A brief review of version 1.2 Curry: Hello. Version 1.2 of CB4G arrives finally. Mutton: The first notable difference is the icon! Curry: Yep, with planes, ship and hexes basically tell you about what the game is about: traditional wargame. Mutton: Another major new feature added is the user-modifiable search pattern. Curry: Before that, the player can only assign a number of planes to determine the arc size of the search, and the search is all round. Mutton: Now, the search is not needed to be all round, but a slice/arc of the search instead. The player can determine the direction and the size of the search area, determine the size of the arc and range. Curry: The more planes you throw into search, the higher the probability of the search. This new search method gives the player a lot more flexibility and tactical options to consider. Mutton: Also, the AI still uses the old 360-degree search, it levels out the game a bit, of which IJN planes have more planes and a much longer range. Curry: Also, the author has plans to add new features and new contents in the future. If you like traditional wargame, this is not a game to miss. Mutton: Thanks for reading!
1.3 is out More improvements to the game mechanics and AI 3 scenarios now have "what-if" options to inject more variations. Available in one small US$0.99 IAP.
1.4 is out! Here we go! What's new: Vote for new features in the app (Feedback menu) Set alerts when your airstrikes are landing back Possibility to define a different return airbase for an airstrike in preparation or already airborne Miscellaneous: - Fast forward stops at first daylight - Critical hits are a little bit more effective - Carriers under detected air attack have their damage control value increased by 1 - More coastwatchers in New Guinea - On US move into their hex, Japanese forces will always engage or retreat - damaged CAP air units were not shown on battles screens - Only CAP units may refuel on deck for faster cycle of operation, other units must go via the hangar
Version 1.5 is out What's new? Scenarios: - New scenario: The End of Rabaul (in-app purchase) - Midway: if Yorktown is out of play, then her planes are allocated to Midway instead - Eastern Solomons: TF18 starts even further south Changes for TRS: - the cargo unload rules have been reworked - it takes longer to unload in an enemy-controlled hex - transport destroyers (APD)\n\nAI:\n- Japanese airfield being heavily pounded may rebase its aircraft\n- new defensive tactics over airfields\n- better size of Japanese airstrikes - The Japanese air strikes have more chances to target US transports AirStrike: - if the target vanishes during preparation, then the strike is cancelled and already airborne planes will land - minor discrepancies between predictions before launch and on-map airstrike - during air-to-sea battles, attacked ships are displayed on the left so that all attacks are visible Miscellaneous: - AA is limited to 100 - each air to sea or air to ground factor has always a minimum of 5% to hit its target - slightly slower Japanese carrier cycle of operation - there is more chance to destroy Japanese carrier decks with bombs - the Japanese were not retreating enough when facing severe losses - AA guns are more exposed to bomb or shell damage on a DD\n-US forces are no longer compelled to retire after naval bombardment - avoid duplicated air losses in the events screen New scenario costs US$0.99 with a lot of new planes to play with -- F6F, F4U, P47 and so on!
version 1.6 The game has improved again with 1.6 This version has gone through long testing and development cycle. The improvements incorporated make the game more realistic and changes the tactics player plays. As one of the beta tester, I am glad to see how the games keeps on morphing and expanding. A new review will come later. And I hear that version 1.7 is coming witih new contents.
1.7 is out! New scenario: Operation Ke taking place in Jan/Feb 1943 (in-app purchase) (Note: US$0.99) Air: - Airstrikes and scout planes are moving 2 hexes a phase - New plane model A6M2-N available to the Japanese in the Solomon islands - The relevancy of Japanese air strikes has somewhat improved - Auto-targeting options for naval air strike. You may program how each airstrike will attack its target and watch without having to drag and drop air units to ships - The start and end protection time for distant CAP is visible on map - Even under air threat, the CAP over airfields will manage to land before running out of fuel. The defense of the airfield is less critical than a CV or than CAP loss - The max search range has been increased to 32 AA: - The hit chance of each AA point has been lessen from 5% to 4% - Light AA fire halved when attacked by both torpedo and dive bombers Japanese CV should avoid sailing too close to Guadalcanal
Some notes. Operation Ke is a quite balanced scenario which I think suits well for multiplayer in the future. A tough nut to crack, mind you. The most important changes are on air ops. Search planes and attack planes are moving now at 2 hexes per turn. This changes the fundamental way the air attacks are handled. If you do it right, you can practically continue to grinde a sea target repeatly till it is wiped out. Also, you can dedicate the AI to allocate the air power in air-sea battle. It lifes some micro-management and I find the AI is tuned pretty well on this. Enjoy! P.S. AAR of Operation KE is on the way.
The tutorial explains all the features of the game with text and graphics, and the good thing is there is no TL;DR material to haunt you. There are also 2 interactive mini-games/scenarioes which let you have a taste of actual air search and air-sea battle are like. Anyone with question? Feel free to shoot!
If you are totaly new to this genre, try running the tutorials a couple of times first and then try the scenarios in this order: Bismark Sea Midway Guadalcanal Coral Sea / End of Rabaul (IAP) and then the rest... Don't feel bad about losing at start, the US/Allied "cavalry" comes in the end (sort of). Good luck and enjoy
P:TEE and Terra Mysteria made me slipped it. But version 1.8 is out! I am told there will be one more version or so before 2P games being released.
Just came across this via BoardgameGeek and I'm ready to pounce on it! Brings back wonderful wargaming memories. Here's the BGG link: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1570342/carrier-battles-guadalcanal-ipad/page/1
Does anyone know of any gameplay videos for this game? I cannot seem to find any. Even up-to-date images are rare.
For in-depth, please visit and discuss on the official forum: http://cbfg.xooit.org/index.php For gameplay video, let's see if this one works:
You are welcome. I think I am doing another one for 1.10 with Operation Watchtower review Some background first. In August, after the victory at the Battle of Midway, the US Navy (USN) seized the initiative and invaded the island of Guadalcanal, known as Operation Watchtower. This punched a hole into the Japanese's "line of defense" and a base would be set-up to interdict any Japanese attempt to invade Australia. By the time, Japanese had established a small seaplane base on Tulagi, just opposite to Guadalcanal and a bigger airfield was under construction by then. These sites were lightly defended and the massive USN force stormed the islands. Japanese was not aware of the invasion until too late, due to poor weather. The US Marines finished the airfield and named it Henderson. This was the first shot of a series of battles deciding which side controlled the island. The winner would then decide the trend of the war to come. This scenario is a "what-if". If the Japanese learned the advance of the USN fleet and responded with massive surface force, the battle may be far less simple and straight forward. The scenario has options for additional CV for both USN and Japanese and one of which the Japanese had finished her airbase on Guadalcanal on time for the battle. It costs US$0.99
