Divebombing "The Mark" (Marky keep out)

[tanksone]

[quote]ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1

December 24, 1941 – Marky may not have played pbems before, but he obviously learned a great deal about this game by playing against the AI and reading posts in the Forum, because his strategy in this early part of our game is serving him quite well. Marky is causing an increasing level of casualties and damage among my forces while at the same time essentially risking none of his more valuable assets.

First off, Marky is using all of his planes, including fighters, as naval bombers to the exclusion of all other air missions. And he is using them like kamikazes with no regard for losses. This turn Marky lost another 28 planes including 13 more P-40Bs. He has now lost 120 P-40Bs in 17 days of battle and over 500 planes in total against just over 100 Japanese planes lost. But in exchange for his planes Marky has seriously damaged dozens and dozens of Japanese ships, including putting three torpedoes into BB Hyuga this turn.

Instead of letting his fighters be blown away by superior Japanese planes and pilots Marky is sending them out at 100 feet to strafe any naval targets they find – and most smaller Japanese ships have negligible AA and no armor. For whatever reason my CAP - despite being well rested, well lead and well positioned – catches only around 1 in six attacks and never wipes them out.

Hi, having played against Mark also I would say his style is more like playing a Russian Army commander. He just keeps throwing forces at you and doesn't worry about his casualties.

[Dive Bomber1]

Hi, having played against Mark also I would say his style is more like playing a Russian Army commander. He just keeps throwing forces at you and doesn't worry about his casualties.

Hmmm - In that case I had better keep on taking bases. Maybe I have to get to Moscow... [;)] [:D]

Thanks -

[princep01]

His aerial tactics are unusual and innovative in my limited experience.  I assume that the pilots conducing these low level strafing raids are also gaining experience for their efforts and fatigue.  That is a bonus to the damage they have apparently caused.  But a 5-1 air loss ratio is pretty bad, even when th eJapanese have overwhelmingly superior A/C.  There is afterall all those fat, dumb, slow Japanese second line bombers to feast on with occasional AVF scambles.
 
I do question his total Fabian tactics policy.  While wise to give ground when threatened with annihilation or encirclement, I do believe it is important to challenge the Sons of Bushido at places of your choosing, especially in China.  Trading Chinese for highly experienced Japanese soldiers would seem a good trade, even if the exchange is uneven.  Also, how does one launch an eventual counterattack in China if one has no supplies?  It is hard enough to get supply to the Chinese or have them produce it, but impossible if they have simply march off and left their production centers.  The Chinese can make Changsha a very tough nut and can hold the productive parts of N. China for a couple of months.  It's just me, but I believe it unwise to abandon those centers without a toll in blood.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: princep01

His aerial tactics are unusual and innovative in my limited experience.  I assume that the pilots conducing these low level strafing raids are also gaining experience for their efforts and fatigue.  That is a bonus to the damage they have apparently caused.  But a 5-1 air loss ratio is pretty bad, even when th eJapanese have overwhelmingly superior A/C.  There is afterall all those fat, dumb, slow Japanese second line bombers to feast on with occasional AVF scambles.

I do question his total Fabian tactics policy.  While wise to give ground when threatened with annihilation or encirclement, I do believe it is important to challenge the Sons of Bushido at places of your choosing, especially in China.  Trading Chinese for highly experienced Japanese soldiers would seem a good trade, even if the exchange is uneven.  Also, how does one launch an eventual counterattack in China if one has no supplies?  It is hard enough to get supply to the Chinese or have them produce it, but impossible if they have simply march off and left their production centers.  The Chinese can make Changsha a very tough nut and can hold the productive parts of N. China for a couple of months.  It's just me, but I believe it unwise to abandon those centers without a toll in blood.

Fortunately, I've been able to catch a number of Marky's planes on the ground which costs him the pilots who have gained the experience via strafing ships. Recently he has been flying planes in and out of his forward bases which makes it harder for me to catch his planes on the ground. But he has also backed off on the 100ft strafing recently - maybe he realized that he was losing too many planes.

In my other pbems my opponents have stood in China and have stymied me quite well. The only other time I made just good gains in China was in one of my first pbems where my opponent went a "rickshaw too far" and let me trap a large number of his better forces.

I'm really happy that Marky is allowing me to take so many bases with so few losses because it is allowing me to build up my forces faster. In my other games where my opponents are standing and facing my forces I am being bled badly for each advance.

Thanks for the comments -

[Dive Bomber1]

January 10, 1942 - My troops captured Changsha and Hengchow without any interference this turn, so I now have control of all of the key southern Chinese bases with the exception of Ichang, and my forces started to bombard it this turn. I wonder why Marky isn't pulling back from there too? Now that I've got the other bases and there are no Chinese forces nearby, I'm moving all of my good units into the attack on Ichang and ought to take it readily.

BTW - Marky hasn't pulled his 38 units away from that spot two hexes to the north of Changsha, and if he doesn't soon I'll still try to cut them off and isolate them. [;)] [:D]

BTW II - The industries and resources in Changsha are in pretty good shape.

Finally in China, Marky has started to pull his troops back from that crossroads to the NE of Yenen. So I'll just move my Mongol cavalry back in and follow Marky all the way to his northeastern bases.

In addition to those two Chinese bases my troops captured Russell Islands and landed at Jambi this turn.

In Burma my troops moved into Taung Gyi and Pagan unopposed and will capture them next turn. As I thought, Marky hasn't defended the trail from Pagan to Mandalay, so I'm moving my big divisions along that route. I'll leave my armored unit across the river from Mandalay to distract Marky. Right now Marky has 60 fighters, 26 bombers and 66 auxiliary planes in Mandalay. He must not have much else in the way of planes elsewhere.

A few of his planes are still in Bankha, and more of them were destroyed on the ground this turn as one of my bombardment TFs hit the base hard, followed by a strong air attack. I'm sending in another bombardment TF this turn and an invasion TF is about to land too, so I ought to catch even more planes on the ground. BTW - my Philippine bombardment TF hit Cebu again and this time the coastal guns did little damage.

Singapore was hit hard from the air and by artillary. Once again there were over 800 Allied casualties from the land bombardment. I'm doing yet another artillery bombardment this turn. Manila was also hit hard from the air and the land, but without such good results. I'll just have to be a little more patient there.

Most other regions are fairly quiet as I consolidate my gains and move more forces, supplies and fuel forward.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 11, 1942 - Marky's ASW continues to give my subs problems, while my naval ASW can't seem to find the range against Allied subs. Thus I have lots of subs in repair, as well as lots of transports. Fortunately, occasionally my aircraft ASW does whack an Allied sub, and when they do the subs tend to go down.

Speaking of "whacking", one of my bombardment TFs hit Bankha nice and hard again this turn, destroying a dozen or so fighters on the ground and closing the airfields. My invasion troops also started to land, so next turn they ought to kick out that Dutch base force and destroy the remaining damaged Allied planes on the ground. A fast transport TF also landed an SNLF unit at Sabang this turn, so I ought to have it captured next turn too.

Speaking of captures, my units captured Pagan and Taung Gyi without opposition this turn. It now appears that Marky has put a couple of units on the road across the river from Pagan, but the bulk of his forces are still sitting in Mandalay. I'll hold off on any attacks for a couple of days while the rest of my forces catch up. I'm not going to try a bombing campaign right now because Marky has the AVG at Mandalay, although he is using some of them to provide LR CAP over Lashio.

Singapore was hit nicely by bombers again this turn, causing lots of casualties and damage, and the subsequent artillery attack caused nearly 1000 additional casualties. With those sorts of results I've decided to try a deliberate attack next turn. Who knows, I might even capture the base. BTW - my troops also captured Jambi this turn.

My planes bombed Menado again this turn in preparation for the invasion next turn. I've also got a bombardment TF ready to hit the base next turn. Marky is staying very quiet in that part of the Dutch East Indies, but just in case I have Zero's around to provide LR CAP and I've been watching Amboina very carefully.

In China Marky's forces are still in place at the crossroads between Changsha and Hengchow. That's fine - my troops are moving into those bases and building up the defenses. More of my troops also marched up to Ichang this turn. I did a bombardment attack this turn and will do another next turn. I want to bring up overwhelming forces before I start to assault the city. It looks as if Marky is planning a stand at Ichang and he may even be trying to march in some reinforcements, but they are likely to be too late.

And there was some welcome news on the Home Front - a dozen or so new units showed up in Tokyo. I'm giving them a day to collect some supplies, and then I will start to ship them down to Kwajalein in preparation of my planned assault on the south central Pacific bases. My subs reported a pretty large surface combat TF at Palmyra, so Marky may be planning some things in that region too. The KB will also be settling into Kwajalein soon for a bit of R&O and preparation for my southern operation.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 12, 1942 - My forces were in action all over the map this turn. The landing at Menado started, and despite another naval bombardment and more air bombardments the coastal guns there still fired, although they didn't do much damage. Marky is staying quiet in that part of the Dutch East Indies; this is quite a contrast to my pbem against Aussem where he has contested my invasions in that region tooth-and-nail.

Over in Sumatra my troops captured Sabang and Bankha, and destroyed a number of planes on the ground in Bankha. The air score now stands at 711 aircraft losses for the Allies versus 333 air losses for the Japanese, after nearly 5 weeks of war. Sure, the ratio isn't as good as it was a few weeks ago, but my naval air losses are still very light while Marky keeps on losing fighters of all types.

Japanese troops landed in Tassafaronga this turn, the last major base in the Solomons/PNG that isn't already under my control. Some of my troops also landed at Deboyne Island and will capture it next turn. I have troops heading to all of the "dot" islands in the Luisiade Archipelago because I want to remove Marky's opportunities to use the "dots" as mid-points for his subs, and I also want to build up Rossel Island as a patrol plane base in order to extend my search capability farther into the Coral Sea.

My major land battles worked out okay, but I didn't get any extra "luck" in them. My troops achieved a 3:1 attack ratio in Singapore and reduced the fortifications down to level 3, while taking fairly light losses. So I am repeating the deliberate attack next turn. Surprisingly, the attack at Ichang resulted in a 0:1 attack ratio, but my losses were still very light, particularly in comparison to the Chinese losses. I have more troops moving up, including an HQ unit, so I ordered my forces to just to a bombardment attack this turn. My troops at Manila continued with their bombardment attacks.

In general, Marky was quiet again this turn, other than his ASW efforts and a bunch of P-40s that keep on flying LR CAP over Lashio, but don't catch my recon flights. The weather is constantly lousy across the top third of the map, so Marky keeps on losing P-40s to operational damage, which is great from my point of view.

I started to load my January reinforcements onto ships to send south. I should be in a position to start my next phase of simultaneous invasions in two week's time.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 13, 1942 - The Big News this turn was that my troops captured Singapore, and fairly readily at that. Although the air fields and air base are in rough shape due to all of my bombing, the port wasn't messed up too much and the various industries are not damaged at all. And best of all there is a huge amount of fuel there, along with a good amount of supplies.

So I'm leaving all my troops in place and letting their engineers start to clean up the damage. I have reset the objectives of these combat troops to bases in Java, so once Singapore is in working order again the victors will be sent on to gain more territory. I've also got a bunch of minesweepers on the way to clear the harbor, as well as a base force on the way. I'll move in some of my troops from the bases further up the peninsula to bring in the additional support troops that I need.

Ichang and Manila only received artillery attacks this turn, but they will receive deliberate attacks next turn. I have a lot of good troops at Ichang so I hope that they accomplish something. The Chinese reinforcements are getting closer and I don't have too much time left to be able to attack while there are only four enemy units in place. On the contrary, I'm not expecting too much to happen at Manila other than to wear down the defenses a bit more. Both bases have been hidden by bad weather for some time now, so my air units haven't been able to continue to soften them up properly.

The other important news was that Menado was captured. Once again the air fields are pretty badly messed up from my air and naval bombardments, so I'll have to work to get them cleaned up and operating so that they can provide support to my next set of attacks in the Dutch East Indies.

In the PNG/Solomons theater Deboyne Island and Tassafaronga were captured and troops landed at Normanby and Rossel Islands. There are only a few "dots" left in the area to capture. Marky has been leaving me alone so I've been able to continue to bring supply, fuel and reinforcements in without any hindrance. I also "encouraged" Marky to worry about new attacks by hitting Cairns with a bombardment TF that sank an MSW on the way in before hitting the base nicely.

The one region where Marky continues to have the upper hand is in the southeastern Pacific. His ASW ships at Canton put another of my subs out of action this turn. I now have the KB resting up at Kwajalein, and I may well move it out and try a raid on Marky's ASW forces in a few days.

Elsewhere, another of my bombardment TFs hit Medan again. Between the capture of Singapore and the attack on Medan another 10 Allied planes were destroyed on the ground.

And in Burma I am continuing to build up my forces in preparation of a two-pronged assault on Mandalay. That ought to happen within the next few days.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 14, 1942 - Ichang is turning into a bit of a headache for me. My deliberate attack this turn didn't reduce the fortifications and although the Chinese took plenty of casualties, so did the Japanese. I don't want to become bogged down in a battle of attrition there, but it doesn't look like I will get the quick victory that I wanted.

I suspect the main problem comes from my recent decision to upgrade the Japanese bombers in China rather than keep them pounding away at Ichang. It seemed like a good idea at the time, because China has been under constant thunderstorms for weeks, and also Marky only had four Chinese combat units in Ichang. But the combination of fortifications and whatever the terrain is at that location has stymied my forces.

So I set my troops to do artillery bombardments again, and I have more troops arriving soon. But Marky also had a bunch of troops coming down that road from the north, and if I can't capture Ichang against only four Chinese combat units, I don't want to try against more. BTW - I currently have around a 3:1 advantage in total troops and attack value, but it hasn't helped.

The situation in Manila is going better, even though my latest deliberate attack caused heavy casualties on both sides. But the fortifications are now down to level 2, so one more good attack ought to take the base. I've reset my troops to do an artillery bombardment this coming turn, and will probably try another deliberate attack the following turn.

My other minor attacks all went well. My troops landed on and captured Rennell Island, captured Normanby and Rossel Islands, and landed at Panggoe, so almost all of the PNG/Solomons area is under my control. My reinforcements and supply convoys are making good progress too, so I'm quite comfortable in that region.

It will be another couple of days before my troops in Burma are ready for their next attacks, but that is fine because they can use the preparation time. As far as the Dutch East Indies go, I want to capture all of Sumatra before I go after Java and the rest. Marky is building up air power in southern Java and I want to be able to counter that with LBA before I start to send transport TFs into the teeth of the Dutch defense.

Otherwise, things are progressing smoothly as I get ready for further action.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 15, 1942 - The damage at Singapore is clearing up very nicely and only a little port damage is left. It helps to have almost 800 engineers around to fix things. [;)] My first TF of minesweepers also came in and started to clean out the mines. And a good base force ought to arrive in few days, which will allow me to put the airfields into use.

My Burma Expeditionary force all arrived at Pagan, so I'm starting them across the river. Marky is still sending the AVG on LR CAP duty over Lashio - I wonder how long he will continue doing that once my big divisions are knocking on the door of Mandalay? [:D]

The weather continued to be lousy for flying most places, but some scattered bomber units flew to attack Ichang and Manila. The subsequent artillery bombardments were surprisingly weak. Checking carefully I found that some of my units in both sieges have greater levels of disruption than I usually like them to have, so I'm leaving my forces at both sieges set to artillery attacks again for next turn. I'm in no great hurry at Manila, and if Marky's reinforcements arrive in time to "save the day" at Ichang then I'll just pull my troops back, bomb the base back into the Stone Age, and find another way to cut off Marky's troops.

Marky's streak of luck against my ships continued as a US sub found a damaged Japanese DD that was on its way back behind the lines for repairs, and sank it with one torpedo. I'm still resting all of my carriers so I won't be off hunting Allied ships for some time yet. I want my forward bases to be well equipped with supplies, fuel and patrol planes before I go off.

The only base captured this turn was Panggoe. I've got a few more invasion TFs off for various locations, but nothing special underway right now. I am still collecting and resting up my combat units before I send them off again. This is more important now because I will be going after defended bases more often in the future.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 16, 1942 - It's just as well that I ordered an artillery attack on Ichang this turn because two of Marky's reinforcement units made it into the base and would have added to my casualties if I had tried a last-gasp deliberate attack. The bad weather also washed out all of my air attacks in China, so things worked out for the best. Therefore, in light of Marky "winning the race" I've given my troops at Ichang the orders to pull back. I'm going to focus my efforts in the southwest of China now.

Not a lot flew this turn, but some of my bombers in Luzon did, so Manila was hit reasonably hard again. The condition of my troops that are besieging Manila looks generally pretty good, so I'm trying another deliberate attack next turn. Hopefully, even if I don't capture the base my troops will lower the fortifications some more.

Otherwise things are fairly quiet as I continue to move forces, supplies and fuel forward. I have started the invasion forces off for northern Sumatra, so they ought to arrive in a few days.

The base at Singapore is repaired now and the fortifications are building up nicely. In general I like to build up a Level 1 fort before I start to expand the port or airfields. The minesweepers continued to do their work well, and a number of TFs with support forces should start to arrive next turn.

The Burmese Expeditionary Force should start to cross the river at Pagan during the next turn. I don't know what sort of units Marky has on the other side of the river, but they shouldn't do much to stop my big, experienced divisions, particularly when my troops are accompanied by an armored regiment and a good Headquarters Unit.

BTW - Marky is essentially flying nothing at all nowadays, so his air losses have stopped growing.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Why the concern with the fort level at Singers right now?

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: AU Tiger

Why the concern with the fort level at Singers right now?

I like to have a minimum level of 1 defense for all of my bases before I start to expand anything else.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 17, 1942 - This was a turn where pretty much nothing worked well for me.

First off, my minesweepers haven't yet done a good job at Singapore, so a PC escort in an incoming TF hit a mine and sank.

Next, the lousy weather played havoc with most of my bombing missions, and those missions that did fly had higher than normal operational losses.

My land efforts were not much better. The river crossing north of Pagan resulted in a 1:1 result for no apparent reason although my troops outnumbered the defenders significantly. More troops are crossing next turn, so maybe they will turn the odds.

Then I received a lousy dice roll in Manila and my deliberate attack was awarded with another result of 0:1, once again for no obvious reason. So I'm back to bombardments again at Manila for a while.

Marky must be "feeling his oats" because he even sent one of the northern Chinese units back to that crossroads to the northeast of Yenen. I still have three Mongolian units there - we'll see how well they hold up.

What did work out this turn? Well, my troops did capture Rekata Bay and Irau, and my reinforcement and replenishment activities did continue along unabated. It's just too bad that I don't have any uncommitted troops to use to fill in this quiet period in my expansion.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 18, 1942 – Things went a little more according to plan this turn. The rest of my Burma Expeditionary force crossed the river north of Pagan and kicked the two British units back to Mandalay. My troops took a fair number of casualties, but I'm sending them ahead into Mandalay anyway because the forces that Marky has there shouldn't be too strong. Marky is still flying the AVG on LR CAP over Lashio during constant thunderstorms and I'm hoping that he has a number of damaged planes that I can catch on the ground at Mandalay.

Despite the weather I sent bomber attacks against hit Ichang, Manila and Bataan. I am hitting Ichang hard in an attempt to cover my pull-back. Marky now has 10 units in Ichang, and although they are likely fatigued from the march, I still want to avoid having them attack my remaining units before I have them pulled out.

It will likely take longer than I had hoped to capture Manila, particularly since my forces there are short on combat engineers. Even my artillery attacks aren't having much of an effect. I will need to maintain daily air attacks in order to prevent Marky from rebuilding the fortifications. I have also decided to bring a strong and rested combat engineering unit out of Singapore and move it to Luzon to help out with the siege.

I wasn't expecting Manila to hold out so well because the Luzon bases fell relatively easily in my other pbems, but I am likely seeing the impact of Manila not being a malarial base. In addition, in my other pbems I captured Manila a lot earlier because my opponents chose to defend Clark Field and Bataan instead.

Since I don't have the Luzon Expeditionary Force available for use at this time I am using some of my smaller combat units to take undefended bases that will flank my next set of objectives. Marky is continuing to avoid challenging me in the skies except with the AVG over Lashio, so I feel that I can take advantage of this lull to move in some small base forces to position air coverage for my next moves.

My capture of dot bases continued with landings at Thousand Ship Bay and Stewart Island. Steward Island was captured in an automatic shock attack at the end of the turn. I will have to stop this "dot picking" soon since almost all of my NLF units are worn out and will have to rest and rebuild in non-malarial main bases for a while.

Otherwise, I am taking advantage of the lull in Marky's activities to do some R&O on my naval forces. Most of my ships have relatively light operational damage, but I still want to reduce it more, particularly in the case of destroyers which regain it readily, particularly when I use them as Fast Transports.

I get another CVL in a few turns, so I will send it to join the mini-KB and may well send them off "adventuring" a bit.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

January 18, 1942 – Things went a little more according to plan this turn. The rest of my Burma Expeditionary force crossed the river north of Pagan and kicked the two British units back to Mandalay.

Tch. Tch.[:-]
Shame on him.

Of course, I learned that one the hard way myself. Aren't you going to be surprised when you hit the 2nd Soviet Rifle Division in Mandalay! [8D]

[Dive Bomber1]

Of course, I learned that one the hard way myself. Aren't you going to be surprised when you hit the 2nd Soviet Rifle Division in Mandalay!

Your Soviet Divisions will be meeting Japanese Divisions soon enough... [;)]

The thing about the Burma Bliztkrieg is that there really isn't anything reasonable that the Allied player can do if the Japanese player moves fast enough. The mistake that I made in my lastest game against you is that I sent my big divisions by land, and they took forever to get to Bangkok. But in this game I moved them by sea so they got onto the railway pipeline within days of the start.

The questions here will be whether or not Marky has saved enough of his long range bombers, and if he has moved them to India, so that he can start early nuisance bombing like you and Aussem have done to me in your games. (Although Aussem is starting to find out that B-17s can be shot down by Zeros and even Oscars under the "right" conditions... [:D] )

[modrow]

Hi !

I just stumbled across the last line of your last post and am very interested in the "right" conditions to shoot down heavies with zeros and oscars... [:)]

Don't know whether you are aware that Marky would be at the receiving end of this info , as I am currently playing a Gualdacanal scenario against him [:D]. He also writes an AAR, but I don't really find the time to correct the propaganda he most likely posts there with my own AAR...

Consequently, I, too get to feel his aggressive use of his forces. He DOES know how to do the ASW & Sub warfare - gets the better of me all the time. I don't think I am an expert, but somehow in the same scenario played against another opponent (who spanked me overall) my subs and ASW outperformed...

Also, if he is on the move, he manages to build up the bases he takes very quickly...

With respect to his use of AC, I am not so sure whether he really is onto something - I have a received lot of damage to my shipping, BUT I am not really short of that - planes and pilots is something I am more worried about.

His AC losses are really heavy & the low morale of his planes is my best defense against his heavies - unless you tell me the secret how to shoot them down [8D], of course... I usually just down 1 or 2, even if I am at the correct altitude...

Also, I should join the praise of your AAR - very nice style, I like reading it a lot !

Good luck !

Hartwig

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

I just stumbled across the last line of your last post and am very interested in the "right" conditions to shoot down heavies with zeros and oscars...

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: hartwig.modrow

Hi !

I just stumbled across the last line of your last post and am very interested in the "right" conditions to shoot down heavies with zeros and oscars... [:)]

Don't know whether you are aware that Marky would be at the receiving end of this info , as I am currently playing a Gualdacanal scenario against him [:D]. He also writes an AAR, but I don't really find the time to correct the propaganda he most likely posts there with my own AAR...

Consequently, I, too get to feel his aggressive use of his forces. He DOES know how to do the ASW & Sub warfare - gets the better of me all the time. I don't think I am an expert, but somehow in the same scenario played against another opponent (who spanked me overall) my subs and ASW outperformed...

Also, if he is on the move, he manages to build up the bases he takes very quickly...

With respect to his use of AC, I am not so sure whether he really is onto something - I have a received lot of damage to my shipping, BUT I am not really short of that - planes and pilots is something I am more worried about.

His AC losses are really heavy & the low morale of his planes is my best defense against his heavies - unless you tell me the secret how to shoot them down [8D], of course... I usually just down 1 or 2, even if I am at the correct altitude...

Also, I should join the praise of your AAR - very nice style, I like reading it a lot !

Good luck !

Hartwig

I've established those conditions in my game against Aussem, not Marky, and since I haven't forbidden Aussem from reading my AAR, I don't really want to post any details here, but I am more than willing to discuss them via pm... (notice AuTiger's smirky comment below too... [;)] )

I think that Marky's success with subs and ASW is pretty straight forward - he deliberately choses his best DDs for ASW TFs, and he likely puts good commanders in them too - he likes to optimize his commanders for the occasion. I suspect that he has optimized his commanders for his subs too.

As I've been replacing my original sub commanders with more experienced and skilled commanders, and as my sub crews have gained experience, my subs are holding their own better against Marky's ASW. As far as my ASW goes, I find that using planes is much better than using ships at this stage, so I just make certain that I have plenty of planes around on naval search, naval attack and ASW missions.

Thanks for the comments -