
- BGG rank
- BGG #5,997
- BGG rating
- 6.5
Air Force
- 1–2 players
- 60 min
- Complexity 3.3/5
- 1976

Rules assistance for Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force is an expansion for Check Your 6! released in 2007 for 2–12 players, 120 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Mark Fastoso and its main mechanics are Dice Rolling, Simultaneous Action Selection, and Hexagon Grid.
Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force: is a scenario and campaign book for the popular Check Your 6! Air Combat and Campaign Rules. This book contains 9 historical scenarios for recreating the aerial campaigns of the US and Japanese forces in Operation Ka on Guadalcanal between August and September 1942. The scenarios can be played individually or linked to form a single campaign using the unique CHECK YOUR 6! Paragraph Campaign System. HISTORICAL RESEARCH: this book includes several introduction sections that contain historical background information including insight into the key American and Japanese Aces of the campaign plus a campaign map and bibliography for further reading. AIRCRAFT STATISTICS: this book contains statistics for all campaign aircraft statistics in CHECK YOUR 6! format. Table of Contents • Campaign Introduction • Acknowledgments • Campaign History • References • Aces from the Cactus Air Force and Operation KA • Campaign Map • Axis and Allied Aircraft Statistics for Check Your 6! • Campaign Rules • Japanese Campaign Paragraphs • American Campaign Paragraphs • Scenarios (9) • Japanese Drop-Tank A6M Move Chart
Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force supports 2–12 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force is 120 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force has a complexity rating of 2.0 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force belongs to these categories: Wargame, Miniatures, and World War II. Its main mechanics are Dice Rolling, Simultaneous Action Selection, and Hexagon Grid. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force are: Mark Fastoso. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Check Your 6! Guadalcanal: The Cactus Air Force as an expansion for Check Your 6!. Expansions add new content, rules or scenarios to the base game and usually cannot be played on their own, so you need Check Your 6! to use it. Check that your edition of Check Your 6! is compatible, as some expansions were revised between editions.