December 31st - January 12th
Bismark/Solomon Sea/Guadacanal
CVL Bearn chugs to Port Morseby at Cruise Speed, but the crew can't put the fire out, and it sinks in port. I didn't expect the fires to worsen, and so I neglected to remove the Bearn's divebombers and fighters, and they are lost with the ship. This is a huge blow, and puts an end to my carrier operations in this area for the time being.
The Japanese land at Bima, but I've left a disbanded French surface TF at Tagula Island to try to catch any landing operations. I'm not able to get them to Bima before the troops are landed, but I do succeed in savaging their amphibious TF.
I had planned to swing my surface TF North to hit Rabaul as well, but in the morning the KB is sighted headed South. I evac everything in a 15 hex radius as best I can, but the AMC Aramis and xAP Rangitata are caught by Kates, and both go down. This is a costly loss- with the Aramis worth 48 VP and the Rangitat worth 21.
The KB strikes Port Moresby repeatedly, and my CAP of Breguet Br700s let most of the strike through. Breguet Br700s are great sweeper planes due to their range and decent early-war speed, but they're not maneuverable enough to do in a CAP role, and my ships suffer because of it, with Cruisers CA Portland, CA Chicago and CA Indianapolis all taking heavy damage. None sink however, and all three limp away to Darwin to the shipyard there for repairs.
The KB locks down this theater for a few turns, until events in the Celebes Sea pulls it away. This allows me to reinforce Port Morseby, Tagula Island, Terapo and Lunga. All receive more engineers, who will be building airfields for the 15 squadrons of American fighters and Dive-Bombers that will be arriving over the next few turns. Meanwhile, the Yorktown, Saratoga, Lexington, Enterprise and King's Mountain steam for Guadacanal to support these landings, and possibly hit Rabaul. This carrier TF will turn tail at the slightest whiff of the KB.
Celebes Sea/Ceram Sea/The Moluccas
Lockmart Lawndart lands at Manado. My float planes don't report much in the way of support, so I send in a small surface TF led by CL Marblehead to see if I can cause some havoc. Like usual, I bite off a bit more than I can chew. This engagement could have been a lot worse, but my TF beats a hasty retreat.
However, spotting this supporting TF gives me an idea. At this time, Lockmart has the KB hitting Port Morseby, which means it's at least 3 turns away from the Celebes Sea. Taking a risk, I sortie my CVLs, with the goal hitting the invasion TF and possibly scratch some of Lockmart's carriers as well.
I badly damage the TF at Manado, and that's where I probably should have let discretion be the better part of valor. Instead, I aggressively move my carriers in to engage his fleeing invasion TF and possibly scratch one of his carriers.
My intel screen claims the Asahi is sunk, but I'm not convinced. The next morning, I finally move in range of Lockmart's carriers, with the CVLs Judgement, Reprisal, Savannah, Ares, Vengeful, Charlotte and Hermes. I send out several strikes, but they are ripped apart by Zeroes, and despite the overwhelming numerical advantage in airframes, I get the worst of the engagement by far. I land two 500lb bombs on the deck of two CVEs, but in return both the Hermes and Ares take torpedo hits, and later in the day are bombed along with the Vengeful.
To add insult to injury, as I steam away in defeat, the Charlotte takes a Torpedo. That's four carriers in the yards because of this engagement, mostly due to my underestimation of how badly outclassed my planes are pilots are compared to Lockmart's.
All is not lost however - during my strikes I got a good look at his TF composition, and his CVEs weren't as strongly escorted as I first suspected. I break off a squadron of three cruisers - The CA Houston, CL Boise and CL Dallas and two destroyers from my fleeing carrier TF and send it back at Lockmart's carriers at full speed and max react. The results are beautiful, with my cruiser TF sinking the CVE Iwami in one engagement, then chasing down the rest of his carrier TF and sinking the CVE Iki later in the day. Unfortunately I didn't get good screenshots, but this picture of recent Japanese losses shows the kills, which are confirmed by point totals.
I thought of sticking around now that I destroyed the carriers in the area, but Lockmart sprints the KB up in response to the loss of his Jeep carriers, and I have to make my TFs scarce again, but I'm not quite fast enough, and the Houston takes a torpedo from a Kate for her troubles. Despite this, I'm somehow able to limp all of my damaged carriers to port. Four CVLs will be out of action for over a month, leaving the Makassar Strait, Ceram Sea and Banda Sea open for Lockmart's invasion TFs, which I have to assume are on their way from the Home Islands.
The Philippines
Clark, Manilla and Bataan are still being swept by Zeroes and Oscars intermittently, but not consistently enough to completely make these squadrons ineffective, though it's close at times. I almost wonder if he's purposefully not grinding my squadrons down to nothing so that I keep them in the theater longer, allowing him to rack up more kills and deplete my precious P-40E airframes. No matter his reason, I stubbornly order my pilots to keep flying CAP, as once I lose air cover over these three hexes - which I plan to fight for as long as I can - his bombing will make the supply and disruption situation untenable.
On January 6th, Lockmart bombards Bataan, braving the minefield and CD guns, which don't perform as well as expected. However, it looks like the minefield may have sunk two of Lockmart's escorting destroyers. I didn't get a good screenshot of the bombardment, but it was nasty, and my airfield was nearly put out of commission. Luckily, LCAP from Manilla and Clark was there during the day to intercept Lockmart's bombers, and I can begin the slow process of repair.
Lockmart's own LCAP protects his bombardment TF, and I'm not able to sneak my Catalina's through, but I'm not content to sit idly while ships sit in Bataan Harbor. I order my P-40s to 100ft Naval Attack, and sink two more DDs. Lockmart removes his three surface TFs from Bataan at this point, and I'm hoping that I have discouraged him to bombard again without first establishing air cover.
To be fair, he knew that I didn't have any DBs or TBs in the Philippines, so I can't blame him for not expecting the Warhawks to be so effective.
Malaya, Sumatra and Northern Borneo
This area is relatively quiet, as Lockmart marches inexorably South toward Singapore. Singapore will be a tough nut for him to crack however. 110,000 supply, 5 forts and 2000 AV will await his ground forces, under a CAP umbrella of 150 fighters, including a Hurricane squadron now that I'm starting to get enough air-frames to upgrade. I also snuck in additional AA assets, and I plan on shuttling in two additional Hurricane Squadrons that just arrived at Aden for CAP and a French Br700 Squadron for sweeps.
Now that Lockmart's forces in Malaya have begun to crawl closer, I can now bombard them while under friendly LCAP. I don't intend to inflict a lot of damage with this bombing runs, but I do hope to slow his LCUs down. Every day delayed is another day that I control access to the Indian Ocean and to the Java Sea.
In previous turns I had moved surface assets to Singapore so I could support Singkawang and bombard Kuching. I do so twice, sending in my fast cruisers and destroyers under the cover of night to bombard, with them almost back to Singapore before they can be caught by Lockmart's air patrols. However, before I can completely shut down the airfield, Lockmart moves in a surface TF with battleships poised to protect Kuching, which puts a stop to these raids.
My original goal with the DEI was to fight for the ABDA line, and by creating setbacks for Lockmart I've been able to extend my time in the DEI longer than I had hoped. To capitalize on this opportunity, I begin moving additional assets into place. One Australian Division boards transports bound for Palembang, and two more board transports headed for Java. When Lockmart invades, he'll have a lot more to deal with than soft Dutch troops.
Borneo
Lockmart has made no move here yet, but SigInt tells me that he has divisions prepping for Rangoon. I'll be ready for him. I've emptied India of every AV I can get. I've moved them by rail to Chittagong, where they rest and recuperate before marching to Akyab. From Akyab they are dispersed along a defensive line along the rail. I know that this position is untenable in the long term, so base units are moving in further back to build fortifications and airfields.
China
China is quiet - I don't think either of us know what to do in this theater, and I find myself not attacking where I can simply not to provoke Lockmart. If he saves up his PP, he can buy out two incredibly powerful armored divisions in Manchuko that could ruin my day, and so I'm playing very defensively here. Lockmart has been pounding my troops hard from the air, so I move two AVG squadrons in, and manage to catch some unescorted bomber flights in hexes where he didn't expect CAP.
Air War Overall
I've taken a beating, with hundreds more in lost airframes than Lockmart. I'm cautiously optimistic, however. Reinforcements are starting to trickle in, and I've just started to be able to upgrade some Buffalos to Hurricanes. American fighters are slowly being shipped West to Australia where they'll shuttle to conflict zones, so I should start to be able to put up more of a fight here, at least until newer fighters begin to come online.
Land War Overall
Lockmart Lawndart is not nearly as aggressive here as he could be. This methodical play-style is giving me time to respond to his advances, and strike back or evacuate as needed.
The War at Sea Overall
While I'm not happy about losing the Bearn, having 4 CVLS out of commission, or my nightmarish losses at Pearl Harbor, I've been able to find opportunities to do damage to Lockmart. This is partially my playstyle - I don't mind running away but I like to have the opponent pay a cost for whatever they take - and partially Lockmart's reluctance to bring the weight of the IJN to bear. I'm not sure if he's just cautious, or if he truly doesn't understand how powerful he is at this point in the game, especially in this mod. If he ever does realize this, I'm going to have to pull my defensive lines well back from the ABDA line and start worrying about the Line Islands and Ceylon, both of which I'm slowly reinforcing and building up in case of that eventuality.
