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Yeah, we'll patch once the patch is official.

I didn't detect much in the list of improvements that will affect China - just the need to garrison bases. Didn't see anything that will affect artillery death stars, strategic bombing, air war balance, extremely limited supply, or the massively disproportionate battle losses inflicted on the Chinese.

That is also my conclusion. My foe moved a 9400 AV death star into Sian with a bunch of artillery and the game stopped about a month ago to wait for Patch 2. We are going to back up a few turns to the point where I had a little muscle in Sian and then patch the game and see what the affect of the patch is on China and develop HR if we have to. There is about 12000 supply in Sian but the troops dont have any of it-hopefully that is fixed too. Neither of us likes HR and an HR for China would be our only one.

It is sad that War in the Pacific is being so affected by land combat in China. Don has collected about 8000VP in China largely due to destruction of Chinese forces and I am not sure dinging him a few VP here and there is going to change a JFB's approach. In addition, I believe he has about 5000AV he can buy out from Manchuko to help garrison (unless the garrison requirements there changed). Unfortunately, my forces have been really hurt and I can mount much offense elsewhere. He is behind lvl 4 forts in all the major cities and the troops quickly run out of supply when I have tried to cut supply lines etc.

Does anyone know how many additional AV is required for the new garrison duty requirements by Japanese in China/Burma? Will it make a dent in a 9400AV death star?

Its a pity a game about The War in the Pacific is so nerfed by the War in Asia, the japanese command IRL must have been so dumb not to achieve what gamers can. Or the game seriously overrates them!!  I'm getting a feeling that wile early Allies LCU & Chinese should have exp of around 30-40 and later LCU around 50-60 the IJA should be around 40-60.    Apart from the first 6 mths, and a very limited time in Burma & China in 1944 what did the IJA (LCU & commanders) do to rate higher?

Canoerebel,

Dont give up on the north, of course Miller doesnt expect that push anymore but now a base or two being built might fet him worrying, at least build up Dutch Harbour & Unmak as defensive outposts.

Have you considered moving units into SEAC, its possible a small investment especially in Air bases could help the Brits and drag a few more IJA units that way.

Good to see that you have resumed both the game and this AAR. If he has landed at Cox's Bazaar now you have him where u want him. You have unlimited supply there and at least a half dozen artillery....do to him now what he has been doing to you. And if u arent using your Far Eastern Air Force in China then use everything here. You have several bases at extremely close range to Cox's Bazaar and once u close down the airfield there all his AC will be at long range. You can set up an aerial attrition battle here that he cant possibly win.

And if u create air superiority you can LRCAP RN bombardment TFs from Diamond Harbor to Cox's Bazaar on a daily basis.

The way I see it India should almost be China in reverse.

And then some....

I tend to agree with this advice. I would also like to point out that you can achieve some degree of success bombing his nearby airfields at night at low altitudes, such as 5000ft. At this point in the game, your foe doesnt have a decent night fighter. I have destroyed as many as 30 planes a night. On the other hand, please note that you are still in the monsoon season and you wont have great results until October. For some reason, monsoon lasts longer in AE than real life. I know, I grew up there!!! Judging by my success at Rangoon, the citizens there have never seen a star!

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Yeah, we'll patch once the patch is official.

I didn't detect much in the list of improvements that will affect China - just the need to garrison bases.  Didn't see anything that will affect artillery death stars, strategic bombing, air war balance, extremely limited supply, or the massively disproportionate battle losses inflicted on the Chinese.

I have already noticed what seems to be a significant decrease in artillery kills in China. But perhaps my opponent just feels sorry for me....

8/20/42 to 8/27/42
 
Here Come the Rebels (Not)!:  The title to this post is nothing more than disinformation aimed at making my opponent think I'm up to something.  A truer title might be:  "Days Dark and Dreary."  I remember the beautiful Larisa Anitpov (actress Julie Christie) in Doctor Zhivago saying, "It is a terrible time to be alive!" as wolves howled outside the ice-encrusted house in which she and Yuri had sought refuge.  The same thing holds true for the Allies as we near the end of August 1942.
 
Subwars:  Ack!  Escorted by four destroyers, BB Pennyslvania was making her way to the West Coast nine months after Pearl Harbor.  She had zero SYS damage and 60 FLT damage.  I-3 stumbled across her path and put a TT in her side, raising FLT to 83.  The next turn, I-31 put two more TTs in her side and the stricken ship went under.  The Allies have really suffered at the hands of Japanese subs in this game.  At least three RN BBs have been torpedoed, but this takes the cake.  Awful!  Gloom, despair and agony on me!  Now, though, I'm mad.  [:@]
 
India: The standoff continues at Cox's Bazaar.  Allied bombers, unopposed, hit the Japanese two days running and will continue for at least two more days.  For some reason, however, the damage inflicted is slight - much less than when comparable numbers of Japanese bombers hit me.  Are Wellingtons, Blenheims, Mitchells and Flying Forts toothless?  I suppose relatively low experience is the culprit, but...dang. [:o]   I think I can hold Cox's and that this will be a point of attrition to my advantage, but we'll see.
 
Australia:  I'm moving some Aussie troops out of the southern half of the continent to reinforce front line bases.  This is a small but satisfying step.  I think Oz is pretty safe - Perth has a garrison of 750 AV, Darwin 600 AV, and NE OZ has decent garrisons and tons of airfields.  I doubt Miller will head to Australia in any meaningful manner.  I'm positioning base forces and aircraft so that the Allies can begin a sustained bombing campaign against New Guinea as soon as Portland Roads has a decent airfield.
 
SoPac:  Quiet here.  The cost paid to re-take Luganville (three CVs and a BB) was steep, but it sure is nice to have the base back.  Luganville insulates the heavily protected bases at Noumea, Auckland, Suva, and even Pago Pago. I think the Allied position is safe and I can concentrate on baby steps (building up little bases on remote islands like Vana Lueva).
 
CenPac:  Quiet.  I bumped up Canton Islands garrison to just over 6,000.  With the KB intact, Miller can certainly take Canton or Midway, but he'll have to commit a fair amount of assets to do so.
 
NoPac:  The mass of troops, aircraft, and ships remains on hold at Seattle.  Don't know what I'm going to do with these guys, but various ideas are bouncing around in my head.
 
 

Well, glad to see your AAR gracing the top of the AAR pile, where it belongs.

Also glad to see you're getting mad. Allied commanders found that a genuine hatred of the enemy helped promote fighting spirit in troops, particularly in the ETO. Anger and fury have their place in warfare. Simulated anger should do here, though. [;)]

Go get 'em, reb.

At what point will you have parity in CV power? I lost track of what went under. Unless Miller accelerated Taiho, the only reasonable reinforcement the IJN gets until mid'43 is Ryuho. (all the CSs are available in June/July '43)

It looks bleak now, but you're fine. You haven't lost much territory, so you can make it up fast starting in Mid-'43 or so.

At what point will you have parity in CV power? I lost track of what went under. Unless Miller accelerated Taiho, the only reasonable reinforcement the IJN gets until mid'43 is Ryuho. (all the CSs are available in June/July '43)

He gets three Essex class CV's in 43 (the last in Dec. 43). That is rarely enough to go head to head with KB. Especially the way the US CV's fly those uncoordinated strikes!

I don't have the reinforcement list in front of me, but I know you get most of the Independence CVLs in 1943....those count. They are about 1/3 of a CV apiece, but they count.

I think the odds change too with time because of USN AA upgrades, and probable degredation of IJN pilot quality, but particularly because of the Hellcat.

You can also take more chances as Allies, because replacements are on the way, and you have CVEs to support invasions....IJN has Taiho and that's about it to cover mid-1943 losses.

I deeply mired in "funk" at the moment, knowing that it will likely be at least a year before I can take on the KB.  At the moment this is my carrier force:
 
One RN CV at Sydney (a second was just withdrawn - on schedule I might add [:)]).
CV Wasp at Auckland.
CV Lexington repairing light/moderate damage at Noumea will soon move to either Auckland or to the West Coast.
CVE Long Island at San Francisco.
CVE Sangamon (or one of her sisters) at Tacoma.
 
A bunch of CVEs will arrive in the coming months, then the CVLs start to come aboard, followed by CV Essex the middle of next year.  Barring any losses in the meantime I won't have any kind of carrier parity until late '43 at best.
 
The Japanese have lost two small carriers (Hiryu and Junyo, if memory serves) and two CVLs.  I've lost Hornet, Saratoga, Enterprise, Yorktown, and Hermes.  I have Luganville to show for my losses, but at a cost of having my hands tied behind my back for the next year.  Let that be a lesson to me in the future!

It's a good lesson. You have to think long and hard about committing USN CVs early in the war. There has to be a damn good reason. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but Luganville isn't a good enough reason.

Settled on names for the Essex-hulls? "Ersatz Enterprise"? USS Robert E Lee?

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

I don't have the reinforcement list in front of me, but I know you get most of the Independence CVLs in 1943....those count. They are about 1/3 of a CV apiece, but they count.

I think the odds change too with time because of USN AA upgrades, and probable degredation of IJN pilot quality, but particularly because of the Hellcat.

You can also take more chances as Allies, because replacements are on the way, and you have CVEs to support invasions....IJN has Taiho and that's about it to cover mid-1943 losses.

In late 1942 or early 43 you also get some CVEs, including some with fighters and torpedo planes. Nowhere near enough to take on the KB, but enough to mess with any raider TFs.

I've also found that the AA upgrades are not to be downplayed. With a BB and a couple of CAs in an invasion TF after teh second upgrade they can do significant damage and disruption.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

8/20/42 to 8/27/42

Subwars:  Ack!  Escorted by four destroyers, BB Pennyslvania was making her way to the West Coast nine months after Pearl Harbor.  She had zero SYS damage and 60 FLT damage.  I-3 stumbled across her path and put a TT in her side, raising FLT to 83.  The next turn, I-31 put two more TTs in her side and the stricken ship went under.  The Allies have really suffered at the hands of Japanese subs in this game.  At least three RN BBs have been torpedoed, but this takes the cake.  Awful!  Gloom, despair and agony on me!  Now, though, I'm mad.  [:@]

I had Saratoga come out of Seattle after five months repair, with four fleet DDs as escort. She had done a 3-stop limp home from a mauling near PM. FIVE months!

One hex out of Puget Sound she took one torpedo from an I-boat that got away clean. Forty-five more days on "High" shipyard priority.

I've found that there's no real way to keep the West Coast clean of subs. Air ASW finds them, but doesn't attack. Multiple 4-ship, 8-ASW-rated DD ASW TFs attack, damage them, scare them off, but don't sink them. Maybe when I get Hedgehogs.

As an interim, and something you could think about, is I went sub tender hunting. The AI puts them in the same place WITP did, so I risked a CV raid there, flushed two, and sank both. Pushes support back to Truk, probably, and less on-station time for the West Coast subs.

You don't have the CV option, but while you're re-building you could do some sub mining missions to likely sub bases in mid-Pac and maybe bag a few.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

8/20/42 to 8/27/42

Subwars:  Ack!  Escorted by four destroyers, BB Pennyslvania was making her way to the West Coast nine months after Pearl Harbor.  She had zero SYS damage and 60 FLT damage.  I-3 stumbled across her path and put a TT in her side, raising FLT to 83.  The next turn, I-31 put two more TTs in her side and the stricken ship went under.  The Allies have really suffered at the hands of Japanese subs in this game.  At least three RN BBs have been torpedoed, but this takes the cake.  Awful!  Gloom, despair and agony on me!  Now, though, I'm mad.  [:@]

I had Saratoga come out of Seattle after five months repair, with four fleet DDs as escort. She had done a 3-stop limp home from a mauling near PM. FIVE months!

One hex out of Puget Sound she took one torpedo from an I-boat that got away clean. Forty-five more days on "High" shipyard priority.

I've found that there's no real way to keep the West Coast clean of subs. Air ASW finds them, but doesn't attack. Multiple 4-ship, 8-ASW-rated DD ASW TFs attack, damage them, scare them off, but don't sink them. Maybe when I get Hedgehogs.

As an interim, and something you could think about, is I went sub tender hunting. The AI puts them in the same place WITP did, so I risked a CV raid there, flushed two, and sank both. Pushes support back to Truk, probably, and less on-station time for the West Coast subs.

You don't have the CV option, but while you're re-building you could do some sub mining missions to likely sub bases in mid-Pac and maybe bag a few.

Bullwinkle,

Yeah, I know FOW and all, but several IJN subs (versus the IJ AI) have been prosecuted and sunk off of the West coast CONUS by 4-ship 8 rated ASW corvettes. It can work, but YMMV.

8/28/42 to 8/31/42
 
Bullwinkle:  Since misery loves company, your experience with Saratoga made me feel a bit better about losing Pennsylvania.

Q-Ball:  Losing three fleet carriers while only claiming one fleet carrier and a CVL was really, really, really harmful: Bad Canoerebel! Bad! At the same time, I don't want to underestimate the importance of Luganville.  Taken as a whole (and with the notable exception of China), the Allies are in pretty good shape in the game and knocking the Japanese out of Luganville pushed the front lines back to the Solomons and took a great deal of heat off New Caledonia and Suva.

NoPac:  I have decided to seriously reinforce Attu Island.  A coastal artillery detachment and Marine regiment are on the way from Anchorage and Seattle, respectively.  In two more months, winter weather sets in and I don't want to lose my grip on these islands prior thereto.

Midway:  I am also concerned about Midway's vulnerability.  I currently have slightly more than 6,000 troops posted there, but I am sending an Army regiment.  I want to beef up the garrison for awhile - plus I'll learn a little more about the overstacking penalties....

Oz:  A U.S. Army division just arrived at Adelaide.  This unit was combat loaded and prepping for Koepang, but the odds are long against the Allies doing anything productive on Timor.  I'd rather use the troops to bolster the garrison of an important and exposed base - probably Darwin, but Perth, Townsville, and perhaps Brisbane are possibilities.  A Marine regiment is on the way to Oz from Auckland.  I intend to park it at Cairns or Cooktown.  The Allies will have an immense presence in northern Oz, eventually, and I don't want Miller getting a lodgement there that will be difficult or expensive to later dislodge.

Burma:  After hitting the Japanese at Cox's Bazaar for four consecutive days, I stood down the short-legged bombers and organized two other raids - some Wellingtons and B-25s hit ground troops at Schewbo, and B-17s took a crack at the port facilities at Rangoon.  Neither raid encountered CAP and both scored fairly well.  The Forts notched single hits on three or four APs, one or two DMS, and one hit on CL Yubari. 

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Yeah, I know FOW and all, but several IJN subs (versus the IJ AI) have been prosecuted and sunk off of the West coast CONUS by 4-ship 8 rated ASW corvettes. It can work, but YMMV.

I checked, and I have three I-boats sunk off the WC by March 1943. Coos Bay, Coal Harbor, and near San Luis O. There have been, conservatively, 75 attacks within three hexes of the coast, from the Yukon to San Diego. Have some mini-sub kills at LA too (x3)

I didn't see any big jump in kill rate after the late 42 upgrades. It's been pretty steady. My beef (I'm sure it's just random numbers) is I can never sink the ones hanging around outside SF or LA, despite blackening the sky with patrols. It's always some Canadian KV tooling around in Salmon-land, 1000 miles from the shipping lanes. Arrgh!!

9/1/42 to 9/4/42
 
Subwoes:  Not only are Japanese subs wreaking havoc on Allied merchant and combat shipping, now they're picking on ASW!  An AM near Bombay bought it as did DD Aaron Ward near Pearl Harbor.  Over the past month or two, enemy subs have seemed unusually successful and unusually immune from ASW attacks.  On a similar note, I still say that merchant ships are too brittle in the game - roughly 80-90% of my AKs, TKs, and AOs hit by a single torpedo have gone under.  I also think Japanese subs are too successful, but that could be any number of things - pure random luck, my opponent being unusually gifted, or the Allies being doltish.
 
More Lauding of AE:  I have previously proclaimed my affection for ports and port capacity in AE. This is a wonderful improvement in game mechanics and realism and is the kind of micro-management that seems reasonable (unlike individual pilot skill, in my opinion).  Another thing I like is that SYS damage is toned down considerably in AE, so that ships out on routine missions aren't routinely rendered non-seaworthy.
 
Oz:  Troops continue to move north toward Cairns, Cooktown, Coen, and Portland Roads.  With additional 4EBs on the way (four B-24 squadrons recently arrived in the USA), I think the bombing campaign against New Guinea should begin within two months.  That time is needed to get Portland Roads airfield up to a level two or three and to (hopefully) get some P-38 fighter squadrons in place.  The American division that recently landed at Adelaide may remain there as a reserve.  That way it can move by train to either Perth or Townsville/Cairns if an emergency should arise.
 
India:  It appears that the Japanese may be withdrawing from Cox's Bazaar.  If so, this siege ends in an Allied victory.  Losses to both sides have been light.  The Allies won't mount a campaign on Akyab anytime soon - I'd rather use it for aerial target practice.  To me, Burma is just a quagmire in the game.  Eventually - say around 1944 - I'd like to mount a seaborne campaign rather than slog my way through the wet jungles of Burma.
 
The AOL Email Storage Challenge:  Today, I passed the AOL Email Storage Challenge.  I think this allows me to hoard more bandwith with the thousands of MB of turn files I have received from my opponent.  To be honest, I found the Storage Challenge rather simple to complete and it didn't involve intelligence, intuition, initiative, or hard work.  Yet when I passed, AOL announced, "Congratulations!"  Should I add this to my resume/curriculum vitae?

IJN has not only Taiho, but if WitpTracker doesnt lies, IJN can have 3 Unryu class carriers (62 planes each) in June-July 1943.

: Not only are Japanese subs wreaking havoc on Allied merchant and combat shipping, now they're picking on ASW! An AM near Bombay bought it as did DD Aaron Ward near Pearl Harbor. Over the past month or two, enemy subs have seemed unusually successful and unusually immune from ASW attacks. On a similar note, I still say that merchant ships are too brittle in the game - roughly 80-90% of my AKs, TKs, and AOs hit by a single torpedo have gone under. I also think Japanese subs are too successful, but that could be any number of things - pure random luck, my opponent being unusually gifted, or the Allies being doltish

In April and June 42 a lot of your ASW ships will upgrade and get radar and more DC. This will greatly help against the subs (pre-patch 2). One has to escort all convoys in AE. I aggressively use all the AM and KV ASW assets along the coasts. Good Luck