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RE: Expanding my spy range

 
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RE: Expanding my spy range - 6/5/2007 9:36:02 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

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

ORIGINAL: princep01

That, my friend, is a very scary pic.  There was no collison involved, correct?  The fire started in the engine compartment and then spread to consume the whole car.  Wow.  Very impressive.  What make car is that?  Again, glad you are ok.


That's correct - there was no collision. The car was going down the highway when the engine started to fail and and fire started to show up from under the passenger-side door.

It was a 2000 Mercury Cougar.

But then, remember the old definitions of the word "FORD":

- "Fix Or Repair Daily"

- "Found On Road Dead"

(in reply to princep01)
Post #: 91
Closing in on Java - 6/6/2007 7:08:59 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 3, 1942 – This will be another brief report. Things are going along as planned and as expected, with nothing really big scheduled to occur during the next little few game-weeks. So we are both setting up for the next big show downs.

My regular bombardment TF hit Port Moresby hard again and caused a nice number of casualties. I also set my refurbished fleets in motion from Tokyo to head down south. I've got both a nice air combat TF and a nice surface combat TF to reinforce my forces that are already in the Solomons. Things are coming together well for the upcoming assault on PM.

We both sent out plenty of bombing raids this turn. My planes hit Ichang and Batavia as usual. AuTiger sent out his Indian 4E bombers against the resources at Mandalay, and also bombed the air fields at Imphal. As usual, Tiger's 2Es and 4Es from Darwin took off and hammered my retiring, already damaged transports off of Timor. Those planes in Australia can't miss at this point no matter what the weather or the distance.

One of my bombardment TFs hit Macassar again, followed by air attacks. The troop landing ought to occur next turn. I've set a good Zero Daitai to try to fly LR CAP over Macassar, but if Tiger's planes fly, even that isn't likely to help.

In expansion news, Sampit and Raba were captured this turn, and troops landed at Water Island. My recon flights are telling me that Tiger has abandoned a number of bases in Java, but I'll do more recon before I start to fly in and FT in troops.

I'll be away until the weekend, so this is it for reports for a while.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 92
I'm Back - 6/13/2007 10:52:42 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 4, 1942 – Real Life finally gave me a short opportunity to do a turn, but I still don't have lots of time to spend on the Game, nor on the AAR. The big news this turn was that my troops started to land at Macassar. They ought to be able to capture the base next turn, after which I will have all of the bases around Java other than some of the "dots". And my troops landed at a couple more dots – Ruteng and Memboro – and also captured Wetar.

The air balance over Soerabaja has gone down a lot, although it is still positive for AuTiger. And the air balance over the northern Australian bases has gone up a lot, so I suspect that Tiger has pulled many of his bombers out of Soerabaja. I'm resting most of my air units in the region as I prepare for the next phase which will involve air and fast transport attacks on the outlaying bases of Java.

Three US subs showed up at Port Moresby this turn. I suspect that they are carrying supplies. I have my regular bombardment TF heading in next turn, so that ought to get rid of the supplies that are being dropped off. The Port at Port Moresby is at 100% damage so it will be a slow process for Tiger to unload supplies. Tiger is expecting me to attack PM – he just doesn't know when yet.

In other news, Taiyo finally reached the Home Islands. I had pretty much forgotten about it since it was slowly sailing home as part of a large transport fleet. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Taiyo to be repaired.

Otherwise, things are moving along slowly with nothing notable to report in China, Burma or pretty much anywhere else.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 93
30 Year War (game)? - 6/19/2007 12:24:51 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 5, 1942 – I'm still having great difficulty finding Game Time in the face of increasing demands for Real Time from the RW. If my time situation doesn't improve soon this pbem could turn into a 30 Years War (game).

That aside, this was another fairly quiet turn. Most bombers on both sides didn't fly, so the air aspect of the war was subdued. I am moving base forces and air engineering units forward so I can start my final assault on Java, but it will take another game-week or so to get everyone in place. I have been sending recon flights over various empty bases in Java, which is causing AuTiger to spread out his remaining fighters in Java in an attempt to intercept any paratroop drops on my part. But I intend to close the airfields at Soerabaja before I start to drop in troops.

My forces also continue to gather around PNG. I have more base forces in place and more air fields growing in the region, so by the time that I send the invasion forward the entire region ought to be covered very nicely by offensive and defensive air. I am also getting more submarines into action across the South Pacific, mainly as an early warning system. Tiger is staying quite quiet, but I expect that when he does move, he will move in a big way. It wouldn't surprise me if Tiger were waiting for my assault on PM for the opportunity to stage a major attack somewhere in the South-Central Pacific.

My ground forces continued to make important gains in the DEI. Macassar was captured on the first attack, so all of the preparation paid off. I should have a base force in place within a couple of game-days. Other troops captured Memboro and Ruteng, so the isolation of Java continues.

And oddly enough, the final remnant of my misbegotten early invasion of India is still holding out near Madras. Unfortunately, it no longer a nuisance to Tiger and is instead a practice ground for him.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 94
Two days, two turns? - 6/19/2007 11:10:05 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 6, 1942 – This is something of a minor miracle; I've been able to do turns in two consecutive days!

This was another relatively quiet turn, but all of these quiet turns are important because they allow me to set up for my upcoming moves.

Port Moresby was whacked hard by one of my big bombardment TFs again, and later on during the day by Army bombers. AuTiger lost a C-47 from operational damage this turn, and I don't know where he is using them, but I can't discount that he might be flying some supplies into PM. I strongly suspect that he has been sending submarines in with supplies.

The only other air action was in China where my Army planes hit Ichang hard again. I am redirecting them against ground troops for the next turn because it appears that Tiger might be trying to position some troops to try to drive me out of a blocking position to the west of Ichang. Tiger's Chinese bombers also hit some of my troops in the far north of China.

One of my spy-plane subs, while on its way home to Kwajalein, spotted a number of US TFs in the Hawaiian Islands. That ought to stir up a hornet's nest next turn, so I've re-set the sub to full speed in an attempt to get past the Islands without taking too much damage from ASW forces. I also have a mine-laying sub on its way to the Aleutians. I'm not sure if Tiger is sending any forces into the Aleutians or not, but having mines in Dutch Harbor is an easy way to find out.

In the DEI my troops landed at Labao and Sawu Island. The troops at Sawu captured the base. Lombok also converted to my control without my troops needing to capture it, so the facilities there are undamaged. I've moved the targets in Java for my recon planes again just to keep Tiger's CAP honest. I've sent even more base forces forward so that when I start to pound Java, the air defenses will be crushed quickly. I will start to land small forces in Java at the end of April and do the main invasions in May.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 95
Debacle in China - 6/21/2007 12:17:43 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 7, 1942 – This Game is very unforgiving of the smallest oversight, and Ground Combat has the harshest repercussions for not doing everything possible to optimise your moves. For example, the automatic Shock Attack rule for river crossings means that any attack across a river is at a huge disadvantage unless the defenders are unprepared.

My attack on Lanchow is a textbook example of this. Many game-weeks ago I sent off a sizable force of infantry and armor along the northern road towards Lanchow. AuTiger left a weak Chinese unit on the trail which forced me to attack it upon every move forward and slowed down my advance. This allowed Tiger to move substantial forces into Lanchow ahead of my incoming units while not weakening any of his forward defenses in the rest of China.

That in itself wouldn't have been a fatal problem except for the River Shock Attack rule. A strong Japanese Division crossed the river this turn and was forced to do a shock attack against the entrenched Allied forces. The Division received a 0:1 result, as expected, lost over 5000 men (which was unexpected), and eventually retreated. If Lanchow wasn't "protected" by the Shock Attack rule my forces could have moved in without attacking and would have only had to withstand an assault by the defenders, which would have most likely had much less of an effect.

I realize what I should have done. I should have stopped all of my advancing units in the hex before Lanchow and set them to all march into the Lanchow hex at the same time. If I could have orchestrated a simultaneous crossing I would have had a much better chance of surviving the Automatic Shock Attack. But this would have taken much longer and I've already spent many game-weeks on this operation, so I was impatient. I had also been successful at Singapore with sending infantry divisions across ahead of time so I had hoped that the same thing would work here. Now I've learned another painful lesson about this game.

Anyway, the attack has also shown that Tiger has brought enough forces to Lanchow so that I cannot hope to obtain sufficient odds to capture the base, since my incoming forces will continuously have to deal with very high disruption and fatigue values after crossing the river even if they aren't thrown back. The long supply line and Tiger's ability to bombard my troops from the air without me being able to provide air cover means that any troops that are able to stay at Lanchow will never be able to regain enough strength to capture the base.

So once again, the presence of inside movement paths and air transport has allowed Tiger to totally outmanoeuvre me, which in combination with the ground combat and ground movement rules, has prevented me from being able to obtain a local advantage. In light of this I am giving up on the advance on Lanchow and ordering my troops back to a friendly base. I am at a loss as to what to do in China and I have to give full credit to Tiger for taking what appeared to be a very weak position and turning it into a nearly impregnable bastion from which he will eventually be able to mount attacks at will against my most important bases.

Other than the frustrations in China things continued to work as planned this turn. Tiger has been resting his air forces (or has had them grounded by bad weather) so I have been able to continue to move my forces forward without interference. I did notice that the Allied air balance over Soerabaja increased again this turn, so I suspect that Tiger is bringing bombers in again. In light of that I increased the CAP levels of my fighters in my surrounding bases.

In an interesting bit of news, one of my subs cruising between Palmyra and Canton Islands was spotted by a Seagull. That means that there are US cruisers in the region, and likely means that US CVs are there too. Despite reasonably clear weather, none of the many Japanese naval air patrol units in the region spotted any US ships, so I have no idea of the significance of that report. Tiger could be just moving ships to and from Hawaii, or on the other hand he could be moving in to raid my bases in the Central Pacific. I won't know either way until one of my patrol planes gets lucky, or else bombs start to fall upon my bases.

BTW – Labao, the second to last unoccupied "dot" base in the DEI was captured this turn. I have now ordered a DD Fast Transport to drop troops off at the small island base just off of Soerabaja, and my transport ships are arriving at the locations of my invasion armies, so the Java operation is getting closer.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 96
CVs on the Prowl - 6/22/2007 10:47:41 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 8, 1942 – AuTiger has his CVs in force in the region between Palmyra and Canton Islands. Two of my subs in the area were spotted multiple times by Dauntlesses, Seagulls and even Devastators, and one of my subs was hit hard by a bomb from a Dauntless. This is the same region where Tiger ambushed half of the KB in our previous game. It appears that once again he has the US CVs split into multiple TFs in order to optimize his chances at launching strikes and also to minimize his losses to counterstrikes.

But my CVs are a long ways off and sitting in port being repaired and waiting for reinforcements. So Tiger can sail around as much as he likes. Who knows, he may be planning a strike at Baker Island, or even an invasion. But like most of my outer bases, Baker is just a "canary in a coal mine". What does frustrate me about this situation is that none of my multiple land-based search plane units are spotting Tiger's TFs despite being well within range.

In any event, the longer Tiger plays around in the Eastern Pacific the better, because my forces are still a couple of weeks away from the invasion of Port Moresby. Every day that Tiger's CVs stick around to the east is another little edge that I will have for my invasion. And I need all the edge I can get. Tiger is much too good at the ground game and I have no confidence that I will be able to capture PM, despite all of my lengthy preparations. But I will go through with it anyway and maybe I'll surprise myself.

Speaking of the ground game, a couple of Chinese units kicked my good Japanese division out of the blocking hex to the west of Homan this turn. I just can't understand how Tiger consistently outplays me on the ground. He had fewer troops and I had been bombarding his troops regularly. I'm doing something fundamentally wrong and I haven't yet figured out what it is.

I did find out what Tiger was doing with his C-47s; he air-lifted a second Chinese infantry unit into Akyab. So when my additional units finally crawl into Akyab after months of travel in the jungle they will join my existing unit in a futile siege.

You might ask, why don't I guard against this with fighters on LR CAP? Well, because my fighters are spread out trying to protect against Tiger's long-range bombers. For example, this turn over a hundred 4Es hit the resources at Moulmein while 50 more B-17s hit the resources at Bulla.

Why not strike back with my Bettys and Nells? Because they do a lousy job of closing runways and their morale plummets after raids like that. Anyway, I've committed most of them at the current time to support the attack on PM.

In a tiny bit of positive news, some of my troops landed on Roti Island without getting blown out of the water by Tiger's LBA, so that is a minor victory. That is the last of the "dots" in the DEI. Java is next, and my base forces are starting to get into position.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 97
RE: DDs on the Prowl - 6/23/2007 2:54:16 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 9, 1942 - One of my subs in the shipping lane between Palmyra and Canton Islands finally ran into some US ships. Unfortunately, these ships were US DDs which depth charged my sub and sank it. Oh well, at least I know that AuTiger still has ships in the region.

My regular naval bombardment of Port Moresby went off well again during the night. The shore guns are no longer firing back, so this activity has turned into a bit of a milk run. I'll have my bombers in Lae fly in next turn to keep the damage levels up. I should be able to start the invasion in a week's time or so.

A Fast Transport TF unloaded troops at Pamakasan, just off of Soerabaja this turn. The weather has been cooperating in the region and my DDs got in and out without being bothered by the bombers at Soerabaja. Tiger pulled his troops out of Pamakasan long ago, so my troops can take the base without bother next turn. There are other empty coastal bases on Java itself, so I'll send FT TFs to them too over the next few turns. BTW - Roti Island was captured this turn, so there are now no more "dot" bases in the DEI in Allied hands, which allows me to send my ships through without annoying reports being sent out.

The return of bad weather is good news for me, because I am now in a position to attempt to get rid of some very annoying 4E bombers. We'll see if my luck holds. It would be very nice to keep Tiger a little more "honest" just before my major invasions start.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 98
Getting Hammered - 6/24/2007 6:05:22 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 10, 1942 - I was expecting this to be a quiet turn, but instead I was hammered all over the place. In theory I should have a material advantage at this stage of the game, but in practice I'm playing so badly that nothing is working. As I can see it, my problem is three-fold. First off, I don't understand the mechanics of the game well enough so my units almost never perform as they should. Second, I don't have any real feel for strategy or tactics, and my pbem opponents like AuTiger obviously do, and thus they regularly surprise me. Third, I am too predictable, so my opponents are able to regularly ambush me.

My major problems at this stage are in the air. AuTiger has effectively established air superiority in all of the key fronts. He already has hundreds of fighters and 4E bombers positioned to both attack and defend effectively. My best air units are being wiped out at long distances or by surprise. He is also continuing to use his air transports in Asia to stop any and all of my advances dead. He now has 5 ground units in Akyab and the full AVG to protect them.

His air units are also enjoying the advantage of superior experience. So while my air units are not detecting his ships, his air units are detecting mine. So, for example, the bombardment TF that I sent out from Amboina in thunderstorms last turn was spotted and attacked by Hudsons from Darwin this turn, despite the weather. And the P-40s that escorted the Hudsons shot down more of my crack Zeros that were on LR CAP than were shot down. The Hudsons didn't score any hits against my battleships, but the surprise is gone and my ships have been slowed down enough so that it would take two more days to go to Darwin, if I were to bother.

So what did work this turn? Well, my troops captured the empty Pamakasan. But this is typical - I am only capturing those bases that my opponents "give" to me. I am having as big a problem with land combat as I am with air combat. In my other pbems I can't capture key bases even when there are no defenses and I've got big numerical advantages.

So I'm not having fun at this stage. I've been playing the Japanese for over 8 months now and I don't seem to be learning anything. While my opponents have gotten better I've gotten staler and more predictable. I may just not be cut out for pbem play.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 99
RE: Getting Hammered - 6/24/2007 8:39:10 AM   
princep01

 

Posts: 943
Joined: 8/7/2006
From: Texas
Status: offline 		Dive, I have watched your game develp with both the earlier opponent and now AU Tiger.  Throughout this game, I have watched you suffer again and again from violating a basic tenet of warfare.  Because of your last post,  I will offer this bit of friendly criticism and trust that it is received in th espirit that it is offerred.  

The rule you are viiolating has been expressed many ways by some of the greatest military leaders of all time.  Variously, it is "Get there firstest, with the mostest", "Mass, not dribblets", and so forth since the dawn of military organization.

You have done this repeatedly in China by spreading out those fine Japanese INF divisions in an effort to out manuver the enemy....only to find your troops exhausted upon arrival after the enemies recon forces spotted you long ago.  He then easily beat you to the schwerepunkt, and punched your lights out with less capable, but way better prepared and concentrated forces.  Instead of concentrating a good number of Japanese units (like many Inf Div and Mixed Brigades) very early in the game and marching straight on Yenen with them, you frittered about until the enemy concentrated there and forced you to try and outmanuver him to the very far north and west.

I know India was a diversion, meant to delay his offensive preparations/operations in Burma.  But, why are you thinking like that?  At the point in the game that you frittered away a good deal of primo paras, the 55th Inf Div and more ships than you should have for such a limited activity, you could have concentrated troops to achieve a worthy goal of an early capture of the DEI, or grabbing Port Moresby or moving on New Caledonia.  

You have done the same thing at sea.  Instead of concentrating your power at the point YOU choose to fight or at an objective you want....you split the greeatest offensive tool in the game and used those units to little effect  ( running around in the Indian Ocean untiol the Kaga got damaged, then fighting the US on even terms (to his advantage at this stage) and losing a precious member of the mighty KB in exchange for only one of the enemy's fleet carriers.

I could go on and on as this has been a pervasive pattern in your play.  But, it is something I think you need to consider.  Mass those great Inf Divisions and simply stomp those low grade Chinese before they can grow and improve.  That doesn't work everywhere in China Changsha and the Canton area are defenable) ands and he can fight back, but you have the initiative early; you have the better army/air resources; and better commanders.  In my opinion you have not made consistent good use of these aspects of your army, air force and navy because of your failure to concentrate on the points that force the enemy to fight where your are not expected or where you simply want him to fight you. 

Again, I hope you do not take my opinoin as a harsh condemnation of your style of play.  But, it is what I observed and from your last message, you seemed to be looking ofr some comment.

The head peanut of the gallery has spoken.  

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 100
RE: Getting Hammered - 6/24/2007 12:24:03 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		Princep01 - Thanks for the good comments. I suspect that you are very correct in everything you wrote, particularly your emphasis on concentration of forces.

What I have learned is that the Japanese forces are not as strong as I initially thought, and that by acting like a "cat in a cage full of canaries" I've wasted a lot of effort and forces trying to attack everywhere at once instead of focussing on a few key areas.

The other thing that I've learned is that if the Allied player masses his forces they can be a lot more formidable than I ever expected. I have to be a lot more willing to mass my forces in return. The few times that I was successful early in this game I did exactly that.

Thanks again -

(in reply to princep01)
Post #: 101
Hmmm... That didn't work... - 6/26/2007 12:03:04 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 11, 1942 – Hmmm – another seemingly good idea just went for nought. I had been "inspired" by a recent link posted in the main WitP Forum that lead to an Air Force Masters thesis about the WWII USAAF tactics of using low level bombing in PNG. So since AuTiger had moved a ton of fighters to forward bases in China I grouped all of my Chinese air units in Wuhan and set the majority of them to attack Ichang "at the treetops", while a couple of groups from another base were set to do sweeps over Ichang.

Well, things looked a bit promising at first since AuTiger sent his US fighters from Changsha on a sweep of Wuhan, but since I had no fighters on CAP the P-40s and P-39s didn't accomplish anything. Then my planes attacked Ichang. Once again, things looked promising, because Tiger only had Chinese fighters on CAP. My sweeping fighters fought it out with the Chinese and shot down a number of them, which was again okay. But my planes that attacked "on the deck" did squat! They didn't catch any planes on the ground and they did almost no damage. That was from over 100 fighters and 50 bombers!

Just to "add insult to injury", my similar attack on Soerabaja went about the same. There were a lot of Dutch and British fighters on CAP, and although my Zeros were outnumbered they still destroyed lots of the enemy, but my Bettys and Nells at "treetop level" did very little damage again – I think that one Dutch torpedo plane was destroyed on the ground.

So all-in-all, I would have been much better off just sending in my fighters on sweeps and keeping my bombers at medium altitudes as usual. As a perfect example of this, my "normal" level-bomber attack on Batavia this turn caused a huge amount of damage and will keep the airfields there closed until long after I invade Java. Oh well, so much for that bright idea.

In light of the results in China I moved all of my combat planes away from the front and into coastal bases where they can recover and rebuild. I expect that Tiger may well try a big counter-attack on Wuhan or some of the other forward bases, and I don't want to give him any freebies. Surprisingly, even my worst hit Army Air units didn't lose much in the way of morale. In contrast, my Nells and Betties in the DEI went from morale in the 70s to morale in the teens!

On the ground in China I gave orders for my forces at Ichang to pull back. They are causing reasonable Chinese casualties each turn with their bombardment attacks, but there is no way that I will be able to capture the base. So instead I am sending them all to Wuhan, where I will send all of the rest of my main combat forces in preparation of an all-out assault on Changsha. Sure, Changsha is a level 9 fort, and there are tons of Chinese troops there, but there is nowhere else to attack that is any easier. And this way my troops are fairly close to their own bases instead of being out at the end of supply lines.

AuTiger has been using the railroad and inner communication lines very well to keep me from cutting off his forces. For example, this turn he moved a dozen or so units from Changsha to the next hex to the west in order to be able to finally kick out the Division that I moved in there. This means that there are only two Chinese units in Changsha at this moment, but it will only take a turn or two for Tiger's forces to return to Changsha thanks to the rail movement. So although I am sending a fresh division in to Changsha from the hex to the East, it won't get there in time to be able to grab the base. So what I want to be able to do is to move such big stacks of units forward that Tiger can't pull back to defend against being cut off. Sure, Tiger will immediately start to move forward from his other bases against my outlaying bases with his other troops, but I'll take that chance. It can't be any worse of an idea than those that I've been using so up until now.

I've also kicked off the invasions of Java. I'm sending my fighters to sweep Soerabaja again, and also sending in fresh bombers, but this time at 10K feet. I am also para-dropping airborne units into two empty bases and sending a Fast Transport to a third. Once these units are in place I will air transport air support units in and start to attack Soerabaja from the air from close in. And my main invasion forces will also be sailing in a day or two. So I intend to hit almost everywhere at once in Java and try to overwhelm all of the outer bases before I settle in to besiege Batavia and Soerabaja.

At the same time I started to load the first invasion fleet for Port Moresby. I'm sending in three fully rested and experienced infantry divisions, along with an HQ, an engineering regiment and a big base force. The naval bombardments are continuing, as are the air bombardments, and the rest of the Combined Fleet will be in Shortlands about the time that the first invasion TF makes the turn at Gili-Gili. I will have 5 CVs and 2 CLs available to protect my invasion forces, along with hundreds of LBA planes. If AuTiger can defeat my invasion of Port Moresby then he will have essentially won the game right there.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 102
Java time... - 6/27/2007 12:01:02 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 12, 1942 – There was a lot of preparatory action this turn, but no major engagements. My regular naval bombardment of Port Moresby hit on schedule and continued to pulverize the base. My next big surface TF ought to arrive in Shortlands in a day or so and will provide some surprise backup strength in case of a move by the US Navy. The USN was active this turn in the far South Pacific. My submarines and patrol planes detected a number of TFs between Suva and Pago-Pago. As long as AuTiger is sailing in that region I don't really care.

The air was pretty much quiet over China – it appears that we both pulled back a bit with our air forces. AuTiger did try to kick my division out of that hex just to the west of Changsha, but with the random perverseness of the Game, his massive attack caused a number of casualties but didn't drive my unit out of the hex. Now things will get interesting, because I have another good division only 15 miles outside of Changsha on the rail line, so they ought to enter Changsha next turn.

AuTiger only has two units in Changsha, and one of those units is a base force. So he is faced with an interesting decision. If he leaves his 11 or so units in that hex to the west in order to attack my unit there, my other division should be able to enter Changsha and the two units there should not be able to drive it out. But if Tiger's troops can't drive my division out from the western hex then those 11 Chinese units won't be able to go back into Changsha! There are a lot of "ifs" in this whole situation, but maybe I'll get lucky for a change and AuTiger won't. It all depends upon how much time Tiger spends considering the possibilities in China and how much he gets distracted elsewhere.

The area that ought to cause the bulk of the distraction for AuTiger should be Java, where my invasions started with paratroop drops on Bandoeng and Malang, both of which were empty and so captured in the same turn. A fast transport will land troops in the little base north of Soerabaja next turn, and two more fast transports are on their way to the two remaining empty coastal bases on the west coast of Java. I am also flying in air support units into both Bandoeng and Malang next turn.

I also have multiple air attacks planned on the Allied occupied bases in Java, as well as a bombardment TF that is on its way to that little base to the west of Batavia. And more importantly, I sent off two more invasion TFs to join the invasion TF that is already on its way. Next turn I'll send two more invasion TFs. Each TF contains a rested and experienced infantry division, and artillery units are on their way too. I will also be sending combat engineers, armoured units and HQ units too over the next few days. I don't intend to leave anything to chance in Java. I intend this to be a complete overkill.

At the same time I started to load my second invasion division onto a TF bound for Port Moresby. Around the time that Java is fully immersed in my multi-point invasion, the invasion of PM should begin. I just moved more LBA into the PNG region. Lae, Gili-Gili, Rabaul, and Shortlands all have level 3 or larger air fields and contain bombers and Zeros. Buna, Dobadura and four more bases in the region contain level 1 air fields and patrol/recon planes. BTW – in addition to the above, Lunga is has a level 2 air field and I have air patrols flying out of Tulagi and one of the islands to the north of Noumea.

AuTiger, of course, has been building up his air bases in north-eastern Australia, but I'll happily deal with LBA at that distance. Of his 2E planes, only his Hudsons will reach, and Tiger will have to work to keep his 4Es going at long range for more than a couple of turns. And there will be so many targets that his efforts should be diluted. (And if he happens to pull all of his bombers out of northern Australia I will send a bombardment TF back to Darwin, just for the principle of it.)

The wildcard, of course, will be the US CVs. IIRC; Tiger ought to have four of them. If he does his usual "trick" of splitting them into four separate TFs in order to optimize his chances of getting off full strikes while minimizing the odds of having multiple CVs sunk at once, he will have to use up most of his good surface combat ships to do so. My main concern at this time is having surface ships interfere with my invasions fleets. If Tiger decides to interfere with the invasion with only the presence of carrier TFs than I should be able to control the situation thanks to the amount of LBA that I can put up in the region. This time I intend to keep the KB to the north of PNG where it will be out of reach of Allied torpedo planes but will still be able to cover the landings while also striking at any US CVs that get too close. The best case scenario will be for one or more of the US CVs "reacting" into my killing zone between New Britain and eastern PNG.

Of course, Tiger may well just let his LBA get some practice and give up on PM, but I suspect that won't be the case. We ought to know in another game-week or so.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 103
Scramble in Java - 6/28/2007 12:51:42 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 13, 1942 – Things started to liven-up a lot in Java this turn, as one would expect. I had a bombardment TF hit Merak, and there was just one small unit there – for what reason I don't really know. Then the fun-and-games began in the air. One of my Betty units flew over Soerabaja first unescorted, so it was hit hard, but it hit some of the CAP back too. Then one of my Zero long-range sweep units came in and fought it out well with more of the CAP. Unfortunately, the rest of my air attacks didn't fly because of bad weather.

This meant that AuTiger's bombers at Soerabaja were able to get off and attack one of the fast transports that I had going by, sinking one DD. So I redirected the rest of that TF to Kragen where another Fast Transport had already landed some troops unopposed. Fortunately, I had also sent paratroops into Madioen, where the damaged FT TF was supposed to go, so I captured that base anyway. I still have one more FT TF on its way to one more base on the west coast of Java.

AuTiger also put some LR CAP over the two bases that I captured via air drops last turn, but because I had already fought it out with the fighters over Soerabaja the LR CAP wasn't that effective and my transports were able to drop off air support units. So I immediately move fighters and bombers into both bases that now have air support, and even moved fighters and bombers into Madioen because I will fly in air support into that base next turn.

In the meanwhile, AuTiger has moved one combat unit out of Batavia and has it on the road, so I am also trying to fly in more combat troops to the inland base along the road. Next turn ought to be a real scramble in Java, particularly if the weather doesn't cooperate. I will be attacking Soerabaja from eight different air bases, so I'm hoping that this will allow me to finally close the air fields there.

In the meanwhile I sent off two more divisions towards Java, and I realized that I have yet another division in Macassar that is available. So I am sending troop-ships there too. AuTiger is feeling pretty confident about being able to tie-up my forces on Java for quite some time, because his bases are at level 9 fortifications, he has a lot of supply (at least in Soerabaja, and previously he had collected most of the outlaying Dutch units into Java. And as far as I know, he may have even flown in troops from the outside – it wouldn't surprise me at all to find Australian troops there (or even Chinese ).

But with six divisions, lots of armor, artillery and combat engineer units, and hundreds of Army bombers, I ought to be able to reduce Soerabaja in a reasonable period of time. Maybe then I'll send those units to Northern Australia just to keep Tiger honest.

Meanwhile in China AuTiger continued to play as smart as he has consistently done and sure enough there were thirteen Chinese units back in Changsha this turn instead of the two that were there last turn. So I obviously didn't bother setting my lone division there to do an attack. Tiger will probably even be able to kick out my division next turn if his luck with ground attacks continues, but that is fine because my massive movement of troops is well underway. BTW – I finally received four fresh divisions in China and they immediately received their marching orders.

Things continue as planned in the South Pacific. My second big surface combat TF arrived at Shortlands and was disbanded to "freshen up" prior to the upcoming action. My additional air combat TF will arrive in a couple of days. Fresh supplies and fuel also arrived at Shortlands. The regular air bombardments of Port Moresby continued from Lae. I'm sending out the regular naval bombardment to make its usual run again. I also moved more air power into the region, despite all the air units that I have hitting Java.

Surprisingly – the Allied air balance in Eastern Australia and the South Pacific is rather weak. I had expected that AuTiger would have brought a lot of air power forward, but it isn't the case. In the south-eastern Pacific, for example, it appears that Tiger only has patrol planes and the odd small fighter or bomber units. There is a fairly strong Allied air presence in two of the Northern Australian bases, but even that isn't as much as I would have expected.

AuTiger still has several task forces sailing slowly between Suva and Pago-Pago. My subs are no longer reporting USN naval patrol planes, but that simply means that Tiger has stood down his naval air patrols for now. I do have a few small TFs in the region that are being occasionally detected by Allied planes, and a lot of subs that are being regularly detected by Allied land-based patrol planes, so it may appear to Tiger that I am planning something in the region.

However, my feeling is that once again Tiger is attempting to "lure" me into a trap in the same manner that he did off of Canton Island in our previous game. However, even I'm not that dumb (I think... ) and I'm more than happy to let Tiger use up fuel in the region while I ready my main strike at PM.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 104
Blood over Java - 6/29/2007 12:57:56 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 14, 1942 – There was action all over Java this turn, and in addition AuTiger flexed his 4E muscles in other place. Most importantly to me, almost all of my air attacks on Soerabaja flew this turn and lots of Allied planes were destroyed in the air and on the ground. The end result was that no Allied planes flew against my invasion fleets, although a few planes still tried to intercept my incoming transport planes.

Tiger is being as aggressive as usual and he sent a unit out of Soerabaja to Malang. So I pulled out most of my planes and am directing more troops into Malang. I don't have many forces there, so Tiger will likely kick me out unless he uses a very weak Dutch combat unit. (I still don't know if he has non-Dutch ground units in Java.) But my troops keep on coming in and Kragen was captured this turn, which will allow easy entrance the eastern contingent of my invasion forces. I will send in infantry divisions into both Kragen and Merak.

Tiger's 100 4Es in India flew against Rangoon this turn, causing resource damage and getting around half of their number damaged by flak and by CAP. There isn't anything I can really do until I get better fighters, so I have to just bide my time. Forty B-17s also flew and hit Gili-Gili this turn. They fought it out with the Zeros that I had there and also ended up with a fair number damaged for little return. I'm sending Bettys and Zeros back to northern Australia next turn for some tit-for-tat.

All of my PM invasion forces are on their way now. I'm still keeping up the regular naval bombardments and aerial bombardments of PM - I don't want to give anything away before I have to. AuTiger still has ships wandering around Pago-Pago. I'm sending a small transport TF across to Baker Island to drop off some supplies and to see if I can distract Tiger a bit. This TF is pretty much a "canary in a coal mine", but everything I can do to confuse the issue helps. Of course, the Allied Intel may well have given everything away at this point, but I can always hope that Tiger has been lulled a bit by too much information.

In Chain Tiger's forces kicked my division out of Changsha, as I predicted. But that's okay because it buys me more time to move up more units. I'm hoping that Tiger gets more distracted by Java and PM and let's me steal a march on him in China, but he hasn't shown any indication of doing that sort of thing so far.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 105
RE: Blood over Java - 6/29/2007 2:48:37 AM   
princep01

 

Posts: 943
Joined: 8/7/2006
From: Texas
Status: offline 		Keep up the pressure, Dive.  That's good progress in Java.  Hopefully, things will go well for you in Port Moresby.  Just remember....mass, not driblets at the decisive point.  Both qualitatively and quantivatively, you have the heavy battalions right now.

I'm really enjoying your AAR.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 106
RE: Blood over Java - 6/29/2007 4:39:48 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

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

ORIGINAL: princep01

Keep up the pressure, Dive.  That's good progress in Java.  Hopefully, things will go well for you in Port Moresby.  Just remember....mass, not driblets at the decisive point.  Both qualitatively and quantivatively, you have the heavy battalions right now.

I'm really enjoying your AAR.


The lesson that I am learning from the invasion of Java is that I should have used more Fast Transport invasions and fewer paratroop invasions. Oh well, I'll know better for my next multi-target invasion.

Thanks

(in reply to princep01)
Post #: 107
Bullied by the AVG - 6/30/2007 12:28:21 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 15, 1942 – AuTiger finally took advantage of some "easy pickings" and sent the AVG against my Nates at Rangoon.
As you would expect, it wasn't "pretty".

So I've pulled my Nates back to Bangkok and Tiger can bomb Rangoon at his leisure until the situation in Java is under control. Anyway, I'm better off letting Tiger fight the weather than let him pick on my current fighters.

In Java Tiger's Dutch planes still fought back despite multiple raids from my air forces. There was even still some LR CAP intercepting my transports, but none were shot down. I haven't been able to close the air bases at Soerabaja yet – Tiger likely has plenty of supply there and he also has plenty of Dutch engineers to repair things.

As I expected, Tiger's forces recaptured Malang this turn. Fortunately my troops had a pathway for retreat. I have Fast Transport that will land at Malang next turn, so Tiger isn't off the hook yet. My first division ought to land next turn, so things will become more serious. Obviously, I should have waited a couple of more days before I started my paradrops and initial FT landings, but hey, this is the first time that I've tried this, so things aren't going that badly, all things considered. BTW – it appears that AuTiger only has Dutch troops in Java, so that is good news.

For the first time in a long time a couple of shore guns at Port Moresby fired back at my incoming bombardment TF and damaged a DD. I'm guessing that Tiger is flying in supplies, so I moved a Zero Daitai to Lae and set it on LR CAP over PM. This will also help to discourage Tiger from trying to fly in reinforcements once he detects my invasion forces.

I also built a second surface combat TF at Shortlands and am sending it along to Gili-Gili to provide additional support for the landings at PM. I'll keep my CVs under "wraps" at Shortlands as long as possible before sending them out, just in case I can surprise any Allied counter-attack.

In China AuTiger is having trouble dislodging my troops from the west of Changsha, thanks to the very weird and unpredictable ground combat rules. He also still hasn't been able to get rid of last fragment of a division in India. But Tiger isn't the only one suffering from ground combat headaches – I have a bunch of troops in Wuhan that I can't get to move out into the very next hex to the west that I control and that has no enemy troops in it. Every time I set their objective it gets re-set to "blank", and what is stranger is that a different set of troops located somewhere else then pops up in the orders screen.

Obviously something is very wrong in the data base. I am trying to set a different objective this time, but if this doesn't work it bodes badly for the game because if my troops get trapped in Wuhan then it is "game over" for my units in China. Has anyone else found their troops "trapped" in Wuhan when there are no enemy zones-of-control around the base?

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 108
Tightening the vice at Java - 7/1/2007 7:30:45 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 16, 1942 - AuTiger still had CAP over Soerabaja this turn, as well as a few fighters trying to intercept my incoming transports over other bases. And some bombers actually got off and tried to attack a nearby transport TF. My air attacks overwhelmed the Dutch planes again, but the engineers at Soerabaja refuse to allow the airfields to be totally closed. So my air attacks will continue.

My troops captured Djakarta this turn which allowed me to move some fighters and Army dive bombers in to free up space elsewhere. A Fast Transport TF also landed fresh troops at Malang and more are on their way. That Dutch Regiment at Malang will find itself tied up for some time yet.

My troops at Bandoeng held against another Dutch regiment this turn and help is on its way - a full division started to land at Kragen and two divisions will hit Merak next turn. More infantry divisions and other troops are also nearing Java. The "Tsunami" is coming and the Dutch will feel its full force very soon.

In the meanwhile my invasion TFs moved steadily along towards Port Moresby. The first TF will round the eastern point of PNG in another turn or two. My bombers continued to hit PM this turn and my LR CAP covered the base. There was no sign of any incoming transports, so I presume that Tiger is busy with them elsewhere. However, Tiger's naval forces have suddenly become conspicuous by their absence in the South Pacific, which makes me suspicious that Tiger is getting ready to do something. So I moved more planes into the PNG region and set more submarines off into the Coral Sea.

In Asia proper AuTiger's forces finally rid themselves of that infantry fragment in India. That took an amazingly long time to accomplish. Tiger is right now trying to rid himself of my infantry unit that is sitting to the west of Changsha, but things are going slowly there too, particularly since he had to bring most of his forces back to protect Changsha. Never-the-less, my unit is currently cut off from supply so it is in peril. But it appears that Tiger has left a weak unit in position to cut off supplies, so I will have the unit that is contesting that zone of control try a shock attack this turn to see if I can drive Tiger's unit out. I also have more units heading to that hex.

BTW - the units that I set to go from Wuhan to Changsha last turn finally moved into that hex that is due west of Wuhan. I set them all to stay in place because I don't want them to straggle into Changsha and be shot up piecemeal. The problem is still occurring with troops at Wuhan, however, and once again I had to set troops to an objective of Changsha in order to get them to move to the west. Oh well, at least I have a work around and as long as I'm careful to check every unit I shouldn't have any unpleasant results.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 109
The Big Boys arrive at Java - 7/3/2007 2:56:45 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 17, 1942 - My bombardment TFs struck Java hard today. One hit the Dutch regiment at Malang while another hit the small Dutch unit in Merak. I've now got three combat units going ashore at Merak so I set them to a shock attack for next turn. Unless the Game does something exceptionally strange my troops ought to capture Merak next turn. (In my other pbems we are seeing such unbelievable land combat results that even my opponents don’t believe what they see, so I'm not betting on any land combat results.) I'm sitting out my units in Malang until I get more ashore. And Bandoeng held again against another shock attack. The Dutch regiment there ought to be just about useless by this point. Once again I'm just having my troops sit and wait for their "big brothers" to show up.

Only a couple of Hawks flew CAP over Soerabaja this turn and no Dutch bombers flew. Only about half of my air attacks flew in the bad weather, but they hit Soerabaja hard, destroying more planes on the ground and moving the air fields even closer to being closed. There was a lot of bad flying weather everywhere on the map, so I was quite happy to see as many of my planes flying as I did.

In China my unit to the southwest of Changsha kicked the small Chinese unit out of the hex, opening up the line-of-movement to the division that was trapped to the west of Changsha. This happened just in time as, in turn, the Chinese units kicked my tired unit out of that hex west of Changsha. So now our lines are a little more stable in the region.

I still have to fiddle with every unit that I want to move out of Wuhan towards Changsha. I have to set their "objective" to Changsha and then un-do Changsha as their objective once they move into the rail hex between Wuhan and Changsha. It's too bad that it doesn't look like the Developers intend to ever improve land movement in this game - it makes a very enjoyable game very frustrating at times. One thing is for certain, if Matrix (or someone else) ever comes out with a Pacific War game where the ground movement and ground combat work better I would certainly by that game in an instant.

In Burma another Japanese regiment finally reached Akyab. I can't understand why the first regiment reached Akyab in two weeks, but the second one took two months. (See my comments above about land movement.) AuTiger's C-47s took more operational losses, so he is probably flying more troops into Akyab, or else he will pretty quickly once he sees the second Japanese unit. I realize that I'm wasting my time sending those Japanese regiments into Akyab, but I keep on hoping that the Game will do something incredibly stupid in my favor for a change, like let my troops capture the base. Hey - you never know - even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut.

My Port Moresby invasions are continuing along unbothered by any Allied forces. I sent the second bombardment TF off to hit PM next turn. With two TFs there I will be able to hit the base more frequently. I am also getting more air support to the air bases in the region so I am becoming more able to maintain an air offensive in the region for an extended time. Of course, the Joker in the pack is that I have no idea if my troops will actually be able to capture PM. Who knows - the Game may require me to land 9 or 10 divisions. (How can you tell that I am getting really fed up with land combat in this game?)

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 110
Moving in Java - 7/4/2007 12:11:49 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 18, 1942 – Lots of Japanese troops landed at Merak this turn, as well as at Kragen. But when daylight came it turned out that AuTiger had pulled back his troops from Merak, Bandoeng and even Malang. So my troops captured Merak easily and are now marching towards Batavia. I moved planes back into Bandoeng, and I set the troops in Malang to recapture that base.

AuTiger still had a few planes flying out of Soerabaja, but my incoming attacks took care of them and continued the process of closing the air fields. Since things are relatively under control at Soerabaja I reorganized some of my attacks for next turn to go after Batavia again, as much to increase my Intel of the forces in place as anything else. I will not be starting serious attacks on Batavia and Soerabaja until I get all my major units in place in Java.

In PNG my naval bombardment of Port Moresby did more damage than usual, which was a nice change of pace. My bombers from Lae also hit the base, but they are still being hit by a fair amount of flak, so the defenders at PM aren't prostrate yet. The big news was that the first invasion TF started to "round the point" at Gili-Gili this turn without yet being detected. Another TF did run into a US sub between New Britain and PNG, but the sub only detected the half dozen MSWs on escort, and considering the number of other supply and transport TFs that I have sailing in the region, that shouldn't be too out of the ordinary.

So I still have my CVs sitting disbanded in port in Shortlands. Since I have an AR, an AD, and a Naval HQ in place the ships continue to have their damage reduced. I haven't seen any sign of reaction from AuTiger so far, so I am going to keep my CVs in Shortlands for the time being. I have a lot of LBA in the region and I want to use the KB as a reserve. It would be nice if the USN came up to attack and was worn down a bit first by LBA before I committed the KB. (In another pbem my opponent threw the combined USN and RN against Amboina and my surface forces and LBA crushed his ships without any Japanese carriers even getting into the fray.)

In China the Game continues to find ways to make me spend much more time checking details than I should, although my work-arounds have been working "okay". As I had hoped, a large number of units moved from Wuhan to the rail hex between Wuhan and Changsha. So I ordered those units to "defend", which wiped out their movement orders to continue on to Changsha. So far, so go. I then started to give orders to more units in Wuhan to move to Changsha as their "objective". That worked for all of the units, except for one infantry unit that "refused" to accept the order because it would be "moving from one enemy zoc to another".

Ah cripe! That bug again. Of course there is no enemy zoc in Wuhan, but the Data Base thinks there is for this particular unit. So I tried something else – I tried giving the unit orders to move to the Next Hex – the one where the rest of my units refused to move to. Wouldn't you know it – the unit that refused to accept Changsha as an "objective" accepted the next hex as its "objective", unlike the other 20 or so units that I've moved out of Wuhan over the past few turns.

So we'll see if my work-arounds continue to work next turn – will the "refusnik" move or not? And if it does move, will it accept orders to move to Changsha later? (I have a number of units that are sitting in field-blocking positions because I could never get them to move to an enemy base.) Oh well, as long as my invading armies in Java and PNG don't run into the same problems I can tolerate the Chinese situation. (I hope.)

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 111
What are they doing down there? - 7/5/2007 1:11:48 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 19, 1942 – This Game is hard enough to play without making dumb mistakes, and I made a really dumb mistake last turn. I had been resting my Chinese air units in coastal bases for the last while and last turn I decided that I would use them in a mass attack on one of the Allied Chinese bases. Since I still only have Nates as the bulk of my front line Army planes, particularly in China, I didn't want to take on the P-40s that AuTiger has scattered around China. So I noticed that Homan didn't have any aircraft present, so I decided that it would be a good place for target practice.

So I moved all of my fighters and bombers to attack Homan. Now, because we have PDU "off" I am also stuck with mainly dive bombers in China, but if I bring enough of them together they can cause some damage. I set my planes to attack, and went off in the hope that Tiger wouldn't suddenly move the AVG or a similarly good group to Homan.

Well, I lucked out from that sense, because there was no CAP over Homan this turn. But I was confused to see in the Combat Replay the front guns of my dive bombers firing as they attacked the air fields at Homan. Huh??? Of course, the usually anaemic Chinese flak got to punish my dive bombers hard, and very little damage was done to the air fields. When I checked afterwards it turns out that my dive bombers were set to an altitude of 100 feet! I have no idea how that happened. I guess that somewhere along the way while I moved my dive bombers to and from various bases I set one unit to 100 feet by accident – maybe while intending to set Training to "zero" or something like that. Then when I moved them all to the attack I set one unit to the attack and used the "set all other dive bombers" command for the rest, so they all went down to tree level.

So instead of getting some "easy" training I lost a bunch of planes and have even more green pilots to break in. And those dive bomber squadrons will be next to useless for the next little while as the recover from the attack. Oh well, maybe Tiger will be fooled into thinking that I have some sort of "clever" plan under way.

At the same time in Java only a few of my planes flew because of weather, and the lone Dutch fighter on CAP shot down several of my planes that did fly. So all-in-all this wasn't a good turn for the Japanese Army air forces. But the rest of my efforts in Java continued along according to plan, and Malang was recaptured again while more big divisions landed at Merak and Kragen.

AuTiger is continuing to be very quiet in the region, but he obviously has a lot of air power in Northern Australia, as is evidenced by the high Air Ratios in his favour over his bases there. I don't know if he is waiting for good opportunities to strike with his long range bombers, or is on guard against a sneak attack by me on Northern Australia, but I'm glad to see all that air power over there as my invasions TFs creep ever closer to Port Moresby.

The first invasion TF is now only two day's sail away from PM, with the others close behind. PM was hit by another good naval bombardment this turn, so I'm hoping that things continue to seem to be "business as usual" there. One transport TF near Rabaul was detected during the turn, but it is just one of the usual fuel TFs, so there isn't anything unusual about that. For whatever reason AuTiger's air patrols are not picking the increase in TFs in the region beyond the usual bunch at Gili-Gili.

I have also not seen any Allied ship traffic in the Coral Sea or beyond, despite having a lot of air patrols in the region and almost a dozen subs spread from Australia to New Caledonia (including Glen-equipped subs). So the KB's ships continue to sit at anchor in the harbor at Shortlands, waiting for a chance to spring a surprise. One of the reasons that I've left the KB in Shortlands is just in case Tiger uses my invasion of PM to launch his own surprise invasion of Lunga and the eastern Solomons. I haven't seen any evidence of Allied movements into that area, but it seems to be a logical counter-gambit to me at this stage.

BTW – most of the USN sightings continue to be in the South-eastern Pacific, which suggests to me that Tiger will attack the Gilberts and Marshalls sooner rather than later. So I've been slowly moving base forces and small combat units into all of the bases under my control in that region. While I don't care if Tiger attacks a base with a Division, I don't want him flanking me with raider units.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 112
RE: What are they doing down there? - 7/6/2007 1:20:45 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 20, 1942 – Well, the cat is out of the bag, or at least it ought to be. Some patrol planes from Australia detected a few ships of the first invasion TF just a day's sail out of Port Moresby, so unless AuTiger is asleep at the wheel he should know this turn that the invasion is starting. I've got one more bombardment TF sailing in to hit the defenders and I will "park" my fresh surface combat TF at PM to intercept any incoming Allied surface ships. I also have all of my LBA in the region set to Naval Attack, with 20% patrol, I've got a half dozen recon units reconning PM with 50% naval patrol settings, and I've got several long range dedicated patrol units on 100% patrol too. The KB is still resting up in Shortlands Harbor. Hey, if AuTiger doesn't react to my invasion I'll leave them there – the longer he doesn't know where my CVs are sitting the better off I am.

The Air Balance situation has remained pretty much the same throughout the South and Eastern Pacific for the past number of turns, but I found something out very, very interesting this turn. It turns out that Brisbane has a gigantic Air Balance – something over 2500!!! AuTiger must have moved his entire Air Force to Australia in the event of an invasion. (Maybe he saw in his SigInt that I had several armoured units set to objectives in Northern Australia.) I expect that a number of those planes will move to the north as Tiger realizes that the invasion of PM is serious.

Speaking of Air Balance, AuTiger sent a bunch of B-17s against Thursday Island this turn. They caused a bit of runway damage, but they suffered a fair amount of damage themselves, and Thursday Island isn't important; it's just a bit of a "bonus" for my recon/patrol planes. I wonder if Tiger will send his B-17s against my ships at PM or try a serious air campaign against one or more of my bases in PNG. He can reach Gili-Gili with B-17s, but I don't think that he can reach Lae from Australia, and Lae is my main air base and contains an Air HQ as well as a full Air Support engineering unit. So the fun will start next turn.

In the meanwhile things continue along in Java. My first division reached Batavia this turn. I just set it to bombardment. I'll wait for the rest of the Merak landings to occur and all of the troops to move into position before I start to attack Batavia seriously. I'm doing the same thing for Soerabaja where I'm stopping my units one hex to the north of the base while I wait for all of my big infantry units. I will besiege Soerabaja once all three divisions are in place, but I won't try to attack it until I've captured Batavia and those forces have moved into place too. I'm in no hurry and I don't want to fritter away my strength in piece meal attacks.

Dutch planes are still flying out of Soerabaja despite air field damage levels in the 80s and constant air attacks. AuTiger must have a fair amount of supplies stored up there. Fortunately he has also split his forces so I won't have as many troops to contend with once I get rid of Batavia.

There will be one more thing for AuTiger to contend with in two more turns – I've sent my massive stack of all free combat troops in China against Changsha. Right now the AV level is around 5000 and more troops are on their way. I also brought all of my Chinese air units to Nanchang and will have them attack Changsha next turn – hopefully at the correct altitude this time. I will be interested to see if I can actually take a base in China by massing all of my good units in one place.

Speaking of "massing of troops", it turns out that both AuTiger and I have been moving forces into the Far North. I've been moving base forces and infantry units into the Kuriles and one of my spy subs found out that Tiger has a number of TFs sitting at Dutch Harbor. I guess we've both been reading Admiral Laurent's AAR.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 113
Tourists in the South Pacific - 7/7/2007 12:41:13 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 21, 1942 – My regular naval bombardment TF hit Port Moresby as usual this turn, then things started to change as my first invasion TF reached the base and started to unload its division. A few shore guns fired on the TF but they didn't cause any damage and most of my troops got ashore during the first day of landings. As usual, I reset the commander of the troops to a good "assault" commander and then I set them to do a bombardment next turn. I won't do a full assault until the rest of my troops arrive over the next couple of days.

There aren't any "surprises" among the troops ashore in Port Moresby. The only troops that AuTiger added were those Australian units from Darwin that start out under SWPAC control so that no political points are needed to move them. I'm fairly confident now that I should be able to capture PM with my invasion forces, although I noticed that I did make one mistake – I forgot to send along the Army HQ that I prepared for the invasion. So I hurriedly loaded the HQ onto another TF and have them sailing along to PM. I'm hoping that I've hammered the Allied troops at PM long enough and hard enough so that the HQ will be superfluous, but one never knows.

BTW – since there is still no sign of an Allied counter to this attack Therefore, I still have the KB swaying at anchor in Shortlands Harbor while minor damage continues to be repaired.

BTW II – Dobodura reached a level 2 air field this turn and Rabaul a level 4 air field, so my ability to seriously field LBA in the PNG region continues to grow.

In Java things continued along according to plan, except for AuTiger finding ways to keep the airfields open at Soerabaja. His Dutch torpedo bombers hit a transport at Kragen this turn, but my forces continue to come ashore anyway, and I'm getting more base forces in place to support my own CAP. A second division arrived at Batavia this turn and my bombardment attack indicated that the base is not heavily defended. Never-the-less I'm still going to wait until I have everyone in place before I start attacks there.

While I'm lining up my forces I have also sent the various air-dropped and air-transported units at the inland bases to attack the base force-fortification at Tjilitjap. I had no intention of giving AuTiger any "free shots" with the big shore guns there, so I didn't try to land at that base, despite it being the best port on the western side of Java. None of my incoming infantry units is particularly big, but once they are all together they ought to be able to capture the base and give me the port that I need.

Things are pretty quiet elsewhere, except in China where AuTiger has moved eight units out of Yenen and has them heading to the crossroads to the northeast. I currently only have a Mongolian cavalry unit there, but I have four more divisions coming back along the road from Lanchow. It will be interesting to see who gets there first.

But that will turn into a sideshow next turn as my main attack on Changsha starts to arrive "at the gates". My air units hit Changsha hard this turn and will hit it again next turn. Surprisingly, it looks as if Tiger has pulled most of his air units out of China. Maybe he is planning something in Burma. We'll see if the arrival of 40 or so units at Changsha gets his attention.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 114
Heating things up - 7/7/2007 2:52:48 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 22, 1942 - More troops landed at Port Moresby this turn, pretty much uninterrupted. A few coastal guns fired, but did no damage. During the air phase Hudsons from Cookstown flew in but between the LR CAP and AA fire only one AK was hit while unloading supplies. It is good to see those Hudsons lost or damaged; AuTiger has had too many opportunities to build up their experience and it is nice to make him "start over" with a few of them.

I set a second Zero Daitai on LR CAP over PM for next turn. This Daitai is in Dobodura so it should be even more effective than the Zeros from Lae. I still have all of my bombers in the region set to Naval Attack since there is no need at this time to bomb PM any more, and anyway I've got a naval bombardment TF back on the way in. BTW - it turns out that I didn't forget to send an assault HQ to PM; I just missed that particular TF when I was checking around last turn. I use multiple TFs for invasions and this invasion has a lot of them. As well I have a lot of supply TFs sailing to and from my bases in PNG and the western Solomons. So it hasn't been easy to keep track of everyone.

Other than the Hudsons, there was no sign of any reaction from AuTiger to the PM invasion. It appears that he will sit back and bide his time. That's too bad; I was hoping to finally be able to ambush him. The KB is still sitting in port at Shortlands. Surprisingly, ship damage seems to be getting repaired faster there than in the major ports back in the Home Islands. Oh well, this just means that the KB will be in better shape for my next "adventure".

Speaking of adventures, my bombardment TF reached the halfway point between Amboina and Darwin this turn. It was spotted by Dutch patrol planes, but there was no LBA attack. I'm guessing that AuTiger moved all of his Hudsons to Cookstown. Now that my TF has been spotted I am presuming that Tiger will move out his planes from Darwin, but even if he does I am still sending the TF in to bombard the base, just in case I can cause some significant damage to the air fields. I don't expect to get a "nuclear attack" because I haven't been reconning Darwin, but every bit of damage helps.

Things in Java continue along as planned. The Dutch air units continue to fly, but the experience of the Dutch replacement pilots is dropping rapidly so they aren't being effective. I'm more than happy that AuTiger is wasting supplies on Dutch planes; that means fewer supplies to support his troops during my upcoming sieges. It will be a few more turns before I am ready to start land attacks, so for now I'll just keep on sending in the bombers and fighters.

In China AuTiger moved his US Army fighters back into Changsha, so we had a really big air battle over the base. Thanks to the "quantity over quality" aspect of air combat in this Game my forces were able to fight their way through the CAP and cause a fair amount of damage to the base. We both lost equal numbers of P-39s and Nates, which is a reasonable trade to me because I have Nates coming out of my ears in this game.

The planes will be going back next turn because the first wave of my massive land attack arrived this turn. I set everyone to do an artillery bombardment while they wait for the next wave to arrive. I expect that AuTiger will attempt to send distraction attacks elsewhere, but all of my forward bases are well fortified, and maybe he will move "a bridge too far" and allow me to trap some of his troops out of position. In any event, I'm not certain if I can take Changsha, but this will be the most serious attempt that I can make.

Elsewhere, things were fairly quiet. Some Seagulls spotted one of my subs in the South Pacific, so AuTiger appears to still have cruisers down there. Also a second spy sub joined in on the cat-and-mouse game at Dutch Harbor. Things are looking interesting there so I am sending a third sub to join those two. In the meanwhile my build-up in the Kuriles continues nicely.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 115
Sync or swim - 7/8/2007 6:22:33 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 23, 1942 - AuTiger is reporting "sync" problems between his combat replay/report and the combat report that I am sending to him. The only thing that has changed recently in our pbem match is that my invasion of Java has resulted in the creation of a dozen or more LCU fragments on my side. I am trying to recombine all my fragments as quickly as possible, but some things will just take time. It's too bad that the Game isn't more robust in this area.

Troops are still landing at Port Moresby essentially unopposed. Some Hudsons did fly out of Cookstown again, but my enhanced LR CAP took care of them. One thing that was nice to see was that one of the Hudson attacks broke and ran after being attacked by Zeros. I am still keeping my bombers on Naval Attack settings, even though it appears that AuTiger will not contest the invasion of Port Moresby, but I don't feel that I need to spend any more bombers against flak at this time. Anyway, a naval bombardment TF will hit PM again next turn which will help to keep the defenders under control. I am keeping my invading troops set to artillery attacks until everyone is in place.

And so the KB continues to sit at anchor in Shortlands as an astounding amount of system damage continues to be repaired each turn. I'd swear that my ships, particularly the CVs, are repairing faster in Shortlands than they ever did in the big Home Island ports that have repair facilities. I wonder if the die roll associated with the repair facilities negates any other repair efforts in a turn if the roll comes up with an unfavorable result.

As I had expected, my naval bombardment attack on Darwin did little damage; likely because I didn't recon the base ahead of time. It was a very good thing that I didn't have my DDs participate in the attack because the shore guns at Darwin hit several of my cruisers hard and the DDs would have been creamed under that fire. And as I expected, because AuTiger had advanced warning of the attack he pulled all of his aircraft out of Darwin. But one very important piece of information came out of this attack - Tiger only has one unit in Darwin! I am sending a patrol unit to recon the base next turn, and I will have to check out some of the other northern Australian bases a little better too. Maybe AuTiger has left his defenses a little "soft" in the region because of his confidence in his LBA.

In Java things continue along as planned and more troops landed and moved into place. I am taking my time in Java because while I have plenty of troops I am short of supplies. I committed the bulk of my supply transports to the support of the PM invasion which left the Java invasion running on a shoestring. And my air attacks on Java are using up a lot of the spare supply that I had in the region. So things will slow down a bit, but that's okay, Tiger's forces aren't going anywhere.

Speaking of air combat, the Dutch continue to get into the air over Soerabaja, but in fewer numbers. So my air units still have targets in the air and on the ground for their daily attacks. By the time that the Java operation is over AuTiger won't have much of anything left from which to rebuild the Dutch air force.

In China AuTiger pulled his CAP from Changsha so my big air attack had clear skies and hit Changsha hard. My stack of combat units in Changsha continues to increase and their artillery bombardment this turn did a very nice amount of damage. I will continue the artillery attacks for a while to see if I can drive the Chinese daily losses into 4-digits. Again, I'm in no hurry to throw my troops against yet another level 9 fort.

BTW - with all four units finally in Akyab I decided to try an attack this turn. I don't expect the attack to do much, but after having wasted so much time I feel obliged to at least give it one try.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 116
Ready, set... - 7/9/2007 11:59:16 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 24, 1942 – More troops landed at Port Moresby, and a few more shore guns fired back. My bombardment TF didn't make it to PM this turn because it is being slowed down by accumulated damage due to constant sailing, so I'll probably send it back to Rabaul for some R&O after the bombardment next turn. My landings are just about complete so I'll do one more artillery attack and then do a real attack the following turn. With any luck PM will be mine before the end of the month.

In Java the Dutch continue to put up some CAP and a few bombers, so I have my air units still bombing the air fields each turn. Slowly but surely my troops are getting into position to attack. I'll probably wait a few more turns just to make certain that everyone has supplies.

Bad weather stopped air missions in many regions, but as usual recon and patrol planes flew. My long range recon of Darwin reported 13 units there now, while the bombardment TF only reported 1 unit last turn. But the number of troops being reported is still rather small. So either AuTiger had some fragments a hex down the road that he moved back into Darwin, or he is flying in some troops. BTW – the recon flight this turn found a couple of fighter squadrons on CAP.

I received an encouraging result from the attack at Akyab this turn. While my troops only achieved a 0 to 1 result, the fortifications were reduced to level 3. So I've reset my troops back to bombardment attacks for now, but I will start to consider what other options I have, including maybe bringing some troops from Java once that campaign is over.

The big artillery bombardment at Changsha didn't do as well as I had hoped this turn because my planes didn't bomb the base ahead of time due to the weather. So I moved more planes into attack position and I'm hoping that everything comes together next turn.

So things will remain a little quiet for the next couple of turns as I get all my "ducks in line" for the next serious attacks.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 117
Moment of Truth... - 7/10/2007 7:17:34 PM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 25, 1942 – The remaining troops in the invasion force landed at Port Moresby this turn. The only TFs left in the hex are the covering surface combat TF and a couple of transport TFs that are unloading supplies. It helps that I also control the other bases in PNG so that I get a feed of supplies from outside the hex too.

My rather tired naval bombardment TF hit PM once again this turn and did a reasonable amount of damage. I now have that TF retiring at mission speed towards Rabaul. The ships in the TF need some R&O and if I want any more naval bombardments I'll simply change the SC TF into a bombardment TF.

The weather was better in the region so a number of AuTiger's Hudsons took off to attack my transport TFs. The unprotected TFs that were retiring and outside of fighter cover did take some damage, but the TFs in PM itself were nicely protected by my LR CAP. More Hudsons were destroyed and damaged and more also retreated while under attack.

Surprisingly, AuTiger send his B-17s against the airfields at Thursday Island again. Sure, he caused some airfield damage and got a bit of experience for his air crews, but so what? I'm only using Thursday Island as a recon/patrol base, and Tiger even lost a bomber to flak on that run. I'm more than happy to see Tiger's 4Es go after trivial targets instead of challenging me at my important bases such as Gili-Gili.

In Java recon and patrol planes were still flying in low numbers out of Soerabaja, but no Dutch attack planes or fighters got into the air. So my incoming bombers only had to contend with flak and they caused more damage to the runways and destroyed more planes on the ground. Things continue to progress slowly but surely in Java, and I'm in no rush, so I'm sticking with my approach of preparing everyone for serious attacks at my leisure. BTW – my troops at Batavia finally got off a good bombardment attack, so things are obviously improving.

Speaking of bombardment attacks, my planes flew against Changsha this turn, so the subsequent artillery attack was much better. It will be interesting to see if AuTiger weakens any of the surrounding area in order to better protect Changsha. For now I am quite happy to continue to bombard the base from the air and from the land while more units move forward.

Elsewhere, my recon flights over Darwin brought more info – there are now 16 units in place and the overall numbers are increasing slowly. AuTiger says that he isn't using bombers to fly in troops, so he must have transport units in Australia in addition to his air transport in the Far East. I'm going to add more recon to the region just to keep him nervous and honest.

In any event, next turn brings the first "moment of truth" at Port Moresby as I have set my troops to attempt a deliberate attack. I have three full Divisions, an engineering unit, a strong base force, and a good Army HQ. AuTiger has around 6000 troops in place. The fortifications shouldn't be too high, because I have kept PM damaged constantly for game-months. So the real question will be the presence of supplies for Tiger's troops – do they have lots left or are they short? In any event this ought to be a fairly black or white situation – either I will overwhelm Tiger's forces or else his forces will throw back my forces. My troops ought to do well, but with this Game one can never count on anything going as expected regardless of the amount of preparation one attempts to put into place.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 118
Port Moresby is Mine! - 7/12/2007 12:43:28 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 26, 1942 – The big news this turn is that Port Moresby fell to the first assault, and with it fell the biggest potential thorn in my side in the region. Sure, AuTiger will undoubtedly start to try to bomb PM back into the Stone Age with his 4Es, but I feel a lot better having those bombers fly out of Australia than out of PNG. BTW – surprisingly enough, in addition to the four Australian infantry units and the PM base force, the Aus I Corp showed up in the on-screen listing of units that surrendered, despite not having shown up earlier in the combat listing.

My next big challenge will be to quickly pull my main combat troops out of PM and back to non-malarial bases where they can start to prepare for my next expansion. I intend to move "East", but the only question remains – where? So I'll be keeping Zeros on LR CAP over PM and over the various transport TFs that I will sail in and out, hopefully quickly. I don't intend to keep more than a token presence in PM - if AuTiger wants to take it back he will have to contend with all of my other bases in the region which will continue to develop now free from potential interference.

So I've got my surface combat TFs heading for R&O also. The more worn TF will go to Truk and the fresher TF will join the KB in Shortlands. With so much force available to me it will be tempting to venture a bit more into the South Pacific in order move the front lines even further away from my main regions of activity. But I want to be certain that I can maintain mutually-supporting bases too, and AuTiger does have his US CVs sitting in the Eastern Pacific.

In Java my stranglehold on the Dutch continues to get tighter. Once again there was no CAP over Soerabaja, but a few patrol planes still flew and at least one Dutch fighter interfered with my air transport activities by flying LR CAP over one of my bases in Java. But that doesn't matter because I brought in fresh bombers to continue to hit air fields at Soerabaja and now I've also got a continuous stream of supply transports arriving at my beachhead ports.

I started to do aerial bombardments of the Dutch troops at Batavia because the airfield there is "pegged out" at 100% damage. My troops are still doing artillery bombardments and will continue for a while yet while I continue to soften-up the Dutch in the hopes of having another first time success as I just did at Port Moresby.

So while things slowly come together in Java I am pulling back my excess air units, rebuilding them, and resting them up behind the lines. I want them to be ready for my next activities.

Elsewhere, despite bad weather in many places my air units in China hit Changsha hard again. Changsha looks to be a very tough nut to crack because the air field damage is being repaired very quickly afterwards. AuTiger doesn't seem to be reacting in response to my siege of Changsha, so I'll continue along with my plans until I see some progress in the attack. I have been encouraged by recent successes at Changsha in my other pbems, so I'm going to keep up the pressure and see if I can engineer a breakthrough.

In the meanwhile, my attempt to move a unit back up towards Yenen ran into an unexpected surprise as a Chinese unit appeared on the Yenen side of the river. So my unit found itself making an unplanned shock attack. Of course, things didn't go well, but at least my unit wasn't thrown back across the river. Maybe this will cause AuTiger to pull back those eight units that are on the road to the northeast.

Meanwhile in the Far North my spy subs continue to monitor transport activity around Dutch Harbor. It appears that AuTiger is using the good summer weather to build up DH as a forward base. That's okay; I'm building up the Kuriles as forward bases too. Who knows, maybe the victors of Port Moresby will leave the tropics for the near-arctic.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 119
The Next Steps - 7/18/2007 1:01:52 AM   
Dive Bomber1

 

Posts: 670
Joined: 10/30/2006
Status: offline 		April 27, 1942 – I'm back again after being away without a pc for a number of days. Unfortunately, this sort of thing will continue to happen occasionall over the next couple of months, which will make it hard to maintain any sort of momentum.

This turn was fairly uneventful as I am in a re-grouping mode in the aftermath of my successful capture of Port Moresby. Surprisingly, AuTiger sent his Australian 4E bombers after Gili-Gili instead of PM. Fortunately for me, the weather was bad and the Heavies couldn't find the target. So I pulled more air units out of G-G and redistributed them to other bases in the region. In the meanwhile, thanks to the respite and my hordes of troops in PM the repair work on the base proceeded very nicely with the airfields already being repaired completely.

Just to keep AuTiger "thinking", I set the objectives of the combat units in PM to a couple of the north-eastern Australian bases. I have no intention of invading north-eastern Australia at this time, but it will be useful if AuTiger thinks that I do. At the same time I sent out a couple of small TFs from Truk towards Espirito Santo and vicinity. I'm hoping to "sneak" into Luganville and thus extend my patrol radius even further south. That move with likely also cause AuTiger to move some of his air units out of Australia and into Noumea.

Also in the region AuTiger's long range 2E bombers attacked some of my transport TFs off of the south coast of PNG but missed their targets. I am moving more Zeros into the region and hope to have better LR CAP in place in a turn or two. However, I have so many TFs sailing back and forth to PM that it is almost impossible to cover all of them. BTW – I am keeping up the recon flights over Darwin in order to keep AuTiger busy there too.

Things continued as usual in Java too. AuTiger's forces repaired the runways at Soerabaja enough to put a few planes into the air, after which my air units came in, shot down the CAP and bombed the runways again. I'm still bringing in forces to Java so these sorts of exchanges are fine with me. It will be a while yet before I do any assaults in Java.

In China the weather grounded my air attacks on Changsha, which was useful because some Tomahawks showed up on LR CAP. Despite the challenge from AuTiger I am sending my planes back to Changsha next turn because I still have numerical air superiority in the region. I also set my ground troops to try a deliberate attack on Changsha in order to test out the defenses. AuTiger is trying a few half-hearted flanking moves in China, but I have so many units on the move that I can contain those efforts easily.

In Burma AuTiger got a bit more anxious about Akyab and sent his Asian 4E bombers against my troops there. That's fine – this allows my other troops in the region to continue to advance and/or build up bases undisturbed. That's the whole point of having multiple bases in the region while I am stuck with Nates as "imitation" front line fighters. Once I start to get decent fighters I will challenge the Brits more seriously.

And in Alaska AuTiger's big transport TF left Dutch Harbor for the West Coast under the watchful eyes of my Glens. At the same time my build-up in the Kuriles continues. It will be very tempting to consider moving a serious number of divisions up to the North for a Northern Offensive. I'll have to keep an eye on the opportunities.

(in reply to Dive Bomber1)
Post #: 120
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