Description

Revised Feb 2019

Beneath the Southern Cross is a simulation of the Guadalcanal Campaign and its component operations; the Battle of the Coral Sea is included. The game is currently in development, and we hope to run several rounds of playtesting in 2019. When it's ready, it will enter the pre-order process through Compass Games.

I've been calling BTSC "Flat Top on steroids". The scale is 16.8 nautical miles per hex; the game includes two maps ranging from Rabaul and Port Moresby in the west to the Santa Cruz Islands and Espiritu Santo in the east. Guadalcanal is just about in the center of the two map sheets when set up.

The game revolves around three goals: "Fuel 'em, Find 'em, Strike 'em". You will need to track fuel status of your task forces, and might have to find an oiler at an inconvenient moment. Your carriers and long-range scout planes (PBYs, H6Ks, and H8Ks) search for the other side, and when you find them, launch strikes to take out the enemy carriers.

The game includes 1" x .5" counters for every warship and most auxiliaries. Each Air turn is one hour of time; each naval turn represents 3 hours of cruising. Each hex is 16.8 nautical miles; ground units are mainly regiments and each step is roughly a company. Plane types are rated for movement and endurance, and all planes can add extra bursts of speed--at the risk of losing endurance. Planes also have various combat modifiers.

We're going into the first cycle of major playtesting this year, after the revisions several sessions live at CSWExpo in Tempe.