Marines DLC Gilbert Islands scenario help

[Longasc]

I made good progress so far, Bougainville was rather easy going and apparently meant to give me some resources to prepare for the Gilbert and Marshall islands.

This Gilbert Islands scenario has quite a handful of extra scenarios, the main effort however is the attack and capture of Betio island.
There is, however, also Buritari (spelling might be wrong) island to the North, how many troops would you deploy there?

It's basically a battle split in two islands and I wonder about the best force allocation.

If you want to warn me of nasty surprises, feel free to fire away!

[kondi754]

60% of your forces - Betio, 40% - Butairi
artillery and tanks try to divide evenly (better tank place on Betio)
air support you may concentrate on Betio, because you get 2 Liberators on Butairi for a while

important thing about Betio - I recommend not to share their troops on 2 beaches if they are very far from each other

Good luck!

[bru888]

What I did was to split my forces with half landing as far northeast on Butaritari as possible and the other half landing on Betio just east of the HQ. On the one hand, that part of Butaritari is not heavily defended so you can get your forces organized for the push to the southwest. On the other hand, you want to take the Betio HQ in 15 turns because it supposedly will reduce the efficiency of remaining Japanese units, so a more direct assault is called for on Betio.

NOW, stop reading if you don't want to encounter spoilers!

You want to wrap things up the mission in 25 turns because "more ground and naval forces will be available during the next operation." That means, for one thing, don't worry about saving that stupid 1-strength aircraft carrier. It will wander around until the Japanese sub finds it and sinks it. You would have to be extremely lucky to locate that sub by sonar and destroy it first.

Instead of convoying the carrier, use your destroyers to pound shoreline targets. First go after the coastal guns on each island because they can do substantial damage to your troop transports. Realize that the battleship, the cruiser, and the two bombers leave after turn 4 so use them while you have them!

The small auxiliary force off the west coast of Butaritari that you start the scenario with is good for a diversion and some reconnaissance but don't try to do too much with it. Clean up the west with it but that's all.

You should have a strong beachhead on each island once the two waves of reinforcements arrive (for capturing a secondary VP on Betio and killing two units on Butaritari) so you will know where the best places for them will be. Obviously you don't want to get them stranded, cut off and under-supplied.

[Longasc]

Thank you, will put your intel to good use soon!

Had massive logistic problems today, my favorite curry mango sauce was not in stock. This delayed the invasion, unfortunately.