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Regrouping - 3/20/2008 12:55:34 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 11, 1942 – This was another quiet turn, likely because of generally bad weather everywhere, and also due to AuTiger getting his next plans into place. There was the usual minesweeping here and there, and a bit of sub chasing, but no more cripples sank. I guess that the Combat Replay and Combat Reports from the 2nd Naval Battle of Lautem "exaggerated" a bit, otherwise I would have expected that the US BB that supposedly took four Long Lances would have sunk by now.

The Rain meant that my bombers in Southern China refused to fly again against the mass of Chinese troops that are sitting at the crossroads to the north of Canton. That seems to be an extremely hard hex to bomb in all of my pbems. A Helen Sentai in Peking did fly a nuisance raid against Yenen, and caused a nice little bit of damage. But with the huge number of Allied troops in Yenen that sort of damage gets repaired almost immediately.

AuTiger got off a B-17 attack against the airfields at Mandalay, likely in retaliation against the 2E attack I staged out of there last turn. Interestingly, the Forts were escorted by P-40Bs. I haven't seen any sizable numbers of Tomahawks in action in a long time.

Otherwise, it was just a case of moving forces and such around for me again. I'm somewhat resigned to facing a serious Allied advance through the DEI in 1943, but I don't feel like weakening my defenses in the Central Pacific in a panicky and futile attempt to protect my Oil and Resource sources. This pbem is lost anyway, so I may as well test out some theories of mine and see what works and what doesn't work. And who knows, I may still cause AuTiger some level of "discomfort" as he advances.

(in reply to bbbf)
Post #: 481
RE: Regrouping - 3/21/2008 2:56:20 AM   
blam0

 

Posts: 133
Joined: 3/24/2004
Status: offline 		Just caught up.  Great AAR! 

Don't be so hard on yourself.  Sure, you've made some mistakes, but eveyrone does   I think the critical point is that you are not giving him any "freebies".  He has to work for everything. 

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 482
RE: Regrouping - 3/21/2008 3:09:11 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: blam0

Just caught up.  Great AAR! 

Don't be so hard on yourself.  Sure, you've made some mistakes, but eveyrone does   I think the critical point is that you are not giving him any "freebies".  He has to work for everything. 



What I'm trying to do now is learn what other "freebies" not to give away later in the game so that I can apply that knowledge to other pbems.

It's very tough playing a good, smart player like AuTiger (who is also ex-Military so he has a much better idea of what he is supposed to be doing than I do ). No game-player likes to lose, but the important part is to learn from the losses and make fewer mistakes in the future.

Thanks for the comments.

BTW - I will be away and without pc for the long weekend so there won't be any more posts until early next week.

(in reply to blam0)
Post #: 483
Asleep in his bunk - 3/25/2008 3:44:00 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 12, 1942 - The night turn was the usual routine of mine clearing and sub hunting on my part, but AuTiger is using his time more efficiently and is getting ready for major offensives in at least three locations.

Nothing much happened during the day phase. As usual, none of my planned air attacks flew anywhere, other than some Bettys on Naval Patrol that ran into the ever increasing CAP at Lautem. AuTiger's plans at Lautem continue to race forward now that I am unable to interfere with his activities there, and as such the Air Fields at Lautem reached Level 3 and the Port reached Level 2 this turn. It won't be long before AuTiger will be pounding the entire DEI into dust.

Way off in the Aleutians AuTiger got a supply TF into Adak and has another TF, likely PTs, sitting at Umnak. AuTiger has also increased his air power in the region again and I presume that he is preparing for the eventual improvement in the weather. I sent my Combat TF off towards Adak anyway, just in case they can sneak in. I don't think that AuTiger has his "fast" BBs sitting in ambush at Adak like he did with the "slow" BBs at Lautem, but one never knows.

And in the third major area of activity, at least 16 units have appeared along the railroad between Myitkyina and Mandalay. Thanks to AuTiger's regular 4E bombardments of Mandalay over the past 12 game-months the fortifications there are still only at Level 4, so I don't think that it will take long for AuTiger to recapture Mandalay, particularly since the River is on the "wrong side" for the Japanese to defend the place. (It is so very obvious that the Auto-Shock Attack rule for river crossing was put in place solely to slow down the Japanese during the first six months of the Game.)

But some of the moronic design decisions are "blind" to either side, and AuTiger got to "enjoy" one of the minor irritations as the Nevada finally sank at dock in Darwin, but the Captain of the Nevada still "went down with the ship".

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 484
Double Allied Trouble - 3/27/2008 12:56:32 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 13, 1942 – The night phase was very quiet; there was limited minesweeping and no submarine contacts. The day phase continued to be quiet with plenty of rain everywhere and only a couple of small air-to-ground attacks by my forces. However, there were plenty of Allied Air Patrols in the air and AuTiger's big offensives continued to progress in an ominous manner.

There are now a huge number of planes at Lautem, along with massive numbers of troops and at least four TFs. I don't know how large Lautem can be built up, but AuTiger ought to max it out pretty quickly. He now has a couple of hundred fighters as well as around 150 bombers at the base, along with the usual couple of hundred auxiliary planes. If he isn't planning an Air Drop or two in the region I can't see why not.

At the same time the Allied advance on Mandalay moved within a day's journey on the Rail Road. I now have a half dozen Air Attacks set to hit those troops, along with Zeros on Escort because I expect AuTiger to start to LR CAP his advancing forces. It would be nice if those Air Attacks would fly, but my guess is that maybe one at most will go, given the track record of the Game. I've also, rather belatedly, ordered my forces out of Lashio. I should have thought of that last turn. (Oh well…)

BTW – as I expected, AuTiger has plenty of Chinese troops leading his vanguard. I can't quite figure out how he ended up with so many Chinese combat troops (he still has huge numbers in China proper), but it is likely partially my fault because I wasn't able to trap or destroy them early in the pbem when they were fewer and weaker.

In the Aleutians AuTiger pulled back his TF from Adak, so I set my incoming TF to Bombardment and will see how things go. I could see my TF sitting to the east of Kiska during the Combat Replay, but it wasn't spotted according to the Operational Report, and so I have not idea if AuTiger will know that the TF is there or not.

In any event, given the hopelessness of the situations in Burma and the DEI, I decided to try some raids in the Pacific since AuTiger has stripped Eastern Australia and the South Pacific of almost anything that can shoot back. So I've sent off a Bombardment TF towards north-eastern Oz and another towards Canton. If I find out that AuTiger has left Canton pretty much empty I may well send in a Division and try to grab it, if for no other reason than to get some practice at Atoll invasions.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 485
Allied Paras at Dili - 3/28/2008 12:16:48 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 14, 1942 – The night phase started out with the usual minesweeping by my MSWs; nowadays before I send any ships to a base that I haven't visited in a while I send in MSWs because it is very likely that an Allied sub or two has come in to drop off some mines. But in addition to this routine part of the game my small bombardment TF sailed into Adak unmolested and caused a bit of damage, including destroying several P-40Bs on the ground. So I have to guess that AuTiger didn't notice my TF last turn.

The day phase brought some air action. Two nuisance air attacks flew that I didn't care about – one was by Helens on the air fields at Yunan, and the other was by Sonias from Nanning that hit the Chinese Base Force at Wuhan. But none of the air attacks that were scheduled to fly from five different air bases in SEA against the troops that were sitting to the north of Mandalay, nor any of the air attacks that were scheduled to fly from five different air bases in Southern China against the Chinese troops that were sitting at the crossroads north of Canton, flew.

That's 10 out of 10 different attacks from 10 different bases that didn't fly against enemy troops out in the open. And that's even with multiple Air Headquarters being within range of each set of bases. And this is now around the fifth consecutive turn where my planes refused to attack any ground troops in the field in Burma, or at those crossroads to the north of Canton. I am going to assume that this is the Game "Working As Designed", and it is not a Database problem.

A large number of 4Es did fly against Mandalay this turn, but the surprise wasn't that they flew – I expect Allied 4Es to fly under any circumstances – but that they attacked the Base Force at Mandalay. Huh? I thought that bomber attacks against stacks of troops hit the strongest unit first. Then I thought about how odd it was that with only two LCUs in Wuhan my Sonias hit the Base Force there too, and I just decided that this was yet another random result from the very "random" design of this Game.

Things were otherwise quiet until the very end of the turn when Dakotas started to take Flak Damage over Dili. As I had speculated, AuTiger finally launched his first Airborne Assault. But instead of using his Paratroops to "leap frog" my defenses in the region he sent the Paras only two hexes away to Dili, a place where he could have marched some of the massive numbers of troops that he has at Lautem.

AuTiger's usual luck wasn't with him this time, and his caution had allowed the Base Force survivors from the capture of Lautem to make it to Dili just in time to join the Base Force that I had in place for the defense of the Base. And to my astonishment the Defense was successful against the initial Shock attack! What I suspect happened was that AuTiger tried to be too "sneaky" and so he hadn't sent any bombers against Dili in a long time in order not to alert me to his plans. (However, it was always obvious that AuTiger would go after Dili sooner rather than later.) Therefore, my original Base Force in Dili was rested and reasonably up to full strength, and there was also a sufficient amount of supplies in place, thus my troops put up a competent defense.

The nice thing about this is that because AuTiger hasn't bothered to send any ground troops along the trail from Lautem to Dili my Base Force that retreated from Lautem "laid" a "J" onto the trail and so no supplies will flow on the ground to the Paras. I find the entire thing quite funny, but I have little doubt that AuTiger will still capture Dili fairly quickly, if not by flying in more Paras, then by finally marching some troops up the road. Never-the-less, this ought to put that particular Allied Paratroop unit out of action for a while and cause AuTiger to re-think his tactics a little bit.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 486
RE: Allied Paras at Dili - 3/28/2008 2:10:14 AM   
floydg

 

Posts: 2052
Joined: 6/27/2004
From: Middletown, NJ
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1

A large number of 4Es did fly against Mandalay this turn, but the surprise wasn't that they flew – I expect Allied 4Es to fly under any circumstances – but that they attacked the Base Force at Mandalay. Huh? I thought that bomber attacks against stacks of troops hit the strongest unit first. Then I thought about how odd it was that with only two LCUs in Wuhan my Sonias hit the Base Force there too, and I just decided that this was yet another random result from the very "random" design of this Game.



Same thing just happened in my game with Coach Z -- the bombers ignored the division, brigade and some other infantry at La Foa and attacked an EAB unit. For a few seconds, it made him think I pulled my troops out...

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 487
RE: Allied Paras at Dili - 3/29/2008 4:44:42 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: floydg

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1

A large number of 4Es did fly against Mandalay this turn, but the surprise wasn't that they flew – I expect Allied 4Es to fly under any circumstances – but that they attacked the Base Force at Mandalay. Huh? I thought that bomber attacks against stacks of troops hit the strongest unit first. Then I thought about how odd it was that with only two LCUs in Wuhan my Sonias hit the Base Force there too, and I just decided that this was yet another random result from the very "random" design of this Game.



Same thing just happened in my game with Coach Z -- the bombers ignored the division, brigade and some other infantry at La Foa and attacked an EAB unit. For a few seconds, it made him think I pulled my troops out...


This time AuTiger's bombers went after my combat units at both Mandalay and Lautem. There must be some random "thing" that decides what an air unit hits.

Thanks -

(in reply to floydg)
Post #: 488
Allied Ships Back at Koepang - 3/29/2008 4:46:30 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 15, 1942 – The night phase had the usual minor minesweeping and half-hearted sub chasing by my forces, followed by a large-scale minesweeping effort at Koepang by a US DMS TF. So it looks like AuTiger will try his luck at Koepang again fairly shortly.

The day phase reinforced that observation because the DMS TF didn't go away, the big Allied Surface Combat TF was spotted leaving Lautem and was heading towards the southwest, and 103 Forts hit the LCU at Koepang. The Paras that are stuck at Dili remained quiet this turn, so it appears that they are out of supply and waiting for more help to march along the trail from Lautem.

AuTiger still has lots and lots of fighters at Lautem, along with tons of bombers. Surprisingly, there were no long-range US fighters flying LR CAP over that DMS TF at Koepang. Maybe AuTiger has finally realized that he has nothing at all to fear from my LBA and is treating it with the distain that it so justly deserves.

To give you an idea of how totally useless my LBA really is - I have 6 Betty Daitais within normal range of Koepang. The Weather is "Clear" throughout the region. My Daitais all have Pilots with Average Experiences in the mid-70s to mid-80s. All of the Daitai leaders have high values. There is plenty of supply at all of the bases. All of the Daitais were set to Naval Attack with 20% on Air Patrol.

So, how many attacks flew? One. Yes, only one, and that was from the base that was farthest away, Balikpapan. And even though there was no LR CAP not one of my planes scored a hit of any sort on the seven DMS ships. Maybe the AI is waiting until AuTiger puts some LR CAP over Koepang to let the rest of my bombers fly, so lots of them can be shot down.

The total futility of my LBA was re-emphasized in China and Burma where for the sixth consecutive turn none of my 10 bomber units at 10 different bases flew against either of the stacks of troops that were to the north of Mandalay or the north of Canton. I know that there were no Allied fighters on LR CAP over either stack of enemy troops, because all of my Recon flights – most of which were co-located at the same bases as my bombers – did fly over the Allied forces and even took flak losses.

Just in case you are assuming that the Weather was just too bad for a sixth straight day for anything to fly, a Group of Mitchells from Myitkyina flew and hit some of my troops at Mandalay, and then a Group of Liberators and a Group of B-17s flew from India to also hit my troops at Mandalay. Although I'll bet that those 4Es have pilots with very high experience, those Mitchells have hardly flown at all, so I can't imagine that their pilots are much better than the average for the Allies.

BTW – all of my bomber pilots, along with the Daitai leaders, have very good experience. They just don't seem to want to fly against Allied troops out in the open. And I am aware of the Game Design factor that favours Dive Bombers over Level Bombers for Ground Attacks, but I have equal numbers of both types of planes set to attack, and none of them flew.

It is definitely not fun at all to play the Game like this. I keep on getting the feeling that I am not doing some small thing "right", but I have no idea what that is. It seems improbable that so many air units would not fly missions simply because of "bad luck".

In any event, in the absence of any air attacks on the Allied forces over the past number of turns, a mass of Allied troops reached Mandalay this turn. Fortunately, my combat unit and Base Force from Lashio reached Mandalay too, so that will help with the defense. (An AA unit is on its way but will take another turn or two to get there.) Now that the Allied troops are situated at a Base maybe my bombers will attack. So I brought in even more air units to more bases and set them to Ground Attack at Mandalay. I also have plenty of good fighters on escort and Recon planes flying along, so I can't see anything else that I can do to help the situation.

Actually, if AuTiger were to decide to divert his bombers from Ground Attacks on my troops at Mandalay to Air Field attacks on my surrounding Bases he would likely slaughter most of my better Air Units on the Ground, so I'm hoping that he is too focussed on his Land attack.

In light of these Full-Scale Operations in Burma and the DEI I've decided to give up on my planned "nuisance" land assault on Yenen and instead I am redirecting those Southern Command units in China to move to the Coast so that I can ship them into the SEA and DEI. It will probably be "too little, too late", but that's the great strength of AuTiger's overall plan – he got me to build up my forces in the regions where he didn't intend to attack, and at the same time caused me to reduce my forces in the regions where he intended to attack. You've got to hand it to AuTiger – he has outplayed me masterfully.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 489
The KB vs the USN at Koepang - 3/29/2008 8:40:35 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 16, 1942 - The night phase started out quietly enough with some minor mine sweeping by a couple of my MSWs. Then things picked up as a big Allied MSW TF came into Koepang and started to clean out mines.

At that point I got a bit of temporary satisfaction way over on the northern part of the map as one of my subs off of Adak put a torpedo into an MSW in a TF that was on its way to Adak from Umnak. Then Daylight came and showed that AuTiger was staging an immense invasion of Koepang.

Allied TFs showed up one after another, turning the whole area around Koepang "green". AuTiger also finally put P-38s on LR CAP over Koepang. Of course, just as I predicted last turn, the Game finally allowed my LBA to fly once there was LR CAP in place to shoot down my Bettys and Nells. A couple big flights of 4E bombers flew over Koepang and hammered my little LCU. Then the Australian 7th Division started to land. Only one AP hit a mine out of multiple dozens, if not hundreds of Allied ships. All the while the KB sat a few hexes away and did nothing.

The Game then took a break and went over to Mandalay where AuTiger also finally put LR CAP over his troops, and of course, under these conditions the Game once again finally sent out my bombers. Now something totally strange happened. I had good Zero Daitais on Escort at each base where I had my bombers. I didn't have any Zeros on LR CAP over Mandalay. My bomber units then started to fly in to try to hit the Allied besiegers. But in each of the five different attacks, only a half dozen Zeros showed up along with my bombers, the Zeros didn't engage the P-40Bs and P-38s. For some totally inexplicable reason, my escorts acted as if they were on LR CAP and didn't engage the enemy. This left my bombers on their own to take big casualties and to only damage the Allied fighters. Afterwards I specifically checked and sure enough, I remembered correctly - all of my Zero Daitais were set to Escort and none were set to LR CAP.

After this frustrating experience the Game switched back to Timor and "announced" that an Allied TF was finally "reacting" to the presence of the KB. A number of large Allied air strikes flew in one after another without the KB getting any planes off against the enemy. Fortunately I had my Zeros on 50% CAP and they stopped the first escorted attack and slaughtered the second unescorted Dauntless attack. But eventually, thanks to the Game Mechanics that cause CAP to slowly give out against multiple attacks, some attacks did get through and a few of my carriers were damaged, but not severely.

At this point it was finally the turn of the KB to strike. Typical of my luck throughout this entire pbem, the KB launched a number of moderate-sized attacks instead of one or two massive and overwhelming attacks. AuTiger had a ton of Wildcats on CAP and they stopped my initial attacks. But again, thanks to the Game Mechanics, eventually a couple of strikes did get through and at least two of the Allied CVs suffered hits. But it wasn't enough to stop the USN pilots and yet another air counter attack got through and damaged my CVs further.

So while neither side was able to strike a "death blow" against each other's ships, this battle spelled the end of the IJN's Air Arm as an effective weapon. The total air losses for the day were:

Japan - 347 planes, Allies, 234 planes

Of those totals, the Air-to-Air losses were:

Japan - 305 planes, Allies 209 planes.

The KB's air units were essentially wiped out. My only chance for escape is to hope that since AuTiger lost so many Dive Bombers he might be reluctant to give chase, particularly further into my LBA. Anyway, the USN Air Power did its job and the Invasion was protected, other than one DD escort in the Invasion TFs that took a torpedo from a Betty that somehow finally got through all of the US fighters.

There's now a certain pointlessness to the pbem, but AuTiger is enjoying himself, so I may as well let him continue to do so for a while.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 490
RE: Allied Paras at Dili - 3/29/2008 8:50:24 AM   
Mike Scholl

 

Posts: 9349
Joined: 1/1/2003
From: Kansas City, MO
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1

A large number of 4Es did fly against Mandalay this turn, but the surprise wasn't that they flew – I expect Allied 4Es to fly under any circumstances



You are going to like AE..., 4E aircraft need a LOT more maintainence and fly a LOT less...

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 491
RE: Allied Paras at Dili - 3/30/2008 6:31:07 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl


quote:

ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1

A large number of 4Es did fly against Mandalay this turn, but the surprise wasn't that they flew – I expect Allied 4Es to fly under any circumstances



You are going to like AE..., 4E aircraft need a LOT more maintainence and fly a LOT less...



I would be happy just to see my 2Es fly as often as the Allied 4Es. It's impossible to slow down enemy land advances if your planes never leave the ground. I haven't had a single bomber unit attack an enemy LCU in the open in Burma or Southern China in months, while the 4Es attack everything, everywhere and all the time.

(in reply to Mike Scholl)
Post #: 492
The Allies Recapture Mandalay and Koepang - 3/30/2008 2:32:33 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 17, 1942 - The night phase started out with the landings at Koepang continuing. More Allied ships cleared mines and another Allied AP hit a mine. So that's 2 mine hits for 1200 mines so far at Koepang.

Some of my MSWs did the usual minesweeping in the usual places, including my lone MSW in the Aleutians that cleared a mine at Adak. A few of my ASW ships also chased a few subs in various locations. The Allied MSW that was torpedoed last turn sank in port at Dutch Harbor this turn.

My nuisance bombardment of Cairns turned into more of a nuisance for me than for AuTiger. One of the light cruisers in the TF was hit fairly hard by shore guns and is limping home slowly. The bombardment caused casualties but otherwise did little damage. The second bombardment TF reached its final run-point outside of Canton and was spotted, but I am sending it in anyway.

AuTiger had P-38 LR CAP over Koepang again so my fresh Bettys couldn't get through to attack his ships, even with fresh good Zero escorts. The P-38s are coming into their own against the Zeros and two Zeros were shot down for every P-38 downed. Unfortunately, Koepang is out of range of my Tonys.

Elsewhere my LBA just sat on the ground and observed the Allied ground troops from a distance. I may as well be playing without an Air Force at this point in the game. AuTiger isn't really playing me any more, he is playing the AI, and the AI is doing its usual worthless job.

It's funny when you think about it - during the first few months of the Game the Japanese air units will attack anything at any time, and then sometime in the late Spring or early Summer of 1942 the Japanese Air Units stop flying regularly and the Allied Air Units start to fly all the time and attack anything at any time. Is this something akin to the "Zero Bonus", but applied in a negative manner to the Sortie odds? Maybe this has been done to "simulate history". All I know is that I have all of my Air Units set to fly missions All of the Time, and my total Sortie rate is less than half of that of the Allied Sortie rate.

In any event, venting aside, the ground phase of the turn displayed the advantage that AuTiger has at this point in the game since he can send his troops anywhere without fear of any air attacks on them. First off, the massive and totally untouched Allied forces at Mandalay captured the base easily. I expected my forces to hold up a little better, but then since the Allied Forces had Never been bombed at all there was no Jungle or Malarial effects evident. So Burma and the rest of the SEA are pretty much open to an Allied Blitzkrieg since it is unlikely that my planes will follow my orders any more elsewhere. (I am having the exact same problems in my other pbems against other opponents.)

And the troops in Koepang were easily defeated, but thanks to yet another pointless "historical rule" in the Game, they weren't destroyed although they don't have an escape path and have no supplies. So AuTiger will be able to get more "free" training yet again.

So the pbem continues along in the "Total Waste of Time" category, but AuTiger is enjoying himself, so I will continue to send turns to him. If nothing else, I am curious to see if the Allied forces ever become slowed down thanks to Supply Line issues. Also, I want to continue to observe AuTiger's tactics so that I can figure out ways to counter similar tactics in my other pbems.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 493
RE: The Allies Recapture Mandalay and Koepang - 3/30/2008 11:58:26 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 18, 1942 - A massive number of DMS ships were busy sweeping mines at Koepang again overnight. This is another example of the advantage of AuTiger's strategy of risking none of his ships until he was ready to start to advance in a serious manner. In our earlier pbems, and typically in other pbems that I've played as the Japanese player, Allied ships were used extensively in the early part of the game and suffered fairly high losses, particularly among the lighter combat ships. Thus, in most of my other pbems the KB has "feasted" upon DMS, DD and other light combat ships.

But in this pbem AuTiger pulled his ships far back from the Front and relied solely upon his LBA to interdict my invasions, wear down my Air Units and attrite my Naval Forces. His ships only came out to battle when I went far beyond the Front Lines, such as during my Indian "excursion", when I lingered too long in the Far South Pacific, and during the Aleutian campaign. Sure, Allied ships are taking damage and losses now, but there are many more ships available at this time to AuTiger in this pbem than there would have been in the first couple of pbems that we started where he moved his ships up forward immediately and was punished severely for that.

The "moral" of this story is simple: don't make fun of, nor ignore, the "Sir Robin" strategy if you want to win as the Allies.

Otherwise, things were relatively quiet. My Bombardment TF hit Canton, but caused no damage other than casualties. That is with the TF consisting of 2 BBs, a CA and 3 CLs. AuTiger even left his planes (fighters and patrol planes) at the base and none were touched. A lot of Shore Guns fired back at my ships, so I was concerned that I would have a number of badly damaged ships again as with the bombardment of Cairns, but surprisingly enough the damage to my ships was minimal. I guess that there are lighter Shore Guns at Canton than at Cairns. What this tells me is that I should save my combat ships for Surface Combat and stop trying nuisance bombardments.

The day phase showed that fighters were already in place at Koepang and Mandalay. AuTiger has so many troops at both bases (including tons of Engineers) that the damage to the facilities, which would have taken my troops weeks to repair, was fixed overnight. More of my Bettys and Zeros flew in to try to attack some of the multitude of ships that are at the port, but the P-40s and P-38s on CAP broke up the attacks and none of my bombers scored any hits.

As an aside, I got the snarky idea that maybe I ought to turn over "control" of all of the areas of the game to the "Computer", because when I play the AI the sorts of attacks that I am making unsuccessfully are usually successful for the AI. So I "threatened" to do that in my email to AuTiger.

AuTiger's victorious forces at Koepang attacked my stragglers again this turn. Thanks once again to the unfathomably bizarre logic behind the programming in the Game, the same forces that achieved "astronomical" odds against my units last turn only received 2:1 odds this turn in the exact same location, and the casualty numbers were almost equal.

In other news, my troops in Burma are retreating in good order and as of the moment are not being followed by the victorious Allies. Also, the 116th/A finally reached Haiphong and is unloading. Thus its year-long saga to rejoin its colleagues is almost over. (Can they still make it to Nanning by Christmas?)

And the KB reached Soerabaja without any problems. Unfortunately, the ever-thirsty ships drank up all of the fuel in the base without topping up their tanks, so I had to start to fill up a fuel TF at Palembang to send down to finish the fueling.

I moved all of my planes off of the CVs. I was surprised to find that most of the Val and Kate units had more pilots than planes. So that meant that I could add planes without drawing upon garbage pilots. I want to leave the ships in Soerabaja until the floatation damage in a couple of the ships is repaired, so I am taking the chance that AuTiger won't immediately move his 4Es forward to the Level 4 base at Koepang and start to Port Bomb Soerabaja. I do have a lot of my best fighters in place and on CAP, so maybe I'll get away with this.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 494
Air Battles over Koepang - 3/31/2008 5:14:10 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 19, 1942 - The night phase found one of my MSWs sweeping mines from Victoria Point and another finding some fresh mines at Rabaul. There was no further Allied minesweeping activity at Koepang because AuTiger's multiple flotillas of minesweepers cleared the waters the previous turn.

Despite generally terrible weather across the top third of the Map AuTiger's B-25s took off from Akyab this turn and harassed my retiring troops along the road to the south of Mandalay. Surprisingly, my troops put up a lot of flak, damaging many of the Mitchells and shooting down two. They seemed to put up more flak out on the road than they did when they were entrenched in Mandalay. (Go figure.)

My Bettys and Zeros attempted to hit the ships at Koepang again this turn, but once again they couldn't get any hits even though most were able to fight their way through the P-40s and P-38s. I'm using my best pilots here so my fighter losses are acceptable and they shoot down a few Allied fighters on each attempt. It's only too bad that my bomber pilots can't seem to hit anything.

I got another surprise with my Naval pilots at Soerabaja this turn; a number of the grounded air units had an additional pilot who wasn't there the last turn. So I added an additional plane to each air unit that had the "bonus" pilot. I have "Upgrades" and "Replacements" both set to "Off" for all of my air units, so I have no idea from where these extra pilots (they have decent experience) are arriving. Oh well, I won't complain - the Game has stuck it to me so often that I "deserve" some sort of break.

BTW - my ships are repairing nicely in Soerabaja and I should be able to sail off with them soon. I've got my "Slow KB" on its way to join the main force, so I will soon have a reasonably capable "Almost KB" available to use against the next sortie by the Allied Fleets. (I will move my more damaged CVs to Singapore and replace their A6M2s with A6M3as while the ships are repaired.)

In other news, the Allied forces at Koepang tried another Deliberate attack on my stragglers, but although it did a better job my troops avoided the "Death Blow". I've got a sub sailing in next turn. If it isn't blown to bits by all of the escorts at the Base I will attempt to recover a fragment of one of the units - assuming that my stragglers aren't wiped out next turn.

BTW II - One of the things that is keeping my interest in this particular pbem is that I am supposed to finally start to receive Oscar IIs in January. I spent an ungodly amount of supplies, resources and so on in order to expand the R&D for the Oscar II, but despite having almost 300 Oscar IIs under R&D the arrival date didn't move up a single day. Never-the-less, it will be good to finally get these planes. Sure, they won't be a "cure-all" for my problems, but they do mean that I will finally be able to get rid of my good-for-nothing Nates.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 495
RE: Air Battles over Koepang - 3/31/2008 5:34:08 AM   
bbbf

 

Posts: 493
Joined: 7/16/2000
From: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Status: offline 		The AA thing is a known bug/feature and really annoying.

I suppose that you could make an argument that AA in bases would be in 'known' positions and avoided, while on the trail it could be anywhere.

That could actually be it, in a roundabout way - the detection level of AA off bases is probably way down than on a base.


_____________________________

Robert Lee

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 496
RE: Air Battles over Koepang - 3/31/2008 5:44:55 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: bbbf

The AA thing is a known bug/feature and really annoying.

I suppose that you could make an argument that AA in bases would be in 'known' positions and avoided, while on the trail it could be anywhere.

That could actually be it, in a roundabout way - the detection level of AA off bases is probably way down than on a base.



I wasn't aware of this before. Thanks for the info. (Yet another weird and wonderful thing to remember about this Game...)

(in reply to bbbf)
Post #: 497
10,000+ Hits - 3/31/2008 5:47:56 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		BTW - I want to thank all the kind folks who have been looking into this AAR. I never expected to get so many hits. I also never thought that I would be closing in on 500 posts in this AAR either.


(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 498
RE: 10,000+ Hits - 3/31/2008 5:51:37 AM   
USSAmerica


Posts: 18715
Joined: 10/28/2002
From: Graham, NC, USA
Status: offline 		I'm still enjoying it, Dive, even though I know you're getting a bit down with the game and your situation.  I think you're doing pretty darn well, and I'm still learning a lot from reading.  Keep it going! 

_____________________________

Mike

"Good times will set you free" - Jimmy Buffett

"They need more rum punch" - Me


Artwork by The Amazing Dixie

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 499
RE: 10,000+ Hits - 3/31/2008 6:09:16 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: USS America

I'm still enjoying it, Dive, even though I know you're getting a bit down with the game and your situation.  I think you're doing pretty darn well, and I'm still learning a lot from reading.  Keep it going! 


Thanks for your support. I'm glad that nice folks like you are getting some enjoyment from this AAR.


(in reply to USSAmerica)
Post #: 500
RE: 10,000+ Hits - 3/31/2008 6:41:04 AM   
Feinder


Posts: 6589
Joined: 9/4/2002
From: Land o' Lakes, FL
Status: offline 		10,000 hits...

and 500 posts of worthy reading!

Keep at it DB!

-F-

_____________________________

"It is obvious that you have greatly over-estimated my regard for your opinion." - Me


(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 501
RE: 10,000+ Hits - 3/31/2008 6:44:02 AM   
bbbf

 

Posts: 493
Joined: 7/16/2000
From: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Status: offline 		The bugs/features, opponents who view things differently to you, waiting for that trun to hit your inbox...

There is plenty to beef about but it is truly a great, flawed gem of a game.

I have been playing since just after release, after playing PacWar for many years previous, and there just isn't anything that has had the longevity this game has.

_____________________________

Robert Lee

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 502
Pogy Misses the "Jackpot" - 4/1/2008 5:22:51 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 20, 1942 - Nothing happened during the night phase. No minesweeping, no sub hunting, no naval bombardments - nothing at all. It was very strange.

Things picked up immediately during the day phase as the captain of the Pogy missed the jackpot as CVL Shoho sailed by and the Pogy's torpedoes missed. To add to the Captain's bad day, one of the Shoho's escorts then hit Pogy with a depth charge.

Four dozen Hudsons flew from Lautem to Kendari and attacked a small transport TF that had arrived there the day before. Around half of my CAP of Zeros intercepted the "semi-bombers", damaged a number and shot down six of them. (Considering that my Zeros were on 90% CAP one would think that more than half would have attacked the incoming bombers.) But as is typical of the Game, the Hudsons "just couldn't miss" and they hammered the TF, sinking two out of the three AKs, heavily damaging the third and sinking one of the two MSW escorts. I am always amazed at how well garbage planes like Hudsons do on Naval Attack in this Game, particularly compared against dedicated LBA like Nells and Bettys. My guess is that the "accuracy" for Hudsons is calculated as Level Bombers but the accuracy for the Japanese Naval 2Es is calculated as "torpedo" bombers and is thus much less. I can't see any other explanation for my mid-80 experience pilots to do so much worse than pilots with less experience in the Allied 2Es.

In any event, I left the heavily damaged AK at dock in the hopes that the Hudsons come back next turn and my Zeros can get more practice on them. I should start using lone AKs regularly to "attract" the longer range Allied 2Es in order to give my fighters "training".

So Kendari is now cut off. I re-routed all of the other TFs that were heading towards the base. That's too bad, because Kendari was providing a nice amount of Supplies and Resources. But that, of course, was AuTiger's exact idea in capturing Timor, so that he could cut off my Supplies, Resources and Oil. AuTiger wants to win the Game without slugging it out against my defenses in the Central Pacific, and it appears that he has found a very effective strategy to accomplish this. One has to wonder why the Allies didn't do this in the Real War. There couldn't be some "shortcomings" in how this Game simulates the Allied opportunities, could there?

In other news my sub I-153 did a miserably bad job of "sneaking" into the base hex at Koepang and was promptly sunk by an uncountable number of DDs. Another of my subs that had just dropped off some mines at an Australian base was hit by a bomb while only halfway to Lautem and so is now on its way back to Palau for repairs. So my stragglers at Lautem are destined for eventual oblivion, although they did survive another ground attack this turn.

My air patrols located a huge number of Allied subs off of Java (in addition to the unlucky Pogy) so I decided to try some "serious" ASW on the horde. First off, I sent out a number of ASW TFs. Then I set all of my level bombers, dive bombers and torpedo bombers at all of my Bases in the DEI to ASW patrol at 1000 feet. That includes the planes from the KB that are sitting in the air fields at Soerabaja. I decided to "re-fill" those Naval Air Units with planes and rookies and let the rookies get some training by having them chase Allied subs. Sure, that's not terribly "historical", but then neither is using 300 to 400 4Es massed together to wipe out bases in 1942. But then, this is a Game, not History.

BTW - it looks like AuTiger is planning to try once more to "make use of" the shortcomings of the Land Movement System in China. So I brought a number of Air Units back and I will start to try to train my pilots on the Chinese troops in the field. It's only a shame that my planes never fly and bomb the troops at the crossroads to the north of Canton. I wonder if that will happen in AE?

(in reply to bbbf)
Post #: 503
The Allies Re-capture Lashio - 4/2/2008 4:35:11 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 21, 1942 - The night phase saw some minesweeping by my forces and ASW attacks by both sides. Of course, the Allied ASW was fatal as usual, while my ASW did little. I eventually lost another sub that was one its way home after dropping off some mines at Broome. The other night action was by the Yamato and Co as they hit Adak reasonably well, although no planes were caught on the ground.

My big "plan" of using "Massive Air Power" for ASW in the DEI fizzled totally this turn. There were no air attacks on any of the Allied subs in the region. In fact, the great majority of my planes didn't even fly, although they were all set to 100% ASW. That's a couple hundred planes in several dozen air units at a dozen bases, and perhaps 3 planes flew. This is beyond being something to laugh off.

Lashio was recaptured by a small British unit this turn. I had pulled out my troops so the Brits got in for free. The Australian troops at Koepang also finally wiped out the remains of my base force and ground unit.

The only other news of note was in China where a couple of my air units flew, out of a dozen or so under orders to fly. And AuTiger moved even more troops out from his bases. I guess that he is hoping to use the AI to trap more of my units.

BTW - I finally remembered to order the 116th/A out of Haiphong and onto the road to Nanning to rejoin its colleagues.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 504
Air Battle over Mandalay - 4/3/2008 3:44:13 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 22, 1942 – The night phase was fairly quiet with a few of my MSWs sweeping mines and a few of my ASW TFs chasing Allied subs unsuccessfully. The most notable happening was that another of my heavily damaged DDs sank at Tarakan. So all of the badly damaged ships from the Naval Battle of Lautem are now reefs.

Things are heating up in China again. AuTiger is moving huge numbers of Chinese troops around to threaten all of my Front Line Bases. Fortunately, the 43, 40 hex is the only location where my bombers won't attack, so I have ordered more planes into China and am trying to attack in too many places for AuTiger to either ambush my planes in the air or blast my planes on the ground. Never-the-less I still expect him to try since he has once again brought fighters into Changsha and has plenty of fighters and bombers in Chungking.

I've grown totally frustrated with my inability to get my weak fighter units to do any training. I've had units sitting back in the Home Islands on 90% training for weeks and weeks without any of the rookies getting a single Training Mission. So I decided that I would try something a bit more radical and started to bring all of my worst fighter units to China. Since there are no "safe" targets for my plane to attack, and I didn't want to just get them wiped out by flak while trying 100 foot Strafing attacks on Chinese troops, I instead set my bad fighter units to fly 20,000 foot bombing attacks on some of the smaller Chinese air bases.

To my pleasant surprise, this plan actually appeared to work to an extent this turn. Several of my Daitais of Fools actually flew and dropped their pitifully small bombs on places like the air fields at Wuchow. Since the planes flew in at 20000 feet when they dropped down to 2000 feet to release their bombs the flak damage was tolerable, particularly when you compare it against a 100 foot Strafing Attack. And Thanks Be to Kami-sama, my losers with zero missions actually flew this time!

So with that encouragement I brought more of my lousy fighter units into China. It will now be the "Battle of the Frauds versus the Gods" once AuTiger sends his fighter squadrons into action. BTW – I also had a number of Sonias bombing various locations as well as some 2Es. This won't stop AuTiger from doing whatever he is planning, but it makes me feel like I am actually "playing" the Game rather than my usual feeling that I am simply "watching" the AI screwing around with me.

I gave up on my other recent "Test of Tactics" and pulled all of my planes in the DEI off of "ASW" attack. Not a single plane attacked any of the many Allied subs that are in the area. So I set my bombers back to "Naval Attack" with a 20% "Search" setting. At least I've observed that with those settings that my planes will occasionally attack an Allied sub.

In the "real" action, AuTiger sent out hundreds of planes from Koepang and blasted the air fields at Maumere into a giant crater. Surprisingly, most of my Recon planes at the base survived so I flew them out to Kendari and set them to spy upon Lautem. The air fields at Lautem also reached Level 4 this turn so AuTiger will now have his choice of two air bases from which he can wipe out my bases in the region in a single attack.

The "Big News" from my p.o.v. was that my recently planned "Sweep Wars" against the CAP at Mandalay actually flew. Unfortunately, my INTEL was as bad as usual and there turned out to be many more Allied fighters on CAP than I expected. So although I sent in my six best Zero units from nearby bases, the first couple of attacks were pretty much wiped out. Fortunately, the "sequential attack" rule came into play and my later attacks did much better. Never-the-less, at the End of the Day AuTiger's P40s, Spitfires and Hurricanes shot down twice as many Zeros as they lost. In addition, my two best Aces went MIA. So I had to disband two more depleted Zero Daitais into a third semi-depleted Daitai once I moved all of the units to the "relative safety" of the airfields at Hanoi. Now I intend to move those remaining four Zero Daitais to China and have them back up my Tonys and Tojos as I attempt to interfere with AuTiger's plans.

BTW – if you are wondering why there were no P-38s on CAP over Mandalay, that was because AuTiger had them flying Escort with some B-25s that again attacked at low altitude some of my retiring troops in Burma. Once again the Mitchells took a lot of flak at 1000 feet and five of the bombers were eventually lost. Those are better results than I would have gotten with CAP over my troops.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 505
Action in China again - 4/4/2008 6:30:10 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 23, 1942 - There was a lot of ASW action by my ships during this evening turn, and finally one group of my ships turned out to be effective in this role - my APDs. A half dozen of them ganged up on a US sub between Tokyo and Bonin and whacked the sub pretty hard. That's one Allied sub that will be out of my hair for some time, assuming that it doesn't eventually sink.

In the other night action, the Allied transports that were heading for Adak were "scared off" by my Combat TF. This is yet another of the truly "funny" (actually, extremely stupid) oddities of the Game. My TF ended up back only one hex from Kiska, because it couldn't "reach" Adak in one turn, so it is now positioned so that it can reach Adak in the next turn. So, was my TF really close enough to scare off that transport TF or not? The logic here reminds me a bit of Quantum Mechanics, but in a poorly implemented form. In any event, there is no point in having my ships continue on to Adak since they are low on fuel from the near-round trip, so I ordered them back to Kiska.

There was a lot of rain most everywhere on the Map this turn, but despite that many of my air units in China flew their missions. My idea of having my "worthless" fighter units fly "high altitude" bombing attacks continues to work and my pilots are starting to accumulate a few missions and some experience while their losses remain acceptably low. I lose more Trainees doing "Training" missions than I have while I've been doing the nuisance bombing in China.

However, I am starting to get more serious about the situation in China because AuTiger is now moving giant masses of Chinese troops against my main forward bases. All of my bases are at Level 9 Fortifications, and I have substantial troops in all of them, so I don't quite understand why AuTiger is bothering. I would have thought that he would have learned this lesson "painlessly" from watching me throw away masses of my troops against his Level 9 Forts earlier on in this pbem. Either AuTiger has forgotten that lesson and now thinks that his Chinese troops will "beat" the Ground Combat Rules, or else he is doing this in order to prevent me from pulling my Southern Command Forces out of China. In any event, I hope to cause AuTiger plenty of casualties and cost him a lot of Supply in this Operation of his.

In other news, in Timor AuTiger finally has troops marching overland to relieve his paratroops in Dili. So Timor ought to fall completely under Allied control fairly soon.

BTW - the 116th/A is marching along the road from Hanoi to Nanning, so it will reach its compatriots within a few days. If I hadn't forgotten about it for a couple of days while it was in Haiphong, the 116th/A would have reached Nanning by Christmas.

Finally, My latest attempt to get my new pilots to fly in the rebuild KB air units by setting them to "Naval Attack" with 50% "Patrol" didn't work any better than having them on "Training". The new pilots still haven't flown a single mission. So I've now set my fighters to "Sweep" a next door friendly base and I set the bombers to fly 100% "Search" and I'll see next turn if this "helps". This can be such a badly designed Game at times.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 506
Chinese Troops Attack Nanchang - 4/6/2008 6:09:09 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 24, 1942 - The night phase was quiet other than a bit of minesweeping along the Malay Coast, and then the naval portion of the day phase was almost equally dull with only a bit of lackluster sub chasing by my forces. The day phase did show that the Allied transport TF reached Adak this turn, but my combat TF at Kiska was in no position to race back to try to catch the Allied ships - maybe next time.

There was more air action to make up for the lack of naval action. A number of my secondary 2E air attacks on unimportant Chinese bases flew, as did a number of my secondary air-to-ground attacks that were targeted against secondary Chinese LCU targets. But my main multiple air attacks planned for the Chinese besiegers of Nanchang, which were scheduled to fly from multiple bases with multiple air units, didn't budge. Why am I not surprised? The Allied Mitchells from Akyab did fly again against my retiring troops in Burma, and once again the low flying bombers took a fair amount of flak damage and another plane was brought down.

So without any air support the job of defending Nanchang from the Chinese Hordes was left solely up to my foot soldiers. My troops got off a nice bombardment first which caused almost 400 Chinese casualties. Then it was the turn of the quarter million Chinese troops to mount a Deliberate Attack on my forces, which were half the size of the Chinese forces, but were sitting behind Level 9 Fortifications.

Well, as things should go, the Chinese troops were spanked badly as they obtained a 0:1 result and took over 9000 casualties compared to just under 1100 casualties for my troops. I can only dream of how the situation might have unfolded if any of my many bomber units had flown during the turn.

In any event, that unpleasant reminder of how Ground Combat Works ought to make AuTiger think a bit deeper about running nuisance operations in China.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 507
The Allies Recapture Pagan in Burma - 4/7/2008 4:38:30 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 25, 1942 - The night phase brought the usual minor minesweeping and some lackadaisical (and unsuccessful) sub hunting by my ASW forces. The day phase brought some aggressive airborne ASW by AuTiger's air units in the Aleutians, where, despite the Weather being "Blizzard", one of my subs was hit twice by Allied aircraft and sunk and another was hit hard and is now limping home with lots of damage.

BTW - the Glen on board the sub that was sunk ended up being listed as a "Ground" loss instead of as an "Operational" loss in the Aircraft Losses Chart. I thought that I remembered seeing that sort of thing in the past.

The weather appeared to have some effect in China too, where a number of my air units made fragmentary raids on the Allied troops that are besieging Nanchang. My other units that were set to bomb airfields and troops elsewhere in China flew normal raids, with the exception, of course, of those air units set to bomb the Allied LCUs at 43, 40 which, as usual, didn't fly.

I watched that part of the Combat Replay more closely than usual and interestingly enough, during the Combat Replay no enemy troops were shown at 43,40. So it looks as if the "Detection Level" for that hex has vanished into a Twilight Zone of some sort. In order to test this out a little better I decided to bring more Recon planes in to try to add more "Recon Power" to that hex next turn.

In the meanwhile, AuTiger set his troops at Nanchang to just do an artillery attack, and despite outnumbering my troops, the Chinese troops only caused a couple of dozen casualties, compared to over 200 casualties caused by the bombardment by my troops. AuTiger also brought a big force of troops in to besiege Chengting, so I set my troops there to do a bombardment too, and as well brought some bombers in to hit the besieging troops from the air.

At the same time, as part of AuTiger's overall plan to overwhelm me at multiple points, Allied troops captured Pagan this turn, and my patrol planes spotted something like 22 Allied units on the road towards Rangoon. So it looks as if most of the troops that captured Mandalay are on their way to attack Rangoon.

I have the Imperial Guard Division at Rangoon, as well as a lot of support troops, but I never had the chance to build up the fortifications to Level 9 because of pretty constant Allied 4E bombardments over the past 12 months. Also, I never expected AuTiger to be able to bring together so many Chinese, Indian and British units in Burma this early in the Game. So unless I get some lucky dice rolls I expect AuTiger to sweep through Southeast Asia like "grass through a goose" because my Forces are too spread out and there are no natural defensive points in the region.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 508
151 B-17s over Dili - 4/9/2008 12:31:08 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 26, 1942 – The night phase was fairly quiet from my p.o.v., but the Allies were busy trying to sweep mines in the Aleutians and Northern Australia. The Allied MSW efforts were reasonably effective, but a couple of mines were missed and an AP hit one at Umnak and a DD hit another at Derby.

AuTiger got his 4Es into the air for the first time in several days. Bad weather split up the attack on Rangoon, but a 151 B-17 attack hit my poor starving troops at Dili, causing massive losses. AuTiger does like to use overkill.

In China a few of my secondary Bombing missions flew. There was an odd result over the Chinese troops that are holding the road just to the northwest of Nanchang – two Spitfires showed up to contest my incoming attack, but I actually had a decent Zero Daitai on escort so one of the Spits was shot down and the other didn't engage my bombers. My INTEL says that AuTiger has 60 fighters nearby at Changsha, so I guess that those two Spits were "lost" from the rest of their compatriots. Oh well, I'll take the kill – my fighters don't get easy kills very often any more.

I ran this turn on a different PC with a different Install of the Game, and interestingly enough, a Recon group from Canton actually flew and spotted the Chinese troops at 43,40. But none of my bombers in the region flew against that hex despite that. Nowadays, I use Canton and Hong Kong as "way stations" for air units that I am moving between Fronts, and while the air units are at those bases I set them to attack the Chinese troops at 43,40 just in case there is some "magic" in one of those units and something actually attacks.

In any event, AuTiger now has masses of troops at both Nanchang and Chengting, so my troops at both bases got off good artillery attacks, particularly at Chengting where the attack caused over 1100 Chinese casualties. This gives my troops experience and uses up Chinese units and supplies, and my planes do fly and get experience against enemy troops at those two bases, so I'll take this as a "present" from AuTiger as long as I can have it.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 509
530 Planes hit Dili - 4/10/2008 1:02:38 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 27, 1942 – The night phase only saw a single sub-chasing incident by my forces, and then the day phase started with more minesweeping by Allied forces.

There was lots of rain and bad weather most everywhere. Only odds-and-ends bomber attacks on secondary targets flew in China; the main attacks on Nanchang and Chengting didn't fly. And of course, nothing flew against the Chinese troops at 43, 40.

Despite the lack of air support my troops at Nanchang and Chengting still achieved solid artillery attacks on the besieging Chinese troops. AuTiger has apparently had enough of the situation at Chengting and most of his troops pulled back before my troops were able to fire upon them. So the effect on the remaining Chinese unit was even stronger.

AuTiger got clear weather in the Timor region so he was able to send off a massive overkill attack on my forces at Dili. A total of 530 Allied planes, of which 186 were 4E bombers, strafed or bombed my two pathetically understrength Base Forces. Afterwards, AuTiger sent in fresh paratroops and they were easily able to capture the base with a Shock Attack. The already shattered Base Force that had retreated from the invasion of Lautem was destroyed by attrition. The original Dili BF will have to be finished off by Allied troops, and will provide some measure of additional training for the Allied fighters already on Timor.

Finally, the first bunch of Allied troops reached the crossroads to the northeast of Rangoon this turn. What I don't know is if AuTiger will attempt to attack Rangoon directly or if he will isolate and bypass it while going further along the railroads into Malaya and French Indo China. In any event, I'm not committing any forces until I see more clearly how AuTiger's plan will develop. In any event, with bad weather across the entire "top third" of the map it is unlikely that any of my planes would attack any Allied forces on the road anyway, and also AuTiger has a huge number of fighters at Mandalay that are providing LR CAP over his forward troops and the bases such as Lashio and Pagan that he has captured and left. So I'll bide my time and see if AuTiger outruns his supply lines and CAP.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 510
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