Panocek

I can imagine shipgrills being more of a aprils fool mode, but thats already announced AND considering butthurt coming from "forced" Arpeggio missions I expect nothing short of shipstorm Though Gaijin already have experience on the matter (sort of)

Same modus operandi with Shokek. If you get it right, attacking singled out AA cruisers not smurt enough to trigger DFAA you *can* get in and get out surprisingly unharmed. Just enter another "attack run" as soon as possible for 30% dmg reduction and gtfo at full speed evading flak.

Opening with rockets for initial spot and occasional harassing is still more than viable due to sheer speed and quick reloading boost, just don't expect to brutalize DDs who found out P key. Those who didn't, are still easy targets to lineup even with HVARs Which reminds me, Tiny Tims IIRC were designed around idea of launching rockets outside AA range, so they should be "long range, long arming distance" instead HVARs. But then, BTD replaces Skyraider so... #justWGthings

When you're out of DBs to spare.

Combine 6.1km detection with 197kts/218kts top speed on IJN TB, attack started unspotted so reds know you're coming literally when flak opens up and planes are ready in position to drop. Unless you misjudge lead or enemy finds out some bigass car (or rather ship) jack to lift that boat its going to find its mark. Repeat 6 times as Haku have 12 planes in squadron, 2 per attack wing. On smaller maps like recent Shards (?) it also enables you to move around unnoticed

With tiers up distance where they are ready to strike (grey reticle) increases considerably, in Midway HVAR case its 3.8km. Add to that sub 3km aerial detection on hightier DDs AND rendering delay AND excessive dispersion and you might see why dive bombers are preferable. HVARs have 33mm HE pen, so at least they are solid at bashing cruisers and unarmored BBs. TiTs have shorter "arming distance", around 3km IIRC (edit: actually its 2.3km) and are more accurate. Extra HE pen and fire chance makes them viable against all targets as well.

For IJN you kinda want to max out concealment for 6.1km detection on TB. This enables you to stalk undetected 152mm AA cruisers, as they have 6.9km aerial detection. Torp Acceleration is double edged sword as it increases arming distance, I find IJN torps to be fast enough to live without it, so I don't run it. Demo gives too little bonus and it affects rockets only, so thats an out. SE and AirArmor are borderline mandatory. Sight Stabilization is kinda arguable due to tiny bonus for TB, DB gain more from it and due to short attack window it certainly can help.

nope, IFHE doesn't apply to rockets/bombs. And for goofing with captain skills wait for 0.8.2, there is/was scheduled second week of free captain retraining

And here I thought blobkrieg was only true tictac to be employed in this game

But... But... Acquisition mod for rushing smoked DDs so I can REEEEE about OP torpedoes with peace of mind I've did everything to spot them early

Or remove IJN rockets altogether and replace them with small HE bombs. Bonus points for historical accuracy

Haku rockets are actually solid for once, but again hampered by long "arming" distance. Earlier IJN CVs could use some help against DDs though. Preferable fix would be ammo selection mid game or even pre battle akin to USN RTS CV, but that would cause server wide bluescreen on CV players according to WG

YMMV - I find camo decked boat handy for following fleet and disengaging when said "fleet" gets submerged. Especially kek on Shokaku and her 9.8km concealment combined with her (almost) 36kts speed Cut down concealment on planes shortens player reaction. Again, IJN TB benefits the most here, but so far it worked on USN planes as well, so yay for WG making actually balanced choice for once?

The only ones affecting planes - returning aircraft speed and longer engine boost. But if you want AA/secondary survivability or smaller fire chance, by all means don't let me stop you Yep. And it cut down replenishment time by 5% so Upgrade I'd consider vital on Saipan, as she have only 3 planes in reserve (9 total, 6 in air) by default. With upgrade she will have 5 planes waiting and that 5% on her massive replenishment time actually can be significant

Tier 10 CV says hi - 152k exp and additional 10mil on top of already expensive 28mil for boat alone. Modules... Two first are no brainers, on 3rd I run AA guns mod1 as extra aim time on rockets can prove fatal while on USN TB isn't that needed. Specific aircraft hp - dive bombers are USN bread and butter and due to their attack pattern they tend to stay within AA the most time, so they can't go wrong with more hp. I run concealment on all CVs while @El2aZeR is presumably going to give you sermon about FCM1 (+2 planes on deck) superiority

TiTs retain short "arming" distance, making them serviceable against DDs skilled enough to press P, unlike HVARs. They also are much more accurate and with extra pen, they can touch pretty much anything short of T10 CV deck. Stock planes recently got hp buffs, so *need* for FreeExping them is lowered, though you might want top Dive Bombers, they carry two instead one bombs so you deliver 100% more Freedom. Skill wise, I run this build on my CVs or aim towards it Shortening plane replacement, longer engine boost are no brainers, same with speed, more hp, plane armor. Aiming time I'm not so sure on rockets and torpedoes, but it helps with divebombers, USN bread and butter. Concealment isn't as vital as on IJN (TB), but it shortens reaction time nonetheless and enables you to hide floating city block of a carrier at 11.8km in Lady Lex case (with Concealment upgrade)

Leander premium paint and Lightning event paint are missing alternate colors, definitely not working as intended on former, not so sure on latter case

Not fond of alternate "teal" colors and somehow it looks extra goofy on DoY. Much better looking and fits iceberg handling (and Ice Tea port) can we haz more of such camos?

I think I've seen something like that before

Then you have WoWs mobile, which have option to play with secondaries directly and retain RTS CV, albeit simplified. So mobilemasterestrace?

Nothing wrong with Da Grasso, fast and nimble cruiser you can use with IFHEnri captain. Quick turret traverse, solid, although not russian grade ballistics 3 metal fishes per side and quite long ranged ones at that.

Two Hakuryu torps deals just as much damage as 5 out of 6 Midway torps, while being whole world of easier to drop, planes fly faster, are stealthier and squadron consist of 12 planes, spreading dps on more planes and/or enabling to bother multiple ships in one sortie. AP bombs are not obvious to use but deal as much, if not more damage than HE bombs and damage is usually unrepairable, they extra suck against DDs though. Haku rockets are actually better than Midway against DDs and odd cruiser due to better accuracy with the same damage output, hampered by lengthy prep up time (and distance)

HE shells are the same through entire US CA line, only change is superheavy AP from Baltimore onwards. Which compared to "regular" is barely any slower regular AP (Indianapolis) 5km - 2.34s 10km - 5.60s 15km - 9.68s SHS AP (Baltimore) 5km - 2.63s 10km - 6s 15km - 10.22s HE on both 5km - 2.46s 10km - 5.85s 15km - 10.18s With tiers up average engagement range goes up, so it becomes more noticeable though.

While I agree shells from USN light cruisers take their sweet time to get anywhere, mostly due to seeking for moon to hit, US 203mm ballistics are in line with Japanese ones, obviously except Zao. French 203mm are mildly better than both, then German Hipper grade 203mm, beaten by magic railguns of Zao/Donskoi/Moskva Yuro series of "how to" can give decent insight on ships handling while delivering lots of kek, even if somewhat dated due to game changes Indianapolis is as typical USN heavy cruiser as it can get for example.

USN suffer from using all-or-nothing armor scheme, which means they melt under HE fire and especially on tier 5-7 they can be overmatched (if shell is big enough it ignores ricochet rules). Coupled with their glacial 20kts until North Carolina they can be... frustrating at times. Nothing wrong with Freedom cruisers, be it light or heavy variety. Keep in mind Omaha, tier 5 is last one to carry torpedoes which can be an issue if battleship is rushing you because, well, you don't have torps to hurt him badly. IJN cruisers are as generalist as it can get. From tier 5 onwards (Furutaka) they switch to heavy cruisers, armed with hard hitting but slow reloading 203mm guns with Sake flavored HE shells for extra damage and fire chance, their torpedo armament is nothing to sneeze at either although facing rearwards. Add to that universally high top speed, around 35kts, decent concealment and you have one heck of allrounder