New player with Order of Battle questions! :))

[Harold Anselm]

Hello!
I am new to Order of Battle and just gettin' my feet wet in it! I am a military history buff and I look forward to getting more packs. Currently I have the US Marines and the U.S Pacific sets and plan to get the Sandstorm pack next and go from there. I hope one of the following ones in the sets that I have is the battle for Salvo Island. In the Marine set I am having some trouble in the pre Guadalcanal mission. The problem is trying to take 2 islands, with the limited forces I have at the same time. I have used a mix of the default units and brought some standard infantry, combat engineers and 2 75 MM pack howitzers to fill the units as best I could. I have tried to combine forces to take the island to the east with plans to take the larger one next. But if I remember right, I ran out of time after I took the eastern with all my forces. And I was going to the big island, when I ran out of time. I also started with the "preferred beach" and moved the DDs west around the island for fire support and still ran of time after destroying the center northern bunker complex with the eastern half and the eastern island untouched. Any advice would be appreciated!
Also, I was looking at the manual, (haven't finished readin' it yet! ) ) and I noticed that I could make my own. Is there a way to tweak the ones I am doing? Also is there a place we can share them? It looked like there is a place that it was possible, but I couldn't see where. Also any sent to HaroldAns@aol.com for the U. S. Marine, Pacific and Sandstorm with the subject Order of Battle would be appreciated!
Thanks for any info y'all can share with me!
Harold

[kondi754]

Hello!
I am new to Order of Battle and just gettin' my feet wet in it! I am a military history buff and I look forward to getting more packs. Currently I have the US Marines and the U.S Pacific sets and plan to get the Sandstorm pack next and go from there. I hope one of the following ones in the sets that I have is the battle for Salvo Island. In the Marine set I am having some trouble in the pre Guadalcanal mission. The problem is trying to take 2 islands, with the limited forces I have at the same time. I have used a mix of the default units and brought some standard infantry, combat engineers and 2 75 MM pack howitzers to fill the units as best I could. I have tried to combine forces to take the island to the east with plans to take the larger one next. But if I remember right, I ran out of time after I took the eastern with all my forces. And I was going to the big island, when I ran out of time. I also started with the "preferred beach" and moved the DDs west around the island for fire support and still ran of time after destroying the center northern bunker complex with the eastern half and the eastern island untouched. Any advice would be appreciated!
Also, I was looking at the manual, (haven't finished readin' it yet! ) ) and I noticed that I could make my own. Is there a way to tweak the ones I am doing? Also is there a place we can share them? It looked like there is a place that it was possible, but I couldn't see where. Also any sent to HaroldAns@aol.com for the U. S. Marine, Pacific and Sandstorm with the subject Order of Battle would be appreciated!
Thanks for any info y'all can share with me!
Harold

From what I remember, it's enough to invest in as many infantry units as possible - instead of using field artillery, it's enough to use naval artillery and tac bombers.
As for the eastern island, you need to engage 4-5 inf units with the support of the US Navy and USMCA, to get the whole island under control as soon as possible, and then transfer your forces to the western (larger) island so that they land on its eastern side, directly next to the most important VPs
That's how you should achieve all your goals in time.
What difficulty level are you playing?

EDIT. Of course, landing and capturing next VPs on a larger island should be done in parallel (landing zone more to the west, southwest of the island), the landing of units transferred after conquering the smaller island is only to help you get on time...
I always play at 5th difficulty level, so why I'm asking. Because my strategy may not be necessary for 3rd level for example... when the opponent's resistance is lighter and you actually have more time

[PoorOldSpike]

Any advice would be appreciated!..
..Also, I was looking at the manual, (haven't finished readin' it yet! ) ) and I noticed that I could make my own. Is there a way to tweak the ones I am doing?..

Hi, I presume you're talking about the Aug 1942 battle called "Taking the Initiative"?
I played the standalone (ie outside the campaign) scenario last year on level III difficulty and got a victory, it was a simple straightforward game, just invading and mopping up the japs.

Here are some notes I made at the time-
45 turns long so there's no need to rush.
No jap tanks.
About 3 jap planes.
No jap ships.
Don't forget to deploy the 3 free supply ships at the start
Don't forget you've got a free carrier at the bottom of the map, buy bombers for it if you like.
Invade and conquer Tulagi island (on the left) first, then invade little Gavutu island on the right.
You get some more resource and command points around turn 4.
Two free destroyers arrive around turn 10.

Can you confirm it really is 'Taking the Initiative' we're talking about? If so I'll play it tomorrow and post some screenshots.

PS- You mentioned tweaking scenarios in the editor, but my advice to you is DON'T (unless you're very experienced) because if you start messing about with them they might glitch and odd things might happen.
Only use the editor to create your own scenarios from scratch, I do it all the time..

[conboy]

Harold,

I just played it to remember.

I landed a lot of infantry on the main island and slowly ground the enemy down. I bought two tac bombers that were of little help, and they got knocked out by the Japanese fighter/bombers, which also sorely damaged my aircraft carrier.

But I landed an infantry and two engineers along with the commandos on the eastern island and knocked it out right after the main island. I think I knocked it out turn 27 or 28. Wasted a lot of points, though, squandered by underestimating Japanese air power.

The lesson here is to go after enemy supply points, use a lot of infantry/marines, and be careful with air. I don't have a good idea how to play air. It's a mystery. If you buy only fighters and use them to shoot enemy bombers and harass resting enemy units, you break even. Otherwise, I don't get it.

I'll pm the replay to you so you can see the importance of the supply points and how not to play the air wing.

There is a lot of information about how to do scenarios in the Scenario Design thread on this forum.

welcome to the community!

conboy

[PoorOldSpike]

..I don't have a good idea how to play air. It's a mystery. If you buy only fighters and use them to shoot enemy bombers and harass resting enemy units, you break even. Otherwise, I don't get it.

In all scens I buy as many fighters as I can and try to knock out his BOMBERS first, because without bombers his air force has got no teeth...

[CoolDTA]

Looking at my quite old save I used only two marines for the eastern island and the rest for the big one. Used only marines (+one raider) except when you get more CPs later then I bought a 105mm how. For the air one Wildcat and one Dauntless. On the eastern island take the seaplane base asap to give the enemy some supply problems and then just slowly whittle the enemies down. I used navy and planes to support. On the larger island there should be no problems because you have enough units and time to take it easily. I play on lvl 3.

[PoorOldSpike]

I just played "Taking the Initiative" and got a win, it all went very smoothly, no problems anywhere, I just advanced knocking out the jap positions one by one like dominoes-




Below: I invaded the left island (Tulagi) first with everything, then after clearing it of japs I embarked on ships and sailed across to the small island on the right and kicked them out of there too, piece o' cake..




"We no like that Spike man, he gave us the bird"

[CoolDTA]

"We no like that Spike man, he gave us the bird"

[george35]

If we are talking about "Taking the Initiative" then the suggestions above will work. Personally I land two marines and a commando on Guvatu and take the seaplane base and the rest of my forces (Marines/Infantry only) land on the beach on Tulagi, head west with a small force and clear that part of the island and then work slowly across the rest of the island. For Guvatu with a fighter you should be able to knock out the seaplane in the air early, stopping or reducing enemy air attacks. Use the two destroyers that will arrive eventually to soften targets on Guvatu and then attack with ground forces.

The key is to go slowly, let units rest to get back to full strength (ie white and not yellow or red) and attack with combined forces, not one-on-one. If you can clear Guvatu with bomber and destroyer support then you can board the land units on Guvatu and get them across to Tulagi to assist in taking the last part of this island and also use destroyers to soften remaining targets in the east of the island.

Trial and error my friend, but remember, go slowly and keep your ground units in tip-top shape!

[Pineda84]

If we are talking about "Taking the Initiative" then the suggestions above will work. Personally I land two marines and a commando on Guvatu and take the seaplane base and the rest of my forces (Marines/Infantry only) land on the beach on Tulagi, head west with a small force and clear that part of the island and then work slowly across the rest of the island. For Guvatu with a fighter you should be able to knock out the seaplane in the air early, stopping or reducing enemy air attacks. Use the two destroyers that will arrive eventually to soften targets on Guvatu and then attack with ground forces. MyPrepaidCenter

The key is to go slowly, let units rest to get back to full strength (ie white and not yellow or red) and attack with combined forces, not one-on-one. If you can clear Guvatu with bomber and destroyer support then you can board the land units on Guvatu and get them across to Tulagi to assist in taking the last part of this island and also use destroyers to soften remaining targets in the east of the island.

Trial and error my friend, but remember, go slowly and keep your ground units in tip-top shape!

Happy to help! Thanks for leaving a comment.

[bru888]

Happy to help! Thanks for leaving a comment.

This is a strange comment from somebody who is making his first post. If you are a returning forum member, I encourage you to revert to your former persona by which you are better known rather than "demoting" yourself. Unless you were in trouble with the forum administrators, whatever went on before is immaterial. I can assure you this from experience.

[timberwolf15]

If you get really stuck this wonderful game I believe allows you to replay a scenario in a campaign on a lower difficulty level also there are cheats but it seems to me that when playing the stock campaigns meaning the ones you buy then you can eventually win any scenario using the mid difficulty they seem to be more forgiving whereas some of the user created campaigns for me anyway I cannot get through them playing on mid level. Anyway, back to the cheats you can simply just five yourself more landcp (helments) or turns in the scenario or resources or just say forgetaboutit and do an instant victory.