As we are still very much "in the middle" of our scenario a full report of what is happening is not possible. Too much information would be given away. I figured Hortlund and a few others might be curious as to what has happened to date:
Well, first blood has been drawn...and it was mine.
I anticipated that banana would attempt to captute Gili Gili and to counter this I sent a heavy cruiser (Austrailia), a light cruiser (Leander) and two destroyers to go to that base and defend. Unfortunately my timing was slightly off.
banana sent a fast transport task force to Gili Gili that arrived at the base when my group was still about 60 miles from their destination. They slipped into the port at night and discharged their load of troops and slipped out before morning.
Too late to actually intercept the fast transport task force I then sent my ships in to bombard and disrupt the enemy force that had landed. My task force "should" have steamed into Gili Gili, bombarded and then scooted out of range of his land based bombers, but inexperience in the game had led me earlier to set my defense force with Gili Gili as its home port...so when it steamed into Gili Gili and bombarded bananas attacking force (killing 23 troops), completing its stated mission, the ships then loitered at its home port (Gili Gili) instead of running. This proved to be a fatal error for the crew of Austrailia and possibly the Leander too.
The next day a huge force of torpedo armed Bettys and Nells swarmed over my undefended task force. Austrailia took a number of torpedo hits and sank immediately. Leander was hit and badly damaged (I will not comment further because this will reveal operational details to my opponent).
To date the Carriers on both sides have stayed out of sight...but not out of mind. A confrontation between them is inevitable.
More to follow.
Admiral Curvalsy out.