For comparing out abilities, putting 600 subs vs 120 BB or 200 Cruisers vs the BB or whatever may help to show the statistical differences, but you’ll never have 600 subs or 40 BB in a real game. Usually you will have them in a combined fleet of ships or you would prefer them to be. They are often alone though.
I was thinking of the beginning setup of AAE. In the Gibraltar Strait you have a Destroyer, which for all intents and purposes has the stats of a Cruiser in AA50. To take that I have often see merely a fighter and a sub take it on, and the sub being sacrificed. Or the Italian fleet comes over and lands on Gibraltar at the same time, having the BB absorb any possible hits.
But at the outset of AAR, there is a BB in that strait and often a larger force is brought to bear, that because 2 hits are needed so the goal is to get them on the 1st round rather than give the BB 2 shots.
So there is a larger difference in the mental impact of a BB vs other ships. There is a thread in the AA50 section about how a Cruiser/Destroyer combo is always more useful and versatile than a BB for the same cost.
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=13648.0
Not advocating for/against on that, just pointing out the discussion at this point. But in that you are talking ship combos, not all BB vs anything else. For BB you get some additional mental agony for the opponent while you get some additional financial agony.
