Canek
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v1.0 (Sep 07) - Maiden trip =) v1.1 (Sep 07) - Added sec. V; "Dancing with the flow". - Relocated section V to VI. - Edited sec. III "Crew" - Added version log. v1.2 (Oct 07) - Added sec. VI; "Also read". v1.21 (Dec 07) - Edited sec. VI; "Also read". v1.22 (Feb 08) - Edited sec. V; "Dancing with the flow" v1.3 (Feb 09) - Added sec. IV.e; "Subs: The silent menace" - Edited various sections, minor changes. v1.31 (Dec 09) - Updated sec. III "Crew". Greetings captain. I hope you will find this guide useful, as it has been for me. Im currently sailing a CV5 KriegsMarine Europa, and I have been playing Navyfield for four years now. I will appreciate any constructive comments, but please avoid flamingand/or posting stuff like "u sux" just to get your points up. Also, my apologies in advance for any grammar mistakes since Im not a native english speaker. This guide assumes you are past the point of choosing lines, and are at least already thinking on getting a Carrier Vessel. Let's get started.
I) THE ROLE OF A CV
This topic has been discussed over and over, and there's no reason to think this will stop any soon. For the purposes of this guide, CVs are not just the back "parking slots" for planes, nor the "spitting fighters" vessels many people think they are. CVs are designed as the most versatile ships you can ever find in-game, and as often happens with every other jack-of-all-trades, they suffer a bit in performance in certain areas: i.e., you can bomb other ships, but you will never be as good as a BB doing it.
Said that, it would be sort of foolish to focus on a single area. The real strength of a well-directed CV is the capability to engage any situation it dugs in, so I strongly recommend you to load a wide array of planes, according to your playing style. If we're always waiting for the ideal situation, everytime it gets a bit out of control we'd be destined to lose. I'll get into specific battle situations later.
II) PLANE LOAD OUT
KriegsMarine carriers often suffers from lack of plane space, while plenty-space IJN carriers suffer from plane quality. Regardless the case, it's important for you to identify the situation and act consequently, a good carrier captain cannot have a pre-determined set of launching planes, it would be foolish and very boring. My personal choice is to load around half of the space for fighters, and the another half with Dive Bombers AND Torp Bombers. I can not stress enough about the torp bombers: it is true that KM torps are not the best in the game, but there are situations where those pesky torpedeers are quite handy. Remember about being versatile? So, writing that again in pct: 50/40/10 for F/DB/TB. However, I remind you that this is a personal choice. It's up to you to choose whatever load fits you well, just don't neglect any kind of plane. (There are a few captains who add scout planes to the load out, but that's not precisely a wonderful choice since any of your other planes can do the scouting task, specially torp bombers with that wide sight area.)
III) CREW
Pilots, pilots, pilots. It seems most of the carrier captains around agree on this. When I first got my Seydlitz, I remember strongly considering adding an engineer to the support slots, along with a medic. DON'T. Support space should and must be used for pilots, remember you're a carrier. D'oh. Once again, try to build a crew that suits your playing style: my choice is to add (most of the carriers have 6-7 support slots) 3-4 fighters with 2 DBs and 1 TB. The reason for this is that fighters will be demanded to fill many roles, doing a lot more stuff than your bombers. It is important to be aware of the goal: high-end carriers regardless of their nation, can only use 8 pilots at any time. Whatever load-out you choose, don't use more than 8 pilots. (And most likely not less).
Some carriers have space for guns, and some captains recommend to carry a set of gunners "just in case a wandering DD, a sub or even a puny FF gets too close". In my experience, that's not needed. Not at all. I really think that people doing that just can't stand a small ship sinking their "almighty" carriers, ergo the gunners onboard just exist to defend the captain's ego. Pretty, but uneffective. I have only been attacked by a destroyer a couple of times in all my CV career, and they were sunk by a fellow CL who was visiting the neighborhood. 99% of the times you'll get sunk will be because of BB' fire or a Bomber attack. Your guns -which might have AA shells- will be uneffective against such threats. So, what to do?
Add a medic! One of the R-slots dedicated to a medic will DRAMATICALLY reduce your pilot casualties, which is specially stressful when your shining bomber squad is all shot down by enemy fire. Remember that CVs have the highest crew loss rate in the game. The extra free R-slot could be used to add a Seaman, a Repairer or a Restorer, whatever you like. Engineers do not work outside support slots, so they're a no-go in a gun slot.
IV) NAVAL WARFARE
So finally, comes the section for which I have called this guide like I called it. In battle, everything goes, so instead of writing a specific "How to cook enemy BBs in their ink when the moon is full" or "How to sing the air superiority song in Re minor" sections, I will point possible actions to be taken and resources to be dispossed, which have resulted particulary effective. -For me and many of the interviewed captains, during three years of different styles of gameplay.-
IV.a) Comms
First and foremost, if you're not in a fleet / squad / gang / horde, I strongly advice you to do so. To be part of a battle group and to be able to communicate with them with your own voice is uber helpful. It can really turn the tide of a battle. If not, be sure to read the chat messages, specially those in brown: some of them are requests for fighter cover, and you MUST respond to these ASAP. Some others will be requesting for some firepower help. If possible, let them know you're taking the call. Think on yourself as your battle group 911. However, it's up to you to decide the importance of the zone, and the distance to your location. Being a versatile carrier, you can effectively cover a wide array of zones. IV.b) The pesky torpedo whore.
These small ships, often Destroyers and sometimes Light Cruisers are fast and poorly armed. They tend to go in front to deploy their torp courtain, which could be very harmful not because of the damage, but because of the delay in positioning for your own battleships. Being a fast ship, more than a couple of BB salvos will be thrown before hitting him, which could be used to hit more juicy targets, already in range. That's why a small group of your own TB would be perfect for the mission: I usually send 3 of them to hunt these ships, due to the fast load rates, allowing you to prepare fighters to the battle. Usually 2 torps would sunk or badly cripple these ships, while a 3-hit almost ensures your first sunken ship. These captains go alone, not knowing what's in front of them. Their stress level is above normal, since they know they're prolly the first dying. If you target the ship with your bombers since airlift and keep it like that while your bombers get there, the captain will most likely freak out or at least will definitively look up to the skies waiting for the bombing, greatly diminishing his ability to deploy the buggy torp courtain, or making him throw it early. Remember the ship is being controlled by a human being, play with his mind!
IV.c) Fighters
Before the TW adventure, think on this as a must: Thou shall always have fighters ready or getting ready. I use squads of 3 fighters, because of the "readying" speed, but once again: different situations require different strategies. If you deploy a group, get ready the next one before doing anything else. After that, there are basically four sort of missions your fighters are entitled to: Protecting, Escorting, Scouting and the most important: Hunting (A.K.A. Air Superiority).
IV.c.1) Protecting
Remember those desperate and often rude calls for fighter cover? One of the most important fighter missions is not to allow enemy aircraft to mind their bussiness on your air space. Anything close to a blue dot in the map is YOUR air space, and thus you have to defend it. We all would like to have hundreds of fighters to send everywhere they're needed, but we just don't. Evaluating here is critical: Which one of the ships under attack is more important, by rank or position? Where is the enemy aircarft coming from? Am I in position to stand a fight against these, or I will only send my fighters to die, without any noticeable effect? Will this fighter group be more helpful in another sort of mission? Would this currently empty zone be more important to defend now than this? After you considered all those interrogants -you have 3E-5 secs to do that- decide, and act. Very often, the worst decision is to do nothing.
IV.c.2) Hunting (A.K.A. Air superiority)
More common at the early stages of the battle, you will see plenty of lonely, foolishly brave aircraft invading your airspace. These Von Richtofen fans are scout planes, launched from enemy Cruisers and Battleships. Hunting them down it's very important for a simple reason: enemy ships cannot shot at something they can't see. Therefore, if they can't shot at anything, they can't sink anything. If they can't sink us, they can't win the battle. It sounds simple, but is CRITICAL. An enemy scout plane must be among the preferred meals of your fighters. Among the enemy aircraft, there are fighter and bomber incursions to your "air" as well. Even if their "task" is different, they also provide vision to the enemy battle group, so keep this in mind when choosing prey of your fighters. The ultimate goal of hunting is to actively get rid of enemy aircraft, but that's utopic. The only means to do that is to sink their carriers, but that's a job for some other of your boys. Keep baby-sitting those hunters for a bit, it pays dividends in the long run! This is particularly important in the early stages of a battle.
IV.c.3) Escorting
Now this might be a bit different from what you've read about CVs until now. I consider it the best possible mission for a fighter group since they do every other mission while performing this: they defend the zones where they travel, they hunt down enemy planes in the way and they also scout, since these escorting incursions are usually deep inside enemy waters. Basically, in here you're using one fighter group to escort a group of bombers attacking an enemy ship. Altough it is not necessary, I strongly recommend you to always use escorts when sending bombers anywhere. Here are just a few goddies of doing it like that:
- If your attacking squad finds an enemy defending squad, your fighters will engage them, allowing your bombers to pass thru and reach their destination. - Usually, AA ships aim their guns to the first wave. Perhaps your fighters will be shot down, but the bombers still make it to the intended target, if you use the height controls with skill. - The escorts will be shoting down all scout planes they find on the way. (Requires you to re-direct to the target, though) - After the bombing, if both the escorts and the bombers survived, the bombers will immediately go back to your carrier. However, the escort group will circle around the zone of the enemy ships for some more time, providing vision to your own battleships to finish off the enemies in the area.
IV.c.4) Scouting
Even if the sight area is not really wide, a group -or a lonely- fighter can spot hiding ships or even better, a scouting incursion in enemy waters by a fighter group will prove difficult to shot down. Even if they engage and start circling, they will be providing vision for that particular area for a decent amount of time. Also, any ship paying attention to them will not pay attention to our own ships. Once again, information is vital for your team success: remember if we can't see them, we can't win. Do this kind of missions if your team scouts are not being used or useful. Scouting acquires importance as the battle goes old, since space is wider between ships.
IV.d) Bombing
So you think we forgot about the fashion pilots? While the fighters are working their butts out there, these DBs and TBs are scratching themselves in the carrier, showing each other their love just as the village people taught them. Bombing runs are both fun and dangerous, equally useful. First off, stop thinking on bombing missions as "the act of dropping explosives to enemy ships". As told in escorting section(IV.c.3), bombing enemy ships accomplish more goals than just damaging -commonly scratching- enemy ships. An often neglected fact about bombing is the chilling effect the red marker has on any player. Knowing you're targeted makes you to be alert on the skies, forgetting any activity you were doing before. Either aiming your AA, or trying to maneuver to avoid either airstrikes or torpedoes, the attacked ship simply stops playing in the sniper game that BBs and cruisers play. This has proven useful more than once, a distracted ship is easy prey for your own ships.
In the other hand, outside the mind games, anything lower than a battleship can be sunk by a bombing run of basic planes. Choose your targets carefully, assign them importance as you see fit: just remember that contrary to the common thinking, there is no such as a dedicated target. The importance changes with the situation, so trust yourself while choosing victims, keep in mind your group needs before yours and always have a secondary target, just in case the first one gets sunk / gets too heavily guarded.
IV.e) Subs, the silent menace.
Ever since subs were added to the game, gameplay has changed substantially. Regardless the effects subs have on the front line, they have become an increasing risk for the "support" lines of battle, which is as you might have guessed: us, the CVs. They are often invisible until they are in front of you, ready to sink a juicy and plane-loaded target. I must stay honest, the chances of surviving this is not that spectacular.
However, what you can do is to help the other support ships such as Destroyers and Light Cruisers, which are mostly meant to safeguard from these kind of incursions: get a small group of Torp Bombers on the air. They are higly effective against subs, and 3 of them are more than enough to dispose or badly cripple the little bugger. If you remembered to send all armor to bulge as a CV is supossed to, there will be enough time to prepare, fly and attack the sub before he gets to you.
V) DANCING WITH THE FLOW (Thanks to Lordsaxon)
So the first times I entered great battles with my low level cruisers, I saw fat carriers moving south and north at full speed, like if they were being chased up and down by some undetectable foe. Also, watching them sitting in their initial spot, like if their engines were broken. Following the spirit of this guide, I will not say what is the best thing to do, but I will mention obvious advantages and disadvantages of moving (or not doing it). First off, it's obvious that the longer your planes have to flight, the less important you are in the outcome of the battle. True, being far away also means you're also relatively safe from gun shells and marauding bomber runs. However, this will prolly happen for a short time, because the front line won't receive adecuate support from you, and thus their winning chances decrease. (See: Germans in Stalingrad). So, the ideal location would give you short flying times and would keep you safe from enemy fire. Unfortunately as it always happen with most things in life, you cannot have both at the max. The ideal spot would locate you behind the front line, but just behind enough not to get shot. Lordsaxon suggest that you should pick one of the task forces (a group moving in the same direction, usually south or north), follow them closely and provide your air support to the action. However, this require definition: please contact your fellow 911 carriers to improve the zones of influence. Also, don't be afraid of your task group being sunk: if they do, the battle is lost at least by 75% anyways. Being far away won't save you in the end, nor will make you a better carrier.
Being stationary feels good. I know the feeling. It's like if you were the fleet' HQ and the raiding parties were coming in and out from you. Sadly, being stationary makes you to be less effective and makes you an easier prey. Period.
At my humble sight, moving is a critical part of strategy. Being that, a predeterminate formula won't work, so try locating your carrier in the best possible spot always, which contraty to common belief it might not be following the best BB5. Try following the flow of battle: it's nonsense to run north when you're needed south, and I won't even mention the rushing CVs. Once again, it depends on the situation. Happy dancing!
VI) ALSO READ...
Not willing to write a friggin' encyclopedia here, the next recommended posts have been very useful for me, and you can find more detailed information in order to become a successful CV driver:
1. "KM CV Guide" by Lordsaxon, under Kriegsmarine forums. 2. "Guide to effective fighter cover" by GuidoPenguin, under tips and tactics. 3. "Guide: using a CV" by Dnick454, under tips and tactics. 4. "Planes maneuvering - (Basic) CV playing tips, tactics & techniques" by Ayeaye, under tips and tactics. (Now sticky!) 5. "The CV1 survival guide" by Rimmyman, under tips and tactics. 6. "Basic carrier tactics" by Starbomber10, under tips and tactics. 7. "How to get the best fighters" by Cracko, under tips and tactics.
VII) TO END
First off, thank you for reading all this. Please remember that you, as a CV captain, have prepared to confront anything coming from the dark-clouded area, so try to keep in mind your advantages, the advantages of your enemy, your resources and their resources. Expect the unexpected and surprise your enemy. Also remember the most important thing of all: Have LOADS of fun, this is a game. Hell of a good one. =)
PS: Don't forget to add a recommendation if you like this guide ;)
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