Battle of the Sulu Sea

With the American presence in South East Asia anchored by their naval bases in the Phillipines, uncomfortably close to the Hungarian colony on Borneo, conflict in the Sulu Sea was inevitable. The Hungarian fleet was the same one that had fought the British to a standstill, reinforced by cruiser squadron Elso. Against them the Americans had two battleships, three cruisers, and seven frigates, plus air superiority thanks to a trio of bombers and two scout blimps. 

As they had against the British the Hungarians formed up into "twin sword" formation, with Toldi and Zrinyi on the right flank, Szent Istvan on the left. The Americans turned their battleships abeam to the enemy fleet, while the cruisers and frigates charged in ready to swarm the Szent Istvan. 

Hungarian fleet in twin sword formation

FSA battleships moving abeam to the enemy

The early exchanges of fire did not go well for the Hungarians. On the left their cruisers suffered slight damage from indirect fire, and without spotters the Hungarian retaliation was ineffective. However when the American bombers came forth the Hungarians found their aim - all three were downed in minutes, disappearing in a furious storm of shrapnel.

In the battleship duel on the left flank, Constitution got the better of Zrinyi, getting in an early hit that Zrinyi was never able to recover from. With Toldi having swung to starboard to reinforce the center the advantage was clearly to the FSA. Even so, Zrinyi valiantly fought on.

Zrinyi versus Constitution (top), while the rest of the fleet flaks FSA bombers (center)

On the right the Hungarian cruiser squadron had been all but eliminated. However the Szent Istvan had turned to bring its full broadside to bear, and the American cruisers had come out to play. The massive dreadnought unleashed its full might... and inflicted only moderate damage. American cruisers are tough!

Tough as the American cruisers were, the dreadnought was tougher. The cruisers simply did not have the firepower to hurt her, while her massive guns were (slowly) bringing the cruisers down.

The dreadnough SMS Szent Istvan facing off against three Lexington class cruisers

Seeing they had nothing which could stop the Hungarian dreadnought the FSA fleet disengaged. For their part the Hungarians were glad the badly damaged SMS Zrinyi had survived the battle, and returned to port to conduct repairs.

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Another really fun game. And another draw - I got 230 VPs versus Jamie's 225.