LongJohn_

Oh... One superbly funny battle with almost similar CV captain. This time it was 3-2-2(?) Taiho with point-click-forget fighters. Pretty early in the game I got him clicking my empty DB squad with ALL THREE of his fighters. As you know empty bombers are quite fast, they dont leave fighters behind but dont let them catch either. I thought to play a little game with him so I ordered this squad to circle whole darn map. I think they followed about one and a half full circles and then I just ordered planes hovering around my CV and deleted fighters with AA. But boy did I laugh my sick azz off. At the same time I could strafe down his attackplanes and strike their ships without any interference.

281 games with Essex and you have to grind your way there. That means quite a dedication for only hating Carriers. Maybe he just doesnt want to learn them or simply likes them AS? At least most bad CV players try to cause damage, sometimes even succeed and get more XP out of their ship.

Double.

You guessed right. 3-0-2 Essex, no strafing skills, only point and click. After you get spotted just keeps you spotted and doesnt let any aircraft leave. But is also smart enough to avoid CV AA. So basically the most annoying playstyle you can imagine. Once you scout that you know for 100% sure this game is going to suck ans bad. Well, got 50k something done, lost because whole team sucked. Cant say that lost to other carrier if the goal is to play total dull 0-0 to both sides. Actually this is thing thats going to change with the US CV rework. All Essexes will be 2-1-2 so you can use two fighters just like them, in-out strafes and shoot the living s#it out of them. If you scout someone with 30-40k damage abd <10 planekills a game you know this player plays correct loadout but just overally sucks.

Told you about scouting. What can you chaps say about these

No problem. Its good to have more good CVs out there, way too many bad ones out there. I guess I could tell you a lot more but I have to keep some "prefessional secrets" and learn more one the way. Oh by the way with Kaga. You are in T7 with that. Let me know when you meet xXx_Blogis_xXx in his Saipan and let me know how it goes.

This is true. Its easier to damage and sink other CV under Def AA if you run USN CV yourself. But if the enemy CV is not a total idiot you still cant do it on one run. By total idiot I mean repairing the first fire(s) the first DB squad causes and then get squad of TBs and two squads of DBs on your head... I've done it few times in my gaming history and it really is recept for disaster. I actually did a CV 1:1 airbattle in my Essex yesterday. Two Brothers. Enemy CV in their base, I get their BB and capping DD killed, cyclone is passing, I am the only ship left in my team and enemy has CV (Taiho) which is already looking for me and DD. Little later I noticed DD wen into our cap so I could have closed the distance to enemy cap but there wasnt time anyway. My position was close to southern base so it took little time to enemy CV finding me. Fighters on reload so they couldnt help. Full Taiho strike coming in but luckyly one by one. Def AA on, started manual manouvering to avoid torps and focus fires to closest squad. Took few bombs and two fires but didnt repair, waited until first waves were done and then. Lost totally maybe 40% of my HP. Got my planes in the air, scored maybe 50% of enemy HP and caused it to repair. After its repair got 1-2 DB squads in, under Def AA, more damage, enough fires and CV burns to death. Meanwhile got my fighters in the air, strafed some squad, just tailed and panicked rest and I was home free. Totally 62 planekills, clear sky and if I remember correctly both CVs got high caliber and total of 4 kills each. Enemy DD started capping but time run out and we lost in points. Would have had planes to strike it down though... This is actually one useful tip too. If you are struck by enemy CV its much safer to be moving than stationary. CVs are big ships and takes time to get moving. And while you are moving its easy to turn away from the strike so your AA has maximum time to shoot down planes. After that you can also manouver to cause enemy TBs drop from bow or stern so you evade almost all of them or get DBs drop from side so they dont hit that many or even none. Staying stationary has its advantages though. Behind an island you can be closer to action than you could be on plain sight. Less time flying planes into and out of action.

Yep, Shokaku AA isnt as punishing as Lexingtons. Overall I still dont recommend striking CV. Sure gains are huge if you pull it off but you'd need to do it with single try, two separate strikes is double waste of time. And there comes one thing to learn and improve over time. Moving your CV. Some players even at T9 think they are airports ans never move from spawn. Easier to spot and strike there. But if you keep up with the team AA helps with potential airstrikes. Actually this is one aspect I'd need to improve. I play mostly too safely which increases flytime to targets and back to CV decreasing efficiency. Then again being too brave causes being spotted and nuked very faet by enemy fleet. Its a balance...

The radical increase in CV AA is the reason you should learn not to strike enemy CV by T8. At T7 it can be viable option, especially those 2CV games, after that its always one CV per team. Many players notice this difference at T8 the hard way. You think striking no-fighter CV down to be childsplay but lesson can be harsh. You easily lose full 2+2 strikepack (for example Shokaku) and a lot of time chasing it. With strike loadout I used CV AA against enemy fighters as well. If enemy CV just clicks your squad and forget about it just fly your squad above our ship, focusfire and keep hovering. You lose plane or two, enemy loses his whole squad.

Strangers is propably one of the really best. By the way I added some additional information to my earlier post above. Check out Aerroons CV guides too. And naturally also Flamu has good CV stuff.

Good way. Was it strangers123 in one of his videos. Used strike Lexington which has no fighters at all and got clear sky with it. Enemy CV just kept feeding planes and Lex AA says nom nom nom. At tier 8 CV striking is pretty much dumb if there is anything else to drop. T8 CVs get Defensive AA consumable that boosts AA even more, lasts two minutes and as you know from cruisers mess up TB and DB drop accuracy. If you react in time with Lexington (with basic firing training) enemy planes drop lie flies even without Def AA. Just focusfire to nearest squad and blaze away. Focusing gives you 30% bonus even without manual AA skill (manual AA gives 100%). Sure you can sink even Lex with planes but it just isnt worth it. You lose too much time and multiple attacks to do so. Not to mention loss of planes. When CV is only one left its natural target. I actually got enemy Essex fooled today. I use 1-1-3 strike loadout, enemy used stock 2-1-1 so fighter superiority. All essential ships in both team in cap B, pretty even situation. I rushed in with fighters on point and engaged enemys both fighter squads. Then strafe out of dogfight and noticed enemy fighters in pursuit. I just put my fighters fly all the way around the map back to ship. His fighters were out of the battle ans I could demolish their ships in B. Finally got fighters close to ship, def AA on, focusfire squad by squad and engage them above my CV. Essex AA says nom nom nom, free kills.

So primary objective is to piss people off?

Subjective question. When do you feel content after CV battle? Started wondering this today. Played Essex, 9 battles total, avg damage above overall average at 119k, just under 78% winrate (7/9 vics), new damage (248k) and planekill (62) records and I still feel kind of ... Meh. So whats wrong with me?

Thode mentioned are good. I dont remember my Essex captain skills. One point skill, I have no idea. Two points torp accelerstion, three points torpedo armament expert or basic firing training for extra aa, four points consielment expext and air superiority. Does that make 14? I guess it does. I have 16 point captain at the moment, two points free. I dont know how to use the rest. Really. I have the basic firing training so maybe torp armament expert next. You can also get Advanced firing training and manual aa but I am not sure is it worth it. Indepedence and Ranger are vulnerable to CV attack, Lex has ridiculous AA and its very hard to sink, Essex has good AA but also planes are much better... I heard aa at Midway turns back to ridiculous.

Is the client russian only? Damn easy to use.

In that case I might give it a try. You still need another account with the same email address to make it work? It was somewhere in the PTS guides...

Nope, no notice, warning or penalties from killing friendly planes. You can strafe your own planes too if you fly them through your strafingpath. Of course its not recommended to do so but you dont get punished for it. At least not from the game / WG. Learning curve for CVs is very long. They surely have way highest damage and team effort potential but getting that potential out is not easy. I have some CV games played and I still keep learning every day I play. I might have decent stats but I still time to time run into those elite players that just make me look plain stupid. It just looks so effortless and it seems enemy CV knows your decisions before you do... So still very much to learn. For example just staying calm, make good decisions and keep all squads working under battle stress is a big thing. You can farm great damage if enemy CV dies early, you have a safe position and team plays well. Then its relatively easy. But if team doesnt do well, you lose some ships and caps, enemy is at your tails, DDs pressuring... There differences really rise. I've seen plenty of CV captain who just totally lose it after they are spotted. Squads stay hovering in the air, CV is not moving for cover... Whole packadge just falls apart. Got one decent Essex game like this last week. Enemy Essex was decent and didnt screw up but own team was shaking first half of the battle. We hold only fourth of the map, enemy team had two caps, we fought for our first... Some one from the team started blaming me for losing... Well, we got it turned around, some 200k damage, +40 planes and 4 kills, confederate, high caliber.. But I have to admit I was shaking too at some point. It really isnt easy. Much easier with any other shipclass, just focus enemies in hand, angle, do one thing at the time... But with CV. Spot for team, fight off enemy planes, map awareness where own and enemy ships are, striking correct targets to help the team as much as possible... Its a madhouse. I really dont blame you for feeling the stress. Its real for all of us.

Darn. Can you have both PTS and EU game clients installed at the same time?

Yep. Its careful learning process and you also have to consider when to strafe and when just point and click at enemy squad. After all strafing takes a lot of ammo and that puts you out of action for a while. Even at higher tiers two fighter squads can mis-strafe each other few times before one takes wrong turn / evades to wrong direction and gets wiped out. Some tutorials suggest torping directly from the side at 90 degree angle but the best result comes if you torp little from behind. Maybe 20-30 degrees from straight angle. That way first torpedo closest to enemyships bow will travel a bit further distance and enemyship drives straight into them. This is little advanced tactic but for example USN 6 torp squad can score 6/6 hits with it to a Gneisenau size target. Ships up to T6 are just too short to hit all. This applies both IJN and USN gameplay. You can try this with autodrops as well since you can adjust the angle of your approach.

These planekills are intresting. My personal record is something like 58 and its with Essex. My primary goal has been dealing damage what ever the tier and killing planes is being more of a hobby at the side. But looking at the overall I'd say Certios ha done his job in that game. Both enemy CVs, including tier higher Hiryu, are without kills and both have less XP gained even while they are in winner team. 65 planes and couple kills as well, good job.

Looks like you're getting hang of strafing. It sure is very satisfying to get a nice strafe off and just vanish multiple squads of planes. In some cases its even a bit sad. Other player can be a total noob, a kid for example, and lose pretty much all planes in one strafe. You almost feel sorry for them.

Well that was not meant for critique. We just play the game differently and both have their ups and downs. Just like with everything else. My gamestyle for example with CVs propably doesnt suit some others etc. But thats the thing with these games. We are all humans and make very human things and mistakes. This is what makes it more intresting and challenging. Most AI based games have AI of earthworm and after you find out the logic how it works gaming challenge and fun is mostly gone.

I must say its bold to buy and sell premiums like that. I havent spend a dime to neither WoT or WoWS. Maybe that makes me bad player from WG perspective but it also makes me grind everything with my own teeth and claws. Its takes time since there are no shortcuts. I have plenty of ships I have unlocked but dont have the credits to get them. Simple things that real life currency changes. Allthough I've been very very very tempted to get the Saipan. Just for the sheer sealclubbing joy of it.

How populated PTS is? Do you actually get decent fames or it it more like few vs few? Can you play against bots? Training room? Propably stupid questions but I havent tried PTS before.

Ok. Sounds reasonable. You get somewhat RNG based damage with HE as well, I think everyone has to try them thenselves and make decision which one to use. Its also difference in gamestyle. Massive alpha to 1-2 targets or followups for damage over time. Excellent fighter cover should allow both. How AP works on cruisers? Thats propably the debate since you can use TBs to crossdrop DDs or mass smokes full of torps. Thats actually also one funny idea. 2x6 torp side by side drop into smoke. Nice thick carpet. It was actually fun to watch how BBs focusfired on TBs in some late GZ testbed while it was the 10 plane AP doom squad that was really the scary one coming in.