Well, I’ll be brief here because I’ve been lengthy elsewhere.
1. Yahoo provides a lot of great content for no cost. They have been an excellent company the whole time I have used their services (about 10 years), so don’t let the registration hold you back. (Full disclosure: I own no Yahoo stock, but I really wish I did)
2. We have Beginner Strategy Guides at Caspian Sub. The guides for Germany and the UK both recommend buying carriers. Carriers are fine basic moves; they are easy to manage and fairly strong. But the transports are far more flexible, and 2tra are better than 1car on offense in a reasonably sized attack.
3. I don’t like building capital ships with the UK. I’d rather buy transports, ground troops, or planes. It is a much more effective use of the US/UK strengths to let the US drop the German boats. This is covered in Policy Paper 14: Baltic Part III.
4. If I was a German player, I would be salivating if the UK built a carrier in Z06 (see N. Witch’s earlier post). It’s about the worst move the Allies could do, short of abandoning London. That means I pound down 2 Allied capital ships, 2ftrs, and 2 UK transports without losing a grey plane. So if that is the ‘counter’ to a German invasion of London, then please counter me all day long.
5. If I was playing as the UK and for some reason I DID want a carrier, in almost no circumstance would I build it on the first round. It’s crummy on offense so you’re buying it to defend, not attack (and there is no real way for the US to leverage it as a landing spot on R1 in a way that is significant). It is much better to build your UK transports in Z02 on round 1 so that the Germans have to worry about a landing force. Then, if you need the carrier for extra defense, move the fleets to drop gear in Europe and build the carrier in the sea zone where your transports are. That’s much more efficient.
Peace