The CV Captains Cabin

[RUSSIANBlAS]

I'm not talking about tier, Negativvv. I'm killing ships left and right in Essex or Hakuryu in randoms, heck, I can even make Shokaku work in a TX match alright. But in clan matches with oragnized fleets it feels very much like Japanes aircrews at Okinawa, if you catch my drift.

 

Ah I see... Yeah I imagine it'll be hugely lol to play clans in CVs as almost every cruiser after mid tier can equip AA Defensive & range increases. Once the big scatter umbrella is up then you're pretty screwed. 

 

I've played a bit more CV over the last few days and it's exactly as I remember it: 75%+ of players are complete trash and a waste of time playing against but the rest are unicum/hard core CV players who run rings around me so its really difficult to get any gauge of whether I'm improving at all. Especially when you're going 2 or more games by strafing everything someone has in 1 go to being bled planes by someone who can control each squadron like it's being steered with a controller...

[lup3s]

Any reason why the Hiryu (T7) gets the same TBs as the Zuiho (T5) ???

[El2aZeR]

Any reason why the Hiryu (T7) gets the same TBs as the Zuiho (T5) ???

 

Because at one point Hiryu was too powerful so she had her T7 TBs removed. Then when AA got more powerful WG forgot about her.

 

At least that's how I remember it.

[lup3s]

 

Because at one point Hiryu was too powerful so she had her T7 TBs removed. Then when AA got more powerful WG forgot about her.

 

At least that's how I remember it.

 

It really makes me detest playing the Hiryu.

Atm I'm at T7 in both CV lines, and I like playing the strike Ranger a LOT more than playing the Hiryu.

 

 

[RUSSIANBlAS]

 

It really makes me detest playing the Hiryu.

Atm I'm at T7 in both CV lines, and I like playing the strike Ranger a LOT more than playing the Hiryu.

 

 

 

I'm totally cool with Hiryu's T6 torp bombers. It teaches you to hunt DD first anyway so gives others a chance to HE spam down bigger ships AA. 

 

I'm the opposite, I can't stand playing Strike Ranger as the RNG of the DB really p!$$es me off, its too unreliable. And no fighters means I can't protect myself or the team, I find that makes a huge difference as the enemy CV simply won't care anymore and bomb wherever they choose to which can change the course of a game. Having fighter cover makes the enemy CV think and forces him to micro his planes that bit more.

 

 

 

 

[Drunken_Jedi]

Well I just had my first game in the Lexington. Stock, except for the dive bombers which I upgraded to the Curtis Helldivers with those devastating 1000lb bombs. Finished top of the team with 2254 base XP, 152k damage and 30 plane kills and three ship kills including the enemy Shokaku who was actually a good player. 62% WR (someone checked his stats mid game) with a 2/2/2 loadout.

 

Amazed by the damage those 1000lb bombs dish out, I got a perfect manual drop on a poor Benson and wrecked him for about 12k and pretty much one hit killed the poor bugger. Got another strike on an Edinburgh for 18k, two fires and took out his engine. Think I'm going to enjoy this one, she seems much easier to play than multi-tasking with Shokaku.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Well I just had my first game in the Lexington. Stock, except for the dive bombers which I upgraded to the Curtis Helldivers with those devastating 1000lb bombs. Finished top of the team with 2254 base XP, 152k damage and 30 plane kills and three ship kills including the enemy Shokaku who was actually a good player. 62% WR (someone checked his stats mid game) with a 2/2/2 loadout.

 

Amazed by the damage those 1000lb bombs dish out, I got a perfect manual drop on a poor Benson and wrecked him for about 12k and pretty much one hit killed the poor bugger. Got another strike on an Edinburgh for 18k, two fires and took out his engine. Think I'm going to enjoy this one, she seems much easier to play than multi-tasking with Shokaku.

 

I've used Lex on the PT and she seems like the reward for suffering the LOL that is Ranger...

 

Glad to see more evidence of that. 

[lup3s]

 

I'm totally cool with Hiryu's T6 torp bombers. It teaches you to hunt DD first anyway so gives others a chance to HE spam down bigger ships AA. 

 

I'm the opposite, I can't stand playing Strike Ranger as the RNG of the DB really p!$$es me off, its too unreliable. And no fighters means I can't protect myself or the team, I find that makes a huge difference as the enemy CV simply won't care anymore and bomb wherever they choose to which can change the course of a game. Having fighter cover makes the enemy CV think and forces him to micro his planes that bit more.

 

 

 

 

 

Well I really dislike those T6 TBs... With strike Ranger i just sniped the enemy CV and no problems after that.. With balanced Ranger I just couldn't win.

Glad I finally got my Lexi; strike ftw!

 

:edit:

After playing all night with Hiryu,

I have to say...

Hiryu is the most useless CV ever. Fuçk that ship.

 

You can't even attack a T6 (lower tier) ship without losing all your TBs.

Attacking a T8? Forget about it. Totally team dependent. I might as well be playing 6-0-0.

[VC381]

Well I just had my first game in the Lexington. Stock, except for the dive bombers which I upgraded to the Curtis Helldivers with those devastating 1000lb bombs. Finished top of the team with 2254 base XP, 152k damage and 30 plane kills and three ship kills including the enemy Shokaku who was actually a good player. 62% WR (someone checked his stats mid game) with a 2/2/2 loadout.

 

Amazed by the damage those 1000lb bombs dish out, I got a perfect manual drop on a poor Benson and wrecked him for about 12k and pretty much one hit killed the poor bugger. Got another strike on an Edinburgh for 18k, two fires and took out his engine. Think I'm going to enjoy this one, she seems much easier to play than multi-tasking with Shokaku.

 

Good job! Lex is fun, still holds my highest average damage and all-time damage record.

[MrHMSH]

Well I just had my first game in the Lexington. Stock, except for the dive bombers which I upgraded to the Curtis Helldivers with those devastating 1000lb bombs. Finished top of the team with 2254 base XP, 152k damage and 30 plane kills and three ship kills including the enemy Shokaku who was actually a good player. 62% WR (someone checked his stats mid game) with a 2/2/2 loadout.

 

Amazed by the damage those 1000lb bombs dish out, I got a perfect manual drop on a poor Benson and wrecked him for about 12k and pretty much one hit killed the poor bugger. Got another strike on an Edinburgh for 18k, two fires and took out his engine. Think I'm going to enjoy this one, she seems much easier to play than multi-tasking with Shokaku.

 

That sounds broadly like me! I remember your name. If it is me, I'm flattered that someone thinks I'm a good CV player, usually I just get abuse for when I have bad games. Which I find unfair, we all have the occasional bad game, and people don't understand CV troubles. All that said, you weren't bad yourself!  Every now and then I just completely brainfart and get outplayed by someone I should at least be competing with. Comes with the territory. I tried the 1-1-1 Lexington and although my damage, kills and XP were acceptable, I had a WR of around 34%. I felt like I was doing enough, but I wasn't really and even doing damage wasn't enough to help my team win. I sold it in frustration to buy the Shokaku, and I love the Shokaku. If/when I have credits again I'll buy again, maybe go for strike. 

 

I've got a lot of pet hates when I'm playing CV, I've always had a burning hatred of catapult fighters. Seriously, 1 little fighter upsetting all my bombers? Very rude. I also find it annoying when I spot a DD for a long time, he doesn't get shot and my planes get worn down and I either recycle or lose them all. 'Why didn't you spot the DDs, useless CV'. 

[Viktor_Lima]

If you're hating Hiryu you're doing it wrong. The backwardness of the IJN line stems from the fact that Shokaku is relatively more powerful and easier to play than Hiryu and Hiryu is easier than Ryujo. Essentially once you master Shokaku go back to Hiryu and then to Ryujo and suddenly you realize that Ryojo has Hiryu's strike potential at T6, but each tier lower you get less reserves. Ryujo on top only has one fighter to assist your attacks and defend you, meaning you must not make any mistakes.

 

From a design standpoint it's a complete disaster, as you are not guided forward and learn step by step, but you get the master's ship at T6 and the forgiving powerhouse at T8. It's similar for Independence vs. Ranger, just that the US line has horrible loadouts that don't really work vs. a competent IJN captain.

[Drunken_Jedi]

So, how are you guys faring in Kaga? I'm farming devastating strike awards in here atm, I've learnt to judge the drop distance so I hit 2/3 of the fore row of torpedoes and land the 3 at the back. Double that for both squadrons and I'm landing 10 torpedoes if not more consistantly vs BB's. It's glorious deleting them from full HP . Last game was against some poor bugger in a 1/1/1 Ranger. He had no chance, I tied up his fighters... strafed his bombers and was wandering around deleting full HP ships. Reminds me of the "good old days" of CBT strike Essex with 1/2/2 and outright one shotting full HP BBs.

 

I'm just peeved that I've got another chat ban, obviously people took offense to me deleting their precious ships.

[mikelight1805]

Hi Guys, I see the Saipan is offered with a Doubloon discount due to weekend special.

 

Everyone seems to have a different opinion on the ship, some say she is OP, others say she can be quite weak. I am a new CV player, and i am assuming she isn't noob friendly. Is it a ship i am likely to struggle with? I see it has the highest win rate on warships today. Is that because she is driven by a lot of pro CV captains? or is it because she is a powerful ship?

 

[Drunken_Jedi]

Hi Guys, I see the Saipan is offered with a Doubloon discount due to weekend special.

 

Everyone seems to have a different opinion on the ship, some say she is OP, others say she can be quite weak. I am a new CV player, and i am assuming she isn't noob friendly. Is it a ship i am likely to struggle with? I see it has the highest win rate on warships today. Is that because she is driven by a lot of pro CV captains? or is it because she is a powerful ship?

 

 

Saipan is a very strong carrier, and quite newbie friendly I think too. Her tier IX aircraft allow you to linger or stray into AA auras that you otherwise would be heavily punished for say in a Hiyru or Kaga.

 

Saipans torpedo bombers are very fast, allowing you to push into airspace before enemy fighters can really intercept. Their speed also allows for fast travel time to and from the CV meaning your cycle times are quite low allowing multiple attacks in a single game, many more than other US CVs like Ranger etc.

 

What makes the Saipan really powerful is when you unlock that 10th commander skill and slot Air Supremacy. You won't gain any more torpedo planes, still three per squadron but you now have a total of eight fighters between your two groups. This allows you to easily left click and win most engagements and I haven't even gone into their ammo capacity yet. You can strafe for days in them, and you don't lose any planes for strafing out of fighter lock which is just brokenly OP to be honest.

 

If you can get the knack of the tricky drop pattern of three torpedoes you will find her to be a very capable CV. I tend to group my torpedo squadrons together and drop at the same time, meaning you usually land 4 out of 6 possible hits sometimes more if your aim is good.

 

Word of caution though, don't take the module with the 3/0/1 louadout. You'll see it and go "wow 9 planes for a dive bomber squad". It seems great, but its really bad. You can't get fires to stick unless they've already had damage con forced by another player and although you'll have three fighter squadrons its the same as with all other air superiority specs at some point you will have a gap and the enemy CV will get his strikes through negating your impact in the game entirely. ALWAYS take the torpedo bombers, they are vastly superior.

[El2aZeR]

Saipan used to be inferior to Hiryu because she would usually lose in a left click engagement against a properly spec'd Hiryu.

Nowadays you never need to take left click engagements because you can strafe out of fighter lock for free, thus Saipan has become on par or even superior to Hiryu assuming their captains are at an equal skill level.

[mikelight1805]

Ok, thanks for the input guys, i will give the Saipan more consideration whilst she is cheap!

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Nothing wrong with a bit of AS Saipan to enrage the enemy CV 

 

Saipan improves with you, the planes are so swift and the fighters are powerful. I love mine more the better I get at CVs. Only slight issue is DDs can be a little hard to torp sometimes

[mcboernester]

Saipan used to be inferior to Hiryu because she would usually lose in a left click engagement against a properly spec'd Hiryu.

Nowadays you never need to take left click engagements because you can strafe out of fighter lock for free, thus Saipan has become on par or even superior to Hiryu assuming their captains are at an equal skill level.

 

I agree. Saipan is the strongest T7 Carrier for the Time being. The Ability to disengage without losing any Fighters becomes pure Magic in the Hands of a skilled CV. The Kaga is just another Source for Planekill farming because your Fighters are superior. Im not saying the Kaga is a bad Ship, rather the Opposite since the Strike Potential is so damn high, but if you Face a Saipan on even Skill Level you'll have a veeeery bad Time. 

[Drunken_Jedi]

 

Just legit rage quit. Second game in Lexington against a Shokaku, he was a decent player and my planes were so slow I couldn't drop on jack anything. Then when I did get an opening perfect manual drops from my bombs missed. THREE GOD DAMN TIMES. Three drops, zero damage or an "incapacitation" well f me thanks very much RNGesus you total tool. After about eight minutes the Shokaku parked both his fighter squadrons just outside my AA range and had all my squadrons boxed in. Even 1v1 my upgraded Corsairs were losing quite happily to his single squadrons. I've been running averages of close to 100k in my Kaga all day, the moment I switch to the US CV I get a garbage result.

 

1883 damage for my trouble... all thanks to RNGesus shitting over my dive bombers. Torpedoes are skill based and that's why I do so well with them. Why do we have to rely on crapRNG mechanics, just have proper drop patterns for bombs instead of this random crap. ARGH! This is the kind of crap that made me quit the US CV line in the first place.

[Redcap375]

Just come back from Holiday and Wow, never seen so many tier 7 Cv's waiting in game!

 

Shall i or sharnt i get the Kaga....Hummm

Well, I've played against 4 so far and owned all 4 of them  ,but they not the best players i've ever seen to be honest so take that as you will. Look likes a good ship in the hands of seasoned CV player but the Saipan has no problems both catching and killing the torps bombers. Tier 8 matches with tier 6 planes will be painful and i bet my mortgage people will AA spec tier 7 ships more than they did. £35 for a CV when i have just got the Sapian is a bit too much if the Saipan is perfectly fine.  The poor Ranger is dead in the water....RIP

 

Whats your thoughts chaps? 

 

 

[lup3s]

If you're hating Hiryu you're doing it wrong. The backwardness of the IJN line stems from the fact that Shokaku is relatively more powerful and easier to play than Hiryu and Hiryu is easier than Ryujo. Essentially once you master Shokaku go back to Hiryu and then to Ryujo and suddenly you realize that Ryojo has Hiryu's strike potential at T6, but each tier lower you get less reserves. Ryujo on top only has one fighter to assist your attacks and defend you, meaning you must not make any mistakes.

 

From a design standpoint it's a complete disaster, as you are not guided forward and learn step by step, but you get the master's ship at T6 and the forgiving powerhouse at T8. It's similar for Independence vs. Ranger, just that the US line has horrible loadouts that don't really work vs. a competent IJN captain.

 

I just hate those T6 TBs (the same you get with the Zuiho btw).

Attacking any equal or higher tier ship will just result in all your planes being wrecked (especially BBs.. - except the Nagato).

 

Get into a T8 - T9 battle; and you can't attack any of the enemy BBs / CAs.

Even an Akizuki was able to shoot down 29 planes while I tried drop him (he was capping..).

[El2aZeR]

Even an Akizuki was able to shoot down 29 planes while I tried drop him (he was capping..).

 

Killed a Fletcher in my Hiryu once. Lost around the same amount of planes to him.

Then I had to explain to him that it was actually a favorable trade for me because I would've lost far more attacking literally anything else (since he complained about being my sole target).

 

Hiryu truly is frustrating to play at times and the Saipan buff was the last straw, leading to me letting her rust in port nowadays (though maybe with all the Kagas around I'll take her out for a spin in the next few days). The harsh lessons you learn with her will make you an excellent IJN CV player further down the line, however and every subsequent IJN CV is well worth suffering for.

Still, it's most definitely a far more comfortable grind than Ranger. Just a single game with her made me want to sell that abomination and give up the USN CV grind.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

 

Killed a Fletcher in my Hiryu once. Lost around the same amount of planes to him.

Then I had to explain to him that it was actually a favorable trade for me because I would've lost far more attacking literally anything else (since he complained about being my sole target).

 

Hiryu truly is frustrating to play at times and the Saipan buff was the last straw, leading to me letting her rust in port nowadays (though maybe with all the Kagas around I'll take her out for a spin in the next few days). The harsh lessons you learn with her will make you an excellent IJN CV player further down the line, however and every subsequent IJN CV is well worth suffering for.

Still, it's most definitely a far more comfortable grind than Ranger. Just a single game with her made me want to sell that abomination and give up the USN CV grind.

 

 

Hiryu isn't too bad, I still take mine out fairly often. Less than the Saipan mind you and I almost always end games with almost no Hiryu planes.

 

Ranger sucks, even Strike. I only ever do well in Ranger as a result of the enemy being bad rather than my own ability. With Kagas around I might have to go 1/1/1 or AS Ranger as a Strike one is going to be completely embarrassed.

[mcboernester]

 

Shall i or sharnt i get the Kaga....Hummm

 

Personally, I won't. Not because I don't want it but rather as a personal Statement against this "we are making alle Prems OP so you should buy them" Policy, and also bearing in Mind that there are still no signs of the Rework anywhere. The last thing I've heard was a universal automatic Drop with some blank space to insert skill, which honestly doesn't sound that good. 

[Redcap375]

No doubt about it, tier 7 is P2W regarding CVs and 99.9% say the whole tier. Come to peace with it chaps, I have. Reason I wont get it, even a seasoned CV player like myself is that I already have 3 prem tier 7 (shinny, Belfast and Saipan ) the Saipan only recently too (on sale). It's the one tier I also go out my way not to play CVs as the Shinny is fun and the Belfast is well, broken as ****. The Saipan can do crazy stuff and in the hands of a half decent player its just mental. I've been accused of hacks/mods more than any other ship! Strafing in and out of combat, catching tier 6 planes is nasty.

 

​Plus its my farm plane tier as you have Clevelands, Atlantas ect knocking around with aa death. Even German BBs wipe out tier 6 IJN planes.

 

I know i would do well in it, but the Sapain is just fine thank you I love messing with other CV players (kaga players more so), something you cant do in other Tier 7 CV