Guadalcanal Map File

A little over a month ago I started work on a custom board based on the original design of the Spring 1942 board. I spent about 4 hours every morning and four hours each night for a whole week designing the new map. It is 55 inches by 36 inches.

It started off with me taking the original board and taking several pictures of it. I took a single photo of each of the six panels, and closeups of the production chart, mobilization zone and of course took a top-down image as you see here.
c8b9168d-27a7-4bc2-b885-a10a971c2bff-image.png

I used this top-down image as the reference to start outlining. I knew that there was a lot of distortion from the photo I took, but that’s no matter to me, it adds to the character if things don’t look 100% accurate.
2c2344fc-177a-42f3-90a3-abaf0091cf88-image.png

After the fourth night, I officially had completed the outlining. I wanted to keep all of the coastal details that were in the original game. I knew based off geological maps that the coastlines in this game look almost nothing like the real ones, but it was too big of a detail to not keep.
8885b255-fa7d-4335-938e-a3829517c7e4-image.png

After the outlining was done, I threw over some kinda decent textures into each zone and blended wooded to desert areas. It was so fast of a thing to do that I didn’t get progress pictures. This photo however shows some of the zone colors I decided to do, and the art direction I took.
7b94be2b-2568-44c6-af0e-c7f49698d28a-image.png

I added in the text and logo designs, altered the filters I threw over the map and ended up with this as a somewhat final product.
e6e788af-d0f7-4e46-930e-17773bb7206a-image.png

Here is a picture of the entire map completed that also featured a similar under-running board. Each side has their own IPC chart, the battle strip is integrated, the casualty zone is integrated and the mobilization zone is updated and integrated.
b49e04fd-61da-4c60-920e-4965e94ab01f-image.png

This photo shows what the original board looks like with some units in Germany. Note how there’s little room.
fbb65416-62f7-4226-a75f-8383dd929c49-image.png

Here’s the same location on the game but on my laptop, zoomed for size and the same units are placed on it. Much larger!
4c821ea1-75a6-45b3-98d9-7fa34ba09dad-image.png

The next step was to go to www.bagsoflove.com and order a testing sheet of the Neoprene so I could confirm the print quality. It arrived and everything was to size and looked great!
5da6d2a5-28d7-40a1-8327-8ec25266f294-image.png

Ordered the full sized Neoprene Mat they sell and it arrived today! Here’s the original board for comparison.
9985a7bc-424a-4f41-b30a-c797ee33da5c-image.png

Here’s an image of American units in the Congo and the nearby seazone on the original board.
f59bff64-bd16-4283-ad2d-b9b6e51887ae-image.png

Here’s an image of the new map with the same zones and units. It’s so much bigger and I’m in love!
34d195b8-a407-4984-b4c5-414abd877613-image.png

Here’s an image of the full map as well.
51f1b245-5167-49ab-9697-58fd68fc58ee-image.png

If you guys want to use this design, here’s a Google Drive link you can use to download it. It should be 11,000 x 7,200 with 200 x 200 per inch. Bags of Love did a great job with the print, however they took out the 5 pixel black border I had around it but that’s no matter to me! Be sure if you use Bags of Love, make sure it’s printed on a white background so you can keep that border but it doesn’t change much of the map if it is gone. A number of places aren’t fond of this size of project, so please do your own research before going with your service of choice. Enjoy this map! It is heavily inspired by Imperious Leader’s design, more of the fact he did it rather the actual design.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RH0c_ReZzLAPoVjSpeeBOIDnYbkZIOHC/view

89942069_234023921058065_8338820971033001984_n.jpg !
88106161_221519072308550_2482507379309019136_n.jpg tn5.png

http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/images/guadmap_large.jpg

Haaahaha! I feel your pain, FMG. The second I bought Guadalcanal, I was so psyched to make my opponent’s IPC’s deteriorate via bombing raids, and swarm em with fighters. And then I opened up the box and went “WTF!?”.

I, too, am a bit unappealed by the rules. What we did was put a certain amount of chips on each island, gave it an IPC value, and put a production factory on our “base islands”. This made for an exciting naval minimap. I haven’t gotten to play a lot of navy-heavy games, usually my 1942 games just end up with British bombardment and amphibious assault on Berlin, and the US navy buildup with the subsequent bulldozing of the Japanese.

So, theres my suggestion for you, FMG. I look forward to your custom A&A molds. I’m DEFINITELY buying an italy set once I get my paycheck, and of course, once it’s released =D

I think me and my friend technically played ‘to the death’.

I just bought Guadalcanal about a week ago (and bought AAP40 yesterday :-D), and played my first full game with my friend on Friday night. We played from about 7.30-2.00, it was pretty awesome.

Anyway, I played Japan and he the US, and from the first turn he took Guadalcanal, and from there proceeded to mass a sizable navy which gave me a lot of trouble, as well as a decent air force. It was hard going for me, though I had a strong presence on Bougainville and Choiseul. Most of my efforts went into maintaining my navy (which was massed in zones B and F), and AA guns (which I sent to Bougainville and Choiseul), to combat his navy and planes.

Towards the end there was a decisive battle, in which I almost overpowered his navy (this, I think, would have almost led me to victory then and there - he had almost no units behind about zone G), but alas, he rebounded and from there I was a goner.

In a fit of desperation I started making rules such as ‘last stand’ (where Japanese transports get 10 attack each - it was late at night), but he still defeated me with something like 3 battleships and a menagerie of other ships.

I made him attack my base directly, and he simply blew my 15 or so infantry units right out of there with his battleships, and that was that.

It was a lot of fun though, and my friend (who usually plays Xbox 360 all day) seemed to enjoy himself, and is keen to play AAP40.

@Temppa:

Thanks for the tips. I have bought Guadalcanal then and it seems to be a rather good game.

Glad we could help. I was wondering if maybe we’d scared you off and you decided to pick up some Euro game instead.  :-)

@Krieghund:

@Krieghund:

@frimmel:

Could you post the file you used to print the strip?  :-)

I’ll probably post it on BGG this weekend, along with instructions.

Here it is: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/29393

Thanks.  :-)