ID
Password
FlashGuide
FlashGuide
HA Infomation

Royal Navy

  Index

  • Starting up UK CVs

    10. 23. 2013 13:18


Valkur

Another round of silly questions!

Also, I realize that there is a search function but I honestly don't trust links from 2010-2011 on information from this game and that is all I can seem to find.


That said, I'd like to give UK CV's a try - I figure I already have the support sailors out of the way so all I need is a BO, and some dudes to fly planes...

From what I've researched it seems like...

4 Fighters
4 Torpedo Bombers
1 BO
All others are support

Is this correct?

Second question - what stats are important for my pilots? When I roll them up - what should I aim for as far as numbers go?

What does each of the stats do? (Aircraft, Fighter, Bomber) - I can't seem to find an explanation.

Thirdly - I hear constantly that UK has good Torp Bombers but the second worst fighters - what makes them bad? Are they even effective? It's hard to judge based on forum conjecture if they are just sub-par or they are simply flying targets? I figure having SOME fighters is better than none. 

Thanks in advance,
Valkur 

 

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    10. 23. 2013 14:26


Benser33

I'm not the most experienced CV user out there, but I made a UK CV crew similar to what you outlined. I sold it since, however.

 

Firstly, a CV6 is 12 sailors.

9 supports, 8 of which are pilots

1 additional support. Some people go for sonarmen (easy choice if you have a high level one from an SS crew) in order to detect and attack SS, although this can also be achieved with a sonar escort. A Seaman is a popular choice, they improve the performance of your other sailors by a small amount which is especially useful to boost fighters that little bit more (particularly for UK, who have the weakest fighter pilots). The only other options are an Engineer, Repairer or Restorer. The Engi obviously provides improved maneuverability, but this is not commonly of use to CVs, Repairers are of relatively less use although if any nation would benefit at all it's likely to be UK, or a Restorer which can help improve survivability at lower levels, but even then your ability to survive damage will be limited and at high levels it becomes nothing more than a poor restorer. If you wanted, you could go a bit old school and level a Medic, but since fighter losses no longer trigger the death of vets a Medic is no longer as sought after as it was once upon a time.

2 T slots. The only thing you can put on these that will work are gunners, repairers or seaman.

1 BO.

 

Deciding your pilots is especially important. Now, I went for 4 TBs, 4 Ftrs like you did, however I sold that crew because I found that 4 of a certain pilot was too little to work effectively at higher levels. Long story short, I believe you should have a focus of 6 of one type of pilot on most CVs at least.

You could level 6 ftrs, 2 tbs, or the reverse. Or you can take the more extreme step of leveling 6 or even 8 of both so you have total adaptability. Personally, I'm happy with 6/2.

You should really consider the combinations of pilots and launch ability to see what feels best to you though;

CV1: 5 pilots, 6 aircraft launch

CV2: 6 pilots, 7 launch

CV3: 7 pilots, 8 launch

CV4: 7 pilots, 9 launch

CV5: 8 pilots, 10 launch

PCV: 8 pilots, 11 launch

CV6: 8 pilots, 14 launch

 

Now, I always like playing CV3, it's so simple. Ready the first 2 pilots with 4 aircraft each, when they launch ready the next 2 with 4 each and when they launch ready the last 2 pilots with 4 each. By then your first 2 pilots are out of fuel and either returned or in the sea, so you just repeat. If I have 4 fighters and 2 bombers it's simple to just launch in pairs of 4. But with only 4 of each fighter, things get complicated at higher levels. At CV6 you're not going to want to be doing 2 sets of launches at 3/4/3/4 (you wont have enough stuff in the air), or trying to squeeze in 4 launches of 7/7 pairs (just takes far too long). So you need to think carefully about how many of each pilot you want to level so that you can distribute them properly based on your CVs pilots and launch ability.

 

Stats is pretty simple. Scouts use the Aircraft stat for everything, Fighters use the Fighter stat for everything an Bombers use the Bomber stat for everything. By everything, I mean they define how well an aircraft attacks other aircraft, how well they defend themselves against other aircraft and how difficult they are to shoot down with AAW (which is the little automatic machinegun you see ships fire at aircraft, to low ability pilots they can be quite deadly on some ships).

Another topic to consider for pilot stats is classing. Now, this topic is a rather lengthy one and I won't go in to detail here. But in short, higher pilot promotions technically make pilots worse. It has to do with the fact that although they gain an increase in ability growth, the number of rookies they gain each level (and thus, the number of potential experts and vets they can have) actually gets lower. This means a pilot left at the most basic pilot class can reach a higher total ability than it's promotions can, but at the cost of relying on more vets and experts. Some players delay their pilots as the basic promotion and try to get as many vets as possible (although this can be expensive), just as many players choose the compromise of classing to the Ace promotion, for a balanced benefit of improved Vet influence and improved ability growth. It is generally accepted that the final promotion, Squad Leader, should be avoided entirely.

 

UK does rank very highly with TBs. Generally, nations scale in such a way that nations with higher damage bombers have lower quality bomber aircraft, and vice versa (So that nations with bad damage have at least got good aircraft to compensate slightly). UK TBs do the highest damage of all nations and they also have excellent TB pilots (TB ability is especially important since AAW immunity is vital to effectively torp enemy ships).

UK fighters however are something of a flaw though, UK fighter pilots have some of the lowest ability of any nation. Historically, UK fighter aircraft were worse enough than other nations to be impractical, however recent changes to aircraft have lessened the gap somewhat and UK is definitely effective now. Numbers under the components list are up to date, and if you compare numbers you'll see that although UK is mostly below average in most areas except durability, but when you reach higher levels the actual difference is very little. For example, they have the worst offense yes, but they have 190 vs the current best of 195. Long story short, they are competitive. You won't see any UK FW CVs, not when UK is more of a bomber nation, not one of the fighter focused ones like USN, but they definitely have fighters that can hold their own now.

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    10. 24. 2013 11:26


jedizorro

Picking up UK CV crew is quite easy.

You definitely need:
8 Torpedo Bombers (At least 6)


If you have extra time you can also level up:
4 Fighters (at least 2)
6 Dive Bombers (or 4, at least)

You don't necessary need Elite pilots for TB/DB or Ftr.

For TB, Bomber-base = 13, 12 or 11 are all good. Vet = 109 will suffice. Give them Premium Sailor boost. The reason to level-up 8 TBs is that UK TB is just the best.

For DB, Bomber-base = 11 and Vet = 109 will suffice. You don't want your DBs to be AAW-immune because you may want to keep the option of "suicide aircraft" (i.e. smashing out-of-soft-defense ships with your DBs). You don't need to level-up too many DBs because UK DB has the LOWEST damange of all nations; not quite useful in many cases.

For Ftr, I suggest you collect your Honor Medal points and buy 4 lv-90 Neutral Sailors. Power level them to 119 or 120 and class them to Fighter Pilots (do NOT class them to Ace Fighter Pilots). The reason being that UK Ftr sucks the most if they are under-vetted... I do not suggest you spend too much time/effort/money into leveling UK Ftr (because it would make so much more sense to devote that to US/KM Ftr). You can leverage the free vets (30% of crew total) from those Neutral Sailors and I'm sure you'll see the point of doing so sooner or later.

Bottom line: Over-vetted UK Ftr is not bad, especialy UK T3 Ftr Seafire. They can still be your credit-cow and point-cow. But do NOT keep 109 vets on your UK Ftr which will become food to Ftr (or even Scouts...) of any other nation.

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    10. 24. 2013 18:20


jedizorro

Originally Posted by Benser33

I'm not the most experienced CV user out there, but I made a UK CV crew similar to what you outlined. I sold it since, however.

...

CV1: 5 pilots, 6 aircraft launch

CV2: 6 pilots, 7 launch

CV3: 6 pilots, 8 launch

CV4: 7 pilots, 9 launch

CV5: 8 pilots, 10 launch

PCV: 8 pilots, 11 launch

CV6: 8 pilots, 14 launch

...


Correction:

UK Lv-63 CV3 Courageous has 7 pilots, 8 launch. Very powerful CV.

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    10. 29. 2013 03:18


shackle

jedi..speaks well

UK cvs are not for the faint hearted.... or the instant win warriors

you need to enjoy the TBs to maximise the strengths of UK ..otherwise you will be frustrated by the fps ..dbs I dont know..

the fps arent all bad but when they go against better at lvl fps ..they need to be well managed

 

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    10. 29. 2013 08:20


Benser33

Originally Posted by jedizorro

Correction:

UK Lv-63 CV3 Courageous has 7 pilots, 8 launch. Very powerful CV.

Ah yeah, I forget the Courageous has the extra support slot, probably because it has no T slots.

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    10. 29. 2013 20:03


Mouth

My UK CV crew consists of the following sailors (All at least 115):

8 TB pilots
6 FIghter Pilots
2 scout pilots
2 seamen
2 AA gunners (When you are leveling the gunners don't class them as AA gunners until lvl 90 or so.  If you can, you could class them at 115)
3 engys
1 Rep


Fighter pilots use the fighter stat only.  Use elites if you can, +12 will be ok. 

Bombers use the bomber stat only.  +12 is plenty, but it really doesn't matter that much at higher levels. 

Scouts use the aircraft stat I think, but it really doesn't matter at all. 

Seamen you will want elite fighter pilot sailors or +12 in the fighter stat. 

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    11. 25. 2013 07:09


Bueno

MY Midway uses

 

S slots

1 Scoult

4 FP

3 TB

1 Sonarman / Seaman

 

T slots

1 Gunner/AA with HH

1 Rep

 

But I have avaliable 2 extra FP and 2 DB's for situational uses.

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    04. 01. 2017 04:31


dpld11

Adventurous  only has 8 support slots but it can launch 12 planes at a time.  Is it worth having one?

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    04. 03. 2017 03:52


sonnengottra

Originally Posted by dpld11

Adventurous  only has 8 support slots but it can launch 12 planes at a time.  Is it worth having one?



you notice that this thread is from 2013? =D

  • Re : Starting up UK CVs

    02. 06. 2020 11:52


khairy1986

i have been playing cv most the time since 2007 and i love playing TB since uk had the highest dmg among other nation,

my all time setup 6TB 1 seaman, other slot? just put some eng or repair which u prefer,
with a KM CL escort with AA guns, just in case some fp plan to camp on my ship 

1