I might be persuaded to make the Aircraft Carrier a 12 IPC unit (on par with the cruiser in cost), give the cruiser AA Guns and leave the vaunted battleship at 20 or raise it to 22. But if the carrier is going down that far in price, I’d strip the second hit ability from it and or reduce the defensive ability to 1.
I like the idea of the battleship as an anchor for the fleet. Hard hitting, hard to sink. Battleships were used in WWII and they were a nuisance to sink. I am not saying the contributions were as important, but I am arguing that the game function is.
I’ve oft used “super battleships” as well that still att-4, def-4 but had 3 hits before they sunk (after second hit it att-0, def-1 until it was repaired) and raised the cost a bit (in this case probably 24 IPC for a super battleship limited to Japan, Germany and the United States for historical reasons, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be used for all nations.)
Oh, here’s an idea! A technology that makes battleships 3 hit and aircraft carriers 2 hit! Hmm…have to bring that one over to the enhanced discussion.