@Argothair:
As far as air transport, I prefer to have air transports cost more than sea transports, because flying through the air was harder, more novel, and more expensive in the 1940s. Even today, it usually costs much more to ship a package by air than by a cargo container ship – the airplanes arrive faster, but they’re much more expensive.
I am not commenting on the house rule, just the historical background.
The reason they startet flying the Hump, was because the Burma road got closed when Japan reinforced FIC in april 42, and the Turkestan rail got closed in april 1941 due to the non aggression treaty with Russia. Now, the Hump was the only option. But it was expensive, more then 1400 transport aircraft would only bring in 650 000 tons of material from april 1942 to the end of war in late 1945. And at the loss of 600 aircrafts because of bad weather in the mountains. Not a profitable business.
Lets do the math and see if this house rules is close to any reality.
I dont know what a train cost, but they say that using a railway is very economical both to maintain and use. And the railway was already there, no high starting expenses.
But, I do have the numbers for aircrafts and ships.
A Dakota, or the later Commander, could carry between 28 and 40 troops, or 6000 tons cargo. Unit cost was less than $ 300 000.
A Liberty ship could carry 550 troops, or 1600 if modified into troopship, or 10 000 tons cargo. Unit cost was about $ 2.000.000.
They never carried troops over the Hump, just materials, so lets stay to that.
7 aircrafts cost the same as 1 ship, but only carry 42 tons. But, over the Hump they had to half that, because the planes needed to bring more fuel, and because of the height.
We know that 650 000 tons material was moved over the Hump over a 3 year time span.
65 Liberty ships could carry 650 000 tons from India to China in one week, at a cost of $ 130 billion plus fuel. And a cargo ship dont use much fuel.
108 000 transport aircrafts could carry 650 000 tons from India to china, in one day, at a cost of $ 32 000 billion. But they use a lot of expensive aircraft fuel too.
Of course, they never build so many aircrafts, but you see the point. Using aircrafts are lot more expensive than ships and trains. They also lost 600 aircrafts, at a cost of $ 180 billions. so my point is, the Hump was not good business, it was something you do when you are out of options.
If the house rules should model the real war, I figure the Burma road is free as long as its open, Tranny ships cost 7 IPC as OOB, and the Transport aircraft should cost like 15 IPC and carry one inf only. My 2 pence