Razz and I are 4 turns into a campaign game using his Rising Sun mod. Soon to be released in the mods thread, I presume. He's the Axis, I'm Allies.
Razz says the his mod has a more historical starting setup and more historical unit arrival timeline.
All I know is that I want to speed up that timeline, because as you may have guessed, right now I'm getting crushed. I need reinforcements, and fast. Japan in the Razz reincarnation is extremely aggressive.
First turn he performed the air strike against Pearl Harbor, doing a lot more damage than he thought he did, based upon his comments. He actually completely decimated the garrison force in Pearl. If he had had landing troops, he could have taken it.
Since overall the disaster at Pearl was expected, it wasn't too demoralizing, however the result of my next move was not exactly what I wanted - a mixed blessing, to be sure. I quickly ordered the Saratoga and the Enterprise to steam full speed to join the Lexington in Hawaiian waters. Reason being, to protect Pearl. But another opportunity presented itself, as my recon planes spotted the Japanese strike force in the Central Pac, apparently steaming back to Japan.
So I sortied attack groups from all three carriers. The Shokaku, according to my trustworthy pilots, who have been trained in ship recognition and could identify every Japanese carrier on sight, found a new port on the bottom of the sea. Critical hit! [7 SP damage] The ship was practically torn in two, and never had a chance for emergency repairs. Had a couple of hits on other Japanese ships, taking only one SP damage from Japanese air cap.
So far a resounding success. However, not realizing just how aggressive Razz was, I didn't expect him to delay his own repairs by sticking around in the Central Pac and launching a counter strike. He was lucky enough to spot my fleet with his recon sub. Down goes the Lexington to repeated hits, and one critical hit.
At that point I panicked and pulled my entire fleet back to the West Coast for repairs.
While in port, the US Navy was helpless over the next few turns to forestall enemy attacks on Midway, Johnston Island, Rabaul, Port Moresby [he landed there just days before my Aussies could transport a force there), Java, Borneo ... you get the picture.
I decided to abandon the Philippines, and managed to transport an infantry division to Guadalcanal and a mech division to Australia. The Langley went to the bottom of the South China Sea, and a tank division was destroyed covering the loading of the transports in Manila. I just didn't have enough transports to take out that armored division.
The Filipinos are holding out on the Bataan Penninsula, at Legaspi, and Davao. The latter is under siege, as the Filipinos were able to reinforce the garrison there to corps strength before the Japanese landed in force.
After repairs to my two remaining carriers and a small escort, I have sent them back to Hawaiian waters enroute to escort transports to Australia, where the Japanese have just made a surprise landing against a poorly defended Townsville. The Aussies had left only one understrength division there, in their failed attempt to rush troops to New Guinea.
