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Calm Returns to China

 
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Calm Returns to China - 4/12/2008 12:28:29 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 28, 1942 – The night phase was typically quiet. There was the usual limited and unsuccessful sub hunting by some of my ASW forces, and Roti Island, which is a dot base next to Koepang, became "occupied" by the Allies.

The day phase saw lots of rain everywhere on the Map. A few scattered bomber attacks flew against secondary targets from my bases in China. As usual, there were a fair number of Recon flights from both sides. AuTiger also sent a number of P-38s to strafe my survivors of Dili, causing a fair number of casualties. Surprisingly enough, when the now re-joined US Paratroop unit eventually attacked my stragglers on the ground only the Paras suffered any casualties.

AuTiger decided to pull back again in China after wasting troops and supplies checking out my Forward Defenses. All of the troops were gone from Chengting and Nanchang, and the number of Chinese LCUs at the crossroads to the north of Canton was cut in half. So I relocated my planes in China to wait for AuTiger's next move, if any, in the region.

AuTiger's main move is being set up in Southern Burma where more troops have arrived near Rangoon, but none have actually moved into Rangoon yet. I am continuing to wait to see what AuTiger does. He now has a huge number of fighters and bombers in Mandalay, so if the Weather gives him a break I can expect some heavy air attacks in the region.

Things were still quiet in the Timor region too. AuTiger now has a huge number of air units in Koepang too, so I decided that it was a good time to pull the KB out of Soerabaja and move it a little farther away. None of my CVs are badly damaged, and my air units are rebuilt, so that last thing I want right now is to have either the planes caught on the Ground or the ships caught in Port by massed 4Es.

It will be only a few more days until I start to receive Oscar IIs. I have plenty of Nate units that have had nothing to do but train in the backwater bases for the past eight game-months, so it will be nice to upgrade them. Of course, thanks to the totally incompetent "Training" subroutine for planes in this Game, few of my Nate units are at a better than mediocre experience level, but at least once they have Oscar IIs they will have a better chance to try to train against enemy targets and survive.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 511
Calm all over - 4/15/2008 12:23:35 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 29, 1942 – This was an overall quiet turn. There was only a little bit of unsuccessful sub hunting by a few of my ASW ships during the night phase. The day phase followed with some successful mine-clearing by the Allies and some successful aerial ASW by some of my planes in the Java area. The only actual attack this turn was by some bombers and fighters from Lautem which attacked my stragglers at Dili.

AuTiger's latest advance in China appears to be over as all of his forces have pulled back to their bases. So I have a few LCUs out to "re-connect" my Zones of Control. The weather is generally terrible over most of the map so AuTiger hasn't been attempting any bombing campaigns either.

Allied troops continue to build up outside of Rangoon as I continue to sit back and watch. My troop re-assignments continue unchecked in the region, so the longer that AuTiger waits and prepares, the more I get to prepare. I suspect that AuTiger would have been better off trying a Blitz in the region, but I'm glad that I'm not finding out.

So it's mainly a matter of Wait-and-See for me as I await the arrival of Oscar IIs and also the mass of HQ units that will arrive in a couple of weeks. Many of those HQs are Air HQs, so that ought to help me a bit as I continue to rebuild my Air Forces.

BTW - Real Life has become very busy and complicated for me so I won't able to spend much time on Game Life in the near future. So this pbem and my AAR will be somewhat intermittant for a while.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 512
Resistance in Timor ends - 4/16/2008 12:50:46 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 30, 1942 – The night phase was quiet again except for a couple of unsuccessful ASW attacks by some of my DDs on the multitude of Allied subs in the waters off of Java. The day phase then brought some minesweeping by my ships at Rabaul.

Air attacks were limited to Timor again as AuTiger was able to get a couple of hundred bombers and fighters off the ground in Koepang and Lautem and put my stragglers at Dili out of their misery. The last message was "Japanese unit(s) surrounded at Dili".

I received a surprise during the ground phase. The 35th Brigade, which had been driven out of Akyab some time ago (and thanks to the AI and the Movement Rules ended up in the mountains to the east of Akyab instead of along the road to the south), finally moved a hex to the south towards Rangoon. But since there is a river along the south side of that hex, my unit was forced to do a costly and totally futile "Shock Attack" against the small British unit that had occupied the hex. Of course, the AI is programmed to ignore the location of the "river" and just treat the entire 60 mile hex as a "River Hex". I wonder who thought that this would be a "good" idea?

Nearby, other British troops captured Taung Gyi which was empty and had been abandoned after the fall of Mandalay. And at Rangoon, AuTiger moved one unit to the east of Mandalay to cut off the supply route while 36 or so Allied LCUs waited to the north. I am surprised that AuTiger hasn't been bombing Rangoon into dust; it's unusual for the Allied planes to be grounded by bad weather.

My final AI surprise of the day came at Batavia, where I had some damaged carrier fighters being repaired while the KB sailed there. When I disbanded the KB into port, the fighters at the base were automatically loaded on board CVs - but not the CVs where the parent Air Units sat! I re-ran the turn several times but I couldn't come up with any combination of steps that would result in the planes all ending up on their "own" carriers. Fortunately I was able to unload the errant fighters off of the overloaded CVs. I then left the partially empty CVs in port while I sent the rest off in a new TF.

I never cease to be totally astounded at how many little bits of code work illogically in this game (if they work at all) and give results that waste the player's time and efforts.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 513
New Year's Eve 1942 - 4/17/2008 12:01:56 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		December 31, 1942 – Nothing happened during the night phase and very little happened during the day phase, other than lots and lots of rain falling over most of the map.

Burma continues to be the main area of Allied movement. An Allied LCU moved towards Rahaeng while the bulk of the Allied advance remained outside of Rangoon. I don't mind that because all of the Allied troops are sitting in Malaria zones so they will use up supplies and accumulate disruption faster that way. I don't know how much LR CAP AuTiger has over those troops so next turn I'm sending some Recon planes over to check out the situation.

AuTiger attempted a Deliberate Attack on the now fully-trapped 35th Brigade this turn, and as is usual in Land Combat, his troops suffered more casualties than my troops. Land Combat is different in Malarial Zones than it is in Temperate Zones like China, so AuTiger will soon start to learn some very unpleasant lessons. The 35th still has supplies, so it ought to last a while unless AuTiger bombs it into oblivion. But just so that I don't "throw good after bad" I turned off the replacements to the 35th and I also changed its commander from a reasonably decent General to the worst General in my Inventory. This way when they are eventually eliminated I won't lose a General that can be useful to me elsewhere.

With the arrival of January 1, 1943, I finally get some more new plane production turned on, including Oscar IIs, Nick Fighter Bombers and Dinah III Recon planes. I have 299 planes worth of production built up and waiting for the Oscar IIs, so I ought to be able to start to upgrade my Nates pretty quickly. Of course, Oscar IIs might turn out to be Garbage too, but I'm being optimistic that they must be better in some manner than Nates, which can't even compete against the Chinese biplanes.

January 1 also brought the opportunity to upgrade a number of my ships. Most are already sailing towards ports with Repair Shipyards, so the upgrades ought to go quickly. I wonder what the upgrade will be for the CVE?

Interestingly enough, AuTiger "paid" a Political Points penalty of 600 points for not sending ships back to England.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 514
A New Year with New Planes - 4/18/2008 12:06:59 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 1, 1943 – The New Year started out quietly as there was only a single unsuccessful ASW attack by my forces during the night phase. The day phase brought some air action as the weather cleared over Burma and Northern Australia so AuTiger was able to send out some of his air force.

First off 221 Forts hit Waingapu and hammered the air fields. But since the air fields are pretty small any way, it didn't matter a lot. AuTiger won't easily capture the smaller bases like Waingapu by air power alone; he will have to send in ships and take his chances with the IJN. Actually, if he is willing to risk losses now he stands a good chance of knocking out the IJN in a head-to-head confrontation, which will make his other plans in 1943 much easier to pursue. So it will be interesting to see what he does.

The other air attacks were out of Burma where 100 Forts and Libs hit an LCU at Rahaeng. AuTiger is trying to soften up my ground troops prior to sending in his LCUs. He is still keeping the bulk of his forces outside of Rangoon.

My Recon flights over the Allied forces around Rangoon didn't meet any LR CAP. That was because AuTiger used this turn to give his fighter pilots some training on the trapped 35th Brigade. Over 200 Allied fighters, comprising of 10 different makes, strafed and bombed the hapless troops. Fortunately for AuTiger my troops have little AA capability left so the Allied attack only had one plane that received flak damage and none were lost to Operational damage.

I currently have nothing in the region that can stand up to the massive Allied air presence, but I am slowly moving my better fighter squadrons out of China and into Southeast Asia. I don't want to throw them piecemeal against the Allied air power, so I'm trying to accumulate a force of my own that can do something more than just get wiped out on the first encounter.

My Oscar II factories are producing planes as planned so I already have 10 new fighters in stock. I am going to upgrade my Nates and Oscar Is in order of pilot experience, so by the end of January I ought to have a handful of Army Air units that should be able to hold their own in combat. Unfortunately, AuTiger can still easily put into the air three times the number of modern fighters with skilled pilots in both Southeast Asia and the Timor region than I can, so I will have to try to rely upon ambushes to blunt the Allied Advance.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 515
The Ghost Fleet! Something REALLY Strange happened this... - 4/19/2008 4:49:12 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 2, 1942 – The night phase started out fairly quiet, then there was a nicely satisfying attack by a number of my escorts on a Dutch sub at Singapore where the sub suffered a couple of good hits.

Then the Combat Replay Display went nuts!

While still centered over Singapore, the Combat Replay Display momentarily showed the prows of a number of ships at the right of the Center Dividing Line in the Display. The next thing that I knew, another ASW attack was being reported, but CVEs were appearing in a list.

Huh?!!!!! My only CVEs are sitting in Osaka! BBs, AVs, ASs, CAs, CLs, and DDs all showed up in the list on the screen. Two "Smoke Plumes", as if from burning ships, showed up on the lower left hand corner of the map. I was getting reports of hits on a ship.

But the two combat screens on the right were stranger than strange! There was nothing in the upper "Periscope" view, and the lower "Underwater View" showed one of my DDs firing mines!

Then the Display cleared and went back to normal for the rest of the Combat Replay. I stopped the Game after the Combat Replay finished and looked at the Combat Report. Look at what I found:

ASW attack near Singapore at 23, 50
Japanese Ships
CVE Taiyo CVE Chuyo
BB Kongo
BB Haruna
BB Kirishima
BB Nagato
BB Mutsu
BB Fuso
BB Hyuga
AV Sanyo Maru
AV Sanuki Maru
AV Kamikawa Maru
AV Kimikawa Maru
AV Kiyokawa Maru
AV Akitsushima
CA Tone
CA Takao
CA Atago
CA Maya
CA Chokai
CA Myoko
CA Mogami
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano
CA Aoba
CA Kinugasa
CA Kako
CL Katori
CL Kashima
CL Kashii
ML Tsugaru
ML Okinoshima
ML Ikitsushima
AS Jingei
AS Chogei
AS Taigei
AS Nagoya Maru
AS Rio de Janiero Maru
AS Yasukuni Maru
AS Manju Maru
AS Tsukushi Maru
AS Heian Maru
CL Naka
CL Isuzu
CL Kinu
CL Abukuma
CL Kuma
CL Kiso, heavy damage
DD Akigumo
DD Makinami
DD Naganami, heavy damage
DD Shiranuhi
DD Urakaze
DD Michishio
DD Natsugumo
DD Minegumo
DD Asagumo
DD Kasumi
DD Yudachi
DD Akatsuki
DD Yamagumo
none, Shell hits 4
DD Hamakaze
DD Tokitsukaze
DD Isokaze
DD Yukikaze
DD Hatsukaze

Please Note: Of those ships listed above, ONLY the following ships that participated in the first ASW attack were in a TF in Singapore:

DD Yamagumo
DD Hamakaze
DD Tokitsukaze
DD Isokaze
DD Yukikaze
DD Hatsukaze
DD Oyashio
DD Makigumo
DD Kazegumo
DD Yugumo
DD Akizuki

ALL of the other ships were In Port at other bases around the map. For example, CL Kiso and DD Naganami that showed "heavy damage" were sitting in Tarakan; and yes, they have "heavy damage" but that's from the Naval Battles at Timor.

BTW - During the "ghost" battle, DDs Yamagumo and Hatsukaze were the ships that showed up in the "underwater" screen.

BTW II – I'm guessing that the "none" ship in the list was the Allied sub.

Although I ran this turn on a "fresh" start of the Game with no other save files in the "Save" folder, I pulled out the files, shut down the Game, and started up all over again. I re-ran the turn and got the exact same results. I then ran the "Combat Save" file and sure enough, it gave the same result as running the turn that my opponent sent to me. Later on I ran the turn on a totally different PC and got the exact same results.

I'm totally baffled as to what happened, but I'm going to send the Combat Save to AuTiger anyway and have him run it so that he can see what I saw.

The rest of the Turn appeared to be "normal" as it ran. The only other action was yet another large scale air-to-ground attack by the Allied planes at Mandalay on the trapped 35th Brigade.

When I prepared the next turn send to AuTiger all of the "Ghost Ships" were back in their ports and only the ships that were supposed to be at Singapore were there.

If anyone would like to view the Combat Save for themselves, please let me know and I will email it to you.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 516
My Southeast Asian Defenses Start to Collapse - 4/20/2008 5:28:15 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 3, 1943 - The night phase went without any "Ghost Fleet" action this turn. There was some minesweeping by my forces, as well as a number of unsuccessful ASW attacks by my forces.

Then the RN swept in and hit Rangoon. I have a CD unit there, so a number of British DDs and CAs received hits from shore guns, but I suspect without much effect. What particularly surprised me was that the RN Bombardment TF not only got in without detection but also got away without detection, despite having a number of DDs hit with multiple gun hits. The overall damage to the ships must have been light.

Afterwards during the day phase Forts and Libs finally flew in and hit Rangoon, causing a fair amount of damage. Once again one of the Game's Real Sci-Fi factors came into play as AuTiger took no bomber losses due to Operational or Flak damage. I continue to be astounded at how few Operational and Flak losses AuTiger's planes take, despite flying so many missions turn after turn after turn. It's only too bad that the Game doesn't model cumulative fatigue on planes and instead simply does a "dice roll" in which pilot experience has a very big (and totally unjustifiable) effect on Operational and Flak losses. BTW - Allied fighters and light bombers also hit the trapped 35th Brigade again and once again the air losses were negligible.

AuTiger surprised me by launching a Shock Attack across the river at Moulmein. Despite my troops being reasonably prepared, the massive numerical superiority of Chinese troops in the attack meant that the base was captured handily. Once again, I stand totally amazed at the incredible number of Chinese LCUs that AuTiger has at his disposal in Burma, and yet he still has more than enough troops to keep a stalemate in place throughout China. It's only too bad that the Designers put in such a handicap for the Japanese player in the form of the Soviet Activation Rule because a few of those Manchurian Divisions would have been a great help in Burma.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 517
Waingapu gets hammered again - 4/21/2008 1:35:06 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 4, 1943 - The night phase was quiet other than some minesweeping by both sides. The day phase then brought an attack by 221 Forts on the air fields at Waingapu. AuTiger's usual luck took a bit of a holiday and he actually lost two B-17s to Operational damage. The Air Training exercise against the 35th continued and as usual the planes didn't take losses. AuTiger's Operational Air Losses have been pretty steadily down in the 1 percent or less level for most of the pbem.

Otherwise, things were pretty quiet during the day phase, other than some aerial ASW by both sides. For once AuTiger's bombers didn't hammer my sub when the hit it - it must have been a "glancing" blow. The only other action was an artillery attack on Rangoon by some of AuTiger's besiegers. It didn't cause much damage.

I finally got some of my better air units in place in Bangkok this turn and I am going to send out a couple of Helen Daitais, escorted by Zeros, against the air fields at Moulmein. I'm guessing that AuTiger isn't currently flying LR CAP over Moulmein.

If you are wondering why I'm not using more bombers in the attack, that's because I have hardly any bomber Daitais left. Thanks to me doing some really bad planning early on, and also totally misunderstanding the upgrade paths for Japanese bombers in a non-PDU game at the same time, I've ended up with only three Helen Daitais as far as bomber units go that are suitable for anti-air field attacks. I ran out of Sallys in late summer 1942, and the Sally factories all upgraded to other planes, so I can't build more. Thus, thanks to losses, none of my Sally units are anywhere near full strength, so I have relegated them to ASW duty. Of course, with PDU "Off", I can't change the Sallys for anything else until late 1944.

In one bit of good news, I created my first Oscar II Daitai this turn. In another 4 days I ought to be able to create another, and so on. It will be so nice to have semi-useful fighter units for a change!

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 518
The IJAAF Strikes (sort of) - 4/22/2008 2:10:23 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 5, 1943 – The night phase was a bit busier this turn, with the results of the latest Allied sub-laid mine campaign showing up. One of my ASW DDs hit a mine at Muntok instead of finding a sub and was badly damaged. The good news of the night was that a heavily damaged US sub finally sank while on its way back to Pearl. My forces don't sink Allied subs that often.

In a real change of pace, the only air attack this turn was by my forces as my air raid on the air fields at Moulmein went off perfectly. There was no CAP and my bombers found the air fields. They caused some damage, and although comparatively little by the standards of the gigantic Allied air raids, it was still nice to see a mission flown successfully. This also sends a message to AuTiger that he can't take things for granted in his Burmese campaign.

AuTiger must be planning something in China because he has moved more Allied fighters to his forward bases. Maybe he thought that I was planning nuisance and/or training raids in that region. I'm currently not, but it helps to have the extra air power in the region because I am discretely pulling out the Southern Command ground units that I moved into China during AuTiger's late summer Chinese ground campaign. I don't want AuTiger to get any "free shots" at my transports.

There were only two ground attacks this turn. The Chinese division that is in the Burmese jungle with the 35th Brigade attempted a deliberate attack this turn, but it had little effect, perhaps because AuTiger didn't send out his planes from Mandalay this turn. The Allied troops besieging Rangoon also did a larger artillery attack this turn, but the results were less than last time. Fortunately, the attacks so far have hit my HQ and minor support forces and the Imperial Guard troops are still at full strength with low fatigue and high morale, so if AuTiger attempts to do a ground attack in the near future it ought to be repulsed.

In any event, I'm not leaving things totally to the Imperial Guards, and I have couple of nice forces on their way to help out at Rangoon. First off, I have a battle fleet including 3 BBs on its way to bombard the Allied troops at Rangoon. And to back it up I have the undamaged CVs from the KB lurking nearby in the hopes of catching the RN with its guard down. Things ought to get a bit more interesting in the region over the next couple of turns.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 519
The RN in Stealth Mode - 4/23/2008 12:18:13 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 6, 1943 – The night phase started out with some minesweeping by my MSWs, and then my Northern Bombardment TF hit Adak with a bombardment attack. The damage was fairly light and no planes were caught on the ground. AuTiger may well have pulled some of his planes out thanks to the warning that his Air Patrols gave him last turn.

But next there was a surprise for me as the RN came in once again and hit Rangoon with a Naval bombardment. My CD guns fired back and hit a number of the smaller ships, but once again there was no obvious damage to the British ships, and the RN TF sailed back into the stormy weather and out of sight. I've been improving my Air Patrol capability in that region, but obviously it still isn't enough.

I did notice that AuTiger pulled the bulk of his planes out of Mandalay and put them into Akyab instead. Is that because he is basing his Brit ships out of Akyab, or is he having difficulties keeping supply levels up in Mandalay? In any event, a number of fighters and light bombers flew out of Akyab this turn and bombed my trapped 35th Brigade. Never-the-less, the ensuing Deliberate Attack by the Chinese Division in that hex did little damage. I suspect that at least that Chinese Division is running low on supplies.

AuTiger's massive force at Rangoon may also be running low on supplies, because their artillery attack this turn, albeit by not as many troops as last turn, caused negligible damage. In any event, I am hoping to make the besieging troops at Rangoon even more uncomfortable next turn as my Bombardment TF is now in position to hit them.

Yes, for once my TFs in the region moved into position without being spotted. (However, there was a report from one of my float planes about an Allied sub in the region, so I'm not sure how AuTiger will interpret that.) Just to be safe I even put a good Zero Daitai on LR CAP over my BB TF. But my ace-in-the-hole is the TF consisting of the undamaged ships from the KB, which also happen to contain the remaining experienced IJN air units too.

However, I still almost sailed "Into Disaster", as only at the very last moment did I do a check of my naval air units and found out to my horror that I had ALL of my planes on my Air Combat TF under "stand down" orders.

OOOOOOOOOOOOPS!

I checked my retiring AC TF that has all the damaged CVs and sure enough, I had set the planes there to provide the usual cover, even though the TF is sailing away from the Front. That's all I need at this stage – to lose my undamaged CVs because I forgot to set the planes on patrol!

In any event, the next turn ought to be more interesting.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 520
A Pitiful Attack - 4/24/2008 12:14:49 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 7, 1943 – The night phase started out with a little minesweeping by one of my MSWs, and then finished with a little bombardment of the Allied troops at Rangoon by my TF that contained three battleships along with other ships. The results were certainly disappointing, particularly considering that I've been reconning Rangoon and I also have a number of troops there. I suspect that one problem is that I tend to send out moderately-sized bombardment TFs instead of maxing them out with 25 ships. It can be very frustrating to try to play this Game in a "somewhat historic" manner when the Game so obviously rewards Overkill above everything else.

Otherwise, there wasn't a lot of action this turn. The Allied mixed air force at Akyab hit the trapped 35th Brigade again, but the Chinese Division in the hex didn't try an assault. And there was another artillery attack on Rangoon by more Allied troops this turn, but likely thanks to my naval bombardment the Allied attack had little effect.

I brought more LBA into the region in the hopes of spotting the RN TF the next time that it comes by. I was also lucky again and my CV TF wasn't spotted. I did move it one hex, but am keeping it close to the Andamans for now so that there is a bit of a "masking" effect from my increased air presence on those islands.

The most ominous news this turn was that the air fields at Lautem and Koepang both expanded to Level 5 this turn, so AuTiger is getting closer to being able to shut down much of the DEI by air. However, my counter-plans, feeble as they are, are continuing as well as I was able to upgrade a decent Nate Chutai to Oscar IIs this turn and as well upgraded one of my better land-based A6M2 Daitais to A6M3as.

I have also set into motion a plan to pull out my remaining forces from Kiska and Attu Islands. I don't want to try to "fight it out" against the Allied LBA once the Winter Weather ends. So I'm willing to let AuTiger regain those two islands and try to bomb the Kuriles at long distance if he likes, particularly since I will have better fighters available to defend the region by the time the weather improves. Anyway, I can make better use elsewhere of the forces that I have in the Western Aleutians.

BTW - here is the report on my Naval bombardment so you can see how feeble it was:

Naval bombardment of Rangoon, at 29,34

Japanese Ships
DD Tomozuru
DD Karukaya
DD Asagao
DD Kuretake
CA Chokai
BB Ise
BB Kirishima
BB Kongo


Allied ground losses:
151 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 521
Allied ARs in the Marshalls - 4/25/2008 12:19:17 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 8, 1943 – The night phase had a bit of minesweeping, then with the start of the day phase came a successful Allied sub attack on one of two of my PCs that were sub-hunting off of Saipan. The PC that was hit sank, and the sub got away.

Otherwise, there were no Allied offensive actions this turn. My bombers flew from Bangkok and hit the airfields at Moulmein again. Once more there was no CAP and my planes did a better job this time of causing damage. This is becoming important because AuTiger has moved more troops into Moulmein with the obvious intentions of moving further south, so everything that I can do that costs the Allied forces supplies and causes disruption is useful.

My retiring bombardment TF was spotted once again by Allied patrol planes, this time refuelling at Victoria Point. I've ordered the TF to head over to Sabang in the hopes of shaking the Allied air patrols. At the same time my CV TF was spotted to the northeast of the Andamans, but the Allied patrol planes didn't appear to identify any CVs in the TF. In any event, I'm sending the TF back to the Andamans to refuel. I'm hoping that AuTiger thinks that I'm preparing another naval bombardment attack and thus sends the RN in to "intercept" – I would love to catch some RN ships with my carrier planes.

The strangest occurrence of the turn happened to AuTiger for a change as my naval air patrols in the Marshalls suddenly spotted some Allied ships a few hexes to the east of that island group. When some Bettys flew off for an air strike I was astonished to find out that the Allied TF consisted of "big, fat and juicy" ARs, along with a couple of small patrol escort ships. Only a few Bettys attacked because most of my planes in the region were assigned to naval air patrols or recon missions, but those planes that did attack put torpedoes into a couple of the ARs. Next, some land-based Kates got their first opportunity to attack "live targets" and they did fairly well by dropping bombs at extreme range on more of the Allied ships, eventually sinking one of the patrol escorts.

Hmmm – just what was going on here? Did AuTiger forget to check the sailing route of his TF and leave it in the not-very-subtle "hands" of the AI? Or did AuTiger take the chance that I might have pulled my air units out of the region because things have been so quiet there for so long? Alternately, as a long shot, is AuTiger staging an invasion of the Marshalls and the AR TF got ahead of the rest of the Allied fleets? Whatever the case, it was never-the-less somewhat discouraging that those ARs were able to get as close to the Marshalls as they did without being spotted, considering that I have multiple air patrol units at all of the bases in the region.

In any event I've moved a couple more of my Betty units into the region and set the rest of the planes in the area to Naval Attack. I also have a number of combat ships at Kwajalein, so I created several fast cruiser/destroyer TFs and I've sent them out too, just in case they can catch up with any of the cripples. Finally, I ordered my subs in the region to converge on the potential Allied retreat paths. AuTiger doesn't make this sort of mistake very often and I don't want to let such a good opportunity get away.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 522
Bad LBA! No Bone! - 4/26/2008 12:19:29 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 9, 1943 – The night phase brought the usual minesweeping along with the start of some disappointments as none of my surface combat TFs or submarines caught any of the damaged Allied ships to the east of the Marshalls. The day phase then brought more disappointment as, although many of my air patrols spotted the crippled ships, none of the half dozen good LBA units that I had well within range of the Allied TFs flew. And that was despite those air units being at multiple bases, and with the general weather supposed to be "cloudy" but definitely not bad by the usual standards of the Game. So once again Luck favoured AuTiger.

In any event, I sent my surface combat TFs onwards in the hopes of intercepting the Allied ships next turn. I have yet to have a mid-ocean intercept work for me, although AuTiger has used it successfully against me a couple of times. I also repositioned more of my LBA in the hopes that at least a few planes take off. Sometimes I get really tired of not getting any breaks in this game, even when AuTiger makes one of his rare mistakes.

In Burma AuTiger finally sent out some of his 4Es which hit the Port at Rangoon. This suggests that AuTiger is planning to send in the RN again. So I refuelled my CV TF at the Andamans and set it off again in the hopes of catching the RN ships for once. Considering my general run of lousy luck in this game I probably won't be successful, but I will try anyway. In the meanwhile my surface combat TF is almost back at Sabang and has also apparently escaped the omnipresent Allied air patrols.

One of my subs was able to successfully drop off some mines at Akyab, and since there appears to be an Allied transport TF still in Akyab I reset that sub to "Patrol" and sent it back to see if it can get lucky. Of course, considering how things usually go for me, the sub will more likely hit one of the mines that it just laid rather than attack an Allied transport.

There was another minimal artillery attack on Rangoon this turn, but the most important ground event was a mass crossing of the river to Rahaeng by well over 60,000 mixed Allied troops. Perhaps because of a shortness of supply the mandatory Shock Attack only achieved a 1:1 result and my forces held. Never-the-less, I continue to be amazed at AuTiger's ability to support an offensive of well over a quarter million Chinese, Indian and British troops in Burma in January 1943.

In any event, I continued to bring forces forward into Thailand and have level bombers set to hit the air fields at Moulmein again next turn, and also have Army divebombers set to hit the Allied troops at Rahaeng. I have good fighter units escorting each of those attacks, and I also set a good fighter unit on LR CAP over Rahaeng.

And in other news, I was able to upgrade another Nate Daitai to Oscar IIs this turn. So far none of my recently upgraded air units have been able to join the Front Lines, but they ought to start to move into key positions within the next couple of weeks.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 523
Leave it to the Navy - 4/26/2008 6:28:29 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 10, 1943 - My naval forces made up for my air forces this turn as they caught up to most of the ships from the wayward Allied TF off of the Marshalls. First, one of my CA/DD TFs caught a lone damaged AR and sank it with a torpedo and a number of shell hits. Then the same surface combat TF caught another AR that was being escorted by three SCs. The AR was sunk first with torpedoes and gunfire. Then the three SCs were sunk one after another by gunfire. Finally, one of my subs caught a third AR and sank it with two torpedoes.

Afterwards my patrol planes spotted one last AR limping along at 2 knots, but NONE of my multiple LBA attack planes at multiple air bases that were all well within range of the cripple bothered to fly and attack. The weather was "Partly Cloudy" throughout the region.

Sorry - I "call BS" on this. I don't care what kind of excuses the Apologists make for this Game, nor what "rationale" is used to "explain" how this is like "real life", this is pure BS programming.

In any event, despite Storm Weather throughout the northern third of the Map, a number of air attacks did occur as planned around China, and an Allied light bomber attack flew against my troops at Rahaeng. I had a good A6M3 Daitai on LR CAP over the base and they fought valiantly against the large numbers of P-40B escorts, but my planes ended up taking losses at a rate of 2:1 and the Allied bombers got through to hit my troops on the ground.

However, AuTiger didn't put his own LR CAP over Rahaeng, so my Sonia attack group got through without opposition to hit the Allied troops on the ground. Never-the-less the overwhelming Allied force got off another strong assault and reduced the fortification down to Level 2. I expect that a similar attack will capture Rahaeng next turn.

AuTiger has now moved fighters forward to Moulmein and Padang, so he should be able to cover most of his troops in the region. Fortunately for me my bombers at Bangkok didn't get off the ground and so didn't have to face the large number of first line Allied fighters at Moulmein. So now I've pulled out my bombers from the region and have set them to fly nuisance raids against more Chinese bases. I converted more obsolete fighters to Oscar IIs and A6M3as this turn, and so it won't be too long before I can bring these planes into the battle.

At Rangoon there was another small Allied artillery attack that didn't do a lot of damage. I've sent out my Bombardment TF again, but this time I am sending it to Moulmein in the hopes of catching some Allied planes on the ground. I also sent my CVs out from the Andamans in the hopes of finding some Allied ships trying to sneak into Rangoon. So in the next turn or so I may still be able to surprise AuTiger a bit.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 524
Stealthy Cripples - 4/27/2008 3:16:18 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 11, 1943 - Absolutely nothing went on during the night phase. The mine and sub marks that I'm seeing in various places must be more memory glitches that aren't being erased. That happens an awful lot.

The day phase was also fairly quiet. Some of my planes in China flew nuisance bombing raids, AuTiger trained more of his fighters on the trapped 35th Brigade, and 200+ Libs and Forts hit Waingapu again.

There was the usual light artillery bombardment at Rangoon, and another deliberate attack on Rahaeng that lowered the fortifications to Level 1. I expect Rahaeng to fall next turn unless AuTiger gets a bad die roll.

My patrol planes noticed that the Allied TF that has been sitting at Akyab for the past number of days has finally left port and is sitting one hex to the southwest. What my sleepy-eyed patrol pilots still can't figure out is if that TF is a transport TF or a bombardment TF that is setting up to hit Rangoon. In any event, I moved my CV TF, which still hasn't been spotted, to a more centrally located hex in the hopes that if that Allied TF *is* a bombardment TF my planes might attack it. If it turns out that the Allied is just a transport TF I will send the CVs after it anyway for practice and as a message to AuTiger.

In the meanwhile, my own bombardment TF was undetected and is set to hit Moulmein next turn. I am hoping against hope that my ships will catch some Allied fighters on the ground, but the way things usually go for me the bombardment will likely be a fizzle despite all of my preparation for it.

Speaking of a fizzle, the lone crippled survivor of the AR TF off of the Marshalls continued to limp along its way unmolested this turn despite being spotted by Air Patrols again. I am attempting to close in on the ship with subs and another surface combat TF since I have lost any hope that my LBA will ever fly any attacks. I've got to think that this is yet another Database Memory Clearing issue that is similar to what shows up with LCUs and enemy z.o.c.s, as well as the tendency for "ghost" subs and mines to stick around on the map long after the real subs and mines are long gone.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 525
Nailing that last AR - 4/29/2008 12:29:14 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 12, 1943 – The night phase started out with Allied minesweepers cleaning out some sub-laid mines at Akyab. Then the action switched to the mid-Pacific where my surface combat TF finally caught up with the last Allied AR and sank it with a couple of torpedoes and some gun fire. So despite the lack of action on the part of my air forces AuTiger didn't get away with his mistake after all.

My bombardment TF hit Moulmein without interference and caused a good number of casualties, along with damage to all of the facilities. However, no planes were caught on the ground, which was a big disappointment. At times it seems almost impossible to destroy Allied planes no matter what I do.

More Allied TFs were spotted at Akyab this turn and as well a large Allied TF was spotted in the middle of the Bay of Bengal by my LBA patrols and the planes on my CV TF. However, none of my planes attacked any of the TFs; apparently once again Weather was on the Allied side. AuTiger now knows that I have CVs in the region which may impact his plans. On the other hand, he might just put half a thousand bombers and fighters on air attack and attempt to sink my TF with LBA – I have no doubt that if AuTiger decides to go after my TF with his LBA that his planes will fly and my ships will be wiped out. Never-the-less, despite my expectation of possible disaster, I moved my CVs a bit to position them to be able to hit any TFs that may go towards Rangoon and hopefully be out of the range of most Allied escorts.

Finally, the Allied Assault at Rahaeng got organized for once, delivered a serious attack and captured the base. As the defeated troops reach Bangkok I'll ship them out to Rear bases for recovery.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 526
Air Battles over the Bay of Bengal - 4/30/2008 12:33:02 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 13, 1943 – The night phase brought some minesweeping by my ships and then brought a nice bit of luck for AuTiger as one of my subs missed BB Valiant at Akyab. Fortunately, the Allied DDs only did a little damage to my sub afterwards.

The day phase showed the next Allied plans coming into place as a strong Combat TF moved out of Koepang and into a spot mid-way between Waingapu and Maumere. I'm not sure which base the TF will hit, or even if it will go further a field and hit some other base in the region such as Morotai or Kendari. AuTiger has realized that my LBA won't fly, his ships won't hit my mines, and my bombardment TFs and air attacks won't destroy his planes on the ground, so he has a lot of freedom-of-action now. In any event, I pulled back my good fighter groups from my forward bases in the region so that they aren't caught on the ground by any naval bombardment; I've waited too long to build up competitive air units to have them destroyed without cost to the enemy.

A couple of my nuisance bomber attacks flew unopposed in China, Allied fighters strafed the trapped 35th Brigade, and a lot of recon and patrol planes flew on both sides. My air patrols spotted the Allied ships in Akyab but the heavy Allied air cover there kept my planes from attacking. The Allied transport TF that was retiring in the middle of the Bay of Bengal was also spotted, but although my LBA didn't fly as usual, my carrier pilots did fly and so there were a couple of significant air battles in the Bay of Bengal.

First off, my CVs launched a couple of nice air strikes against the Allied transports. AuTiger had a number of P-40Bs and P-38Gs on LR CAP over the ships, but my A6M3as proved their worth, fought the Allied fighters quite successfully, and allowed my bombers to get in and hit a number of transports with bombs. Eventually one of the transports sank, taking a number of troops down with it.

Then, as I expected, Allied bombers attacked my CV TF. To my surprise the planes came from Moulmein. A number of P-40Es accompanied a half dozen Beauforts. Despite the P-40Es being part of the AVG my CAP fought them off well and got through to the bombers. Three Beauforts were shot down and two were damaged, but one got through to hit CVL Zuiho with a 500 lb bomb.

All-in-all I was quite pleased with the results of the air battles. My A6M3as proved their worth and the final air-to-air losses were: A6M3as – 24, P-40Bs – 11, P-40Es – 7 and P-38Gs – 4. Anytime that I can almost break even against Allied fighters I am very satisfied.

After this the land combat results were a little anticlimactic. AuTiger had moved a second Chinese LCU into position to attack the trapped 35th Brigade, but the combined Allied attack still did little damage. And the bombardment attack on Rangoon did little damage either.

Afterwards when I assessed the situation I quickly saw that Bangkok was now vulnerable to massive Allied Air attacks, thanks to the presence of hundreds of fighters and bombers at Moulmein. Therefore, I redirected to safer ports all of the transport TFs that I had heading toward Bangkok. Reinforcements and supplies will have to go overland from now on since no matter how much CAP I put over Bangkok Allied bombers will always get through to hit any TFs in port.

I also redirected my bombardment TF to start to head back towards Singapore instead of Sabang. There is no point trying to hit Moulmein again now that AuTiger has so much air power in place. CVL Zuiho wasn't damaged too badly by the bomb hit, so I sent my CV TF back to the west to get out of the range of Allied LBA but still be in a position to threaten Allied ships in the Bay of Bengal. I intend to move the CVs around the western coast of Sumatra instead of down the Straights of Malacca in the hopes of being able to surprise the Allied forces that are now operating in the Timor region. Realistically, I can't do a lot, but if I can keep AuTiger guessing even a little bit it will help my situation.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 527
Allied Planes Fly, Japanese Planes Don't - 5/1/2008 12:11:05 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 14, 1943 – The night phase started out with minesweeping by both sides, but for a change an Allied AK hit a mine at Koepang despite the sweeping that was going on there. Then the Naval Bombardments started. My TF including the Yamato hit Adak and caused almost no damage. The Allied TF hit Moulmein and caused extensive casualties and damage.

What was the main difference? AuTiger has been flying occasional Recon missions over Moulmein, while I haven't flown Recon over Adak in a while. Should occasionally flying Recon missions make a significant difference in Naval Bombardments? I doubt it, but that is how the Game is Designed.

Next came an unopposed Allied landing at Tenimbar. I've now "learned my lesson" about taking little bases like Tenimbar that were taken historically. All that taking a base like Tenimbar does is to give the Allied player an easy and safe place to train up his air units. I can well understand now why so many Japanese players leave bases unconquered in the Philippines so that they also have safe targets on which they can train their pilots. In retrospect I certainly wish that I had done that in this and in my other pbem games.

Despite terrible weather across the northern third of the Map, Allied air patrols flew everywhere and spotted every TF north of Singapore. Then an unpleasant "surprise" came for me – Allied 2E bombers from Moulmein flew at extreme range to hammer a retiring transport TF that was approaching Saigon. Despite having Thunderstorms over Moulmein, Thunderstorms along the entire route, and Thunderstorms over the TF, the Allied bombers were able to find the target perfectly and landed dozens of bomb hits from 1000 feet on multiple ships without taking any flak damage and only incurring one or two Operational losses.

I call BS.

I have over a dozen 2E groups, with average pilot experience in the mid-80s, at multiple large bases, with very experienced long range escorts present, with Air HQs present, with plenty of supply, with low fatigue, and high morale, and plenty of air patrols spotting plenty of many Allied TFs that are well within range, yet none of my bombers fly.

I've got to believe that there is some additional "multiplier" in the "proprietary" Air Mission routines that isn't part of the knowledge that is commonly available to Players. Whatever that "multiplier" is for launching successful LBA air attacks, AuTiger obviously has stumbled upon it, and I haven't.

In the clearer skies over the DEI hundreds of Allied bombers, both 2E and 4E, hit Maumere, once again without suffering any flak losses or even any damage. It appears to me that the "multiplier" for the odds of suffering Flak damage, in a manner similar to the odds for suffering Operational damage, is highly dependent upon Experience. That again, in my opinion, is total fantasy, but as People keep on writing, "That's the Game Engine, Live with It".

In another aspect of the Game that must be as frustrating for AuTiger as the Air Mission issue is for me, despite more air attacks, the ground attack by the two Chinese units on the 35th Brigade in the Burmese jungles continued to provide "diminishing returns" for AuTiger. His casualties are going up while mine are going down. Of course, AuTiger really ought to just ignore my trapped unit and let it rot into oblivion, but I guess he feels that his Chinese LCUs are getting "training" this way.

And finally, the Allied artillery bombardment of Rangoon did less damage again. Unless AuTiger diverts some of his air attacks to Rangoon he will waste a lot of time and effort this way.

BTW - there was one bright spot in the turn - I was able to upgrade another A6M2 Daitai to A6M3as, and another Nate Daitai to Oscar IIs.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 528
RE: Allied Planes Fly, Japanese Planes Don't - 5/2/2008 12:50:36 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 15, 1943 – The night phase started out very quiet, and then a huge Allied bombardment TF slammed into Macassar, achieving a "nuclear"-level attack. The TF contained 4 BBs, 8 CAs, 3 CLAAs, and 5 CLs. I learned yet an unpleasant fact about the game mechanism; the CD guns in a Japanese Naval Base Force are essentially out of range against a TF that stands off beyond DD distance, even against a TF that has moved in close enough for its CLAAs to be able to participate in the attack. And, of course, because the TF stood-off to keep the DDs out of the range of the shore guns, the TF didn't encounter any mines. So essentially, my initial thoughts regarding the potential effectiveness of spreading Naval BFs around were totally wrong and they don't help at all against big Allied bombardment TFs.

Now, of course, if my LBA would fly, that would change things a bit, but once again this turn no Japanese LBA flew despite multiple Allied TFs being spotted in many regions, and plenty of good escorts sitting around with the bombers. AuTiger has so many long range fighters available to him that he can cover all of his TFs with LR CAP, and still send out at the same time, for example, 151 P-38Gs to strafe Maumere. Those fighters were then followed by more than a hundred 2Es that were escorted by large numbers of fighters, so it appears that Maumere will most likely be the next invasion target for AuTiger.

For some strange reason AuTiger's forces at Tenimbar didn't capture the base this turn, nor even attempt an attack. Did he forget to send combat troops? No LBA bothered the Allied TFs at Tenimbar either. Oh well, I suspect that even if my LBA flew with its Escorts they would likely still all be slaughtered because the v1.60 improvement in survivability of 2E bombers didn't actually improve anything for the Japanese 2Es. Never-the-less, it would still be nice to believe that there was actually a chance that my air units would fly.

The oddities of Ground Combat also continued, as once again AuTiger's Chinese LCUs did a Deliberate Attack on the trapped 35th Brigade, and once again the Chinese took more casualties than the Japanese. A hundred or so 4Es hit the air fields at Rangoon this turn for a change, but even after that the subsequent artillery attack did little damage.

In any event, I'm going to try something for the first time in this game – some night air attacks in China. I've moved one of my night fighter Daitais within easy range of Changsha, and also set some Lily and Helens to Night Attack. The pilots all have reasonably good experience, so it will be interesting to see if they fly. Of course, because the Allied flak is very good, even for the Chinese units and bases, and the durability of all Japanese planes is very bad, my planes will likely suffer a lot of damage if they do fly. But it will be interesting to see what happens. Of course, this will undoubtedly encourage AuTiger to send out (literally) thousands of Allied 2E and 4E bombers on night attacks too, but at this stage that doesn't matter.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 529
Night Air Attack on Changsha - 5/2/2008 6:02:58 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 16, 1943 - The night phase started out with some minesweeping by my ships, and then came a first for me - a Night Air Attack. Nicks and Lilys from Nanchang flew against the air fields at Changsha fairly successfully, causing some damage to the fields and destroying a Spitfire and a Hurricane on the ground, while suffering little damage other than one Nick that was lost to Operational causes. My other planned night bombing attack by some Helens at Canton was cancelled due to weather.

So while not a "nuclear attack" by any means, it was satisfying to see something go as planned for a change. In any event, I pulled my Lilys and Nicks out of Nanchang and back into Shanghai, where I have a large number of Second Generation fighters training. I left the Nicks on night operations and set their mission to "Local LR CAP" over Shanghai. (I have no idea why the Game doesn't allow a player to set night fighters to "CAP" instead of only having "LR CAP" as a choice, but there are plenty of other incomprehensible design decisions in this Game, so I shouldn't be too surprised.) In any event, if AuTiger attempts any reprisal attacks, I have Nicks on CAP at night and plenty of Tonys and Tojos on CAP during the day.

In other news, an Allied Bombardment TF was spotted off of Akyab this turn by one of my subs and also some of my patrol planes. The DDs in the Allied TF hammered my sub. None of my LBA flew to attempt to attack the Allied TF. AuTiger has lost track of my CVs, so this may cause him to abort the mission, but I won't be certain until next turn.

More Allied bombers hit Maumere, and at the end of the turn US Paratroops dropped on the base, but once again their automatic Shock Attack was insufficient to capture the base. So I set a good Daitai of Oscar IIs at Bali to fly LR CAP over Maumere next turn, just in case AuTiger attempts to fly more Paras in. I wonder if AuTiger knows that if he has LR CAP over Maumere, his LR CAP and my LR CAP won't attack each other?

AuTiger finally remembered to order his US Rangers to capture Tenimbar this turn. There are a ton of Allied ships there, but no LBA flew off after them, nor after any of the other Allied TFs within range.

The daily Chinese Deliberate Assault on the trapped 35th Brigade had little effect as usual. It was the same case with the daily Artillery Bombardment of Rangoon. So far AuTiger has not moved any units any further towards Malaya or French Indo China, which is fine because it is allowing me to bring more troops into place.

I'll now be away for a few days so there won't be another report for a while.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 530
Air Battle over Maumere - 5/6/2008 1:21:11 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 17, 1943 – The night phase brought minesweeping and sub hunting by my ships. Unfortunately, one of my PGs was ambushed by the sub that it was hunting and sank.

The day phase brought the usual numerous air recon and air patrols, including the discovery of large numbers of Allied subs off of Saipan. When I checked the region out afterwards there appeared to be a sizable "fleet" of Allied subs heading towards my shipping lanes between the Philippines and Japan. Some of my LBA attacked a couple of the subs, and I set more LBA to watch out over the area. Fortunately, I have a number of DDs sitting around the Home Islands so I'll send them out on sub hunting missions once I see where all those Allied subs end up.

Things didn't work out quite as I had hoped in the skies over Maumere. AuTiger had dropped paratroops on the base last turn, and my forces had survived the ensuing attack, so I assumed that AuTiger would drop more troops this turn in order to try to grab the base without having to send in transport ships. Therefore I put one of my newly equipped Oscar II Daitais on Bali and set them to LR CAP over Maumere.

However, in my hurry to try to "ambush" any incoming Allied Air Transports I forgot that AuTiger had more options than to just fly LR CAP over Maumere. So I was unpleasantly surprised when my LR CAP Oscar IIs found themselves facing 77 Allied Fighters and 157 Allied 2E bombers. Ooops! Fortunately, my Oscar II pilots were reasonably good and so they weren't totally overwhelmed by the Allied attack, although my losses were heavy.

Next came 71 Forts and 62 Liberators. My remaining fighters on LR CAP attacked the 4Es reasonably successfully and shot up several without any losses to themselves. Finally, the Air Transports did come at the end of the turn and there were still a few Oscar IIs around to intercept them. So the final losses were as follows:

16 Oscar II

5 P-40E, 4 P-40B, 4 Kittyhawk I, 2 B-25C, 1 B-24D, 1 B-17E, 1 C-47, 1 Dakota

Those results aren't bad, considering that AuTiger had a lot of well trained pilots flying and that my planes were pretty far from home base.

In any event, I decided not to "try my luck" again next turn and left the remaining 20 Oscar IIs in the now not-so-"Dai" Daitai on CAP over Bali, because AuTiger will likely send a couple hundred P-38s over Maumere next turn.

The only other Air Attack was the usual strafing mission on the trapped 35th Brigade by Allied planes that flew out of Akyab. There were less planes flying this time, and so casualties were lower. The subsequent Allied ground attack also resulted in the usual stalemated results.

BTW – There was no naval bombardment of Rangoon this turn, so AuTiger obviously pulled his TF back after they were spotted last turn. The subsequent Allied artillery attack was reasonably innocuous, so the stalemate continues at Rangoon too. However, AuTiger may try to change the balance of power because he has pulled back some of his troops from Rahaeng. Are those troops headed to Rangoon to increase the Allied firepower, or will they go down the Coast and attack Tavoy?

Whatever they do, this is good news from my point of view because it gives me more time to continue to build up my forces in the region. I hope to make AuTiger regret the fact that he chose the "safe and narrow" approach instead of heading off into the unknown territory of a Blitzkrieg. The Allied window of opportunity in Malaya is slowly closing and the longer AuTiger waits the harder it will be for him to continue on.

In other news, my damaged CVs from the Battle of Timor finally reached Hiroshima/Kure this turn. I pulled most of the air units off of the CVs and set them down to "train" on air bases in the Home Islands. Now I'll spread the CVs around and let them repair at leisure. I now have a fairly large number of combat ships under repair, so my overbuilding of Repair Shipyards will finally pay off some dividends.

BTW – I was able to upgrade yet another A6M2 Daitai to A6M3as and an Oscar I Daitai to Oscar IIs this turn, so the rebuilding of my Air Force continues along nicely.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 531
146 P-38s Attack Maumere - 5/6/2008 11:52:05 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 18, 1943 – The night phase brought a fair amount of minesweeping at Tarakan, but as per the bug-in-the-code, the last mine was "swept the hard way" by an AK. The day phase then brought more minesweeping at Camranh Bay, but without any ships hitting mines.

My Air Patrols spotted that mass of Allied subs now northwest of Saipan, so my guess about AuTiger planning to interdict my Sea Routes appears to be correct. A few of my planes in the region "buzzed" the subs, but there were no hits. It appears that there are at least nine Allied subs moving into the region. I sent one PC from Saipan out on an ASW patrol, but it isn't likely to do much. For more serious ASW work I ordered some decent DDs to start towards the region, and I also increased my Air Patrol coverage.

As I expected, Maumere was hit by 146 P-38Gs from Lautem. But they were strafing at 100 feet, so I don't know if they could have been "jumped" if I sent my Oscars back. Next, the Base Force at Maumere was hit by 132 B-25s and B-26s, escorted by 10 Kittyhawks.

So I may have lost an opportunity over Maumere, but then there was an "upside" of keeping my Oscar IIs back at Bali – 5 pilots appeared out of somewhere. I presume that this represents pilots who were shot down but not killed, and who finally got back to Base. (I saw the same thing in the aftermath of the CV battle at Timor.) So I added 5 more Oscar IIs to the Daitai at Bali and will let them repair and get back into business. But I'm still not sending them out over Maumere; instead I'm sending some Recon planes out to see what AuTiger is planning.

The other Air Action was in Burma again where some Hurricanes, Spitfires and Vengences attacked the trapped 35th Brigade with little effect. The subsequent Allied Ground Attack also caused more Allied casualties then Japanese casualties, so things continue along there as best as one could hope. There was also another small artillery attack on Rangoon, but it caused little damage.

And at Maumere the US Paratroops finally did a full attack and captured the base easily, driving the remnants of my Naval Base Force back to Ruteng. I have a sub nearby so I am going to try to see if I can pull out a few of those BF troops.

Otherwise, things were quiet, with my troop movements continuing pretty much uninterrupted. The most important troop movement was completed without any interference at all from Allied forces as I pulled all of my troops, planes and ships out of Kiska. This closes the chapter on my summer 1942 Invasion of the Aleutians and opens up the opportunity for AuTiger to waltz in and re-take the Western Aleutians without a fight. So I expect that this coming Summer at the latest I will see long range Allied planes flying over the Kuriles, but I will have enough decent planes and strong enough bases by that time so that Allied attacks will provide a nuisance at most and hopefully provide some easy training for my units.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 532
Bali is Blasted by P-38s and B-17s - 5/8/2008 12:33:02 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 19, 1943 – The night phase brought another successful little Night Air Attack on the air fields at Changsha. Seventeen Nicks and twenty-seven Lilies flew and caused some nuisance damage, along with destroying a Spitfire on the ground. There was also some unsuccessful sub hunting by my ships in the DEI, but the big group of Allied subs that were northwest of Saipan continued along their way towards the northern Philippines without interference. The subs continued on unmolested during the day too.

AuTiger announced his next intended target as the massive Allied Naval Bombardment TF hit Waingapu this turn. That attack was followed during the day by an air attack by 151 Allied 2E bombers, escorted by fighters. The result was that my Base Force at Waingapu was essentially destroyed and the supplies at the Base were eradicated. If AuTiger has some rested Paratroops around they ought to find Waingapu an easy target.

However, the most important action in the region was actually a massive attack on the air fields at Bali by 101 Forts, escorted by 127 P-38s. My Oscar II "Half"-Daitai pilots flew CAP valiantly but they were wiped out while only downing three Lightnings.

BTW – all of the air attacks on both Waingapu and Bali flew out of Koepang, which means that AuTiger had at least 400 aircraft at the air fields at Koepang when you consider that plenty of Recon and Patrol planes also flew out of the base, and there still was CAP in place.

At the same time, AuTiger sent multiple attacks against Rangoon. First off 110 Forts and Libs hit the airfields and port, and then there were three large combined attacks by fighters and 2E bombers from Moulmein. Interestingly enough, the 2Es in the Moulmein attacks suffered a fair number of losses due to Flak and Operational Damage because they attacked at 100 feet. What this meant was that at the end of the day there were actually more Allied air losses than Japanese air losses, despite the 16 Oscar IIs that were destroyed in air-to-air action over Bali.

But AuTiger wasn't the only one flying bomber missions this turn. My forces attacked the airfields at Kunming, Yunan and Kweiyang in sequence. Of course, the effect of having a single Helen Sentai bomb each of those bases was pitiful in comparison with the overwhelming Allied air attacks, but I didn't lose any planes and only a few were damaged, so it was satisfying from an "aesthetic" point of view.

On a less happy note, a small TF of minesweepers ventured out from Akyab to where one of my subs was patrolling, but the MSWs didn’t attack the sub and the sub didn't attack the MSWs in return. Instead a number of Bettys from Tavoy attacked the ships, which were surprisingly unprotected by LR CAP. But it didn't matter because none of my planes scored any hits. I continue to be amazed by the vehement complaints of so many players about "uber" Japanese Naval LBA, because I certainly never see any "uber-ness" from my Bettys or Nells. But then, that may be because I spread my LBA out on multiple bases instead of loading hundreds of planes at the same base. In theory, what I do should work better, but in practice it seems to make things worse.

In the ground war there was another attack on the trapped 35th Brigade and once again the Allies took more casualties. And there was another artillery attack on Rangoon which, as one would expect, did better this turn after all of the air attacks.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 533
Nuclear Naval Bombardment at Rangoon - 5/9/2008 3:17:44 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 20, 1943 – This was one of those turns where nothing worked out for me. Sometimes you can tell how a turn will go just by the way it starts, and sure enough, this turn started with a bad omen as one of my CAs hit a freshly sub-laid Allied mine at Macassar. The CA was heavily damaged and AuTiger knew immediately that I had surface ships at Macassar. Next, the Brit Monster Bombardment TF came in and hit Rangoon with a "nuclear" naval bombardment. Of course, none of the Brit ships hit any of the mines that I have there at Rangoon. Finally, some of my ASW forces tried more unsuccessful attacks on Allied subs.

The Day Phase brought more bad luck as Allied minesweepers boldly sailed into the harbour at Moulmein without my patrol subs intercepting them, and started to sweep mines without hitting any. Of course, with the massive Allied CAP over Moulmein none of my LBA bothered to even try to fly after the Allied MSWs.

Actually, none of my LBA bothered to fly after any of the many Allied TFs that sailed around without a "worry in the world" all over the place. That situation wasn't helped because most of my Naval Air Patrols weren't flying either for some unknown reason, while all of the Allied Naval Air Patrols were flying and spotted all of my TFs in the region.

Interestingly enough, AuTiger has ignored my occasional Night and Day air raids in China, and has also ignored my pull-out from the Western Aleutians. There has also been zero Allied action or even any movement in the Pacific, so it appears that AuTiger's main strategy for the early part of 1943 will be to recapture Malaya and the DEI and then move forward from there once my Oil and Resources are cut off. Since there is absolutely no possibility of a Japanese move in the Pacific that would mean anything even if it did succeed (which is totally unlikely), this is a great approach on AuTiger's part.

Finally, in Land Combat news, the trapped 35th Brigade was attacked again and once again suffered few casualties, despite having also been used as a Practice Target by Allied bombers and fighters. However, thanks to the Nuclear Naval Bombardment the Allied artillery attack on Rangoon did cause more casualties than usual.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 534
Naval Ambush at Maumere - 5/10/2008 12:46:42 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 21, 1943 – The night phase brought more action than usual. First off one of my MSWs on ASW duty off of Balikpapan was surprised by an Allied sub and was sunk. That same sub later during the day fought off two more MSWs, and sank one of them too. Next there was another Naval bombardment of Rangoon, but this wasn't a nuclear bombardment because it was done by Commonwealth CLs and DDs. Finally, the Main Event from my point of view took place.

The remaining ships in my surface combat TF that had lost a CA due to a mine at Macassar sailed into Maumere to find some waiting and essentially unprotected targets. Once again AuTiger had sent transport TFs up to the Front without any Combat TFs to escort them. Maybe AuTiger felt that my ships would turn back after the mine incident. Or else, maybe he is too focussed upon keeping his Monster Nuclear Bombardment TFs together. But in any event, my little TF consisting of 2 CAs, 1 CL and 2 DDs had a nice opportunity and took advantage of it.

First off, my ships encountered an Allied TF that consisted of 4 APDs and 2 APs. The APDs fought back well, but my DDs and CL hammered them back and eventually sank one of the APDs before the rest of the Transport TF fled. Then my ships encountered two APS alone. My CAs got into the fight this time and sank one AP before the engagement broke off. They my ships got a second chance at the remaining AP and hit it hard, although they didn't sink it. A number of Allied troops were lost, and all-in-all it was a pretty good result, particularly considering that my ships didn't launch any torpedoes. In any event, I bet that AuTiger sends some Surface Combat ships to Maumere next turn.

The day phase was quiet in comparison, likely due to the presence of bad weather most everywhere. The only air attack was the usual second string British air attack on the trapped 35th Brigade. The only day time naval action was when one of my subs torpedoed an AK off of Noumea. That's a pretty rare occurrence for me.

Ground combat started with the usual pointless Allied assault on the trapped 35th Brigade, but the important attack came next as the Allied besiegers mounted a successful Deliberate Attack on Rangoon, reducing the Fortifications to Level 4 and then capturing the Base with a 6:1 attack. But for some reason my defeated troops didn't retreat from Rangoon, even though there is a "blank" land hex to the northwest that was available for retreat. Instead my troops remained in Rangoon. In a way that is good, because it means that AuTiger will have to spend some time reducing the survivors who still have supplies.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 535
Quiet Everywhere - 5/11/2008 5:32:39 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 22, 1943 - This was an extremely quiet turn. Some of my MSWs swept mines at Macassar, and some Allied MSWs swept mines at Rangoon and Moulmein. And one of my DDs on ASW duty spotted an Allied sub but didn't get an attack off. And that was all there was this turn, other than a lot of Recon flights flying around.

Speaking of ASW TFs, one thing that I've noticed is that a single ship ASW TF almost never launches an attack against a sub that it detects. It seems like there must be a minimum of at least 5 ships in an ASW TF for one of the ships to attack a sub. And even then I almost never see more than one ship out of 5 or 6 actually use up any depth charges during an ASW attack.

Speaking of ships, AuTiger pulled his ships back from Maumere, as I predicted, and was even sending his transport back from Koepang towards Northern Australia. The surface combat at Maumere must have surprised him more than he let on.

There was one lone ground combat attack this turn, and surprisingly enough it was a feeble artillery attack on my troops at Rangoon. The Allied troops must be disrupted, fatigued or low on supplies.

In any event, I hope to liven up things next turn because I moved my Night Fighters, along with a number of bomber Sentais, to Canton from where they are set to fly a low altitude Night Attack against the air fields at Kweilin. AuTiger has a number of fighters at Kweilin and I would love to catch some of them on the ground. We will see what happens.

Oh yes, before I forget, the AK that was torpedoed off of Noumea last turn sank today.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 536
Forgetting to set Objectives - 5/11/2008 7:41:58 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 23, 1943 - Allied MSWs continued to sweep mines at Rangoon, but the real action during this night turn was in China where two Night Air Attacks flew. I hadn't really planned it this way, but I apparently forgot to set an "Objective" for my Nick Nightfighters in Canton, so they flew off and hit the airfields at Wuchow, where there aren't any Allied planes, doing no damage and incurring some damage of their own. Then my planned Night Air Attack flew with Helens and Lilies hitting the air fields at Kweilin, where there were Allied planes. The 2Es destroyed three Spitfires on the ground and caused some Air Field damage. My bombers also took a fair amount of damage, but I didn't lose any pilots. Once again, it will be interesting to see if AuTiger responds.

There was a lot of bad weather over most of the Map, so the only Allied air attack was the usual Training mission from Akyab against the trapped 35th Brigade. Otherwise, there were only the usual Recon flights flying all over the place. AuTiger now has a lot of CAP flying over Maumere.

The only thing resembling "Naval Action" was at Koepang where the second damaged AP from the Naval Battle of Maumere sank at its moorings. There were several unsuccessful ASW attacks by my ships, but AuTiger's subs continue to spread out all around the Philippines. So I'm spreading out more ASW ships to try to catch some of the subs. I also have plenty of LBA spread out in the region, but because I don't put multi-hundreds of bombers at individual bases my planes aren't very successful at ASW mission, despite having generally good experience. (It's too bad that the Game "rewards" massive brute force so much.)

In one of the stranger recent moments in this pbem, the very large Allied Army at Rangoon did another artillery attack on my troops, but for some reason there were no casualties. Is their "powder" getting wet because of all of the rain?

In any event, I am going to try to see if something that the AI uses regularly against me can be used against AuTiger, so I set all of my troops at Rangoon to head towards Bangkok. Although Moulmein is in between my troops and the Railroad, I've seen the AI move troops through my ZOC in that situation before, so I'll be interested to see if the Game allows me to do the same thing. I strongly suspect that it won't, but it would certainly surprise AuTiger if it did.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 537
Unlucky CVL Zuiho - 5/13/2008 12:10:34 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 24, 1943 – The recently arrived Allied subs in the Philippines and DEI kept my ASW forces busy, and also kept them unsuccessful. With the exception of one APD my ASW ships chased Allied subs without launching any attacks, and the APD attack didn't appear to do much damage. Then a totally undetected Allied sub put a torpedo into CVL Zuiho while it was off of Borneo and on its way back to the Home Islands. Zuiho is the same unlucky ship that took a bomb from the lone 2E bomber that got through my CAP during the naval air battle off of Rangoon a while back. I finally got the fire and flotation damage repaired from that attack and this torpedo just put it all back. And to make things worse, afterwards none of my many planes and ships in the region spotted the enemy sub.

Otherwise, things were fairly quiet again this turn. Allied MSWs continue to sweep mines from Rangoon, and despite the disappearance of any Allied CAP from Rangoon or Moulmein none of my LBA bothered to try an attack on the Allied ships. AuTiger's fighters may be busy flying LR CAP over a TF that I spotted off of Akyab. I suspect that this Allied TF is a Bombardment TF that is on its way to hit the Andaman Islands, so I pulled my Recon planes back from the Andamans so that I don't waste planes. I lost a handful of Recon planes this turn thanks to the first Allied 4E attack on Sorong in quite a long time. 70 B-24s from Timor hammered the airfields.

AuTiger also had a number of MSWs sweeping mines from Maumere, but he has a ton of CAP over that base so it is no wonder that my LBA won't attack those ships. In addition, my air patrols reported that there is a large surface combat TF at Maumere. Is it just those MSWs, or has AuTiger sent a serious SC TF in to prevent any more raids by my cruisers? On the other hand, it could even be the local Monster Bombardment TF, so I'll have to keep an eye on it.

In Burma AuTiger sent a number of fighters to strafe the trapped 35th Brigade as usual, which didn't cause any casualties, which isn't usual. There was also the daily artillery bombardment of my trapped troops at Rangoon. This time there were some casualties, but not a lot. As I pretty much expected, my trapped troops didn't attempt to move through Enemy Lines, so once again what the AI can do and what I can do are quite different things. Oh well, AuTiger will need to commit some forces in that area for a while yet before he eliminates my troops. Unfortunately, this also means that AuTiger's Air and Ground troops will receive more risk-free training.

In other news, it appears that AuTiger will "revisit" the South Pacific soon. My spy sub off of New Caledonia has spotted a number of Allied TFs at Noumea, and for the first time in a long time the Allied Air Balance in the region has skyrocketed. So I expect to see some amphibious assaults in the region in the not-too-distant future. Fortunately, I've been building up the Fortifications at my bases so it shouldn't be a total roll-over for AuTiger, but one never knows with this Game.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 538
Shooting Back at Rangoon - 5/14/2008 12:54:01 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 25, 1943 – The night phase brought continuing minesweeping by the Allied MSWs at Rangoon. Along with the minesweeping came a naval bombardment TF. AuTiger had his DDs bombard too, and for once some of my shore guns shot back, hitting two DDs. There was also the usual unsuccessful sub hunting by my ASW ships all around the Philippines. On the other hand, once daylight came Allied air patrols whacked one of my subs near Moulmein on the first try.

I had forgotten to stand-down my bombers at Canton that did the night attack on the air fields at Kweilin the previous turn, so they flew out again. Once again they found their target, and they even destroyed a Spitfire on the ground, but I lost two bombers for that one Spitfire, so this doesn't seem to be a very effective method to fight. This turn I set my planes back to Naval Patrol and moved them around, just in case AuTiger decides to whack the air fields at Canton with his 4E Big Stick in return.

There were a couple of Allied daytime air attacks this turn. First came the daily Training run against the trapped 35th Brigade. Once more there was no effect. Then 103 B-17s whacked the air fields at Bali, with the usual very effective results. Bali is no longer tenable for my planes.

The only land attack was an artillery attack on my trapped troops at Rangoon. Despite the Naval Bombardment during the night phase the results of the artillery attack were minor. It appears that my support troops are taking the brunt of the air, naval and artillery attacks and so the Imperial Guards are still sitting pretty with plenty of supply. Eventually AuTiger will have to bite-the-bullet and do some regular land attacks in order to wipe out my troops.

So while AuTiger is setting up his next moves I am continuing to move forces around. I won't be able to stop any of AuTiger's Massive Overkill attacks, but I should be able to slow him down more than if he had gone ahead with a Blitzkrieg a few weeks before.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 539
Stealth Subs - 5/15/2008 1:07:35 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		January 26, 1943 – Allied mines suddenly appeared at Truk this turn. I guess that a "stealth sub" snuck in and laid them while my many and varied Naval Air Patrols flew around but saw nothing. An empty AK also was torpedoed in the Straights of Malacca and as usual my ASW escort ships couldn't find the enemy sub afterwards.

Otherwise, things were quiet again this turn. There were lots of Recon flights from both sides and my planes actually spotted a US CA in the Allied surface combat TF at Maumere, so AuTiger is being serious about protecting his latest acquisition. I've got my own CA/DD SC TF sitting at Balikpapan, and I suspect that AuTiger spotted it too, so this will keep the Allied operations in the area a bit more cautious for a while.

The only Air Attack this turn was the daily strafing raid on the trapped 35th Brigade. This time AuTiger brought more planes back to Akyab so they actually caused some casualties, but not many. The only ground action was the daily artillery attack on my trapped troops at Rangoon. Once again the effect was minimal.

In some interesting news, one of my spy subs was sitting a couple of hundred miles to the east of Canton Island and was spotted by an Avenger this turn. So AuTiger must have at least one CV sailing in the region. Unfortunately, Avengers have a longer patrol range than Glens, so my sub-based plane didn't spot the Allied TF in return. In any event I ordered my sub to move to the northwest just in case the CV TF is heading toward the Gilberts. However, my guess is that it is heading down towards New Caledonia to support an Allied offensive in the South Pacific.

Speaking of CVs, or in this case a CVL, the Zuiho made it safely to port at Kuching and was docked to repair the floatation damage from the torpedo attack. With any luck I'll have the Zuiho back on its way Home within a week or so.

In other news, my troops from the western Aleutians arrived in Sapporo today. I'll let them rest there and rebuild and then use them as reserves. I am also continuing to pull Southern Command forces out of China successfully and without interference. My capability in Malaya and the DEI continues to improve on a daily basis, and I even have spare units to spot around the Philippines in anticipation of the eventual Allied movement into that area.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 540
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