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January 27, 1943 – Mines appeared at Shortlands this turn, courtesy of another Allied stealth sub. My ASW, both Air and Naval, continues to be useless, but I keep on sending out ASW TFs anyway, just in case they cause the Allied subs to either waste fuel or torpedoes. Fortunately, the Allied night time sub attacks failed this turn, although a daytime attack on a small Tanker TF off of Camranh Bay did hit one TK.

There was a lot of rain again which, however, didn't stop most of the Air Patrols. My Recon planes now noticed a "fast" Allied BB in the big Allied TF at Maumere, so it is a good thing that I didn't send my cruisers on to check things out. Surprisingly enough, my Recon keeps on telling me that the air field and port damage at Maumere isn't getting repaired. So it looks as if AuTiger hasn't sent any Engineers in to fix things up.

One reason for this may be because AuTiger may well be saving those Engineers for more important targets, such as Macassar and Kendari. 100 B-17s from Koepang hit the air fields at Macassar this turn, and right afterwards 87 B-24s from Lautem hit the air fields at Kendari.

In addition to the attention that my main bases in the DEI are receiving, AuTiger sent a small TF off to Kai Island and landed some troops. In this case I decided to try to do something about this, so I moved Kates and fighters to Amboina, and Sallys and fighters to Sorong, and I'll see if any of my air units attack. It's a low probability, but it can't hurt to try.

In other interesting news, my Glen-equipped spy sub in the south-central Pacific that was spotted by an Avenger last turn spotted a CVE in a TF just off of Sydney Island (south of Canton Island). That Allied TF is sailing westwards towards the islands such as Funafuti where I pulled out my troops some time ago. I don't have any decent forces in the region, and my CVs are still back in the Home Islands, so I just ordered more subs to the area in case I can get lucky.

Speaking of subs and carriers, the damage to Zuiho is repairing nicely at Kuching. The fires are now out and the floatation damage is down to 5. So with any luck I'll be able to have Zuiho continue on its way home sooner than I expected.

In Burma over a hundred Allied planes strafed the trapped 35th Brigade once again as AuTiger continues to use my unit as a training dummy for his pilots. It is interesting to speculate what might have happened differently if the AI hadn't sent this Brigade and the Division in China into movement-traps, and AuTiger had been forced to train his air and land units on targets that could fight back. Oh well, there is nothing that can change that now.

In any event, I'm tired of being a "training dummy" for AuTiger's plans, so I've decided to try one last ploy to try to compensate for AuTiger's overwhelming Air Power. I've now moved most of my bombers and fighters to front line bases and set them to attempt massive Night Air Attacks on the main enemy air bases in China, Burma and Timor. However, I'm betting that things don't work out very well because:
1 – Some Game Revisions ago the Devs crippled the effectiveness of Night Bombing in order to keep Japanese players from using this technique to be able to counter Massed Allied 4E power

2 – The Advanced Weather is causing Bad Weather over most of the Map and cancelled my Night Air Attacks last turn

3 – Many of my Air Units don't have the 80+ Experience Levels that are necessary to guarantee an attack

If by some miracle this does work and I do cause any significant number of Allied air losses it will be interesting to see AuTiger's response. But if things go as usual AuTiger might not even know I tried at all.

January 28, 1943 – The night phase started out with the usual ineffectual sub hunting by my ASW TFs, followed by a successful Allied sub attack on an AK off of northern Borneo. Then I received a message that Air Missions at Lunga were cancelled due to bad weather, and the rest of my night air attacks began right after that bad omen.

I learned a number of important things this turn. First off, single Sentai night attacks are worthless. Over a dozen very good bomber Sentais flew against various targets without any damage being caused at any of those targets. Only at Changsha and Kweilin where I literally had hundreds of planes flying at the same time against each base did my forces cause any damage at all. And Sentais from other nearby bases that attacked Changsha and Kweilin as single or double Sentai attacks didn't cause any damage. So there is no point at all in flying Night Attacks unless I can launch at least 200 planes at a time.

AuTiger was expecting night attacks this turn so he had some Blenheim IFs and Hurricanes on Night Fighter CAP at Changsha this turn. But Night CAP isn't anywhere as effective as Day CAP, so those two fighter units did little damage against my planes. And in the case of Kweilin there were no Night Fighters at all, so my planes went in unopposed. The end total result was 23 Spitfires destroyed on the ground between the two bases, after attacks by 200 to 300 planes on each base. There were something like 100 Allied planes based at each base.

My total losses during the night phase were around 30 planes, mainly due to Operational Losses, with a fair number of Flak losses and a few Interceptions. But I missed setting one Sonia Sentai at Canton to "Night" bombing and it flew to Kweilin unaccompanied during the day. There it found 21 Spitfires waiting and most of my Sonia Sentai was wiped out in the air. Generally, if I send bombers against Allied CAP my bombers are wiped out, while if AuTiger sends bombers against my CAP generally most of the bombers get through to attack their target. This makes the Air portion of the Game pretty much a total waste of time for me.

Otherwise, things were quiet and there were no Allied Air Attacks, nor any Allied action other than the capture of Kai Island by a US Raider unit. None of my planes at Amboina or Sorong attacked the ships at Kai Island.

Immediately after the turn I started to set up massive Daylight bombing attacks against Kweilin and Changsha, but when I was just about ready to "save and go" I re-thought the idea and reset my planes. I just don't have enough good fighters in China to go head-to-head against AuTiger's Spitfire Aces, and unless I bring good planes into the battle I'll lose hundreds of planes against the Allied Uber-CAP just as I did back in the Spring of 1942.

I have to rethink my options at this point. AuTiger has massively reinforced his Air Presence in the DEI so I have to consider whether or not I want to try to contend against around 1000+ 4Es, 2Es, and Ace fighters. I'll be going off on Holidays in a few days' time, so I'll likely just continue on with the status quo and try to come up with a New Big Plan once I get back at the beginning of June.

January 29, 1943 - The night phase brought the usual minesweeping by both sides, with my ships sweeping Shortlands and Allied MSWs still sweeping Rangoon harbor. I've been sending subs in to Rangoon to add to the leftover mines just in case I can catch an Allied ship by surprise.

What was surprising this turn was that the level of ASW action was down a fair amount. As usual those of my ASW ships which did find subs didn't do anything with the opportunities. However, an Allied bomber from Moulmein found one of my subs off of Tavoy and hit it. That's the second of my subs to be heavily damaged by Allied bombers in that area in the past few turns. Never-the-less I continue to send subs into the region.

The day phase brought the usual numbers of Air Patrols and Air Recon flights all over the place. For some reason the level of Allied CAP in China was down a lot. I wonder if AuTiger is waiting for me to send in more Night Air Attacks. Instead I spread out my now repaired Air Units and set most back to either training or Naval Patrol. I'll go back to nuisance air raids in a few turns.

The light bombers and fighters from Akyab strafed the trapped 35th Brigade again, this time causing more casualties. And the subsequent Deliberate attack by the two Allied LCUs also caused more casualties than in the past. I suspect that time is almost "up" for the 35th Brigade. BTW - there was another Allied artillery bombardment against my trapped troops at Rangoon, but in contrast to the situation for the 35th Brigade it caused few casualties.

The weather cleared in the Timor region so my bombers at Amboina and Sorong finally flew against Kai Island. But these were Secondary attacks against the Air Fields at Kai, because the Allied ships had already withdrawn out of Naval Attack range of my bombers. In any event, it turned out to be good practice for my pilots as my air groups suffered few Operational losses and no Flak losses.

Never-the-less, with 400 or so 4Es in the region, along with hundreds more long-range Allied 2Es, I didn't leave my bombers in place for another try at Kai. Instead I moved my four good fighter units in the area all to Amboina and set them to 90% CAP at 25K feet, just in case they can surprise an Allied bomber attack. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The real surprise of the turn came last, as a small group of Lilies flew out of Bangkok and attacked the Allied MSWs at Moulmein. My bombers finally flew against Allied Naval targets because I had my four best Fighter Daitais present. But AuTiger also had some of his best on CAP, and the results weren't pleasant for me.

My attack comprised of 7 Lilies that were escorted by 37 A6M3as and 12 A6M3s, all with average pilot experience in the mid-70s to low 80s. Waiting in the skies over Moulmein Harbor were 11 Spitfire Vbs and 16 P-40Es of the AVG. The results were bloody. I lost 19 A6M3as, 6 A6M3s, and 1 Lily while AuTiger lost 12 P-40Es and 4 Spitfires. But most surprisingly, the half dozen remaining Lilies attacked the MSWs and even put a 100 Kg AP bomb into one of them.

Never-the-less, I can't afford those sorts of results, and it was quite discouraging to see my best pilots in my newest and best fighters get shot down in such large numbers. So I pulled the Lilies out of Bangkok, along with the most badly decimated fighter groups, and resigned myself to more training and more hit-and-run air tactics before the next generation of Allied fighters show up.

January 30, 1943 - The night phase had a little of everything; ineffectual sub hunting by my ASW forces, effective sub attacks by the Allied subs, and more mine clearing by both sides.

Then the day phase started out with what turned out to be the turning point in this pbem for me - an attack by 205 B-17s from the Level 6 airfield at Koepang against my air fields at Soerabaja. On CAP I had a paltry 13 A6M3as and 18 Oscar Is. The result was brutal. The B-17s blasted through the CAP and hammered the air fields. The final results turned out to be 17 Oscars and 10 A6M3as lost in the air and on the ground, 11 Nells and 4 Bettys lost on the ground, and the air fields closed, while 8 B-17s were lost.

Afterwards 85 B-24s hit the airfields at Sorong, but AuTiger had guessed wrong and my CAP was located at Amboina. Never-the-less, the air fields at Sorong were much "worse for the wear" afterwards.

Finally, AuTiger launched Deliberate Attacks on my troops at Rangoon and also on the trapped 35th Brigade. The results were fairly even in both cases, but the magnitudes were significantly different; at Rangoon my forces took 1351 casualties while the Allied took 997 casualties, compared to a few dozen on both sides in the other attack.

In any event, I decided that I no longer cared to contest the pbem, so I sent the Combat Report and Combat replay to AuTiger and surrendered, writing the following:

"Once I saw the 205 B-17s fly out of Koepang and obliterate my forces at Soerabaja I decided that there isn't any point for me to play this game any more, so I am surrendering. There is absolutely nothing I can do against your forces, and while the AI may not mind being a punching bag, I can't see any point in it.

You played a very smart and effective game and outplayed me at every move. You are an excellent player and you deserve a much better opponent.

Congratulations, and good luck in your next game."

The final score is shown below.

Thanks to everyone who followed this AAR.

I read your AAR regularly, so I'm sad to see your game come to an end.  But I think all of us who have been fighting losing battles (and boy am I one) understand your frustration and sense of hopelessness.  I hope you enjoyed the game, learned much that you'll put to good use in the future, and that you'll launch your next game soon.

Dive -

Ditto for me - I hope this game will lead to more enjoyment (and success) in other games. I keep learning lessons (the hard way) in my current PBEM.

Floyd

The sad reality of WWII Pacific wargaming. The Allied player gets pounded for the first few months, but always knows, "we shall return!". Once the tide has turned the Jap player just watches his forces slowly disintegrate with no real hope of change.
 
Well played to you both. At least this one played through until 1943 (just!) - better than most I think.
 
Maybe have a go as the Allies next time Dive??