From my point of view, the Pensacola is most valuable for filling the Northampton-Nevada grind, where you have neither range or AA capability in GB.

But it should work well for your grind too. It can level 7 pilots at the same time (8 after they reach the ship's level, allowing you to put one on the bridge) and is a valuable asset to your team when used as an AA ship.

trust me the pensacola is a very handy ship as said above it doesnt need a bo to drive it any sailor above the lvl can drive it

and its usefull for lvling pilots and or extra repair, engine sailors for your bb

Pensacola its one of the very best PCA, on the other Hand Nevada and Alaska/Guam are one of the worst BB1 in the game... Bogue its also one of the worst CV1 around, good luck you have Indy at lvl 55...

my advice its to buy and use Pensacola as AA ship... you can always go ASW or combine both roles... or for those good ol fashion BB playstyle lovers you can put triples 14'Mk10 D and do something like 30k of damage in a standar battle. Lvl up your crew up to Lvl 60 (or 65) right to the Yorktown, then you can avoid those Bad US Locals / T1 free food and gain a good amount of experts in the way

if you have no olives to spend you can raise up a BO that goes by Brookling line... then you can use Cleveland and Baltimore as AA ships to grind your crew. they are not the exact same than Pensa, but they'll do their job (and you can lvl up some extra sailors if you like to PLUS you get a BO right in the way for a BB line)

I'd reccomend just staying in your CA of choice if you dont want the bogue. Less painful of a grind (at least in blitz, GB as well if you ASW) and you can actually level more pilots because of T slots and support slots. If it's your first cv you should play the bogue though, good learning experience.

There is 3 ships I recommend every player who can afford it get them:


Penscola

Moltke

PCV of the nation they want. (Even if you don't have a BO for a CV, you can borrow fighters to regain credits.)