@Imperious:
…I might make this move 3 cruiser under the Battlecruisers tech because these also represent pocket battleships which would appear out of nowhere, sink a lonely ship and then hide before a cruiser group could catch it. I would not make the BC a 4 attack unit.
The battlecruiser is a ship as large as a battleship, with the big guns of a battleship, and the sea speed of the fleetest cruiser, but with considerably less armor than a battleship. They were to revolutionize cruiser design. After this new type of capital ship came into service all previous armored cruisers were instantly obsolete.
They would scout for the battle fleet (in which role they could brush aside the armored cruisers that the enemy customarily deployed to foil such scouts), they could equally prevent enemy scout cruisers from approaching the battle fleet. They could chase and dispatch “cripples” after a battle. They would also be tremendously useful in running down and destroying enemy commerce raiders on the high seas.
From the beginning, battlecruisers had their detractors. They were criticized for being too big, too expensive, and too lightly armored. They were called “white elephants” and “deviates”. But when the Germans, and later the Japanese, started laying down improved (and much better protected) versions in response to the British battlecruisers, the type was clearly here to stay. Except for the pure battlecruiser there are other battlecruiser-style ships, sometimes called “super cruisers,” “large cruisers” or “pocket battleships”.
The first battlecruisers (the Invincibles) were contemporary to the Dreadnought, the first modern battleship; the last battlecruisers (the Alaskas) were contemporaries of the last battleships, the Iowas. As the improved battlecruisers got bigger and better protected, the improved Dreadnoughts got bigger and faster, until finally the two types merged into the third generation fast battleships of World War II. Ships so large that they could combine the heavy armor of battleships, and the speed of battlecruisers, in the same hull.
So Impy, why not attack and defend on 4 as well as as a move of 3. What is your suggestion to make battlecruisers worth pursuing?