I’ll sink the SZ 5 fleet without loss every time, Switch.
USA shows up with 3 battleships, 5 fighters and an assundry of surface ships and that fleet is GONE. Unless, of course, you invest SERIOUS money into augmenting it, in which case, Russia will walk into Berlin uncontested.
And before you say it’s unrealistic to have 3 battleships with America, realize they start with one and can easily buy two more without serious damage to their shipping each round there-after resulting in Round 3 starting with 3 American Battleships. Then it’s just a matter of putting two fighters on the board in Round 3 and on Round 4 Germany is looking at an America with:
2 Destroyers (Free)
3 Transports (Free)
1 Battleship (Free)
3 Fighters (Free)
1 Bomber (Free)
2 Battleships (48 IPC)
3 Transports (24 IPC)
2 Fighters (20 IPC)
In 4 Rounds that leaves 66 IPC for America to purchase ground units with.
Also, with movement taken into account you have:
SZ 55 to SZ 20 on Round 1 (2nd Battleship built)
SZ 20 to SZ 10 on Round 2 (3rd Battleship built)
SZ 10 to SZ 8 on Round 3 (2 Fighters built)
SZ 8 to SZ 6 on Round 4 (Everything in range of SZ 5)
Round 5 - Attack.
Notice, this is as fast as America can POSSIBLY move anyway. And the battleships don’t lose their usefulness after sinking the German fleet because they can be used for bombardments or to provide free hits discouraging Luftwaffe attacks on the Merchant Marines.
Now, what does Frood say:
Defender: 2 Fighters, Destroyer, 2 Submarines, Transport, Carrier
vs
Attacker: 5 Fighters, Bomber, 3 Battleships, 2 Destroyers (no fodder transports brought)
50% No loss to Attacker
26% Loss of ONE Fighter to Attacker
18% Loss of TWO Fighters to Attacker
In other words, almost all the time there is NO LOSS to the attacker. And, seeing as there is no escape from the attack for Germany, Germany will generally speaking pull his fighters to save them from certain death which means America will win without loss 92% of the time.
Now, that’s if you want to give it 5 rounds. Honestly, I have no problem with that since England’s going to be landing troops every round those five rounds in Arkhangelsk anyway so the SZ 5 is impotent as a threat.
However, you COULD sink them with the British at high cost if you wanted too.