BACK IN BUSINESS - PzB goes East again(st) Andy Mac

[aprezto]

ORIGINAL: PzB

- A bit dissappointed that we can't handle US destroyers in 10/42; if we can't now then when?

Post 10/42 allied DDs become vicious. In a Jap game of mine (yes it has happened!!) I basically couldn't put my DDs up against the allied ones. They fired their EPP 5" rounds so fast and so accurately, that my DDs were slag before they could rebut.

They were almost unhittable with aerial torpedos or bombs (high experience divebombers being the only exception), so I was making cruiser only TFs. The 5" rounds usually bounced giving the cruisers enough time to take a toll. Allied subs then became the problem!

That isn't what you're seeing in this, but I it is a warning.

[PzB74]

Thank you Al, isn't it great to have 4 years of machosistic gameplay to look forward to [;)]
Maybe I should switch to War in the East instead when it's out [8|]

Looks like Andy has turned his troops north of Swhebo around and is coming back for another round.
No doubt to coordinate a move into the basin with his "stack" of 25 units.

Even before Japan has completed her offensive runs in scen 2 the Allies are able to mount massive counteroffensives
in Burma, Australia as well as major attempt at the Line Islands in the Central Pacific.

I just can't see that the Allies lack neither, fuel, supplies, ships, men or arms.
All Allied players cry about how they lack ac, but there are hundreds of fighters in Burma and Australia and already more than 120 heavy
bombers roaming accross the heavens escorted by numerous Lightnings.

The only thing I can do is to increase the number of Jap fighters produced, create more training schools in the jungle
and wear down Allied numbers while releasing more Manchukuo units.


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Oct 26, 42

Sub Attacks

I observe numerous US subs outside of Japan; one attacks a small convoy and scores
a (dud) hit. Need to send out more ASW units to this area.

Sub attack near Torishima at 113,69

Japanese Ships
xAK Yae Maru
xAK Kunitu Maru
PB Yahada Maru

Allied Ships
SS Flying Fish

SS Flying Fish launches 6 torpedoes at xAK Yae Maru
PB Yahada Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Yahada Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Yahada Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Yahada Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Yahada Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air Combat

Leaky CAP caused me some problems today. 11 Nicks "leaked" 3 hexes and suffered as they were
swept by 14 Hurries. On the other side 8 Oscars suddenly appeared among some Lysanders and caused havoc.
- When Warhwhawks swept Mandalay they met 42 Tojo's and lost 8 while claiming 4.

Morning Air attack on Shwebo , at 59,45
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 25,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 11

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIa Trop x 14

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 3 destroyed

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x Hurricane IIa Trop sweeping at 22000 feet

CAP engaged:
13th Sentai with Ki-45 KAIa Nick (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(42 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 11 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 15000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 1 minutes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Shwebo , at 59,45
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 10 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 54
Hudson I x 6
P-38F Lightning x 14

Allied aircraft losses
Blenheim IV: 1 damaged

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 23
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Shwebo , at 59,45
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 21 NM, estimated altitude 21,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 8

Allied aircraft
Lysander II x 12

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Lysander II: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Lysander II bombing from 20000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 2 x 100 lb GP Bomb
6 x Lysander II bombing from 20000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 2 x 100 lb GP Bomb

CAP engaged:
21st Sentai with Ki-43-Ic Oscar (8 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(30 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
8 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Raid is overhead
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Shwebo , at 59,45
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 10 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 9
P-38F Lightning x 18

No Allied losses

Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 6

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Hudson I bombing from 10000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 250 lb GP Bomb--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suddenly unescorted mediums/heavies appear over Tennant Creek without escorts.
We loose a handful of planes on the ground but the raider suffers heavily, loosing 16 B-26 and a B-24.
That's a loss ratio of something like 27%.

Morning Air attack on Tennant Creek , at 76,137
Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 46 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 4
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 34

Allied aircraft
B-24D Liberator x 22
B-26 Marauder x 32
B-26B Marauder x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 damaged
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed on ground
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 15 damaged
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 2 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 1 destroyed, 5 damaged
B-26 Marauder: 5 destroyed, 6 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 1 destroyed, 5 damaged

Airbase hits 7
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 21

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-24D Liberator bombing from 12000 feet
Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb
11 x B-26 Marauder bombing from 12000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 3 x 500 lb GP Bomb
5 x B-24D Liberator bombing from 12000 feet
Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb
10 x B-24D Liberator bombing from 12000 feet
Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb
2 x B-26B Marauder bombing from 12000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 3 x 500 lb GP Bomb
3 x B-26B Marauder bombing from 12000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 3 x 500 lb GP Bomb
10 x B-26 Marauder bombing from 12000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 3 x 500 lb GP Bomb
3 x B-26 Marauder bombing from 12000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 3 x 500 lb GP Bomb

CAP engaged:
Kawai Det with A6M2 Zero (1 airborne, 3 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters to 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 12 minutes
1st Sentai with Ki-44-IIa Tojo (5 airborne, 12 on standby, 0 scrambling)
5 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 25000 , scrambling fighters to 25000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 11 minutes
5th Sentai with Ki-44-IIa Tojo (5 airborne, 12 on standby, 0 scrambling)
5 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 25000 , scrambling fighters to 25000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 11 minutes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Mandalay , at 59,46
Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid spotted at 25 NM, estimated altitude 31,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 42

Allied aircraft
P-40K Warhawk x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-40K Warhawk: 4 destroyed

CAP engaged:
11th Sentai with Ki-44-IIa Tojo (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(42 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 42 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 30000
Raid is overhead--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground Combat

We drive out the Chinese 1/3 Corps from the Lashio railroad.
- No doubt Andy will keep sending the poor ba$tards back onto the line to be in the way.
Morale would soar immensly is my guess...

Ground combat at 61,46
Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 9198 troops, 64 guns, 103 vehicles, Assault Value = 424
Defending force 3174 troops, 39 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 126

Japanese adjusted assault: 156
Allied adjusted defense: 28

Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-)
experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
90 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
1372 casualties reported
Squads: 31 destroyed, 36 disabled
Non Combat: 35 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Units retreated 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
79th Infantry Regiment
2nd Tank Regiment
47th Infantry Regiment
5th Tank Regiment
62nd Naval Guard Unit

Defending units:
66th Chinese/A Corps--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hm, interesting. Securing dot islands I come accross a small USN Port detachment at Penrhyn Island.

Ground combat at Penrhyn Island (168,159)
Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 13 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2
Defending force 320 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1

Japanese adjusted assault: 0
Allied adjusted defense: 4

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 99 (fort level 0)

Combat modifiers
Defender: preparation(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(-)

Assaulting units:
Yokosuka 3rd SNLF /3

Defending units:
A Det USN Port Svc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Burma Again

[Speedysteve]

ORIGINAL: PzB

I just can't see that the Allies lack neither, fuel, supplies, ships, men or arms.
All Allied players cry about how they lack ac, but there are hundreds of fighters in Burma and Australia and already more than 120 heavy
bombers roaming accross the heavens escorted by numerous Lightnings.

The only thing I can do is to increase the number of Jap fighters produced, create more training schools in the jungle
and wear down Allied numbers while releasing more Manchukuo units.

Hi PzB,

Have to disagree with you on these points IMO. From being a predominantly Allied Player I can assure you fuel and plane quantities are the bane of an Allied players life in 1942. Fuel is almost always at a premium IF you move your fleets around and a lot of my AK's are used for hauling fuel around as the TK capacity is insufficient for the requirements.

Now on to planes......Alleid replaceemnt rates for Fighters/bobmers in 1942 are VERY low. To say they're not is just not accurate I'm afraid. To give you an idea...to equip the 6 x USN CV's with TBF's will take 3 months production! You receive tiny amounts of Medium bomber replacements - in the region of 4-12 planes per plane model! You think this is a lot compared to what the Japanese can manufacture?

The only reason Andy could have a 'horde' of planes flying at the moment is IF he saved his planes and built up a pool over several months. There's just no way the regular monthly production levels allow or even give the possibility to conduct mass wars of attrition.

I feel very strongly on this point since I'm massively limited/curtailed with LBA replacements and what they allow me to do. As to 4E's....well you get one shot of B17's.....as in they Squadrons arrive with planes and then you get such a tiny amount of replacements they literally are a one shot weapon. B24's come online in July but you get (from memory) 12 a month....12...you just destroyed 3 days worth production in 1 raid in your last turn[;)]

I gus it all comes down to perspective and from the Japanese side it feels as though the Allies have masses of stuff (which they should do I might add!) From the Allied side it feels as though the Japanese can out produce the Allies and that the limited replacements the Allies get mean it's frustrating [;)]

[castor troy]

Speedy is spot on. Allied bomber replacements are VERY limited until 2/43 (after that, bombers shouldn´t be much of a problem) and the same is true for fighters (those that are competitive) but it takes until 7/43 to have decent replacements, means something like 50 P-47, 30 Corsairs and 40 Lightnings per month. Before that, you have to rely on the 29000ft P-40K which is dead meat in one on one against the Tojo because the Tojo is as fast, more maneuverable, got enough fire power to down a fighter (not a 4E bomber) and can fly 8000ft higher than the P-40K.

Before mid 43, the Japanese can outproduce the Allied in every aspect (except heavy bombers of course because they got none).

[PzB74]

Of course I know what you say is true!

Still PDU on negates many of these effects; available ac types can be rotated from one continent to another and switched as numbers run low.
P-38's can also deploy in relatively large numbers in the Pacific theatre by October 42.
This combined with a strong force of 4Es negates much of the numerous Tojo effect.

- In AE Allied players hardly place fighters on CAP - they sweep and get their 4Es and mediums to level the opposition.
If they can't achive this they will pull back until the have built their strength to try again.

In this game we agreed on no sweeps above 30k feet as the max altitude sweeps at 35-40k feet isn't very realistic.

Regarding carriers: There are usually only 1 or 2 major carrier engagements in 42-43 and it's therefore possible to replace most ac in between "rounds".
Heavy attrition in 43-44 can be more troublesome.

So despite low production numbers and lack of fuel, it's still possible for Allied players to perform multiple major offensives in 42.

[Speedysteve]

ORIGINAL: PzB

Of course I know what you say is true!

Still PDU on negates many of these effects; available ac types can be rotated from one continent to another and switched as numbers run low.
P-38's can also deploy in relatively large numbers in the Pacific theatre by October 42.
This combined with a strong force of 4Es negates much of the numerous Tojo effect.

- In AE Allied players hardly place fighters on CAP - they sweep and get their 4Es and mediums to level the opposition.
If they can't achive this they will pull back until the have built their strength to try again.

In this game we agreed on no sweeps above 30k feet as the max altitude sweeps at 35-40k feet isn't very realistic.

Regarding carriers: There are usually only 1 or 2 major carrier engagements in 42-43 and it's therefore possible to replace most ac in between "rounds".
Heavy attrition in 43-44 can be more troublesome.

So despite low production numbers and lack of fuel, it's still possible for Allied players to perform multiple major offensives in 42.

Hi PzB,

Cool discussion[:)]

PDU's - IMO that's not the case. If the Allied player is only receiving 16 x Bombers in total (RAF for example) - 8 x Blenheim and 8 x Wellington then it doesn't matter if they're swapped out. After 1 engagement a months production or more is gone. Poof!

As I say (seriously) without stockpiling of pools you can't run a war of attrition. You might think what Andy is doing to you now is bad - trust me if you put the masses of fighters (that Japan can produce!) in Burma you'll find his stockpiles will have run out of Mediums within a month.

As to 4E - it is tricky in that they are hard to shoot down (as they should be!) but once more you must understand they are a one shot weapon. Every B17 you shoot down is 1 less in the total! With 12 x B24 replacements a month, if they're used extensively over a month Andy could lose that many from Ops losses alone.

P38's - not masses. From memory 25 or 30 a month which more compared to what you can produce on Tojo/Zeroes then it's no contest in numbers AND the maintenance rate of P38's is high. After a mission or 2 they'll have at least 1/3 of planes in maintenance.

As to the Allied players sweeping and then bombing - why wouldn't they? It's the optimum thing to do with their forces - the alternative is a recipe for disaster with the abysmal replacement rates - If they sit back and be on CAP, sure they'll shoot some Jap planes down, but so many planes would be lost/damaged on the ground that losses would mount and they'd run out of their monthly replacements in a week!

CV Battles - this is chicken and egg though. There are 2 main reasons why the Allies won't have CV battles in 1942:

1. is quite simply the power of a combined KB.

2. Is new to AE - the limited number of replacements means it's not until the 2/3 of 1942 that the Allies have all their CV's filled with frontline aircraft! That's 8 months of gameplay to achieve that! This will also dictate if the Allied player is going to come out to play. They surely will not want an engagement with KB if they have Buffalos, non armoured SBD's and crappy TBD's....suicide!

I still standby the fact the Allied player can only conduct offensives in 1942 IF they stockpile planes and material in advance (or the Japanese player messes up bad)! Also an advance in Burma can be made early if the BurCorps forces are not annihilated. I'm in no doubt with you though about the lack of effect of Malaria etc though which has a major impact!

[castor troy]

20!!! P-38 per month. [:D] One time wrong deployed (like running into 50 enemy fighters being higher and diving) and you can easily lose a monthly replacement. Not before mid 43 when you get more P-38H. 20 4Es might be hard to down, 20 Lightnings isn´t that hard to achieve. Take down 20 of them each month and the total number on the map stays what it is. It´s 4/43 in my game and I got 4 squadrons of P-38 but I tried not to engage the enemy when I knew there would be more than a dozen enemy fighters. And I only used them for sweep, guess never for escort and hardly ever for Cap.

[veji1]

this conversation and the situation in Burma and Oz makes me wonder whether in AE the Jap player should focus on the following :
- Invade northern australia (Port Hedland to Darwin) with a limited amount of troops, just to slow down the build up of Northern OZ and give itself time to build up and fortify the DEI
- invade east India with all you can get as early as you can, even if this means leaving then end of Java for later of going for PI minimally (take as many troops as possible out once the Allies are bottled). You take advantage of the shyness of american CVs (due partly to their lack of planes) and you bring the fight to the british and the RAF, preventing them from building pools and training their troops peacefully...

Basically that way you at least fight in 1942 west of Burma, bag a few troops there and give you time to organise your defense of Burma... I suppose the hard bit is to know how and when to get out of dodge in eastern india.

So after having believed following Cuttlefish and Miller's misadventures that Northern Oz should be the priority, I am now enclined to see it as something fairly simple to do at minimal cost (keep it unambitious, don't go further than Kathrine, don't build up, be ready to evac fast) while your priority should be to hit India as soon as Singapore falls.

Does that make sense ?

[PzB74]

The RAF Bomber Command isn't really the challenge, the Wellington's are ok but the rest is as useless as what Japan got!-)
- I can of course dump loads of fighters into Burma and go for a 1-1 or 1-2 if necessary, war of attrition to get rid of the PITAs.
Since I don't like sending in inferior ac I'm mainly relying on Tojo's and I don't have loads of these available in October 42.
My crack Zero's are not allowed to be chewed up in Burma and the Oscars are hardly usable. Maybe I should send some Oscar rookie squadrons into the fight
to reduce Tojo losses.... [8|]

I notice the numbers you quote, but I still find myself up against large numbers of enemy ac after shooting them down in droves.
Already over a 100 P-38's have been destroyed by October 42 and I'm being swept by 50-60 of them. So were do they all come from??
In my last report you can see that the first P-38G model was lost and that 91 P-38Es have been destroyed.

I do the same with sweeps and bombing, that's the sensible approach.
It still means that it is very difficult to attrit Allied fighters in Burma; you have to set up large formations of fighters as CAP and then fight it out with the sweepers.
This usually means a 1-2 loss ratio even while employing our best fighter formations.
- I'm getting a bit desperate about the 4Es already and is using night bombing of airfields to claim a few.

Carriers is a potential weak spot with the Allies, but combined with the British armored deck ships with lethal TBDs I still find it more than hazardous to engage even in mid 42.
- If Allies win Japan is on the defensive and defeat will be accelerated as much as a year. If Japan wins a 6-12 month respite will be given until the Hellcat armed Essex and Independence class ships appear in numbers.

In real life Allies were so hopeless in Burma that the Japs had the initiative in 44!! ...and still I'm struggling in this theatre in 10/42 after placing 8 divisions worth of troops and most of Japans tanks there [&:]

A strong Jap drive into Burma in 42 is probably a sound investment, getting entangled on the Indian mainland could buy some time but is also potentially dangerous.
Maybe an invasion of Ceylon would be a better way of diverting Allied attention. I don't think any Allied player will launch a major offensive in Burma until Ceylon has been recaptured, what do you Allied players say?

In the game I play against Al I have gone for a invasion of Darwin and Northern Oz, bypassing isolated garrisons at Bandoeng and Bataan.
Still, my main push was against New Caledonia and New Zealand. The strain of suppressing Bandoeng, Bataan, invading Northern Oz, New Caledonia, New Zealand AND Burma is substantial. Would I prefer to not invade New Caledonia and New Zealand in order to push into Burma - India? It's absolutely possible, capture Calcutta and draw a line north there.

[mike scholl 1]

ORIGINAL: PzB

In real life Allies were so hopeless in Burma that the Japs had the initiative in 44!! ...and still I'm struggling in this theatre in 10/42 after placing 8 divisions worth of troops and most of Japans tanks there [&:]

Actually, in real life, the Japanese only THOUGHT they had the initiative in 1944. In reality they did the Brits an enormous favor by squandering several Divisions in a totally hopeless attempt to re-take the initiative. Meanwhile they were losing ground steadily in both the northeast and southwest.

[PzB74]

Whether they thought they had the initiative and performed a Burma version of the Ardennes offensive or not still does not remove the fact that they did drive on Imphal in 44. It took the Allies most of 43 to build up a somewhat competent jungle army and they first managed to win a decisive victory in 44 mainly because the Jap drive into India.

I'm just asking  the question; why are the Allies so strong in this theatre in 42?

Maybe more Allied units in India should be restricted to India?
- Some can be released using political points, others should be permanently restricted (R).

This is a possible house rule that can be applied if both sides agree on it.

[Nomad]

This is well discussed in other threads( not Andys AAR ). In RL the British 18th division was lost at Singapore. about 9,000 replacements were shipped to Singapore and lost. 4 Burma brigades were sent to Rangoon and mostly lost. The player has the option of retaining the 6th and 7th Australian Divisions in India. Plus most Allied players do not make some of the mistakes the the RL commanders made and do not lose as many men or as much equipment. Plus many Allied players remove some units from Malaya and are able to rebuild another 2 or 3 Indian divisions. So you can figure that the Allies can have 4+ divisions in India, all of them unrestricted, that the RL commanders didn't have and they will be micromanaged to have better morale, leadership, experience, and equipment.

[vettim89]

I think there are a number of factors as to why the Allies did not start the Burma offensive in 1943

* There was a severe famine in India throughout WWII. I suspect a lot of supplies AE players use to push the IJA out of Burma were used to keep the populace fed

* There was a lot of political unrest in India. Obviously, there was the Indian National Army fighting for the Japanese. I think the Brits felt that there needed to be a lot more troops in India until 1944. By then, it was obvious that the Allies were going to win so the risk of rebellion had faded. You could say then why not raise the garrison requirements? Well because they are static and cannot model the RL dynamic changes. Although this could be accomplished by inventing fictitious India Constabulory Units that are static and appear in 1944 to thus release the Commonwealth troops for combat ops

* The US was commited to CKS and the Chinese. An enormous amount of effort was being directed at NE India to build the Ledo Road. The Brits saw CKS for who he was and this differnce of opinion led to a lot of tension. Tension = lack of cooperation.

* The Brits were not even that high on recapturing Burma. They wanted to recapture Malaya. Of course the US had a public opionion problem regarding helping the British "resubjugate" their colonies.

All that is very hard to model in game

[janh]

I would second Nomads analysis.   Any WITP-AE does in comparison to historical outcomes and actions, "suffer" or "differ" in two ways: 

Players play with hindsight and avoid mistakes and learning processes made during the real war.  This is directly linked, or almost equivalent to saying that there is little uncertainty, or true Fog or War with respect to initial force dispositions and capabilities as well as technical capabilities of many platforms.

They now forces dispositions and competence of leaders accurately, they now their capabilities and how well each piece of technique does against a given enemy.  I.e. no learning curves, finding out what the Japanese or Allied are respectively capable of.  Hence, allied players for example don't use their navy and particularly their CVs as much as their historical counterparts (many more small and medium CV battles in 1942 than in a typical AE AAR). They already know to avoid the Zero's as long as they only have warhawks and wildcats.  They know they cannot hold Singapore, Burma or Java and will not commit the forces as they were historically, leading to a much more intact Indian/Australian/British LCU's (such as you face presently).

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,
 
Lots of valid points here.
 
PzB - I do agree that is is relatively easy for the Allies to counter stronger and earlier in Burma than in RL. Nomad and vettim indicate why that to be so. It's tough/impossible to model? Faber and I have a recent HR whereby no Restricted units are allowed in Burma. It will slow down the Allied buildup if nothing else.
 
Airforces - If RAF isn't the problem I assume your bug bear is solely with 4E and P38? If so I've mentioned above as to why that isn't 'really' valid IMO - Andy must have stockpiled his P38 production. Bear in mind P38E's etc start production in 4/42 IIRC. There are also some units that arrive on WC that can be downgraded to other planes to release more P38's. These 2 methods has to be what Andy's done. It's the only way. As I say though if you have a war of attrition for a month against the P38's and 4E I can almot guarantee you you'll bleed him dry.
 
The Japanese can outproduce the Allies in almost every air facet throughout 1942. Personally (OT I know) I find it scandalous that a nation of 1/10 the production of the US can be allwoed to outproduce her...anyhow.
 
Not sure hat else to say on the airpower bit PzB - I know the replacement rates and it's just IMPOSSIBLE for the Allies to win a war of attrition long term vs Japan (how crazy does that sound?!?[8|]). The only way is if he's been allowed to stockpile for months and transfered out some units to older planes in the US.
 
CV's - well maybe combined. But that IMO is pretty RL. If you think back to the relative performance of the CV's at Coral Sea, Midway, Santa Cruz etc. Both sides lost CV's in all these engagements....I fidn this to be replicated fairly well in AE in that, unlike Stock, it's now a gamble for either side (slightly favouring Japan) to engage CV's in 1942.

[castor troy]

I would go with "no restricted units outside of their theatre", because who stops the Japanese to move China command units into Burma or Thailand or Malaya when the Allied aren´t allowed to move restricted units from India to Burma for example?

If CVs engage one on one in aircraft numbers (in 42) then I would rate the IJN at least as twice as dangerous as the Allied ones, pure reason for that: KATE armed with torps. Perhaps it´s 1:1 in 43 when you´ve got Hellcats but I bet not even 250 Hellcats on Cap would have saved me when the KB can easily send a 505 aircraft strike against my fleet (as has happened in my PBEM). You probably would need a 1000 Hellcat Cap and would still lose a couple of ships.

[Speedysteve]

Understand your point but I think the REAL issue here is stopping the Allies from steam rollering into Burma...have to keep the JFB's happy (joke)[:'(]

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Understand your point but I think the REAL issue here is stopping the Allies from steam rollering into Burma...have to keep the JFB's happy (joke)[:'(]

well, I´m a JFB, only playing the Allied at the moment... [:D] seriously, JFB or AFB, a hr like that should be valid for both sides. Can´t be that the Allied player has to pay pps to move units into Burma while the Japanese pays pps to move units into the Pacific and AT THE SAME TIME moves restricted units from China into Burma.

[Speedysteve]

You're a turncoat FB then[:'(]
 
Understood. We defo have HR in place preventing Manchukuo units moving without paying PP's....trust me at the mo Faber would NOT want to move units out of China anyhow[:'(]

[Rapunzel]

The Allies are much stronger, because you switched withdraws off. With withdraws on the brit carrieres had allready been withdrawn. Also the avg and several other air units. Some of them are taking theire planes with them. The Allies have many restricted ground units that have to be withdrawn. Now he can dispand these units to increase his pools and so on.

Thx for writing your AAR. Very entertaining read.