Hunting the AuTiger - an AAR (no Tigers please)

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: USS America

Hi Dive.  I just wanted to let you know I'm still reading and enjoying your war and AAR.  [8D]

Hi, it's great that you are still here. It is hard to find exciting things to write at this time as I attempt to prepare for obliteration (and hope endlessly for a miracle... )

[Dive Bomber1]

October 20, 1942 – The Hunters became the Hunted, or at least the Unlucky this turn as a DD in one of my ASW TFs ran into a freshly laid mine at Khota Bharu and suffered a fair amount of damage. It's a very good thing that Singapore was only a hex away. The MSW TF that was supposed to clear the way for the DDs came afterwards and continued the job that the DD "started". Except for some minesweeping at Tulagi things were otherwise quiet during the rest of the night phase.

The day phase was anything but quiet as both sides continued to play Cat-and-Mouse with each other's air units. First, I had a Daitai of Sallys fly into Hengchow at treetop level to try to catch some of AuTiger's Chinese 2Es on the ground. My bombers endured a lot of damage but took no losses, thanks to the relatively weak Chinese flak. Unfortunately they didn't catch any planes on the ground despite causing a fair amount of damage to the air fields.

Then AuTiger sent 60 B-17s to hit the airfields at Taung Gyi in case I had an ambush fighter Daitai there. I didn't, but the 4Es did catch a couple of recon planes on the ground. I haven't yet figured out what allows some planes to fly out of an air base before a bombing raid and what leaves some or all in place to be hit by an air raid, but my suspicion is that the "common factor" is once again Pilot Experience.

Next there came an attack by 58 B-17s on the Port at Ndini. Once again I am assuming that AuTiger is preparing the way for an invasion. (God Bless – AuTiger deserves that miserable piece of malarial garbage.) I had a little squadron of Rufes on CAP and they valiantly attempted to confront the sky-darkening enemy attack. Surprisingly, no Rufes were shot down by the Flying Fortresses.

Then during the Afternoon Phase 10 Chinese SB-2c bombers from Hengchow finally attacked the 34th Division. Waiting in the sky were 33 A6M2s from four different Daitais in three different bases. The result wasn't bad; 5 SB-2c bombers were destroyed and the rest were damaged, but I did get a number of Zeros damaged. I suspect that again the effects of relative experience came into play: AuTiger has been giving his 2Es constant practice against my trapped LCUs and I've got to believe that most of the Allied bomber pilots have very good experience by now. On the other hand, these Zero Daitais were my "second tier" units, which were all that were available at this time since my First Tier Zeros have been tied up in the Aleutians. (My Third Tier fighters are sitting back in big air bases far from the Front Lines and undergoing 90% training at 1 hex max distance.)

Finally, the British 2Es flew against the Kure 2nd SNLF fragment in northern Burma again, but they didn't cause any damage. So the fragment moved up to 52 elapsed miles and didn't lose any more squads. At the same time the 116th/A moved up to 30 elapsed miles.

Far away from the mainland of Asia I restarted my pull-out from the southern most reaches of the South Pacific by loading a worn-out NLF unit onto an AK that had just dropped off a few supplies at Funafuti. I have a larger dedicated transport TF nearby that will pull out the Air Base Force out of Funafuti and also the worn-out NLF that is sitting at the next Island up the chain. Thankfully, AuTiger is still totally ignoring that region so it appears that I may have a good chance of getting all of my forces out safely.

Speaking of pulling out forces, I pulled an Air Base Force out of Kiska this turn. I've left behind a full Base Force that contains Coastal Guns and AA. I'm sending that Air Base Force off to Korea to fill in one of the air support "holes" I left at the beginning of this pbem when I sent absolutely every unit that belonged to Southern Command to the Front.

And finally, the System Damage on Hyuga went down to 5 this turn, tying it with Akagi again in the Race to Upgrade.

[Dive Bomber1]

October 21, 1942 - This evening it was the Allied turn to have a ship hit a mine in a base where minesweeping was occurring. An AK carrying troops hit one of my sub-laid mines at Umnak while the MSW escorts were cleaning up other mines. I've got another mine-laden sub in the neighborhood so I'll send it down to "refresh the stock" at Umnak.

There was also a little bit of sub hunting as one of my DD ASW TFs chased an Allied sub in the North Pacific, but otherwise nothing happened this turn except for the usual recon flights from both sides.

AuTiger must be rethinking his options in the Asian mainland now that I've finally got a force together than won't just roll-over-and-die when any Allied fighters show up. Of course, if AuTiger reads those posts in the Forum that speak of the multiple-attack approach to dealing with localized CAP then I could be in trouble again in no time.

AuTiger hasn't given up on this air offensive in China by any means, so there were Warhawks on LR CAP over Hengchow this turn and there are still a lot of planes at Changsha, although surprisingly enough, there wasn't any CAP over Changsha this turn. Just in case AuTiger does try another raid on Canton I brought up my lone decent Tojo Daitai to join the four decent Tony units on high altitude CAP. Those 142 planes and pilots are the "best hope" for the Japanese right now.

Well, that's not quite 100% true, because I am slowly pulling my experienced Zero Daitais out of the Aleutians, but they are only good against second-string Allied planes at this point, so I am quietly positioning them and saving them for what I hope will be another opportunity to do a long-range air ambush.

In any event, I am enjoying the "breather" that I am getting and hope that it will stretch out a little longer. The Kure 2nd SNLF/1 wasn't attacked this turn and reached 54 elapsed miles, so it could be out of the jungle and onto the railroad in a couple of days with some luck. And the 116th/A reached 32 elapsed miles.

I was surprised to see that there were only two Chinese LCUs attacking the trapped 34th Division this turn. AuTiger must have pulled his other two units back in order to rest and rebuild them. I will have to watch how things develop and maybe send some long range bombers in to hit those fresh Chinese LCUs. Today's land attack on the 34th was back to the usual level of minor casualties. The 34th can't stand this forever, but it is certainly taking its time disappearing. I guess the advantage from AuTiger's P.O.V. is that he has been able to use the 34th as a near-freebie training ground for his forces.

In other news, the Port at Manila finally reached Level 9. I'm planning ahead for AuTiger's eventual charge across the Pacific and Manila's location makes a great rallying point.

And finally, in the Surprise of the Day, both the Akagi and the Hyuga upgraded overnight! [X(] [X(] [X(] [X(] [X(]

So now all of my Naval Upgrades are up-to-date and the vast majority of my combat ships are in excellent shape. Now all I have to do is to position them so that I can respond strongly to AuTiger's first offensive.

[Dive Bomber1]

October 22, 1942 - The night phase saw the usual sort of thing; a single minesweeper swept a single mine from Tulagi. However, it appears that this was the final mine, so the MSW can go back to Shortlands for R&O until the next Allied sub shows up to mine Tulagi again.

One of my last dedicated mine-laying subs, I-124, ran into some very bad luck after it mined the harbor at Brisbane this turn. Some very sharp-eyed Hudson pilots spotted the sub and hit it with several bombs. So I-124 sank in the harbor. This is just another example of how well experienced are the pilots of AuTiger's 2E bombers. Now, if he would only risk some of those bombers against my Tonys… (sigh)

Other than that attack there were no air attacks anywhere this turn. Only Recon flights flew. AuTiger continues to fly Recon over Kendari. I'm not sure why, because most everything there is in ruins and more 4E bombing attacks won't make things any worse. Maybe he just forgot to give those recon planes a different objective?

AuTiger has pulled back a bit in China. He has Spitfires flying CAP over Yenen, P-40Es flying CAP over Changsha, and a mix of various fighters flying CAP over Chungking. But otherwise there isn't any sign of Allied air. I took this opportunity to pull back one of my Tony Daitais and give it more planes to bring it up to strength. I actually have several Daitais with more pilots than the maximum number of planes. It's seems silly to me that I can't transfer pilots between units, but hey, that's the Game for you. [8|]

Speaking of Air Power, AuTiger appears to be a lot more interested in the Aleutians than I expected because the Air Balance in the Eastern Aleutians, including Adak, has gone up a lot in the past couple of turns. Considering that the weather is still garbage 99.99% of the time and Winter is just around the corner, I've got to wonder why. But I'm not one to waste opportunities so I ordered the Yamato TF to head out and bombard Adak again. I put my best Zero Daitai on LR CAP at 10K feet over the TF and with any luck in two turns I will reduce the Air Balance at Adak again. BTW - I also have Kongo and a couple of big, good CAs in the TF, so if AuTiger sends any ships forward there ought to be an interesting naval battle.

In land combat news, today's land attack on the trapped 34th Division got better results for AuTiger than usual, despite the lack of an aerial bombing attack. I guess that time is finally running out for the 34th. Just to liven things up a bit I moved a bomber unit nearby and set it to hit the Chinese troops that are besieging the 34th. I also moved a couple of bomber units into Burma again and set them to do some nuisance raids on some of the Allied bases that don't have any CAP present.

In other LCU news, the Kure 2nd SNLF/1 reached 56 elapsed miles this turn and actually has its full complement of supplies for a change. The 116th/A still doesn't have any supplies, but it reached 34 elapsed miles anyway.

I'm also indirectly keeping AuTiger edgy in south-western China as I continue to move minor LCUs around. I've been shifting my weaker forces to back-water bases by land and as AuTiger sees those units move he sends Chinese LCUs out to "shadow" my units, just in case I attempt to cut his supply lines. That's good for me because it moves Allied LCUs out of the relative "safety" of bases and into the open where I can hit them with my air units without taking so many flak losses. I am also working on re-establishing my lines of communication in the region and getting rid of the last few "A" marks that interfere with my supply transport. Right now AuTiger has his troops sitting back in their bases so that makes my job easier.

Finally, the recover operation in the Far South Pacific is moving along smoothly with no indications that AuTiger knows or cares about what I am doing. Later on, when AuTiger is fighting his way through the Pacific, he will learn that every unit counts and that there will be no "gimmes" for him to grab with minor units. [;)]

[Dive Bomber1]

October 23, 1942 - We had yet another quiet night, other than a couple of contacts with Allied subs in the Bering Straight that didn't result in anything. The day phase was less quiet, but bad weather did cause a few headaches for AuTiger.

First off, all of my nuisance air strikes flew this turn. A Helen Sentai bombed the air fields at Myitkyina but caused only a little damage. A Betty Sentai bombed the air fields at Ledo and caused no damage and hit none of the planes on the ground. Finally, an Ann Sentai hit the 55th Chinese Corp that is besieging the 34th Division at 44, 36 and caused a few casualties.

AuTiger had some troubles at first thanks to the weather and his first B-17 raid against Kendari turned back. But in the afternoon 105 Forts hit the air fields and port at Kendari causing reasonable damage. However, the end result was that AuTiger lost a half-dozen B-17s to Operational damage, so that was a decent result from my p.o.v. In addition, 35 Liberators hit the Port at Ndini again, with four Rufes making yet another valiant effort to be "noticed" by the big bombers.

From a pure "bad luck" point-of-view, despite the bad weather my bombardment TF on its way to Adak was noticed by some Allied Wellingtons. So unless AuTiger is asleep at the wheel he has enough warning to pull out his planes out of Adak and send in some PTs if he wants. In any event, I increased the Zero LR CAP over my TF in case some Allied bombers do take off next turn.

In LCU news, the Kure 2nd SNLF is now up to 58 elapsed miles, so with any luck it will be out of the jungle next turn. The 116th/A continued its march and reached 36 elapsed miles this turn. And the land attack on the trapped 34th Division was not as strong as last turn, although the 34th still took plenty of casualties in its current hyper-weakened state.

And in the Far South Pacific one of my recovery TFs removed an IJA BF out of Funafuti while another recovery TF pulled an NLF out of Nukufetau. They are now on their way to Truk for rest and rebuilding. There was still no sign of AuTiger noticing my movements in the region.

[Dive Bomber1]

October 24, 1942 - It was the Allied turn to sweep mines this evening, and while some MSWs were sweeping out Dutch Harbor an Allied AK with them hit a mine and took some casualties. It looks like either AuTiger is preparing to stage a non-trivial operation in the Aleutians at some point, or else he is really concerned about a Japanese return to the eastern Aleutians. BTW, my bombardment TF hit Adak but caused little damage despite containing 2 BBs, 3 CAs and 3 CLs. And as I expected AuTiger pulled out his air units in advance of the attack. [:(]

Otherwise things were quiet all over the map with the exception of Recon flights. AuTiger is still sending daily F-5A recon missions over Kendari. He must be wondering why I have TFs there all the time. The reason is simple: Kendari is still producing excess Supplies and Resources so I am constantly shipping them out to where they are needed. I will also have a fresh Naval Base Force arriving soon, so that will make the place a bit more secure.

In the Asian mainland AuTiger continued with his CAP over Hengchow, but for whatever reason, he hasn't had any CAP over Changsha recently. He did move some Spitfires to Ledo in response to my air raid last turn, which has encouraged me to continue with my hit-'n-run air tactics. Therefore, I am sending bombers against some Chinese LCUs out in the open in southwest China again next turn, and I am also trying a single Sally Sentai raid at 1000 feet of the airfields at Changsha. My Recon flights keep on telling me that there are a lot of planes at the air fields, so maybe I'll get lucky, particularly if AuTiger keeps his CAP grounded. [&o]

In Ground Combat news, the Kure 2nd SNLF/1 finally made it to the Burma Railroad this turn, so it won't take much more time before it is reunited with the main unit. The 116th/A continued on its march and reached 38 elapsed miles. And the daily assault on the trapped 34th Division had less of an effect than usual. I keep on thinking that there ought to be some means by which I can drive a rescue force through the Chinese lines, but with the Land Movement rules I would probably just get another couple of units trapped again. [8|]

[Dive Bomber1]

October 25, 1942 - AuTiger and I appear to be taking turns sweeping mines nowadays. This night it was the turn of one of my MSWs to sweep some fresh mines out of Ndini.

The day phase started out with one of those "aw s*h*i*t" moments for me as my recon planes flew over Changsha only to find a number of P-40s and P-38s back on CAP. Either AuTiger guessed right or his INTEL told him to look out for an air attack. In any event, my Sallys flew in and got hit hard, losing 8 planes. And as usual with my air attacks, no Allied planes were caught on the ground. All that came out of this mess was that a few P-40s were damaged.

Then it was AuTiger's turn to have a "surprise" turn into a headache. Thirty-five Liberators flew out of Umnak and attacked the air fields at Kiska at 6000 feet. But my reasonably well-trained A6M2s and A6M3s had a good day in the air, shooting down 13 B-24s and damaging a number of others. Never-the-less, the rest of the Liberators got through and did destroy a number of planes on the ground. But for once my pilots weren't "asleep in their cockpits" and I didn't lose any pilots on the ground. So I increased the CAP levels for my fighters to 90% and brought in a back-up A6M2 Daitai just in case AuTiger tries to do "better" the next time.

Other than my misbegotten Sally attack on Changsha, things were quiet in the Far East. However, AuTiger started flying F-5As over Canton again. I wonder what he will think of the fact that I had no CAP this turn? In any event, just in case AuTiger decides to send more fighters and bombers in against Canton next turn I moved my rested good fighters back into Canton and Hong Kong and set everyone to high altitude 90% CAP again.

[Dive Bomber1]

October 26, 1942 - The night phase had the usual minimal action, which this evening consisted of a couple of my MSWs unsuccessfully chasing an Allied sub off of Paramushiro Jima, and a couple more of my MSWs sweeping mines successfully near Singapore.

The day phase brought an attempt by my air forces in the Aleutians to "spook" AuTiger a bit. I had Bettys fly recon over Umnak and Emilys fly recon over Dutch Harbor. AuTiger had a few Kittyhawks on CAP. I just want to keep AuTiger edgy, and this seemed to be the safest way to do that. However, half of my Bettys were damaged from flying in the bad weather, so I won't be doing that very often.

AuTiger sent out much more substantial "messages" with his essentially invincible air units. Kendari was hit yet again by 147 B-17s and Lunga was hit again by 64 B-17s. As usual, the Forts had no losses. This exemplifies a fundamental logical problem with the use of Pilot Experience as a major factor in Air Mission success - Operational damage should reflect general "bad luck" and the wear-and-tear on the planes as they get older and have more missions on them. But high Pilot Experience negates any random chance damage. It should be harder for both sides to operate older planes that have seen many missions, not easier. I wonder if any of the Devs have ever thought about this?

It appears that AuTiger is getting ready for a stronger "Round Two" in China and has been steadily reinforcing his main air bases at Chungking, Changsha and Yenen. Changsha is now a Level 9 air base so there is essentially no chance that I'll ever be able to close it again or stop AuTiger from using it as a main air base for the Strategic bombing of the Home Islands.

In any event, I decided to not take any more chances and I pulled my fighters out of China and placed them in various strategic, but not Front Line, bases in Southeast Asia. I lucked out before with air units that weren't really that good, so I now want to rest them up and train them more before I risk them again.

[Dive Bomber1]

October 27, 1942 - My lone MSW in the Aleutians successfully cleaned out a couple of Allied mines from Adak during the night phase. Despite a huge build-up of the Air Balance levels at Umnak and Dutch Harbor nothing flew out to try to hit my little "sacrificial goat". Never-the-less, it's still nice to see that AuTiger continues to be "interested" in the Aleutians.

The day phase was primarily "Recon Wars", with both sides sending planes out all over China, and in the case of AuTiger, yet another F-5A flight over Kendari. I wonder if AuTiger is considering a thrust right at Kendari so that he can place his air power right in the middle of the DEI? In any event, my repositioning of my forces is continuing so if AuTiger does try a major effort in the DEI I will be in a position to oppose it in force.

In the meanwhile, as part of my attempts to "cover my tracks" as I move my forces around, some Anns hit a Chinese LCU that ventured outside of the safety of Wuhan, while some Sallys hit one of the LCUs that is slowly but surely grinding the 34th Division down into oblivion.

As far as my other "wayward" LCUs go, the Kure 2nd SNLF/1 is safely in Mandalay now, on its way to Rangoon and eventually Bangkok. I am going to ship the rest of the Kure 2nd SNLF to Bangkok to join up with the fragment. And the 116th/A is up to 44 elapsed miles on its way towards Lashio. I wonder if its movement rate will increase again once it reaches one hex from Lashio?

[Dive Bomber1]

October 28, 1942 - It was another quiet night. About 10 of my DD escorts missed an Allied sub they passed in the Marshalls, and the 1-plane AV that was bombed in Lunga harbor sank finally in Shortlands harbor. What a waste of supplies - you can be sure that I'm not converting AKs in my latest pbems.

The day phase belonged to the Allied 4E bombers. Forty-two B-24Ds hit the resources at Hanoi, sixty-three B-17s hit the resources at Rangoon, and 54 more Forts hit the airfield at Tulagi. Actually, AuTiger's Super-2Es got into the act too, as some Beauforts at Brisbane whacked yet another sub that was laying mines.

The only thing that didn't work out right for AuTiger this turn was his daily land attack on the trapped 34th Division. This time he had his Chinese LCUs try a Shock attack. The results were much worse than in the previous handful of Deliberate attacks. Somehow that only seems "fair" considering that the 34th should have never been trapped in the first place except for the incredibly bad Land Movement routines in the Program.

Otherwise, things were generally quiet. My repositioning of my forces continued as planned in the absence of any attempts at interference by AuTiger. He must be very confident that his eventual onslaught will wash past any defense that I attempt. But I am enjoying setting up little surprises. For example, I just dropped a fully rested and full strength Naval Base Force at Kendari, and I am pulling out the decimated Special Base Force that was there and sending it back to Manila for rebuilding. I already pulled out a decimated Aviation Engineering unit out of Kendari and sent it to Manila too, and it is recovering very nicely.

[Dive Bomber1]

October 29, 1942 - This evening phase had no action of any sort, not even minesweeping or sub hunting. For that matter, AuTiger's subs seem to have disappeared off of the map. Maybe he is moving them back to port for R&O in anticipation of getting good torpedoes in January 1943.

The day phase was almost equally quiet. There were no air attacks by AuTiger. The only action was a ground attack by my Anne unit on a Chinese LCU in the open to the north of Wuchow, and another attack by a unit of Sallys on one of the Chinese LCUs that is besieging the 34th Division. Speaking of the 34th, the Chinese LCUs didn't attempt an attack this turn; I guess that the effects of the failed Shock attack last turn were pretty painful.

Right now I get the feeling that AuTiger is trying to "smell out" my forces. He has recon planes flying all over, but he isn't finding much, and when he finds something, I move it. I am absolutely astonished (and extremely grateful) that AuTiger has waited so long to do anything. Every day that he holds off a major attack is another day in which my forces become distributed better and better. If AuTiger had mounted any sort of counter-attack a couple of Game-months ago while I had all of my forces bogged down in the Aleutians he would have found almost nothing in his way.

In any event, I appear to have "tempted" AuTiger to move some Chinese troops out of his bases along the rail line in Central China. A fairly large column of Chinese troops is now chasing a couple of my armored units down towards the crossroads between Canton and Wuchow. But I have moved a sizable force back into the crossroads - a force that is much stronger and more rested than the one that defeated another Chinese army a while back at the same point. I have also moved a number of bomber units back into the area and will give them some practice against that Chinese column, along with a Tony Daitai on escort just to keep AuTiger a bit cautious.

In the meanwhile, I think that I have spotted one last chance to try to extricate the 34th Division, so I've ordered a number of full-strength and fully rested Divisions out of Wuhan again and have them heading towards Changsha. I also have a big Division wandering around to the south, apparently threatening the rail line, but actually just "laying Js" so that I have supply movement in the region. It will be interesting to see what AuTiger does.

[Koniev]

Hi DB -

Although I havn't posted anything up to now, I have been reading this thread with some interest. You write a very entertaining and informative AAR - please keep it up.

I was getting a little upset at the earlier troubles you seem to be having. My thinking was - Why should I learn a game that has so many apparant bugs in it. This seems to have improved after you corrected to the same versions.

One observation: As your "saga" unfolds, I am reminded of a scene in the movie The Longest Day where Field Marshall Rommel points his baton toward the English Channel and says something like "Across that sea lies a monster...". Or words to that effect. I feel that something is going to break - and that you won't like it. Good luck.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: Koniev

Hi DB -

Although I havn't posted anything up to now, I have been reading this thread with some interest. You write a very entertaining and informative AAR - please keep it up.

I was getting a little upset at the earlier troubles you seem to be having. My thinking was - Why should I learn a game that has so many apparant bugs in it. This seems to have improved after you corrected to the same versions.

One observation: As your "saga" unfolds, I am reminded of a scene in the movie The Longest Day where Field Marshall Rommel points his baton toward the English Channel and says something like "Across that sea lies a monster...". Or words to that effect. I feel that something is going to break - and that you won't like it. Good luck.

I've learned to "live" with the problems in the current version of WitP and I now avoid many of them, so I don't get as upset with it as I used to get. It also helps to know that the Admiral's Edition is coming and I expect that many of the old problems in WitP will be corrected.

One thing to keep in mind in this AAR is that this is the fourth Scenario 15 pbem that AuTiger and I started against each other. The first two were stopped early on after AuTiger threw away much of his naval power in overly-aggressive thrusts into the jaws of the Japanese forces. The third game was stopped after I threw away half of the KB by mis-reading my INTEL and going beyond my ability to know where the Allied forces were located.

This fourth pbem has been very different because AuTiger changed his tactics and strategy dramatically and it was extremely hard for me to compensate and correct for his new approach. He very deliberately avoided all engagement early on except for those areas where he could ambush my air units and trap my land units. I took huge, and in reality, totally unnecessary losses to my air units and also my land forces as I chased AuTiger into almost every trap that he set. The only point at which I surprised AuTiger was with my assault on Port Moresby.

The result of this is that at this point in our pbem, AuTiger has much better forces than he might if he took the more typical aggressive defense approach, and I have much weaker forces than I might have if I hadn't spread myself so thin and attacked too many places simultaneously.

So all of the frustrations and set-backs that I've endured in this pbem have been very useful because I now have a much more realistic and effective strategy for my current pbems. Sure, I'll continue to make mistakes, fall into traps, and get tripped up by unexpected quirks in the Game Mechanics, but I now have the feeling that I can play competitively, which I didn't really have as this pbem got underway.

Thanks for the comments - Dive

[Dive Bomber1]

October 30, 1942 - It was Peace and Quiet again during the night phase. I look forward to each night phase with great anticipation, because I know that one of these turns the quiet night will be rudely awakened by the sound of guns roaring and troops storming ashore somewhere.

In the meanwhile, the usual games went on. AuTiger sent 150 Mitchells and 53 Tomahawks against Lautem again. This time AuTiger didn't have his usual luck with the weather and a half dozen Mitchells were lost to Operational Damage.

There were then a couple of air attacks on the trapped 34th Division, but this time with a difference. In addition to having a couple of Chinese 2E bombers fly in to hit my ragged remnants, a squadron of P-38s flew in with machine guns blazing. Well, that's just "Too Good" of an invitation, so I moved some Tonys in close and set them to fly LR CAP over the 34th next turn, just in case they can catch some P-38s flying at the treetops.

I was disappointed this turn that none of my bombers in and around Canton flew against the Chinese troops that are coming down the railroad towards the crossroads north of Canton. A Daitai of Tonys did fly LR CAP over the enemy troops, so AuTiger will know that I have some intentions in the area. I wonder if this will encourage him to try to challenge my Tonys or cause him to hold off. All was not totally quiet on my side as the same lone group of Anns flew against the Chinese troops north of Wuchow again.

It appears that AuTiger is continuing to send his troops forward along the railroad. I wonder if he will try to attack my troops at the crossroads. My forces there continue to build and I wait with great anticipation for any Chinese engagement. If the Chinese do show up I intend to attack and then pursue.

Something similar is happening in Burma. As I expected, AuTiger didn't wait long after I moved my Brigade back from the outskirts of Myitkyina to send some troops forward along the rail line. This time it will be my turn to give my 2E bombers practice against his troops in the region.

Elsewhere, my repositioning of my forces continued unabated and unhindered by the Allies. And I get a couple more fresh base forces in four more days, so things are looking reasonably good at this point; and certainly better than they did back in the Summer of 1942.

[Dive Bomber1]

October 31, 1942 - It was Peace and Quiet again in the Night Phase as nothing occurred, then the Day Phase brought action, but little of it turned out good for me.

First off, 125 B-17s hit the Ports and Airfields at Kendari again, giving the newly arrived Naval Base Force a very unwelcome welcome. Then AuTiger sent his P-38 trainees and Chinese 2Es off to hit the 34th Division again, but this time they were escorted by 69 P-40Es, aka the "Gods of Death" in this particular pbem. My Zero Daitai on LR CAP over the 34th was reasonably experienced, but it was also badly outnumbered and thus it got hammered. In the end I lost 13 A6M2s against the loss of 4 P-40Es for AuTiger. So I moved my now much smaller Zero Daitai to Shanghai and sent my last Zero Chutai over to be merged with it.

Then, as is oddly typical of "luck clumping" in this Game, none of my other air attacks flew, despite reports of reasonably acceptable weather throughout China and Burma. If there is any one wish that I have for WitP AE edition it would be to have reports telling why an air attack didn't fly.

So as a result of a strong air attack followed by a strong land attack, the 34th is almost finished. There are only 5 combat squads left, along with some support troops. It is obvious that unless the Game decides to really screw-around with AuTiger there is no hope to save the 34th, so I called off my last, much too late, rescue effort.

In other news, A6M3a Zeros finally got into production with the start of November. Consistent with my lousy luck this turn, the Oscar II still hasn't advanced and will still not arrive until January 1943.

November also means the start of Winter, so the chances of AuTiger sustaining any significant aerial campaign in the Aleutians have just been reduced significantly. Therefore, I have started to pull even more forces out of the Kuriles and will send them to join my other forward units in other regions.

The one bit of good news was that the 116th/A continues on its slow march across the jungles and is now at 52 elapsed miles towards it rendezvous with the hex that is only one hex from Lashio.

Below are the Stats as of November 1, 1942 - One can readily see how well AuTiger's strategy and tactics have succeeded in this game by simply looking at my Troop, Air and Naval losses.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 1, 1942 - It was Peace and Quiet during the Night Phase again, which was okay because all of the "nightmares" flew during the day phase.

Last turn, although my planes didn't fly out of most of my bases, AuTiger's Recon planes flew like usual and one spotted my air units doing nothing on the ground at Mandalay. So I assumed that "Divine Retribution" would immediately follow and pulled back my planes out of Burma with the exception of my best Tojo Daitai that I left flying LR CAP over Mandalay.

Sure enough, AuTiger's highly experienced pilots had no issues with the weather this turn and a massive air attack hit the air fields at Mandalay. Only a quarter of my Daitai flew, so my 7 Tojos had to face 47 Liberators, 62 Forts, 12 Wellingtons and 24 Blenheims. My pilots did their best, but they were only able to shoot down 4 Blenheims and damage a few other bombers, while the bombers shot down 4 of the Tojos. The resulting attack totally closed the airfields and air support at Mandalay.

That was nothing that I didn't expect, but what was totally discouraging this turn was what happened to my attempt to throw something back at the Allies. I put my best Betty units on air field attack against a number of secondary Allied air bases in the hopes of catching some planes on the ground. My bombers flew against Trimcomalee, Cookstown, and Midway. The other planned air attacks didn't fly.

The Bettys only ran into CAP at Trimcomalee, where second string Hurricanes had a field day against my crack Bettys. Those bombers that weren't ravaged by the fighters were hammered by the flak, and in the end accomplished no hits on anything. The Bettys at Cookstown only faced flak, but were hammered by that and ended up only destroying one Catalina on the ground. Even the Bettys that attacked Midway were hammered by flak.

Essentially, I have absolutely no forces capable of threatening the Allies at all at this stage of our pbem. I don't even have any means to try to gain parity in the pilot experience gap. AuTiger's planes can do pretty much what they want, when they want, as long as he gathers a large number of his bombers at the same place and the same time.

And to add to that sad lesson AuTiger flew 61 Forts against Lunga again this turn too. I have too few decent fighters to be able to counter the Allied attacks and there are too many potential targets for AuTiger for me to be able to guess right where he will attack and have sufficient defensive air in place to "discourage" him.

In retrospect, the obvious reason that AuTiger can do what he wants at this stage of the game is that I threw away too many units and pilots early on and gave the Allied planes too many opportunities to gain "free" experience. Once I got behind the "experience 8-ball" there was no catching up.

Oh well, while things are pretty much pointless for me in this game, AuTiger deserves the opportunity to see how well he can do when he goes on the offensive, and so I'll continue to be a "compliant target". I don't expect AuTiger to make as many or the same mistakes that I made, and so his eventual re-conquest ought to go smoothly and quickly and put an end to this sad failure in a relatively short time.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 2, 1942 – This was a multiple bad luck night phase, as my incoming transport TF hit a mine at Nanomea, which alerted AuTiger to my TF being there. Then the PC that hit the mine sank, and to add insult to injury, the entire transport TF decided to head back to Truk. I don’t know if AuTiger will react, but I have decided to send a fast cruiser/destroyer TF down from Kwajalein anyway just in case AuTiger decides to try to interfere with my withdrawal.

Speaking of withdrawals, the withdrawal of my Brigade from the western outskirts of Myitkyina has prompted AuTiger to send a single small British LCU down the rail line. That unit is now only one hex from Mandalay. I presume that AuTiger is going to send that unit into Mandalay as a "test" to find out what forces I have in place. I have that Brigade there, along with some other units, so they ought to kick that British unit out quickly. It will be interesting to see what AuTiger does next.

In China AuTiger sent his Chinese 2Es along with his trainee P-38s against the 34th Division again, with the P-40Es along to keep me honest. The bombers hammered the 34th hard and subsequently so did the ground attack, but the blasted survivors are still there. I can only shake my head in frustration at all of the experience that AuTiger's forces have gained thanks to the idiotic AI sending the 34th into that trap.

BTW – the 116th/A, which hasn't been bothered recently, is now up to 56 elapsed miles, so it ought to move to the hex next to Lashio in a couple more turns. BTW II, now that the Kure 2nd SNLF/1 is safely on the railroad south of Mandalay, and has plenty of supplies, it has now lost a couple more disabled units. So the blasted thing may still disappear before it rejoins the rest of its compatriots in Bangkok.

I forgot that I had some Emilys flying long range recon over Midway and Trincomalee this turn, so I turned them back to routine naval patrols. I do happen to have a BB-TF at Wake, which was on its way to Kwajalein, and since my recon spotted some ships at Midway and no Air except for patrol planes, I've decided to try to take advantage of the generally bad weather in the region and try to sneak the surface combat TF in to either catch the ships or else bombard the base. Sure, I know very well that spur-of-the-moment nuisance attacks almost invariably backfire, but I figure that I get opportunities so rarely that I have to try to take advantage of some of them.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 3, 1942 – There was another quiet night phase, with the exception of some Allied MSWs that swept mines in Brisbane Harbor. Then the Day Phase came and brought a mix of action.

First off was yet another big B-17 air raid on the air fields and port at Kendari. 131 B-17Es flew in at 9000 feet. But waiting for them were 22 A6M2s on LR CAP from two nearby Daitais. The Zeros weren't the best of the Japanese air units, but they still fought bravely and well, and for the first time the Allied 4Es felt some pain. Eight Forts were shot down in air-to-air, and a large number were damaged. Later on another B-17 became a casualty of Operational Damage. Only five Zeros were shot down, although more were damaged. That ought to give AuTiger something to think about.

Next it was the turn of the 34th Division to suffer another massive low altitude air attack by the Allied air units from Changsha. The air attack set the stage and the following land attack, now by four Chinese LCUs, finished off the 34th. So a sad chapter in the saga of the Movement Rules was finally closed. From now on, if AuTiger wants "practice" in China he will have to earn it.

In other LCU news in mainland Asia, the 116th/A reached 58 elapsed miles this turn, so it ought to move next turn. And the Kure 2nd SNLF/1 lost two more squads, so it looks like it will disappear while marching back to base. BTW – the small British unit that was only one hex away from Mandalay along the railroad disappeared this turn, so I assume that AuTiger has pulled it back and is satisfied with having the railroad under "A" control for now.

It appears that AuTiger is planning a major offensive in Burma because the Air Balance levels in the Indian border bases have reached astronomical levels, while in China the Air Balance has dropped down abruptly. Now, AuTiger certainly hasn't abandoned his air efforts in China, and there are still plenty of fighters and bombers in Changsha, but the threat of Heavy Bomber attacks appears to have moved to Burma.

Despite the misadventures last turn of my Recovery TF in the far South Pacific, AuTiger didn't do much in the region and the air balances over his bases in the South Pacific remained low. My transport TF returned safely to Nanomea, so I was able to pull out the SNLF and the IJA Base Force that I had garrisoning that base. They are now on their way back to Truk for R&R and then onwards for future repositioning. So I am quite happy with the overall results of the operation and now have forces that will be useful instead of being isolated.

BTW – my bombardment TF moved undetected to within striking range of Midway this turn. However, the Air Balance over Midway suddenly jumped, for the first time in a very long time, from 9 to 149. That's very good, or very lucky, INTEL on AuTiger's part. The weather also suddenly cleared up, so I decided that I wasn't going to send in my TF under those conditions and instead ordered it to head back at Flank Speed to Wake.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 4, 1942 - It was another quiet night with no action of any sort. You may be wondering why I emphasize this each turn, but a "quiet night" to me means that none of my bases are being hammered by Allied Bombardment TFs, which means that there aren't any invasions occurring. And I want the Allied onslaught to wait as long as possible.

The day phase was active thanks to Allied bombing. Libs and Forts hit the airfields at Mandalay causing plenty of damage, but not really making any difference since I'm not trying to base any planes there.

In response, one of my Betty Daitais from Port Moresby flew a nuisance air raid against Cookstown. As I've learned to expect, the raid was truly only a nuisance and caused trivial damage. AuTiger obviously doesn't care because he has a minimal Air Balance at the northeastern Australian bases.

Being overly "gun-shy" potentially cost me this turn, as a Group of Liberators flew from Midway to hit the airfields at Wake. So AuTiger didn't have anti-ship air units in place at Midway. If I had taken the risk with the bombardment TF last turn I might have caught some Libs on the ground. Of course, those same Libs might have caused me all sorts of grief on the subsequent turn. In any event, I moved a decent A6M2 Daitai into Wake and set them at 90% CAP, just in case AuTiger tries another air raid. But since his Libs took a fair number of Operational Losses this turn, he might rest them.

The F-5As flew recon over Kendari again this turn, so I re-set my Zeros in the region back to LR CAP over Kendari, just in case AuTiger sends out his B-17s again. AuTiger did send out his massed Mitchells and P-40Bs against Lautem again. His planes suffered some Operational Losses, so I'm not too unhappy about being unable to do much about these raids.

In news of the Asian mainland, AuTiger has brought a large number of planes back into China, both at Chungking and Changsha. So I can expect some serious air raids in the near future. I've brought good fighters back on CAP at Canton, Shanghai and Peking, so we'll see what transpires.

In LCU news, the 116th/A moved and is now on a trail and only 60 miles from Lashio. So it ought to reach Lashio reasonably quickly, and from there reach the railroad. The Kure 2nd SNLF/1, on the other hand, is vanishing with each passing turn even though it is on the rail road and has plenty of supplies. There are only 4 squads left now, so it ought to disappear within a few more days. I sure wish that I understood more of the nuances of the LCU model in this Game.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 5, 1942 - "Peace and Quiet" expanded beyond the Night Phase for a change and there was no action at all this turn except for aerial reconnaissance flights. I suspect that Bad Weather had a bit to do with this too, because rain suddenly appeared most everywhere again after a few turns of nearly realistic weather. In any event, this meant that my plans continued on uninterrupted and I'll take that for as long as AuTiger will give it to me.

Never-the-less we are still both maneuvering all over the map. Some noteworthy observations from this turn:

- AuTiger pulled his Liberators out of Midway. Maybe he spotted my bombardment TF and decided that discretion was the better part of valor in this case.

- Dauntless dive bombers spotted one of my subs off of Dutch Harbor. The Air Balance over the Eastern Aleutians is still quite high, but AuTiger hasn't attempted to put any planes back into Adak.

- The Allied Air Balance in China has changed again; AuTiger appears to be moving planes around like mad, perhaps in response to how I am moving planes around in that area like mad too.

- There is only one Allied LCU outside of a base now in China. I've also pulled all of my LCUs back into bases, so things are quiet there for now.

- The 116th/A only moved 2 miles this turn, despite now being on a road (path?), which is no better than it did in the bush. Oh well, that means yet another month before the unit reaches Lashio

- The Kure 2nd SNLF/1 moved a couple of hexes along the rail line in Burma, but didn't lose any more squads.

BTW - I am now slowly building up a stock of A6M3a fighters. I'll start to put them into carrier fighter groups as time goes on. I don't intend to exchange out my land-based A6M2s at this time.