Hunting the AuTiger - an AAR (no Tigers please)

[ny59giants]

I had Intel telling me the South Sea Det was at Rabaul while it was actually landing at PM. [:(]

What I have learned from this is that the next time I start a game I am not going to try at all to play it "historically" but instead will use the first turn "teleport" function to land troops at all the South Pacific Islands so that I can cut off air transport of massive amounts of Allied troops.

This is called a "Lunacy" game and you need to be careful about picking your opponent. [;)]

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I had Intel telling me the South Sea Det was at Rabaul while it was actually landing at PM. [:(]

What I have learned from this is that the next time I start a game I am not going to try at all to play it "historically" but instead will use the first turn "teleport" function to land troops at all the South Pacific Islands so that I can cut off air transport of massive amounts of Allied troops.

This is called a "Lunacy" game and you need to be careful about picking your opponent. [;)]

I would be interested in reading suggestions as to good ways to counter the massive air transport of combat troops.

Sure, LR CAP can help, but I have already witnessed the combined effect of having 10's of thousands of troops flown thousands of miles into Changsha while my LR CAP bases were pulverized by attacks by 100's of 4E bombers.

It appears to me that the only way to prevent long range transport of massive quantities of troops is by preventing the movement of transport planes over long distances.

Taking the "historical" approach to capturing the DEI allows way too much time for the Allied player to fly transports and bombers to Asia. Leaving the outer bases in Allied hands in the South Pacific allows the Allied player to fly transports and bombers from the West Coast to Australia and back in a week or so. By leaving a squadron on each way station island troops can be transported in the same manner.

It seems to me that the only answer is to go after the South Pacific in preference to everything else in order to force the Allied player to use ships for plane and troop transport.

So, if anyone has any good ideas, I definitely would like to read them.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 16, 1942 – AuTiger and I sent each other a few unhappy emails over night regarding my accusations of him "teleporting" troops. AuTiger did acknowledge that he had used air transport to move troops to threatened positions in Burma, India, China and the DEI, but stated that he did not do that elsewhere. He also clarified an earlier statement that he had sent to me that had said that he had flown two units into Changsha during the siege – he had flown three units into Chungking instead. In light of AuTiger's statements I sent him an apology for assuming that just because he had flown troops to threatened bases in Burma, India, China and DEI, he must be doing the same thing now elsewhere.

So the battles continued in the Game instead of in Outlook Express. Japanese minesweepers continued to sweep mines at Kiska and a Japanese bombardment TF hit Adak hard. The US PTs were not at Adak to "greet" the incoming bombardment TF. Instead they were out to sea to the north of Adak as AuTiger attempted to intercept my CV TF as he has done in the past. But my CV TF was further to the East. It will be interesting to see where AuTiger sends those PTs since he can't get fresh torpedoes for them at Adak, nor likely at Dutch Harbor either. If they do go back to Adak I ought to have one or two Surface Combat TFs waiting for them next turn.

AuTiger pulled his remaining ships out of the Dutch Harbor area, with the escorts running over and hammering one of my subs quite hard. So in the absence of any naval targets my carrier air units hammered the airfields at Dutch Harbor, destroying a number of planes on the ground and in the air. I am sending the CV TF back to port now until more targets appear.

Elsewhere, AuTiger has started up his war of manoeuvre in China again. A number of Chinese units have left the bases in the southwest to tie up my troops along the railroad. I expect him to try to kick my units out of position and maybe try another siege of Canton. This will give my local air units a good chance to improve their skills against ground targets and so I moved all of my small second string air units back into multiple bases and set them against multiple targets. My assumption is that AuTiger won't split his air units and will only send his 4Es against one air base at a time and his CAP against another target.

Another Chinese unit crossed the river against my trapped Division, so I started to move some of my rested Divisions against the lone Chinese unit in the blocking position. Most of my LCU relocation efforts are still going well with the exception of one Brigade that doesn't want to recombine at Nanking. So I ordered the two pieces to move to another base in the hopes that this will re-set the database.

The only other significant action was a group of Liberators that hit the air fields at Mandalay. They caused some damage, but suffered a fair amount of damage themselves, so it is a fair trade from my p.o.v.

[ny59giants]

AuTiger pulled his remaining ships out of the Dutch Harbor area, with the escorts running over and hammering one of my subs quite hard. So in the absence of any naval targets my carrier air units hammered the airfields at Dutch Harbor, destroying a number of planes on the ground and in the air. I am sending the CV TF back to port now until more targets appear.

I know there is a difference between stock maps and AB's map, but Umnak Islands has a much larger AF than Dutch Harbor.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

AuTiger pulled his remaining ships out of the Dutch Harbor area, with the escorts running over and hammering one of my subs quite hard. So in the absence of any naval targets my carrier air units hammered the airfields at Dutch Harbor, destroying a number of planes on the ground and in the air. I am sending the CV TF back to port now until more targets appear.

I know there is a difference between stock maps and AB's map, but Umnak Islands has a much larger AF than Dutch Harbor.

That may be - I haven't checked closely because the "Air" symbol has only been showing up at Dutch Harbor. However, from the recent position of some transport TFs I suspect that AuTiger has landed some troops at Umnak too. My job now is to grab Umnak before he can build it too much.

Thanks for the info -

[ny59giants]

If your not using WitP Decoder, I would strongly suggest using Bodhi's Utility to help you keep track of things. It gives you info on bases and their potentials, plus you can see some patterns that your opponent may have developed. [;)]

[ctangus]

ORIGINAL: Dive Bomber1

I would be interested in reading suggestions as to good ways to counter the massive air transport of combat troops.

LRCAP can make it costly, reduce its effectiveness and let you know for sure if it's happening or not. But the only sure way to stop it is to close the airfield.

Did you two agree to some sort of house-rule on air transport? I personally don't have a problem with it (from either side) but there's no doubt that it's more efficient in WITP than it was IRL.

A trivia note: I was reading up on the Aleutians campaign recently. The first mass airlift in US history happened there when there was a perceived threat to Nome shortly after Midway. 2300 troops were airlifted in about 2 days. (I'm glad my WITP transports do better than that! [;)])

[Dive Bomber1]

LRCAP can make it costly, reduce its effectiveness and let you know for sure if it's happening or not. But the only sure way to stop it is to close the airfield.

Troops can't be transported in if the runways are closed? That means 100% damage?

That's a tough job to do with Sonias or Sallys...

Thanks -

[Dive Bomber1]

June 17, 1942 – While my minesweepers continued to sweep mines from the waters around Kiska, the US PTs came back to Adak to find the waiting "arms" of one of my DD "Hunter" TFs. The PTs were surprised and it only too two rounds of action to sink all five without a single shot being fired back at my ships. Afterwards my bombardment TF came in without disturbance and hammered the defenders of Adak.

The first and main invasion TF ought to land at Adak next turn. I've got yet another bombardment TF set to hit the base as well as a surface combat TF scheduled to arrive to provide some detailed naval cover. I've also ordered Zeros to fly LR CAP over the base and my local CV TF has its orders to sail back and hit anything that moves. I don't believe that AuTiger is planning any sort of counter-strike, but I don't want to leave anything up to chance.

Speaking of leaving things to "chance", the little NLF that had sailed for weeks towards Nome finally arrived to find that the base wasn't empty after all. AuTiger had left the base force and RCT in place. To compound the problem, I had forgotten to set the TF to "Remain on Station", so I couldn't even order the troops back onto the ships. I expect that AuTiger will kick those poor buggers out next turn, but just in case he doesn't I have ordered the ships back to Nome to try to rescue any survivors.

The funny thing about this is that this mishap may well give AuTiger a false sense of security since the only Japanese troops he has seen in the Aleutians so far are NLFs (and the likely presence of base forces due to the presence of aircraft). Of course, once the Division starts to land at Adak next turn the game will be "up", but I'll take all the confusion that I can get for now.

All of the other action was in the CBI theatre. As I expected, AuTiger sent his B-17s against the airfields at Canton. I didn't have a lot of planes there and the few Oscars at the base harassed the B-17s enough to minimize the effect of their attack. Only one out of the three small Sonia groups at the base was damaged badly enough to have to be sent away for Repair – the others had their orders reconfirmed for next time.

AuTiger also brought P-40s into Wuchow where they intercepted and hammered another incoming Daitai of Sonias. But that was what I was expecting, and over the rest of China my planes flew and attacked Chinese troops and bases. At this time I'll accept the reality of occasional air losses in order to maintain some level of pressure in the region.

Chinese troops also attacked on the ground in several places. The attack on my isolated Division failed with the Chinese taking heavy losses. In the meanwhile my other units continue along their way to try to provide a break-out path. Another Chinese attack on a lone, small infantry unit along the railroad succeeded in defeating that unit, but since AuTiger didn't try to isolate my unit ahead of time, my unit retired and is being sent to recover in a coastal base. I have been replacing my combat units in the Chinese coastal bases with "tired" combat units. Soon enough AuTiger will be faced with much stronger and much more rested troops than he has for a long time.

There were also British air attacks on some of my troops in Burma, but those attacks didn't matter since my troops are retiring anyway. It will be a while before they can all get out of the jungle, but other than giving the Brit airmen more experience, it isn't affecting the situation there at all. In the meanwhile I have been slowly building up my bases in the region and have brought in engineers and base forces into most. The next time I bring some planes into Burma I will have plenty of bases in which to put them.

[Dive Bomber1]

June 18, 1942 – This wasn't a very good turn for me as AuTiger's preparations and forces showed their strength quite well in a number of areas. First off, the Fast Transport TF that I sent to Efate dropped off its supplies this time, but one of the DDs in it hit two mines and sank. AuTiger must have laid a lot of mines there.

Then during the daylight hours AuTiger's LBA at Derby found and hammered my cruiser TF off to the northwest of Broome. Despite the distance 86 B-17s and 34 Hudsons flew and hit almost every ship in the TF, including hitting the Mogami 21 times and sinking one DD. Of course, it helped that the Hudsons were flying at 1000 feet and the B-17s were at 6000 feet. With the capabilities of the Allied LBA the Allied player doesn't need to bother with his CVs.

Speaking of the Allied CVs, I have a strong suspicion that they may well be sitting in port at Noumea because the Air Balance there has skyrocketed up to over 1700! When AuTiger had 100+ B-17s there in the past the Air Balance wasn't a third of that number. So with 135 bombers in Derby and the rest of the Australian air bases showing high Air Balances of their own, it doesn't seem logical that AuTiger has found yet another several hundred LBA planes to load into Noumea, particularly since the Air Balance in the Hawaiian Islands is still quite high. So I'm guessing that I am seeing the effect of having several hundred carrier planes in place in addition to LBA and CAP.

So AuTiger is likely planning some offensive operations in the South Pacific fairly soon. Which also means that he isn't taking my Northern Adventure very seriously. That may change this turn once AuTiger sees division landing at Adak, but one never knows. In any event, I don't have much to lose in that region and I intend to remove Fragments from my forward units to rebuild, just like AuTiger has done constantly for the past 7 game-months. What's good for the goose…etc.

As far as the Aleutians go, AuTiger's troops at Nome wiped out the remainders of that misbegotten NLF invasion so I ordered my empty transports to make the long, lonely trip home. I had a good Brigade on its way to Nome, but I redirected it to join the efforts at Adak. I want to make certain to crush Adak and I can always go after Nome at some later date. BTW – there are two RCTs, one BF and one FA at Adak. They don't appear to be at full strength after the bombardments. Oh yes, and my carrier planes hit the airfields again too, so I shouldn't have to worry about air interference next turn.

BTW II – in another odd situation, my troops at Adak started to land at the end of the turn instead of during the night. And my bombardment TF did its bombardment at the end of the turn too. I have no idea why. The end result was that the Shore Guns got to shoot in daylight instead of night time, which improves their aim.

Finally, yet another unit in China refused to give me the option to recombine it this turn. I'll leave the three pieces together for another turn to see if that "resets" things. The other unit that was being "fussy" will be together in another base next turn. I'll see then if it gives me the "recombine" button or not. Inconsistencies like this are the bane of this Game. Other of my units have recombined without any problem, so I have no idea what is wrong here.

[princep01]

Dive, about recombining units.  I have had a US Inf. Division at a base for a month and cannot get the recombine button to appear.  There are more than 50K supply at the base, but it does not have an HQ, nor is it in range of any HQ.  I am suspicious that an HQ is needed to get these guys to combine.  They have never taken losses and, as best I can tell, they are at full strength.  So, if you figure this one out, I'd sure like to know the secret to getting that recombine button to appear.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: princep01

Dive, about recombining units.  I have had a US Inf. Division at a base for a month and cannot get the recombine button to appear.  There are more than 50K supply at the base, but it does not have an HQ, nor is it in range of any HQ.  I am suspicious that an HQ is needed to get these guys to combine.  They have never taken losses and, as best I can tell, they are at full strength.  So, if you figure this one out, I'd sure like to know the secret to getting that recombine button to appear.

I've got HQs around the units which won't recombine and that hasn't appeared to make a difference. I suspect that it is yet another problem with the Database not refreshing itself. If I find a change I'll let you know.

Thanks -

[ny59giants]

Possible solutions to your recombine problems (these are just educated guesses). [:D]
First, make sure the LCU's you want to re-combine have a Corp and/or Command HQ at that base be the same as the unit you want to recombine.
Second, is the base itself assigned to the same command??
Third, I don't have any idea.....[:D][:D]

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Possible solutions to your recombine problems (these are just educated guesses). [:D]
First, make sure the LCU's you want to re-combine have a Corp and/or Command HQ at that base be the same as the unit you want to recombine.
Second, is the base itself assigned to the same command??
Third, I don't have any idea.....[:D][:D]

All of my divided units are under China Command and in bases under China Command. Oddly enough, the units which recombined didn't have HQs with them, while the units which didn't recombine did have HQs with them...

Go figure...

My guess is that this is similar to those situations when LCUs refuse to move to a particular hex because the Game "thinks" that the LCU is moving from one enemy zoc into another enemy zoc, and yet the LCU isn't near any enemy zocs at all. The only thing that fixes that is to move the LCU to an entirely different location and hope that the Database resets itself, which is what usually happens, eventually...

Thanks for the idea -

[Redd]

I have had this problem myself, and it is due to the fact that one or two of the sub-units  had upgraded their a-t or artillery. They must all have the exact same to&e to recombine. I expect that later in the war this could happen when the infantry upgrades, only you won't be able to tell because they both have the same name.[8|]

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: Redd

I have had this problem myself, and it is due to the fact that one or two of the sub-units  had upgraded their a-t or artillery. They must all have the exact same to&e to recombine. I expect that later in the war this could happen when the infantry upgrades, only you won't be able to tell because they both have the same name.[8|]

That sounds reasonable and quite consistent with other similar things in the Game. Once I have a chance to play the turns I'll check the sub-units carefully to see if this has happened to me too.

If you are correct, and what you say sounds quite reasonable, this is yet another "detail" to have to remember in this Game, and yet another reason to not split up anything!

Many thanks for the info!!!

[ny59giants]

I'll use this one as my third possibility. [:D][:D]

[Redd]

[:D][:D][:D][:D]

[Dive Bomber1]

June 19, 1942 – Things continued to go "less than optimally" for me this turn as my attacks ran into strong Allied responses. More troops landed at Adak against heavy shore fire and plenty of mines. Fortunately my bombardment TF hit the beaches hard to balance things off a bit. My light bombardment TF hit Umnak this turn and was pounded by plenty of shore guns there too, so it appears that any further progress in the Central Aleutians will be quite costly.

AuTiger is preparing to up-the-cost for me significantly as USN combat TFs showed up around Dutch Harbor. One TF ran over and hit a sub and the other was spotted by patrol planes. AuTiger is sending in these TFs despite the presence of my CVs – I guess that he is willing to trade older surface combat ships for my invasion fleets and is betting upon the weather helping him out too.

The Weather did "smile" upon the US forces this turn as my CVs were socked-in but some US 2E bombers from Dutch Harbor hit my transports around Adak. I continue to be astounded at the overwhelming effect that the Allied LBA has upon the play of the Game. What particularly surprises me is that Japanese CAP is so ineffectual against Allied LBA, even historically bad bombers such as Hudsons. All Allied bombers fight their way through flak and CAP as if they were 1945-model B-25s.

If there is anything one aspect of this Game that I can point to as causing me the most losses and general problems, it is the Allied LBA, particularly how it performs in an anti-shipping role. Even ignoring the 4Es, the Allied LBA is much too strong for the Japanese Air Defenses. AuTiger has been able up-until-now to hide his surface combat and air combat ships far away from Japanese air power and depend quite reliably on his LBA to consistently cause massively costly losses for the Japanese, regardless of how much CAP is present. Even the best Japanese fighter units are totally ineffectual against any sort of Allied LBA.

I actually know what the answer is for the Japanese player - that is to use the KB to "destroy" Allied air bases prior to sending other task forces into the region. But that "bothers my soul", because on a gut level I want to use the KB to attack enemy ships, not as a "portable" LBA. Oh well, in my newer games I guess that I will have to ignore Allied ships and go after air bases exclusively if I want to have any hope of succeeding.

In any event, next turn I expect one or more USN combat TFs to arrive at Adak. While I do have one of my bigger combat TFs present to protect my landing forces, my better TFs are more than a day's travel away. Therefore, I expect that the USN will break up my invasion and likely cause me heavy losses, even among my combat ships. I am trying to position my CVs where they should be able to catch the US ships after the battle, but the odds are heavily in the favour of the USN getting a break from the weather again.

Elsewhere, various Japanese light attack planes harassed various targets in China, but the results were barely worth the effort and only continue because AuTiger isn't actively hunting down my second-string air units. The Asian 4Es bombed the resources at Rangoon again this turn and suffered some losses thanks to bad weather. On the ground AuTiger continued to move out most of his troops from his bases in Southwest China and kicked my units out of the crossroads north of Canton this turn. AuTiger has moved a lot of fighters into Wuchow so I presume that he is setting them on LR CAP over his troops in order to try to catch incoming "soft targets" such as Sonias. I also expect that AuTiger will attempt another siege of Canton, but I do have a fair number of units already there and more on their way as part of my efforts to reorganize my land forces in China.

BTW – the issue of recombination of divided LCUs remains undefined in this particular pbem. One split-up Brigade which wouldn't recombine did have differences in its anti-tank guns, but another Division that had all three units exactly the same wouldn't recombine either. So I have no idea of what is going on, other than to know that I shouldn't split units in the future. [:-]

[ny59giants]

I'm playing CHS and the American LBA carry 500lbers as normal load out except the A29 Hudsons (they carry 250lb, but have extended range of 15 hexes). I think the LB carry varrious amounts of those bombs and once they get above a certain level of experience, they get a die roll to see if they get the "big boys" - 2000lb. [&o] Plus, the B-25/26 have a good durability factor that makes it hard for your non-cannon equiped fighters to shoot down on a regular basis.
 
I am a month behind you in my PBEM CHS game and I have found that most Japanese bombers lack a heavy enough punch to do much to bases, even when I don't have many engineers there. Unless a significant amount of the Heavies are used, the damage is minimal.
 
If you allow him to use his B-17/24s on naval attack below 10k, you will be in big trouble very soon. [:D]  My B-17's set at 11k (House Rule) just put a few 1000lb into a few CL's off the coast of PM. Get inside that minimal range and Allied LBA, especially heavies is very dangerous. I start getting B-24's in 6/42 and any AF within normal range will be shut down very quickly until the Tony/Jack come out.  For your game, you will have a short down swing in a2a combat until your second generation fighters start producing.
 
Don't forget, attrition is the friend of the Allies, not the Japanese. [;)]