rather keep repairing my dogfighters more often...

Screenshot 874.jpg (951.5 KiB) Viewed 2600 times

Screenshot 875.jpg (900.15 KiB) Viewed 2600 times

[terminator]

Played as single scen, so it's not an ideal deployment and run for a campaign playthrough, but it was fun. I'll attach the replay if interested (though it may not work, as it's beta). Maybe it'll help or give you some pointers at least, although be warned, I've played annoyingly defensive here.

The AA units were super uneffective against the Jap large planes, I shouldn't have bought the second one, rather keep repairing my dogfighters more often...

In theory, Major Victory

[PoorOldSpike]

My screenshot is from the standalone scenario, but if you were talking about the campaign I haven't a clue about that because I'm strictly a scenario-only player..

Just asking to be sure, but you do realize what a campaign actually is in OoB, right? That a campaign contains single scens and such, I mean.

I know, my main beef with campaigns is that we're restricted to what we can buy, depending what happened in the previous battle in the campaign, whereas with standalone scens we have a free hand to buy whatever we like.
Also, some battles are not my cup of tea (too long, too big or not enjoyable etc), which means if one of them is dropped in our laps during a campaign, we have to play it whether we want to or not, and I'd rather watch The Waltons-
"John-Boy is overcome with guilt after being responsible for an accident in which a neighbour is injured, and the family rally round to offer moral support"
Hmm sounds good..

[kverdon]

The air part you can do this but it takes impeccable timing as well as some luck as to when you land and repair your Wildcats. As to the secondary victory conditions, you pretty much need some wild luck and gamey play to achieve it. It’s not worth it IMHO.

[thgmusic]

Again, I really appreciate all the input here for this scenario. I enjoy playing the campaigns, so will continue doing that. I enjoy the replay-ability of the game,so I haven’t gotten bored at all.
I’ll return to US Marines - Guadalcanal at some point in the future, but now it’s on to Munda Point. Questions sure to come about that!

[Mercutio]

This one is pretty tough. As GabeKnight said, playing defensive, really defensive, was the key.