So after playing CVs a bit they BITE!

[General_Strom]

Bogue is worthless either I have to many fighters and NO damage or NO fighters and all my planes get shot down.  Let not forget ii is SLOWER then a snail in 50 feet of snow! I can see why there are not many CV players in the higher tiers as I too am about to give up on them.  Not having much better luck with the tier 5 Japanese CV either.  

[Peregrinas]

 Before the mirror MM changes, balanced Bogue (1/1/0) was best Bogue. I don't want to touch that ship now with mirror CV MM.

[Palladia]

Bogue is worthless either I have to many fighters and NO damage or NO fighters and all my planes get shot down.  Let not forget ii is SLOWER then a snail in 50 feet of snow! I can see why there are not many CV players in the higher tiers as I too am about to give up on them.  Not having much better luck with the tier 5 Japanese CV either.  

 

The Zuiho is actually a really good ship.  The problem is that you're almost always going to run up against AS Bogues and that can put a damper on things.  Learn to use that fighter to distract your opponent if it comes down to it and cross drop on your targets.  The important part about cross dropping is timing,  the second drop has to occur shortly after the first or your opponent is just going to hop scotch through them.

[Admiral_Franz_von_Hipper]

Play with the stock 110 layout then, that one is the best of the three. I just finished grinding it and ended with a 90% Winrate.

 

[TheKrimzonDemon]

My question to you is: Did it hurt?

 

[BladedPheonix]

once you get tier 6 CVs become WAY better. WG nerfed CVS a few patches ago to prevcent seaclubing and it really backfired!

 

If you ask me, they should have only removed manual torpedos for tier 4 and kept everything else for the CVS. also having no strafe ability until tier 6 is just stupid because tier 6 CVS can wreck tier 5 CVS with their Strafes!

[Sethanas]

Bogue is worthless either I have to many fighters and NO damage or NO fighters and all my planes get shot down.  Let not forget ii is SLOWER then a snail in 50 feet of snow! I can see why there are not many CV players in the higher tiers as I too am about to give up on them.  Not having much better luck with the tier 5 Japanese CV either.  

 

Go strike, bait planes towards you, dodge torps like a baws get clear skies with no fighters and still do 80K dmg, that was the highlight game for the bogue in my case.

 

My opinion, play strike, because if you do run into an AS he's already handicapped, all he can really do is piss you off... Take your time, find an opening send everything and delete someone, rinse and repeat.

 

Now that there's no more strafe at t4-5 you should be able to work around the zui's fighters easily enough.

[SullyQuindarius]

Don't do US CVs, they are awful. Do IJN, Hosho/Zuiho are great first carriers.

[InspGadgt]

It gets better around T7...the first few tiers are pretty painful...especially in USN CVs.

 

[General_Strom]

Thanks for the info!  Is it better to have dive bombers run the bow to the back for attack from the side?

 

[1nv4d3rZ1m]

It gets better around T7...the first few tiers are pretty painful...especially in USN CVs.

 

That's kind of the opposite of my experience, I did well in the USN CVs until tier 7 running balanced and then ran into issues because the ranger does not put enough planes in the air with the balanced loadout and the other two are so limited. 

[Xenomancers]

Thanks for the info!  Is it better to have dive bombers run the bow to the back for attack from the side?

 

Dive bombers attack from the bow or stern. Autodrops are decent if the ship is turning- if the ship isn't turning you can get a wicked bomb hit though with a manual drop.

 

Torp bombers attempt to drop on the side. Always manual drop.

[VTAdmiral]

That's kind of the opposite of my experience, I did well in the USN CVs until tier 7 running balanced and then ran into issues because the ranger does not put enough planes in the air with the balanced loadout and the other two are so limited. 

 

Tier 7 also has to deal with Saipan, which many carrier captains have a hard time with. And Kaga, coming soon, will make tier 7 carriers even more difficult due to her huge hanger count.

[joshua011]

Try the 0/1/2 setup, don't launch planes immediately when battle starts, wait to see where enemy fighters go, and go opposite side, try to strike enemy CV off guard and let top squad go in first, wait for enemy CV to use his repair party before letting your 2 bombs go in and set him on fire, kills him most of the time. Then get support from friendly cruisers and BBs to shoot down enemy fighters.

[Flashtirade]

That's kind of the opposite of my experience, I did well in the USN CVs until tier 7 running balanced and then ran into issues because the ranger does not put enough planes in the air with the balanced loadout and the other two are so limited. 

 

Balanced Ranger is actually quite workable. Against other Rangers.

Anything else driven by a semi-competent captain will tear it apart.

[1nv4d3rZ1m]

 

Balanced Ranger is actually quite workable. Against other Rangers.

Anything else driven by a semi-competent captain will tear it apart.

 

The only fair fight for a range is vs another ranger. 

[InspGadgt]

Thanks for the info!  Is it better to have dive bombers run the bow to the back for attack from the side?

 

 

You want to attack down the center line of the ship approaching from either the front or rear.

 

That's kind of the opposite of my experience, I did well in the USN CVs until tier 7 running balanced and then ran into issues because the ranger does not put enough planes in the air with the balanced loadout and the other two are so limited. 

 

The Ranger used to be a pretty good ship until WG started making all kinds of changes to CVs.  I really wanted to say it gets better at tier 9 and 10...but didn't want to discourage him too much.  Essex and Midway are really the only non-premium USN CVs that I find enjoyable because they can somewhat stand up to their IJN counterparts.  IJN still has the advantage but it doesn't seem as big there for me.