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144 B-17s ove Sorong

 
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144 B-17s ove Sorong - 1/3/2008 12:15:52 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 14, 1942 – There was the usual night phase minesweeping going on this turn, but in addition one of my ASW TFs chased an Allied sub in the shipping lane between Paramushiro Jima and Kiska. My ships didn't catch the sub and it is still there. It appears that AuTiger has put that sub on patrol instead of on a mine-laying mission. BTW – my Supply FT got into and out of Adak without detection or problems this turn so my troops are stocked up nicely again.

The day phase brought the usual Japanese bomber attacks on Yenen along with a few odds-and-ends air-to-ground attacks in China. Bad weather continues to hinder most planned air attacks. I've been slowly pulling back many of my air units and rebuilding them behind the lines. This has the added advantage that it reduces the number of good targets for AuTiger to hit with his 4Es.

Speaking of 4Es, 144 Forts hit the oil fields and air fields at Sorong this turn. Things weren't messed up too badly, but unfortunately AuTiger's B-17 crews are fairly well experienced so only a couple of B-17s suffered Operational losses.

The ground war in China resumed in a minor manner with a pleasant result for me for a change. AuTiger's nuisance troops on the railroad to the northeast of Canton failed miserably in their bid to expel my troops from the hex. I had two good divisions and two good armoured regiments in place because the Division that Refused to Move for the past two turns finally moved into position just in time for this turn's attack. That result ought to make AuTiger reconsider his plans in the region.

AuTiger should also realize from this turn that I am pulling back my troops from the siege of Yenen. If he follows I'll just start to train my pilots on his troops in the field.

It also appears that AuTiger is planning to move once again in the South Pacific. Maybe he will go after Ndini. He can have the wretched place. I've had engineers in there for months and months and I still can't improve the airfield to level 1. Ndini turned out to be pretty much useless to me as an outpost.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 361
Exchanging blows in the Aleutians - 1/4/2008 12:04:57 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 15, 1942 – There was minimal minesweeping during the night turn and minimal aerial bombing during the night turn due to lots of bad weather in China. Only my regular Yenen attack flew and kept the air fields there closed as my troops continued their pull back. Only a few laggards were left in Yenen to suffer from the Allied bombardment attack.

For the third or fourth day in a row AuTiger's mass of Chinese troops that are sitting on the crossroads outside of Kaifeng escaped air attacks thanks to rain. That's despite the air attacks being ordered from 8 different air bases. The only change in the situation in China was that AuTiger sent a second Chinese LCU to join the one that he already has attacking the trapped 34th Division.

In Burma AuTiger's Forts and Libs attacked the Brigade that I have on blocking duty just to the west of Myitkyina. I wonder if he intends to venture out across the river? He is still losing the occasional Dakota so he is obviously moving troops or supplies somewhere.

There was more air action than usual in the Aleutians as first one of my Betty units hit AuTiger's troops at Adak, then a mix of Blenheims, Mitchells and Marauders from Dutch Harbor hit my troops at Adak in turn. It was a good reminder that I will have to have a fair amount of LR CAP in place when I send my TFs to Adak.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 362
Back to quiet times - 1/5/2008 2:39:33 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 16, 1942 – Things were quiet as usual during the night phase. Some of my MSWs did their regular minesweeping, but there was no action from AuTiger – no minesweeping, no mine laying and no sub hunting. I suspect that AuTiger is preparing for something "bigger".

The day phase was similarly quiet as there were no Allied air attacks and little obvious activity from the Allied side. Some of that was likely due to generally bad weather across most of the map, but again I suspect that AuTiger is preparing for one or more serious attacks; likely in the South Pacific and in the Bay of Bengal area. For example, there are still a couple of transport TFs sitting at Luganville and the Allied air balance in that region continues to increase. In addition, the Allied air balance in the Bay of Bengal region has gone astronomical.

So I have been quietly shifting forces around to get better air coverage and air patrols in sparsely covered regions, and as well I have sent several cruiser TFs off into the rain in the hopes of being able to provide a couple of "surprises" to AuTiger. I have also been slowly pulling back my better air units out of China since there isn't a good reason any longer to keep on throwing massive air attacks everywhere.

I am continuing to use Sallys to attack the airfields at Yenen. That's no real loss since I am out of reserve Sallys, am not getting any more replacements, and won't get any Peggys for upgrades for a long time. But the rest of my bombers and my best fighter units are being pulled back for other uses. Never-the-less, I still have a lot of fighter units with poorly skilled pilots placed around China and all of them need a break in the weather so that they can train some more. Two things are certain; I will never start another pbem with PDU "off" and Advanced Weather "on".

In the land war in China the last of my units pulled back from the siege of Yenen and are heading back to bases for R&R. I'm also moving weaker units back from the front to cover bases at the coast which will allow me to move better units forward to the front line bases. I have LCUs that have been resting and rebuilding since I gave up on the siege of Changsha and they are now ready to move back to more critical positions in the line. Unless AuTiger does something uncharacteristically silly I won't likely use my troops in any more offensives in China, but by keeping them as a viable threat I can keep pressure on the Allied line.

Finally, in the Aleutians AuTiger didn't send his 2E bombers out against Adak this turn so my LR CAP got some air time but no practice. But since I've lost a number of airframes over the past couple of game months at Adak and because I now have some replacement units available, I finally sent my semi-frozen Zero Daitais back to Tokyo to get some fresh planes and a bit of a break. Never-the-less, they will be back in the cold skies of the Aleutians fairly soon.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 363
Carbon copy - 1/6/2008 9:55:35 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 17, 1942 - Recently I have to keep on checking the date on the turn to make certain that I'm not just replaying an old turn. Not much is happening and what is happening is mostly a "broken record".

And as such this turn had no night action other than a bit of minesweeping by my MSWs, followed by lots and lots of rain during the day phase. My Sallys attacked the airfields of Yenen as usual and kept them fairly heavily damaged. Most of my other planned air attacks in China were rained out other than a couple of small air-to-ground attacks. The only air attacks by AuTiger were by Chinese light bombers on a couple of Japanese straggler units in the field.

Interestingly, almost no Allied CAP showed up anywhere over China or India when my daily recon flights went out. I'm guessing that AuTiger is resting up his planes for some big future attacks. He will also start to get P-38s soon, but since this is "PDU off" he won't be able to fill many US fighter units with them.

So I continued re-distributing my air units to give me better general air cover and air patrols, and as well I also moved more of my good fighters into position to support my upcoming activities in the Aleutians. Surprisingly, my three cruiser squadrons still haven't been spotted so maybe one of them will eventually be able to attempt a surprise. Of course, I'll likely still be hammered by coastal guns and LBA, but I can always hope for some good luck.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 364
Watching the weather - 1/8/2008 12:40:07 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 18, 1942 – This was yet another fairly quiet turn. There was a minimum of minesweeping by my MSWs this turn, followed by the usual air attacks on the airfields at Yenen, along with a scattering of minor air-to-ground attacks elsewhere in China. My main air-to-ground attacks continue to be scrubbed on a regular basis as the Advanced Weather permanently eliminates all desertification in Northern China and Mongolia.

AuTiger is continuing with his now enhanced ground assaults on the 34th Division. Each turn his attacks eliminate a few more troops although he hasn't achieved a breakthrough in results as of yet. The other Chinese troops in the field are just sitting around and using up supplies since my planes refuse to fly against them. My other units that are far out in the bush continue to make mile-a-day progress so I essentially don't pay attention to them in order to avoid causing myself irritation. Someday they get out of the "bush", but I'm not certain that I will live long enough to see that happen.

In the Naval war it was another day of small miracles as all three of my cruiser TFs avoided detecting yet again. I'm sending them towards my patrolling subs in case AuTiger mistakes any detection for false submarine reports. (I've done that in other pbems, so maybe he will make that mistake too.) If the TFs can escape detection next turn they will finally be in position to attempt some naval bombardments. These are purely nuisance attacks, but it will wake up AuTiger a bit. BTW – the targets are Ceylon, Northern Australia and Eastern Australia, so that ought to keep AuTiger busy.

But the Big News this turn was the start of "Operation Dai-Fumeiyo" ("Operation Great Disgrace" ). I've started off four big empty transport TFs towards Kiska, as well as two big surface combat TFs and the new-and-improved KB. They will join the Yamato TF that has been sitting at Kiska for quite some time along with a DD TF that has been doing the occasional Fast Transport run into the East.

AuTiger has two big PT TFs at Umnak and appears to be building a third. This means that I will have to put together some CL/DD TFs and have a number of fighter units on 100 ft naval attacks in order to have a hope of stopping the PT TFs. I have also put a CL, DDs, APDs, PGs, PCs and MSWs in each of my transport TFs in the hopes that they can fight off a few of the PTs.

The real question will be – what serious naval forces does AuTiger have up North? My best case scenario will be if he has something similar to what he showed during my original invasion of the western Aleutians. If that is the case I should be able to pull off the recovery of my troops from Adak and also cause him some losses. On the other hand, if he has most of the US fleet up north than I will undoubtedly suffer some serious losses and the operation may fail.

BTW – I am only using 1500 capacity APs in my four transport TFs, so they ought to be able to pull out the troops in one turn and then sail away before anything bigger than a PT TF arrives, but one never knows with this Game. Also, a lot will depend upon the luck-of-the-draw with the Weather; if the weather grounds my planes and closes the flight decks of the KB while the Allied air forces get to fly I'll be hammered. But maybe, just maybe, I'll get lucky for a change. (How many times have you read that here? )

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 365
RE: Watching the weather - 1/9/2008 12:33:13 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 19, 1942 – One of my training air units was ambushed again in China. I don't believe that this was just a "good guess" on AuTiger's part, nor was it a case of me sending the same attack day in and day out, because this air unit was one of the many that hasn't flown an attack for a week due to constant bad weather. Instead, I suspect this was because the @#$%^ Sync Problem continually allows AuTiger to see my intended attacks when they don't fly.

So what I have to do is to turn my attacks on and off each turn and move my planes even more often. Of course, with the @#$%^ Advanced Weather that means that I will lose even more planes and pilots to Operational losses, making it even more of a no win situation. I get very tired of this sort of thing and it reduces my enjoyment of the Game significantly.

My bad luck continued all over the map this turn. Despite severely bad weather in most locations AuTiger's patrol planes spotted two out of my three cruiser TFs. I've ordered the TFs to go in and do bombardments anyway, although AuTiger will undoubtedly pull his planes out of those coastal bases and reposition them to attack my TFs as they retire. I get sick and tired of this happening too.

And in the Aleutians AuTiger has built up his air power at Umnak and Dutch Harbor to huge levels, so my operation will obviously run into some serious problems. But I am going ahead with it anyway just to see what happens.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 366
One in Three - 1/10/2008 12:34:29 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 20, 1942 – Well, things turned out pretty much as one would expect this turn, with one minor surprise thanks to a bit of thoughtlessness on my part. My three naval bombardment TFs struck as ordered, and in the case of the two that had been spotted, the results weren't very good.

First off Cairns was hit, there were no planes caught on the ground, and little damage was done. Afterwards 2E bombers from Cookstown hit my retiring ships but fortunately most of the bombs bounced off of the armor of the cruisers.

Then the next TF hit Derby by surprise so a number of Wirraways and Hudsons were caught on the ground and the general damage level achieved was reasonable. Since AuTiger wasn't expecting this attack there were no retaliatory air attacks on my retiring TF.

Finally my third TF hit Trincomalee where coastal guns fired back and damaged some of my cruisers (I had all three TFs stand off shore so that the DDs weren't involved in the bombardments.) Then instead of having LBA attacking my ships the Brit CVs attacked. I had totally forgotten about them. The torpedo bombers got some hits in and so I'll likely lose a few ships before the operation is done.

AuTiger also did one of his favourite little "tricks" of sending his US PTs out on a long range, deep ocean intercept, but they didn't find my TF. I hope that one of the changes to "AE" will eliminate this ploy from the Allied arsenal (as well as the ability to mass huge numbers of PTs in individual TFs).

As usual, my LBA in the Bay of Bengal didn't bother to attack any of the British ships, so I moved a number of planes to the Andaman Islands in the hopes of catching any ships that move too far away from Ceylon. In retrospect, I should have moved Zeros in to cover all three TFs, but I relied too much on the bad weather, which didn't end up grounding the Allied air units after all, likely because all of the Allied air units have very good experience.

Speaking of good experience, it turned out that AuTiger didn't "guess right" last turn in China when his P-40s wiped out one of my training attacks. He had simply moved the reconstituted AVG to Changsha and set them on 90% CAP. My trainee air unit was unfortunate enough to attack one hex away, and despite the bad weather the AVG attacked them in the neighbouring hex. I presume that the high experience of many of the AVG pilots helped with this.

In other news, AuTiger sent 145 B-17s against Sorong again, causing all sorts of damage. One of these days I'll move a bunch of Tonys and Tojos to a nearby base and attempt to ambush the 4Es.

In China AuTiger pulled back his remaining troops from the crossroads between Homan and Kaifeng, so I'm moving a bunch of troops back there to regain control of the main stretch of the railroad. Otherwise, things are quiet on the ground.

In the Aleutians my surface combat TFs arrived at Kiska this turn and so I reorganized them a bit to form three big BB-based TFs and two medium cruiser/destroyer TFs in the hopes of intercepting some of the hordes of PTs that AuTiger has at Umnak. The KB will arrive at Kiska next turn and the transports the following turn, so things are almost ready to go. I've also moved more fighters and bombers into the air bases in the region. The Game rewards "overkill" so I'm trying my best to achieve that here. Things are still quiet in the Eastern Aleutians as AuTiger awaits my next move.


< Message edited by Dive Bomber1 -- 1/10/2008 1:37:55 AM >

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Post #: 367
Weather pemitting... - 1/11/2008 12:27:22 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 21, 1942 – We've entered the Synch Problem Twilight Zone now as AuTiger's Combat Replays and Combat Reports seem to be from entirely different games rather than from this one. However, since the Weather has also become uniformly and consistently bad all over the map (and I mean ALL OVER, not just in Southeast Asia) and a lot of the operations on both side are being shutdown anyway, so the Sci-Fi CRs aren't being as bothersome as they might otherwise be.

The main event during the night phase was the sinking from damage of one of my CAs from the Ceylon operation. I expected more attacks on my retiring ships during the day phase but they didn't come – AuTiger pulled back his ships. So my LBA didn't have any targets, although with thunderstorms everywhere it is highly unlikely that any of my planes would have taken off anyway. Even the recon planes on both sides were fairly quiet.

There were a couple of secondary air-to-ground attacks in China. AuTiger has increased his air presence in Changsha so in response I've spread out and reduced my air presence in the region, although I still have some air units on the peripheries that are set to try some attacks – weather permitting. My guess is that if AuTiger gets any decent weather he will attempt some strategic 4E attacks on my important bases in the region.

AuTiger is trying something different with his subs right now and a handful of them have shown up around Tori Shima. I've got some ASW forces in the region and so I sent them out to see if they can get lucky. I was also already increasing my LBA on Naval Patrol in the area, so some of them ought to get a few cracks at the subs – weather permitting. I am assuming that AuTiger is finally trying to cut my shipping lanes.

In the Aleutians the KB arrived at Kiska as expected. I then split it up into a "Slow" TF and a "Fast" TF, with the Fast TF set to follow the Slow TF. I am hoping that this improves the response of the KB to the Allied single CV TFs and also increases the chances of air strikes launching. But given the abysmal weather I'm not betting on anything working.

I've sent a Minesweeping TF off ahead to make certain that the route to Adak is either clear of mines or at least that any new and unexpected minefields are detected. If the MSW TF draws out any of AuTiger's PTs from Umnak than so much the better because it will give my planes on 100 foot Naval Attack a chance of attacking the PTs (weather permitting).

The Transport TFs will reach Kiska next turn, at which point I will refuel them and send everyone out. I now have a massive overkill of planes in multiple air bases in the region too, so this is my best shot to pull off a successful recovery of my LCUs on Adak.

What will I do afterwards? Well, if the operation is reasonably successful I will send the LCUs back to the Home Islands to recover and then try to pull back my units from the small secondary bases that are between Kiska and Adak. I'll try to keep Adak under a general threat just to keep AuTiger "honest" in the region. I want to keep Kiska and Attu under my control for now simply because once Winter arrives AuTiger's ability to hit my bases with heavy bombers will be tempered greatly. Eventually I'll pull out of the Aleutians altogether and focus my defensive line in the Kuriles where I have already been building up all of the bases.

And again, assuming that I can pull this off with minimal damage to the KB I am going to send them on the long, slow and quiet route to the Far East to see if I can catch the RN "sleeping" in the Bay of Bengal. Of course, if the Adak recovery operation is a big disaster, which is always a good chance in this game, I will then sit back and wait for AuTiger to finally start to take "chances" and mount his counterattack.

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Post #: 368
Caught on the Ground - 1/12/2008 12:50:39 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 22, 1942 – The night phase brought a novel encounter; an escort ship in one of my transport TFs that was sailing off of the north coast of Borneo came upon an Allied sub and hit it with a depth charge. So it does appear that AuTiger is going to try an early submarine blockade. I never send transport TFs out without escorts, so I hope to discourage this early action.

As expected, the day phase brought a 100 plane B-17/B-24 raid out of Changsha. The 4Es hit the airfields at Shanghai, catching some Sonias and Nates on the ground. The losses wouldn't be so bad except that a number of Sonia pilots were also killed and now need to be replaced with rookies again. I'm pretty dubious about the rationale behind losing pilots when planes are destroyed on the ground; it strikes me similar to the logic that has captains going down with their ship when a ship sinks while docked. Oh well, if I were sending 4E bombers out I would love this "quirk" of the Game too.

Unfortunately for me, although I had a couple of Tojo Daitais on CAP at the bases next to Shanghai neither one intervened in the attack. I'm not certain if that is a factor of the experience levels of my pilots or the fact that my Japanese Base Forces still have Listening Posts instead of Radar.

A much stranger thing occurred this turn; a Soviet IL-2 Shturmovik spotted one of my transport TFs in the Sea of Japan. I checked, but the Soviets are still not active and I have a very large margin of "safety" in my Manchurian troops to keep the Soviets from being activated. I didn't think that Soviet planes could be used for Naval Air Patrols until the Soviets were activated.

In other news, the Imperial Guards "A" unit finally got out of the jungle and reached the highway in Burma while continuing on its way to join its colleagues in Rangoon. I will be very interested to see if the 116th sub-unit will make it out of the mountains near Yunan; it is up to 44 elapsed miles now. Will it move a hex closer to Lashio or will it reset itself to "0" miles again?

Irritations aside, the big news this turn was that I started Operation "Dai-Baka" ("Big-Idiot") and sent all of my TFs out from Kiska towards Adak. In the various TFs I have: 10 BBs, 6 CAs, 11 CLs, 56 DDs, 6 CVs, 3 CVLs, 3 CS, lots of transports and auxiliary ships and several subs. On the land I have 5 A6M2 Daitais, 3 A6M3 Daitais, an Oscar Daitai, a Nell Sentai, a Betty Sentai and a Val Sentai, and lots of Patrol, Recon, and Floatplanes. Back in Paramushiro Jima I have more Air units in reserve.

According to the consistently inaccurate Japanese INTEL, AuTiger has two 9-ship PT boat TFs at Umnak and at least one ship of some sort in port at Dutch Harbor. He has Mohawks at Umnak, and has shown the presence of various 2E bombers and likely some 1E Divebombers at Dutch Harbor. Needless-to-say, the Weather Forecast calls for rain.

AuTiger undoubtedly knows that I am up to something. The question is – does he think that I am sending in another invasion force to Adak, or does he realize that I'm trying to pull back my troops? And will the difference matter to him at all? My minesweepers will reach Adak next turn.





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< Message edited by Dive Bomber1 -- 1/12/2008 3:48:12 AM >

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Post #: 369
Finally got the picture in the message - 1/12/2008 3:49:28 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		I don't know what happened before, but the map image is finally in the message above.

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Post #: 370
In for a penny - 1/12/2008 5:37:42 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 23, 1942 - With any major operation you expect little things to go wrong, and "Operation A-ho!" ("Operation Moron") is receiving its share, although fortunately for now none of the mistakes have been terribly fatal.

The night phase started out fine as one of my ASW TFs attacked and hit a sub off of Tori Shima. But then I was puzzled that I received no minesweeping reports since my minesweeping TF should have reached Adak by now. So I was hoping that this meant that my MSWs had reached Adak but had not found any mines.

Yeah, sure. As my surface combat TFs started to arrive at Adak a number of DDs reported mines and one of my CLs hit one. (That's not how I want to sweep mines.) For whatever reason, my MSW TF never reached Adak, although the "green circle" last time indicated that it should have. But then who really knows how the TF movement routines work. And there was a good example of that this turn as a couple of my surface combat TFs didn't reach Adak either, despite being as fast as the three TFs that did.

And there was another movement goof that I still don't understand as only one of my CV TFs moved to station off of Adak while the other sat happily back at Kiska. It's a very good thing that AuTiger didn't have any Allied CVs prowling around or I would have been in trouble. The TF that stayed back at Kiska had been under orders to "follow" the other CV TF. I must not understand how to "massage" the "follow" order properly, so I gave up on it, turned it off, and ordered both TFs to meet at a new hex. (AuTiger will likely send at least some of his PTs to try a mid-ocean intercept a couple of hundred miles from his base.)

The final bit of odd luck came as AuTiger's Dauntless DBs flew from Umnak and attacked my TFs at Adak. Fortunately for me, they chose the Yamato to attack, and were shot up by flak without getting any hits. But at the end of the day only one Dauntless was destroyed and eleven were damaged from flak. I would have expected some operational losses for those DBs considering that the weather was bad and they were operating at the extremes of their range. But what I suspect happened was the "experience effect" again, in which well-experienced pilots get a break from all aspects of the Game, including bad weather.

So for the upcoming turn I set a number of A6M2 Daitais to LR CAP over Kiska in the hopes of discouraging more Allied bombers, in case they get another break in the weather. I've also got a number of A6M3 Daitais and an Oscar Daitai on 100 ft naval attack in case the PTs show up. But with the weather forecast calling for thunderstorms over the entire top third of the map I don't expect that my air units will get much of an opportunity to "play".

Elsewhere, AuTiger still has Chinese bombers hitting the 34th Division, so I am once again trying to ambush them. I've also moved a number of planes to try another airfield ambush in China. This hasn't worked in the past, but I've got no good reason not to try it again. There are probably some factors of which I am ignorant that are keeping me from being successful, but maybe if I try enough things and keep an eye out on other posts in the Forum (many thanks to J. W. for the clarification on the multiple fighter sweeps wearing down CAP!) I will eventually learn what I need to do to be successful.

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Post #: 371
Sync Wars in the North Pacific - 1/13/2008 12:56:47 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 24, 1942 - Well, the Sync Bug has taken hold in a very big way in this game. AuTiger sent the Allied Combat Report for September 23 along with this turn and it was absolutely astounding how different it was from what I reported last turn. Instead of an ineffectual attack by some Dauntless DBs the Allies mounted multiple massive and effective low-level 2E anti-shipping attacks on all of my TFs in the Aleutians, even those that were still back at Kiska. (I didn't think that Kiska was even in range of the 2Es at Dutch Harbor.) If the Allied CR had been correct my operation would have been a massive failure. As it is, the "Japanese reality" is significantly different.

This turn started out similar to the last. More TFs arrived at Adak and found the Allied minefields. A DD and yet another CL each "swept" a mine the "hard way". Then my laggard MSWs finally arrived to clean up after the fact. Never-the-less, things were generally in good shape and all four recovery TFs were in place. So I proceeded to give loading orders and reset their return paths to Paramushiro Jima via Attu in order to keep them away from any Allied attacks from the south.

Having been "warned" by the Allied CR of the danger of wave-top Allied 2E attacks I reset to TF LR CAP the fighter units that had been set to anti-PT duty. AuTiger didn't send in his PTs again (maybe he is waiting for the rest of the Northern US Fleet to arrive) so I am taking advantage of this to prepare my retirement from the field. As I had hoped, since my TFs only had 1500 capacity APs and some APDs in them they filled up almost completely upon the initial orders, so there is a very good chance that they will get away.

I will be very interested to see what the Allied CRs look like next turn. Also, I wonder if AuTiger will bother to try to intercept my TFs or just let me pull back? In any event, this has taught me an awful lot about operations in the Aleutians.

In other action, many of my "sneak" air attacks in China flew to my great surprise. Of course, their effect was minimal, but it was satisfying to catch some Chinese bombers on the ground and also in the air. I immediately pulled back my air units in anticipation of the return of the AVG and the 4Es to the front lines. The only major Allied air assault this turn was 146 Forts that hit Dili. I had moved a recon unit there from Koepang, and I guess that AuTiger figured that I was trying to set up some sort of attack. So my losses were minor and AuTiger enjoyed a few Operational losses to his big bombers.

In the ground war in China AuTiger surprised me by starting to pull back his troops from the railroad hex that is two hexes to the northeast of Canton. I guess he got tired of seeing his troops use up supplies for no good reason. Maybe he will allow me to recover my currently-trapped armored unit.

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Post #: 372
Executive Decision - 1/13/2008 6:48:15 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 25, 1942 - When I received this turn from AuTiger he happened to ask the "Question from Beyond the Grave" - "We are both using 1.806, aren't we?"

Oh goshdarngollygeewizbatman…

AuTiger never mentioned that he had upgraded, and because I am playing three pbems that all started at 1.804, I didn't want to upgrade.

So I sent out a couple of panic emails to my other pbem opponents asking them if they were still playing 1.804 and if they minded a lot upgrading to 1.806.

Since my other opponents are on the other side of the Planet, it wasn't likely that I would be getting responses quickly, so I decided upon "Executive Action" and upgraded anyway.

So as long as my other opponents don't have any real hard problems with this (and as long as AuTiger didn't "backgrade" back to 1.804 while I was doing the turn) we ought to be as okay as possible under these circumstances.

In any event, the turn itself:

My minesweepers swept more mines at Adak, and some of my escorts near Tori Shima chased more subs, but otherwise things were quite over night at Adak. Then as the new day dawned my patrols spotted AuTiger's PTs at Adak. However my transports were not only already sailing off into the West but were also fortuitously in the same hex as my CVs, in addition to the various air groups that I had flying LR CAP over them. Some Dauntlesses and Kittyhawks flew in to try to attack my BBs but my LR CAP took care of them nicely. It is such a good feeling to see my air units actually successful for a change.

My secondary fighters then made a couple of strafing attacks on the US PTs, shooting up a number of them. But there wasn't any surface action until the end of the turn at which point the PTs finally encountered a couple of my big surface combat TFs. The first time the PTs achieved surprise and put a torpedo into a DD, but otherwise my ships shot up the PTs very well and sank a number of them.

Most importantly, all of my troops were pulled off of Adak. All I have to do now is to get them home safely. So I ordered my surface combat TFs back to Kiska and have my CV TFs heading to Attu along with the transport TFs. I ordered fresh air units to provide LR CAP over the retiring transport TFs and set most of the rest to regular CAP over my bases, other than one inexperienced A6M3 unit that I left set to do PT strafing if AuTiger decides to send his remaining PTs after my TFs.

So unless AuTiger risks trying to surprise me with his CVs (and he will have to get past all of my patrol planes, lots of Bettys, Nells and land-based Zeros, and the KB) I ought to finally get my forces back to where I can use them. That's three divisions and a brigade that will soon be in a position to cause headaches for the Allies if I can get them home safely.

AuTiger surprised me a bit in China this turn because he sent his Chinese bombers without escorts out to attack my LCUs in China again despite my ambushes last turn. So I moved more planes back into position and will try more ambushes next turn, as well as more airfield attacks.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 373
RE: Executive Decision - 1/13/2008 5:49:27 PM   
USSAmerica


Posts: 18715
Joined: 10/28/2002
From: Graham, NC, USA
Status: offline 		Good work with your rescue mission, Dive.  It was well coordinated. 

As for the snych bug you two have started seeing, matching up patch versions is a very good idea.  I have no first hand experience with this, but I've read lots of times that PT strafing can also cause the synch bug, as can the Japanese player using the Escape key during the combat resolution.  Just something to consider.  After a turn or two with matching patch levels, if you still are seeing the bug, you will want to try Pompak's patented method to recover from it.  It's posted in several places, but in the Must Read Threads thread for sure. 

_____________________________

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 #: 374
Aftermath - 1/13/2008 8:52:12 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 26, 1942 - After all of the "drama" of the past few turns things started to settle back down into a routine. My ASW forces chased some Allied subs off of Tori Shima again during the night phase, and my retiring forces continued sailing undisturbed back towards Japan.

Things appear to be under control in the Aleutians. Although a couple of Marauders scouted my retiring TFs no planes attempted to get through the CAP over my TFs and bases. So my surface combat TFs reached Kiska undisturbed, one of my air combat TFs reached and refueled at Attu, and the other continued to accompany the transport TFs. As I expected, the survivors of AuTiger's PT TFs are now regrouped back at Umnak, which just reached a level 6 air field.

I've now reset the destinations of my transport TFs to Paramushiro Jima instead of Attu, with "home" bases now set to Wakkanai so that they will continue along the northern route towards the Home Islands. I cancelled the LR CAP orders for my fighter groups in the region and have them now on simple CAP in order to rest them up while still keeping the Allied bombers away. I've also reset my Bettys and Nells to long-range air patrols; right now I would much rather detect any lurking enemy TFs than attempt to attack them outside of escort distance.

I created a large Fast Transport TF out of my two smaller cruiser/destroyer anti-PT TFs and have ordered it to go off into the stormy night to pick up the NLF unit that I have on the island just to the south-east of Adak. I intend to pull back all of my forces to Kiska and Attu and to allow AuTiger to try to retake the empty islands around Adak if he wants to spend the effort.

I am also planning to pull out of some of the south-central Pacific atolls that I grabbed early on in this pbem. AuTiger has ignored my move. This hasn't really affected his ability to move forces between Hawaii and New Caledonia and I can't supply nor build them those bases effectively, so I may as well pull back while AuTiger is still planning assaults elsewhere and is also waiting for his Fall 1942 improvements. The Allies get P-38s as of October, so AuTiger will undoubtedly attempt more long-range air attacks once the Lightenings arrive in numbers. Hopefully what it will really mean will be that AuTiger's air units will start to "enjoy" greater Operational losses.

As usual, there was some air activity in China this turn. A number of my bombers flew and hit the airfields at Yenen again, just to remind AuTiger that I can still do it. And a relatively inexperienced Zero Daitai got some well-needed practice when it ambushed a Chinese bomber unit over the 34th Division. But AuTiger has been sending Recon flights over south-western China again, and thus I expect that the 4Es can't be far behind, so I've moved my planes once again.

Never-the-less, most of my air units are now settling into air bases far away from the Front Lines. My fighter units are settling into backwater air bases where they can train in peace and quiet, and my bombers are moving into various naval air bases where they can watch out for and attack Allied subs. My days of "adventuring" are pretty much over now, and the onus is on AuTiger to make this particular pbem "interesting" again.

(in reply to USSAmerica)
Post #: 375
RE: Executive Decision - 1/13/2008 9:00:00 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

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

ORIGINAL: USS America

Good work with your rescue mission, Dive.  It was well coordinated. 

As for the snych bug you two have started seeing, matching up patch versions is a very good idea.  I have no first hand experience with this, but I've read lots of times that PT strafing can also cause the synch bug, as can the Japanese player using the Escape key during the combat resolution.  Just something to consider.  After a turn or two with matching patch levels, if you still are seeing the bug, you will want to try Pompak's patented method to recover from it.  It's posted in several places, but in the Must Read Threads thread for sure. 


It appears that the worst, if not all, of our Synch problems have cleared up now that I moved to v1.806, and that was despite a lot of strafing of PTs. So hopefully we are past that issue.

The retrieval of the troops from Adak used the same sort of "massive overkill" approach that I used successfully to take Port Moresby, way-back-when. This game "rewards" careful planning and preparation, and "punishes" seat-of-the-pants blitzs, as my misbegotten raids into India and the Aleutians both showed.

So now that I've frittered away so many game-months on unsuccessful pushes in the Bay of Bengal, China, the South Pacific and the Aleutians, I am going to sit back and wait to see if AuTiger has learned how to avoid my mistakes, or instead has learned how to "make" my mistakes.

Thanks for the comments.

(in reply to USSAmerica)
Post #: 376
Allied reactions - 1/14/2008 4:08:40 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 27, 1942 - There was a pleasantly quiet night phase, followed by a surprising number of Allied air patrols over the Western Aleutians. It turns out that AuTiger moved a Catalina squadron into Adak immediately after he was certain that my troops were gone. While I was primarily interested in extricating my troops from Adak, I haven't lost all "interest" in the place. Therefore I ordered fighters, bombers and a bombardment TF off to hit Adak again next turn.

My Fast Transport got the NLF out of the little island next to Adak safely this turn. I'll use it to pull the NLFs out of the other two bases to the west of Adak. In the meanwhile I am leaving two battle groups at Kiska and the "fast" CV TF at Attu, just to keep an eye on AuTiger. I've got the "slow" CV TF on its way back to Paramushiro Jima along with the four troop TFs. This way, if AuTiger does happen to try to intercept my troop convoys there will be something there to "discourage" him.

In the meanwhile I am starting to pull out some of the extra air units out of the Western Aleutians and put them back into the Kuriles. The air bases at Kiska and Attu are overloaded and I don't need so many air units there now that the main operation has been successful. Also, having those air units back in the Kuriles and in the Mid-Pacific bases will give me notice of any Allied "silliness" in the region. AuTiger hasn't shown too much of a tendency to do risky things in this pbem, but he did in our earlier matches and one never knows how he will act as he gets more advanced forces.

One big benefit of getting rid of the Synch problem is that AuTiger no longer has a "free look" at my planned air attacks. Therefore, this turn he "guessed wrong" in China when he tried to surprise my bombers with massed Allied fighters. AuTiger moved his crack fighter units to Yenen and the bases to the west of it, but my forces attacked Homan instead. Now that AuTiger is getting aggressive in the air over China again I pulled even more of my air units back.

AuTiger has now pulled all of his Chinese LCUs off of the railways in China. We have a fairly balanced stand-off there now. Never-the-less, I am still looking to see if I can't find some way to get the 34th Division free from its trap. I am still ticked off that I had it effectively free a couple of game-months ago and the @#$%^ AI sent the unit south into a trap instead of east to freedom.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 377
Resource Wars - 1/15/2008 1:17:16 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 28, 1942 – The night phase was quiet with only one half-hearted sub chase from a few of my DDs on ASW duty. For whatever reason my bombardment TF didn't bother to go over to Adak and stayed at Kiska instead. The Allied PTs are all gone and I set Zeros on LR CAP over the TF so any bombers from Dutch Harbor ought to be ignored, but the ships stayed in port anyway. Ah, the wonders of the "unknown" inner workings of WitP.

At least my planes flew against the air fields at Adak during the day phase. They caused some damage but didn't catch any of the Catalinas on the ground. My Fast Transport TF also got back to Kiska unscathed, so there is another small operation that worked well. My main transport TFs are still sailing along undisturbed towards the Home Islands so all is going as well as I could hope in that part of the World at this time.

China was fairly quiet this turn other than a B-17 attack on the resources at Chengting. I guess that now that I'm no longer planning to try to take any of the Chinese bases I ought to start to bomb the Chinese Industries too. But right now that's too risky because AuTiger has hundreds and hundreds of fighters sitting at Yenen and Chungking in the hopes that some of my bombers try to attack.

What I am trying next turn is a couple more ambushes, including ambushes over some of my troops that just moved back to the hex halfway between Wuhan and Changsha. I am trying JW's recommendation of having the planes fly in from multiple bases instead of a single big base. Given the way that the weather is in China, that may not work so well, but it is worth a bit of a try. I've also reset some nuisance air raids in the Indian border region.

However, most of my current effort is focused upon redistributing my forces again. So I'm continuing to spread LBA all over the map and also establishing better in-depth defenses. The question will be – how long will AuTiger give me to prepare for his counter-offensives?

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 378
139 B-17s over Kendari - 1/16/2008 1:32:28 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 29, 1942 – My bombardment TF sailed off and hit Adak this evening, causing a nice amount of damage and even catching some Catalinas on the ground (or water, whichever the case). That will help keep AuTiger from taking things for granted in the region. Now I can set up the remaining withdrawals from the small and indefensible forward bases.

AuTiger's forces were also busy during the night phase, as for the first time in a long time an Allied ASW TF hunted down one of my subs off of New Caledonia and whacked it with a couple of depth charges. So there goes another sub back for R&O.

More significantly, AuTiger finally sent a big bomber attack against Kendari. 139 B-17s hit the air fields and port at the base. I had a reasonably good Daitai of Oscars on CAP, and they did shoot down seven Forts as well as damaging a number more, but the attack wasn't blunted. Thus there was a lot of damage, including some sunken ships and destroyed planes on the ground. As usual, a number of my pilots were "asleep in their planes" as the bombs fell and so were lost in the attack.

There was also a big 2E attack on the air fields at Lautem this turn. AuTiger certainly has been working hard to destroy all of my air base in the region. I wonder if he intends to start his re-conquest in the DEI?

In somewhat of a surprise, a number of Liberators flew against Tavoy from India but they didn't end up hitting anything, so I have no idea of what was their target. It's been a long time since any of the Allied 4Es have "missed" on an attack. There were also a few more hit-and-run air raids by my forces in China, but nothing much was accomplished. AuTiger has now massed a huge number of planes in Chungking, so I pulled back the rest of my combat air units. I can't compete so there is no point in throwing away more planes for no reason.

Instead I am continuing to increase the spread of my LBA on Naval Attack across the Pacific. This way, when AuTiger finally moves I won't have to lose enormous numbers of planes to Operational Damage just to get them into position. As a "bonus", this allows me to track and attack Allied subs more effectively.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 379
A Quiet End to September 42 - 1/17/2008 12:37:08 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		September 30, 1942 – This was a really quiet turn. Actually, I hope that we have more of these before AuTiger really gets going.

The night phase had another one of those ironies of this game – a DD escort in one of my minelaying TFs hit an enemy mine at Rangoon this turn. Of course, given the often incomprehensible AI routines in this Game, the entire TF turned back without laying any mines. So I've ordered them back to Rangoon and sent the badly damaged DD to Tavoy.

The day phase was even quieter. I had Recon flights going all over China and the only places that had any CAP were Yenen and Chungking. AuTiger is obviously planning something big in China – he has around 235 fighters in Chungking, along with lots of bombers and auxiliary planes. He also has a lot of auxiliary planes in north-eastern India, so I suspect that he is using them to fly supplies into China in order to support his operations.

There were only a couple of small Allied air attacks this turn. A few Chinese bombers flew against my troops that are on the road between Wuhan and Changsha, and a few 2E bombers, accompanied by a ton of P-40Bs, flew against Lautem. AuTiger lost several P-40Bs thanks to Operational losses. That ought to teach him what I've been going through.

Otherwise it was another turn in which I continued to reorganize my forces. The final third of the Imperial Guards Division finally made it to Rangoon after all these months, but the three pieces are all at different Upgrade levels, so I can't rejoin them. I'll just leave them there and see if they ever do reach the same Upgrade levels.

Another of my small units that was stuck in the "bush" in south-western China also finally got out and reached Nanning this turn. There are still several LCUs that are crawling along at a mile-per-day, but they are getting close to being back where they can recover.

So "quiet" is a good thing for me right now. I appreciate the opportunity to move my forces into a more balanced distribution. During the height of my Adak Recovery Operation almost every area outside of the Kuriles and Western Aleutians was stripped bare of forces. It's a good thing that AuTiger didn't get "ambitious" then or I would have been in big trouble.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 380
Horde-war in China - 1/18/2008 12:51:58 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		October 1, 1942 – I got my "wish" and this was another extremely quiet turn. The only actions were a couple of small Allied air attacks on Japanese stragglers in the bush in Burma and China.

AuTiger is up to something in China. This turn there were over 250 fighters, over 100 bombers and something like 335 auxiliary planes in Chungking! What the Devil is he up to? I can't figure out why he is massing so much air power at Chungking. As far as I can guess, AuTiger may be doing this because:

a) He suspects that I will try some major attack again and wants to be able to crush it

b) He is reorganizing his forces again after flying units all over the map in response to my last offensive in China

c) He is planning a major offensive of his own in the region - perhaps including the use of paratroops

In any event, I moved more of my combat planes out of China and continued with the repositioning of my forces. So, for example, I've got a couple of TFs heading to Amchitka in order to remove the NLF and Base Force that have been sitting there. (There is no way that I can build that base up to a reasonable level, particularly with Winter approaching.)

I was also finally able to disband a naval dive bomber fragment that has been sitting around since I lost the CV in the South Pacific, way back when. For whatever reason that particular fragment would never disband into another grounded divebomber Chutai. But once I finally brought a full divebomber Daitai to Truk the two-plane fragment finally disbanded.

I've also decided to finally stop "pretending" with my CVEs, send them back to the Home Islands, dock them, remove their air units, and disband those air units into Daitais. The reality is that I will never have a good opportunity in the future to use those ships in an offensive role and I still need experienced pilots in order to rebuild some of my land-based air units.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 381
Recon Wars - 1/19/2008 1:36:10 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		October 2, 1942 – This was yet another blissfully peaceful turn, although this is obviously just the Calm Before the Storm. Nothing happened during the night phase, and the only attack during the day phase was some British 2Es trying to attack my troops in the bush in northern Burma again.

However, there were many recon flights going back and forth across the frontier in China, and more importantly, AuTiger brought some of his massive airpower from Chungking down to Changsha. So what and where does he intend to attack? Will he try to catch my air units on the ground, or will he go "Industry Hunting"?

I moved more of my remaining air units around or out of the region so that AuTiger doesn't get any "cheap points" with his overwhelming air power. I also set up an air attack of my own on the periphery, and moved a couple of my better new fighter units up closer to the Front. But more importantly, I put my fighter units in Western Japan on "alert" just in case AuTiger tries some "early" attacks on my Home Islands Industries.

The good news is that my production of resources and supplies is reasonably on track again. I lost a lot of time in the March through September time frame because I ran myself out of supplies by ever-expanding and "over-expending" my industries and forces. At least now my critical forward bases won't collapse from a lack of supplies upon the first assault that they see.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 382
Death by Hudson - 1/19/2008 6:34:54 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		October 3, 1942 - This was a busy turn for AuTiger. First off, he sent a number of DMS ships to sweep my sub-laid mines at Dutch Harbor. But an AK that was there hit a mine anyway. Allied ships are usually able to withstand Japanese mine hits so the AK ought to be okay, unlike Japanese ships such as the DD that hit the Allied mine at Rangoon a couple of turns back, and sank in port this turn.

In the day turn AuTiger's B-17s in China hit the Resources at Nanchang. AuTiger loves to bomb my resource centers so that he can try to shut down my Industry. This hasn't affected things too badly yet, but what it does is give AuTiger's pilots lots of reasonably easy experience. However, this time, thanks to the bad weather and my AA at Nanchang a number of B-17s were damaged and a few were shot down, but not enough to discourage AuTiger from this.

My Air Ambush in Burma worked to an extent and my reasonably good Zero Daitai caught AuTiger's British 2Es unescorted. However, the Game "rewards" high experience pilots with significant advantages in air combat, even in 2E bombers, so my fighters couldn't do much damage against the obsolete British planes which have very experienced pilots from attacking my troops that have been trapped for months by the "mile-a-day" movement mechanics.

The same thing happened at Ndini where high-experience Hudsons were able to go right past my CAP to hit a transport. In reality, Hudsons were flying garbage that were never used against any real threat, but the Game allows them to become invulnerable when the pilot's experience gets high enough.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 383
Kendari Krushed - 1/19/2008 4:26:00 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

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Status: offline 		October 4, 1942 - There was some night time action from both sides this turn. AuTiger had his minesweepers out at opposite ends of the Map - Ceylon and the Aleutians. And one of my better ASW TFs caught an S-boat south of Truk and hammered it hard.

AuTiger has been busy bringing troops, supplies and what not to his eastern Aleutian bases. Things are quiet at Adak, but I expect some movement sooner rather than later. In the meanwhile I am setting in place one last "retrieval" operation to pull out the remaining naval base force at the island due west of Adak. I wonder if AuTiger will contest this again with his PTs or not?

In the meanwhile, my first pull-back operation in the far South Pacific is getting close to starting. I have half of the KB on the way down in order to provide cover for my transport TFs. AuTiger currently has little in the way of air power in the region and doesn't appear to have any naval forces there either, but it won't take him long to bring in some once he sees what I am doing.

In the air war AuTiger pulled his bombers out of Changsha and just left a mass of fighters in their place. He also put LR CAP out in case I tried to attack any neighboring bases, but my forces were quiet.

In Burma AuTiger again sent out his Brit 2Es against my troops in the jungle, despite the ambush last turn. My Zeros did so little damage that he can afford to ignore them. Also, he probably guessed that I wouldn't leave my planes in place and take a chance with them being hit on the ground, and he was right.

Speaking of hitting planes on the ground, AuTiger sent 139 Forts against the airfields at Kendari again and closed the place down. Despite the fact that I had a reasonably good Oscar Daitai on 90% CAP, half of the fighters were destroyed on the ground (along with their pilots) as were the remaining Nells that were being repaired. This is the first time that I've actually seen an air unit fragment that was totally wiped out on the ground during an air attack. In the past I've always seen some damaged planes left behind.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 384
R&R Time - 1/19/2008 8:56:09 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

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Status: offline 		October 5, 1942 - This was another quiet turn, at least from the Japanese point of view. There was a little bit of Sub cat-and-mouse in the Dutch East Indies, and a couple of Allied 2E bomber attacks, but otherwise not much happened.

My recovery TF got off nicely from Kiska and ought to reach its objective next turn. I sent the surface combat escort TF out this turn so that it will arrive at the same time. My CV TF is acting "funny" and a number of ships went up to 100% activity upon refueling in Kiska. The TF did it last turn in Attu, so that's why I moved it to Kiska where there are more supplies and fuel. But whatever the TF (AI) wants wasn't there at Kiska either. Never-the-less I still ordered the TF to sail a couple of hexes to the east to provide distraction. Once this operation is complete I'll send the CV TF back to Paramushiro Jima for R&O.

Otherwise things are pretty calm and my various activities to move forces here-and-there are coming along nicely. Quiet is good.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 385
Homecoming - 1/20/2008 4:13:40 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

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Status: offline 		October 6, 1942 - The night phase was quiet again other than a bit of sub chasing by one of my TF escorts. That was good news because it meant that my TFs at Ogliuga weren't being bothered.

So I flew out my planes from Ogliuga, however, for the first time in quite a while some of the float planes were damaged at the start of the turn, so they will have to be left behind. AuTiger's 2Es from the eastern Aleutians flew over my TFs but didn't attack, maybe because I had a lot of LR CAP in place. Since I only had 1500 capacity APs in the recovery TF the base force ought to load completely and be gone by next turn. BTW - my CV TF did move out from Kiska and into position despite the inexplicable use of loading points last turn.

In the meanwhile my recovery operation in the far South Pacific hit a bit of a speed bump when I realized that I didn't have any Zeros anywhere in the region. So I started a decent Daitai off along the long chain of flights towards the Gilberts and south. (The CV TF that I have sailing towards the Marshalls is still several days away.)

There were celebrations in Tokyo as the first two Divisions from Adak made it home and started to unload. The third Division will arrive tomorrow. I left the Brigade back at Paramushiro Jima because there was already a fragment of it there, and I want that Brigade to become the linchpin of my defense of Paramushiro Jima. Fortunately, the supply level at Tokyo is back up where it should be and so my nearly-lost divisions ought to rebuild reasonably quickly.

BTW - Once I got that Brigade back to Paramushiro Jima I pulled out the 2nd Division (which was all rested and built-up to the max) and sent it down to Tinian. I already have a full, experienced Division at Saipan and once those divisions that have just arrived at Tokyo are through R&R I'll send one down to Guam too. Having full Divisions in place make the job of building up fortifications much easier and quicker.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 386
A Small Ambush - 1/20/2008 9:43:48 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

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Status: offline 		October 7, 1942 - There was some action this night turn as a Dutch sub put a torpedo into an empty AK to the southeast of Singapore. The AK's Escort then got a hit in on the sub. But that won't likely have much of an effect and so I've sent a decent ASW TF out of Singapore to try to catch the sub and do some real damage.

A surprisingly small number of Forts (around 40) hit the airfields at Kendari again this turn and wiped out more of the damaged Oscars on the ground while keeping the airfield closed. I'm sending a base force back to Macassar so that I can put some LR CAP over Kendari and the rest of the region.

In China some of AuTiger's IL 4c bombers went after the hapless 34th Division again but this time I had a Zero Daitai on LR CAP over the location and four of the Chinese bombers were shot down while several more were damaged. It was good practice for a fighter Daitai that needs lots of practice before it is "ready for Prime Time" again.

AuTiger is moving his air units around in the Far East again. He still has fighters at Changsha and Yenen, and a fair mix of planes at Chungking, but the numbers of Allied planes in the Bay of Bengal has increased substantially, particularly at Dacca. In light of this I decided not to drop in any fighters for LR CAP duty over my retiring units in the northern Burmese jungle. The whole thing smells too much of a trap or an airfield-closing campaign.

My pull-out from Ogliuga went without opposition. As I expected there are three damaged Jakes left at Ogliuga, so since I have a spare AK around I am going to send it over to see if I can retrieve those planes. At the same time I'll hit Adak again just to keep AuTiger honest.

The three battered but not broken Infantry Divisions from the Adak Mess all unloaded at Tokyo and are now settling-in to the long road back to full capability. I'm just happy that I wasn't forced to start over from "scratch" with fragments.

I moved the globe-trotting Zero Daitai a long step closer to providing support of the South Pacific withdrawal as it reached Kwajalein. And my CV TF is also just about at Kwajalein, so soon I'll be prepared to react if AuTiger attempts to interfere with my plans. My idea for the South Pacific would have been a good one if I hadn't squandered so many months with the "Aleutian Affair", but there is no point now trying to hold those lonesome bases any longer.

In other news, the 116th/A reached 59 elapsed miles and so is on the brink of moving a hex closer to Lashio. I would love to believe that this unit will finally move, but I don't have high hopes. There is no good reason in the World that the unit shouldn't move, but then, when did "good reasons" have anything to do with a lot of the programming logic in this Game?

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 387
Marching Under Water - 1/21/2008 12:08:22 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		October 8, 1942 - This was another nice peaceful night, other than some minesweeping at Rangoon. I love all of this quiet - it makes it much easier for me to rebuild my stocks of supplies, fuel and forces.

There was only one air attack as around 90 Mitchells and 50 Tomahawks hit the air fields at Lautem. AuTiger certainly wants to keep my air fields in that region closed. Otherwise there were just a lot of recon flights by both sides.

BTW - my Transport TF made it to Wallis Island and was spotted this turn. But AuTiger must have had some warning last turn because the Air Balance at the nearby Allied-controlled islands was up a bit this turn. Fortunately, I had all 1500 capacity APs in the TF and my Globe-Trotting Zeros made it to a nearby friendly base from where they will provide LR CAP next turn.

The REALLY BIG NEWS this turn was that the 116th/A moved off of its mountain peak and is now one hex closer to Lashio. That means that in the absence of some active interference by Allied troops this divided unit may actually reach a road in about two more months' time. Considering that I've been trying to move this unit for six months of Game Time, one has to believe that my troops really, REALLY liked being on that mountain next to Yunan.

The REALLY SCREWY NEWS this turn was that I accidentally found out that a Construction Engineering unit that I've had sitting at Tori Shima for quite some time was quietly trying to march back to Osaka on its own. Yes, that is "march", as in "march under water", or maybe "march on the water". The unit had 37 elapsed miles on its journey. That unit wanted to go home really, REALLY badly!

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 388
Quiet is Good - 1/21/2008 5:30:14 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		October 9, 1942 - Once again the only night time action was more minesweeping at Rangoon. And the day phase was something of a duplicate of the previous day as the only action was another B-25/P-40E attack on the air fields at Lautem.

One thing that changed was that a number of Allied subs showed up in the DEI and the Solomons for the first time in quite a while. My planes are chasing them and I'm sending out some more ASW TFs, so maybe a few of them will be driven home.

Surprisingly, AuTiger pulled his air units out of Pago-Pago and surrounding Allied bases and allowed my recovery TF to leave Wallis without bother. I've still got the LR CAP on the TF and will until they are safely behind the Frontier. My CV TF also reached Kwajalein this turn, so I replenished it and ordered it to head down to Tarawa. It might turn out useful to have the ability to surprise AuTiger in that region. In any event, I intend to pull my troops back from the other far South Pacific bases and having CVs around just adds a margin of safety.

In Burma the 4th Mixed Regiment finally got out of the northern Burmese jungle and back on the rail line. So it ought to be back in Rangoon licking its wounds soon enough.

And there was more encouraging news concerning the 116th/A - it did 2 miles since the last turn! I wonder if it will keep up that "blistering" pace?

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 389
Preparing for the Storm - 1/22/2008 12:24:38 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		October 10, 1942 – My naval bombardment of Adak went off with no hitches, but it also didn't do a lot of damage. Never-the-less, it does send a message to AuTiger that I can still do that.

On the other hand, I wasted the general effort because my transport TF didn't stick around at Ogliuga to let me retrieve those damaged Jakes. I was certain that I set the TF to "remain on station", but gawd knows. In any event, I am sending it back for another try. However, I may not be so lucky this time because the weather is clearing up in the region for the first time in a gawdawful amount of time.

There was only one Allied bombing attack this turn; 27 Forts tried to bomb Taung Gyi but didn't hit anything. I suspect that AuTiger was trying to guess where I might put in an "ambush squadron", but I actually didn't send anyone forward this turn. Never-the-less, it made me realize that I didn't have enough Air Recon units forward to keep AuTiger guessing, so I moved some forward again.

The 116th/A moved to a grand total of 4 miles this turn. Does this mean that it will only take one month to move to the next hex?

My recovery TF with the SNLF that was at Wallis Island continued to steam towards Truk unmolested, so I stood-down the Zeros that had been on LR CAP. I'm going to keep them in the region because I intend to pull more units out of the far South Pacific.

Otherwise I am continuing to move forces around. I am now in the comfortable position of being able to pull back from the front in China the various smaller regiments and miscellaneous combat units that I had there and replace them with rebuilt Divisions and Brigades that have been doing garrison duty at the various Chinese port cities. It's only too bad that I learned much too late in this particular pbem the critical importance of keeping my better forces together from the start.

I am also swapping out and rebuilding my good Zero Daitais that are still on Duty in the Western Aleutians. Once I have my lines in the region stabilized I will reduce my front-line air power and move those good units to other uses elsewhere.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 390
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