6,760 [RLGN] Estimated_Prophet Members 19,142 posts 35,184 battles Report post #1 Posted June 5, 2017 (edited) First I'll offer up the usual complaints; Too much rudder shift; too much flak, strafe can go to blazes, (never lost my bombers to it, but my fighters yes; the day strafe goes away for good I will dance a jig,) teams that can't shoot worth a flip, (second game was a 12-2 blowout loss,) and my own weakness with CVs, (too aggressive in the early game, weak at strafe, lack of deep strategic sense, weak micro skills...) Now for the good stuff; I did exactly like many reviewers said in my first game; caught a battleship alone a obliterated it with the torpedo squadrons. The squads recycle quite quickly, even with out Flight Control Mod 1, (the air group service time mod,) AA was serviceable against other Kagas, but not so much against a Ranger or Saipan, (I was never directly attacked by a Hiryu,) and the teams I had were not all bad; in the two wins the teams knew how to shoot, and in the second I had good support from a Cleveland that did more to drive off the Saipan torpedo bomber than my own AA did, In any case; As I expected, I am passable with Kaga; like most of my other T7 carriers, but lack the strategic sense and micro skills to influence the battle with it in any significant way beyond the occasional brilliant one-off. I've played what I consider to be a minimum amount of games for a ship in a particular mode, (in this case 'Randoms,') and will now use it only where I know I can exert some marginally more useful influence... ...see you in Co-op. Edited June 5, 2017 by Estimated_Prophet Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4,043 [SALTY] Ace_04 Members 8,930 posts 18,138 battles Report post #2 Posted June 5, 2017 Are the Kagas out in full force already? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
293 QJW Alpha Tester 1,150 posts 5,747 battles Report post #3 Posted June 5, 2017 Yep, they are pretty much everywhere. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6,760 [RLGN] Estimated_Prophet Members 19,142 posts 35,184 battles Report post #4 Posted June 5, 2017 Had one game with four of them... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1,324 [NERO] TTK_Aegis Members 3,630 posts Report post #5 Posted June 5, 2017 Had one game with four of them... So what you're saying is play my Atlanta... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
418 BaronVonTom -Members- 1,187 posts 26,928 battles Report post #6 Posted June 5, 2017 (edited) I'm still an average player in a cv but getting better by the week. I don't like the fighters at all. BUT, each of the 3 battles I played, I got a BB kill on the first strike with two tb squadrons and a db squadron. Unfortunately, the battle was over in 8 minutes. I really like the dive bombers. I hit 3 bombs on a auto drop and all of them on a manual drop. In the third battle of the morning it was Kaga vs Kaga and we both got wrecked by the 10 minute mark by dd's that got through, I killed one of them, but couldn't get both. Again, I got a BB kill off the first strike with those tb squadrons. I did finally try a straff run against the other Kaga's tb's and shot down 4 planes. Against a US CV, I tried a scrum and that did NOT go well for the Kaga's fighters. The straff run against the US CV's db's only netted 2 planes. As you stated, the reload times are fantastic!!!! I didn't notice much of a change with AA on ships......the kaga's planes get chewed up like any other cv's planes. I think if people keep their ships AA loaded, you probably won't have much to worry about. One thing I noticed this morning is a lot more people keeping together on the enemy teams for better AA. Many folks in chat already think the Kaga is OP. I will leave that determination for the unicum players to make. I haven't faced a Saipan yet so can't speak to what that will be like. With the dive bombers being so good, do we play 1-1-3 or 2-2-1? Tough call. Having 2 squads of fighters seems like a no brainer, but seeing those db's at work, I really have to wonder. The worst part for some folks I think will be the fact that quite a few battles this morning saw 2 carriers per side in tier 7. Folks in chat were not liking that one bit. But the folks playing the Atlanta were sure liking it.....lol....needless to say, I stayed far far away from the Atlanta. All in all I like it. I wish the fighters were better but I think the tb's and db's make up for it. It's just going to take a few battles to figure out the best way to play it. I'll add one more thing: THANK YOU WG for putting all the packages out at once. You listened to us and did the right thing. I am quite sure you won't be dissappointed with sales. Edited June 5, 2017 by BaronVonTom Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
900 vonKaiser Alpha Tester 2,902 posts 6,252 battles Report post #7 Posted June 5, 2017 So what you're saying is play my Atlanta... Wonder how the Hood stacks up against the planes... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
17,276 [WOLF5] HazeGrayUnderway [WOLF5] Members 38,142 posts 30,906 battles Report post #8 Posted June 5, 2017 (edited) Wonder how the Hood stacks up against the planes... The 2/2/1 is perfect against Hood's peculiar AA. It relies on TBs dropping with distance, not dumba$$ DBs flying right over the core of any ship's AA. Hood is also a gargantuan length BB at Tier VII. Seriously park one next to any of the other VII BBs. Right now these are glorious times for AA Boats like Atlanta, Cleveland, Adm.Hipper / Prinz Eugen, NC / 'Bama, AA Gneisenau, etc. Edited June 5, 2017 by HazeGrayUnderway Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
47 Kichougasaki Members 143 posts Report post #9 Posted June 5, 2017 I was planning on purchasing it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
900 vonKaiser Alpha Tester 2,902 posts 6,252 battles Report post #10 Posted June 5, 2017 The 2/2/1 is perfect against Hood's peculiar AA. It relies on TBs dropping with distance, not dumba$$ DBs flying right over the core of any ship's AA. Hood is also a gargantuan length BB at Tier VII. Seriously park one next to any of the other VII BBs. Right now these are glorious times for AA Boats like Atlanta, Cleveland, Adm.Hipper / Prinz Eugen, NC / 'Bama, AA Gneisenau, etc. Yeah I don't have many AA boats anymore, ground past them at this point... Atlanta is in my stable... Maybe try grinding some more on my Pensacola perhaps... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
133 SCygnus Members 672 posts 2,946 battles Report post #11 Posted June 5, 2017 The 2/2/1 is perfect against Hood's peculiar AA. It relies on TBs dropping with distance, not dumba$$ DBs flying right over the core of any ship's AA. Hood is also a gargantuan length BB at Tier VII. Seriously park one next to any of the other VII BBs. Right now these are glorious times for AA Boats like Atlanta, Cleveland, Adm.Hipper / Prinz Eugen, NC / 'Bama, AA Gneisenau, etc. Wondering if I should put my last points in to Manual AA, or whether the mod, BFT, and AFT will be enough on the Bama. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
2,852 Madwolf05 ∞ Alpha Tester 7,170 posts 4,070 battles Report post #12 Posted June 5, 2017 Wondering if I should put my last points in to Manual AA, or whether the mod, BFT, and AFT will be enough on the Bama. It really depends on how the CV rework changes the meta down the road, but for now I'd say it's better to go with Fire Prevention or the level 3 skill that reduces repair time and then getting Preventative Maintenance. Manual Secondaries are incredible though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
133 SCygnus Members 672 posts 2,946 battles Report post #13 Posted June 5, 2017 It really depends on how the CV rework changes the meta down the road, but for now I'd say it's better to go with Fire Prevention or the level 3 skill that reduces repair time and then getting Preventative Maintenance. Manual Secondaries are incredible though. Oh, I just meant for right now to abuse the temporary carrier glut. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6,760 [RLGN] Estimated_Prophet Members 19,142 posts 35,184 battles Report post #14 Posted June 5, 2017 (edited) Right now these are glorious times for AA Boats like Atlanta, Cleveland, Adm.Hipper / Prinz Eugen, NC / 'Bama, AA Gneisenau, etc. Pretty much why I had so much trouble; same as always in CVs, I see the smart players, and not the ones who seem to potato out and let a CV hammer them. I was planning on purchasing it. I got mine now because I wanted to get my minimum number of games in Randoms out of the way (5,) before players at large really learned how to deal with it. If you can afford it and are good with IJN CVs? Then go ahead and get it. I think it's a good CV, I'm just sucky at micro. Edited June 5, 2017 by Estimated_Prophet Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1,425 [0456] _ENO_ Members 3,945 posts 10,545 battles Report post #15 Posted June 5, 2017 (edited) What tiers were you ending up in the most? Wondering if I should run my AA Donk until Ranked hits... Edited June 5, 2017 by ENO75 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
642 [-K--] iHaveNoIntelligence Members 1,817 posts 9,029 battles Report post #16 Posted June 5, 2017 Wanted to buy Kaga and Enterprise but my GPU broke week ago and had to replace... Now I only have money for Enterprise :/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1,753 goldeagle1123 Members 5,424 posts 3,448 battles Report post #17 Posted June 5, 2017 Guess I'll take out my Hood later and try and get a Clear Sky. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6,760 [RLGN] Estimated_Prophet Members 19,142 posts 35,184 battles Report post #18 Posted June 5, 2017 What tiers were you ending up in the most? Wondering if I should run my AA Donk until Ranked hits... Had one game effectively at 5, (where I killed the BB, but the team couldn't shoot; a loss,) one 8-9, (that was really fun, team could mostly shoot, but while the Red Ranger could at least try to attack things, I couldn't get close to anything,) another loss; the rest were five-sixes, another loss, and my two wins. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1,054 [GGWP] Destroyer_Zeka Beta Testers 2,373 posts 14,193 battles Report post #19 Posted June 5, 2017 Tier VI Kaga planes vs my tier IX Udaloi AA? Plus DF? I went and mounted DF just because I wanted to PO some skrubs in sky cancer Kaga Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4,463 [SALVO] Dr_Venture Beta Testers, In AlfaTesters 6,598 posts 7,430 battles Report post #20 Posted June 5, 2017 Time to bust out the Ginny AA fortress... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
145 [K-P-M] Montana_Prussian Members 1,616 posts 18,452 battles Report post #21 Posted June 5, 2017 6 matches,only saw one,on my team. He did okay. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
11 [SAL-T] YuudachiPoi Beta Testers 94 posts 3,130 battles Report post #22 Posted June 5, 2017 I bought it for this history honestly. It's not that wonderful. Her planes suffer from the Japanese frailty COMBINED with the fact that they're outtiered in every circumstance. I'd give her a 5/10 at best, people will quickly learn that lower tier japanese planes stand zero chance against any form of AA. Hiryuu is superior in squad size and damage output, in my opinion. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
17,276 [WOLF5] HazeGrayUnderway [WOLF5] Members 38,142 posts 30,906 battles Report post #23 Posted June 5, 2017 (edited) I bought it for this history honestly. It's not that wonderful. Her planes suffer from the Japanese frailty COMBINED with the fact that they're outtiered in every circumstance. I'd give her a 5/10 at best, people will quickly learn that lower tier japanese planes stand zero chance against any form of AA. Hiryuu is superior in squad size and damage output, in my opinion. Hiryu vs Kaga, Kaga is hands down more damage capable. TWELVE torpedo drops by air is a big freakin' deal, possible right now only at Tier IX & X IJN CVs. Only Tier VII Kaga does that outside those 2 tiers. Her performance on Asia Server is proof of that. Kaga's about to come off Asia Server's Premium Shop. Her time window in the shop was May 19 - June 2. As of today, this was her 2 week performance with their server. For the sake of contrast here is what NA server is doing with its current crop of Tier VII CVs. The commonly used 2/2/2 Hiryu will have a run for its money against the typically flown 2/2/1 Kaga, especially when Dogfighting Expert is thrown in. An AS Hiryu however should clean house but Hiryu in that spec cuts away some precious surface attack firepower. Edited June 5, 2017 by HazeGrayUnderway Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6,760 [RLGN] Estimated_Prophet Members 19,142 posts 35,184 battles Report post #24 Posted June 5, 2017 Strafe and Defensive Fire; the 'Get out of Jail Free' cards of WoWs; and the two things that screw Kaga the most. Dogfighting Expert... I never have understood the reasonong behind that; you're in a sucky plane that fights better against a better plane? That's like an old P-40A magically being better against a Zero than a old Claude Just like with many other ships; Kaga has the potential to do well when top-tier; but quickly gets screwed when not. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
17,276 [WOLF5] HazeGrayUnderway [WOLF5] Members 38,142 posts 30,906 battles Report post #25 Posted June 5, 2017 Strafe and Defensive Fire; the 'Get out of Jail Free' cards of WoWs; and the two things that screw Kaga the most. Dogfighting Expert... I never have understood the reasonong behind that; you're in a sucky plane that fights better against a better plane? That's like an old P-40A magically being better against a Zero than a old Claude Just like with many other ships; Kaga has the potential to do well when top-tier; but quickly gets screwed when not. I played a few Atlanta games, wanting to see the fabled multi-Kaga matches but I was only able to see 1. The guy said it was his first Kaga match but he wasn't stupid and kept his planes well away from me and the BBs I was protecting. Low hanging fruit of isolated ships and sniping our Ranger was his game. The damage he did to our 1/1/1 Ranger in one attack run was amazing. Torps & Flooding alone killed him even though 1 squadron of TBs were annihilated by the fighter unit. Kaga's fighters simply pinned the fighters or strafed, allowing the bombers a mostly clean attack run. I then watched him stagger his TB runs on a Colorado. 1 TB unit at a time, high attrition. 6 planes in, 2 survive but 4-5 torps still drop. Cause flooding, force damage control use, then 'lo and behold, here comes the 2nd TB + 1 DB unit to finish him off. I don't see CVs do DOT stacking like that anymore, not on an everyday basis like CVs used to at launch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
