Is this odd or not?

[Sabre21]

A friend and I have been doing a pbem campaign 2 scenario with only the latest official patch and none of the beta patches.

As the Allied player, he made an air attack using his carriers on Japanese occupied Nauru island. On that same turn, he spotted a surface task force within range. his planes were set for naval attack with port attack on Nauru as secondary.

his planes attacked both targets, causing damage to some of the ships while losing a few planes. See below.

When I played my turn, only the air attack on Nauru was shown and nothing on the surface group. None of my ships were damaged and the only planes I lost that turn were due to operational losses.

Is it possible that one side can see a battle while the other has no idea it took place?

Allied battle report for this set of engagements:

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Ocean Island at 129,133

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 33

Allied aircraft
F2A-3 Buffalo x 16
F4F-3 Wildcat x 22
SBD-2 Dauntless x 18
SBD-3 Dauntless x 36


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F2A-3 Buffalo: 1 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 3 destroyed
SBD-2 Dauntless: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
SBD-2 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak
SBD-3 Dauntless: 11 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 2, on fire
BB Kongo, Bomb hits 4, on fire
BB Kirishima, Bomb hits 1
CA Furutaka
BB Haruna



Aircraft Attacking:
4 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
5 x F2A-3 Buffalo sweeping at 15000 feet
6 x SBD-2 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
17 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
1 x F2A-3 Buffalo sweeping at 15000 feet
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
2 x F4F-3 Wildcat sweeping at 15000 feet
1 x F4F-3 Wildcat sweeping at 15000 feet
6 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
10 x SBD-2 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb

CAP engaged:
Yokosuka Ku S-2 with A6M2 Zero (17 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
17 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000
Raid is overhead
13th Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (16 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
16 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 15000
Raid is overhead



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on Nauru Island , at 127,128

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes


Allied aircraft
F4F-3A Wildcat x 11
SBD-2 Dauntless x 35
SBD-3 Dauntless x 36


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
19 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled



Port hits 6
Port supply hits 2

Aircraft Attacking:
14 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
14 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
12 x SBD-2 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
16 x SBD-2 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
4 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
4 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
6 x SBD-2 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
1 x SBD-2 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Ocean Island at 129,133

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 5



Allied aircraft
SBD-3 Dauntless x 18


No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 2 destroyed, 6 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo, on fire
BB Haruna
BB Hiei, on fire



Aircraft Attacking:
7 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb

CAP engaged:
Yokosuka Ku S-2 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
3 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters to 13000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 438 minutes
13th Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
2 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters to 21000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 369 minutes


Here is the Japanese combat report for the same engagement. There were no other afternoon air attacks reported this turn.

Afternoon Air attack on Nauru Island , at 127,128

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 40 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes


Allied aircraft
F2A-3 Buffalo x 16
F4F-3A Wildcat x 11
F4F-3 Wildcat x 22
SBD-2 Dauntless x 18
SBD-3 Dauntless x 54


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled



Port hits 14
Port fuel hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
16 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
14 x SBD-2 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
10 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
10 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
2 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
4 x SBD-2 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Port Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb

As you can see, the Allies see 3 engagements while the Japanese only see 1 larger engagement. This is also how the video playback occurred, with 3 for the US and 1 for the Japs.

I've never run into this before, or at least never noticed it until now. So can this happen?

I can understand differences in combat results due to fog of war, where he might see ships burning when in fact nothing was damaged. But to not have the battle even reported to the Japanese strikes me as a bit odd.

[Quixote]

You experienced what is commonly referred to as the "sync bug." The Japanese player sees one thing when running the replay, then the Allied player sees something a bit different when running that same replay. This used to happen frequently in WitP. It's less frequent in AE, but it still occurs from time to time. It's advisable when playing a PBEM for the Japanese player to send along a copy of his combat report with the turn so that the Allied player can more readily spot problems if/when they occur. The situation usually resolves itself within a turn or two (unless you're playing different versions of the game), but is worth keeping an eye on almost every turn anyway. (Side note: the only time I've personally experienced the sync bug in AE PBEM is when carriers were involved. No carrier action has always meant no sync bug for me. Carrier action, then maybe there will be sync problems.)

[Lokasenna]

I got a sync bug against MM, but it wasn't against my carriers. There was other carrier action that turn, however, and in the vicinity...

From a coding background, it suggests to me that somehow the "seed" number for the random number generator (basically, what makes the results happen, or the dice roller) is out of sync between the two players' computers. After a turn or three it will get back in sync automatically. If you suspect a sync bug, inspect the combat report text file.

The sync bug does not affect the "orders" turn file, so you don't need to worry about corruption in your game or anything. Only about missing things in the combat replay as the Allies. As far as I know, what the Japanese player sees is never affected by the bug.

[Sabre21]

Thanks guys. After all these years of playing this and the original, this is the first time I ever heard of this.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Quixote
It's advisable when playing a PBEM for the Japanese player to send along a copy of his combat report with the turn so that the Allied player can more readily spot problems if/when they occur.

+1