>>3076865Actually, carriers are more powerful in this game than battleships. A good carrier like the Shokaku can carry three squadrons of aircraft that can sink the USS Missouri within 2 turns of the start of the game in a best-case scenario, or cripple it in 3-4 turns accounting for misses and destroyed aircraft. The Missouri might be able to get in range and vital the Shokaku in that time (if the carrier isn't hidden behind an island) but overall, odds are that the carrier and aircraft would come out on top one-on-one.
(Of course, this doesn't account for anything any land-based aircraft or escorts might do.)