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Reviving this albeit more to keep a record of the game, but comments are always welcome.

5/3/42
Darwin finally gets some attention, bombardment by 4 IJN CAs. There's not a lot there for him to hit. With the lack of overland supply there's not a great deal I can do.

Kalgoorlie is hit by over 100 Betties as well as some Liz's. They're flying up at 14k feet so our AAA can't do a ton, but they also can't really close the airfield flying that high. We do lose a few planes on the ground.

I'm tempted to launch an attack considering I have nearly twice as much AV at Kalgoorlie as him, but decide not to considering the supply expenditure and that many of my units are RAA militia.

On Luzon he gets 1:1 odds at Bataan, so that won't last long.

In China he finishes clearing the road south of Chungking.

5/4/42
I have a decent number of ships trapped in port at Calcutta. With the airfield essentially out of action I guess they're a target now, they start taking damage. He does have some issues with our minefield, possibly losing a DD.

Today we put what CAP we can up over Kalgoorlie, it's only 42 planes but we able to take down at least 11 IJ planes for 4 of ours. Should force him to get back to sweeping and mostly gives us a day of respite from damage.

5/5/42
Over the last few days I've picked up that for whatever reason his air search over the Bay of Bengal is basically non-existent. Attempting to take advantage of this I send a RN TF to Diamond Harbour hoping to catch retreating IJN bombardment group low on ammo. Unfortunately we discover he's mined DH and 2 CLs and DD hit mines.

He adds two regiments to his Kalgoorlie stack; one Inf, one Tank so any opportunity to launch another counter is likely gone.

5/6/42
We're getting more and more sub intercepts around Hokkaido, unfortunately not a ton of success yet because of the USN torpedo issues. Working on getting some S-boats into action. They have just enough range to deploy off Northern Hokkaido sailing from Dutch Harbor. Plunger does find an unescorted tanker and launches a successful surface attack.

Apparently undeterred by the aerial ambush last turn, 100 IJN bombers hit Kalgoorlie. They're at 14K again so our AAA isn't hugely effective, but neither is his bombing, airfield has minimal damage although we lose a few a/c on the ground. Nothing I can't withstand for the moment.

Neikiang falls as he begins to surround Chungking.

How are you gents doing against Admiral Yamaguchi? I'm tempted to go to his AAR to see what's happening, but would rather not as I'd like to advise you folks.

Cheers,
CB

We just lost all our carriers in a big CV battle in the Aleutians, which is why his AAR is suddenly resurrected I assume. Now we have two divisions stranded at Adak with no particularly good way to evac, so not exactly great. At least we took Baker I. while the KB was distracted?

Yes, I am reading and advising him some. I did a lot more advising early, then I stayed away from the forum for awhile. He did not do so good then.

Ouchie.

Cheers,
CB

ORIGINAL: aaffins

We just lost all our carriers in a big CV battle in the Aleutians, which is why his AAR is suddenly resurrected I assume. Now we have two divisions stranded at Adak with no particularly good way to evac, so not exactly great. At least we took Baker I. while the KB was distracted?

Never fear, the arsenal of democracy is there to save you. Did you manage to get any recompense for your CV losses? Attrition on enemy CVs? Basically, what to do now is move and strike slowly under the cover of LBA or where his carriers definitely are not, prepare for the future, and wait the ramp-up of your CV strength in '43. Since I haven't played stock Allies in awhile, I forget their carrier production for '43.

Nope, it was pretty much one sided from what I saw.

ORIGINAL: Anachro

ORIGINAL: aaffins

We just lost all our carriers in a big CV battle in the Aleutians, which is why his AAR is suddenly resurrected I assume. Now we have two divisions stranded at Adak with no particularly good way to evac, so not exactly great. At least we took Baker I. while the KB was distracted?

Never fear, the arsenal of democracy is there to save you. Did you manage to get any recompense for your CV losses? Attrition on enemy CVs? Basically, what to do now is move and strike slowly under the cover of LBA or where his carriers definitely are not, prepare for the future, and wait the ramp-up of your CV strength in '43. Since I haven't played stock Allies in awhile, I forget their carrier production for '43.

We got some hits in, but no chance any CVs sank (I guess RangerJoe's post confirms that...), decent chance we sank a CVL or two.

And yep, slow under LBA is our plan now.

Back to the game we're actually supposed to be following in this AAR, I swear it's interesting [:)]

5/7/42
The TF that discovered the mines at Diamond Harbour gets caught on the Indian coast:
Night Time Surface Combat, near Vizagapatnam at 45,38, Range 8,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Ashigara
CA Chishima
DD Natsushio
DD Usugumo
DD Oboro

Allied Ships
CL Ceres, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Caledon, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
DD Isis, Shell hits 1, on fire

At Kalgoorlie he only gets a single plane on the ground for the loss of 3 of his own. For now my AAA seems to make the place nearly invulnerable.

He lands at with an Engineer regiment and drops paras to take the base.

5/8/42
May have spoken too soon about my AAA being able to protect the Kalgoorlie airfield...a more concerted effort today by 100+ bombers results in 10 planes destroyed and significant damage to the field for the first time in awhile. I've noticed that the disruption levels on my AA units are very high, not sure there's much I can do about that unfortunately.

A third IJA division arrives at Kalgoorlie, he's up to ~1,400 AV now. We're approximately equal in AV now, but obviously I have the advantage of fortifications.

5/9/42
The seaworthy ships left at Calcutta try to make a run for it...they get caught by the minefield and CD guns at Diamond Harbour and few survive.

Heavy rain at Kalgoorlie results in his bombers not doing much damage. He also (presumably accidentally) flew his Liz's at 5K and we get at least 5 with AAA in addition to 4 Bettys that were up at 14K like normal.

ORIGINAL: aaffins

Back to the game we're actually supposed to be following in this AAR, I swear it's interesting [:)]

You could take inspiration from Lowpe's AAR. Now up to 20 pages and the game hasn't even started yet.

Alfred

5/10/42

Bataan falls, ending resistance on Luzon.
He also takes care of Ledo, which is behind his line in India.

Good weather at Kalgoorlie today and we are hit hard, significant damage to the airfield and 5 planes destroyed with our AAA ineffective. My bombers do hit the ground troops he has in the hex, causing a couple hundred casualties.

He learns that I have the 18th Brit Div at Howrah with a bombing raid.

5/11/42
Same results today at Kalgoorlie, which is not a good thing. In response I pull out some of my nicer planes to prevent them being destroyed on the ground and reduce the stack level. I can afford to let him bleed some of my more plentiful plane pools this way, at least he's not hitting the ground troops?

The CVE raiders are back NE of Hawaii, they torpedo a tanker...I'll try to evade with the rest of the convoy.

5/12/42
My attempts to evade don't work and he gets three tankers; 69 total carrier planes flew. Accounting for the probability he had some fighters on CAP it seems like he must have at least a CVL or two out here, if not some of the smaller CVs. Makes me a bit more reticent to send out my few carriers.

The Kalgoorlie raids aren't quite so bad today; his total bombers are down a bit. Even though he's flying too high for us to shoot many down the troops report a good amount damaged every turn so maybe that's taking its toll.

5/13/42
I decide the time is right to risk my sad little cohort of fighter at Kalgoorlie while some can still fly. Only 36 planes, but the pilots report 14 kills for just 4 of our planes. Perhaps more importantly the raids are disrupted, giving the ground crews a day to work nearly unfettered.

Melak falls.

5/14/42
I was hoping the resistance yesterday might earn us a bit of a reprieve from the Kalgoorlie raids...not the case, although it's only about 50 bombers today vs. 80-100 for most of the past week. Damage is pretty limited today.

I had deployed some old USN 4 stackers NE of Hawaii partially as pickets, partially hoping I might get a chance to take a shot at those CVs. Unfortunately they do their picket job well, but 3 are sunk. Convoys to and from the west coast are on hold for the time being.

On the positive side, I've been conducting daily bombardment attacks at Kalgoorlie for about the last week. These have generally gone well , but today's is notably better, causing nearly 300 casualties with several IJA squads and devices destroyed. While the situation in the air isn't great, we look good on the ground.

If he only has CVE/CVLs there, you should be able to compete with them somewhat. You are close to a body and fender shop while he is not. Instead of using DDs as pickets, use them in small SC TFs to try an engage his carriers while your carriers are a couple of hexes behind. Put on additional fighters and get your torpedo bombers off while training their pilots.

I thought very hard (not 3 weeks, I'm just bad at updating my AAR)about pulling out of Kalgoorlie. This feels like about the last chance before he really closes in. He can probably get the airfield closed if he really focuses, as well as cut the rail line. I have nearly 400k supplies stockpiled though, so it'd be a long siege. Ultimately I decided to stick with it. Ever getting at the DEI is going to be so hard if we don't have Perth, but most importantly, if as the Allied player you could choose where to fight, this has to be near the top of the list. Open terrain is ideal for my advantages in ground combat, I can put many otherwise largely useless RAA into action. Perhaps most notably, in this version of RA I get these huge pools of Grants and Matildas, but some of the only TO&Es I can find to use them are restricted RAA units. I expect all that armor to be extremely effective against the Japanese ground units. Lastly, I am pretty close to the stacking limit at Kalgoorlie as well, so it'd be extremely difficult for him to dislodge me without depleting the supplies.

5/15/42
Night Air attack on Jessore , at 53,37

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 38 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
Wellington Ic x 7

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 3 destroyed on ground

This is only a size 1 airfield and he's got at least one large fighter group there, kind of an easy target.

TF 2 encounters mine field at Bataan (78,77)

Japanese Ships
SC Ch 22
SC Ch 21
PB Hakkaisan Maru
xAK Zuiko Maru, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Aso Maru, Mine hits 1, on fire
xAK Amagi Maru, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
xAK Ikoma Maru, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Eihuku Maru, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Yamagata Maru, Mine hits 1, heavy damage

4 mines cleared

He did send some DMS's in first but I guess got impatient? Amusing.

Our subs around Hokkaido get at least one xAK, couple attacks. I think this will force him to divert some assets.
An s-boat also gets an AKE off Akyab, although it could survive.

Rather than hit the airfield at Kalgoorlie today, his bombers go after some small cavalry and armored units in the next hex. They are hit hard, but I'd rather that than the airfield right now.
On the ground he tries a bombardment attack, I guess with reinforcements? We cause heavy casualties:

Ground combat at Kalgoorlie (56,147)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 52455 troops, 455 guns, 123 vehicles, Assault Value = 1696

Defending force 62972 troops, 1194 guns, 1070 vehicles, Assault Value = 1489

Japanese ground losses:
1331 casualties reported
Squads: 12 destroyed, 87 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 28 (4 destroyed, 24 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
11 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 4 (3 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Assaulting units:
21st Division
4th Infantry Regiment
56th Division
38th Division
16th Infantry Regiment
3rd Tank Regiment
24th Infantry Regiment
16th Army
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
23rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
41st Field AA Battalion

Defending units:
2/5th Armoured Regiment
2/6th Armoured Regiment
11th LH Motor Regiment
12th LH Cav Regiment
16th LH MG Regiment
110th Cmbt Engineer Battalion
754th Tank Battalion
19th Australian Brigade
182nd Infantry Regiment
27th Infantry Division
159th Mot Infantry Regiment
132nd Infantry Regiment
6th Cav Recce Regiment
15th LH MG Regiment
2/1st Pioneer Battalion
13th Australian Brigade
2nd Australian Brigade
8th Australian Brigade
44th Australian Battalion
21st Fld RAA Regiment
1st RAA Med Arty Regiment
2/3rd Light AA Regiment
10th Port Maint Engineer Battalion
Aus I Corps
811th Aviation Engineer Battalion
205th Field Artillery Battalion
2nd RAA Med Arty Regiment
1st RAAF Construction Battalion
3rd RAAF Construction Battalion
205th Coast AA Regiment
21/22 Field Arty Regiment
95th Coast AA Regiment
2nd Aus Hvy AA Regiment
10th RAAF Base Sqdn
Australia Command
4th RAN Base Force
43rd Base Group
16th Fld RAA Regiment
4th Aus Lt AA Regiment
251st Coast AA Regiment
223rd Field Artillery Battalion
64th Coast AA Regiment
70th Coast AA Regiment
12th RAAF Base Sqdn
2nd Marine Air Wing
2/7th Ind Coy /1

No sign of the carriers north of Hawaii today.

5/16/42

I've got the bulk of my air power in the Indian theater based at Howrah now that Calcutta is getting hit by cruisers on a semi-nightly basis. He catches on and several raids result in 10 a/c destroyed on the ground and many damaged. I move them out to other airfields, the damaged ones can move by rail. The nearby airfields at Jamshedpur and Ranchi are being built quickly. I don't think he can realistically shut down all three and keep them closed, but I obviously need to do a better job of distributing my planes. Also building at Raipur so we have a safe fallback option if needed.

Bombers return to Kalgoorlie, with moderate damage and a B-17 destroyed, don't like that.
Perhaps he forgot to turn off bombardment attacks? That allied arty is fearsome:

Ground combat at Kalgoorlie (56,147)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 51728 troops, 456 guns, 123 vehicles, Assault Value = 1751

Defending force 63007 troops, 1194 guns, 1067 vehicles, Assault Value = 1486

Japanese ground losses:
2647 casualties reported
Squads: 18 destroyed, 127 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 21 (8 destroyed, 13 disabled)
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
34 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

5/17/42
Quiet turn.

The French sub Le Heros gets another xAK off Hokkaido. I don't think I'm probably doing enough to disrupt his economy at this early stage, but I hope this is frustrating and will divert assets that he might otherwise use elsewhere.

He stops bombarding at Kalgoorlie, and no air raid, but that doesn't mean we have to stop:
Ground combat at Kalgoorlie (56,147)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 1611 troops, 154 guns, 93 vehicles, Assault Value = 1451

Defending force 57767 troops, 503 guns, 273 vehicles, Assault Value = 1634

Japanese ground losses:
228 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
Guns lost 7 (4 destroyed, 3 disabled)

The casualties are good, but the guns destroyed isn't ideal.

5/18/42
Another kill by the French off Hokkaido, the Surcouf taking the honors today. We had 5 sub engagements, so I have to think this is getting his attention. Appears to be at least one dedicated ASW TF in the area; that's at least a few potential escorts subtracted from tanker convoys. The only problem here is I haven't really figured out how he's routing those to the DEI yet.

Action one hex outside Kalgoorlie as he tries to cut the rail line with the 22nd Recon Regt. I try to LRCAP, but my fighters get slaughtered by sweeping Zeroes:
Morning Air attack on 2/11th A/Car Regiment, at 57,148 , near Kalgoorlie

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 33 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 30

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk IA x 9
P-400 Airacobra x 16
P-40E Warhawk x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk IA: 1 destroyed
P-400 Airacobra: 2 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 2 destroyed

Aircraft Attacking:
10 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 12000 feet *

CAP engaged:
No.77 Sqn RAAF with Kittyhawk IA (9 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
9 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 12000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 12000.
Raid is overhead
24th FG/17th FS with P-40E Warhawk (13 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
13 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 12000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 12000.
Raid is overhead
58th FG/67th FS with P-400 Airacobra (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 16 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 12000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 12000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 4 minutes

With the air cover swept aside our lads get hit hard, luckily (for me anyway, not so much for them) it's mostly the 21st Recce, which is already in bad shape:
Morning Air attack on 21st Cav Recce Regiment, at 57,148 , near Kalgoorlie

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 39
G4M1 Betty x 69
G5N2 Liz x 16

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 11 damaged

Allied ground losses:
476 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 65 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 77 (5 destroyed, 72 disabled)

The allied bombers also fly, inflicting approximately 200 casualties. All in all it proves to be enough and we clear the enemy out; rail line open:
Ground combat at 57,148 (near Kalgoorlie)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 1816 troops, 12 guns, 169 vehicles, Assault Value = 65

Defending force 717 troops, 4 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 23

Allied adjusted assault: 9

Japanese adjusted defense: 2

Allied assault odds: 4 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), disruption(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-), morale(-), supply(-)

Japanese ground losses:
126 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 8 (8 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 1

Allied ground losses:
20 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
2/11th A/Car Regiment
2/7th Armoured Regiment
21st Cav Recce Regiment

Defending units:
22nd Recon Regiment

Kukong falls in China

Looks like a good fight at Kalgoorlie. You are probably doing this, but for bases that continually get hammered by air I've had to rotate some AA units into Reserve mode to get their disruption down.

Anything happening in SoPac?

Cheers,
CB

5/19/42
We score another xAK kill off Hokkaido, USN sub for once.

An RAF night raid on Diamond Harbour nets ~10 a/c on the ground.

We clash over the rail line to Kalgoorlie 1 hex ESE of the base, breaking about even with my LRCAP taking on his sweeps. Once our CAP is beaten off our ground units take a pretty good beating from bombers.

Watampone, Anking and Tienshui fall.

In the immortal words of Gene Wilder in "Young Frankenstein": "IT'S ALIVE!"

Good to see you back.

Cheers,
CB

Back for my monthly update!

5/20/42
Sub attacks between Hokkaido and Sakhalin continue, five today, although only one hits with a couple shells. He appears to have at least one dedicated ASW TF operating here now. So that's at least some resources taken from other escort duties.

The RAF's night raiders turn their attention to Chittagong where we find Ashigara and Natori in port and hit each twice. The older Natori also shows heavy fires so may have actually hurt her.

His bombers flying from Perth continue to hit our small units around Kalgoorlie, but no action on the ground today.

5/21/42
Presumably annoyed by last night's raid, 16 Japanese cruisers of various types bombard Calcutta, creating quite a mess. Most of the remaining ships in port were crippled anyway, so whilst it made for an ugly looking combat report the actual impact was limited. Airfield is of course empty as well.

A Liz group makes the mistake of actually attacking Kalgoorlie and our massed AAA knocks down 7 of the valuable 4Es.

A combined parachute and armor attack by the Japanese secures Asansol after most of the defenders had departed for positions in the surrounding jungle. A battalion of the Assam Rifles left as a token garrison is captured.

This is the longest I can recall going without a turn from one of my two games in awhile, guess that's a sign to do the AAR!

5/22/42
The same menagerie of cruisers returns to Calcutta for a second night. I guess he's got enough AKEs at Chittagong that this is feasible, I don't think they're reloading at Diamond Harbour.

The Chinese AF scores a rare victory when his bombers arrive before his sweep and they down 10 Netties.

He lands elements of the Karafuto Mixed Brig at Horn I. and secures the base.

Iloilo also falls to a couple SNLF companies.

5/23/42
He moves planes into recently captured Asansol, touching off a bit of a scuffle. The RAF's night raiders destroy a couple Oscars on the ground. Two groups of Oscars then sweep Jamshedpur (these may come from Dacca or Rajshashi) which we don't oppose. A sweep of Asansol by a P-40 group (3 x 25/group) results in about a 2:1 advantage in A2A kills for us.

A Betty group attacks Townsville but is shredded by RAAF Kittyhawks with at least six shot down and only 1 of 20 dropping its bombs.