Is it a good idea to grind USN CV's when one already owns IJN CV's?

[Casas5591]

I've made it to a subjective promise land in the IJN CV line with the Ryujo supplemented by my Hosho for auxiliary and utility purposes.

 

This begs the question whether I should sample the USN CV line given USN meta favors strike similar to the IJN but without the ever useful fighter squadron. To USN CV or not to USN CV, that is the question there. Really it is. Given that I do, which USN CV ship is the most "liberating" from typical strike builds yet is the most "American" in terms of potency in battle?

[El_Judarino]

The compensatory perk of the USN CV line's strike package is probably their durability and tighter bomber spreads (the torps I assume you're familiar with and the db's suffer much less panic from fighters).

 

I'm up to ranger and haven't really missed my fighters.

 

Lex looks really nice with those thousand pound bombs. They might make the 2/0/2 loadout attractive.

 

Otherwise, Indy is the only USN CV that doesn't punish you for staying with a balanced loadout before tier 9 or 10.

[pyantoryng]

US carriers got 9867x6 damage torpedoes right from the Bogue (and stays that way all the way through) and gets dive bombers that *can* deal lots of damage on the strike end of it. Unfortunately there is only one torpedo squad all the way up so forget about torpedo pincer or whatever you call it.

 

...and with fighter load it gets full benefit from Air Supremacy, but that is a story to be saved for a very, very long way away...

 

Only the Independence has balanced loadout that is truly balanced (i.e. Langley loadout), other carriers will force you to lose a squad all the way up to the Essex. You either throw away your fighters (no longer the case with Essex and Midway) or your torpedo bombers to get the extra squad with American carrier...that's where the "American" is according to WG...

[hiroshi_tea]

As a USN CV, you are forced into 2 different paradigms of thought.

 

1 - total air dominance as USN air superiority is the best at denying the skies to the enemy.  Even IJN AS loadouts are not as good for this task (but they benefit from a bit more striking power when compared to the USN)

2 - total strike power which is actually stronger than what the IJN have.  The cost however is the lack of fighters and being forced to play cautiously across the map.

 

You do have the option of running balanced in USN CVs - but all IJN loadouts are better than the USN balanced load outs

(why should it be anyways since the USN has superiority in the extremes found in AS or Strike.  And why should we expect the stock loadout be on parity with the IJN elite loadouts?)

[ValkyrWarframe]

US torpedo squads are devastating.  US dive bombers above Tier 6 are devastating.  They lack the flexibility of a lot of squads.

[hiroshi_tea]

US dive bombers are devastating starting with the strike bogue.  Because they come in pairs, they're actually on par with a TB if they chain fire damage.

[BelgaraththeSorcerer]

US dive bombers are devastating starting with the strike bogue.  Because they come in pairs, they're actually on par with a TB if they chain fire damage.

 

Yeah, the DB's are really strong... Now that I am on the Lex I will group 2 DB's and do 10k alphs or so and start 2-3 fires, then let them repair and then torp and DB them again.... The DB's are very very strong once you hit T8.

[CanoeShoe]

I did the IJN line first, I'm at the Hiryu t7 now.  I went back and did the US line I'm at the Independence, t6 now.  Its odd starting over again your planes are so slow.  

 

So far I like the US line.  Even though you have only 1 torp squad it is really devastating and it's way harder for cruisers and dds to dodge and thread the needles on your torps.  

[Arctic36]

USN CV's are better!  The way AA is these days, flying air tanks are far better than IJN paper planes.  Also, USN gets more reinforcements in hanger. 

[Casas5591]

Sacreblu! I'm pleasantly surprised by the constructive answers. Thank you very much!

 

I should of figured the IJN were the "balanced" flavor of CV play. How silly of me.

 

I have a further inquiry on the USN line if it's not to strenuous to ask. How much damage do USN 500kg bombers do compared to IJN 250kg bombers?

[HBZK100]

Sacreblu! I'm pleasantly surprised by the constructive answers. Thank you very much!

 

I should of figured the IJN were the "balanced" flavor of CV play. How silly of me.

 

I have a further inquiry on the USN line if it's not to strenuous to ask. How much damage do USN 500kg bombers do compared to IJN 250kg bombers?

 

500 / 2 = 250

So the USN DBs do 2x more damage.

[pyantoryng]

Japanese 250kg bombs do something like 4500 damage...the US 500lbs deals 7500 damage max (while 1000lbs goes up to 10500), the US drops up to six of those per squad (up to seven with Air Supremacy) as opposed to Japanese four (five). Curiously enough, Japanese 250kg is significantly worse than US's 500lb (which is around the same weight).

 

Don't hope for those to make their max displayed damage though, Destroyers can never take maximum damage hits outside of a detonation and Cruisers at tier 6 starts to get real tough with defensive fire and better armor.

[HBZK100]

Japanese 250kg bombs do something like 4500 damage...the US 500lbs deals 7500 damage max (while 1000lbs goes up to 10500), the US drops up to six of those per squad (up to seven with Air Supremacy) as opposed to Japanese four (five). Curiously enough, Japanese 250kg is significantly worse than US's 500lb (which is around the same weight).

 

Don't hope for those to make their max displayed damage though, Destroyers can never take maximum damage hits outside of a detonation and Cruisers at tier 6 starts to get real tough with defensive fire and better armor.

 

Adding to the post above:

 

From what I've heard, the IJN DBs have a VERY accurate manual drop to compensate for the lack of bombs...

[tremor3258]

 

Adding to the post above:

 

From what I've heard, the IJN DBs have a VERY accurate manual drop to compensate for the lack of bombs...

 

The drop area's about Fubuki-sized, in my experience, for IJNs

[hiroshi_tea]

the down side is that IJN DB plane losses have a very heavy impact on DB drop success (25% reduction compared to USN 17% reduction) and that AA panic causes the DB drop circle to bloom singificantly larger than that of panicked USN DBs

[Hopelesshobo]

 

The drop area's about Fubuki-sized, in my experience, for IJNs

 

Until they get panicked, then it becomes the size of Rhode Island.

[tremor3258]

 

Until they get panicked, then it becomes the size of Rhode Island.

 

Well yeah, nervous dive bombers have aim that only T4 battleship main turret gunners can envy.  (And yet, panicked TB spreads are relatively predictable)