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Hello Captains, I'm wondering if somebody can provide me with a succinct (doesn't have to be too detailed) comparison of the pros/cons of the CV lines, as they play in the current meta, or point me to a thread that does so? I haven't actually played any CVS in a long time, but on the off-chance that I wanted to dabble in them again, I just wanted to know what I was getting myself in for with the different CV lines. Thanks 👍

Having gone up to the Lexington on the USN side but constantly dealing with and hearing about the IJN CV superiority, I chose to put it to the test. As of now, I'm currently at the Ryujo, and I can see where the flavor begins. It's completely ridiculous. The enemy Ryujo was actually AS build, but seemed...like a bot. He had three fighters and put 1 squad west and two east like one expects, but then....he left them standing. It's as if he had no sense of micromanaging the squads, so seemingly while he was directing the attackers he left the fighters alone. So I ate them in strafes. He also let a lot of my strikes go. Not sure why. But as far as comparison between IJN and USN, it's pretty one sided in my opinion. The Independence up to Lexington operate on a hard strike, and then they go back, and you wait ages before it comes back around. Your fighters are extremely strong, but you only have one squadron so they're frequently overtasking and fail to operate as necessary. From Zuiho to Ryujo however, it's different. It's a revolving door of planes because once a strike is complete, the next wave goes in while they rearm, and you're fixing your fighters for scouting/deterrence and the strike planes just continuously cycle. The presence of two torpedo squads is monumental in effectiveness because of cross dropping, making DD lives miserable. On top of that, that bomb reticle for the DBs. What is that. Seriously. IJN DBs strike those tiny DDs with ease, and it makes lining up shots on larger ships incredibly easy. They're not necessary for damage. Even 3-4 hits out of 10 bombs sets two fires and that's all I need, because my TBs are already flying in or they already came and burnt his DC. I've gotten so many fire and flooding achievements it's not funny. I wish the USN CVs were this easy. Tricking the DC's of ships with USN squadrons is far more difficult. Your DBs suck at hitting DDs due to the wider reticle, and your torpedo wall squadron is great for long ships....but sucks against DDs. Don't get me wrong, it works great at low tier. Bogue and Langley can both devstrike a bunch of CL in low tier games like Karlsruhe and Phoenix because of their low HP, so a single good TB run will end them. But in later tiers...it just doesn't work. Ryujo even has a larger hanger than Indy, making things more comfy still. I'd say the only real downfall in my limited experience, is that you really have to crank up your micromanaging compared to the USN to use them to the fullest. Other than that...it's pretty nice. A factor that also compelled me to go up the IJN CV line is because of the pending rework set to occur. No doubt, like tech tree and large mechanic changes, compensations would be made. Having both lines set to go for testing is certainly a worthy cause in my book, and I get a new set of CVs to play with anyway. It doesn't hurt to have experience in both lines, so I can play both efficiently by knowing strengths and weaknesses. I'm backing up my testing and grind back up the tiers with some occasional videos of Fara, so I'm once more learning again while grinding. Never hurts to improve your game midgrind.