Historiker(A) vs. El Cid (J) RHS-EBO NO SID!

[Historiker]

We obviously have the sync-bug. In my combat replay, the Westralia was heavily damaged, while IRL she's unharmed.
News from Sid - as you see, my plan of forcing him to react on me rather than vice versa worked absolutly fine!

I found your raid on Kavieng very exciting -
but I do regret you have (so far) got away with it because it was reckless to put such valuable ships so near to enemy air bases and the finest surface action group in the IJA (which you must have noticed bombarding Rabaul).

Having survived - under an umbrella of air recon and bombers - and having achieved multiple
tactical victories - I fear your tendency to do reckless things may be reinforced.

I will say you achieved more than it appears in terms of impacts:

I turned around more than half a dozen convoys inbound for the area - just in case you don't retire in an expected or even sane direction - and I will forever be assigning too many sortees to recon - and too many ships to escort - just in case. So these are invisible dividends which reviewers of the action will not notice - but which impact the efficiency of the opposing side.
Notwithstanding the combination of both of these with tactical successes (plural) - the raid is reckless - and I see why you said you don't worry about victory point totals.

Planned Actions
As far the the AMC=CLs can't be used to raid at enemy unguarded landing sites - which seems to be over now - they are used to defend likely targets. That means I'll send them to bases like Attu, Shortlands, Tulagi, etc.
The USS Enterprise and the USS Lexington are on their way to attack the CVL-KB at Midway. The USS Saratoga will join them after getting refuled at Dutch Harbour in 3 days.
As enemy Landing fleets were spotted heading southwest at Great Natura Island, the TF 1000 with PoW, Repulse, de Zeven Provinzien + CAs and CLs runs at full speed to Soerabaja to refuel and will be in range to attack within 3-4 days.
After bombing Changsa for 3 days in a row, the airfield is shut down. As 4 Vildebeest attacked enemy CAs near Canton (scoring no hits) from Hengchow airfield, I expect him to bomb this airfield now. So I've ordered 178 fighters there! Many of them are just I-16, I-152 and P-36, but the shere number should have some impact, if he does what I expect...
The Cruiser TF in the New Britain area will raid Rabaul tonight an then head full speed for southern Australia.

Australia
To keep a foot in the door of DEI, it seem to be most important to hold at least one island north of Australia. Timor seems to be the best choice for that, but this has pros and cons:
Pro:
- Southern Borneo and Java are within range of even smaller bombers (important argument)
- It will have three airfields with the max. size of two times 6 and one 5. This means it seems very difficult to shut it down completely. (important)

Cons:
- I have no idea how I should be able to gather enough troops to protect all the three bases on Timor.
- It's quite far away. The shortest range is 8 between Derby and Koepang. This means that both supply and fresh troops have to be flown in by patrol planes, not by transports!
- the huge distance makes it difficult both to supply the Island and to reinforce or evacuate the troops
- Timor can be entered via Vetar Island and Poti Island. In theory, this means two more bases to defend - impossible!

Another option would be Kai Island (and Tenimbar Island)
Kai Island is undeveloped, yet, but it can have a port of size 4 and airfield of size 5. It's 8 hexes off Darwin, but if I improve the installations at Murgemella, I'll have only 5 hexes to Kai Island.
Occupying the island will allow me to controll the Arafura Sea and unter LBA-Fighter cover, I'll be able to ship troops to southern New Guinea. There are some bases which can have airfields of size 4 and both Fakfak and Babo are only 5 more hexes away from Kai. This two bases can have airfields 5...

To protect Northern Australia in the case of this "keeping a foot in his door", two Australian Divisions were ordered to march to Darwin. If I am successfull in defending an Island off the coast, I would try to conquer Northern Australia to cut the Island off, if I were him. This two divisions will be there to help avoiding this.

Any suggestions?

[IKerensky]

Hum, making a stand at Timor will be hard as you didn't fight anywhere else and thus the Japanese will be able to concentrate all his unscathed forces on you.
 
Problem of going Robin is that it go both way. The attacker too are in perfect shape and it capture fully operational industry/ressource, airfields and ports that help him mount follow on attack faster and easier.
 
Also your troups have no time to build up preparation points, so they fight on even foot with pursuers... or worse.
 
I fear you flee too far too fast to be able to cramp on something as near as him as Timor...

[Historiker]

Well, that's a double edged sword.
If I delay him, I loose a massive amount of troops - troops that I can't use later to reinforce the Islands off Australia.
But you are right, it will be very difficult to hold a position off Australia without haveing slowered him. The troops will be more usefull guarding and developing the big numbers of bases in northern Australia.
When they are developed, I will be able to base significant airpower there, which will allow me to take the bases off Australia earlier.

As Midway will be lost, soon, the next important base under serious danger and not given up, yet. I will report reguarly the status of Pearl Harbour:

Pearl Harbour at 12/15/41:
Service Damage: 13
Supplies: 70562
Infantry: 6155
Vehicles: 449
Guns: 1850
Assault Strength: 616

As the AO which was left in Pearl was able to leave unharmed, there might be a chance to send new supplies. I'll try this with three blockade runners that can run 15 or more knots.

[Historiker]

12/15/42

PI
AK Matsukawa hits a sub layed mine at Lingayen

China
My forces at Canton were bombarded by 4CAs + DD escorts, Nanchang was also bombarded by 2CAs and 2CLAAs. I bet he sends his old CAs in there without escorts, so I'll send some subs into the Janktse. This may be a nice surprise for him [;)]
Two own air attacks on the forces at Nanchang were quite useless.

DEI
The CL Manoora, an british AMC is one more of my "useless ships". Consequently, I've sent her to Brunei thinking he might not expect some of ships there. For an unknown reason, he had a sub there putting two fishes into my poor converted Transport. Nevertheless, it was still able to sink the DM Hatsutake, whic appeared at Brunei the same day.
Two Jap AKs hit mines at Singkaweng

Pearl Harbour
A Japanese Air attack escorted by Me109 had the result of 9 destroyed fighters and 2 destroyed bombers while 2 Helens hit the botton in return. An own attack on enemy CLs ended similar, as it was intercepted by enemy CAP [:(]

New Guinea and Solomones
Several enemy airstrikes hit my cruiser TF near New Britain, but my calculations prooved right. As the airfield is only 3, he wasn't able to launch his planes with torpedoes. So despite a high sysdamage of up to 81, none of the cruisers is in danger of sinking (atm). But there are several enemy subs detected on the road to Australia, as well as an enemy SAG that seems to chase my cruisers.

More tomorrow...

[Historiker]

My Cruisers fleeing to New Caledonia to avoid enemy subs and SAG:

[Historiker]

Gaining Initiative again: Two of my CVs should arrive at Midway next turn to attack whatever is there. I expect the CVL-KB and several Cruisers.

[JeffroK]

Huh, looking at the latest map I see you are playing in Sids World!! 
 
Re; Timor, take note of his email to you, he has begun to react to your threats.
If you are not strong enough to hold/take Timor you could force him to overcommit his defenders, 3-4 or more IJA Divs here should be better used elsewhere. Also taking/holding the Sandwich islands could see him struggle elsewhere.