I’ve been listening to the rant and it seems many of us agree that Battleships are pricey but they have their uses, and that a fully loaded AC is a dangerous thing indeed.
But the best thing of all is …BOTH! Check this out: say you’re playing the Japanese and you want to worry the USA. The battlefield of the Pacific is a great territory to test out your naval skills. A loan transport trying to island-hop is suicide. However, that 1 Transport with a Battleship can be dangerous, but ONLY if he works fast. So, what to do? Japan doesn’t initial have the money to build a powerful navy, but it doesn’t really have to. It starts with the best in the game! You start with 2 Transports, 2 Battleships, 1 AC, 1 Sub, and quite a lot of Fighters. Sending everything against the USA will (usually result in a ‘wash’). Not a bad strategy, since you really don’t need your navy unless the USA is attempting to Island-Hop towards Tokyo.
But…I digress. Back to building a terrifying navy.
I recommend 2-3 Transports with 2 Inf on each. 2 Battleships escort them about. An AC with 2 Fighters cruises either with them or Very nearby, but always close enough to a land territory that planes can land on if necessary. 2-3 Subs floating along with the AC is a nice trick as well. If you have all of these out there in the water, say split into 2 groups within 1 space of each other, the enemy isn’t sure which to attack. Both are dangerous. The AC & subs are the navy killers. The other is your amphibious assault crew. Moving together so closely means that if the enemy attacks 1 the other with destroy whatever force remains after they loose :D Most of all, an attack from both of these 2 groups is truly terrifying. Amphibious invasion with Battleships and fighters in support. It’s a nice way to take LA. It also ensures that NOBODY can quickly get rid of your navy.