Hunting the AuTiger - an AAR (no Tigers please)

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: princep01

It was really fun to watch this CV engagement unfold.  Of course, getting to read both player's plans and objectives made it clear that a CV duel was potentially in the works near Nukufetau.  Amazing how it happened and that three IJN fleet CVs could survive th eonslaught of US dive bombers as well as they did.

Interesting how these things happen sometimes.  At Jutland, the engagement was intiated by either the Germans or the English (I forget which) checking out a fishing boat with scouting cruisers.  The scout forces skirmish....the next thing you know, the air is full of coal smoke, heavy shells and burnt cordite as the battle ebbs and flows.

Are you going to swear off splitting the KB now?

Also, you note the quality deck armor of the Japanese ships and the consequent resistance to bombs.  I have two thoughts.  First, were you talking about BBs and cruisers (the CV had no deck armor to speak of)?  Second, I have never played the Japanese.  About what level of system damage does a 500 pound bomb to to a IJN CA?  CV?  I'm guessing about 10% to a CA...less to a BB.  I have no idea on a CV, but it should be fairly high.

The armor on the Japanese CAs is very good against early war Allied bombs. They can suck up bombs all day and suffer little damage. That's why I like to have them hanging around Dutch bases during the early expansion period. The only risk is from torpedo bombers, and as soon as you find and "nuke" that base that is holding them, it's game over.

The Japanese fleet CVs have armored decks, just like the British CVs. That's why an Allied dive bomber attack has to be lucky, or has to get in a lot of bombs like what happened against the Soryu. The damage to the other two CVs is very light, other than some AA guns lost on one of the two. System damage probably only increased by a couple of points over what it was prior to the attack, and both ships did suffer a couple of bomb hits.

As far as splitting the KB goes? I tend to like using the KB as it was used historically. Sure, it's not the optimal way to use it in the Game, but it does allow me to threaten more areas than just keeping it in one piece. Having a "death star" lumbering around, accumulating sysdam points while the Allies are able to sail around without a care, bothers my "soul". I firmly believe that if I were more careful to use my patrol and recon resources better I would be able to get away with this strategy more effectively; at least for the early part of the war.

Thanks -

[String]

ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1



The Japanese fleet CVs have armored decks, just like the British CVs. That's why an Allied dive bomber attack has to be lucky, or has to get in a lot of bombs like what happened against the Soryu. The damage to the other two CVs is very light, other than some AA guns lost on one of the two. System damage probably only increased by a couple of points over what it was prior to the attack, and both ships did suffer a couple of bomb hits.

Which is in truth ofcourse complete bollocks. Why i'm done with stock.

[princep01]

Not to be argumentative, DB, but the 6 IJN CVs did not have armored flight decks.  They had completely enclosed hanger decks like the Br. CVs did, but they had American style flightdecks....no armor.  That is why the IJN CVs carried large air groups like the US CVs, while the Br, who did have armored flight decks, had such pitifully small air groups.
 
It has been my impression in this game that the CVs (both sides) can take a world more damage than they did historically and sail on.  Frankly, as you probably know, once the early war, IJN and US CVs did start taking hits, they were pretty vulnerable, even without fueled/armed planes on board.  In this game, a fleet CV can take multiple torpedos and bombs and still sail away, unless shelled or bombed again.  Of course, the IJN damage control is poor, so they sometimes do not make a port, but they don't sink on the spot very easy.
 
At Midway, four 1/2 ton bombs completely destroyed the forward half of Hiryu and left it a burned out derelict.  Unlike the other three CVs, it did not have many fueled and armed planes on board.  One bomb sank Akagi (it was really the fires that gutted her).  Soryu and Kaga took up to 7 bomb hits (both 500 and 1000), but no torpedos....burned out shells resulted.
 
My impression is that the IJN CVs can take 7 bombs and fairly easily survive in this game.  That probably is quite generous.
 
Just my impression. 
 
Carry on with the war.  I really enjoy your AAR style.
 

[Dive Bomber1]

Not to be argumentative, DB, but the 6 IJN CVs did not have armored flight decks. They had completely enclosed hanger decks like the Br. CVs did, but they had American style flightdecks....no armor. That is why the IJN CVs carried large air groups like the US CVs, while the Br, who did have armored flight decks, had such pitifully small air groups.

I just went a checked the CVs at the start of the game, and the CVs for both sides have deck armor like a CA and durability like a BB. So that means that both sides ought to be relatively resistant to bomb attacks.

So even if it is wrong, it still seems to be pretty much the same for both sides, and it means that torpedoes are the most important weapons. So the Allied player has to figure out ways to get his torpedo bombers into play, and the Japanese player has to figure out how to maintain an edge in distance.

Thanks -

[Dive Bomber1]

March 21, 1942 - This was a relatively quiet turn as both sides pulled back to get fuel and supply. The only night action was a Japanese cruiser naval bombardment of Lautem in Timor. Day time naval action was non-existent.

Even air action was fairly quiet, other than a big Japanese air raid on Ichang. My Army Air units are starting to get some nice experience out of those attacks. As long as AuTiger doesn't send in his better fighter units to ambush me I'll keep it up.

Tiger is trying to distract me in northeastern China. He has now pulled all but two units out of Yenen and has his forces facing one of my dug-in units on the road from Yenen to Chengting. My unit is on the Yenen side of the river, and I have another unit on the Chengting side of the river. In the meanwhile, since Tiger pulled out his troops I've ordered more troops to advance again against Yenen from the East. I've got lots of troops in the region and I'm more than happy to have Tiger move his forces out of the safety of Yenen. In the meanwhile my northern forces are continuing along the road to Lanchow.

The pace ought to quicken in the DEI next turn. I noticed that the remaining Dutch PTs were still on the way back to Balikpapan, which means that they are out of fuel. So since I had a "spare" surface combat TF sitting at Tarakan, I ordered them to head down to Balikpapan and give it a naval bombardment. If they run into the fuel-short Dutch PTs, well, so much the better.

BTW - when I gave that SC TF the orders to attack Balikpapan I was at first confused because their "green" naval travel radius didn't make it to Balikpapan. When I checked out the TF, I found that once again I had stuck a 17-knot CL into the mix. So I transferred that CL to a transport TF in the harbor and then the "green circle" easily contained Balikpapan. I'm getting good at making the same booboos…

The air fields at Soerabaja increased to level 5 this turn, which means that Tiger has already brought his fortifications up to level 9 and has supplies and troops to spare. He will also probably be tempted to use Soerabaja for a few air attacks, but for now he has other ideas. My recon planes reported 37 bombers and no fighters at Batavia. I'm guessing that Tiger is hoping to hit some of my TFs in the region with 2E bombers, or maybe even hit one of my air fields. So I moved my good Sally units to Palembang, along with some good Zeros and have ordered them to hit the airfields at Batavia. I've also ordered my naval bombers at Kuching to hit the airfields at Batavia too. With any luck I'll catch some of Tiger's bombers on the ground.

BTW - things are quiet now in the south-central Pacific. Tiger's CV TFs are heading down towards Fiji while my CVs are nearing Tulagi. I am trailing Tiger's TFs with subs and have more subs on the way. My remaining stragglers and cripples are slowly working their way back to safety, and a small transport TF is getting closer to dropping off a base force at Nanomea. If I get them there safely and move a patrol plane in, it ought to tick-off Tiger a bit. [:D]

[Dive Bomber1]

March 22, 1942 - AuTiger is a good, sharp player. I suspect that he would be challenged more by the AI than he is by me most turns. This turn was no exception and once again Tiger was able to pull off a very obvious move that totally slipped by me until it was too late.

Remember last turn how I was smugly planning to "catch" Tiger's bombers at Batavia? Well, I was assuming that Tiger would try to attack my task forces or my airfields, but Tiger went one better - he attacked the port at Palembang! And guess what I carelessly left sitting in port? Yes - a couple of dozen of my precious tankers!

So Tiger's 37 2E bombers flew in and fought their way past a Daitai of Nates and a Daitai of Zeros. A couple of bombers were shot down, and a dozen more were damaged. If they were attacking some task forces that would have been enough to shake up the attack and there would likely have only been a couple of hits. But they were bombing sitting ducks in port and they heavily damaged a dozen tankers along with a few escorts.

Why did I leave those ships in port? Because I stupidly never thought that Tiger would attack the port at Palembang because he never attacked any of my ports before. [8|]

To add "insult to injury", both of my air attacks on Batavia went through and actually made a number of hits on the airfields. But NO bombers were hit on the ground! And because Tiger has lots of troops and supplies at Batavia the airfields weren't closed this turn.

Nothing much else worked out right this turn. My bombardment TF at Tarakan didn't bother to sail to Balikpapan. That's probably just as well because Tiger sailed his Dutch PTs to Samarinda, which is the obvious move. (Don't ask me why I expected him to sail them to Balikpapan when they were out of fuel.) Another of my crippled ships from the south pacific mess sank on the way home. US 4E bombers happily bombed resource centers at will in Burma. And the Chinese forces from Yenen kicked my troops down the road.

The Lexington is still sailing slowly towards Fiji, but none of the subs that I have there have made contact. Other US ships are sailing eastwards, but I bet that those are the ships that originally escorted the Enterprise and that the three undamaged US CVs are continuing on to the west.

What worked as planned for me? Pontianak received another naval bombardment and some of my troops landed at Pomala in the Celebes. And my air units in China pounded Ichang again, but Tiger has so many troops there that the air damage is always repaired within a day or two at the most. I need a victory somewhere to cheer me up and it doesn't look as if any are in sight.

[String]

ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1

Not to be argumentative, DB, but the 6 IJN CVs did not have armored flight decks. They had completely enclosed hanger decks like the Br. CVs did, but they had American style flightdecks....no armor. That is why the IJN CVs carried large air groups like the US CVs, while the Br, who did have armored flight decks, had such pitifully small air groups.

I just went a checked the CVs at the start of the game, and the CVs for both sides have deck armor like a CA and durability like a BB. So that means that both sides ought to be relatively resistant to bomb attacks.

So even if it is wrong, it still seems to be pretty much the same for both sides, and it means that torpedoes are the most important weapons. So the Allied player has to figure out ways to get his torpedo bombers into play, and the Japanese player has to figure out how to maintain an edge in distance.

Thanks -

Well yes, the Japanese and US carriers did have armored decks, but they had them under their hangar decks, covering magazines, fuel tanks, machinery etc.

[Dive Bomber1]

March 23, 1942 - Surprisingly enough, AuTiger's remaining Dutch PT boats aren't yet out of torpedoes. One of my bombardment TFs sailed into Balikpapan over night and ran into the three remaining Dutch PTs. A Japanese DD got the first shot but missed, which is always a pain when facing PTs. Sure enough, a PT fired back and put a torpedo into that DD. Other DDs got into the fray and sank one PT, so the PTs backed off and my TF bombarded Balikpapan nicely. It looks like my damaged DD will make it back to Tarakan, so I might save it.

The Balikpapan invasion TF is on its way, but it will take a while to get there, so I'll continue to hit Balikpapan from the air with Lilies from Tarakan. I've out-run my fuel supplies so there isn't enough in Tarakan to refuel my bombardment TFs. Surprisingly enough I actually had supplies available for Tarakan.

Tiger has obviously (and unfortunately for me) learned about the railroad method of removing damaged planes from continental bases, so my big Sally raid on Batavia this turn found empty airfields. But I will continue the raids on a daily basis just to keep Tiger from moving his planes back in again. Tiger has a ton of troops and supplies in Batavia so I am not raising the damage levels very quickly. But I'm not planning an invasion of Java until after I capture all of Borneo, so I can afford to be patient and just bomb key bases.

Speaking of bombing, things in the air were suspiciously quiet from the Allied side this turn. Not only were there no air attacks but there weren't even any Allied operational air losses. Sure, the weather was its usual lousy self, but normally Tiger has something flying. I'm getting the feeling that Tiger is planning some big air raids somewhere - maybe against my air force in China.

My subs in the South Pacific continue to track several very slowly moving TFs that are now traveling east rather than south. I'm surprised that Tiger is not parking those damaged ships in any given level three port as soon as he can. Maybe he is using them as decoys? If my sub-based air patrols can be trusted at all (and I'm sure not "betting the farm" on them), Tiger's remaining good CVs are sailing along with the cripples. But there are no US float plane reports, which is particularly suspicious.

Whatever Tiger is doing, it doesn't really matter because my CVs are just about back to Shortlands where they will rest up a bit in anticipation of my biggest "roll of the dice" - a full fledged invasion of Port Moresby. I have two divisions preparing for it in Truk and more troops on the way. I also have my other CVs on the way, so I will have a numerical advantage in CVs for the upcoming invasion, as well as plenty of LBA in the region. Speaking of which, my base force and supplies started to off-load at Thursday Island today, so it will be even harder for Tiger to sneak any ships into the PM area.

In other news, Pomala was captured in the Celebes. I have an invasion force for Macassar setting up so that will occur in a while too. I'm also sending out a number of small invasion TFs into the Timor region to grab the empty bases while I prepare for the real invasion of Timor.

BTW - I am still "filling my quota" of dumb moves on a turn-by-turn basis. This turn it was in India where I waited until Allied forces showed up at Benares to paradrop troops into Lucknow. So, of course, the Allied troops re-captured Lucknow first, wiping out my troops because there was no escape route. Only afterwards did my paratroops capture Lucknow. I've got to admit, if there is an annual award for "Continuous Dumb Play" given out by the Forum, I ought to be firmly in the running for it.

[Dive Bomber1]

March 24, 1942 – It seems very strange to me, but it appears that AuTiger is using his undamaged CVs to escort his damaged ships back to Pago Pago. One of my spy subs to the west of Pago Pago ran into several TFs and was hammered by escorts. But more tellingly, it was also attacked by a couple of Dauntless DBs. And those DBs weren't flying in from Pago Pago. I would be surprised if the Lexington were in good enough shape to fly any planes, so my best guess is that Tiger has his undamaged CVs with his cripples.

My other subs and spy planes aren't seeing any Allied ships in the Fiji area, or to the west, so Tiger may be pulling back to "lick his wounds". That's great from my perspective because it gives me the time to regroup. That base force transport is still a week's sail away from Nanomea and I want to get it in place before Tiger starts to check out the south-central Pacific Islands again.

My lightly damaged CVs reached Shortlands this turn, so I replenished them and disbanded the TF. I now have my undamaged CVL with them, and my other two undamaged CVs are about halfway between Palau and Truk right now, so they will be joining the rest at Shortlands within a week too. I currently have a Naval HQ in Shortlands, and I'm sending my lone AR there from Truk too.

In retrospect, I made some pretty silly decisions regarding transport conversions at the beginning of the game. The next time I start a game I will focus my efforts on AR and AS conversions so that I can improve the repair capacities of my rear area ports. I have accumulated a lot more damaged ships and subs that I expected to have done by now.

Speaking of damage repair, it seems at times that some ports are just "better" at repairing ship damage than others, regardless of the presence of repair shipyards. For example, I've got two CVLs in Tokyo along with other ships and their repairs are coming along regularly. However, I only have Kaga in Osaka and it is hardly repairing at all. The strangest situation is in Shanghai where the port is at level 9 and there are around 400 ship repair points to go along with the repair ship yard. But despite the fact that the only ship in port is a damaged DD, the repairs on the DD are occurring at glacial speeds. My battleships in ports in Japan are repairing faster. And I'm not sure how much having a Naval HQ helps, because I've had a Naval HQ in Hong Kong since just after I captured the base and the few ships that are there are taking forever to be repaired too. On the other hand, it seems almost irrelevant how many damaged ships I have in Singapore, because the repairs occur quickly there regardless.

Back to the turn, Tiger had his 4Es out in force this turn, and he is trying yet another approach – this time lowering their altitude to 5000 feet. This means that my AA has a better shot at the bombers, but also that my CAP is flying a bit too high in most cases. So there was a big attack on the resources at Mandalay that didn't seem to do much more damage than when Tiger flies at 15,000 feet, and another smaller B-17 only attack on the airfields at Kuching. My fighters at Kuching fought well, but I only had a single Daitai of Zeros, so Tigers bombers got through to destroy some planes on the ground and cause some airfield damage.

So I moved half of my bombers to Singkawang and set them and the bombers at Kuching to do an air attack on Soerabaja. I don't expect that Tiger will have moved "good" fighters into Soerabaja, but one never knows. Never-the-less, I can't let Tiger fly out of Soerabaja unmolested. BTW – my Sallys continued their daily bombardment of the air fields at Batavia and the damage is building up nicely.

In other news three more of my units landed at Pontianak this turn and I set them all to attack, so with any luck I'll have that base next turn. I'm sending combat TFs against Balikpapan again in advance of my upcoming invasion. I've also got small invasion TFs heading into the waters between Timor and Java. I should be able to grab everything but the main bases in Java in April.

In China Tiger pulled back his units from the river crossing south of Yenen. I guess that he realized that I had two other routes along which to advance on Yenen. He has also brought Chinese bombers up to Lanchow and nearby bases and is starting to attack the lead elements of my northern invasion force. He still doesn't know that I have 5 divisions coming up behind those two armoured regiments. It will be interesting to see if he pulls back some of the troops that are in Yenen.

In Burma my troops continue their "mile-a-day" advances under regular air attacks by the British. I can't do any more about this than I can about the Allied 4E bombers, so I'm just pretty much ignoring it for now and waiting to see if Tiger weakens his defenses anywhere else once my troops eventually reach their objectives. My main focus right now is upon an April invasion of Port Moresby and everything else will be secondary to that for now.

[princep01]

ORIGINAL: String

ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1

Not to be argumentative, DB, but the 6 IJN CVs did not have armored flight decks. They had completely enclosed hanger decks like the Br. CVs did, but they had American style flightdecks....no armor. That is why the IJN CVs carried large air groups like the US CVs, while the Br, who did have armored flight decks, had such pitifully small air groups.

I just went a checked the CVs at the start of the game, and the CVs for both sides have deck armor like a CA and durability like a BB. So that means that both sides ought to be relatively resistant to bomb attacks.

So even if it is wrong, it still seems to be pretty much the same for both sides, and it means that torpedoes are the most important weapons. So the Allied player has to figure out ways to get his torpedo bombers into play, and the Japanese player has to figure out how to maintain an edge in distance.

Thanks -

Well yes, the Japanese and US carriers did have armored decks, but they had them under their hangar decks, covering magazines, fuel tanks, machinery etc.

Yes, String, that is why I was careful to specify "flight decks".

[Dive Bomber1]

March 25, 1942 – Air action took the stage this turn as AuTiger decided to stand up to my air attacks. Rain played its usual role, but the main efforts still went on.

The turn started out with nice naval bombardments of Port Moresby and Lautem. My forces are massing in both areas for wide-spread invasions of the area around Timor and as well the upcoming invasion of Port Moresby. I am hoping that Tiger moves some air units to northern Australia in response to my moves in the Timor region, just before I start my PM campaign.

Then the air battles started. Tiger finally brought some CAP to Ichang to challenge my air attacks. The big surprise was that a squadron of P-39s showed up! We aren't playing with PDU "On", so either Tiger shipped them all the way from the West Coast, or else one of the former Philippine air units upgraded to P-39s. In any event, my fighters shot down 7 of them along with a fair number of Chinese fighters too.

Tiger has been keeping his P-40s in India, but I wouldn't be too surprised if he was tempted to bring at least one group to China. Regardless, I've decided to up the stakes by bringing two new full Nate Daitais into the battle in order to gain decisive numerical air superiority over Ichang. If the weather is on my side I ought to have over a hundred fighters of all sorts over Ichang next turn. Of course, if Tiger decides to move his 4Es into China my main airbase could get whacked, but I've decided to take the chance anyway, because if worse comes to worse I'll just pull back my planes via the rail system.

The other big air battle was over Soerabaja, where unfortunately, only one of my attacks flew. The bombers and fighters at Singkawang were rained out and only the Kuching missions flew. Tiger had plenty of Dutch fighters in the air and a number of my bombers were shot down, but a lot of Dutch fighters were shot down too, and as well a number of planes were destroyed on the ground. Next turn I'm resting the weak-kneed Navy LBA pilots at Kuching and hoping that their "cousins" at Singkawang take off and fight with more spirit.

In the meanwhile my Army pilots continued to hit Batavia very hard. I need to grab a good air base within Sally-range of Soerabaja so that I can bring my tough Army veterans into the fray at Soerabaja. I've got the feeling that Tiger has pulled back his troops mainly into Batavia and Soerabaja, so I'm going to probe around for a weak spot where I can land some air support units right off the bat.

In other news, Pontianak was captured this turn and its defenders surrendered. I'm pulling out my troops so that I can rest them in Singapore prior to their next missions. There is no point in garrisoning Pontianak when Singkawang already has a bigger air base.

Nothing much is going on in China or Burma other than my troops inching forward a mile or two at a time. I'm going to drop more paratroops into India to cut off Tiger's armoured unit that is trying to attack my paratroops. The time and effort that Tiger wastes on my nuisance attacks in India make the effort worth it for me while I focus on Java.

The South Pacific is quiet as I move more recon and support troops forward. I want to extend my patrol capability significantly. This will also distract Tiger while I set up my invasion of Port Moresby. The only thing that I haven't done recently is some sort of feint against the Aleutians, and I'll do that once I get my next big arrival of reinforcements in a few weeks' time. [;)]

[Dive Bomber1]

March 26, 1942 - The weather stopped any major showdowns this turn but as usual AuTiger found a way to take advantage of an oversight of mine.

The turn started out with a bit of a surprise as my two naval bombardment TFs hit Balikpapan nicely but didn't find the remaining Dutch PTs there. Instead Tiger had moved them back to Macassar. Since I had another naval bombardment TF already on its way from Kendari to Lautem I redirected it to hit Macassar next turn and instead ordered another combat TF at Amboina to sail off to hit Lautem. Since Tiger isn't challenging me in the region I'll continue to send out ships to hit as many places as I can since I want to invade them all.

The weather then came into play as Singkawang was socked-in totally again. Even the CAP didn't fly, which was unfortunate because Tiger's 2E LBA from Soerabaja flew against my incoming transport TFs at Pontianak and hit four ships hard. So I've ordered fighters from Kuching to fly LR CAP over Pontianak next turn to cover my retiring TFs.

The weather also interfered with my air attacks on Ichang. Only the fighter sweeps flew. They had a reasonably good time against the Chinese fighters; Tiger didn't have his P-39s on CAP this turn. But my main air attack was rained out. So maybe it will be a go next turn.

The weather didn't interfere with my daily aerial bombardment of Batavia, nor on Tiger's air bombardments in India and the Burmese border. The weather also didn't stop my paratroops from retaking Benares again. Tiger now has his forces chasing my other paratroops near Lucknow, so he will have to split his forces. I'm doing something differently this time and will pull the paras out of Benares next turn. If Tiger doesn't go back to Benares too quickly I'll fly some infantry in to hold the base and cause trouble. I intend to do this at most of the empty inland Indian bases for a while, just to see how Tiger reacts.

My armored regiments in northeastern China caught up with the Hopei Militia again this turn and will attack them again next turn. However, Tiger's bombers attacked one of my Infantry Divisions a hex to the east of my armored units, so Tiger now knows that I have at least one Division on the way to Lanchow. What I'm hoping that he doesn't realize is that I've got 5 infantry divisions on their way. [;)]

[Dive Bomber1]

March 27, 1942 – My incoming bombardment TF at Macassar caught the final two Dutch PTs and sank both of them, and then it did another nice bombardment. Otherwise things were fairly quiet during the night. During the day air battles provided the majority of action.

Singkawang was rained out again, which affected both of us. My planes didn't fly and AuTiger's B-17s from Soerabaja didn't find the target. Tiger's anti-ship bombers didn't fly against my departing TFs from Pontianak; whether that was due to my LR CAP or bad weather I don't know.

Elsewhere my air forces mounted a couple of very nice large air attacks. The regular massive attack of Sallys on Batavia went as usual, but even nicer, my mass attack on Ichang finally flew all at once. What I put into the air at the same time was: 111 Nates, 9 Oscars, 9 Tojos, 59 Sonias, 32 Annes, and 22 Lilies, which went up against a couple of dozen I-16cs and I-153cs. Around 40 Chinese fighters were either shot down or destroyed on the ground against the loss of only a couple of Japanese planes. It will be interesting to see if Tiger pulls back or if he throws more forces into the battle.

Other than the usual air-to-ground attacks in India/Burma, the important Allied air attacks were air-to-sea attacks of Hudsons flying out of Darwin against a not-very-Fast Transport TF that was heading to Timor. As has been the case more often than not, the Hudsons were fairly successful against my APDs, hammering one and hitting a few others. But the main force is continuing on to Dili and should land overnight.

One interesting thing is that it appears that Koepang is vacant. If this is true I will change my plans and land there next instead of at Lautem, because of the bigger airfield at Koepang. To find out for certain I'm sending a bombardment TF there from Amboina to check it out.

In China my armoured regiments kicked the Hopei Militia back yet another hex towards Lanchow. There is only one hex more for them to go. At the moment I can't tell if Lanchow and the other northern Chinese bases are occupied by anything other than base forces, but I am assuming that there are some troops there. Never-the-less, I am betting that I surprise Tiger when 5 divisions show up "at the door".

In India Lucknow was recaptured by the Brits, but Tiger is running out of units and is trying to block one of my paratroop units with little artillery units. I'll have to stretch him a little bit more now that I know that. [;)]

[ny59giants]

In retrospect, I made some pretty silly decisions regarding transport conversions at the beginning of the game. The next time I start a game I will focus my efforts on AR and AS conversions so that I can improve the repair capacities of my rear area ports. I have accumulated a lot more damaged ships and subs that I expected to have done by now.

I see this area easily overlooked by players until they are needed. It is something that should be done on Day 1 or ASAP. As the Allies, I do it with what is at start in San Fran (about 5 to AR's). With the poor damage control of the Japanese, they may end up saving a CV or two.[&o][&o]

I have read a lot in Tiger's AAR and I don't understand your India strategy. Care to enlighten me??

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

In retrospect, I made some pretty silly decisions regarding transport conversions at the beginning of the game. The next time I start a game I will focus my efforts on AR and AS conversions so that I can improve the repair capacities of my rear area ports. I have accumulated a lot more damaged ships and subs that I expected to have done by now.

I see this area easily overlooked by players until they are needed. It is something that should be done on Day 1 or ASAP. As the Allies, I do it with what is at start in San Fran (about 5 to AR's). With the poor damage control of the Japanese, they may end up saving a CV or two.[&o][&o]

I have read a lot in Tiger's AAR and I don't understand your India strategy. Care to enlighten me??

As far as transport conversions go, I did convert a number of transports to ARs and AS units right off the bat, but I also created a number of AVs and AEs which, in retrospect, were a total waste of resources.

As far as my "Indian strategy" goes... hmmm...

Let's just say that Churchill wouldn't feel so bad about Galipoli in WWI or Greece in WW2 after watching me...

Essentially, I wanted to distract Tiger from his 4E bombing campaign and maybe capture his big air bases. But I quickly found out that he had more troops available than I thought. (I had thought that he had moved his troops to the Burmese border.) I then tried to establish a beachhead but picked probably the worst place on the entire coast. I was also surprised by the ability of his LBA to attack my ships successfully. I also didn't send any surface combat TFs along and couldn't protect my invasion fleets. One thing piled up after another and pretty soon I had frittered away the entire operation.

So my "Indian Idiocy" is a prime example of how a blitzkrieg attack should never be run... Essentially I "reacted" to a situation instead of going with my plans and wasted a lot of time, and (fortunately only) some forces.

My message to my readers:

"Don't try this at home!" [X(] [:D]

Thanks for your comments.

[ny59giants]

You seem to be enjoying what I consider the most important two principals in PBEM.
Have FUN and learn from your mistakes.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

You seem to be enjoying what I consider the most important two principals in PBEM.
Have FUN and learn from your mistakes.

I don't know about "learning from my mistakes", because I'll happily try this again in some other pbem... but next time I'll make different mistakes!

I'm certain that an early invasion of India ought to work - the only thing is to plan it out and bring enough fire power to establish a strong local base. Ceylon is the obvious "smart" target - the only thing is to resist the temptation to go after the mainland with insufficient forces...

Thanks -

[ny59giants]

It's hard to land "successfully" in India without KB and a fair amount of troops. I think it has to be done while the Japanese still have the invasion bonus, as the longer you wait, the greater your chance of disaster (not that you know anything about that). [:D][:D]
I think a "realistic" goal for the Japanese is to capture the SE corner of India via seaborne invasion and dig in. How you go about it, is up to personal preference. But, taking Ceylon is a good start to keep the Royal Navy out of the way.

[Dive Bomber1]

March 28, 1942 - I'm beginning to feel that AuTiger has set a benchmark for the defense of India with his approach in this game, and there has been nothing that I could do to stop him. This turn, after two months of struggling through the jungle at a mile a day, one of my infantry divisions finally crossed the river to reach Kohima, and during the mandatory shock attack I found out that Tiger now had three Chinese infantry units there along with a Brit infantry unit and a Brit base force. Once again Tiger was able to fly SEAC-Chinese units into a base to stop my attack.

What this approach has done is to allow Tiger to put Chinese infantry units in all of the border bases and free up most of his British units, and most importantly his Indian armored units, to stop any incursion into India proper. And what is more, Tiger brought almost ALL of the SEAC units into India or the Burmese border - for example, Tiger has 18 units at Myitkyina!

This is a doubly powerful approach for Tiger, because it not only means that I can't capture his border bases, but it also means that I can't pull back from the border because he can then race down the rail line and threaten Mandalay. So I'm stuck with bleeding steadily at the border bases or else losing Burma and putting Indo-China under an even greater threat than is already in place thanks to the 150 4E bombers that Tiger has safely based at the inland Bengal air bases.

What made this work was that Tiger had his strategy planned out right from the very start. He flew his 4E bombers and his C-47s from the West Coast across the Pacific to India in December 1941, long before I was in any position to cut off the in-between airbases. Because of the massive replacements that the Allies get for B-17s, B-24s, and especially C-47s, Tiger could afford to take big operational losses during the transit and then still have plenty of planes to rebuild his air units.

The only things that have saved me so far from total disaster in the Far East are: Number 1 - the Advanced Weather - which prevents Tiger from flying as often as he wants, and number 2, my misbegotten raid on India which caused Tiger to pay attention to removing my raiding forces for a few weeks before he got back to the business of destroying my forces in Burma.

So I'm at a total loss as to what to do. Tiger has slowed down my advances everywhere, so I don't have the forces available for a full-scale invasion of India, and it is probably too late to try it by now anyway. And with Tiger's willingness and ability to fly huge numbers of Chinese infantry wherever he wants means that he can bog down any invasion anyway while his 4E bombers hammer anything that I land or sail around.

From my perspective I've effectively lost the game now because I've lost the momentum in Burma and it is only a matter of time before Tiger brings overwhelming force against me in Indo-China. If start to pull back troops and forces now to try to build up a defense in Indo-China I've also lost because that will just allow Tiger to start to move massive US forces into the Central Pacific early if I'm not posing a threat of expansion there.

The "lesson learned" that I'm taking away from this pbem match is that it is absolutely mandatory that the Japanese player make a very, VERY serious attack on the Bay of Bengal bases, and as early in the game as absolutely possible, maybe even from Day 1. Unless those Bengal airbases are captured early on the Allied player can gain untouchable supremacy in the region all for the cost of a few planes lost to operational damage.

Also, I've been thinking all along how hard it has been to play with PDU "off" in this game, but it has turned out to be the one real "blessing" for me because otherwise I would be facing hundreds of 4E bombers all over the map instead of only in India, Java and Australia.

In any event, while the "shadow of doom" slowly stretches further and further into Indo-China I am still keeping up the Bushido Spirit and maintaining my planned expansion. Maybe I'll keep on going eastwards as Tiger follows behind, until I make a last stand in San Diego… <L>

So my troops captured Balikpapan this turn, and in a bit of luck, Tiger's troops retreated to Samarinda instead of further along the coast. Therefore, I've redirected the invasion TF that was heading towards Macassar and will have them land in Samarinda instead. I've also redirected my bombers and naval bombardment TFs to get back to pounding Samarinda.

In another surprise, Tiger stopped trying to put CAP up over Ichang, so my second-line fighters and bombers continue to look like heroes as they pounded the air fields again and destroyed more Chinese planes on the ground. Tiger is now much more interested in attacking my advancing troops near Lanchow. He apparently doesn't want to spend the Political Points to change the control of his Chinese units to a non-restricted command, so he is marching troops to the north instead of flying them in. But that's okay for him; his troops will still get there long before my troops do. And this hasn't caused Tiger to pull back any troops from Yenen, so his line still hasn't stretched enough for me to penetrate it anywhere. I've come to the conclusion that it isn't possible to make serious gains in China unless the Allied opponent allows himself to be cut off, or retreats.

In any event, in response to what I've learned from Admiral Laurent's AAR, I'm sending a fresh naval base force to Onnekotan Jima in an attempt to build a nearby air field to support Paramushiro Jima. And if Tiger gives me the time I will send a couple of base forces and infantry units to take the outer Aleutians, just to keep Tiger a bit "honest" while he prepares his counter-offensive.

[ny59giants]

You have learned that the Japanese can lose the war in the first 3 months while it is harder for the Allies to do so in that time span. Add the learning of the production system and you see why many players want to play the Allied side. The learning curve is not so steep. [:-][:-]
&nbsp;
I know you are playing the stock game and that means you will soon feel the weight of 4e bombers raining death from everywhere. [X(][X(]
&nbsp;
The strategy of the Japanese player when it comes to India/Burma has to be weight against taking the islands in the East Pacific and slowing down the eventual counter-offensive (plus Chian and any invasion of norther Australia). The problem is, that KB cannot be at&nbsp;all these&nbsp;places at the same time. [:(][:(]
&nbsp;
I hope you continue the game to end and use it as a learning experience for the next time. [8D][8D]