Hunting the AuTiger - an AAR (no Tigers please)

[Dive Bomber1]

May 26, 1942 - After another quiet night (with the exception of the sounds of the swatting of flies and Blenheim IFs) my "moles" popped up successfully again to strike very nicely around China. First off, two Daitais of Zeros and a Daitai of Sonias hit Yenen nicely, and this time the Zeros whacked the I-16cs there very well, shooting down 11 of the pests and hitting more on the ground. Next a number of air attacks hit Changsha from various air bases with Sonias, Sallys, Bettys and Nells all joining in the fun with no CAP in the air and no flak from the ground.

AuTiger is trying to figure out what to do here, so he has moved fighters back into Homan, and there were obviously plenty of planes in Chungking, but the Weather Gods didn't smile upon him this turn. So, satisfied with my results, I pulled back all of my attackers for well deserved R&R and will let AuTiger chase "phantoms" to his heart's content next turn (weather permitting).

Despite bad weather AuTiger's air units chased phantoms in Burma this turn, but they hit empty "mole holes" in Moulmein and Mandalay and took a fair amount of damage thanks to AA and my Best Friend, the Weather. And what was nice was that his bombers went after my air fields instead of my resources or oil, and air fields repair much more quickly.

BTW - despite pulling a number of my "moles" back to nice quiet backwater "holes" I still have a number of air units set to strike different targets next turn - Weather permitting.

Elsewhere things were reasonably quiet except for the odd artillery duel at the Chinese Front Lines. I now have 5700 AV points worth of troops besieging Changsha, but I am still waiting for more troops to arrive. When I finally strike I want to have good results instead of the usual frustrating results.

The fortifications at Soerabaja reached level 1 last turn, thanks to the huge number of engineers that are imbedded in my forces there. So I stopped building forts and turned my troops to the business of improving the Port to level 9 from its current level 8. That should also only take a couple of days.

A second Dutch straggler unit reached Samarinda today, but there still wasn't an Allied attack, nor did my attacking bombers cause any casualties. So those units must both be pretty much wiped out. It looks to be two or three more days before the TF with my small combat units reaches Samarinda and puts an end to the misery of the Dutch. This will be good for our sync-issues too in case there are fragments of these units sitting back in Australia.

I started to assign new "objectives" for some of my units in Soerabaja. Some were set to targets in northern and western Australia, other to targets in Ceylon, and even one to Dutch Harbor, just in case AuTiger wonders why I am targeting everywhere BUT the Aleutians. [;)]

[Dive Bomber1]

May 27, 1942 - AuTiger seems to have ticked-off the Weather Gods in this Game because the only Allied planes that flew this turn were the Blenheim IFs during the night phase and a few Catalinas during the day phase. Fortunately, my spread out air attacks escaped the full wrath of the WGs and several groups of Sallys hit Changsha while another Sally group hit Yunan, just to keep AuTiger on guard.

AuTiger has now brought about half of his Asian air force back to India and left half in China, mainly in Chungking. There are also a good number of fighters in Homan - I suspect that they are P-40s on LR CAP. In any event, I pulled back and sat down the air units that flew this turn and brought up fresh ones to several different bases. Sonias and some naval LBA will go after Changsha again, with some A6M3s along for escort, and Bettys and Nells, escorted by A6M2s, will hit one of the Indian air bases that doesn't appear to have CAP at the moment. Sure, AuTiger might get lucky and get his 4Es to hit the bases where I have located my current attackers, but he has so many choices, and there is so much bad weather, that I'll take that chance.

The Dutch "ghost" units at Samarinda were attacked from the air again but suffered no casualties. They also again didn't attack the base. My troops ought to land in another turn or two. If nothing else, my air units are getting practice for their replacement pilots.

The first air support units ought to reach Soerabaja next turn, so I put a Nate Daitai into the air base just in case having it on CAP helps to reduce the odds of B-24s striking the oil fields at long distance. AuTiger has a very large number of planes in Darwin right now, so I need to figure out some relatively "safe" way to keep him nervous about that region. I am about to land a base force at Sorong, so that ought to have him thinking a bit because I usually build up a number of air bases in a region before I start a major offensive.

The Allied air presence in the South Pacific remains light other than at Noumea, so my little "nuisance" invasion force might make it to Wallis Island without any problems. I also have a nice cruiser/destroyer TF going along just in case AuTiger does what I would do in that situation and sends a surface combat fleet to try to intercept my transports once he realizes that they are unloading. Of course, if he sends some of the US CVs I'll have everyone run off in different directions, but that will be useful information in itself, because I treat all of my forward bases as "canaries in a coal mine".

In other important news, the KB finally reached port in the Home Islands for the first time in over six months. They will undergo R&O for the next couple of game-weeks before I move them to the north-east. More troops reached Tokyo for their own R&O while other already rested troops headed off to Paramushiro Jima. I've also called in all of my BBs to the Home Islands for R&O and also to participate in the upcoming operation. I've got cruiser squadrons in the Far East, DEI, South Pacific, and Central Pacific to take care of any need for surface action. In fact, I will likely send several of them out for "demonstrations" early in June to help keep AuTiger from becoming complacent. [;)] [:D]

[Dive Bomber1]

May 28, 1942 - This evening portion of this Turn was totally quiet as AuTiger, or the Weather, kept the Blenheim IFs at home. Even the day turn was relatively quiet, particularly from the Allied perspective, as Weather affected a lot of the regions. The only Allied air action was in the South Pacific where B-17s whacked one of my subs in the region. That sub is now limping home with lots of damage.

Most of my planned air attacks on Changsha didn't fly due to the weather, but for some reason a couple of Sonias did hit the airfields. Once again there was no CAP over the base. AuTiger also pulled back about half of his fighters in Homan and they are now sitting in Chungking. It looks like he is expecting a renewed air assault on Chungking. Instead I have set a number of Sallys, Bettys and Nells in coastal bases to hit Changsha again next turn, along with some good Zeros on Escort just in case AuTiger decides to put some LF CAP over the base. (BTW - I now have over 6200 AV points besieging Changsha.)

The one air attack that did go well in China was on Yenen, which is currently empty of Allied aircraft but it still gave my air units some good practice at damaging the airfields. Everything that I can do to use up Chinese supplies is a Good Thing. BTW - it looks like AuTiger may have finally moved another unit into the contested crossroads along the Burma Trail just to the east of Lashio. I will have another combat unit at that location in a couple of weeks too.

The Weather was particularly bad in India, so no Allied bombers flew. However, my Bettys, Nells and Zeros from Rangoon flew and hit Chandpur nicely. There were only 3 Hurricanes on CAP and my Zeros drove them off, with no losses on either side. My bombers dropped their loads accurately and caused a nice amount of damage to the airfields. Now AuTiger has to consider improving his CAP over Chandpur too.

As in China, my air units then "moved holes" and are back in Bangkok for R&O. This way, if AuTiger does get his 4Es to fly next turn there aren't any sitting ducks for him to hit. Just to keep him jumpy, I've set a Sally group in Indochina to hit one of the western Chinese air bases next turn. I don't intend to give the Allies in the Far East any rest.

The DEI remains quiet, without even any Allied subs around. I'm guessing that AuTiger has his subs back at their bases for R&O, or else he is using them as pickets closer to his main defensive lines. While this "pleasant" situation is in place I am busy moving as much oil and resources as possible back to the Home Islands and other industrial sites.

BTW - my bombers in Borneo had more easy practice this turn against the Dutch "ghost" troops at Samarinda. The TF with my combat troops finally arrived this turn and after they unload they will take care of the Dutch once and for all. And a number of transport ships also arrived at Soerabaja, so I will be able to start to move out the victors at my leisure.

In other news, my Wallis Island invasion TF is still unspotted, so it ought to land in a few more days. Therefore, I have ordered my covering surface combat TF to move closer before the final push. It will be interesting to see how AuTiger responds. Right now he is spending a lot of effort in the New Hebrides/New Caledonia area. So I have ordered more long range planes to fly Recon over Noumea just to keep him a bit nervous. I will also send in a couple of small Fast Transport TFs into the New Hebrides to distribute some supplies and pick up the isolated troops. This will make AuTiger even antsier.

In the meanwhile, the Home Islands remain abuzz with activity as more troops arrive and ships continue to be redistributed to various bases to spread out the naval repair activities. The Kuriles are also busy as more and more ships, troops, supplies and fuel arrive at various bases. Mid-to-late June will definitely be very interesting. [:D]

[Dive Bomber1]

May 29, 1942 - The forces on both sides got good nights sleep again this turn as there was once again no action during the night phase. But things picked up nicely during the day phase as many of my units went into action.

The Allied forces in China received the bulk of the attention from my air units this turn as my bombers hit Changsha, Wuchow, Kweiyang and various land units outside of bases. There was no Allied CAP present and little flak so my pilots enjoyed the practice.

I've decided that I will try my luck with my ground forces at Changsha again next turn. I currently have 6300 AV worth of units there, along with a couple of good HQs, and it will be a couple of weeks before more good units arrive, so there didn't seem to be any more reason to wait around. My units will probably take horrendous casualties again, but I want to find out if the Chinese have weakened any.

In addition to the ground effort, I have once more repositioned my air units in China and have even set two Zero Daitais to "sweep" Homan. My Intel reports that the number of fighters at the base has been reduced, so I am hoping to catch AuTiger with his guard down a bit.

Elsewhere in the Far East, AuTiger sent his Liberators from India to hit the port at Rangoon. I have kept a damaged PC in port at Rangoon as a "decoy" and it did its job well. For the first time the 4Es ran into heavy flak and 4 bombers were shot down along with a couple dozen more that were damaged. That ought to keep that air group out of action for a while. And as "frosting", there was no damage to the port.

My bombers in Borneo hit the "ghosts" at Samarinda again this turn, and at the end of the turn those two Dutch units "gave up the ghost" and were no more. I have a couple of smallish LCUs in Samarinda now and once they rest up I will probably send the larger unit off into the jungle to finish off the remaining Dutch stragglers, unless my bombers do that first.

My patrols and recon units brought home a number of interesting reports this turn. For the first time some Allied transports were spotted along the western map edge. I have a submarine there, so I will see if it can catch them. I have a few Nell groups within range, but my experience is that my Nells will never fly at near maximum range to attack any ships.

There was interesting news from the South Pacific too. I had increased recon over Noumea in response to an increased number of ships in the region, and although my planes found that there was a lot of flak over the base, they also found out that there wasn't any CAP. So I may try some long range bombing in a couple of turns.

Finally, the CVE Long Island was spotted in a convoy at Canton Island, probably dropping off some fighters. Since I already had a surface combat TF in the neighborhood I redirected it to try to intercept the L.I., just in case I can get some "cheap" victories. It's been a long time since I've been able to attack any Allied shipping. BTW - My Wallis Island invasion forces is still undetected and it should land in two more days, so a "distraction" around Canton will help that effort out too.

[Dive Bomber1]

May 30, 1942 - Nothing happened during the night phase again, despite my efforts to hunt the Allied transports along the Western Edge with my sub. The day time brought some Allied action for the first time in a while, and many of my attacks went off too, despite less-than-optimum weather.

As usual, most air action took place in China. AuTiger's B-17s took off for the first time in a while and hit the airfields at Nanchang. In a change of pace, they didn't catch my bombers on the ground and so my Sonias were able to hit the airfields at Changsha quite hard. Other Japanese bomber groups hit various Chinese front line bases and there was no CAP at any of them. My Zeros also did a sweep over Homan but AuTiger didn't have any of his fighters there on CAP, so the sweep was for naught. So as usual I moved my air units afterwards and set up for fresh air attacks next turn.

BTW - my Deliberate Attack on Changsha reduced the fortifications down to Level 5, but still resulted in a 0:1 attack. So I lost tons of troops, but fortunately for a change the Chinese lost lots of troops too, but still not as many as me. So I will be sitting back and bombarding again for a couple of weeks before my reinforcements arrive.

In Burma B-24s hit the port at Rangoon again, and damaged that poor PC even more. The weather is worst in that region, so I'm sitting out my planes another day before I send them to hit a target in India again. AuTiger still has his transports sitting in Myitkyina under heavy Hurricane CAP, and I suspect that he is flying troops back into China - maybe into Changsha. So I am bringing forward a fresh Zero Daitai and will fly LR CAP over Changsha as soon as the Zero pilots are rested up a bit.

Things are about to liven up in the South Pacific. AuTiger has sent some sort of combat TF north of New Caledonia. I can't tell if it is a surface combat TF or an air combat TF with its air patrols sitting "quiet". In any event I ordered all of my ships in the region back to safer bases and brought more LBA forward. Next turn ought to show me what AuTiger is up to.

AuTiger will find out what I am up to further to the East next turn too, as TFs near Wallis Island and Canton Island were undetected again this turn. And the Allied transport TF was still in port at Canton Island this turn. Next turn my cruisers and destroyers will sweep Canton Island on a combat attack - it would be nice if they found some targets still around. (I'm not bothering with a bombardment with such light ships.) And my Wallis Island invasion may start to unload next turn. I wonder what sort of hornet's nest I am stirring up in the region?

[Dive Bomber1]

May 31, 1942 - It's nice to have something work as planned [:D] The night portion of this turn wasn't as quiet as the past few nights; British DDs swept mines off of Colombo, US DDs hammered a Japanese sub south of Noumea, and the IJN found come very juicy targets at Canton Island.

Yes, my cruiser/destroyer surface combat TF found a nice, big, and unprotected US transport convey at Canton, and almost everyone got to fire something at the enemy during two rounds of battle:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Canton Island at 98, 99

Japanese Ships
CL Abukuma
CL Tenryu
CL Yubari, Shell hits 1
DD Yugumo
DD Akatsuki, Shell hits 1
DD Mutsuki
DD Kisaragi
DD Minazuki
DD Akikaze
DD Yakaze
DD Hokaze
DD Tachikaze
DD Nokaze
DD Namikaze
DD Kasasagi
DD Hayabusa
DD Sagi

Allied Ships
PG Kiwi
AV Pocomoke, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AP Moreton Bay
AP Wanganella
AP Bloemfontrin, Shell hits 1
TK Frank G Drum
TK Mexicos H Whittier
TK Paul Shoup, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
TK Solana
TK Captain A.F. Lucas
TK District of Columbia
TK D.G. Scofield
TK F.H. Hillman
TK Larry Doheny
TK H. M. Storey
MSW Bungaree
MSW Outarde, Shell hits 3, on fire
AVD Casco, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage



The AVD sank later while trying to escape. My ships sustained no serious damage and are already just about out of LBA range of Canton Island. And since there weren't any bombers at Canton this turn my ships will definitely be out of range if AuTiger sends any bombers in next turn.
This turned out to be superb timing because my Wallis Island invasion force landed this turn too and captured the base in a shock attack. And the B-17s at Noumea flew against Luganville, suffering some nice damage and causing no significant damage. So AuTiger has to do some thinking about his South Pacific strategy now.

BTW - during the turn my patrol planes still spotted the Allied combat TF out around halfway between Noumea and Luganville, but its whereabouts were lost by the end of the turn. It may have just been a sub-hunting TF, but it could also be one of the "decoy" TFs that AuTiger has used in the past to try to lure the KB out into his side of the Front. But the KB is far away and much too busy to bother with decoy fleets.

Weather was a factor in China as usual this turn, but a number of my smaller raids did fly. Once again there was no CAP anywhere over the Front in China. So I did another massive shifting of air units and have set up my biggest multi-base, multi-plane attack yet, this time on the airfields at Homan. My recon is still reporting fighters and miscellaneous planes on the ground, so I am sending in hundreds of bombers that are being escorted by over a hundred of my best Zeros. With any luck at all they ought to cause some significant damage.

My daily raids on Changsha will also continue with my second line planes. The only region where I am resting my air units is in Burma where the weather is just too bad to bother trying to fly. If things clear up a bit next turn then I will stage another major air raid in that region.

Otherwise, June 1 will bring upgrades for a large number of my DDs along with some CLs for the first time. Almost all of the ships that are due for upgrade are already in ports that have ship repair facilities, so the entire operation ought to go smoothly. BTW - although a lot of ships will undergo upgrade all at once, I still have enough of the Combined Fleet in fighting order to continue along with my mid-June operations.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 1, 1942 - The night phase was back to being quiet this turn. In fact, AuTiger was pretty certain that my attack on Canton was a "one-time thing" and he had his transports back in the base again this turn. That's a safe guess on his part, and I don't have anything else around that can attack him; particularly since my Bettys and Nells haven't attacked any ships since the first few weeks of our game.

The day turn saw lots of air action as my Changsha air attacks took off as usual and were unopposed, and also my multi-base attacks on Homan went off too. The results for the attacks on Homan were disappointing - a few P-39s were destroyed on the ground, but they were hit during the first two air attacks. The final three air attacks only damaged the air fields.

AuTiger got off 4E air attacks this turn, with a group of B-17s hitting Canton and more B-17s hitting Port Moresby. Both attacks caused little damage, although the attack on Canton stopped my bombers from flying, despite the fact that there was negligible destruction. I don't understand the rules governing bombing attacks and why the Allied air attacks seem to get a "jump" all the time and can "negate" air attacks from the Japanese bases.

In any event, I moved all of my air units in Mainland Asia again this turn and have long range bombers and Zeros attacking Chandpur again next turn. We'll see if they cause any significant damage.

[princep01]

Dive, one reason your Bettys and Nells might not fly naval/port attacks against Canton Is. is that you have not assigned enough escort to them.  I know the Zero can fly that far (from Tarawa).   Because Canton Is. might be populated with a large number of fighters, you might have to really pour on the escorts, but otherwise, I see no reason for those bombers just to sit if you have ordered them to do other things.  Of course, frequent Emily/Mavis recon of that bastion is also a good idea if you aren't doing that.
 
Don't know why the Allied bombing raids seem to get the jump on you alot.  Maybe it's the way you hold your mouth:).
 
Just some thoughts. 

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: princep01

Dive, one reason your Bettys and Nells might not fly naval/port attacks against Canton Is. is that you have not assigned enough escort to them.  I know the Zero can fly that far (from Tarawa).   Because Canton Is. might be populated with a large number of fighters, you might have to really pour on the escorts, but otherwise, I see no reason for those bombers just to sit if you have ordered them to do other things.  Of course, frequent Emily/Mavis recon of that bastion is also a good idea if you aren't doing that.

Don't know why the Allied bombing raids seem to get the jump on you alot.  Maybe it's the way you hold your mouth:).

Just some thoughts. 

I suspect that I am doing something fundamentally wrong with the way that I am using my Bettys and Nells. They all have pilots with high experience, I have good commanders in charge of the bomber units, I have lots of air patrols flying around, I am reconning promising targets... but the planes won't fly out and strike at ships, even when there is little or no CAP.

They will fly recon, even against heavy CAP, and they will fly bombing missions, even if I don't have overwhelming escort numbers.

But I never see the long range anti-ship attacks that happen against me when I play the Allies.

This isn't just in this particular pbem, but in all of my pbems. That's why I think that I am doing something fundamentally wrong. (It probably is the way that I hold my mouth... [:D] )

Thanks for the ideas.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 2, 1942 - AuTiger has been mentioning the Battle of Midway, so I thought that I would "indulge" him a bit and send some Mavis on recon over the base. AuTiger is keeping most of his outer Pacific bases lightly defended under the assumption that he can quickly bring up the US CVs and LBA. His weak spot in this theory is in the central South Pacific where there are still a number of bases that are unoccupied. If I were inclined I might go after more of those bases in order to put more pressure on the Allied supply lines between the US West Coast and Noumea/NZ/Australia, but I'm busy elsewhere at this time. In any event, AuTiger is allowing me to reinforce my existing bases, including Wallis Island, without interference, so I can't complain.

There was night action at sea this turn. AuTiger sent out some British DDs to hunt down one of my Glen-equipped spy subs off of Ceylon, and the DDs did their job and sent the sub limping home with plenty of damage. Then in a very rare turn of events one of my subs put a torpedo into a US DD at Dutch Harbor and sank it. My subs usually do worse than the US subs, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Things continued to be surprisingly quiet in the air in China. My air attacks on Changsha went unopposed again, but there were no air attacks from the US 4Es despite good weather across most of the country. And even in Burma the 4Es didn't fly, although British 2Es hit my troops on their way to the Burma Road. I guess AuTiger is getting a bit nervous about the buildup of forces to the east of Lashio.

Things are heating on the ground in China. My besieging troops caused an unusually large number of casualties with this turn's artillery bombardment - over 1400! It is more normal for them to cause 200 to 300. I'm not sure what is happening, but I certainly hope that this isn't a fluke. AuTiger finally committed his troops from Ichang - he is attempting to cut my supply lines instead of attacking Wuhan. So I immediately ordered the two big divisions at Wuhan to march towards Changsha. This way they will protect the railway while they are enroute, and will also add to my offensive capability at Changsha.

It is becoming a bit of a race-against-time to see if I can wear down the defenders of Changsha before AuTiger can bring in fresh troops, but at least it is keeping him occupied there and out of mischief in the rest of China. What does surprise me is that AuTiger isn't trying to bomb any of my troops in the region.

My Bettys and Nells hit the airfields at Chandpur again this turn. This time there was no CAP. Never-the-less, my bombers caused little damage, there were no Allied planes on the ground to destroy, and the flak was heavy and accurate, so all-in-all, it was a waste of my time. I pulled back my bombers and Zeros from Rangoon and will now re-think my options in the region.

My 2Es in the DEI are still bombing "ghosts" in Borneo. Sometimes they cause casualties, many times they don't. I am repositioning most of my Army bomber units in the region to go on naval air patrol, which is important because Allied subs are starting to show up again. AuTiger's 2Es from Darwin scouted my transports at Timor this turn, but since I have a couple of Daitais of Army fighters there the bombers didn't attack. I am moving a third base force to Timor so all three bases will have air capability. I am also positioning some surface combat ships to do a bit of raiding. I want AuTiger to keep "alert" in that region.

Otherwise, things are going along pretty much to plan. I may delay my "Northern Adventure" a couple more weeks in order to be better prepared, but I still have a fair amount of "Summer" available before the weather in the North gets really bad again. I am still debating my initial approach to the Operation - do I attempt a quasi-diversion to start or go all out across the entire Front? We will have to see how well my other diversions go.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 3, 1942 - This was another relatively quiet turn, with a few exceptions. Another of my subs attempted to "get lucky" at Dutch Harbor, but instead the DDs on ASW patrol hammered it and sent it limping home. What was more interesting in the region was that an Air Symbol showed up at Adak for the first time. In light of that I decided to start my activities in a small way and ordered a three-ship TF to carry an NLF to Komandorski Island. After I take that "dot" I am sending the TF on towards Nome. I have the feeling that AuTiger has pulled his troops out of Nome and repositioned them further south. In any event, this will get things going.

Rain affected much of Mainland Asia and washed out most air operations. However, some of the smaller air attacks on Changsha flew as planned and kept the air fields damaged. The subsequent artillery bombardment again caused over 1400 casualties. I'm not sure what has changed, but maybe AuTiger is finally running out of supplies in China. Or else, maybe moving all those units in, out and around Ichang has used up his forward reserves of supplies. In any event, since the Attack Value of my troops at Changsha is once again over 6000 I have ordered another Deliberate attack.

Otherwise, both sides remained quiet. AuTiger finally sent his ships away from Canton Island - I guess that they unloaded all of their fuel and supplies. I have some subs in the area which will try to intercept the "empties". My cruiser and destroyer force finally made it to Tarawa and to Fuel. They were limping along on "fumes" for the past couple of turns. It's a good thing that AuTiger didn't chase them with the US CVs or I would have been in very big trouble.

And I am still shipping all the oil, resources and "extra" troops that I can back to the Home Islands. Now if only the Combined Fleet ships would get repaired a little faster. [&o] [&o] [&o]

[Dive Bomber1]

June 4, 1942 - The US DDs at Dutch Harbor chased down another of my subs and sent it limping home to the repair yards this turn. I use subs to gather info and much of that info comes at a cost. Oh well, it is better than being totally surprised. So now I know that AuTiger still has plenty of ships around Dutch Harbor, and also that his air base at Adak is growing very rapidly. It looks like once again AuTiger will get the "jump" on me and I will not be able to progress in the Aleutians without a very costly fight. I can only hope that the Advanced Weather slows down his airborne Death Squads.

Generally, I'm in a bad mood from this turn. My bombers hammered Changsha from all over the place, but the ground combat result was pretty much the same as usual: I lost three times as many troops as the Chinese and the fortifications went down by one to level 4. AuTiger keeps on bringing fresh troops into Changsha so I can't get that edge that I need, despite now having over 400,000 crack combat troops and several good combat generals in place.

Things aren't likely to get better soon because AuTiger kicked my unit out of the blocking position between Ichang and Changsha and has cut off the Japanese Division that was blocking the northern route out of Changsha. This will be an interesting test of my "understanding" of the ground movement system in this Game. Several turns ago, and specifically BEFORE the land connection between my Division and Wuhan was cut, I set the Division's objective to Wuhan. It started to move at the usual glacial pace (across open country) and even the daily bombardments by the Chinese troops in the hex didn't reset the movement.

Okay, so far, so good. But this turn after my other unit was kicked out of the hex between the Division and Wuhan, the movement of my Division was stalled at 10 miles. Hmmm - my understanding of the Movement rules is that if a unit has its objective set to a friendly base BEFORE it is cut off than it will continue to move towards the friendly base, EVEN through enemy troops. I have seen this happen against me several times in my pbems. However, maybe my understanding isn't quite correct this time. In any event, this type of lack of clarity in the Game Rules is what makes this Game occasionally much less enjoyable than it should be. It's one thing for a player to make a stupid mistake, and I make plenty of those. But it is quite another thing to have rules which aren't clearly defined.

BTW - to add insult to injury, AuTiger didn't bother to send his 4Es against any of my Chinese air bases this turn; instead he sent a large number of B-17s to bomb the air fields and port at Hong Kong. A DD that has been sitting alone in Hong Kong harbor for weeks and weeks was hit by 5 bombs and is almost sinking again after being repaired from high damage levels to damage level 30. So it is clear that I can't use the port at Hong Kong to repair my ships.

In any event, I'm going to take some time and give a status update of sorts. The Intel Screen for June 4 is posted below, and here are some of the details within the numbers:

Air Losses:

Fighter Losses:

A6M2 = 490, Nates = 483, P-40s (both types) = 384

As you can see, AuTiger has done a masterful job of hammering my fighters, either by catching them in traps or smashing them on the ground. I have been totally unable to do the same to him.

4E Bomber Losses:

B-17s (both) = 145, Liberators = 36

Considering the replacement rates for 4Es, it is easy to see from those feeble numbers why AuTiger can send his heavy bombers wherever he pleases.

Ship Losses (Highlights, ignoring most transports and miscellaneous ships):

Japan: 1 CV, 1 CVE, 1 CL, 7 DDs, 9 subs, 1 TK

Allies: 2 CV (1 British), 1 CL, 1 CLAA (British), 2 ADV, 2 AV, 8 DD, 4 subs

I guess that the good news here is that I have only lost one tanker so far. But the bad news is that I wasn't able to significantly damage the Allied navies during the first six months of the War.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 5, 1942 - The night phase was quiet, then the day phase came and everything went "south" again. Okay, "everything" isn't correct, because some things went okay. My air attacks in China, for example, flew for the most part and were unopposed. But I've got to believe that this is because AuTiger can't be bothered at this time to go after my recovering air units.

It was on the Ground that things continued to deteriorate. A third division finally crossed the river to the east of Lashio and was hammered during the automatic river-crossing "Shock Attack". I can understand why Allied players like this feature - this slows down the Japanese advance tremendously during the first six months of the Game. And because of the placement of the rivers, once the Allied player starts to counterattack the Allied forces don't have to cross rivers to attack most of the forward Japanese bases in Burma or China.

The artillery attacks that followed the air attacks on Changsha were back to causing a few hundred Allied casualties again, instead of the 1400+ that had been occurring for the previous two turns. The AV value of my troops at Changsha was once again over 6000, but much of that was due to the arrival of another relatively fresh infantry division. At the same time, the artillery attack showed that AuTiger had also brought more troops into Changsha.

I then decided to pull back my "left most" infantry divisions to rest them. This rather unfortunate "feature" of the Game that causes the certain units to take the brunt of most losses in combat is another reason that a player can't just blindly hammer-away against well defended positions. Instead, more micro-management is required to pull units out when they are selectively worn down by the Game Mechanism. However, when I checked beyond my first couple of infantry units I found that many of my original besiegers were depleted of combat engineers. Essentially, only those relatively "fresh" units that I had brought in lately were still truly combat ready.

At that point I realized that I had lost the race to grab Changsha, despite having reduced the fortifications down to level 4. So I decided to pull back all of my troops. I am sending my most weakened troops to Nanchang and my fresher troops to Wuhan. Sure, I know that once AuTiger realizes that I have given up he will re-start his 4E bombing campaign in a big way and likely move his massive Chinese armies forward, but this attack has failed as badly as my other earlier attacks. So against AuTiger's defense blitzkrieg attacks, flanking attacks and full frontal attacks have all failed for me in China.

Since AuTiger has taken to launching daily bombing attacks on my troops that are east of Lashio I have decided to give them orders to pull back too. I can't see a way that I can bring those troops up to strength enough to dislodge the Chinese units on the trail.

This is all very discouraging. Sure, I could rant and rave against the weaknesses in the Ground Movement and Ground Combat models and blame them for my lack of success, but the reality is that I played right into all of those weaknesses and as such allowed the Game to become AuTiger's ally in the battle. Now that I know better, I am playing the Ground Game much differently in my newer pbems, but that doesn't help me here. The seeds that I planted at the beginning of this game have now yielded and I have to harvest what I've sown.

Otherwise, things were relatively quiet in most regions. My small bombardment TF out of Lautem was spotted halfway to Oz and attacked by Hudsons and their escorts, but I had a decent Oscar Daitai on LR CAP and there was no damage. It's a bit frustrating that I haven't yet been able to sneak in for an attack, but at least this way I will have AuTiger's attention. I am setting up for a couple more similar attacks in different regions, and maybe I'll be luckier with those.

In the meanwhile, I am getting the rain that I need in the North, so things will liven up in that region soon.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 6, 1942 - Yet another quiet night passed. The day was almost equally quiet. Most of my air attacks in China flew, but I was using second line air units and masking the fact by sending out large numbers of them from multiple bases. Once again there was no Allied opposition. The only Allied air attack was in Burma on my troops to the east of Lashio.

The first phase of my withdrawal from Changsha went well and about half of the besieging troops pulled back successfully. The other half ought to make it out next turn. That will only leave that lone division trapped to the north where it is stuck at 10 miles traveled. Once I rest up my better units at Wuhan I will send them out and attempt to re-establish supply lines. But I will go north of the river so that I can avoid the river crossing rules.

The big news this turn was that my first Aleutian invasion TF reached Komandorski Island this turn and unloaded. So my troops will capture their first piece of the Aleutians next turn. Invasion TFs for the next two islands are already on their way. For the moment I am attempting to make this appear as "yet another" of my minor expansions. We will see if AuTiger buys that or not.

[Historiker]

So now, you have fun with the Russians! [:D]

Was that the plan?

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: Historiker

So now, you have fun with the Russians! [:D]

Was that the plan?

No - The Russians appear to be too tough at this stage, and there isn't really a good reason to go after them.

What is important is stopping the Allied reinforcements - either by capturing India, or capturing the US West Coast. I've decided to try to capture the US West Coast.

That may sound very silly, but I am betting that AuTiger has sent a lot of his forces into the South Pacific and Australia. Therefore, I am sending all 10 of my good, experienced and full Divisions to Alaska, along with dozens of artillery, armor base force and other troops. I will try to quickly overwhelm the US forces in Alaska, grab the Canadian West Coast Bases, drop paratroops on the "United States" base, then send all ten divisions south along the West Coast.

What I am betting on is that at the beginning AuTiger will use my move into Alaska as a reason to start to move into the South/Central Pacific. But at this stage he doesn't have enough combat divisions to go very far.

I realize that the US gets six month's worth of reinforcements when a certain line is passed, but I'll take my chances.

Anyway, it will certainly be more interesting than just sitting around waiting for overwhelming numbers of 4-Engine bombers to blast my forces into dust... [:D]

[ctangus]

I think Historiker is referring to the fact that Komandorski is a Soviet base...

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: ctangus

I think Historiker is referring to the fact that Komandorski is a Soviet base...

It IS!!!???

Oh oh --- I didn't intend that...

Oooooooops -

(Ah s*h*i*t!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Historiker]

Yes, it is! Didn't the name sound russian to you?
Moreover, as far as I know, a massive rise of milita will come, when you enter the West Coast. So not even your 10 best Divisions will be enough - if I my memory doesn't trick me - and after you have been beaten, he has an extreme boost to for his land units...
If I were you, I would ask Tiger to allow you to replay the last turn, because otherwise, the soviets shall be active...

[ctangus]

ORIGINAL: Historiker

If I were you, I would ask Tiger to allow you to replay the last turn, because otherwise, the soviets shall be active...

I agree - ask for a mulligan. IRL the Japanese would have known if they were invading Soviet territory or not. You might want to offer some concession (more palatable to you) elsewhere though - if I were playing you I'd give the mulligan but would want something in return.

Well good luck! Exciting AAR - Russians active? West Coast invasion? [:D][;)]