That leaves them with 1 bb, 1 crz, 2 CV for the Pacific (generally assuming they’ll lose the Hawaii sub in mopping things up.) If those get taken out by a nuke (even if you lose some fighter aircraft to save ships) the remaining transports are pretty vulnerable to a kamikaze-style attack. If nothing else, that would cause a player like myself to consider pivoting my navy somewhere out of fighter range (i.e. perhaps supplying India instead.)
Imo, you should never sack CV. Drop subs first, then cruiser(s) then the battleship (since those are all now useless but for soaks at this point - a critical acknowledgement) and then and only then, lose transports. USA loses one, maybe two transports at best (the only units that matter imo) - a net loss for the Soviets (again, as long as you acknowledge that BB, CA and subs are useless). On the next USA turn, replace lost transport(s) and force the USSR to build another bomb. It’s too much (in my experience) for their exhausted economy to eat.
If the Soviets get the nuke tech early enough, I know that the US can’t really afford to have their navy out of position if/when the nuke arrives – that’s why in games where that early tech happens, I’ll often just focus on the southerly route, with an IC in the Philippines.
I feel that building IC is not good strategy - especially one in the Philippines. There might be an exception for the British in India if the Soviets are neglecting that front and the British can take the offensive (in which case they will have a need for a few tanks they can’t get from anywhere else in a reasonable time or manner). The ability of territories with an IPC value to produce infantry really, really waters down the efficacy of IC in this version of AnA imo. A “knock on” effect of this is it increases the value of transports for pulling infantry off of outlier territories and bringing them to the front line.
In my experience, the soviets getting the bomb early doesn’t help much. The opportunity cost of 10 Russian infantry is unworkable until round 3/4 at the earliest. The demand for infantry and spies is just too great in those first critical turns.
