Hunting the AuTiger - an AAR (no Tigers please)

[Dive Bomber1]

August 2, 1942 – I was right about AuTiger trying something in the Bay of Bengal. One of my subs caught the Brit cruiser Exeter on its way from Chandpur to Akyab and put a torpedo into the CA, which caused the TF to head back for home. AuTiger must have had LR CAP over the TF because during the day phase my LBA didn't go after the retreating TF even though they were spotted outside of Chandpur.

It also didn't help that my closest LBA, a group of Sallys on Naval Attack in Rangoon, was caught on the ground by a big 4E attack. A Daitai of A6M3s fought valiantly against the mix of B-17s and B-24s, damaging many and shooting down a couple, but it wasn't enough to prevent the big bombers from hammering the runways hard. Oh well, those 4Es ought to be licking their wounds for a few days at least.

Forts also hit Thursday Island again for the first time in a very long while. I'm not sure why AuTiger is bothering with secondary targets like that, unless he has new pilots who need practice.

The other major air attacks were more Brit air raids on my troops in the northern Burmese jungles. I am hoping that AuTiger sends some of his troops back down the jungle trails – it will be nice to give back a little of what my troops have been receiving for so long.

In China the situation continues to be fluid. Some of my planes attacked some of the Chinese LCUs, but with little effect. AuTiger appears to be keeping much of his air power in the region on the defensive, although it wouldn't surprise me to see a bunch of P-40s show up on LR CAP at any time. AuTiger moved a dozen LCUs out of Hengchow, so I set Hengchow as the Objective of a nearby infantry division and set it on its way towards the base. One unit won't capture anything, but it is something that AuTiger can't easily ignore.

AuTiger is still pretty much ignoring my attacks on Wuchow and Yenen, other than to put lots of CAP over Yenen. What surprises me is that he can continue to do so much in China with the supply that is available. He must be flying in a lot of supply on a regular basis.

And least we forget, the 34th Division reached 40 elapsed miles this turn. That 5-mile-per-day pace has been quite consistent. Equally consistent, the 116th/A reached 32 elapsed miles today.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 3, 1942 - My minesweepers were busy again during the night phase. One thing that I've realized from all this minesweeping is that I don't have fuel in enough smaller locations, so I am busy sending out tankers to remedy that situation. This will also help with my ASW actions later on.

During the day phase AuTiger got the weather break and many of his air attacks in the CBI flew, while few of mine did. So although I did get one Zero Daitai on LR CAP over my troops in northern Burma, the other Daitais didn't fly and so I ended up with only an "okay" result of shooting down several Hurricanes for the loss of one Zero. I pulled my Zeros back again to rest and to avoid any massive retaliation from AuTiger.

BTW - a small Betty squadron flew against an Allied TF in the northern part of the Bay of Bengal and attacked the Houston. The attack was unsuccessful, but it ought to get AuTiger to pay more attention to protecting his ships. It may also get him to return to pounding my airfields to dust, but there isn't anything that I can do about that.

In China the Game Mechanics bit me again as the 34th Division reset its movement to zero and cleared its objective because a Chinese unit finally moved into the hex with it. So I reset the objective of travel back to Nanning and the "clock" is ticking again. The 116th/A, in the meanwhile, increased its elapsed mileage to 33 miles. I wonder if it will reset itself to zero again at some point in the future.

Those frustrations aside, I set up another attempt at an aerial ambush in China for next turn. I'm guessing that the Weather will wash it out, but as usual, I can always hope that something works out for a change. And I've sent the Yamato and Friends off to hit Adak again, just in case AuTiger forgets about that Theater.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 4, 1942 – My submarines caused more direct and indirect damage to the Allies this turn than the rest of my naval forces combined have done in the past six months. There was lots of minesweeping going on as usual during the night turn, with my forces sweeping my bases and a bunch of Allied MSWs in a transport TF sweeping mines at Luganville. But despite all the minesweeping an Allied AP still hit a couple of mines at Luganville and sank.

Then an MSW in an ASW TF off of Noumea was picked off by one of my subs before the rest of the TF could hunt my sub. And finally, a lone MSW with the odd name of "Dubbo" was picked off by one of my subs at Rockhampton while the Dubbo was trying to hunt my sub. I can't remember the last time my forces sank three Allied ships in a single turn!

The daylight turn brought a cold dose of "reality" back as most of my planned air offensives failed to fly, but never-the-less I still lost a number of planes due to Operational damage. And finally, the Yamato TF was spotted by Allied Patrol planes while on its way to Adak, so I cancelled the mission and ordered the ships back to Kiska. The one bit of good news in that region was that the airfields at Attu Island finally reached level one.

There was no good news in the Ground war. My Deliberate attack on Wuchow failed and didn't even reduce the fortification levels. So I ordered all of my besieging troops to head back to Canton. At the same time AuTiger's troops reached the Canton crossroads, so I am going to suffer the pains of the Land Movement Rules again. Speaking of which, the 34th Division reset itself to go nowhere again this turn. In comparison, the 116th/A's movement of another mile seems nearly miraculous.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 5, 1942 – There was a lot of minesweeping during both night and day phases this turn from both sides. However, no ships hit mines. AuTiger sent a squadron of PTs to Adak overnight as I expected, thanks to the Yamato TF being spotted last turn. But there was no TF for the PTs to try to ambush. I am sending out another CL/DD TF to try to ambush those PTs next turn – I wonder if my TF will be ambushed by the big US BB TF instead, as happened the last time?

AuTiger had a great day in the air as massive 4E strikes flew against the airfields at Tavoy, Moulmein, Koepang, Gili Gili, and Efate. British 2Es also flew against my troops in the northern Burmese jungles. The Blenheim IFs also flew against Imphal again, but this time they were intercepted by Zeros on LR CAP that were flying at a lower altitude than I usually have them, so several IFs were shot down and a bunch more damaged.

Some of my secondary air-to-ground attacks flew in China, but my main air attack against Changsha still didn't fly, thanks to weather. However, at the very end of the turn the Recon planes from Nanking finally flew, and they were accompanied by a couple of Daitais of A6M3s, so my pilots finally got a chance to ambush a squadron of Mohawks that had been flying CAP over Changsha for the past few turns. My pilots did alright, shooting down 13 Mohawks for the loss of only one Zero.

AuTiger started massive movements of Chinese LCUs again throughout Central China. His forces easily drove out my lone Armoured unit from the crossroads north of Canton. It might have been a different story if the units that I had ordered to move to that location a couple of turns ago hadn't re-set their movement orders, but that's just water-under-the- bridge in this game. However, my forces at Wuchow are still moving towards Canton and have a clear supply pathway to the West, with several strong units protecting the path, so they ought to be able to get out of AuTiger's attempted trap, but I won't count on that until I actually see it happen.

AuTiger also sent most of his LCUs out of Changsha towards my units on the road to the south. So I immediately ordered my troops in Wuhan to move towards Changsha. AuTiger has also moved most of his forces out of Homan and towards my bases to the south, but I've got plenty of forces in the region so I'm not concerned. I presume that this move is an attempt to get me to back off from my siege of Yenen.

In LCU "movement" news, the 34th Division remains nicely stuck at zero miles, although it didn't reset its movement objective this turn. And the 116th/A is up to a grand total of 35 elapsed miles.

Finally, in some welcome news, one of my CVs finally got its July upgrade. Repairs are coming along very nicely for most of my combat ships and I am starting to redistribute them again.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 6, 1942 - There was more minesweeping during the night phase, but no surface combat, as my CL/DD TF somehow missed AuTiger's PT TF at Adak Island. Maybe the PTs moved during the night too. So by daylight my ships were back at Kiska and the PTs were back at Adak.

The main action this turn was in the air as my reconstituted air forces intercepted Allied air attacks on my troops in the field. First off, a large number of Chinese bombers, escorted by P-40s, were intercepted by a wide variety of Japanese fighters on LR CAP over our troops along the road south from Changsha. In an example of one of the mechanisms of the Game that I just don't understand, my Nates engaged first, followed by my Oscars, then my A6M3s and finally my A6M2s. So the Nates took some losses against the P-40s, but gave some back. Only 5 P-40s were shot down, but then my fighters got through to attack the Chinese bombers, shooting down 14 of them and damaging many more. Never-the-less, the remaining bombers were still able to do a reasonable amount of damage to my troops.

AuTiger didn't have any LR CAP of his own over his troops, so afterwards my very large (100+) Sonia attack got through without opposition. Unfortunately, even compared against the Chinese 2E bombers, Sonias pack very little "punch" and the mass attack didn't do a lot of damage.

Then over in Burma AuTiger's daily Brit bomber attack on my troops in the jungle north of Mandalay was caught by most of the half dozen Daitais worth of fighters that I had on LR CAP in the region. AuTiger only had a few Spits on escort and they were shot down quickly by my A6M3s. Then my A6M2s went down and hammered the Hurricanes that were carrying bomb loads. The other Brit 2E bombers also got hit hard, but once again, despite the losses and damage, the Brits were still able to find their target and cause casualties.

At the end of the day I had a reasonably satisfying result, with over 40 Allied planes shot down in air-to-air combat versus only five of my planes (the Nates that ran into the P-40s first in China). Unfortunately, I also lost a number of planes due to Operational damage, so the total margin of Allied to Japanese air losses was only around 2:1. My air forces aren't flying as many missions as the Allies, but my planes still take more operational losses each turn, mainly because my pilot pool is so bad. I now know how to husband my pilots and manage my pilot pool, but that understanding came way too late to help in this particular pbem.

The land game continues to go in AuTiger's favor. He continues to keep me off balance in China and plays all of the weaknesses of the Land Model perfectly. AuTiger has also been avoiding mistakes in this pbem, while being in a position to take advantage of mine. The results show on almost every land encounter, such as in this turn when although his forces along the road south of Changsha only had a 1.5:1 advantage in raw manpower, and my forces had some fortifications, his troops were still able to achieve and 2:1 result and push my troops back. The difference was the Division that I sent to the West to threaten his supply lines. His supply lines still aren't threatened, and now my advanced position is lost.

The only good thing was that his forces took about twice the casualties as my forces. It will be interesting to see if he follows my troops or if he stays put. I still have troops moving from Wuhan towards Changsha, but if the Chinese forces to the south don't move forward I will call back my troops since they are only strong enough to cut the supply lines and not to capture the base.

Elsewhere, my troops at Wuchow are approaching the mileage that they need to move and contest the crossroads between Wuchow and Canton. I'm still not certain if they will actually make that move, or if they will cross the river to the west to avoid the enemy forces. The 34th Division remains at zero elapsed miles. AuTiger isn't attacking it, and seems happy just to keep it stuck there. And the 116th/A is now up to 36 elapsed miles, so unless some other unforeseen thing happens, it ought to move in a month's time.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 7, 1942 - The night phase brought the usual minesweeping from both sides. Then at the start of the day phase one of my subs at Luganville put two torpedoes into DD Stronghold and sank it. The rest of the Allied DDs attacked my sub and got some hits, but I expect that the sub ought to make it back to port.

During the air phase most of my bomber attacks didn't fly, although my escorts accompanied my recon flights. AuTiger had no CAP over Yenen, Kunming or Yunan, but those planes of mine that did fly didn't do much with the opportunity.

AuTiger pulled his PTs away from Adak, and the weather has turned lousy again, so I will try once more to send the Yamato and friends in to hit Adak. I still don't have enough supplies in the region to restart my main attack on Adak, but I ought to within a couple of weeks.

In China the movement mess continues to plague me. My troops at Wuchow are sitting at 59 elapsed miles, so I had to reset their movement objective to Nanning instead of Canton. Now they ought to cross the river. I continue to find the number of workarounds that I have to use in this game to be totally unacceptable.

As I suspected, AuTiger is pulling back his troops to Changsha now that he kicked my troops back down the road south. One Chinese unit also moved east to the hex halfway between Changsha and Wuhan this turn. I set all of my troops there to do a deliberate attack. In theory, since I have over 3500 AV points and good experience in my troops, I ought to kick that Chinese unit back to Changsha, but given my experience in the game, a totally unfavorable result wouldn't surprise me in the least bit.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 8, 1942 - There was no action of any sort during the night phase, not even minesweeping. Minesweeping did resume during the day phase at various locations, and one group of Allied minesweepers caught one of my subs at Luganville and whacked it pretty good. So there is yet another sub on its way back to port.

The weather cleared just enough in the western Aleutians to allow an Allied naval air patrol to spot the Yamato and Gang on their way to Adak. So I sent the TF back to Kiska. But this time I set one of my Zero Daitais at Kiska to Naval Attack at 100 feet in the feeble hope of catching some of AuTiger's PTs if they wander towards Adak and vicinity.

AuTiger continues with his mastery of the Ground Game in China as he kicked a couple more of my units out of their positions in Central China. I face an interesting conundrum here - if I advance, the Game Mechanics favor AuTiger's flanking maneuvers and prevent me from obtaining any sort of local advantage. But if I sit back and do nothing that helps AuTiger in the long run. So, of course, at this stage of the Game AuTiger "loves" the Ground Movement rules, while I "hate them with an unreasonable passion".

In any event, I have moved up a number of rested air units and have set up multiple attacks against the Chinese units that are now exposed in the field. But for this to work I need for the weather to cooperate, and I have to hope that AuTiger forgets or is in too much of a hurry to check out the new air balances and finds out that my planes have moved.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 9, 1942 – There was no action during the evening phase again, not even minesweeping. Minesweeping did start up during the day phase. My air patrols in the Aleutians didn’t spot the US PTs around Adak, so my Zeros on 100 ft Naval Attack didn’t do anything. But the PTs did show up by the end of the turn. I left the Zeros on 100 ft Naval Attack for next turn just in case AuTiger doesn’t pull back his PTs.

There were a fair number of bomber attacks throughout the CBI this turn. AuTiger sent Liberators in to hit the airfields at Haiphong, but he guessed wrong and I didn’t have anything there other than a few patrol planes. I did have a Zero Daitai at Hanoi, which was set to “Sweep” over Kweiyang, but they didn’t find any fighters in the air, despite what my Intel had told me previously. I think that the Allied fighters there were on Ground Attack and so weren't home on CAP.

B-17s flew in to hit the Resources at Rangoon, but they didn’t cause much damage and suffered a fair amount of operational damage, so I’m happy with that result. Once again, I didn’t have any CAP in place because I am waiting for better fighters to show up in better numbers. We are both having a "dance with CAP" in an attempt to avoid having weaker planes get caught by better planes.

In addition to the Heavy Bombers, AuTiger sent his Medium Bombers against various Japanese LCUs in Burma, causing medium amounts of damage, while a surprising number of my Light Bombers flew against Chinese LCUs, but as usual only caused light amounts of damage. I don’t bother sending my Army dive bombers against base targets any move and instead save them for when AuTiger sends his Chinese troops out into the field.

Since my air attacks in China were fairly successful I pulled back my dive bombers to rest up, as well as my rookie fighter units, just in case AuTiger comes back with any counterattacks. I did leave my better fighter units on high altitude CAP over their air bases, just in case of any Allied bomber attacks. Since AuTiger committed his heavies in Burma and French Indo China this turn, they are very unlikely to turn up in China next turn, so any bomber attacks ought to be 2Es.

My subs continue to do a nice job of harassing AuTiger in the South Pacific. One of my subs put a torpedo into DD Voyager while the DD was on its way back to Noumea from Luganville. My sub got away undamaged. I was also pleased to see that my Tinas successfully pulled out the rest of that Base Force that AuTiger had trapped at Efate, other than the Sound Detector. My transport planes had already pulled out the NLF that had been there. AuTiger can now do what he likes, although I’m not telling him that Efate is now only occupied by some large metal ears… [:D]

In the ground mess in China, AuTiger pulled his troops back from the crossroads south of Wuchow again this turn, so I ordered my troops on the other side of the river to cross and retake the crossroads. My troops are pulling back from Wuchow nicely, and will all be out before AuTiger gets his big reinforcements into the base. So all-in-all, AuTiger’s ploy worked exactly as he wanted, and he easily bought the time he needed to reinforce Wuchow.

Elsewhere in China, AuTiger isn’t yet moving his other forces forward of their current positions, so I have brought some fresh planes forward to bomb his troops that are out in the open. I expect now that AuTiger has the Wuchow situation pretty much under control he will shift his focus to relieving the siege of Yenen.

Finally, the 34th Division is still not moving, and neither AuTiger nor I are doing anything about it. The 116th/A, on the other hand, is now up to 39 elapsed miles, so in three weeks or so they ought to finally move, assuming that AuTiger doesn’t do something in that region to cut them off, or unless the Game resets their mileage again.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 10, 1942 – My minesweepers were busy during the night phase again. Then another of my subs caught the crippled DD Voyager at Noumea Harbor, put another torpedo into her, and finally sank her.

This was a moderately busy turn for air missions. My planes in the northeast of China hit the airfields at Yenen pretty hard and suffered little damage in return. Afterwards, I noticed that AuTiger has increased the Air Balance at Chungking significantly again, so I pulled my Zeros and bombers out of the north-eastern bases, just in case AuTiger decides to send his 4Es on a hunting trip.

AuTiger's 4Es in Northern Australia went hunting over Koepang again, but this time they ran into a Daitai of Oscars instead of Nates, the B-17s were shot up nicely, the Oscars took few losses, and the airbase was hardly damaged. In the South Pacific more B-17s flew in to bomb trees in Efate, gaining plenty of operational damage for their trouble. Finally, the Brit light bombers in India attacked my troops in Burma again. If AuTiger's Far Eastern 4Es do show up in China next turn I will probably move some Zeros into Burma to try to ambush the Brits again.

One of my planned ambushes went awry this turn as my Zero Daitai on 100 ft Naval Attack from Kiska went all the way to Umnak to attack some PTs. Unfortunately, AuTiger had Kittyhawks on CAP at Umnak and they shot down 5 Zeros. Oh well, next time I try that I'll reduce the range of the Zeros to only reach Adak.

Speaking of Adak, I've given orders to a Betty Daitai at Paramushiro Jima to try to bomb Adak. Odds are that they won't fly, but it's worth a try. And to help out I set another Daitai of Zeros from Kiska to fly LR CAP over Adak. Maybe I'll catch some Allied bombers coming in. On the other hand, just letting AuTiger know that my fighters and bombers can reach that far changes how he views the situation.

In China all of my LCUs moved out of Wuchow, including one straggler artillery unit that retreated after being hit by a Chinese artillery attack. My troops started to re-enter the crossroads hex between Wuchow and Canton this turn too. I wonder if AuTiger will try sending some of his troops back?

Otherwise, things are relatively quiet as I continue to redistribute my forces and ship supplies, oil and resources all over. I am actually starting to build a reasonably nice stock in the Home Islands again, other than those bases with the buggy storage conditions. Right now my major stumbling block is that the majority of my important oil/resource bases in the DEI are still badly damaged and so are not producing a lot. I have no choice but to spend supplies to try to repair those bases, particularly since AuTiger has been bombing my resource/oil/manpower bases in the Asian mainland almost since Day 1.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 11, 1942 – The night phase brought more minesweeping duties for my MSWs, but not for the Allied minesweepers. Otherwise things were quite and everyone slept well.

During the day phase the bulk of the air action consisted of recon flights over China. I had recon flights over the entire Front while AuTiger sent F5s over Wuhan. No Allied bombers or fighters showed up in China, but I got a very strong indication that things will change next turn, as the Air Balance over Chungking went up to 1530. It's too bad that I don't have any real "strategic" bombing capabilities (and please don't suggest my pitiful little Nells and Bettys) because this would be a great time to "throw the works" at the airfields at Chungking. Oh well.

My light bombers in China did fly in the afternoon and hit a number of Chinese LCUs in various locations. But with the "Sledge-Hammer of God" sitting at Chungking, I pulled back all of my forward combat air units and left my recon planes to provide the thankless task of "misdirection".

AuTiger sent his Brit medium bombers against my troops in Burma as usual. The only really large Air Balance in that region is at Chandpur where the AB stands at 1035. So there are likely a few 4Es and some decent fighters there too. Since the weather forecast is calling for lousy weather again I left my massed Zero Daitais a little ways back from the Front while I wait to see both what the weather and AuTiger do.

In the Aleutians the weather was fairly nice and AuTiger got to see some of my Zeros over Adak. Unfortunately, AuTiger didn't have any bombers flying so my Zeros didn't get any practice. Surprisingly, my Nells from Paramushiro Jima actually flew and hit the airfields at Adak. And to add to the pressure, some of my Bettys from Kiska scouted AuTiger's ships at Dutch Harbor. I want to continue to keep AuTiger edgy in that region so that I can buy the couple more weeks that I need before I can come back in force to capture Adak.

Things were reasonably quiet in the Land War in China. AuTiger did not try to move troops back to the crossroads between Wuchow and Canton, so more of my troops got there without a problem. My infantry Division that is a couple of hexes south of Changsha attacked the Chinese unit that moved into that hex this turn, but it didn't drive it out despite causing a fair number of casualties. In the meanwhile I have fresh troops going up the road towards Changsha, so if AuTiger moves more troops to bother my Division I will try to cut his lines from the rear. BTW – the 116th/A is up to 43 elapsed miles now.

In other useful news, the Port at Tuguegarao reached Level 1 this turn, so I will finally be able to pull out the resources that are there. My over-expanded Industries are always starving for more raw materials.

Finally, as my production of second-generation fighters ramps up I have started to pull back from the Front those air units which can be upgraded. Unfortunately, at the moment it appears that few of my fighter units can upgrade, and those are to Tonys and not Tojos, although I will be receiving Tojo reinforcement units over the next couple of months. All I can do is pray that the Oscar IIs come in a month or so early from their scheduled January 1943 arrival date.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 12, 1942 - The night phase brought more Japanese minesweeping. AuTiger's subs have been back in large numbers, this time mining the Home Islands as well as the Solomons. Oh well, my minesweepers are getting lots of practice.

There was sporadic action during the day phase due to the return of generally rainy weather most places. Allied DDs chased one of my subs at Dutch Harbor but didn't do any serious damage. This gave enough incentive to my Betty pilots at Kiska to take off and try to find the Allied ships at Dutch Harbor, but they didn't end up finding anything to attack.

AuTiger sent his B-17s against my Oscars at Koepang again this turn. Neither side lost any planes but plenty of the Forts were damaged so that ought to keep them on the ground for a bit. They also again didn't cause much damage.

AuTiger appears to have decided to train his pilots against empty enemy bases, so he sent a ton of planes from Darwin against Tenimbar. If I had known that he was going to do this I would have left a couple of empty Allied bases around too.

AuTiger is still trying to figure out what is up with Efate. He had Forts flying recon over it, and then a big bunch of P-40s flew against it. Everyone missed the Big Metal Ears. In any event, this was great Intel from my p.o.v. because now I know that AuTiger has a lot of CAP available to him at Luganville.

Speaking of air power, AuTiger moved some P-39s and Hurricanes from Chunking to Changsha this turn and had them strafe some of my troops in the field. But his AB at Chungking is still over 1300. The AB at a couple of his Indian bases has also gone up to around 1000 each, so taking that together with the rain, I decided to keep my flyboys out of harm's way for yet another turn. Maybe AuTiger will fly in the bad weather and take some operational losses.

Not much happened in the land situation - the 116th/A is now at 44 elapsed miles.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 13, 1942 – My minesweepers were busy in the Home Islands over night, but even with that a PG on ASW duty still hit a mine and was badly damaged. I'm starting to distribute my ASW and MSW ships a bit to try to catch AuTiger's subs while they are still out at sea and before they can drop off their mines. I've already got air units on naval patrol everywhere, so I usually spot the subs coming in, but my forces aren't hitting the subs frequently enough to slow down the rate-of-distraction.

The Weather was unusually bad all over the map, even by the standards of "Advanced Weather". This meant that Recon flights flew, but for the most part nothing else flew. It was nice to see AuTiger take a good number of Operational losses this turn, including 6 P-40Es. [:D] My recon planes flew all over the Front in China but didn't spot anything on CAP. And the Air Balance at Chungking stayed high while the AB at Changsha increased dramatically. Part of that was from the P-39s and Hurricanes that strafed my troops outside of Nanchang. But I've got to believe that AuTiger had plenty of P-40s out on LR CAP over his troops in the field in the hopes of ambushing my garbage dive bombers again. So the Weather had the "last laugh" this turn.

The weather forecast is calling for bad weather all over the map again next turn, but AuTiger has moved some of his Chinese LCUs a bit further away from his bases than he has in the past, so I will try some Ground Attacks on those troops who have edged out beyond easy LR CAP range. Anyway, AuTiger has presented me with so many targets that he can't cover all of them.

AuTiger is still trying to figure out where my good planes are sitting, so he sent his F5 photo planes from Chungking to Chengting this turn. But all they found there were my ubiquitous Army patrol planes. I have been busy re-distributing AA units out of Manchuria and into China, so the next time AuTiger send some bombers against my bases there will be better flak awaiting them than in the past.

Speaking of bombers, a squadron of Chinese bombers hit the 34th Division for the first time in a long time. I assume that weather-permitting, AuTiger will start to use the 34th to train his pilots since the 34th is no longer capable of any AA fire.

In other air news, US Paratroops finally landed on Efate and captured the Big Metal Ears. Now all he has to do is sweep the mines and chase out my subs from the region. It's too bad that I didn't do more with my surprise capture of Luganville and Efate a couple of game-months ago, but at least the effort kept AuTiger busy and away from the Solomons for a while.

I seem to have made another odd goof this turn, and I'm not certain why. With all of the bad weather around I sent the Yamato TF off to hit Adak last turn. And they weren't spotted by Allied air patrols this turn, so everything looked like a "go". But when I checked the TF I found that they were set to "Mission" speed and not "Full" speed. I have no idea how in the world that happened, because I always leave my TFs at the Front set to "Full" speed. Being at "Mission" speed meant that the TF can't reach Adak next turn and would end up out at sea and in the open for yet another turn. Since I had no intention of leaving the TF to the whims of the weather and the Allied LBA I ordered it back to Kiska. I may have to replace the Yamato TF with a rested BB TF and let the Yamato and the rest of the ships in the TF repair their system damage and recover their top speeds.

In other news, the 116th/A is now at 47 elapsed miles. Gawd knows what determines the rate of travel from turn-to-turn; I am assuming that there are at least a few random numbers generated during the movement decision process.

And finally, I upgraded a Chutai of Oscars to my first Chutai of Tonys this turn. I've got five Daitais of Oscars and Nates that can upgrade to Tonys too, so I am looking forward to the next few dozen turns as my factories increase their output of decent fighters. I don't have anything that upgrades to Tojos, but I will start to get Tojo reinforcement units soon so that will be an added relief. I will also get a half dozen A6M2 replacement Daitais within the next week. Most of these are Daitais that I disbanded a few months ago when AuTiger decimated my Zero stocks. I am hoping that these air units come back with reasonably experienced pilots, but I am probably going to see nothing but level 20 rookies.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 14, 1942 - My minesweepers in the Home Islands were busy this turn, as were AuTiger's ships at Luganville. One of my subs at Luganville got two chances at Allied escorts at Luganville but missed both times, allowing the Allied escorts to chase the sub back to base again.

Allied air attacks focused on Northern Burma this turn while my light air units took up the "slack" in China by bombing those Chinese LCUs that moved too far away from their protective air cover. AuTiger continues to move aggressively on the ground in China and has moved a single Chinese unit to Kaifeng. I've got a fairly good sized force there, so I set them to do a Deliberate attack next turn. They ought to kick the Chinese unit out of there easily unless AuTiger moves a more troops to the attack. I also moved a number of light bombers into position to hit those Chinese troops at Kaifeng, along with escorts, so this ought to turn into an "expensive" adventure for AuTiger very quickly. AuTiger also moved a single unit to within a hex of Hsinyang, but again I've got a number of troops at the base so I'll happily give them practice on any incoming Chinese LCUs.

Elsewhere in China the pilots in my newly reconstituted Tojo Daitai were an embarrassment to their Service on their first attempt to attack. They had a fairly "soft" LCU to attack that was only two hexes away and undefended. My pilots accomplished absolutely nothing and lost three planes to Operational Damage. So I've pulled them back and put them back on "training", albeit with a very short "leash".

And finally, the 116th/A is now up to 48 elapsed miles.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 15, 1942 – This was another busy minesweeping night turn for MSWs on both sides. I'm wondering if AuTiger is short on MSWs because he appears to be using other patrol-type craft for minesweeping duties too. In any event, no Allied ships hit any mines this turn, but I-3 at Luganville put a torpedo into APD Manley. The Manley was finished off by another torpedo from I-21 while on its way back to Noumea. Unfortunately, I-3 received several attacks during the turn and suffered a fair amount of damage, so it is unlikely to make it back to port either.

AuTiger continues to show interest in Timor and sent F5s to spy upon Koepang this turn. I've decided to send a rested-up SNLF unit to Koepang just to make certain that AuTiger doesn't try to grab the base "on the cheap" while there is only a base force present.

It also appears that AuTiger is ready to show more interest in the Western Aleutians as my spy planes reported that the big US surface combat TF is back at Dutch Harbor. In addition, the Air Balance values for Dutch Harbor and the neighbouring bases have increased significantly, and the number of Allied subs in the Western Aleutians has increased again. My forces are continuing to recover nicely and build up in the Kuriles, but I would prefer not to have to face a serious Allied counterattack for another couple of weeks. We'll see if AuTiger gives me that time.

Allied air power in the Far East continues to be concentrated in a limited number of locations; mainly at the main British bases in the Bay of Bengal and also at Chungking. AuTiger has fighter-bombers at Changsha and other bombers at Kweiyang, but otherwise there isn't anything showing up elsewhere. He also isn't flying CAP over his Chinese troops in the field, which allowed my light bombers to hit a number of LCUs without interference this turn.

In light of this I moved more light bombers and second-string fighters forward so that they can get practice against AuTiger's scattered LCUs. I've brought some decent escorts forward too, so even if AuTiger sets up an ambush it won't be a "free shot" for him.

I also decided not to commit my main A6M2/A6M3 attack force to Burma as I had been planning, mainly because of the multiple Allied bases with very high Air Balances in the region. Instead I moved them to Haiphong, along with a number of rested 2E bomber units, and they will see if they can catch on the ground the bombers that keep on showing up in Intel at Kweiyang. The Weather in China is only calling for "Precipitation" this turn instead of the usual "End of the World", so this may well be as good a chance as I get for a while.

BTW – that useless and feeble pseudo-attack by my Tojo Daitai last turn appears to have spooked AuTiger a bit, so I've decided to set the bunch of worthless losers on another reasonably "safe" ground attack in China, just in case I can continue to distract AuTiger with them.

AuTiger learned another "little lesson" in China this turn as his attempt to bother me at Kaifeng turned around and bit him. Although 3 Chinese LCUs, accompanied by 3 Chinese HQs were trying to besiege Kaifeng, my troops knocked them back with a 2:1 Deliberate attack. If AuTiger doesn't send those troops back behind the lines for R&R their low morale and high disruption will just make my job easier the next time that he tries something like this. It will be interesting to see if AuTiger continues with his "adventuring" in China or pulls back to the safety of his bases. In the meanwhile, my troops at Yenen continue to achieve nicely large casualty results with each day's artillery attack, and I haven't even bothered to do any air attacks.

BTW – the 116th/A is now at 49 elapsed miles. I also ordered the third of the Imperial Guard which has been sitting in Lashio for the past six months to start its long and very slow march to rejoin its other two parts in Rangoon. I will have a replacement unit in Lashio before AuTiger notices that I've done a switch.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 16, 1942 – There was limited minesweeping during the night phase this turn, followed by a little more minesweeping at the beginning of the day phase, but essentially for now both sides have cleaned up the previous round of submarine mining. Speaking of subs, I-3 sank a hex north of Luganville this turn as I had expected.

Despite generally poor weather the Big News this turn was in the Air. AuTiger tried to guess where I was keeping my air units and he "missed" this turn. B-17s from India took two attempts before they finally magaged to hit the airfields at Rangoon, but all that was there were a few recon planes. I've got a fair amount of AA at Rangoon now and the B-17s got hit fairly hard including several losses. Then AuTiger's B-24s flew out of Chungking to hit Nanking, but once again, "no one" was there except for the "chickens" (another small recon unit) and there was even more AA there and thus flak took its toll nicely on the Libs. The only other Allied attack was some Chinese bombers practicing on the 34th.

Then it was my turn as most of my planned air attacks flew, albeit not necessarily all at once. The main attack on the airfields at Kweiyang went reasonably well and caused a lot of damage, but AuTiger had already pulled back whatever planes had been sitting there. He now has all of his planes in the Chinese Theatre sitting in Chungking. In any event, the attack was a good morale booster for my air units since there was no opposition and little flak.

My light bombers also attacked numerous Chinese ground positions in the field and for the most part caused a goodly number of casualties. But more importantly, my pilots got more practice. Even the Good-for-Nothing Tojo Daitai flew, attacked some troops, and only lost one plane to Operational damage.

Given the reasonably encouraging results I decided to up the ante in the air war in China even more, so I brought in the six replacement A6M2 Daitais that showed up this turn. These were depleted air units that I disbanded during the aerial bloodbaths in China earlier in 1942. I didn't know what to expect as far as pilot experience levels, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the six Daitais weren't filled-out with the usual Level 20 pilots that show up as daily replacements. Instead of being totally useless these pilots are merely bad, with experience levels ranging from the low 40s to the low 60s.

Of course, I'm not mad enough to put these poor s.o.b.s directly into the Front Lines. Instead they are escorting Army divebomber and level bomber units that have been set to attack some of the many Chinese LCUs that are currently out in the field. Their presence will assure a uniformly large Air Balance over all of my Chinese bases, making any 4E attacks even more of a crapshoot for AuTiger.

In any event, I'm also not mad enough to leave my main air attack force at Haiphong, particularly since there doesn't seem to be much of a point to bother with a follow-up attack on Kweiyang. So I moved all of my good air attack units to Shanghai for their next attack. I also shipped in more of my better bombers and fighters. The attack on Kweiyang only flew at around one-third strength, so AuTiger didn't see just how many 2Es and Zeros I have really brought to China. Next turn, if I get any luck at all, I will fly my biggest air assault since the battle for the DEI, and it will all head to Changsha. BTW – the Weather in China next turn is supposed to be "Overcast", which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if it does turn out to be true.

In the ground war AuTiger sent his wandering Chinese LCUs to Hsinyang this turn. Since something like 10 Chinese units arrived at the same time I ordered a Bombardment Attack instead of a Deliberate Attack. But I also set over a hundred planes to attack the troops at Hsinyang too. I still haven't pulled any of my troops back from Yenen, and they keep on scoring large casualty counts with each turn's artillery bombardment, so AuTiger's "adventuring" isn't achieving what he wants. Instead it is using up his supply in China and is giving my pilots some desperately needed practice.

And the 116th/A moved all of one mile this turn and now sits at a grand total of 50 elapsed miles. So unless the AI comes up with yet another way to stick it to me concerning ground movement, the 116th/A ought to move in 10 days time. [8|]

[Dive Bomber1]

August 17, 1942 - There was limited minesweeping again this turn, because there are limited numbers of offensive mines out there at the moment. Another of my subs tried to sneak into Luganville Harbor but was whacked by some APDs. And that was it for naval action.

Air action was another thing. The Weather Man was wrong and there was bad weather throughout the Far East this turn. But while there were no Allied air attacks, my main attack on Changsha went off fairly well, albeit no where near full strength. There were no planes on the ground or in the air at Changsha, so my air units had to be satisfied with damaging the runways and gaining relatively "safe" experience.

Unfortunately, most of my air attacks on the masses of Chinese LCUs on the move in China didn't fly this turn. Surprisingly, the Bozo Tojos did fly and actually hit their target. I once again "shuffled the deck" with my air units in China and moved the main effort to the North while setting more light bombers to attack Chinese LCUs in Central China. AuTiger is sending troops all over the place in an attempt to cut off my bases. If my planes eventually fly they will cause this bit of "cuteness" to die a slow death. But that is a big "if" in this game considering the usual weather in China.

AuTiger's new-found aggressiveness did cost him a bit this turn, as his attack on Hsinyang ran into Level 8 fortifications and plenty of experienced Infantry waiting behind the walls. So the Chinese attackers were repulsed with a 0:1 result and plenty of casualties. Will AuTiger pull back now or continue to try to isolate my forces?

BTW - the 116th/A is now at 51 elapsed miles.

And in the latest demonstration of Allied Air Power, AuTiger sent a massive attack of 94 B-25s and 41 Tomahawks against Lautem this turn. I only had a Daitai of Nates present, and despite holding their own in the air, the hugely outnumbered Nates couldn't really bother the Mitchells. The end result was that although few Nates were lost in the air, a dozen were lost on the ground.

[USSAmerica]

I love that both of you are regularly posting to your AAR's.  It's great fun to actually have the answer to the question, "What was he thinking?"  [:D]
 
Happy Thanksgiving, Dive!  [8D]

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: USS America

I love that both of you are regularly posting to your AAR's.  It's great fun to actually have the answer to the question, "What was he thinking?"  [:D]

Happy Thanksgiving, Dive!  [8D]

It takes "courage" for me to keep on posting my mistakes turn after turn... I'm glad that someone is enjoying them.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 18, 1942 - Minesweeping was very limited again this evening turn as my MSWs attempted to clear out the last remaining Allied mines. Then as the day phase started one of my Sallys on Naval Attack out of Singapore dropped a bomb on USS Dolphin which was nearby. I've got to think that it must have taken AuTiger a long time to get short-ranged Dolphin to the Indian Ocean bases.

That aside, the main action was in the air over China where AuTiger moved his planes forward again and I ended up being the one to "guess wrong" regarding where the AVG would end up. Bad weather also didn't help, as most of my attacks on the Chinese troops at Hsinyang flew without Escorts and right into the waiting 50 cal machine guns of the AVG. It wasn't pretty and I'll have to start saving up Sonias all over again. And as luck would have it, my main big air attack didn't fly. Oh well, they will be better rested next turn.

Fortunately, the "many blind squirrels" philosophy prevented me from being totally shut-out this turn and a number of my secondary attacks did fly with varying levels of success against the multitude of Chinese LCUs in the field. In theory, all this action ought to be draining the Chinese supply levels, but you wouldn't know it from AuTiger's continued ability to stymie me everywhere. In any event, I re-set my various secondary attacks to new targets and will try again next time.

On the ground front, AuTiger moved the Chinese armored unit to the road hex between Wuhan and Nanchang. But I was expecting that and I had a decent Infantry Division move in at the same time. So with any luck my troops will kick those Tankers back next turn. I also set almost every plane in China to hit that Chinese unit, so unless AuTiger is "divinely prescient" as to where to put his LR CAP, those tanks ought to get pounded very well next turn.

Oh yes, the 116th/A "jumped" up to 54 elapsed miles this turn.

[Dive Bomber1]

August 19, 1942 - My MSWs were still clearing mines this evening from the same places; I still can't get over how many mines the US subs can lay at one time. But the big news of the evening was that a very big Allied (mainly British) TF bombarded Andaman Island. Despite the presence of a large and fresh minefield and CD guns, and despite no prior air recon, the massive TF full of cruisers got in and hit the place quite hard. One Brit CL suffered one minor hit and the TF vanished into the Bay of Bengal totally undetected by any of my many air patrols. And that's despite my constant mining of the Bay of Bengal ports too. Oh well, I'll move more subs into the region and do more mining.

That raid aside, the main action this turn was once again in China where both sides continued to play "shell game", and once again AuTiger "guessed" right and pulled his planes out of Homan just as my big air attack finally flew and hammered the air fields. However, while AuTiger was focusing upon China I was able to sneak a Sally Daitai into Mandalay and hit the airfields at Ledo where AuTiger had once again amassed plenty of transports. My bombers destroyed 9 transports on the ground, and ought to scare off the rest for a couple of turns. And as usual, I immediately pulled the Sallys back to Bangkok for R&O.

In addition to my one big raid on Homan, a number of my other light air attacks on Chinese LCUs flew, as did a couple of attacks by Allied planes. AuTiger also sent his F5s to check out Shanghai, so I pulled out and redistributed my attack planes from there. I am keeping my air units in the field in China instead of pulling them back, because I now have enough active air bases to play "shell game" while keeping up the attacks.

In land combat news, as expected, my Infantry Divisions easily kicked out that Chinese armored unit from the road between Nanchang and Wuhan. The mass of Chinese units at Hsinyang didn't do anything, so I continued to ignore them and instead am focusing upon the one Chinese unit that AuTiger moved to the south of Hsinyang. And no, I still didn't move my troops out of their siege at Yenen, and they continue to cause many hundreds of Chinese casualties every turn with their artillery attacks.

BTW - the 116th/A is now up to 55 elapsed miles. I guess that the movement "die roll" hit a minimum again this turn. [8|]

In other news, AuTiger sent 132 B-17s to hit Amboina. The Daitai of Oscars that I had on high altitude CAP tried their best but the Forts just blasted past them to attack the air fields and the ports. A couple of PTs that had been sitting in port for months were sunk, but otherwise the damage wasn't that bad.

And finally, my patrols spotted and reported some Allied transports in the middle of the Coral Sea this turn. Supposedly the ships are headed for the northwest. I suspect that this is an erroneous report, but I moved a number of Betty Daitais back into the regional airfields and ordered some combat ships to move towards the area too. Despite what AuTiger might think, I haven't stripped my forward areas bare.