Hunting the AuTiger - an AAR (no Tigers please)

[Dive Bomber1]

November 18, 1942 – To my great surprise, the Night Phase was totally quiet again. AuTiger yanked his TFs out of Lautem and they vanished into the night. When Day came, in the place of the Allied TFs at Lautem there was an aircraft mark, signifying that AuTiger had already brought in some planes.

Sure enough, later on in the turn when some Bettys from Macassar flew over Lautem on Recon a number of P-40Es and Wildcats showed up. Fortunately I had Zeros on long range escort and also on LR CAP over Lautem so some of the Allied defenders were shot down and my losses were acceptable.

So I ordered my TFs that had recently been in battle to retire to Soerabaja because most of my ships had already used up their torpedoes. The KB West was close to Kendari, so I sent it there to refuel while I assess the situation. I have a number of TFs at Kendari, so I'm hoping that the CVs won't be noticed amongst all the other ships.

One of my incoming BB TFs might be close enough to get in a bombardment attack next turn, but I suspect not. Never-the-less, I've ordered it in anyway and I can always hope that AuTiger keeps his fighters there for one of more turns. My other BB TF is near Amboina so I ordered it to that base for refuelling.

While the naval battles at Timor were over for now, the Air War got into full swing again thanks to generally good weather most everywhere except for the "center" of the map and the far north, which means, of course, most of my bases. One of my nuisance air raids hit Yenen with reasonably good effect by Japanese standards, and some Sonias hit a Chinese LCU that ventured out of a base, but then the Allied Heavies took off and showed how to really do the job.

First off, some Blenheim IFs came out of nowhere, and for no good reason, and tried to hit Mandalay. As is typical of the Game, the IFs accomplished nothing except to suffer damage and losses. Then to my great surprise AuTiger sent a second consecutive 4E attack against the air fields at Amboina. Thirty-six B-24s and 110 B-17s smashed my remaining damaged planes on the ground. This time the bombers came in at 14,000 feet instead of AuTiger's usual 9000 feet and thus they suffered much less Operational Damage. Hopefully, at the end of this run, those particular bomber units will need some rest.

Next 35 Liberators hit the air fields at Port Moresby and caused some damage, although because they were at 9000 feet the B-24s suffered some Operational losses. Finally, 58 B-17s and 35 B-24s hit my troops at Akyab, causing a fair number of casualties, but nothing too "nuclear".

So I re-positioned my air units again all over the map and will try a concerted multi-squadron air raid on the air fields at Wuchow next turn. That will be an example of the best I can do to "emulate" the Allied "Death Flights". I also positioned more Zeros on LR CAP to try to catch some Allied bombers in Burma. I suspect that AuTiger is getting ready to start a bombing campaign in China again, but for now I can't guess where or when.

As far as the P-40s and Wildcats at Lautem go, I am leaving them alone for now while I bring up better Zero Daitais. I'll eventually attempt a "Sweep War" against the Allied planes, but for the next couple of turns I'll see what my BBs can do instead.

In the Far North, my air patrols informed me that there is a nice, juicy transport TF at Adak, so I detached my relatively slow BB from my Combat TF at Kiska and sent the cruisers and destroyers off "hunting". I left the BB, now with an MSW as an ASW escort, at Kiska as a decoy. I wonder if AuTiger remembered to put some PTs on Escort duty along with his transports? BTW – the weather is "Blizzard", so AuTiger's air power in the Eastern Aleutians shouldn't get into the act.

Finally, I noticed a worrisome thing at Truk where last turn I upgraded another A6M2 carrier unit to A6M3a planes. Despite the presence of plenty of supplies, an Air HQ, the CV being docked, and the fighter unit being stood down, none of the upgraded planes repaired. There are no other damaged planes at the base or on the CV, and in the past when I've upgraded carrier planes they started to repair immediately. I will watch this one carefully, because it could be a real show-stopper if my planes won't repair after upgrade. BTW – this pbem has "PDU" set to "OFF". I am unhappy enough that some of my factories, including one of my airplane factories, won't repair, so I don't want to be any more hampered by Bugs in the game than I already am.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 19, 1942 – This was one of those turns where nothing much worked out well. The night phase brought another couple of successful Allied sub attacks in the Philippine Sea, followed by my discovery of fresh sub-laid mines along the Malay coast. The naval bombardment of Lautem then followed, but although it caused some casualties and damage, there really wasn't much of an effect and no planes were hit. Then another of my damaged DDs from the Naval Battle of Lautem sank on its way back to port. Finally, AuTiger's ships got safely away from Adak and my combat TF found nothing to attack.

So the Day Phase came and found the Air Balance over Lautem to be astronomical, although there weren't any planes on CAP when my Recon flights flew over the base. My multiple nuisance air raids on Wuchow worked fairly well and caused a fair amount of damage for little cost, but in reality their effect is pretty much meaningless. So I pulled my bombers back and put them out on Naval Attack from multiple bases in order to try to suppress the Allied subs a bit in the region. AuTiger is keeping a lot of planes in China, but so far he isn't doing much with them.

In Burma 43 Liberators and 54 Flying Fortresses bombed the airfields at Mandalay again. I had some half-way decent Zeros on LR CAP over the base, so the results for both sides were somewhat "so-so". AuTiger's troops are still sitting in the hex to the north of Akyab, so I brought back some Army Dive Bombers to hit the troops again. AuTiger hasn't been flying any LR CAP in the region, so my DBs ought to be safe. I also have more Zeros in the region on LR CAP in case AuTiger decides to drop some bombs on the 116th/A again or one of my other Air Bases, such as Rangoon.

I've had a replenished surface combat TF sitting at Rangoon the past couple of days, so I decided to send it out at "mission" speed towards Akyab because the BB in the TF is rather slow and they can't make Akyab in one turn from Rangoon. I expect AuTiger to send out his Bombardment TF again in the near future and I want to be in a position to interfere with it.

AuTiger flew Recon over Kendari again, and his Recon planes were chased by plenty of CAP, but since I have been flying LR CAP over the base regularly, I don't think that AuTiger will suspect that some of those Zeros on CAP are from the KB. I refuelled and replenished the KB at Kendari and have set it off at Mission speed towards Soerabaja. I'm hoping that AuTiger stays a bit quiet in the Timor area for a while so that I can "sneak" the KB to Malaya and try to surprise AuTiger's Naval forces in the Bay of Bengal.

In the "Irritating News of the Turn" corner, my transport planes pulled out the remaining troops from the 130th Army Base Force in Baker Island this turn, and all that is left is the "Big Pair of Ears". But the idiotic Game Engine has left the Sound Detector as the "parent" unit and the rest of the force, which is now in Tarawa, as the "child". So I can't rebuild the main force until either I send some transports to "rescue" the Sound Detector or AuTiger captures Baker Island and destroys it.

Meanwhile, in the "Giving Me a Really Bad Feeling" corner, for the second turn in a row the EIII-1 Daitai on the Shoho in Truk Harbor didn't start to repair any of the upgraded A6M3a fighters. So I transferred the Daitai to the Air Field at Truk to see if that helps to start the repair process. I hope that this cures whatever problem is bothering the AI and the repair routines, because I won't continue to play this game if I can't successfully upgrade my air units. I'm already ticked-off enough that I have a handful of factories that won't repair, regardless of the quantity of supplies available and how long I give to them, and two of them happen to be airplane factories too!

[Dive Bomber1]

November 20, 1942 - Things were quiet again this turn. The night phase had minesweeping at Andaman and Ndini and the day phase had lots of rain and clouds.

The biggest news for me was that the recalcitrant CV fighter unit started to be repaired this turn after I placed it in the air base at Truk. Four out of the eighteen planes were repaired over night. I've never had to do this before, and I certainly hope that I don't have to do this from now on.

The other irritation from last turn "fixed itself" somehow as the Listening Device fragment of the Army Base Force on Baker Island became the official "child" over night while the main body back on Tarawa became the parent unit. Gawd knows why the switch occurred, but I'll take any break that I can get.

The map-wide rain washed out all of my planned bombing attacks and likely washed out the Allied plans too, but as usual Recon flights from both sides flew regardless. It turns out that AuTiger no longer has any fighters at Lautem. There are only patrol planes there now. Those patrol planes were busy spotting some of the many TFs that I have sailing around the region, but they didn't spot the KB as it headed towards Soerabaja, and they also didn't spot the Bombardment TF that I have sailing towards Lautem. We'll see if this bombardment TF does any better than the last one.

Speaking of bombardment TFs, I sent the ships at Kiska against Adak again, just to see what I "catch" on the ground. There is another blizzard in the North so it is a good time for a sneak attack.

And AuTiger may have his British bombardment TF on its way to Akyab again. A Walrus spotted one of my subs in the area, so I'm guessing that the Brits have set sail and are being hidden by the bad weather. So since my surface combat TF is within striking range of Akyab I sent it in at full speed to see if I can surprise the Brits while they are concentrating on a bombardment.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 21, 1942 - The night phase started out with the usual minesweeping and sub chasing by my ships, then the real action started as my Surface Combat TF in the Bay of Bengal ran up against the big Allied (mainly British) Bombardment TF that was about to hammer my troops at Akyab again.

Originally, I thought about calling this report, "The Tale of the Walrus", but I decided not to do so, just in case AuTiger isn't aware that the report of the Walrus scouting my sub in the Bay of Bengal last turn gave me the clue that the Brits were on their way to Akyab again. In any event, this was a really risky move for me, because I knew that AuTiger had gone in to Akyab the previous times with a massive force that was much stronger than I could muster. But I decided to take a chance anyway, just in case my TF could "surprise" the Brits, and also in the hopes that some of my ships would get off some Long Lances.

Well, I almost got my wish. My TF did catch the Brits, and did launch and hit with a few Long Lances, but unfortunately my forces didn't get a pure surprise, and only the fact that the Brits were set for a Bombardment saved my TF from being hammered. All-in-all, I'd call the results a "wash" since both sides ended up with several capital ships being reasonably damaged and limping home:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Akyab at 30, 29

Japanese Ships
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 1, on fire
CA Ashigara, Shell hits 3, on fire
CA Mogami, Shell hits 1
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Kinu, Shell hits 2
DD Kuroshio
DD Nowaki
DD Asashio, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Yamagumo
DD Shirakumo
DD Ayanami, Shell hits 2
DD Satsuki, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Sanae, Shell hits 1
DD Asagao
DD Karukaya
DD Hato, Shell hits 1
DD Kari, Shell hits 3, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 1
BB Warspite, Shell hits 1
BB Valiant
BB Ramilles, Shell hits 2
BC Repulse, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1
CA Houston, Shell hits 2
CA Australia, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CA Canberra
CA Dorsetshire
CA Devonshire, Shell hits 2
CA Cornwall, Shell hits 1
CA Hawkins, Shell hits 2
CL Hobart
CL Enterprise
CL Emerald
CL Danae
CLAA Ceres, Shell hits 1
CLAA Caradoc
CLAA Capetown
CLAA Columbo
DD Kortenaer
DD Fortune
DD Hotspur
DD Napier
DD Nestor

In the end, the only ship that sank was Asashio, and that was only after it was hit by a bomb from a Blenheim IV on patrol while the Asashio was limping home.

So this ought to make AuTiger a little more cautious in the Bay of Bengal for a while. I'm hoping that he stays so until I can sneak the KB into the region in another week. BTW - the Bombardment Mission was called off and my Brigade in Akyab got a respite.

In other Bombardment news my second BB TF sailed in to hit Lautem this turn and this time it caused a reasonable amount of damage and also caught 4 Catalinas on the ground. That ought to keep AuTiger "edgy" in that region, although I'm not in a position at this time to send in bombardment TFs on a regular basis.

And in the category of "almost-bombardments", the weather in the Aleutians cleared a bit and AuTiger's patrol planes spotted my Bombardment TF on its way in to hit Adak. I noticed in the Air Combat Report that AuTiger lost a number of Dauntlesses and Marauders to Operational damage this turn, so even though I didn't spot those planes in the Aleutians, I am guessing that they were there, so I sent my TF back to Kiska. AuTiger can send his planes up into the grey skies if he likes, I'll wait until another blizzard hits before I send out a Bombardment TF.

In other news, China remained very quiet, so maybe now it will become the Backwater that it deserves to be. And in LCU news, the 116th/A reached 58 elapsed miles, so it ought to get to Lashio next turn. What a "mission" this has been!

[Dive Bomber1]

November 22, 1942 - Things were quiet all over this turn, other than the usual minesweeping and sub chasing. My ASW continues to be generally useless, while the surviving Allied MSWs in Northern Australia whacked one of my subs in Darwin and set it packing back to base.

There was a lot of Recon this turn, but the only air attack was a Betty Chutai at Macassar that flew a no-effect attack on the air fields at Lautem as its "alternate" mission when there were no ships to attack.

The 116th/A reached Lashio this turn, and as a "reward" for all the months of slogging through mountains and jungles, I immediately set the unit to march to Bangkok. The 116th/A might reach Bangkok by Christmas, but I doubt that it will rejoin its compatriots at Nanning before the New Year.

I set another couple of Naval Bombardments into play, with a BB TF at Amboina set to hit Lautem again, and the ships at Kiska sent off again to hit Adak. I refueled the KB at Soerabaja and then sent it on towards Singapore. I've got some fresh combat ships on their way to Kiska so once this Bombardment mission finishes I'll send the ships back to the Home Islands for R&O.

Otherwise, it's just a case of "sit and wait" as I try to discern the next "area of interest" for the Allies.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 23, 1942 – This was another quiet turn. There was some minesweeping on both sides, and some more sub hunting by my ships. My deliberate sub hunting was unsuccessful, but the DDs in one of my Surface Combat TFs off of Java ran over the British sub Truant and hit it hard. With any luck that sub won't make it home. And thanks to some well-known "odd code", while lots of Allied MSWs cleared the remaining sub-laid mines out of Darwin Harbor, the "last" ship sailing in the port, a PG, hit the last mine.

Otherwise, there was no action this turn. For yet another turn (three in a row now) neither of my two planned Army Dive Bomber air strikes against the Allied troops north of Akyab flew. No Allied air strikes flew either, other than an attempt by a few Hudsons out of Darwin to strike at my latest Bombardment TF that is heading in to hit Lautem. So AuTiger knows about this latest incoming TF, but there isn't likely much he can do about it unless he wants to risk sending some ships up from Darwin.

There were a lot of patrol and recon flights this turn. Patrol planes in the Aleutians spotted my Adak bombardment TF again, and since the weather was suddenly reasonably "clear" I ordered the TF to return to Kiska again. I can afford to play "show and tell" in that region while I await the arrival of my fresh combat ships.

The Bay of Bengal is swarming with Allied LBA on Anti-ship patrol right now. My subs are being chased like mad by British 2Es. AuTiger must be worried about me coming in with a Bombardment TF. That's good – I want to keep him edgy while the KB quietly sails towards Singapore and beyond. [;)]

BTW – my air patrols spotted more Allied combat ships heading towards Diamond Harbor, so AuTiger must be planning to try some fresh attacks. With any luck his ships will sail out just as I bring a nice "surprise" to the Front. [:D]

And in a surprise to me, an Allied sub showed up in the middle of the Sea of Japan. Maybe AuTiger doesn't remember where Mush Morton spent his last mission. In any event, I'm more than happy to send some ASW ships out hunting because I generally don't use the Sea of Japan for shipping and I don't want AuTiger to become "complaisant".

[Dive Bomber1]

November 24, 1942 – This was a real head-shaker of a turn where plenty of things didn't work well, and few of those were due to any mistakes or bad planning on my part. Sometimes turns just don't go well, and this was one of those times.

The night phase epitomized my headaches as it started out with the Haruna hitting a mine on the way in to bombard Lautem. And guess what – none of the mines at Lautem are Allied. Talk about lousy luck! Of course, the mine damage caused the Haruna's attack to do nothing to Lautem.

Next, AuTiger sent out a number of top-rate Brit DDs with high ASW capabilities and they proceeded to blast my subs in the Bay of Bengal to bits. One of my Glen-equipped subs was sunk and another normal sub was heavily damaged. I can only dream of having similar ASW capabilities.

Speaking of Allied subs, despite having my best ASW TFs criss-cross the Sea of Japan, the Allied sub that was spotted there last turn disappeared this turn. Also, a couple of fresh Allied subs have appeared off of Sumatra, and they are right in the path of the KB as it heads to Singapore.

But I didn't re-direct the KB because it is becoming obvious that I will require its presence in the Bay of Bengal sooner rather than later, thanks to AuTiger sending F-5A recon planes over the Andaman Islands this turn. I suspect that AuTiger may redirect his attention to the Andamans in an attempt to gain a base that interdicts my thrusts into the region.

Weather washed out my planned air attacks in Burma for the fourth day in a row. I don't know if weather affected AuTiger's plans in mainland Asia, but it didn't affect his bombers in Northern Australia and a big force of mixed bombers and fighters hammered my retreating Base Force just outside of Lautem. That was definitely "cheap and easy" practice for AuTiger's pilots.

I have to work on controlling myself right now, and keep on telling myself that "it's just a Game", because the Game has given me yet another case of Extreme Frustration. This turn Shoho's A6M3a fighter unit finally reached full repair at the Air Base at Truk. So I set up Shoho as a Carrier TF in the port and ordered the fighters to move to Shoho. To my great dismay, the fighters were all damaged when I looked at them on board the Shoho. Fortunately, I made an interim save just prior to this step, so I shut down the turn and the Game, and I then restarted from just before the move. This time I transferred the fighters onto the Shoho while it was still disbanded in Port. Well, I got the same result.

If this is a case of "Works as Designed", then I can't at all understand the rationale behind such a "design", since carrier planes routinely flew off of their CVs and landed at air bases when their CVs went into port. And likewise, when the planes were put back onto the CVs, even if the planes were loaded by crane, they were still operational. So now I have to sit around and wait to see if the planes are repaired on board the Shoho this time around. It's a good thing that I don't have plans for Shoho at this moment, or this would be even more frustrating.

In other "Frustration News", I found that once again a troop transport left port without loading any troops, and another troop transport at another base only loaded a few troops before sailing off. I've only started to see these problems recently, although I've read of many other players enduring similar headaches. I've got to suspect that these problems, like so many other small irritations in the Game, are related to the Data Base and how it gets updated. Unfortunately, I suspect that the underlying weaknesses in the Game's DB will not be addressed in AE.

So what worked well this turn? The 116th/A reached Mandalay and is already on its way towards Bangkok. The unit also has supplies for the first time in months and months. It appears that it will only be another Game Month or two before this unhappy episode with the Movement Rules is finally over.

[dennishe]

Look at the bright side. At least friendly fire is not incorporated in the game.

[bbbf]

The carrier plane thing is dumb, with a capital D.  The only way around it is too sail your CV one hex away and then transfer the group on.
 
 

[bradfordkay]

DB, you need to make sure that the carrier is in a CVTF and is undocked.

If she's docked, the planes are winched aboard, apparently also true if she's at anchor (I guess this would be even slower as the planes would be brought out on lighters and then winched aboard, yuk!).

I have often made the mistake of forgetting to undock the CVTF before transferring a/c aboard. That always results in a quick reload for me!

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

DB, you need to make sure that the carrier is in a CVTF and is undocked.

If she's docked, the planes are winched aboard, apparently also true if she's at anchor (I guess this would be even slower as the planes would be brought out on lighters and then winched aboard, yuk!).

I have often made the mistake of forgetting to undock the CVTF before transferring a/c aboard. That always results in a quick reload for me!

Brad and bbbf -

Thanks for the info. I'll try that with the next airplane upgrade.

Dive

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: dennishe

Look at the bright side. At least friendly fire is not incorporated in the game.

Are you sure that it isn't? [;)]

[Dive Bomber1]

November 25, 1942 - We were back to very quiet times this turn. There was no action at all during the Night Phase; not even any mine sweeping or sub hunting. And the Day Phase continued with Bad Weather everywhere, but particularly in the CBI, so there were no air attacks.

The Bad Weather actually brought me a little bit of luck for a change, because although my Army Dive Bombers didn't fly against the Allied troops that are north of Akyab, my Recon planes did fly, and they were greeted by P-38s on LR CAP. That would have been a very unpleasant surprise for the pilots of my Sitting Ducks (aka Sonias and Anns). So I moved the Anns back to the Andaman Islands and set them on Naval Attack and I moved the Sonias back to Indochina and set them on anti-sub patrol.

I also got some luck with the subs off of Sumatra. The subs moved one way and the KB moved the other, so the KB avoided being spotted again. The subs did get pestered by various groups of Lilies that I have on ASW patrol in the region, so maybe my forces will start to discourage the subs a bit.

AuTiger's daily F-5A flights over Kendari spotted some Tonys for the first time. That ought to give AuTiger a little pause. [:D] Other Allied Patrol planes spotted some of the many combat TFs that I have sailing around the region, so that ought to also help to keep AuTiger a bit edgy.

In more good news, the A6M3a unit that I put back on the Shoho started to repair this turn. Sure, only one plane was repaired, but I'll take what I get. I then tried out the recommendations regarding CV air unit transfer I received here from the nicely helpful Forum members. I set Hiyo into a CV TF, and undocked it. I then was able to fly my Zero unit to the air base at Truk without any of the fighters becoming damaged. Finally, I upgraded the A6M2s to A6M3as and disbanded the Hiyo TF again. Once the Hiyo's fighters are repaired I'll do the same thing again to get them back onto the ship.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 26, 1942 – The night phase was fairly quiet, other than Kongo "ducking a bullet" as USS Shad tried an attack but missed. There was also some minesweeping at Palembang but otherwise that was it.

The day phase brought some surprise air attacks by the Allied Asian bomber fleet as AuTiger somehow got enough supplies into Yenen to stage multiple air attacks throughout the Northeast, despite bad weather throughout the region. First off 33 Liberators hit the air fields at Inch'on, then 38 B-17s hit the Port at Port Arthur, next 15 B-17s hit the air fields at Peking, and finally 46 B-25Cs, accompanied by 39 P-40Es, hit the airfields at Chengting.

Because the air attacks were spread out the general level of damage was low in all of the attacks. However, a sub that was undergoing repairs at Port Arthur was hit and sunk, and a couple of Oscars that were set to training at Peking were destroyed, as were their pilots who must have been "sleeping in the cockpits" or something silly like that. So I moved the Oscars out of Peking and into Shanghai, and also brought a good Zero Daitai to Shanghai to have on CAP. In addition, I pulled out the sub that I had under repair at Inch'on and sent it East to a safer port.

AuTiger only suffered a few air losses, despite bad weather and plenty of flak at all of the bases, thanks to the high experience levels of his pilots. I don't feel like disrupting my other plans at this time, so I'm not "rushing in" a number of good fighter units, particularly since this was probably just a ploy to get me to commit planes where AuTiger can overwhelm them with his heavy bombers. However, I can't just let AuTiger happily bomb all over the Northeast without any reaction, so I've decided that I am going to collect another big land force and besiege Yenen again. If nothing else, countering a siege will drain supplies from Yenen and make it less of an option for staging Allied air attacks. It will be interesting to see what AuTiger does once he starts to see LCUs moving around China again.

In other news, a blizzard broke out in the Aleutians again, so I re-sent my bombardment TF against Adak. I think that I'll let it go through with the bombardment this time even it if gets spotted.

The Game has decided to be a little better "behaved" at Truk and both the upgraded fighters at the Truk air base as well as the ones on the Shoho are repairing reasonably. There is probably still some nonsensical random factor at play in the background here, but I'll take any break that I can get.

The other interesting news was that the airfield at Maumere reached level 2 today, which allows me to base light bombers there that can harass Lautem. Since AuTiger has been holding off on (or has been rained out from) sending heavy bomber raids against Kendari and Amboina, both bases are repairing nicely again, although I have no intention of basing any air craft at either base. I also now have a base force at Bali, and also ones at Sorong and the next base over. This means that I don't have to rely solely on Macassar any more to provide air cover for the region.
Finally, I've sent out a small combat TF from Tokyo that is heading eventually to Wake. I intend to use it for a nuisance bombardment of Midway. I can't let AuTiger simply mass his forces where they threaten my key bases, while he leaves his other bases essentially unguarded.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 27, 1942 – AuTiger's subs are becoming more aggressive and more effective. During the night phase my ASW TFs chased the Wahoo unsuccessfully just off of Sasebo, and then in the day phase USS Seal put a torpedo into one of my PGs that was hunting subs just off of Taiwan.

There are also a lot of subs clustering off of Singapore, and my MSWs are still clearing mines from Palembang Harbor. I now have most of my Army 2Es on ASW patrol, but they aren't making much of a difference at this point, so it is still up to my ASW TFs to try to discourage this flurry of Allied sub activity.

The big new action this turn was a massive Allied 4E attack on my newly established air base at Waingapu. The skies darkened as 157 B-17Es and 72 B-24Ds flew over the base at 9000 feet. [X(] There must have been a few rookies in amongst the pilots because AuTiger lost 6 B-17s to various operational and flak causes. Fortunately, I only had a few Recon planes at the base and so my losses were reasonable. I guess that Maumere will be next.

BTW – I got to watch the "Lead Air Unit" effect in action again this turn. During the Morning Phase I received a report that 17 B-17Es tried to attack Waingapu, but they couldn't find the base. However, the Afternoon Phase apparently "re-sets the counter" and so all of the bombers flew. For some reason I always see this effect – a morning's missed opportunity is inevitably followed by an afternoon's successful attack.

As I expected, AuTiger pulled his bombers out of Yenen this turn after last turn's successful surprise air attacks. There were just crack P-40E units around to greet my Recon planes. The bombers are all back at Chungking. Surprisingly, even Changsha is empty of combat planes for a change.

In other news, as usual, despite blizzards and other bad weather, the Allied Patrol planes in the Aleutians spotted my TF off of Kiska this turn. However, this time I decided not to order the ships back, so we'll see if they get lucky at Adak. BTW – AuTiger hasn't been moving any TFs around the Eastern Aleutians, so my subs have been able to re-mine his bases nicely. Now, as long as my incoming Bombardment TF doesn't hit any of my own mines again, things ought to go well. [&o]

Finally, I reformed the KB at Singapore and gave it orders to sail to Rangoon. I've got Float Planes on patrol, but not my Dive Bombers or Torpedo Bombers. I'm still hoping to pull off a surprise in the Bay of Bengal.

[Dive Bomber1]

November 28, 1942 - The night phase started out with a fair amount of sub-chasing by my ASW ships. Then the KB ran over the British sub Trusty along the Malay coast. The DDs in the TF got a few shots at Trusty, but didn't hit it. Fortunately, my CVs weren't spotted, so AuTiger will likely think that this is just another Surface Combat TF going one way or the other.

The big news of the evening was that my Bombardment TF got into Adak unmolested and hit the base very nicely. Fifteen planes were destroyed on the ground, consisting of 9 P40Bs, 4 Kittyhawk Is, and 2 PBY Catalinas. The Allied Patrol planes spotted the TF on its way back to Kiska, but my ships were long out of reach of the Allied planes back in the Eastern Aleutians. Unfortunately, a Glen-equipped sub in the Eastern Aleutians was spotted by Allied bombers and hit, so it is limping back to Kiska to get some emergency repairs.

I have another Naval Bombardment TF on its way to hit Lautem again. I think that AuTiger's Patrols spotted it, but I'm letting it go in anyway. This is just a "reminder" TF and the next "serious" Bombardment TF will hit Lautem in a few more days.

There were a lot of Recon flights this turn, but no air attacks. It still appears that AuTiger is attempting to "lure" me into some response in China. And I am going to "take the bait" in a small way as I am sending some Helens, escorted by Zeros, to hit the Air Fields at Changsha.

In other news, the fighters from Hiyo were completely repaired this turn, and I was able to successfully "fly" them back onto the CV by forming Hiyo into a CV TF and then "undocking" it. It's odd that we have to do such picayune things in this Game, but I guess that this sort of thing really shouldn't surprise me by now.

A milestone was reached this turn - in one year's time I will receive my next CV.

Also, in two days time I will receive my first unit of Ki-45KAIa Nick Night Fighters. Unfortunately, the Factory for these planes won't come on line for three more days. So I'll get to see how the Game handles this situation. (But I've got to think that I won't like the results.)

[Dive Bomber1]

November 29, 1942 - The night phase of this turn was fairly ordinary. My MSWs did more minesweeping at Palembang, various Japanese ASW ships chased various Allied subs, and one of my heavy cruisers bombarded Lautem. This wasn't a memorable hit like the last one on Adak, but never-the-less, the bombardment caused a number of casualties and likely used up some Allied supplies. The main purpose was to remind AuTiger of what he has gotten into at Lautem. The next "real" bombardment will show up before long.

Things were otherwise fairly quiet this turn. Allied subs are turning up all over the map, so my ASW ships are getting more practice. Fortunately, not only do I always escort my transport TFs, but I also have ASW ships scattered all over the place so that I can usually respond the next turn to any Allied sub sighting.

Although the skies were almost as busy as usual thanks to both sides sending out multiple Recon flights, there were only a couple of air attacks, one of which was my nuisance air raid on the air fields at Changsha. I had a reasonably good Helen Sentai hit the base, along with a reasonably good Zero Daitai on escort. There were no planes there to catch on the ground, and the attack didn't do any lasting damage, but it does send a message that I haven't forgotten about China.

As I expected, my current movement of troops all over the map in China did get a reaction from AuTiger; a flight of Chinese light bombers from Kweiyang hit a HQ unit that I had on the road to Nanning. While I was debating whether or not to send a counter-reaction to that strike, I suddenly noticed an Air Symbol at Wuchow for the first time in a very long time.

What was particularly interesting was that when I scrolled the cursor over the base the results from my Recon flights last turn told me that there were 64 bombers at Wuchow, but no fighters. Hmmm… I checked around some more in China. Kweiyang shows 18 bombers but no fighters. Yenen has a few auxiliary planes showing. Chungking shows the usual massive numbers of fighters, bombers and auxiliaries.

So why did those bombers show up in Wuchow? Were they supposed to attack some of my troops, but were grounded because of Weather? On-the-other-hand, I've been sending small Tanker TFs to Hong Kong to fill up on all of the fuel that has built up there. Maybe AuTiger noticed the ships and decided to try a LBA strike against them. But then, maybe AuTiger has decided to try a surprise attack of the sort that he recently did in Korea.

In any event, I decided that I was going to try an aggressive counter-move to this situation. I ordered my Tanker TFs away from Hong Kong at full speed and started to move planes into the region in order to try my own bomber strikes against the air fields at both Wuchow and Kweiyang. I also brought in a number of reasonably good Zero Daitais to provide escort in case AuTiger moves fighters to his bases, and also to provide CAP to my bases in the region. And just in case AuTiger is thinking farther a field, and those 64 bombers happen to be a B-24 Group, I even moved some decent A6M3s to Manila and set them on CAP. So, next turn will be interesting. I have yet to catch any decent number of Allied bombers on the ground in any of my attacks in this pbem, but maybe this will be a "first".

BTW - the KB continued along its way to Rangoon unspotted and refueled at Victoria Point. Maybe if AuTiger gets too distracted with trying "sneaky" moves in China he will be less cautious in the Bay of Bengal and give me a chance at a pulling off a surprise of my own. [;)]

[ny59giants]

I don't know how OCD your opponent is, but as an Allied player myself, I can keep track of some of your a/c movement by monitor of "air bal" levels at key bases. Second, watch which bases he does recon flights to. If you move a/c in, he can see it by moving the cursor over that base. I know that its free intel (that will be removed in AE), but you have to think outsdie the box to use that against him.
 
You might consider sending in a sweep of your non-Zero fighters from a closer base over a particular base to have his CAP hit it. Yes, you will probably lose more than you want. Next, send in your Helens with Zero as escorts to hit him hard. Finally, get some Betty's to hit from far away (with or without escorts). It may take some time to set this up.
 
I'm in mid-1/43 and my B-17/24 numbers in CHS are getting close to 200 planes per raid. [X(]  Thats from three different areas (India, Oz, South Pacific). You have to take some chances to slow these big boys down or anything within 13/14 hexes is toast. [:D]  Just ask my opponent. [;)]

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I don't know how OCD your opponent is, but as an Allied player myself, I can keep track of some of your a/c movement by monitor of "air bal" levels at key bases. Second, watch which bases he does recon flights to. If you move a/c in, he can see it by moving the cursor over that base. I know that its free intel (that will be removed in AE), but you have to think outsdie the box to use that against him.

You might consider sending in a sweep of your non-Zero fighters from a closer base over a particular base to have his CAP hit it. Yes, you will probably lose more than you want. Next, send in your Helens with Zero as escorts to hit him hard. Finally, get some Betty's to hit from far away (with or without escorts). It may take some time to set this up.

I'm in mid-1/43 and my B-17/24 numbers in CHS are getting close to 200 planes per raid. [X(]  Thats from three different areas (India, Oz, South Pacific). You have to take some chances to slow these big boys down or anything within 13/14 hexes is toast. [:D]  Just ask my opponent. [;)]

"Air Balance" isn't just a reflection of the local plane numbers, but is instead a regional measure. So, for example, the "Air Balance" over Lautem reads around 1400, but there aren't any planes there other than a few Patrol planes. The big number is because AuTiger has huge numbers of 4E and 2E bombers, as well as fighters in the four northern Australian bases.

So what I do is keep Recon planes in all of my forward bases, as well as keeping various bombers and fighters moving around so that there is always some Air Balance reading, even if I'm not attacking. Therefore, while AuTiger might be able to spot my current air unit movements, it's not the same as if I had "no" planes around at all and suddenly the region sprouted up multiple Air Symbols.

As far as 4Es per raid, AuTiger has been putting from 200 to 300 4Es in the air since January 1942. And we are playing with PDU "Off". That to me is the biggest thing wrong with the current "Stock" WitP. Since there are no Game-constraints against massing hundreds of B-17s and B-24s in single bases this becomes the Allied player's most important "weapon" during 1942. Massing all of the Bettys in one base isn't a fraction of the threat because Bettys are hugely vulnerable to enemy CAP and flak.

I've got to suspect that this was done deliberately by the original Developers as one of the various "Game Balance" fudges. I would like to think that AE will find a different way to achieve Game Balance, but I'm not optimistic. I owned the original version of Uncommon Valor, and I remember the huge fuss that the players (including me) put up when "semi-realistic" repair rates were applied to B-17s. We were all "outraged" that we couldn't fly hundreds of B-17s at a time, day-in and day-out. So the Devs gave in to the "peasant revolt" and changed the repair algorithm for 4E repair.

A similar thing happened a couple of years ago in WitP when the Devs changed the ability of 2Es to fend off fighters. Prior to that change (I think it was in V1.60), CAP could often turn back 2E bomber attacks on targets, particularly Naval targets. After the change we got what we see today - 2Es, even planes that were commercial plane conversions and not true bombers - ignore CAP in a manner similar to that or 4Es. The problem with this "correction" is that not ALL 2Es were B-26Gs, or similar late war "flying fortresses".

But what we see is what we get. Fundamentally, if we players want to play this game we have to take it with all the warts. If WitP were a woman, we wouldn't even "cover her head with a flag and do it for Old Glory". But it is an addictive game, and we are all caught up in the belief that "one small change" will bring "perfection.

Thanks for the comments -

[ny59giants]

I'm playing 2 day turns using CHS 158c (Nik Mod). With the changes, I can only launch 3 attacks from Dacca to Ragoon per month with my B-24s.  Thus, only 6 attacks per month, max. They do hit hard, but they do need serious down time even from a level 9 AF. [:(]
 
While everyone moans and groins about the ground combat, I'm very interested in the changes in the a2a combat and aircraft OOB. Since I played stock for less than a year (switched over to CHS and other mods), it is hard for me to remember much about it. I tried RHS against John 3rd in Nov/Dec, but too many bugs remained for us to continue. IMO, that has the best map when you look at level 7. It is like playing a totally different game from stock or other mods (Allies don't have endless supply and fuel from day 1).
 
Until the announcment of AE, I was thinking of trying to take CHS or Big B's mod and put it on the RHS level 7 map, even though I have not tried to do a mod myself. [8|] 
 
I look at WitP PBEM as something for enjoyment and to learn (AI is not much of a challenge). It still looks pretty...worts and all. [:D]