Aquila and Chkalov in Ops, any opinions?

[groundace]

Considering grabbing Chkalov B during the black Friday sale and been eying Aquila for some time. Both seem like they would be good for ops but has anyone tried them in that mode so far?

[Crazy_08]

Alot of CV players in ops are just spotters  Most that I have seen playing really don t help the team at all

[Ahskance]

2 hours ago, groundace said:

Considering grabbing Chkalov B during the black Friday sale and been eying Aquila for some time. Both seem like they would be good for ops but has anyone tried them in that mode so far?

Both can be very solid options.  Operations tend to have enemies spawn in groups, so be prepared to excercise some retraint with your planes to avoid losing a lot early on.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

I have both but I haven't used Chkalov in Ops as much.  Just haven't gotten around to it since I switch ships so much.

I bought Aquila just after Random Ops became a thing.  Outside Amalfi, my choices for Tier VIII Italian ships suck:  Roma and Vittorio Veneto can't hit anything.  Amalfi's great but she's a tech tree bote and I can't freely swap in captains like I want.  I'm not sold on the Tier VIII ITA DD.

 

Aquila's planes are real fast.  The attack planes fire rockets and can really slam hard against Cruisers.  You'll get Pens at any angles but like German CVs and their AP rocket planes, to get the best results you need to hit Cruisers at their broadside.  While you will still get Pens and some hits from straight bow on, stern on attacks, you won't get as much and the Citadels won't come from there a whole lot.  The attack planes will do their job against DDs because of so many rockets fired, but the damage typically isn't going to be great, especially if the DD is wiggling around.

TBs are serviceable. 

The catch with Aquila is her planes are real squishy.  You have to be real careful on what you're attacking.  You can get by with a quick, dash in and AP Rocket a USN Cruiser in Operations just fine despite their AA.  The problem are the clumps of ships, i.e. the cluster of DDs and Cruisers in Cherry Blossom, or when the ships start spawning together in Narai, or the clumps of USN ships in Ultimate F-U.  Your squads will get evaporated.  Try going for isolated ships if possible.  You can go after protected ships if they're an objective and trade your planes, but Aquila doesn't replace her losses easily like say, Enterprise.

The TBs do their job well enough for Aquila but the real gauge to know if you're going to have a good game with this CV is how successful you are in using your AP rocket attack planes.  Those things can score good damage for you if done right.  Using TBs with Carriers is easy, but how you do with the other squads says how great a game you'll have.

===

Now, CV being decent enough is one thing, how is it compared to her peers?  Co-Op is one thing but Operations is another animal.

I'd say Kaga is a better attack platform and hard to beat as a choice.

Graf Zeppelin is more fun and can be better if you can employ the secondaries while not getting smashed to pieces in Ops.

Aquila I'd consider average, just like Lexington, Shokaku.

[groundace]

19 hours ago, HazeGrayUnderway said:

I have both but I haven't used Chkalov in Ops as much.  Just haven't gotten around to it since I switch ships so much.

I bought Aquila just after Random Ops became a thing.  Outside Amalfi, my choices for Tier VIII Italian ships suck:  Roma and Vittorio Veneto can't hit anything.  Amalfi's great but she's a tech tree bote and I can't freely swap in captains like I want.  I'm not sold on the Tier VIII ITA DD.

 

Aquila's planes are real fast.  The attack planes fire rockets and can really slam hard against Cruisers.  You'll get Pens at any angles but like German CVs and their AP rocket planes, to get the best results you need to hit Cruisers at their broadside.  While you will still get Pens and some hits from straight bow on, stern on attacks, you won't get as much and the Citadels won't come from there a whole lot.  The attack planes will do their job against DDs because of so many rockets fired, but the damage typically isn't going to be great, especially if the DD is wiggling around.

TBs are serviceable. 

The catch with Aquila is her planes are real squishy.  You have to be real careful on what you're attacking.  You can get by with a quick, dash in and AP Rocket a USN Cruiser in Operations just fine despite their AA.  The problem are the clumps of ships, i.e. the cluster of DDs and Cruisers in Cherry Blossom, or when the ships start spawning together in Narai, or the clumps of USN ships in Ultimate F-U.  Your squads will get evaporated.  Try going for isolated ships if possible.  You can go after protected ships if they're an objective and trade your planes, but Aquila doesn't replace her losses easily like say, Enterprise.

The TBs do their job well enough for Aquila but the real gauge to know if you're going to have a good game with this CV is how successful you are in using your AP rocket attack planes.  Those things can score good damage for you if done right.  Using TBs with Carriers is easy, but how you do with the other squads says how great a game you'll have.

===

Now, CV being decent enough is one thing, how is it compared to her peers?  Co-Op is one thing but Operations is another animal.

I'd say Kaga is a better attack platform and hard to beat as a choice.

Graf Zeppelin is more fun and can be better if you can employ the secondaries while not getting smashed to pieces in Ops.

Aquila I'd consider average, just like Lexington, Shokaku.

I already have Kaga and Graf Zeppelin and am just wanting something new to mess with. I loved the ap rockets on Lowenhart so sap rockets sound pretty fun too. Especially as even in the current random ops, the majority of your opponents will be between tier 4 and 7. Also doesn't Aquila have a large reserve for tier 8?

[HazeGrayUnderway]

9 hours ago, groundace said:

I already have Kaga and Graf Zeppelin and am just wanting something new to mess with. I loved the ap rockets on Lowenhart so sap rockets sound pretty fun too. Especially as even in the current random ops, the majority of your opponents will be between tier 4 and 7. Also doesn't Aquila have a large reserve for tier 8?

I'm not sure how extensive Aquila's reserves are, but it's not enough sometimes.  Especially if the team is screwing up and you have to hard carry.

[Vader_Sama]

Chkalov is absolutely among the top CVs to use in ops on par with Kaga

[tfcas119]

Chkalov is pretty broken even by CV standards, probably the best actual CV for ops (Zeppelin doesn’t count)

Aquilla’s AP rockets can murder many of the cruisers you’ll see, but the planes are somewhat squishy, so clumps of AA/carelessness could cause problems when you need planes most.