Hunting the AuTiger - an AAR (no Tigers please)

[Dive Bomber1]

If you allow him to use his B-17/24s on naval attack below 10k, you will be in big trouble very soon

We set very few house rules, and aircraft altitude wasn't one of them. I didn't realize how effective Allied LBA would be - even Hudsons are "Death on Wings", let alone better bombers. (In fact, in another of my pbems my opponent used Bolos quite effectively against some of my ships - talk about astonishment! [X(] )

I don't like going back after-the-fact and asking for changes mid-game so I'm just going to try to figure out how to live with the current situation. The big surprise for me is that the Allied LBA is so good so early in the game - I expected them to rule the air starting in late 42 at the earliest, not right from the start of the game.

[ny59giants]

Did you have any House Rules (HR) about the ability to set bombers to Supply Transport over their own base to gain experience?? In my PBEM it is in exchange for the Japanese using China and any other by-passed base as training for his LBA. In stock, the Japanese player often uses China to train his squadrons up to the 80's in experience and then upgrades them to front line planes. If he is allowed to use the Supply Transport, then in less than 30 days he will have them up into the low 70's.
Then its "death from above." [:(]

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Did you have any House Rules (HR) about the ability to set bombers to Supply Transport over their own base to gain experience?? In my PBEM it is in exchange for the Japanese using China and any other by-passed base as training for his LBA. In stock, the Japanese player often uses China to train his squadrons up to the 80's in experience and then upgrades them to front line planes. If he is allowed to use the Supply Transport, then in less than 30 days he will have them up into the low 70's.
Then its "death from above." [:(]

As I wrote above, we didn't set many house rules. The main one that we did set was that we don't use submarines to transport troops to capture empty bases, to spy upon occupied bases, or to block coastal retreat paths. I think that we also agreed to limit the number of ships in dedicated ASW TFs.

I can't see why a house rule is needed about the transport thing that you mentioned, since both sides can do it if they want. Also, we've both been using our bombers pretty much non-stop against "real" targets so neither of us need to give them extra practice. In addition, we've both deliberately eliminated trapped enemy units. Sure our forces have gotten extra "training" while doing that, but it has been something that both sides can and have done.

So training isn't the issue in my experience. I see the same effect in my other pbems - even start-up pbems where the Allied forces don't have time to train. Allied bombers, even very lightly armed 2-engine patrol-bombers, almost always get through CAP, even large numbers of CAP where the fighter pilots have experience in the 80s and 90s. When the bomber pilots have low experience they miss their targets, but once they increase their experience they start to hit their targets, again despite the presence of CAP. I just can't understand why experienced CAP doesn't intercept and destroy or drive back more of the 2Es involved in naval attacks, particularly during the first few months of the War.

I've seen the same thing happen to the Allied CAP in other pbems where my opponents have risked their ships against the Japanese LBA (which is something that AuTiger has avoided doing in this pbem). In one pbem my opponent lost four carriers and dozens of surface ships against LBA in the DEI. Most of the LBA consisted of Sallys too, with only a few naval bombers getting into the fight. His CAP just didn't intercept the incoming Japanese bombers.

So in the absence of effective CAP I need to come up with different strategies to provide Air Defense, and at the moment the only effective strategy that I can see is to blast the main opposing air base with the KB in order to allow time to bring in troops to capture it. That worked for me early in this particular pbem in the DEI and Malaya where AuTiger brought the AVG in to ambush my land-based fighters. I just have to adopt that practice as a regular part of the way that I play this game instead of holding the KB back in the hopes of "surprising" the US CVs like I did for much of this particular game.

As far as air defense of land bases goes, my problem in this game in Burma and China is that I didn't bring enough air support troops in at the beginning so that I could set up multiple active air bases. It's relatively easy for either side to put one or two air bases out of operation; it's much harder to put seven or eight interconnected bases out of operation. Also, because I totally underestimated the defensive capability of the Chinese forces in this particular pbem I didn't capture any Chinese bases which means that AuTiger has plenty of air bases from which to harass my forces. (In previous pbems against AuTiger, as well as in my other pbems, I captured most of the front line Chinese bases early on. This time AuTiger came up with a good strategy to stop me, and I also split my forces too much.)

Thanks for the comments - posts like yours help me to learn about the Game and to collect my thoughts together in order to come up with better strategies.

[ny59giants]

It is hard for me to look at China as I'm playing CHS (never going back to a stock map). The initial disposition of forces is very different. By reading AAR's like Joe W's, he sees the need for the Japanese to use multiple AF to avoid being taken out by massive 4e raids. In stock, this is imperative. The Allied LB, except the Dutch, all carry 500 lb bombs in various amounts, except the 2 types of Hudsons. Thus, they will do serious damage when they hit anything smaller than a CA.

It is only the torpedo carrying planes that scare me as an Allied player. The Helen's and 4e Liz are the best LBA. [;)] I think the Japanese player needs to try to go heavily after destroying Allied BF and Aviation Support units early in the war. In CHS, I have the LBA, but needed to focus heavily on evac of aviation support units.

I know you have placed a lot of focus on the North Pacific front, but the weather and the Allies ability to use multiple bases for support will eventually wear you down. I would have gone for the Central Pacific as there are fewer interlocking bases and it would force him to attack them mainly with CV's to take them back.

Look at your overall strategy as how can you hurt the American Navy the most with minimal risk to your Navy?? Can you do this in the North Pacific?? IMO, No.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 20, 1942 - A combination of bad Intel and worse "intel" on my part, my usual useless CAP, bad weather luck and AuTiger's usual excellent use of his CVs caused this to be yet another bad turn as what I thought were incoming surface combat TFs turned out to be the US CVs.

Despite the fact that my patrol planes spotted the US CVs first thing in the morning the US CVs got off the first strikes against my CVs and my CAP was as useless against the USN divebombers as it usually is against US LBA. To add to the misery my return air strikes were fragmented. Then in the PM my CVs were socked in and the US divebombers and LBA got to go over some of my transports. BTW - the weather opened up enough for more US 2E bombers to come in from Dutch Harbor to hit more transports. No Japanese ships were sunk, but all of my CVs were badly damaged.

BTW - it appears that AuTiger has done the same thing that he did in previous games and replaced the torpedo bombers on his CVs with Marine divebombers, because although his ships were within range of Devastators, none flew. I do need to remember to put in a few more "house rules" in future pbems… [;)]

The USN surface fleet turned out to "defend" Nome from the already damaged, empty and retiring empty MSW and APs of the misbegotten invasion fleet. AuTiger was lucky again and achieved a mid-ocean intercept. I've decided to try my "luck" and I am sending a couple of surface combat TFs to try to intercept some of the US CVs, but the old saying about the "blind squirrel" doesn't tend to apply to me…

Elsewhere, things were rather quiet. AuTiger moved his P-40s to Changsha and intercepted a small incoming Sonia squadron, shooting down half of them. The Chinese LCUs near Canton kicked another of my units out of the way and are trying to isolate Canton. I've got units on the way, but not all of them are moving at the moment, for no obvious reason. But then, considering how goofed-up land movement usually is in this game, that shouldn't surprise me.

BTW - for those folks who were wondering about my distain for the Japanese LBA, one of my "crack" Nell units finally got a chance to go after a naval target in India. This is the first time that AuTiger has put any of his combat ships within close range of any of my LBA for around six-game months. (I don't count his raid on Baker Island, because although his DDs were within range of the bombers at Tarawa, they were at the edge of "normal" range.)

So my "crack" pilots, all with experience in the 80s and 90s, went after a lone British DD at about half "normal" range. Unlike the "Absolute Killer" Hudsons, the Nells didn't get a hit. [8|] (Anyone who thinks that you don't need some level of Luck in this game obviously doesn't play it enough.)

BTW 2 - my troops at Adak are bogged down, so it appears that the invasion is going to either fail miserably or my troops will be tied-up long enough for AuTiger to bring in enough reinforcements to keep me from expanding my current position. I guess its "Bye Bye Blitzkrieg" again.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 21, 1942 - Time is running very short for me in both Real Life and Game Life, and so Game Life will have to take something of a backseat for a while. I did sneak in a turn today, but I no longer have to time to spend hours agonizing over every unit on the map. Who knows, maybe that will make things better for me?

Certainly, my luck can't turn much worse at this point. My attempts to catch some of AuTiger's ships south of the Central Aleutians failed this turn, and my air units failed again to fly, but AuTiger's retiring CVs were able to launch some air attacks against one of my surface combat TFs and badly damaged a CL. AuTiger didn't send any surface ships to Adak this turn, but I suspect that he will next turn - probably a PT TF, but maybe also a "real" surface combat TF.

And as "luck would have it", or more accurately, as "bad planning would have it", my last surface combat TF in position at Adak has to go back for refueling this turn, so if AuTiger does send in his surface ships they will drive out my remaining transport TFs.

BTW - CVE Unyo sank this turn after being pounded by dive bombers the last turn. None of my other carriers are in particular danger, although most need a fair amount of repair time. I also found out what was up with the "missing" USN torpedo bombers - AuTiger had forgotten to change them from ASW to Naval attack, and since he has already chased all of my subs out of the region, there were none around for the Devastators to find.

BTW II - my landing at Adak is turning out very badly. I am really paying a heavy price for not preparing the landing properly. In retrospect, once I realized that AuTiger had forces on Adak I should have offloaded my troops at Kiska and begun a "revolving" bombardment of Adak with my surface ships, just like I did at Port Moresby. Oh well, yet another lesson learned as far as "Don't do that you Idiot!" goes for my future games.

BTW III - I have no idea what the Game is doing with LCU movement in China, but a couple of units that were stuck two hexes from Canton for a number of days without moving (being stuck at "30 miles") suddenly appeared in Canton this turn. I wonder if the Game Database was originally developed for the Government… [8|]

Elsewhere, AuTiger sent his B-17s in China to hit the airfields at Pakhoi, of all odd places. He destroyed a couple of Sonias on the ground in a partial Sonia unit that is trying to rebuild.

Otherwise, things are pretty quite in most parts of the map since I've moved the bulk of my forces to the Home Islands, Kuriles and Western Aleutians, where they are enjoying ungodly weather at every location.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 22, 1942 – I've run into a very odd yet consistent problem in LCU movement that is showing up in all of my pbems, but is a particular problem in this pbem. The situation occurs when I have a number of LCUs in a friendly, uncontested base, with no enemy zones of control or enemy units anywhere nearby, and a number of additional LCUs in an adjacent road or rail hex (which is also uncontested and not subject to any enemy zones of control) which leads to and from the base.

I can look at the LCUs in the Base, scroll through them, move planes in and out, change Base facility orders and so on with no problem. I can also look at the LCUs at the road/rail hex next to the base, scroll through them; give them movement orders and so on. But when I try to order an LCU in the Base to move to the adjacent road/rail hex and join the LCUs in that adjacent hex, the LCU in the Base doesn't move, and instead an LCU in the adjacent road/rail hex gets orders to "move" to its current position!

If I simply give a movement order to an LCU in the Base hex and "exit" from the LCU screen I don't notice anything odd unless I go back and look at that LCU again, in which case there will be no indication that it was given an order to move. However, if I now look at the LCUs in the adjacent road/rail hex which was the "movement objective" then I will see that one of the LCUs in that adjacent hex now indicates that it has received orders to move to its own hex, with a "direction" that corresponds to the direction that the original LCU in the Base hex would have received if it "accepted" the movement orders.

Now, if I give the same movement order to an LCU in the Base hex and click on the "next unit" button, instead of showing me the next LCU in the row of LCUs at the bottom of the Base screen, the screen will now "jump" to show me the "row screen" of the LCUs in the adjacent hex! I can now scroll through all of the LCUs in the adjacent hex, and my cursor is now "active" in the adjacent hex instead of the Base hex where it was!

This effect will happen repeatedly, regardless of which LCU in the Base hex is chosen for the move. However, if a different end objective is chosen for any LCU in the Base hex, other than that adjacent hex, the LCUs in the Base will now "accept" the movement order and eventually move to the "different" location.

I can't imagine a rationale to justify this as a "design feature", and it certainly costs time in Ground operations, so I would like to know if there is a way to prevent this, other than not setting up the conditions that result in this problem. As you can well imagine, not being able to send LCUs along a road/rail in the direction that you want can be a real pain at times in this Game.

Okay, back to the rest of the Game. The Weather was in my favour this turn to an extent, as AuTiger moved his CVs to the hex directly to the northeast of Adak this turn, but his bombers only flew patrols and didn't attack any of the transports that were unloading at Adak. I was also surprised that AuTiger didn't send any surface combat TFs in, but I'll take all the breaks that I can at this stage. AuTiger must have expected me to try to use Air Transport for troops or supplies to Adak, but his naval Wildcats on LR CAP over the base only found my Zeros on LR CAP over the base. Oddly enough, the two opposing fighter units didn't attack one another. My troops aren't making much progress at Adak so I've set them back to doing bombardments for now while I regroup the rest of my forces. I've put myself into a really poor position, but it isn't unrecoverable if I take the time to regroup properly.

In China AuTiger has brought up a large number of Chinese troops to besiege Canton. The problems that I mentioned above are preventing me from sending massive numbers of reinforcements in response, so I will have to be satisfied with "dribs and drabs" slipping in along the Coast for now. The Chinese units don't usually show much ability against well-entrenched opponents, so we'll see if that holds here.

I've moved a large number of bombers to various bases in the region so that I can start to attack the Chinese ground units in a serious manner. AuTiger will likely bring up all of his good fighters to provide CAP, so I am moving my best A6M3 units to the battle too. This time I am not wasting my time bringing up Nates, so I will be at a numerical disadvantage in the Air, but if I can avoid having too many planes caught on the ground I might be able to wear down the Allied planes, other than the 4E bombers.

Speaking of 4E bombers, AuTiger sent a large number of B-17Es against the airfields at Koepang this turn. I had a good Oscar Daitai in place, but they couldn't do much. I would like to think that the Second Generation Japanese planes will improve the situation a bit later on, but somehow I suspect that this won't really be the case, and anyway, it will take a lot of time for enough planes to get built to change over my better units, let alone my weaker units.

[ny59giants]

Speaking of 4E bombers, AuTiger sent a large number of B-17Es against the airfields at Koepang this turn. I had a good Oscar Daitai in place, but they couldn't do much. I would like to think that the Second Generation Japanese planes will improve the situation a bit later on, but somehow I suspect that this won't really be the case, and anyway, it will take a lot of time for enough planes to get built to change over my better units, let alone my weaker units.

This is a result of my attack (playing CHS 158c - Nik Mod)
05/11/42
Day Air attack on Rangoon , at 29,33
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 34
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 44
Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 9
B-17E Fortress x 48
LB-30 Liberator x 40
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 30 damaged
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 25 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 3 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 31 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 22 damaged
Resources hits 8

I told my opponent that it will be like this until he gets his Jacks/Tony out to the front. I guess your both in the same boat. [:D][:D]

[Dive Bomber1]

June 23, 1942 – It was AuTiger's turn to complain about the weather this time, and he ought to complain about it even more after the results this turn, particularly in the Aleutians. My transports continued to drop off troops until they were alerted to the presence of enemy task forces and ran. Surprising enough, none of the enemy combat TFs found the Japanese transport TFs at first. Only at the end of the turn did a big surface combat TF catch a handful of nearly empty APs.

This battle gave me the first clear indication of how poorly my Pearl Harbor attack really did, as there were seven old US BBs in the attack TF, along with a handful of CAs and another handful of CLs, along with plenty of DDs. But for whatever reason, although the Big Guns fired, they didn't actually sink any of my APs. AuTiger definitely won't be happy with that result. [;)]

After the turn I noticed that there was also a big PT TF sitting at Adak too, so I decided that I had to regroup in a serious manner and I sent my ships at Kiska back to Paramushiro Jima for full replenishment and rebuilding into equally big combat TFs. I can match AuTiger ship-for-ship with both capital ships and CVs in the region, but I need to bring everyone together first.

I received a pleasant little surprise last turn – some of the planes from my lost CV landed at Atka Island. So I flew in a few air support troops who repaired the planes this turn. I've now sent the planes back to Kiska on their way back to the Home Islands. I'll rebuild them or incorporate them into other air units.

While the weather in the Aleutians wasn't up to AuTiger's liking, it was elsewhere and plenty of Allied bombers flew. B-17s hit the airfields at Swatow but did surprisingly little damage. Then a bunch of Liberators hit Tavoy, for no good reason that I can fathom. The Lib's suffered plenty of operational damage and a couple of losses and caused no damage. AuTiger has left his bombers in the South Pacific despite the action in the North Pacific so B-17s hit the airfields at Luganville while Marauders hit the airfields at Efate. They didn't cause any significant damage, and I am alert to their presence again so this turned out to be useful "quasi-Intel" for me.

In China AuTiger tried bombarding Canton but suffered losses without causing any. AuTiger put P-40s over Canton as I expected but some of my bombers still fought their way through to hit his troops. My other bombers flew and hit their surrounding targets without interference. This coming turn I will throw a lot of firepower at AuTiger along the Chinese front, including plenty of Zeros and lots of bombers. If the Weather cooperates this ought to set AuTiger back a bit. I've also set a number of long range bombers on long range nuisance bombing raids in Asia. My planes will likely only accumulate operational damage and losses for little gain, but I want to send AuTiger a message that things are not yet totally under his control.

[princep01]

Dive, I have experienced the same ground movement problem in China in a stock map game.  I had to resort to marching the unit toward another friendly base on the path I really wanted him to go and then stopping the units movement when it reached the non-base location I wanted it in.  No discernible reason for this to happen, but it is not unusual at all.
 
I have been tempted to go to one of the modified game "engines" created and played by others.  I think the one being played by NY59Giants is the Nik mod and I read that it seems to work much better than the current, frequently patched original that I think you and AU are playing. 
 
But, do carry on.  You write a nice AAR.  It is very usueful too as it approximates the time in my game (you and AU have moved ahead of us by about three weeks now)

[Dive Bomber1]

June 24, 1942 – This was another turn where few things worked well, but at least there were no total disasters. I could tell that it wouldn't be a "lucky" turn just from the way that it started out as one of my subs missed some shots at the Idaho which was sailing off of Adak. Then a number of the transports that had been damaged badly the last turn sank on their own, as well as several ships that hit mines at Paramushiro Jima. A US sub also helped put away one of the retiring transports, and finally although the land-based Dauntlesses on Adak didn't hit any of my cripples at Atka the Dauntlesses of the US carriers (which had moved to the north) found the range. Fortunately, most of the troops and supplies on the crippled transports were off-loaded at Atka prior to the end-of-day air attack.

As usual, AuTiger's planes flew despite the weather while my bombers sat home. My fighters did fly, but again for some reason that I can't figure out, my Zeros on LR CAP over Adak didn't clash with the Allied fighters on CAP. So for next turn I set the Zeros to do a Sweep over Adak just in case that gives them a shot at the Kittyhawks.

I am continuing to regroup at Paramushiro Jima and should be in a position to return in force to the Aleutians in a few days. By that time AuTiger's naval forces should also have to pull back to Dutch Harbor for replenishment. It will be interesting to see if my luck changes at all during the next round. BTW – it turns out that AuTiger wasn't bothered by the naval engagement last turn – he rationalized it as being a function of "Ops Points". I think that the whole concept of having "fudge factors" that can't be seen by the players in a complicated game like this is extremely bad, but then, there is never really any accounting for why a Game Designer does what he does.

The other major action occurred in China where a lot of my bombers flew and for the most part avoided any Allied LR CAP. The Allied fighters at Wuchow also avoided the Zeros that I sent in as escorts for my bombers. My bombers did little damage and didn't catch any planes on the ground despite my Intel insisting that there were over a hundred planes there. So I simply brought up more fighters and bombers and will try again next time. AuTiger will likely bring in a couple hundred fighters of his own and simultaneously hammer my air bases with 4E bombers, but it is pointless not to try to do something.

My long range bomber attacks on China and India accomplished nothing, as I had suspected. Unfortunately, my Intel let me down again and a group of Bettys at 30,000 feet over Dacca ran into Hurricanes and lost half of their number. So I set my long range bombers back to naval patrol in light of yet another lesson showing me that they are totally useless at any offensive task.

The only ground action was the one satisfying point of this turn for me as a Japanese infantry division kicked out the Chinese blocking unit that was cutting off my trapped division north of Changsha. So for now my formerly trapped division has a clear path to retreat to Wuhan. I will be very interested to see if it actually moves, since it has been stuck at "10 miles" for a couple dozen turns now. I am so cynical at this point about LCU ground movement that I will be genuinely surprised if it does move.

BTW – a divided division that wouldn't recombine at one base is now at Wuhan, which has an HQ unit and plenty of supplies, and the division still won't recombine. And all of the subcomponents of the three parts of the Division look to be exactly the same. So unless one of those seemingly "identical" subcomponents is actually different from the rest, then there is no reason why the Division shouldn't recombine. There must be some "hidden" reason why the unit can't combine, and unfortunately the Game doesn't bother to indicate what that reason is. It is really too bad that there are so many things in this Game that don't have clear explanations, because without an understanding of what went wrong there is no way to avoid the same problem at another time.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 25, 1942 – When luck goes sour in this game it goes sour like the weather. Despite deliberate mine sweeping and having a number of ships hit mines at Paramushiro Jima in previous turns, this turn a returning CVL hit a mine and suffered a fair amount of damage. But at least all of the Combined Fleet was finally back at Paramushiro Jima so I reorganized them, created a new KB with my least damaged CVs and CVLs, and also created a main battle line of my least damaged BBs, CAs and CLs. I then ordered both TFs off to sea a hex in order to get them ready to move back to the Aleutians.

The USN was busy picking off Japanese cripples this turn in the Aleutians. I left the cripples around in order to try to get the US TFs to use up some of their Ops points before I move my fleets back. A US bombardment fleet hit Kiska at the end of the turn after my land-based Zeros tangled with some US carrier-based fighters and dive bombers. I've now pulled back most of my non-damaged planes from the Aleutians until I can regain control of the waters over there. And, if instead AuTiger happens to wipe my naval forces off of the map, then having those units back in the Kuriles will become doubly important.

BTW – a few of my Bettys finally ventured out from Paramushiro Jima, along with a ton of Zeros on escort, and attempted to attack some old USN BBs off of Kiska, but as usual, they all missed. It's too bad that they didn't go after the USN CVs; they would have been certain to do nothing there, but at least my Zeros would have had a small chance to reduce the number of Wildcats on the US CVs.

Nothing worked out in China again. AuTiger moved his fighters out of Wuchow, but my incoming bombers wasted the opportunity and caused little damage. Further along the Front some of my Oscar units ran into the now centrally placed P-40s with the usual results, and some Brit Spitfires showed up in Eastern China but had an unexpectedly rough time against some of my Helens. [&:]

And to add the general mood of the turn, US ASW ships hammered more Japanese subs, including two out of my three remaining subs in the Aleutians. It's no wonder that AuTiger is chafing at the bit for me to turn around the turns more quickly.

[princep01]

Div, I have experienced the same problem with recombining that you have.  I had a division divide in Pago-Pago sometime back and could not get the recombine button to appear on those units.....until....I pumped about 90K supply intro the base and sent a HQ down there to ORDER the stups to recombine.  It worked.  It is still somewhat mysterious, but it may just be a function of getting enough supply into the base with an HQ.  I'm not sure the HQ had any effect as it landed on the same turn that the recombine button appeared.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: princep01

Div, I have experienced the same problem with recombining that you have.  I had a division divide in Pago-Pago sometime back and could not get the recombine button to appear on those units.....until....I pumped about 90K supply intro the base and sent a HQ down there to ORDER the stups to recombine.  It worked.  It is still somewhat mysterious, but it may just be a function of getting enough supply into the base with an HQ.  I'm not sure the HQ had any effect as it landed on the same turn that the recombine button appeared.

I'm convinced that having a HQ there alone isn't enough to get a unit to recombine since I have units in bases with HQs and the divided units still show no recombine button. So your observation about supplies may be the key. But then, if I had 90K supplies to "spare" I certainly wouldn't bother sending it to China... [;)]

Thanks for the ideas.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 26, 1942 – Things were relatively quiet in the Northern Pacific this turn as AuTiger pulled his ships back to the Adak area and out of range of my Bettys. His naval and land based bombers did pick off a few more stragglers in the region, but that was essentially extra Intel for me. Back at Paramushiro Jima my minesweeping ships cleaned out more mines without any additional mishaps occurring.

I reorganized my ships at Paramushiro Jima and sent out two big surface combat TFs and the reorganized KB. They are heading for the Kiska area along with supply TFs. I've also sent out some dedicated ASW TFs to try to prevent the US subs from interfering with my movements too much. Finally, I set a naval base force on its way to Attu to add to the air capability that I already have in the region. This looks to be a long, tough fight and I have to be prepared to throw everything that I can into the battle.

Air operations in China continued to be disappointing for me as, for the most part, my planes flew but even in the absence of opposition accomplished little of value. However, the dynamics of the battle have changed as AuTiger has sent some of his forces in Southeast China along the road to Nanning. I currently only have a third of a division there and although the fortifications are built up fairly well, the base is still at risk.

I have a base force in transit to Pakhoi and eventually to Nanning, but that won't be enough to make a difference, so I've redirected to the region a number of transport TFs which were moving combat forces back to the Home Islands from Java. I also ordered some smaller combat units from Singapore to head to the region. In order to slow down the Allied advance along the road I also set most of my planes in that region to attack those Chinese troops.

It's ironic that I was seriously contemplating sending my Java forces to China rather than to the Aleutians but decided against it. Having those forces in China right now would be very useful. One thing that I have learned from this pbem, and am applying to my other pbems, is not to treat China as a "gimme" and to move serious forces into it earlier on.

BTW – one of those totally inexplicable happenings occurred this turn – a split brigade in China reformed by itself! The two halves met on the road between Hengchow and Nanchang (they were travelling towards each other) and recombined on their own sometime during the turn. I still have a division that refuses to recombine in Wuhan, so I have ordered it to go to Nanchang to see if it likes it better down there. If worse comes to worse, I'll send it along the road to Hengchow to see if the "magic" works for it too. [8|]

[Dive Bomber1]

June 27, 1942 – Slowly but surely all of my many and varied mistakes in this pbem are coming home to haunt me. Right now I have to "hope" for "luck" to help me, or for AuTiger to make some major mistake, because in the absence of either, or preferably both, my chances of staying competitive are quickly fading.

AuTiger increased his attacks on my forces at Adak this turn, with naval bombardments not only by old US BBs but also by the North Carolina. And more of the older US BBs hit Ogliuga. The US CVs also sent in their bombers to hit my troops. Now, under other circumstances, this would be potentially good news for me because it would mean that the USN was using up Ops points while the Combined Fleet moved in. However, all of my stumbling and bad planning has cost me any hope of surprise, and every ocean hex between the Kuriles and the Aleutians now contains a USN sub. So my incoming battle fleets were easily spotted by the subs despite the bad weather.

Never-the-less, I am continuing onwards. I may as well use the Combined Fleet while I still can, and maybe, just maybe, it will be time for that proverbial "blind squirrel" to "find a nut". (However, I suspect that this Japanese "squirrel" will just become road kill. )

BTW – My MSWs at Paramushiro Jima swept more sub-laid mines this turn, once again without mishap. I am astonished at how many mines AuTiger was able to lay in such a short period of time, and by so few subs. The other relatively "good" news this turn was that the floatation damage was eliminated in my two damaged CVs that were in port at Paramushiro Jima so I sent them on their way back to the Home Islands for repair in bigger shipyards. Now I only have a CVL repairing floatation damage in the harbour at Paramushiro Jima.

In China my air units continued with their frustratingly inept air attacks. The only "good" news was that AuTiger sent out his 4Es in equally useless attacks on the airfields at Chengting, resources at Tavoy and the airfields at Luganville. The formerly trapped 34th Division is now up to 19 miles travelled despite Allied air attacks, so maybe it will be able to escape after all. I have two strong divisions in each of the two hexes between the 34th and Wuhan, so if AuTiger tries to move in some troops I should be able to kick them back to Ichang.

AuTiger isn't doing anything with his troops at Canton, other than blocking my route to Nanning. Unfortunately, my multiple air units in the region are either refusing to fly or are refusing to drop ordinance on the Chinese besiegers when they do fly. Never-the-less, this may turn into the one place where AuTiger makes a mistake in this game. I am steadily moving up plenty of troops along the coastal road and I will send some of them to the blocking hex to the northeast of Canton where I already have a third of the 51st Division. I am going to try to kick out the small Chinese unit that is sitting there and block AuTiger's troops at Canton. Given that AuTiger hasn't allowed me to do something like this since the very first pbem we played against each other last year, this isn't likely, but it is worth a try.

BTW II – my multiple air units that were supposed to attack AuTiger's troops along the Canton to Nanning road did a lousy job of that too, so those Chinese troops will very likely reach Nanning before my reinforcements arrive by boat. Oh well, more "lessons learned".

[Dive Bomber1]

June 28, 1942 – There was no real night action this turn. My ASW TFs did find some USN subs in the waters between the Kuriles and the Aleutians, but neither side fired in any of the encounters. Another of my retiring crippled APs sank just short of Paramushiro Jima but the other heavily damaged ships made it to port, other than one sub which consistently ignores its orders and tried again to sail past Paramushiro Jima and go to Shikka.

My MSWs finally cleared the remaining mines out of Paramushiro Jima, while Allied ships started to clear out mines from Mannargudi and Noumea. My mines are rarely hit by any Allied ships, but I like to keep on dropping them off in order to check up on Allied comings and goings.

Thanks to the advanced warning that the USN subs gave about my combat TFs returning to the Aleutians, AuTiger was able to pull his ships back to the Eastern Aleutians and out of harm's way for now. My two big surface combat TFs arrived at Kiska while the KB stationed itself off shore. I am not sending my ships in against Adak next turn; instead I will wait for more fuel to arrive as well as a base force for Attu. That base force will make four stationed in the Western Aleutians, and while none of the bases are yet beyond level 1 air fields, it is still very nice to have local air support while planning upcoming moves.

BTW – the airfields at Paramushiro Jima were built up to level 4 today. That ought to give AuTiger some pause. It also means that I need to be very careful that I don't lose that base to the Allies either! [:-]

The weather was pretty lousy throughout the Far East again this turn, so the great majority of my planned air missions didn't fly. AuTiger is taking his run at Nanning fairly seriously and he placed a number of P-40s and Spitfires over his troops despite the awful weather. The only Japanese unit that actually flew against the troops on the Canton to Nanning road was a small 9-plane unit of Sallys that flew without escort. I expected the unit to be massacred, but only four Sallys were shot down despite the presence of 39 P-40Es and 12 Spitfires. And most surprising was that the remaining bombers actually hit some troops on the ground! It appears that whatever "magic" the Game has placed over the Allied 2E bombers holds for the Japanese 2E bombers too. Maybe I shouldn't use fighter escorts any more… [&:] [;)]

While AuTiger's seven LCUs continued unhindered along their merry way towards Nanning, my third of the 51st Division easily kicked the small Chinese unit out of the blocking hex at 44,40 which is northeast of Canton. AuTiger has an interesting decision to make now; he has no units on either the road from Canton to Wuchow, or on the road hex to Nanning that is immediately adjacent to Canton. Will he weaken his siege and protect his lines? Stay tuned as more Japanese units move into the region.

Meanwhile, in Central China the 34th Division is now at 21 miles along on its slow march towards Wuhan. My forces that are protecting its retreat path are increasing steadily. There are now three good divisions immediately to the East and two more in the next hex further to the East. I also have a division on the road to Ichang, and another on its way. So I wonder if AuTiger will actually attempt to move any troops against mine, or will he allow me to pull back without interference, other than the occasional air attack? If I am ultimately successful in extracting the 34th Division, I will end up having quite a nice force right next to Ichang. That ought to keep AuTiger thinking a bit.

[ny59giants]

Even though I read both AAR's, I would suggest that you consider pulling out KB from trying to go through the northern route to attack him from the south. There is a little gap between the patrol range of PBY's out of Midway and the Aluetians that you might try to move in to get a shot at him. Currently, with all his subs and with the presences of LBA to counter your moves, the element of surprise is gone for you following the same path.

You still have KB which can easily match the Allied CV 's head to head. But only away from Allied LBA. [:-]

What can you do to push his ships (regardless if they are CV's or smaller one) south vs. east when you sent ships towards Adak or further east?? Right now, he feels that his left flank is secure and he doesn't have to worry about it. I tend to look at WitP in various sizes of classic Napoleonic warfare. Get him to react to you in this theater of operations for a while

If you don't use an Utilty, strongly consider using one. I use Bodhi's and I can track everything from the reports generated and see patterns. AU is probably doing so. (I lost 2 CV TF at Suva for following the same thing for one day too long).

As the Japanese, you have the following strengths over us Allies - KB, ground units (lots of infantry), Nell/Betty, and the range of the Zero. Use them before shear numbers overwhelm you.

OK, I can get off my soapbox now. [:D] [:D]

[Dive Bomber1]

What can you do to push his ships (regardless if they are CV's or smaller one) south vs. east when you sent ships towards Adak or further east?? Right now, he feels that his left flank is secure and he doesn't have to worry about it. I tend to look at WitP in various sizes of classic Napoleonic warfare. Get him to react to you in this theater of operations for a while

What is fascinating about the Aleutians is that there aren't any "solid" flanks. Right now I've sent the KB to the north of Attu simply because there are too many subs to the south of Attu/Kiska. If he moves out I'll hit him from a distance. If he stays back I'll continue to build up local strength.

My big challenge now is to get a couple of fast transports into Adak to resupply my troops. So it isn't a really bad thing that AuTiger has pulled back a bit. I have a huge force sitting back in the Kuriles and even more back in the Home Islands, I just need a little time to bring them forward so that I can grab Adak.

Right now, thanks to my base forces, I have a big edge in air patrols in the region, and it is getting bigger. Fortunately, air patrols don't seem to be affected anywhere near as much by bad weather as combat missions.

Sure, in retrospect I wouldn't go in to such an attack in such a haphazard manner again, but that's a problem I tend to have in most of my pbems - I see an opportunity and I jump without preparing as much as I should. That is costing me in my second pbem right now. But I am working really, really hard not to make the same mistakes in my third pbem.

Thanks again for the comments and suggestions! I really appreciate all the times that you have stopped by to give me ideas - even though I may not seem to put many of them into practice...

[ny59giants]

I'm just looking for possible ways for you to move ahead in this war of attrition. As an Allied player, I say keep bring in more and more forces as attrition is the friend of the Allied player.

Even if you come out ahead 2:1 in air losses, the Allied player comes out ahead in the long run. Any CA or CL losses come back bigger and badder in 15 months (or so). [:D][:D]

Regardless of strategy, weather will rear it's ugly head and smash your best laid plans up there.

Can you post a screen shot of China so my ideas can get shot down there?? [:D][;)][:D]