Japanese Carrier - Zuiho

[Lee1233]

Hello,

 

I currently have a Zuiho carrier and I have no idea on how to play it. Every match I go up against a carrier that can obliterate my fighters, torpedo and bomber waves and not sure what to do. I always end up having my planes being camped, only way I can keep them alive is to hold them back and not use them.

 

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong and offer any advice?

 

Thanks alot,

 

Lee.

[Trufflie]

thats the story of japanese carriers.

be really sneaky or go afk.

[Seaman_Rookie]

Zuiho - 1 squad fighters, 2 torps, 1 bomb, tier V.  Other tier V carrier is USN Bogue, often in AS mode with 2 fighters (superior) and 1 bomber.

 

If you keep your squadrons together and try to 'push through' both of them, your fighters will be downed by 1 squadron while the other fighter squadron ravages your attack planes.

 

If the bogue captain tries to cover the map by having 1 fighter on each side, you have the option of trying to push through one side.  your fighters may be able to keep their single squad busy enough for your attack planes to get away.

 

Most bogue captains keep their fighters together.  Divide your squadrons and bait the USN to send their fighters to the other side, then attack the side they are not on.  Example: Your fighters are east, where they can be seen but over their ships and USN fighters align across them over their ships.  Just looking at each other.  Your other planes are west, and strike a target there.  (strike planes have to deal with cruiser float fighters themselves.)  ** Your strike planes must remain out of sight of the other team for this to work.  Getting discovered by a red DD means attacking that DD and getting back quickly.

[BelgaraththeSorcerer]

You just have to be careful and sneak your planes around for attacks....

[SirGerg]

Zuiho - 1 squad fighters, 2 torps, 1 bomb, tier V.  Other tier V carrier is USN Bogue, often in AS mode with 2 fighters (superior) and 1 bomber.

 

If you keep your squadrons together and try to 'push through' both of them, your fighters will be downed by 1 squadron while the other fighter squadron ravages your attack planes.

 

If the bogue captain tries to cover the map by having 1 fighter on each side, you have the option of trying to push through one side.  your fighters may be able to keep their single squad busy enough for your attack planes to get away.

 

Most bogue captains keep their fighters together.  Divide your squadrons and bait the USN to send their fighters to the other side, then attack the side they are not on.  Example: Your fighters are east, where they can be seen but over their ships and USN fighters align across them over their ships.  Just looking at each other.  Your other planes are west, and strike a target there.  (strike planes have to deal with cruiser float fighters themselves.)  ** Your strike planes must remain out of sight of the other team for this to work.  Getting discovered by a red DD means attacking that DD and getting back quickly.

This advice is as good as it gets. I've had some epic games doing just this!

 

Good Luck

[Morpheous]

Its pretty easy to fool a Bogue Captain on fighter loadout...they can only be in one or two places at once.  If you just try and bull through, you will continue to have the results your having.  Zuiho SHOULD  be one of your highest damage doing ships for its tier, its really that good, because most of its targets have bad AA.  As previously stated, feint.  I liked to use DB and fighter together and 2 torps together...fly out, let enemy see DB and F, back off or get quick strike on enemy DD then bail, and torps sneak in for a kill on other side of map on a BB.  Even if you get caught by one F on your Ts, you will probably get one squad in and get some torp hits.  It is a much superior CV then the Bogue.

[StrykerNC]

The first thing you do is wait.   Just like surface ships, you can YOLO planes, so, be patient.

 

Then, pick your spot on the map to move your CV first. (ps.. always move, never camp)

 

Then launch your planes.  Attach them to a team CA.  (use the tab and ALT keys to pick out Atlantas and Clevelands.. learn the ships that have good AA)

That way, enemy fighters that come near you are under fire from your team's ship.

 

Watch the map,as the battle unfolds.  You may not feel like you are doing anything, but losing all your planes in the first three minutes of battle is worse.

Follow the movements of the enemy fighters, and be prepared to strike in areas that they are not covering.  Keep your bombers together, so you can go ONE, TWO, THREE hits on a single enemy ship. I lead with the Dive Bombers to set them on fire, in hopes that they will use a repair party consumable.. Then drop your torps. Hopefully they will flood out if you don't sink them in one drop.

 

You need to constantly watch your fighters while you are attacking, as well.  Camp them over a DD to help your team kill it. Move them when you see enemy fighters.

 

If you are fighting another Zuiho, you don't have to always run, you can attack their fighters when they come over your team ships.  Or fighters that have been in the air a long time, are probably low on ammo. If they unfortunately just killed one of your bomber squads, you can pretty much guess your newly reloaded fighters will take them out.  It's all in the RNG at that point.

 

Hope this rambling helps..

 

[Lee1233]

Thanks for replies everyone, I will give the Zuiho another shot.

 

Lee.

[hiroshi_tea]

When I went CV, I started off going down the IJN line - wasn't planning on doing the USN ones at all.  And I did horrible in the zuiho.  I got especially butt mad against AS bogues in particular.  The moment I elited my ryujo - I sold it as i lost all desire to continue down the IJN line

 

So I picked up USN CV.  And I learned them - I learned that the bogue is absolute crap if you play it with the AS set up and quickly gave up on that.  I played strike bogue (no fighters) and got practice in learning how to play the map to my advantage.  

 

From my experiences with the strike bogue, I actually learned a lot about playing IJN carriers.  The bogue taught me that you don't need fighters to strike safely and effectively.  Just because the zuiho has a fighter doesn't mean it's actually for dogfighting. Rather, that fighter is completely for utility and defense.  You spot with it, you panic enemy TBs with it, and you may get a few barrages off.  ONLY rarely will you ever want to enter a dog fight with them!  You don't need that fighter to run escort for your bombers as good positioning will ensure their safety.  

 

I have repurchased the zuiho to see if i could apply my lessons learned and have been doing much better now.  I feel that the CVs are actually pretty balanced - you just need to play to your strengths and be patient with your squadrons.

 

[HBZK100]

When I went CV, I started off going down the IJN line - wasn't planning on doing the USN ones at all.  And I did horrible in the zuiho.  I got especially butt mad against AS bogues in particular.  The moment I elited my ryujo - I sold it as i lost all desire to continue down the IJN line

 

So I picked up USN CV.  And I learned them - I learned that the bogue is absolute crap if you play it with the AS set up and quickly gave up on that.  I played strike bogue (no fighters) and got practice in learning how to play the map to my advantage.  

 

From my experiences with the strike bogue, I actually learned a lot about playing IJN carriers.  The bogue taught me that you don't need fighters to strike safely and effectively.  Just because the zuiho has a fighter doesn't mean it's actually for dogfighting. Rather, that fighter is completely for utility and defense.  You spot with it, you panic enemy TBs with it, and you may get a few barrages off.  ONLY rarely will you ever want to enter a dog fight with them!  You don't need that fighter to run escort for your bombers as good positioning will ensure their safety.  

 

I have repurchased the zuiho to see if i could apply my lessons learned and have been doing much better now.  I feel that the CVs are actually pretty balanced - you just need to play to your strengths and be patient with your squadrons.

 

 

It's good that you've learned those lessons at an early tier, once you hit tiers 8 and above, you'll really need to use those tatics to your advantage.

[Capt_Quagmire]

Upgrade the zuiho's fighters quickly. After that use strafe (barrage) you can wipe an entire squadron of attack planes in one pass or give you the advantage on enemy fighters. Also the bogues 2 fighters can only be in 1 or 2 spots at a time. you have 4 squadrons so if they are spaced out they can't be everywhere.

 

Also a bogue only has 7 fighters and 3 bombers in reserve.

 

Try to catch their full bomber squadron and they are useless.

 

You can also draw the fighters over AA ships and let them be whittled away. 

 

If they camp you, launch a squadron and have them immediately land. Your AA will help clear the skies.

[thisguy_619]

Well i personally really like the ijn line because your strike layout has fighters in it while usn don't (except essex and midway). The other day i played a strike lexington and i was facing a shokaku using the 2/2/2 layout. I attack him first and he just spoiled the drop and he still have around half its hp ( i did the drop all in manual) with some extra fires. My torp bomber never drop anything.then i realized that the shokaku has sent her bomber for me and because i'm a bigger ship i'm detected earlier and get couple of hits from enemy bbs, then they bomb my ship and because my ship is wide the bombs mostly hit and i was set on fire ( 3 fires ) and then i waited for his torp bomber but they took so long that i'm afraid of my hp and repair them, at this time a friendly cruiser already covering me with his aa and his abilities but since i was already repaired i died because of the flooding. Now maybe you guys thinking why not ask a cruiser to escort you from the start. Well there is a problems. First, you don't always have a cruiser that want to give you aa. Second, the detectibility of the lex is huge even with camo (i don't have the commander perks) so i will be a bit far at the back and for the cruiser that was escorting me, well you get the idea. So for me a balance layout is the best layout to get

 

[thisguy_619]

And who have the most balance layout? The ijn cv. Thats why i choose that line