My worthy Russian opponent does this with his Russian opener.  He builds two Russian fighters.

But he doesn’t use it to to attack the German med fleet.  He uses them for attacking into Germany.  He then spends the bulk of his IPC’s on infantry with the occasional artillery thrown in.  The two fighters gives Russian a much needed offense punch for his Russian hordes.  You could use armor, but then become fodder for the inevitable next-turn German counter.

Then, there was that one game, where he rolled Russian jet fighters on turn 2.  But, we won’t talk about that.

And, by his logic, he will never be able to build Russian fighters after turn 1, because he’s too afraid of waisting the IPC’s.  So, might as well, have some fun now, with them.

I agree.  My naval actions in the Pacific boil down to one massive Navy battle – Japan’s giant stack versus US’s giant stack.  Ironically, the Atlantic seems to have more naval action, especially if Germany builds an AC in the baltic.

A&A Pacific is a blast, not because the game is balanced.  Far from it.  It’s because of the naval game.

(Apologies for ressurrecting an old forum post)

I am a little bit disappointed by this, too – that air units can kill submarines units with impunity.  I know that planes get one round of fire, before the sub submerges, but usually that’s enough.

In my experience, subs never get a chance to really shine.  They never get a chance to cruise the Atlantic or Pacific, because they become fodder for bombers and fighters.  My gaming group never builds them, anymore.  If you’re going to build 8 IPC fodder, might as well build a transport, and moves some units around.

Using A&A Pacific rules, subs were a valuable commidity, if you ignored the silly sub stalling exploit.  Using a first turn submerge, they could move hidden, and be a major pain in the next for the unprepared player.

A&A Pacific subs were not overly powerful, but they were a nuisance, and could exploit a weakness.

However, in A&A Revised, subs end up just being fodder for the most part, in my opinion.  With the exception that airplanes can attack subs, I liked the A&A Revised sub rules.