It was fine, obviously a lot slower. The way I did it was I used all the Us & Japanese carrier models I had. So on table the Japanese had 5 carrier split into 4 squadrons with a 5th escort squadron. The US had 2 Essex and 2 Independance in their own squadrons with a small escort. The points worked out almost the same at just below 1800pts. I don't know if you read the facebook post, but the only thing that made it less historical was the the Japanese special veteran flight crew ability and the the chance you don't get Thach. This made it much harder. I was thinking of throwing in a scenario rule that the Japanese could only use veteran crews once per turn. I guess the question is do you want to make it a game or a reenactment? I think with your idea to make the base for certain special activations could have partially solved this. Something like a 2 plus base between 41 and 43, 4+ 44 - 45. Conversly the opposite with devine wind? Something simillar with Thach, so 41 - 42 available on a 4+ base, 43 onwards a 2+ base.
Convoy, Rubber Duckie!