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ORIGINAL: USS America

Good stuff, Dive!  I really liked the last point you mentioned about Tiger taking op losses to his Dakotas.  Little observations like that can only be made from lots of experience.  I'll get there one day.  Until then, I keep filing these type of tips away.  [:)] 

(And usually forgetting them 2 minutes later.[8|])  [8D]

AuTiger moves his planes around a LOT. Therefore it is critical that I track his ops losses because they give me a good indication of not only what he is up to, but also where. Ops losses increase dramatically when planes are moved maximum distances, and also when they are moved during bad weather. And the almost continuously bad weather in the northern third of the map means that almost any air move that Tiger makes in that region will show up as ops losses.

I'm also constantly reconning different Allied bases in the region, so I get an idea of what is moving where to a good extent. Combining the two is the closest thing that I have to the sort of Intel that the Allies get.

Thanks for the comments -

February 23, 1942 – The turn started out with naval bombardments from both sides. The Japanese bombardment of Akyab was surprisingly feeble. The Allied bombardment of Yanam was less so. A Japanese sub tried an unsuccessful attack on the retiring Allied TF and was hammered hard for its trouble.

Despite lousy weather Allied bombers flew throughout the Bay of Bengal area, both against retiring Japanese transports and against Japanese ground troops. This is a "best of both worlds" situation for the Allied flyers as they continue to get increased experience, and thanks to that increased experience, suffer fewer operational losses and also become more accurate. There's nothing that I can do about it, other than to avoid sending more ships into the area for now.

One thing that did work better than I expected was essentially "beaching" a heavily damaged transport along the Indian coast a couple of hexes from Yanam. The ship is unloading, despite incurring additional heavy air attack damage the previous turn. I should have sent all of my ships to various coastal TFs and let them unload there instead of just losing the troops at sea. I'll have to remember this in the future.

AuTiger is getting worried because he lost track of one of my land units in India. He is wondering where it is going. He has sent off one of his land units from Jamshedpur towards Hyderabad, but my armoured unit ought to get there first. I also have part of a division that is on its way towards Madras, as well as troops heading back towards Jamshedpur, so this ought to mix things up a bit for Tiger.

In Burma proper Tiger's troops kicked my SNLF unit out of the hex due west of Myitkyina, but I have a full division on its way so they will soon attack those troops. Tiger's penchant for using air transport popped up again in this battle as more Chinese troops showed up in the fight along the railroad. He is airlifting his Chinese troops everywhere in Burma and India in order to stop my advances. I had assumed that he would march the Chinese troops rather than airlift them and had planned my assaults accordingly. I won't make that mistake again.

Essentially, by using airlift of the SEAC Chinese units Tiger has made available around a half-dozen reasonably good infantry units to defend India in the period before the British reinforcements start to arrive. This changes the complexion of the game totally, because it means that India is no longer vulnerable to a blitzkrieg-style attack early in the game. Instead the Japanese player must prepare for a big invasion with large units and lots of air cover. BTW – Tiger was able to bring sufficient air transport capability to India by changing the C-47s in North America from the restricted NA command and then flying them across the Pacific, base-by-base. Since C-47s get huge numbers of replacements this has turned out to be well worth it for him despite his operational losses during the inter-base flights.

Meanwhile in China Tiger has moved air units back into Changsha. I'm not sure what sort they are, but I'm betting that he has moved fighters back in to try to "surprise" me. My Division that was to the southwest of Ichang easily kicked out the Chinese unit that had moved into that spot, so I will continue with my plans in that region.

The Amboina invasion should start to occur next turn, so I set a Zero Daitai to LR CAP over the base in order to limit the amount of damage that Tiger's LBA will do to my landing force. I have to figure out a faster way to move into this region in future games.

My first light carrier TF made it into Rabaul this turn. The CVE is pretty badly damaged, but now that it is in port I ought to be able to save it. Just in case I unloaded all of its planes. I also have my lone AR on the way to Rabaul, along with a Naval HQ.

I really didn't want to start to bring significant forces into Rabaul while PM is under Allied control, but I don't have a choice right now. So I will try to start regular aerial bombardments of the airfields at PM in order to try to keep Tiger from moving his killer bomber units in, which will make Rabaul untenable. The bad thing about using air attacks is that right now Rabaul is the only base within range of PM that can stage bombers, so with the way that the weather goes, I'll have to be very lucky to be able to fly frequently enough to keep PM closed. Fortunately, I still have some fairly strong surface forces in the area that I can use for naval bombardments. BTW – I am building up other air bases in the region, but with the Japanese construction units it will take some time yet before the airbases get up to level 2 for minimal 2E bomber missions.

It turned out that Tiger wasn't trying to fly supplies or troops into Akyab this past turn, so my LR CAP flew for naught. I am getting suspicious that he may be flying supplies into Singapore, so I placed some LR CAP over it for next turn. And after I finished the turn I realized that Tiger has been slowly repairing the air damage at PM despite not getting any supply convoys in. That suggests that he may be airlifting in supplies there too! Sure, I'm probably just getting a bit spooked by his use of air transport, but remember the old saying, "Even paranoids have enemies"… [:D]

February 24, 1942 – AuTiger is quite pleased because his reinforcements have arrived at all of the bases in India that my forces were threatening. This ended up being a highly disappointing but very educational action on my part. I found out that the Allied LBA is much more dangerous than I had expected at this stage of the game, and that by aggressive location and use of transport planes that Allied player can more than compensate for the initial Allied weaknesses, particularly in India.

The biggest surprises for me were Tiger's use of air transports to move the SEAC Chinese units from China to Burma, which was facilitated by Tiger's early movement of the restricted air transport units out of North America to the Far East. That movement also implies that Tiger may well have moved more restricted units out of NA, which means that his forward defenses are likely to be much stronger than I have been supposing up until now. What this means is that my ability to move forward rapidly has now been effectively blunted. I should still be able to capture the "historic" positions by mid-1942, but it will take longer and Tiger will have stronger forces available to counterattack in the second half of 1942.

So I am at a significant disadvantage right now because I haven't been pulling the restricted forces out of Manchuria, nor the Home Defense forces out of the Home Islands. Therefore, Tiger has a three month movement advantage over me in the "battle" for position of forces. Unless Tiger makes a significant mistake and commits his forces where I can gain a large local advantage I can't see a reasonable way to regain the momentum.

The only significant operation that went as planned for me this turn was the landing at Amboina. My troops started to land without any shore guns firing, which indicates that my softening-up efforts were successful. I will try a deliberate attack next turn in the hopes of capturing the base quickly so that I can start to move on in the region. In minor actions, Deboyne Island was captured and other Japanese troops landed at Nias Island on the west coast of Sumatra.

Despite the bad weather the Martins at Palembang flew again very successfully and hit more of my transports in the Singapore region. I am going to try to put some LR CAP over the other TFs that I have sailing through the area, and as well I am going to try a major air attack on Palembang. I expect that the air attack, despite having a number of good, experienced Betty, Nell, and Zero units available, will fail or do poorly – I have no confidence in the ability of my Naval LBA to accomplish much of anything after the first turn of the game, and my Army LBA is still busy with Singapore.

My failure to capture Singapore early has been a major stumbling block for my plans and in future games I will definitely have to throw more effort into going after Singapore hard and early. I have ordered my forces at Singapore to do another deliberate attack next turn. They are well rested and most have their "planning" at 100%, but I still expect things to go poorly and am hoping at most for a reduction in the fortifications of one.

I haven't yet figured out a strategy that would allow me to capture Singapore with something similar to the forces that were used historically. I would have to defeat the Allied forces in the field prior to attacking Singapore, and even then the "river crossing" rule immediately hinders my forces when they move in and it takes weeks to recover from that. I would also have to keep the Allies from re-supplying Singapore both from the sea and from the air. Tiger made that difficult for me to do early in this game by flying the AVG into Singapore right at the beginning of the game. If I hadn't surprised him with the KB attack he might have been able to keep the airfields open even longer.

As far as I can see, only if I had pretty much foresworn my simultaneous incursion into Burma and had dedicated my Burmese attack forces to the attack on Singapore would I have had a chance to smother the defenses in Burma more quickly. And the power of massed Allied 4E LBA in the Burma theatre is such a threat that not going after Burma quickly is a real risk. I will need to think these things over a lot prior to the next game that I start.

Elsewhere in the game, all but the most damaged members of the Mini-KB made it to Rabaul this turn. I created a surface combat TF from the least damaged capital ships and sent it off towards Gili-Gili for another attempt to do a naval bombardment of PM. But I have the feeling that my time is running out. The airfield damage at PM continues to be repaired and I don't have any air bases that are close enough to allow me to put LR CAP over PM to intercept incoming transport planes. And my naval LBA air attack, even though it was unopposed, had pitiful results on the airfields at PM.

So there is still one CVE in port at Rabaul with significant floatation damage. I'm hoping that it stays afloat until the AR and Naval HQ reach the base. The other heavily damaged CVE is still on its way to Rabaul, but its floatation damage jumped suddenly, so it will probably sink just outside of the port, as I had predicted. The other light carriers have no floatation damage and are being sent, along with the CS ships, back to Truk.

I am really disappointed with the CS ships. I was under the impression from posts that I read in the Forum that the float planes on CS ships would add an additional strike force to an attacking squadron. But in the action off of Cairns most of the dozen and dozens of float planes that I had on the CS ships didn't do anything, and the few that tried were ineffective. I suspect that a lot of this has to do with the fact that in this PDU-Off game I can't change those ridiculous Petes for longer-ranged float planes. I think that what I will do is to spread out my CS and AV ships to various level three ports and have their Petes fly ASW missions – I can't see a better use for them.

hi DB, very nice AAR. [:)]

I played allied and even with the planes upgraded, CS have only been an anoyance to shipping. Never the big kills, the only fear I have is that they spot for CV's and the CV's will come in for the ill. Also as CAP defenders they are not significant. So in my opinion the best use is search and find vs Destroy and protect.

ORIGINAL: stldiver

I played allied and even with the planes upgraded, CS have only been an anoyance to shipping. Never the big kills, the only fear I have is that they spot for CV's and the CV's will come in for the ill. Also as CAP defenders they are not significant. So in my opinion the best use is search and find vs Destroy and protect.

Are you saying that you can put some fighters, such as float fighters, on CS ships? I didn't realize that. That would make them much more valuable as spy ships.

Thanks -

February 25, 1942 - I received a very pleasant and totally unexpected surprise this turn - Singapore fell!!! [X(] [&o]

My bombers from Mersing and Kuantan hit Singapore hard again, and then the deliberate attack by my ground forces lowered the fortification level down to 2 and my troops captured the base with a 4:1 combat result. As a bonus, a large quantity of supply and fuel was also captured with the base. The base is in poor condition after constant bombing by my Army air units for the past several months, but with over 750 engineers already in the base and more on their way, the facilities ought to be fixed up quite quickly.

This means that the two divisions in Luzon that I had earmarked to join the attack on Singapore can now be redirected into the attack on the central Dutch East Indies. To add to the "fun", I have also set objectives in northern Australia for my armored units in Luzon. This way, if AuTiger sees this in his SIGINT it will give him something more to worry about. I haven't actually decided yet where I will send those armored units - I will likely hold them in reserve until I see if I need them in Java or someplace else.

In addition to the great news from Singapore, Amboina was captured easily this turn. Once again, the base facilities are badly damaged, but my engineers will start to work on them right away. Now the road into the entire DEI is open for my forces.

As I predicted, my Naval LBA in Kuching didn't fly against Palembang this turn. Oh well, if they fly next turn they will be even more rested. I have also moved my experienced Army Sallys to Mersing and set them to attack the airfields at Palembang too. One of those groups ought to fly next turn.

The Palembang Allied bombers flew again this turn, but this time they went after the retiring Kaga and its TF. Fortunately, Kaga's CAP was up to the job, a number of Martins were shot down, and there were no hits on Kaga. Just to help out in the region I've now set a good Zero Daitai in Mersing to provide LR CAP over Singapore in order to discourage Allied bombers from going after the Japanese TFs that will travel through the hex now that it is no longer Allied territory.

Speaking of the Singapore hex, in an additional bit of luck there were no Allied mines left in the hex, so I don't have to bother sending in minesweepers. And the minesweepers that went to Bataan cleared that hex in one turn too. So things are all set for me to move large masses of my troops around. The only constraint right now is the location of my transport ships, which aren't positioned where I need them because the captures of both Bataan and Singapore caught me off guard.

In other action, Japanese troops landed at Merauke on the south coast of New Guinea, as well as at Rossel Island in the southern Solomons. Other troops captured Nias Island off of the west coast of Sumatra this turn. The progress of repairs at Port Moresby seems to be accelerating, so it is a good thing that my naval bombardment TF reached Gili-Gili this turn and will hit PM overnight. I need to set back the defenses of PM a fair amount if I am to maintain any measure of control over PNG and the Solomons.

As I had predicted last turn, CVE Hosho sank this turn, just outside of Rabaul. Floatation damage is also slowly increasing on the other heavily damaged CVE that is already in port at Rabaul so it's a good thing that my AR and the Naval HQ ought to land there soon. My CVLs are slowly moving back to Truk with no obvious additional problems.

The Bay of Bengal region was fairly quiet this turn. Bad weather grounded a lot of Tiger's planes. Tiger's nightly naval bombardment of Yanam hit again, and there were limited air strikes on my troops in the region. When the weather clears Tiger's flight crews ought to be well rested and should be able to do some serious damage to my forces in the region. Therefore, I am pulling back most of my ships and will continue my efforts in the region on the ground while my main focus shifts to the southern half of Sumatra and Java.

February 26, 1942 - There was a bit of sub action for a change, as one of my spy subs put two torpedoes into an MSW off of Rockhampton and sank it. The remaining MSWs in the TF fired off a number of depth charges and caused some damage to the sub, so I've got the sub heading back to Truk at slow speed.

My naval bombardment of Kendari went off as expected and it appears that AuTiger hasn't reinforced the base. So I'm loading up the victors of Amboina and sending them along to invade Kendari right away.

My planned naval bombardment of Port Moresby, on the other hand, didn't go off and the bombardment TF is now waiting a couple of hexes from Gili-Gili for nightfall and their run in to hit PM. I hope that they cause plenty of damage because the old damage at PM is almost repaired. I'm surprised that Tiger hasn’t sent any planes into PM yet to harass my ships and bases.

Speaking of planes, my Naval air boys at Kuching finally flew against Palembang this turn. They had a good run of it, with the Zeros shooting down a number of Wirraways that were on CAP, and the bombers destroying 2 dozen planes on the ground, including 12 Vildebeast, 6 Martins and 3 Hudsons.

My Sallys didn't fly out of Mersing - it might have been the weather, but on the other hand it might have been the fact that I didn't assign a Zero Daitai to fly escort either. So now I do have a Daitai on escort, so with any luck both bases will launch against Palembang next turn.

In other items of note, Rossel Island and Merauke were captured this turn, and the air base at Shortlands reached level 2. That's the first level 2 air base that I've been able to build up in the Solomons. I need more bases at that level sooner rather than later.

Tiger's forces were relatively quiet this turn other than various air raids in the India/Burma region. Having those units on the ground there is keeping Tiger busy, if nothing else.

February 27, 1942 - At the end of the previous turn one of my patrol planes spotted a large Allied surface combat TF heading eastwards along the coastline of India between Yanam and Diamond Harbor. Just what was it doing? Was it hunting for leftover "beached" transports along the coast or moving into position to eventually attempt a bombardment of either my forces at Akyab or even Rangoon? That TF vanished into the rain but the usual CA/CL/DD TF that has been hitting Yanam regularly came in for another naval bombardment this turn. One of my subs attempted to attack the CA in the TF as the ships retired, but it missed and was hit hard by the DDs in the TF.

I have a half dozen long-range LBA units flying out of different bases in Burma, so I am hoping that one of them will spot and attack any Allied naval bombardment TF that attempts to move into position for a run against Rangoon. But I'm not counting on it, so I've been sending my empty transports back down the coast to Singapore, where I will need them shortly anyway. I've also got my third, relatively undamaged CV on its way back to Malaya. I don't want to risk one CV alone against AuTiger's LBA, and I figure that I will be able to use it better in the Dutch East Indies in the near future.

My own naval bombardments went off well this turn. The heavy bombardment TF that just came back from extended R&O in the Home Islands hit Iloilo hard in the first softening-up attack prior to an invasion. I am also reorganizing my planes in the region to keep regular attacks on both Iloilo and Cebu. There were no shore guns firing back at my bombardment TF, which is a good sign that the forces on Iloilo are already weak, but I want them to be crushed before I land, so that they cause negligible casualties to my forces and I will be able to move forward with little R&R required afterwards.

The naval bombardment of Port Moresby also went off okay, although there wasn't a lot of damage done to the air fields. There also weren't any shore guns firing back at PM, so I am guessing that the bulk of the troops that Tiger has there were flown in and as such, don't have their heavy weapons with them. I will replenish the bombardment TF at Gili-Gili and then send it back to PM for another attack, and in the meanwhile I've ordered a unit of Bettys at Rabaul to attack PM from the air again. Maybe this time they will do better.

The air war over Palembang has started to turn-the-corner in my favor. Both the naval bombers in Kuching and the army bombers in Mersing struck hard and another 30 planes were destroyed on the ground: 14 more Vildebests, 6 Wirraways, 6 Martins, 2 Hudsons and 2 Catalinas. I'm surprised that Tiger left those planes there without bringing in better CAP than the Wirraways. Oh well, I'll keep on trying to take advantage of the situation while I can. I'm also sending a naval bombardment TF in to hit Palembang. What I don’t remember is whether or not the defenders have sizable shore guns. I should probably err on the safe side and keep my DDs out of the fray for the first run.

I still don't have any air-support troops in Singapore, so while the base is being repaired nicely by the engineers who are already there, I can't fly any planes out yet. But the first air-support units ought to land in a couple of days, and that will allow me to finish off Palembang once and for all.

In other news, troops landed at Mentawi on the west coast of Sumatra. With the air base at Palembang rapidly being put out of commission I'll continue to sail those troops down the west coast to capture the empty or weakly defended bases.

In China Tiger and I keep on playing cat-and-mouse as he tries to guess which targets I will send my bombers against next. He is refusing to move any of his good bombers and fighters out of India/Burma, so he isn't able to shut down my airbases nor stop my attacks, despite the fact that I am using mostly second-string units. So, for example, I used a small group of Oscars to sweep some Chinese biplanes out of the sky over Yenen this turn. On the land we are both still maneuvering our troops rather than doing any serious fighting.

In Burma Tiger pulled his troops on the railroad back to Myitkyina before I could attack them. He is determined to not allow me to catch his troops outside of a fortress. But he will have to act differently in a few more turns when he finds out that I have three units moving along the road to the north, not one, and they are all going different directions.

February 28, 1942 - The turn started out in a fairly ordinary manner. The Japanese sub that had been hammered off of Yanam sank on its way back to port. Japanese troops landed at Thursday Island on the south coast of New Guinea and Taleud Island on the west coast of Sumatra. The landing on Thursday Island ought to bother AuTiger a bit because it is the last base in New Guinea outside of Port Moresby to still be under Allied control. In this case I will leave those troops behind in order to keep Tiger thinking.

The other interesting event in PNG was that the air fields at Gili-Gili reached level 2. So now I can fly LR CAP missions out of there and also 1 and 2 engine bombers. For now I just moved a grounded Kate squadron to Gili-Gili to keep an eye out on any attempts by Tiger to sneak ships into PM. (I already have a Mavis squadron and a Zero squadron at Gili-Gili.)

Both my Naval and Army air attacks continued to hit Palembang successfully. This time there was no Allied CAP and my planes seem to be hitting the point of diminishing returns, as although the bombers caused a lot of damage, only 12 more Allied planes were destroyed on the ground - 6 Vildebeests, 4 Martins, 1 Hudson and 1 Wirraway. The lack of the 66 planes that Tiger has lost at Palembang over the past three days will cause him some heartburn once I move in with an invasion force.

BTW - my planned naval bombardment TF was still sitting at Singapore when I checked this turn, and when I ordered it to replenish a number of ships hit 1000 points, so I just disbanded the TF. I'll try again next time. The base damage is all fixed at Singapore now, and the engineers are working on building up the fortifications and repairing the damage to the facilities, including the repair shipyard.

Speaking of repair shipyards, I have a massive number of ships that are in port waiting for their February 1942 upgrades. It will be nice to have all of those little DDs finally equipped with depth charges. I've also sent the Kaga and a couple of damaged CAs out of Saigon and along the way back to the Home Islands. They are going at minimum speed, so by the time they get there most of the DDs will already have their upgrade damage repaired.

The next major action will be at Kendari. Tiger has put a TF full of PT boats into the port. Fortunately, my patrols and recon planes spotted them, so I've changed the orders on my incoming bombardment TF to have it go in and patrol as a surface combat TF. There are lots of DDs and cruisers in my TF, so they ought to take care of the PTs. Just in case, I've also ordered a Japanese PT TF to head over to Kendari from Amboina. And finally, the incoming invasion TF has a half dozen APDs in its escort contingent, so even if some Allied PTs get through my combat TFs they won't find the invasion TF to be a push-over by any means.

BTW - my troops captured yet another "dot base" this turn - Muntawi Island. I like to get rid of "dots", not only so that they can't be used as way-points for subs and TFs, but this way they can't be used as sacrificial bases to move float planes around.

In India, our forces continue to lumber around, almost aimlessly. But it does keep Tiger occupied. In China I keep on playing "shell game" with my air units and Tiger is pretty much letting me. We also keep on maneuvering around all of our land units. If things keep on this way we may well end up having at least one unit in every hex in China in a few months.

March 1, 1942 – This was an odd turn. Despite all of the task forces that met at Kendari, there was no night time naval combat. [&:] But there was a daylight combat between my main surface combat TF and all 12 of AuTiger's Dutch PT boats. My DDs did what they were supposed to do and sank two of the Dutch PTs. One Japanese DD took a torpedo and had to be sent away from the battle. Two other DDs took single machine gun hits and suffered no serious damage. But the PT TF is still hanging around, so it will be "Round 2" next turn I suppose. My Japanese PT TF didn't find anyone to fight when they arrived and they are heading back to the nearest base for fuel. I changed the speed of the invasion TF to "mission" so they didn't reach Kendari, but they ought to arrive next turn.

Two naval night missions did occur – my bombardment of Cebu and the nightly British bombardment of Yanam. Once again there were no shore guns firing back at my ships at Cebu even though I had the DDs in the TF firing too. That's good news because it means that my eventual invasion ought to take fewer casualties.

My air raids on Palembang went off well again this turn. This time there were only two Vildebeests and two Wirraways destroyed on the ground. I am resting my planes this turn and sending in a bombardment TF. My first air support units will be unloading at Singapore next turn so I will move my planes out of Mersing and into Singapore so that they can continue to hit Palembang in advance of my upcoming invasion.

For the first time in quite a while a couple of groups of B-17 bombed Mandalay. There was little damage done and the weather will likely play havoc with any attempt to keep on bombing. I will start to scout around Ceylon again just to keep Tiger edgy.

Tiger moved fighters into Ichang last turn, but I attacked elsewhere, so the "shell game" continues. My main effort will be along the northern road where I hope to overwhelm Tiger's defenders one unit at a time until I reach his northern cities. If he pulls too many units out of Yenen in an attempt to stop me I'll just return to Yenen and start the siege all over again.

I've got a bombardment TF going in to hit Port Moresby again next turn. I forgot to order the assault on Thursday Island last turn, but they have been activated for next turn and will capture the base unopposed. I've got a few other occupation forces on their way to new regions of the South Pacific to see if Tiger reacts when I start to expand my zone of control.

The big news this turn was the upgrade of all but one of my March upgrade ships. Most were in Tokyo and Osaka for the upgrades and they are being ordered to other secondary bases where they will finish up their repairs. The rest of the ships that received February upgrades completed repairs and are being sent to a collection point before being sent forward. It will be nice to have combat TFs that have more than one or two ASW ships in their mix. [&o]

March 2, 1942 – "Round 2" didn't happen at Kendari this turn after all as AuTiger decided to have his remaining Dutch PTs retire. An odd quasi-Round 2 sort of occurred a hex away from Kendari as one Dutch PT engaged the retiring Japanese DD that was heavily damaged in the previous battle, but the Dutch ship didn't fire and the Japanese ship fired but missed, so they broke off combat and went their own ways. That DD won't get far anyway, so I'm not sure why Tiger decided to try to hunt it down. My troops landed at Kendari this turn. There was no opposition from coastal guns. I've set the troops to do a deliberate attack next turn and they ought to capture the base.

Speaking of damaged ships, my second damaged CVE from the Australian excursion is still gaining floatation damage in the harbor at Rabaul despite the presence of an AR and a Naval HQ. So I'm sending away the heavily damaged DD that was sharing the port, and also a lightly damaged PG that happened to be there. Obviously my repair crews were being "distracted". It's too bad that the players can't set repair priorities for individual ships. The port at Rabaul is level 4, but it ought to reach level 5 in a few more turns. I'm hoping that all of this helps to save the CVE. [&o]

There was more night time naval action as my bombardment TFs hit Palembang and Port Moresby hard. There were still a few Wirraways on the ground at Palembang for the ships to destroy. I've ordered some of my bombers to hit Palembang next turn while the bombardment ships return to Singapore for replenishment.

Singapore now has air support units so I moved my Sallys and Zeros in from Mersing. I'm sending a transport TF from Singapore to Mersing to pick up the Aviation Regiment that is there because it will be quicker than marching the troops to Singapore, and will cause less fatigue and disruption. I'm also starting to collect transports at Singapore for my upcoming invasion of Palembang. That ought to occur within the next few days as my troops are resting up nicely in Singapore.

My general "war on dots" continued this turn as my troops captured Pagai, Talaud and Thursday Islands. I keep on sending these troops onwards until they get too tired out. It's better than leaving them in place; for example I just realized that I have been "starving to death" an NLF at the base at the eastern coast of Borneo, so I am sending off a DD fast transport TF to rescue the survivors.

Tiger and I have both been very quiet in the Central Pacific, but that will start to change over the next little while. I have a minelaying TF that is about to put some defensive mines down at Baker Island, and following a couple of days behind is a transport TF that contains a small base force and more supplies. It will be interesting to see if Tiger spots either TF with his patrol planes at Canton Island, and if he does what he might do about them. BTW – I also have half of the KB lurking a few hexes to the northwest of Baker Island, just in case Tiger does decide to attempt anything. [;)]

I am being careful here, because this situation is very similar to the case in the previous game between Tiger and me in which Tiger ambushed and sank half of the KB in April 1942 just off of Canton Island. Things were a bit different in that game. For one, I was attempting to capture Baker Island at that point instead of doing it early as in this game. Also, in that game my subs had been reporting a lot of floatplane activity around Canton Island, but they were reporting the long range Allied floatplanes that the US BBs use. But that game was a "PDU On" game, and I had forgotten that it made sense to replace the short range float planes on the US cruisers with the long range float planes, and so when I sailed the Half-KB in to "pounce" upon what I had supposed to be US slow-BBs, the Half-KB found itself surprised instead by attacks from four US CVs in individual TFs! My fliers were able to sink one US CV, but the US pilots easily finished off my CVs at short range (using Devastators, no less!) and even sank one of my BB escorts. [:(]

So in that game I compounded a number of mistakes for myself while Tiger played his forces extremely smartly. [:-] The biggest advantage that Tiger had then was that he had a huge advantage in Intel in the region, with tons of patrol planes flying, whereas I went in somewhat "blind", and also "deaf and dumb" because I misinterpreted the Intel that I had received.

This time I am staying within my patrol Intel "window" and have the Half-KB behind my own lines, instead of behind the Allied lines. So if there is no response from Tiger, that's all well and good, because with the base force at Baker Island I can put in a forward Patrol unit and extend my aerial Intel well into Tiger's key shipping lanes. And if Tiger does move, he will be moving out beyond his own lines and into my control area. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few turns.

March 3, 1942 – The only naval action this turn was a Japanese naval bombardment of Iloilo. My transports are now only a few days' sail away from Manila, so the invasions of the remaining US bases in the Philippines will occur soon. I've set naval bombardment TFs to hit Port Moresby and Palembang again next turn.

Keeping the air fields closed at Port Moresby is becoming a more important activity all the time, particularly with the ever-increasing strength of the Allied air forces. This was demonstrated this turn by a long range 4E bomber attack on Rangoon; in which around 100 B-17s and B-24s hit the base. I had plenty of fighters on CAP, and the results were quite bloody on both sides. Fortunately, my fighters shot down 13 B-17s and 10 B-24s, and damaged dozens and dozens more. The overall effect on the base was minimal, and part of the attack was focussed on the port because of the ships that I left there.

So my plan worked well – instead of focussing on just closing the airfields AuTiger split his attack and accomplished little other than sinking an already severely damaged sub and hitting a ship that was also already severely damaged. Considering that most of the planes that I had on CAP were Nates and Oscars, the results were quite satisfying. Now the weather has closed in on the region again, Tiger can lick his wounds or take his chances at sending out his bombers with high fatigue and low morale.

Demonstrating that two can "play at this game", a very large Sally attack hammered the airfields at Palembang again this turn. Surprisingly, there were still 5 Wirraways and 1 Vildebeest on the runways to destroy. I wonder if Tiger forgot to turn off "auto-replacements" for his damaged planes. Obviously he doesn't know that he can pull out the damaged planes via rail, and I have no intention of telling him that little bit of news.

My naval air units from Kuching hit Singkawang for a change instead of Palembang, and wiped out the local CAP while hitting the airfield hard. I want to put Singkawang out of commission before I start my invasion of Palembang. I should have sufficient ships at Singapore within a couple of days to be able to send off the Palembang invasion force.

In the other major air action, my army bombers in the Philippines received more practice against Iloilo and Cebu this turn. I'll keep this up until I've captured both bases, then I'll move the planes forward into the DEI for my next stage of expansion.

My ground attack on Kendari didn't succeed this turn, which isn't too surprising. For one, the start-of-game Japanese invasion bonus is long gone, and also my troops didn't get a chance to recover from their capture of Amboina. This particular Brigade is also not well experienced. Finally, my supply TF got to Kendari a day late, so this turn's attack had no supply available. Never-the-less, my troops lowered the fortifications and caused a fair number of casualties to the Dutch while not incurring much in the way of fatigue or disruption themselves. So since they have received supplies this turn I've set them to try again next turn. BTW – Tiger's Dutch PTs are back at Timor.

The first part of my operation at Baker Island went off without any problems as my ML laid its mines and started back to base without being discovered. The reinforcement/supply TF should dock next turn and start to unload, which will increase the chances of discovery. Tiger has at least a Catalina unit at Canton Island. (It found a sub a little to the north of Canton last turn.) The weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms next turn, so that will help out with lowering the chances of my TFs getting spotted. Never-the-less, I've also set one of the three Zero Daitai's in my nearby carrier TF to provide LR CAP over the transport TF, just in case.

But I suspect that another of my moves will gain more of Tiger's attention next turn, as my "dot-grabbing" went beyond the existing frontlines and Japanese troops started to land at Ndini, a dot in the Nendo group of islands that are south east of Lunga. This is the first "hint" of a threat on the New Caledonia area. I'll be interested to see if and how Tiger responds.

March 4, 1942 – An odd but ultimately "pleasant" thing occurred this turn – a little Allied transport TF wandered into the "wrong place at the wrong time" and was hammered by the Half-KB that has been sitting off of Baker Island while covering my operations there. The Half-KB (East) was sitting a couple of hexes to the northwest of Baker Island while a small Japanese transport TF unloaded a small base force and some fresh supplies at Baker. Suddenly the patrol planes from the carrier TF spotted a PG and an AK sailing a few hexes due east of Baker. Dive bombers and torpedo bombers flew off to attack the little TF, accompanied by some Zeros on escort.

The transport TF was at extreme range, so only bombs were used. The PG took 8 bomb hits and sank. The AK took 13 bomb hits and was left dead in the water. Never-the-less, I decided not to send the Half-KB closer in an attempt to finish off the AK. Instead I moved the carrier TF 1 hex to the west, because its main job is still to protect my own transport TF at Baker. BTW – the Allied TF appeared to be empty and also appeared to be sailing to the northeast, so I am guessing that it was trying to take a "short cut" home to the Hawaiian Islands.

My transport TF at Baker dropped off most of the base force over night so I moved an Alf unit out of the Marshalls and into Baker and put them on full naval air patrol. I then searched around for one of my small 9-plane Zero units that I use for forward protection and eventually found it at PNG of all places. Therefore, I flew it back to Kwajalein and will fly it to Baker Island next turn.

I would be surprised if AuTiger reacts to this attack, but one never knows, and fortunately I already have several full naval LBA units flying in the Marshalls, as well as a full Zero Daitai. The most important upcoming event will actually be in the Gilberts, where the air fields at Tarawa are about to reach level 2. This will allow me to place a small Betty squadron there which will extend my patrol and "nuisance" influence much further into the South Pacific.

The only other naval action this turn came as my small cruiser TF out of Singapore hit Palembang very nicely over night. Palembang is banged-up badly enough right now that I am resting my bombers in the region. Most of the map is being covered by thunderstorms and I don't want to waste more planes to weather-induced operational losses than I have to. My troop ships are accumulating at Singapore nicely and so I should be able to put the Palembang invasion into operation next turn.

As usual, the naval bombardment TF from Gili-Gili to Port Moresby is taking two turns again, despite the indication from the "green circle" that it ought to be able to do it in only one turn. That's okay, because pace of repairs at PM seems to have slowed down again. I will keep up this regular naval bombardment routine until Tiger actively tries to stop me or until I have enough troops at Truk to try a serious invasion of PM.

BTW – I now have three well-rested and upgraded battleships in the Home Islands and I will soon send them south where they will replace the ships in the current battle squadron that is in the PNG/Solomons region. I have a number of damaged CVs on their way to the Home Islands anyway, so it is nearing the time to make room for them.

Speaking of damaged CVs, the floatation damage on the Taiyo finally started to go down this turn, now that I've got an AR and a Naval HQ in port with it at Rabaul, and I've moved out all of the other damaged ships. I may well lose the heavily damaged DD that is limping back to Truk, but it is a cheap price to pay to save a CVE. Rabaul also ought to "officially" become a level 5 port next turn, which ought to help with repairs on the Taiyo. This turn it is sitting at "4(100)".

BTW – if you are wondering – the "1/3 KB (West)" is sailing to Singapore from Saigon and ought to arrive this turn. The two ships in it are sitting at SysDam of 10 and 11 respectively, and ought to repair nicely in Singapore now that I've got a Naval HQ in place and the damage to the naval repair facilities is being repaired rapidly by the 800 or so engineers in the base. The fortifications at Singapore are also just about up to level "1", at which point I will switch over the engineers to improve the port up from level 8 to level 9.

Kaga, the missing member of the "Half-KB (West)" is a few day's sailing away from Osaka and some well-earned R&O. Kaga has SysDam of 24 which shouldn't take too long to fix. I will then need to decide what to do with her. I am leaning towards moving her into the Central Pacific to join the 3 Fleet CVs that are already there, since I suspect that Tiger will eventually become tempted to try out his ever-growing US CV force sooner rather than later. Two Fleet CVs in Singapore ought to keep Tiger "honest" in the Far East, particularly once I use them in "demonstration attacks" on Java.

In ground combat news, my now-supplied troops on Kendari easily captured the base and kicked out the Dutch defenders. The base is in surprisingly good shape, which made me even more surprised to see that Tiger left 28 planes there to be destroyed by my capture: 18 Brewsters, 7 Catalina 1s, and 5 Do24K-2s. I wonder if he was low on supplies and thus couldn't repair planes that had become damaged in earlier attacks? The only thing that is now keeping me from moving my own planes in to Kendari is that the base force that I assigned to the base is still a number of day's sail away. This time I outran my support forces rather than my supplies. But I have enough air power on Amboina to keep things under control in the region, so this isn't a big problem at this time.

Elsewhere, my troops landed unopposed at Padang on the west coast of Sumatra. I was expecting this, but it is still surprising that Tiger abandoned those bases. Once I start bombing the bases on Java with 200 2-E bombers a day, every day, the idea of pulling everyone back to one or two bases may not seem to be such a good idea after all to Tiger. But I'll let him decide that for himself. [;)]

And my nuisance dot-grabbing continued this turn as my troops captured Ndini. So far there is no sign of reaction out of Tiger, so I'm just picking up these troops and moving them to the next "dot" in the group.

Things are pretty quiet in the CBI with the exception of the odd Allied air or naval attack on Yanam. That's because all of our troops are spending most of their time watching torrential rain falls day after day. I never thought that I would find the weather model useful, but it has come in handy for me while I am essentially ignoring the CBI in the short term.

BTW – transport ships are arriving daily in Manila, so the invasions of the remaining US bases in the Philippines will start very soon.

March 5, 1942 – As I expected, the badly damaged AK off of Baker Island sank on its own over night, so I was right in not bothering to send the Half-KB (East) after it. I've actually moved the carriers two hexes to the south of their last position because one of my subs was found and sunk by a group of DDs at Canton Island overnight. I'm moving move subs into the region between Baker and Canton Islands in case Tiger tries a "dash" with his DDs against my transports at Baker, but I don't really expect him to do that. If anything, those DDs may well be "bait" to try to lure my CVs into the US coverage zone. BTW – Catalinas from Canton did spot my transports at Baker, but didn't spot the Half-KB.

In other overnight naval news, my ships did another good bombardment of Port Moresby and the damage is staying fairly stable now. Never-the-less, I did notice that Tiger lost 3 C-47s to operational damage, so just in case I set the Zeros at Gili-Gili to fly LR CAP over PM this turn.

In ground combat news, my troops captured Padang this turn. Some Hudsons from Batavia flew over to try to hit my transports, but they missed. So I am sending the long-range naval bombers from Kuching against the airfields at Batavia next turn, along with Zero escorts. I'm also sending another naval bombardment TF against Palembang, just to keep the air fields there quiet and to continue to soften up the base for my upcoming invasion.

I started put into motion a fleet at Singapore to invade Palembang and another at Manila to invade Iloilo. Other small combat units landed at Tagbalarin in the Philippines and at Reef Island in the Santa Cruz Islands this turn. BTW, I'm sending my lone unscathed CVL from Truk down to Tulagi just in case Tiger gets tempted to send some surface ships to the Santa Cruz Islands and try to interfere with my dot-grabbing.

As I had hoped, the airfields at Tarawa reached level 2 this turn, so I did a number of switches among air units so that I can improve my air patrol and LBA capability in the Central Pacific:

- I moved the Mavis unit from Tarawa to Baker Island
- I moved the Alf unit from Baker Island to Apamama
- I moved some Nells from Maloelap to Tarawa
- I moved some Nells from Kwajalein to Maloelap
- I moved some Nells from Truk to Kwajalein
- I moved some Bettys from Davao to Truk

I've got patrol units at other bases throughout the Marshalls and Gilberts, so it ought to be quite hard for Tiger to "sneak" any serious forces into the region without me knowing it ahead of time.

Elsewhere, I am starting my "Northern Campaign" in China with an attack against that little Chinese Militia unit that Tiger left as a "block" on the northern road. The Division that is there ought to be able to take care of the Militia unit, and I have more infantry and a couple of tank units moving in soon. It will be interesting to see if Tiger splits his defence of Yenen to try to stop me.

And in India, Tiger has started to move into position to attack some of my units. But unbeknownst to him, I've started to fly some supplies in to my troops. This could continue to be a headache for Tiger for quite some time yet.

BTW - the port at Rabaul did reach level 6 this turn, and the repairs on Taiyo are moving along nicely now! [&o]

DB, is Hosho the only CVL that you lost off N. Australia?  It is your only CV loss in the game right? 
 
As an aside, it is March 22 in my PBEM game.  Remarkable how differently these two games have played out.  Since this is my first CG against a human opponent, I really did not have much of a feel for what the Japanese were capable of. I purposely avoided looking over their OB and reinforcement schedule (though we are using a variable schedule).  My opponent is more experienced and knows how to really mass and push a plan..
 
He has played the Japanese very well.  I am probably guilty of being too cautious.  He has successfully landed on New Caldedonia and is pushing hard to capture Noumea.  I have a fairly strong hold on it, but he has landed a large force.  This will be our first battle that could really go either way. 
 
By comparison, Manila fell on Feburary 3, Singapore on January 31.  He is pushing hard overland in Burma and closing the Indian border at this time.  I held Mandalay for a good while, but the situation is not particularly good for the Allies currently.  Too many IJA and too few Allied forces to maintain strength in both Burma and southern India.  He is at the gates of Sian and took Homan in China.  We arm wrestle indecisively at Changsha and near Canton.  He has Port Moresby, the Solomons and Espiritu Santo. 
 
I have lost 176 ships (3 BB at PH and the Repulse, plus about 8 CA/CL).  He has lost 77 ships, but 48 of these are AP/AK and the largest fleet units he has lost are two CL.  Neither side has lost a CV. 
 
 I have a headache....he has much fun.
 
I just retook Baker Is and the group with Funafuti and Nanomea, but it has been very much of a IJN show so far. 

DB, is Hosho the only CVL that you lost off N. Australia? It is your only CV loss in the game right?

That's correct. (And Hosho was a CVE, not a CVL).

This is the fourth time that AuTiger and I have played scenario 15, so he has developed an effective counter-strategy as we have gone along. In the first two games he threw away a number of capital ships very early by moving them right into the teeth of my air defenses. He isn't making those sorts of mistakes in this game.

Interestingly, the biggest ship that Tiger has lost in all four Pearl Harbor attacks has been a PT boat! In this game the biggest Allied warships that I've sunk so far are a couple of CLs and that British carrier.

I've played certain parts of this 4th game a bit too conservatively, but I'm still doing okay, although once Tiger decides to bring his forces forward I will probably have some real difficulties - he is fundamentally a very strong player.

Thanks for the comments and good luck in your game.

March 6, 1942 - The big news this turn was the big air battle over Batavia. Three Zero Daitais escorted 4 big naval bomber units on an attack on the airfields at Batavia. Unfortunately, my planes flew in from Kuching, so that my Zeros were fighting at long range, and Tiger's Dutch fighters were well-rested. Therefore, while my planes shot down 36 Dutch fighters, 15 Zeros were lost and everyone is tired out this turn. Also, unfortunately, the bombers didn't do the greatest of jobs on the air fields and the Hudsons and other Allied 2Es flew out to harass my bombardment TF at Palembang. The flak from the cruisers damaged more Allied bombers than the air attack on Batavia.

So I am not repeating the air attack this turn. Instead I have set a couple of Zero Daitais on LR CAP of the invasion TFs that are heading for Central Sumatra. Once I capture Palembang I'll move in my Sallys in and they will close the air base at Batavia soon enough.

Otherwise, things are continuing along as planned. Troops landed at Taliabu in the Philippines, while Reef Island was captured along with Tagbalarin. There has still been no evidence of Allied interest in my dot-grabbing in the Santa Cruz Islands. Utupau is next on the list.

My supply TF continued to unload unmolested at Baker Island. This is taking longer than I like because I am unloading supplies from APs instead of AKs. When I formed this particular TF and gave loading instructions for the base force, I hit the "load troops" button by mistake instead of the "long only troops" button. So I'm stuck with the slower unload times.

The US DDs are still sitting at Canton Island, although they didn't attack the sub that spotting them this turn. I still suspect that they are being used as "bait", but none of my other subs are detecting any other Allied units in the area. So I am having the Mavis unit at Baker send half of its planes to recon Canton Island next turn, just to see what turns up. I've also moved the Half-KB (East) two more hexes south, to a position south-west of Baker now. If none of my spying finds any other US forces in the area I may well send the Half-KB (East) to Canton to see if I can whack those DDs.

In China my infantry division and the tank regiment with it handily kicked the Hopei militia down the road to Lanchow one hex. I've got more troops coming up the road and they will continue to do this until they reach Lanchow itself. There should be one more Chinese unit on the road up ahead, but I've got enough forces coming along to kick it back too. In the meanwhile, it looks like AuTiger has decided to start to pull a few units back from Yenen this turn. In our previous game he didn't do that soon enough and I grabbed the entire northeast of China from him.

In India a Chinese infantry unit along with an Indian artillery unit kicked one of my paratroop fragments back one hex along the road from Jamshedpur Yanam, but that's fine, I'll let them keep on doing that as much as they want, because it buys me time. In the meanwhile, my Tinas continue to bring supply in to Yanam and my troops are enjoying that a lot.

March 7, 1942 - This was a preparation turn to a good extent. Batung, which is next to Kendari, was "occupied" at the beginning of the turn. This is the first time in quite a while that I haven't had to send troops to grab a "dot". Dot-grabbers also landed at Utupau in the Santa Cruz Islands and Bacolod in the central Philippines.

My invasion forces for Iloilo set off, so I started to put together the invasion force for Cebu. Once Iloilo is captured I am sending those troops on to Truk, and once Cebu is capture I am sending those troops on to Palau, so I will finally have a couple of divisions in the Central Pacific in addition to the 4th Division which has been preparing at Truk for an eventual invasion of Port Moresby.

My Palembang invasion TFs are a day's sail from their objective, so the action should start next turn. I've got a fair amount of LR CAP in place to discourage Allied bombers from Batavia.

Speaking of LR CAP, AuTiger finally got suspicious enough to put some LR CAP over Yanam again. This scared away my Tinas, but surprisingly, none were shot down or lost to operational damage.

Bettys from Rabaul hit PM this turn, causing some runway damage but taking a fair amount of flak hits themselves. The Allied troops at PM are obviously not "ripe for the picking" yet. But I've got a bombardment TF scheduled to hit PM again next turn, so that ought to help keep things messy there.

In a turn of bad luck, Tiger's Catalinas from Canton Island spotted the Half-KB (East) this turn, but at the same time my patrol planes from Baker Island didn't fly recon over Canton, so I've lost the Intel advantage in the region. In light of this I've ordered my carrier TF to retire to Kwajalein at mission speed, despite the continued presence of Allied DDs at Canton Island. It was by racing in to try to hit "phantoms" at Canton Island with insufficient Intel that I lost three CVs and a BB in my last game against AuTiger.

BTW - I guess that Tiger got fed-up with all of the sub laid mines that he has been finding in his ports, so he "returned the favor" by laying some mines in the port at Truk. Wouldn't you know it - what should hit a mine but one of my MLs!

March 8, 1942 - The invasion of Palembang began with some surprises, the biggest being the presence of plenty of mines at the base. I assumed that since my bombardment TFs weren't hitting mines that there weren't any there. But the escorts in my TFs were very busy sweeping mines like crazy. I'm guessing that AuTiger was active mining the port with his submarines because I sank his Dutch MLs very early on in the game.

There was also some shore gun action, but only against one out of the three invasion TFs. I have no idea why that was the case. Never-the-less I got lots of troops ashore and my LR CAP, or something, kept the Allied 2E bombers away, so things are going well so far. Tiger only has a couple of small Dutch infantry units along with two Dutch base forces, so things should go in my favor rather quickly.

My invasion of Iloilo started this turn too, but later in the day-turn for some reason. So while I set my troops at Palembang to attempt a deliberate attack right off the bat, I ordered my troops at Iloilo to do an artillery attack while I get sizable numbers of troops ashore. There were no mines and no shore gun attacks at Iloilo.

In other land action my troops captured the "dots" at Utupau and Bacolod. Those troops at Utupau are off to the last base in the Santa Cruz Islands, Vaniholo, next turn. Once I capture that "dot" I'll send those troops back to Truk for R&R.

My Mavis unit at Baker Island finally flew over Canton Island and found it, not surprisingly, rather vacant. Those DDs are undoubtedly a long ways off by now. What was surprising was that there aren't that many troops at Canton Island. I suspect that Tiger has been sending most of his troops to more southern bases.

Despite the relative scarcity of troops at Canton, I'm not going to bother with a "rush" invasion. Instead I redirected the Half-KB (East) to replenish itself at Makin instead of Kwajalein, because I want them to be available to support the upcoming invasion of Nanomea. Going into those islands in the South-central Pacific ought to elicit some sort of response from Tiger.

In India/Burma Tiger sent his B-17s and B-24s to hit the oil at Mandalay again. My attitude towards this is "What, me worry?" I've got plenty of oil elsewhere and this way Tiger's 4Es aren't bombing anything too important. Tiger probably thinks that he has the situation "under control" in India right now, but I'll dissuade him of that misconception next turn, because I will be dropping paratroops onto Benares! [:D]

I already have my armored regiment on its way to Benares, but it is a long journey off of the railroad, and I want to give my troops a second base under my control to fall back upon as Tiger's troops advance towards Yanam. Once again, I will stretch Tiger's ability to respond no matter how many Chinese troops he sends to India.

Speaking of Chinese troops, my northern march has bothered Tiger enough that he pulled his nine-unit advanced force out of the railroad crossroads that are northwest of Kaifeng. So I once again have control of my portion of the central railway in China, and I didn't even have to attack Tiger's troops, which just sat there using up supplies for multiple game-weeks. I wonder how long it will be before Tiger notices that I have troops marching upon his northwestern-most Chinese bases too.