Muppeteer

Yeah absolutely. Kind of the point of my OP. Why would you play it? Thought I was possibly missing something. *And not my intention to whine, and don't think I have. Maybe that was someone else. Just curious why some seemingly good players would choose an option that relies on the rest of their team being good.

See, that's kind of how I saw it. The strafing thing is particularly relevant since the AS player will double (maybe even triple) up on one squad. They hold while your tbs run in to attack and you strafe their blob of planes. Have no real issue with it existing as an option. The fact it has no damage output is tempered by the fact that I (with the more aggressive loadout) will have a harder time of landing meaningful damage. And the challenge - like engineering distractions to pull fighter cover away then landing a couple of perfect drops is always fun.Each to their own, but I am always happy to play against it (even with 031 strike lex etc) which probably means its not very good.

As with most things, both sides of the argument are right in a way. So, yes they can ruin games when they are afk or so woefully skilled that they might as well be. Even good players get picked off by torp strikes at times (although modify speed and heading coupled with not being miles from allies should be enough to only eat a couple of torps from a drop - 15k or so dmg? Cit and a bit equivalent?). That's about it though, and frankly there are quite a lot of unfair ships in the game. I really enjoy being last man in a BB against a DD that knows how to stay out of spotted range for example. And please spare a thought for the poor carrier players. Its not for the faint hearted - some setups require an incredible amount of micro. And regardless of how well you do you will receive abuse from elements of your team who think you can kill every plane that spots them.

Hmm, not sure you are convincing me with talk of it being "noob friendly" lol. Last time I played against 3-0-1 with 2-2-0 I managed a pretty below par 84k I think (and wasted 38 of his planes). If you are good you shouldn't need the training wheels. And I cringe every time I see someone with a 15pt captain playing it. Now that is lazy

Thing is, against a player of equal or greater skill, the enemy CV will get past your fighters at least a few times in a match. A few torps is way more valuable than a games worth of dive bombing. And if against a lower skill enemy CV, why do you need more fighter strength than them? Agree I have seen the bombers to crazy damage, and the better CV player will manual drop even onto DDs. Torps still more dangerous I would say. Also obviously good for finishing wounded enemy who have damage control on cooldown. Each to their own anyway

So after 58 responses to "Hiryu is unplayable", we have now decided its good. Excellent work all!

Hilarious

Well, its not about just damage of course. Thing is, the other setup is still pretty nasty in terms of air power and you have the potential to turn a losing position into a winning one (which I would suggest you don't with airsup). Because of their high hp the airsup player will almost always have to commit at least 2 squads to kill one of enemy (or they will dogfight around until ammo gone and a few from each side will limp away) in which case a decent strafe will even the field until next reload. I see your point btw, but I dislike not being able to influence the outcome of a match when my team isn't so good.

Yeah my record was just shy of 800k silver, and commensurate xp etc with the other setup. Issues are mentioned in OP.

Fair enough with random missions. If in a division I think as one of the non CV elements I would rather my enemy didn't have torp bombers. If I prefer to face a certain setup surely that means its inferior (comical in some peoples hands I have found).

Might be fair to say Hiryu is quite hard to play well in addition to the other issues mentioned above. That is a lot of micro. Playing distracted? No chance. Have to say its my least favourite of the t7s cvs, but I am surprised to find its the one that I do the most damage and win most often with.

Adding to the vast number of people who had the email and it doesn't work. Hey ho.