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August 20, 1942 - Some of my MSWs continued to sweep mines during the evening turn - it appears that a single MSW will only sweep one mine per night.

In any event, the big action this turn was in the air again. B-17s hit Luang Prabang after a false start and destroyed some recon planes on the ground. Then it was the turn of the Japanese air units as multiple big air strikes hit Yenen hard. AuTiger had no CAP around and didn't send his other 4Es after my northern bases. He did send F5s over Shanghai again this turn, so I expect sooner or later the skies will darken there.

After the main attack my light units enjoyed some large scale target practice all over the Front lines in China. The continual loss of troops must be having some sort of effect upon AuTiger's ability to continue to tie up my troops. And in the absence of counter air attacks my air units continue to get the training that they desperately need. If only my operational losses would decrease a bit - except that won't happen until my pilots get more experience, which becomes sort of a chicken-and-egg situation.

And the 116th/A is now up to 56 elapsed miles. I'm not moving anything around that region, especially not the other two pieces of the 116th. I don't want to inadvertently cause some other hidden effect that will reset the mileage again.

Elsewhere, whatever my air patrols spotted in the Coral Sea disappeared this turn. I'm still keeping air and naval forces in the region just in case it is something other than a lost transport TF. At the same time, over in the Bay of Bengal a British patrol plane immediately spotted one of my subs as it neared the center of the Bay. Sometimes the "ahshit" factor in this Game is way too high.

August 21, 1942 – I can't seem to get a break in this pbem. Even when my planes catch some unguarded ships or planes on the field my guys miss. And this is with my best pilots too. AuTiger definitely ought to be buying lottery tickers. [;)]

Once again the night phase was quiet except for a few of my MSWs cleaning up leftover Allied mines. The day phase brought more air action, both in China and in the Aleutians for a change.

Once again, despite the usual weather in China, many of my air attacks flew – perhaps because I had so many set to go. AuTiger moved his fighter-bombers to Hengchow this turn, and I first thought that I had "hit the jackpot" as I had planned a number of air attacks on that base for a change. But despite having multiple uncontested air attacks fly in by my experienced 2E bombers my planes were only able to destroy one of the 70 or so Allied planes on the ground and the rest happily flew to attack a nearby Japanese LCU. I can only shake my head, considering what always happens when my planes are caught on the ground.

My main air attacks flew too and hit the airfields at Ichang hard. I had suspected that AuTiger might move his P-40s there to try more LR CAP antics, but as usual I guessed wrong. Oh well, at least the air fields are well-damaged for a while. And even many of my secondary attacks flew, although my really inexperienced air units aren't causing much damage nor are they gaining experience quickly. Unfortunately, this is another chicken-and-egg sort of thing – in order for pilots to gain experience quickly they have to fly "successful" missions. And when they don't have "good" experience they fly successful missions less often. Of course, if I knew at the beginning of this pbem how to use and husband my pilots correctly I wouldn't be in such a mess in this game.

And AuTiger's luck continued in the Aleutians as my well-experienced Bettys at Kiska caught a US light naval task force off of Adak; not once, but twice. And both times the Betty pilots missed, despite the absence of CAP and very light flak. The DM and DMS ships were just too manoeuvrable. When I think of the carnage that Allied Hudsons caused to my ships early in this pbem I can only shake my head more. It would be nice if I could figure out what I am doing wrong. [&:] [&:] [&:]

The one thing that did work in the Aleutians was that my Nells from Paramushiro Jima flew and hit the airfields at Adak as an alternate target. AuTiger now has a lot of TFs in and around Adak, including dozens of PTs, so I called back my bombardment TF again and will wait to see what happens. I realize what Allied "mega-PT" TFs can do, and rather than argue with AuTiger about his use of them I would rather wait for more of my own forces to arrive to give me a local advantage. I also set some Zeros on 100 ft naval attack, but this time with their range capped to keep them from flying over to Dutch Harbor.

In addition to "luck", AuTiger has also been able to avoid making any serious mistakes, and has also been alert enough to take advantage of every mistake that I've made. This showed up again this turn as I am suffering from once again not considering the implications of the Land Movement Rules carefully enough. What I didn't realize was that it was much faster for my LCU in Imphal to leave the base than it would be for my approaching LCU to replace it. So I ended up with no LCUs in Imphal, AuTiger quietly noticed that, and he now has an LCU of his own only one hex away from recapturing the base. So I am rushing transport planes to the region and will start to try to fly in some troops to "hold the fort" until my incoming unit arrives. I've got to hope that AuTiger isn't flying LR CAP over Imphal, but given my track record, I'm likely to lose a lot of transport planes next turn. [:(]

And finally, the 116th/A is now at 57 elapsed miles. When I started the unit on its journey from the last "re-set" I reset its objective to Nanning. As of this turn the unit is up to "52" on the objective counter, which goes to show how rarely the unit has made more than one mile per day.

It would be nice if I could figure out what I am doing wrong. [&:][&:][&:]

A good "rule of thumb" is to place your LB on 20% Naval Patrol. Don't rely on your patrol craft to spot everything. It even helps with your strike coordination from your CV's. A little less punch, but more punches get through. Thus, all your Nell/Betty on Naval Attack should be on 20% naval search. Check to see that you have bomber leaders for your squadrons. Another often overlooked area.

I'm within a few days of your game as the Allies playing CHS 158c (Nik Mod). We are playing hide and seek in China. It is my training grounds too as he doesn't want to play in Burma.

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It would be nice if I could figure out what I am doing wrong. [&:][&:][&:]

A good "rule of thumb" is to place your LB on 20% Naval Patrol. Don't rely on your patrol craft to spot everything. It even helps with your strike coordination from your CV's. A little less punch, but more punches get through. Thus, all your Nell/Betty on Naval Attack should be on 20% naval search. Check to see that you have bomber leaders for your squadrons. Another often overlooked area.

I'm within a few days of your game as the Allies playing CHS 158c (Nik Mod). We are playing hide and seek in China. It is my training grounds too as he doesn't want to play in Burma.

I do have my LBA on 20% Naval Patrol, and usually my carrier planes too, unless I don't want them to be spotted ahead of time. And I've spent hundreds of points changing my bomber leaders to good bomber leaders. So I do tend to spot targets - but that doesn't help if my planes don't hit them... [:(]

All-in-all, I find that the results that I have gotten from my Bettys and Nells on Naval Attack have been mediocre at best. I think that in future pbems I am going to use them more in anti-airbase roles and less in patrolling.

BTW - I also tie-in dedicated recon planes to my land air attacks because I find that increases the odds of my planes flying, finding the target, and even attacking it.

Thanks for the comments -

I would not change the role of the Betty/Nell from anti-shipping to anything else. As an Allied player, that is what I fear the most. I make plans around the torpedo range of those two plane types.
 
I would look at RHS (Nell is 14/19 & Betty is 19/26).
It is a big jump in weight class (take a look at John III and my AAR - the screen shots to see the difference). [;)] 

August 22, 1942 - AuTiger deserves a much more skillful and much luckier opponent than me. Once again this turn the worst possible combination of bad luck hit me while AuTiger guessed better than he could ever imagine.

My abysmal luck last turn helped AuTiger immensely this turn, as he brought all of his fighter bombers from Hengchow to Changsha, and added in his P-40s. So he had a much stronger fighter force in place thanks to the inability of my bombers to take advantage of the opportunity at Hengchow last turn. Then the Weather added its "touch of death" to my plans - my bases were blanketed in rain.

So - were my air attacks grounded, as happens 99% of the time? Nope, that would be too lucky - instead a couple of Sally and Helen Daitai's flew against Changsha - WITH NO ESCORT! What happens when Allied 2Es fly against Japanese CAP? Not much - they blast through and do whatever they were ordered. What happened when a couple of Japanese 2E Daitais flew against 120 mixed Allied fighters? 47 bombers were shot down and only one got through to attack and did nothing.

BTW - I had 100 top-rate fighters and another 100 bombers sitting back on the ground back at base. Sure, given AuTiger's track record his CAP would still have likely decimated my fighters and remaining bombers, but they would have at least had a chance to fight back. Gawd, I would love for once to have an opportunity to see my attacks fight on an even numerical basis. And, of course, each time that AuTiger's pilots get a "turkey shoot" like this they improve their skills and then do better in each subsequent battle.

I'm really sick of these sorts of results in this particular pbem. I'm seeing occasional bad luck in my other pbems, but I don't see it all the time and compounding like I do in this pbem.

BTW - yes, the attack was from a big (level 9) air base with plenty of supply, and an Air HQ providing whatever "blessing" that the Game requires. Those same planes have been taking off together in attacks in the past and were all as highly skilled as I can get them. This was simply yet another case of me getting a "really bad die roll" in this game.

And yes, I realize that, for example, AuTiger is often frustrated that his 200+ 4E air attacks don't fly all the time that he would like them to fly, but there has never been a turn in this pbem when his 4Es have flown piecemeal against any heavily defended targets. And in addition to great luck, Tiger has continually made the right decisions at the right time, judged my intentions correctly, and taken the maximum advantage of every mistake that I've made and every bit of bad luck that has happened to me.

BTW II - What is my speculation on the roots of my "extra bad luck" in this particular pbem? Since I'm not seeing the same continuously bad results in my other two pbems I can't believe that it is simply a case of me "saying the wrong thing to the witch-doctor". Nor do I particularly think that AuTiger is uncharacteristically lucky (although I have personally known people who are lucky beyond the norm). What I think has happened is that because I started out so poorly in this pbem - making some massive mistakes and losing many good pilots and leaders early on - when the Game does its "dice rolls" the positive factors (particularly Experience) for AuTiger's forces are always slightly better than for those for my forces. And this has compounded as the pbem has gone forward to the point where my forces are no longer competitive in the terms of this game.

So I no longer know what to do. It's not a lot of fun feeling that nothing will work and all of my efforts are pointless. Essentially, the only thing that is stopping AuTiger at this time is his own conservatism. Effectively he can attack anywhere that he wants and I have no chance to stop him. AuTiger can clearly win this pbem anytime that he bothers to try; it won't take him until 1945.

In other news, somehow AuTiger got another sub into Kiska undetected and refilled the hex with mines. So I'll move MSWs back there to clear it out again.

And the 116th/A is now up to 58 elapsed miles.

August 23, 1942 - The Game just reset the elapsed mileage on the 116th/A again and it is back to 1 elapsed mile. So I obviously can't move the unit down to Hanoi, which is five hexes away along the trail between Hanoi and Yunan. My unit is in the mountain hex across the river to the south-west from Yunan. I have now set the unit to try to move to Lashio, which is 3 hexes away. So somewhere in the next 55 or 60 turns I will find out if the unit will be able to move.

Note to the Designers: a Game really should really inform the players of impossible moves, instead of letting the players take nearly a hundred turns to find out that something won't work. [:-] [:-] [:-] [:-] [:-]

More mines popped up in the Kuriles thanks to unspotted Allied subs, so my resident minesweepers are gaining yet more experience. Otherwise things are quiet in the region as AuTiger pulled back his ships before my planes could get any more shots at them. I'm still building up forces, supplies and fuel in the region so I'm not pressing forward at this time.

AuTiger was fairly busy in the air this turn. For the first time F5s flew over Tainan. I suspect that AuTiger will try to bomb the Industry/Resources there. I don't currently have a base force there because I didn't want to leave one to be drained away by malaria. But now I'm sending a spare IJAF BF there so that I can support some CAP.

In the first of a couple of bigger shows of force, AuTiger sent 116 B-17s against Bulla at 5K feet. But I don't know what they were after because they didn't damage anything. Maybe this was just a training mission. With AuTiger's usual good fortune, he didn't even suffer any Operational Losses.

And nearly a hundred Mitchells, accompanied by around 50 P-40Bs hit the airfields at Lautem again. I only had recon planes there so they didn't do much damage other than to the air fields. F5s also scouted Sorong, so I expect that 4Es will be there soon too.

AuTiger was quiet in China and pulled almost all of his planes back to the safety of Chungking. This meant that my light bombers were able to hit their targets all along the Front. But my planes suffered unsustainably high Operational and Flak losses, so I pulled back most of them and scaled back operations significantly for the next turn.

Once again, the effect of Experience on Operational Losses showed up dramatically. AuTiger flew twice as many missions as I did, and mostly at much longer ranges than I did, but I suffered 10 times the Operations Losses. At this point in the Game, doing anything at all, other than just sitting back, costs me more each turn, even when AuTiger doesn't attack.

BTW - I only fly my air units when they have Morale above 60 and fatigue in the mid-teens or even lower.

And as I predicted, AuTiger put LR CAP over Lashio this turn and shot down several transport planes. Therefore, I stopped trying to fly troops into Lashio. Unfortunately, the Mechanics of the Game are such that if I put my own fighters on LR CAP over Lashio they won't attack the Allied fighters on LR CAP and won't protect my transport planes. (I found that out in a very costly manner in another of my pbems.) That makes no sense, but that's how it is. [8|]

August 24, 1942 – All of the night time action belonged to the Allies this turn as an Allied CA/DD TF sailed into Adak to bombard my troops, and all of the minesweeping done was by Allied MSWs at Efate. But my forces actually got to do something out of the "ordinary" during the day phase as AuTiger left his Alaskan PT TFs sitting out in the open at Adak.

Surprisingly enough, the Zero Daitai at Kiska that I had set to a 100ft Naval attack actually flew against the American PTs three times, shooting up a number of them and sinking one. AuTiger had sent some Mitchells and Marauders against my troops at Adak but didn't have any P-40Bs around to provide any LR CAP for his PTs. This incident might encourage AuTiger to keep his PTs back, or on-the-other-hand it ht cause him to commit some of his Tomahawks to the battle. In any event, I set my Zeros back to local CAP over Kiska under the assumption that AuTiger will bring his PTs back to Dutch Harbor to "lick their wounds".

Otherwise things were fairly quiet, other than at the Burmese/Indian border where AuTiger sent even more bombers and fighters against Lashio. My guess is that AuTiger's troops will likely "win the race" to get back to Lashio and kick out my paratroops, but this ought to cost him a lot of supply and headaches.

In China my light bombers hit a number of targets but for the most part my air units were resting up in well-supplied bases. I've now hit yet another "gotcha" in this non-PDU game – my factories have stopped producing Sallys and I've run out of them. So I'll have to start to cannibalize Sally Daitais in order to keep them up to strength, since I can't upgrade them to Helens and I won't get any Peggys for a couple of years. Oh well, I'll just have to get the best use I can out of the while I can.

BTW – just to show you how badly I've handled my airplane stocks in this pbem, I've only got 1 Nate left in reserve. Fortunately, I can still upgrade several Nate units to Tojos as I build up Tojo stocks. I got myself into almost the same situation in my second pbem, and am taking a totally different approach in my third pbem so that I avoid such messes in that one.

BTW II – the 116th/A is now at 1 elapsed mile towards Lashio. So here we try again…

August 25, 1942 – There was a totally quiet night phase this turn; not even the MSWs were stirring. The day phase was also fairly quiet except for the Burma/India border where AuTiger is throwing the works at Imphal. He even had B-24s hitting my troops that are on their way to the base. And there were lots of P-40s in the skies over Imphal. More power to him - everything is in the hands of the Game's Gods of Movement and I'm not bothering with that region.

This focus on Imphal meant that my light bombers and obsolete fighters got to fly their ground attack missions in China unopposed again, which is always a nice break. Unfortunately, some of my air units have such lousy experience levels that most of the planes don't fly even when the weather isn't too bad. (The weather is never "good" in China. [8|] )

Despite the relative success of my current air strategy in China I decided that the Allied focus on India/Burma means that I have a momentary window of opportunity to try some surprise attacks. The odds are that my attacks won't fly, or if they do they will get hammered by the defenders, or even worse, Allied 4Es will catch my planes on the ground, but I can't pass on this opportunity.

In the Aleutians, as I expected AuTiger pulled his PT boats back to the safety of his air cover in the Eastern Aleutians. This is great timing because I have DD fast transports heading in to drop off supplies. As an added precaution I set my Zeros at Kiska to LR CAP over the FTs just in case AuTiger has his long range 2Es at Dutch Harbor on Naval attack this turn.

Otherwise, things are quiet. I am still shipping as much oil and resources as I can out of the DEI, but my bases aren't producing a lot because of the damage to so many of them. (AuTiger got very lucky with his die-rolls when I captured the oil/resource bases.) And I still need supplies everywhere, so I am torn between sending supplies to my major bases and sending them to the oil/resource bases so that they can be repaired. So I try to send to both, which slows down everything.

The one good thing about this recent hiatus in action is that most of my combat vessels are now in very good repair. I've also redistributed cruiser/destroyer forces to my main bases in the various regions so that I can respond to any Allied attacks. And my CVs are, for the most part, in good shape, other than the fact that, as usual, my CVs that are due for upgrades are taking forever to repair those last couple of operational damage points so that they can upgrade. Oh well, this means that the KB will be back to full strength around the same time that my forward bases are back in the "green" as far as supplies go. [&o]

For those folks who may be wondering, Real Life came in like the KB on AuTiger this week and so he is taking a break from Gaming until the weekend at the earliest.

Fortunately for me I have two other pbems running, one up to mid-May and the other in mid-March. Rest assured, I have applied much of what I've "learned the hard way" against AuTiger in those two other pbems.

Thus, I've only made half as many mistakes in the May game, and maybe only a quarter of the mistakes in the March game...

However, I've still got plenty of time to "catch up", and two very tough opponents...

Are you playing Japan in both of those games as well?

ORIGINAL: mlees

Are you playing Japan in both of those games as well?

Yes I am. The big differences are that both games are "non-historic" starts with PDU on. The game that is in mid-May is suffering from the fact that I used my old "Standard Set-up", which split lots of LCUs, attempted to attack everywhere at once, and paid no attention to pilots. The mid-March game is using my "New Standard" start, wherein I keep my LCUs together, conserve pilots, and attack in a systematic manner, mainly within my own air control.

So in the mid-May game I have captured most of the "historical conquests", with the exception of Timor (which isn't that important as long as I can keep the air bases closed), but more importantly my opponent stopped me cold at Mandalay, thanks to me not bringing enough troops to start, and him using AuTiger's philosophy of flying in everything that isn't "nailed down". The big improvement in this game over the AuTiger pbem is that I was able to "Pacman" all of the railine bases in China. My offensive then ran out of steam at Kweiyang where my opponent was able to pull together almost all of the Chinese LCUs and as well set up some very powerful air ambushes that cost me a lot of planes. So I've changed the axis of attack and am trying to capture Homan before my opponent can bring enough troops over to stop me. I ambushed the US CVs early in the South Pacific, but my opponent pulled a really gutsy move and later surprised the Mini-KB in the South Pacific with the Brit CVs!

In the mid-March game I cleaned out the Philippines quickly, as well as Malaya and Burma. I've got most of Sumatra in my control and have essentially neutralized the airfields at Batavia. My opponent is building up Timor and the surrounding islands in a very BIG way. He is trying the same in the South Pacific. As I've told my opponent, that has got to mean that there are some really big "empty spots" somewhere behind his Front Lines. [:D]

In China I waited about a month before I moved and then I did a massive overkill blitzkrieg along the Homan-Sian road. My opponent kept a lot of his troops in the field around China in an attempt to block in my troops, and he also wasted time and men trying to bother me at Canton. The end result is that I have all of the North East of China except for the very last base to the north. I've also cut the Burma Road, so I don't expect China to bother me too much in the future.

The biggest difference in the Mid-March game is the way that I've husbanded my planes. As I mentioned before, I'm essentially out of Nates and Sallys in the AuTiger game. In the Mid-May game I'm very low in bombers and have lost way too many fighters, although I'm not "behind" in air losses the way I am in the AuTiger game. But in this game I've kept my losses to a very reasonable level and I've even been able to replace all Claudes, and my Nates are sitting back training well behind my lines until I finally get Tonys and Tojos. Now all I have to do is keep thing under control.

August 26, 1942 – The night phase started with some successful minesweeping by my MSWs. Then my "Big Surprise Attack" started. I had moved 240 of my best Sallys and Helens to Wuhan and set them to a low altitude night time attack on the air fields at Chungking, hoping to "strike it rich" among the hundreds of Allied planes that were sitting there.

My bombers flew! But only about half of them actually went. Never-the-less, 100 2E bombers at 1000 feet is nothing to laugh at. And they found their target and dropped their bombs! The flak was surprisingly light and the Daitais kept coming and bombing, coming and bombing. [&o]

So, what was the aftermath of this complete surprise? A handful of obsolete Allied planes were destroyed on the ground, a few troops were killed and a slight amount of damage was done to the air fields. That's it. It was almost as if my planes hadn't flown at all. [X(]

Then during the day phase my second big air attack flew, this time from Chengting against the airfields at Kungchang where my Intel had been reporting Allied bombers but no fighters. Never-the-less, I sent plenty of Zeros along with the 2Es.

The skies were empty of enemy fighters and my bombers once again had an easy run, this time at 5000 feet. They emptied their bomb bays against minimal flak and flew home. But what was the result? One ancient SB-2c destroyed on the ground and minimal damage. [&:]

All-in-all for the turn, my entire Army Air Force was able to only destroy 8 obsolete enemy planes on the ground. [:(]

Drop back five yards and punt was then the order of the day as I pulled my bombers back and redistributed my air units throughout China. I now have the 2Es resting and my second-string light bombers scheduled to go after a couple of Chinese units that are still out in the open.

In other news, AuTiger won the race to Lashio as one of his ground units arrived this turn. It will be a couple of weeks before my replacement LCU reaches the base, so I expect AuTiger to kick out my partial paratroop unit next turn. I've got no one to blame for this but myself – I should have never pulled back that piece of the Imperial Guard until the replacement unit arrived. This Game is very unforgiving of mistakes.

The good news of the turn was that my Supply Fast Transports made it safely in and out of their objectives this turn, so my outlying forces in the Western Aleutians are in slightly better shape at this time. [&o]

An unexpected major family emergency has struck and I will be away and not gaming or anything else for at least a week.

Sorry to hear that, Dive.  [:(]
 
Best of luck with the family!

ORIGINAL: USS America

Sorry to hear that, Dive.  [:(]

Best of luck with the family!

Thanks for the kind thoughts. Fortunately, thanks to some very quick action and a lot of effort I was able to get everything and everyone straightened out and so life is pretty much back to normal for all (or as best as can be under the circumstances).

So once AuTiger gets his current Real Life commitments under control the game will continue. (At least until the Admiral's Edition comes out... [;)] )

August 27, 1942 – Well, we're back at it; at least for a day. Now it's AuTiger's turn to go off thanks to Real Life requirements. This turn wasn't terribly different from most of the recent turns in this pbem. My MSWs did a fair amount of mine sweeping during the night phase, but otherwise things were quiet.

And the day phase was also very quiet as AuTiger had the Allies sit back and watch the rain. So my forces had the day to themselves, and thus almost all of my second-string air units in China took off and hammered two Chinese units that were sitting out "in the open". One was the unit that had moved to the east of Hsinyang and the other was one that was sitting at 46,37 which is in the "countryside" between Hengchow and Changsha.

In both case I had also brought up some good troops, so in addition to hitting those two units with as much air power as possible I was in a position to kick both units back out of the blocking-positions that they occupied. And my troops performed as requested so those pesky troops are now back where they belong.

This now means that the Front in China is a little more under control, and if I am reading things correctly, there may even be an opening for me to try to extricate my trapped Division that is behind Enemy lines again. At the same time my siege of Yenen continued unabated. However, because I haven't been bombing Yenen from the air recently AuTiger was able to increase the air field size. This most likely means that the fortifications at Yenen are already up to level 9 and under those conditions I don't want to attempt any attacks unless I can first cut off the supply line to Yenen. But since my daily artillery barrages are causing lots of Allied casualties I'll hold off on any attacks for now and I'll leave my Infantry and Artillery units in place, although I may pull back my armoured units in order to "cause trouble" elsewhere.

And in other news, more end results of my early poor decisions in the game came to light this turn as a dozen more AR and a half dozen more AS conversions showed up. In reality, I really don't need those ships now, and they cost me a lot of supplies to convert them, so this has turned out to be a very costly misjudgement on my part. Oh well, at least I'm not doing the same thing in my newer pbems.

If you dont' play PBEM WITP to have fun and learn, then why play??
 
I just took over a game, making it my 3rd PBEM, as Allies playing Big B's mod (1 June 42). My opponent is trying to perform a small left hook on AB's extended map and has Akyab, Cox's Bazaar, and Chittagong (driving to cut off Dacca). It feels strange coming in and seeing what another player has left and being the "new" General/Admiral now in charge.  It's more exciting to me than my other games as it's a challenge to see if I can save India and make him pay for his "adventure." [;)]

August 28, 1942 – This was yet another reasonably quiet turn. The only night action was more minesweeping by my MSWs and the day action was primarily my air attacks in China again. AuTiger's obvious actions were limited to small air attacks on the trapped division in China and on Imphal.

I'm surprised that AuTiger hasn't tried to capture Imphal yet. If he waits too long my reinforcements will get there in time to save it. That will be quite the surprise. But if he wants to start a serious air campaign against Imphal he certain has the power in the region to do so. He has huge air balances in most of the Indian bases in the Bay of Bengal. This means that his air power in China is "manageable" from my perspective.

Thus, while the "cat's away" my "mice" are playing in China with lots of air-to-ground attacks. So my fighter pilots are getting reasonable opportunities to go from Absolutely Abysmal to Moderately Mediocre. I've also got my land units in fairly good shape so they are moving out once again in order to pressure the Chinese ground troops into backing off a bit. And Yenen continues to be hit daily with strong air and artillery bombardments.

Otherwise, I'm still reorganizing my forces and moving supplies, fuel, resources and oil all over the map. The surplus of ARs that I built, along with my overbuilding of Ports and Naval Repair facilities have brought one benefit in that my ships are all repairing very nicely and almost all of my ships are in the "green" and ready to cause more trouble. Also, two more of my CVs are just about ready to upgrade and should do so within the next game-week. This will put me into a position to bring a well-rested and nearly full-strength KB back into play. And I'm even setting up what I hope with be a small "distraction" before my main efforts restart. I need about one more month's "quiet time" and then I should be able to regain some momentum.

Now, if I can only increase the rate of build of Tonys quickly enough to replace some of my Nates before new Nate groups arrive as replacements. (I sure wish that I could order changes to those replacement units before they arrive.)

August 29, 1942 – This was another turn for minesweeping as first my MSWs went to work during the night then the Allied minesweepers went to work during the day. You can tell that neither of us have any confidence in using our subs in any role other than to lay mines.

The flying weather was fairly lousy in China this turn so most of my planned air attacks either didn't fly or only flew partially. The only exceptions were the attacks on the airfields at Yenen which did a good job and caused heavy damage. But this "freedom of action" that I've been enjoying is likely to end within a couple of turns because AuTiger captured Imphal this turn, freeing up his massive air force along the Indo-Burmese border.

A huge air attack preceded the actual assault on the base. Now those Allied planes are free to return to China and threaten my air bases again. Only one Chinese Infantry unit was present for the attack on Imphal, but since my defending troops were only a fragment of an airborne SNLF unit the battle was over quickly. So now I've set those retreating paratroops, along with the tardy reinforcements, back along the trail to Rangoon. Sometime in the next few months they ought to get out of the jungle, but in the meanwhile AuTiger will have more easy targets on which to train his pilots.

Now that my mistake at Imphal is done and over with I can concentrate on trying to correct my other many and varied mistakes before AuTiger takes advantage of them too. One thing that I am doing is sending out lots of small transport TFs to relocate my support forces. I didn't pay much attention to where I put support units during my initial expansion and so I now find myself with the "wrong" units in the "wrong" places. So, for example, I have lots of Army and Air Force base forces in forward bases where I really should have Naval base forces so that I can have some CD guns in place. As a corollary to this, many of my Naval BFs are sitting far behind the lines in bases which will not see an enemy ship for years to come. And I have most of my Special Base Forces with their heavy AA units sitting in back-water sites while I have little Army and Air Force BFs in important forward bases that are under threat of air attacks. I also have lots of engineering units sitting in bases that don't need any engineering. So I'll be busy for quite some time moving units around.

One aspect of the game that is working okay is that my naval forces continue to be repaired and are preparing for battle once again. Another CV received its summer 42 upgrade and will soon join the rest of the KB. If AuTiger gives me two more weeks I will be in a position to challenge him on the seas again. Of course, that requires AuTiger to hold off on whatever he is planning, and from the looks of the increase of ships in the Eastern Aleutians, I may not get the time that I want. Oh well, at least I am getting some good supply TFs into the Western Aleutians.