I know I have talked to you in game already but I might be able to help with a few of your questions.

(1) Yes, Potentiality does matter on your bridge operator. He helps you spot torpedoes from farther away and spot where your shells land. And the other part of your question is that you can level a neut to level 25 before he MUST be nationalized or you leave him neutral for anything beyond 26. However, he doesn't have to be classed as anything until you want to. With this Fall Refreshment event I leveled a BO to 69 by doing AA only. It is fairly easy to level with that.

(2) The crew is more of a personal preference. I currently have 4 fighters and 2 bombers. I like a more Fighter Heavy setup but it is useful to have some bombers at hand. I don't use any supports because my gunners slots have AA gunners in them. ( UK ) Most people would choose to put Medics or engineers there though.

(3) We talked over this in the game but I am not 100% sure so I am going to leave my answer blank.

(4) I am also unsure about this one. I have classed all of my Fighter Pilots on time and I have less than 120 vets. They are +11 BVE ( Level 80-90 ) and I can take out some T4s but I will sacrifice quite a few while i'm at it.



I hope someone else can provide you with adequate answers for 3 and 4.

(1) I remember there was a time that you could power level a neut to the level of the carrier you want. I ehard that is no longerallowed so does anyone remember or know the best way to level up a CV BO? I think that you can traina neut to lvl 60and you need to class him by then or else you can no longer class them. Does potential even matter for your BO Anymore?

1) the new limit for neuts to be classed into a NATION is lvl 25 now. However, you can leave him as a pure nationed sailor and class him to BO at any level you wish later on. Potential stat doesnt really matter for CV much. It may be better to concentrate on the support stat of the BO if you wish to power level.

(2) personally i like to have only 1 type of bombers to keep the cv efficient. Since you'll be FWing your cv, if one type of the bomber dies completely (lets say tb), you basically become a lower tier CV because you will be unable to use those tb bombers in that game anymore.

(3) Air stat for scouts, ftr stat for fighters, bomber stat for bombers. Individual stats do not affect other classes of pilots.

(4) I think the original test was for US fighters only, but i've seen the Km ftr test too. basically if you keep them B/E/100V, unclassed fighters will be better. But again, at high levels, micromanaging the fighters will be more important than these details.

Yea we talked about it and the guy below you supports it. So if I have the money, Elite BVE fighters are the way to go, but its that classing part that worries me.

(4) Classing your fighters to ace or sq lead will limit there highest true ability since the total number of vets affects true ability more than the +4 and +3 you get from classing them. Leaving them at fighter pilot will allow you to put more vets on the sailors giving you more true ability when 40% of your crew are vets. I have heard of a cap on fighter ability, however, with the changes to the way fighter ability affects fighters this cap may no longer exist.

(1) Now if your neutral gets level 26th you cannot change his nationality, he stays neutral sailor forever. Still you can class him on nation you want (on lvl 12) and level him only as e.g. german nation sailor even to level 120 and than you class him as Bridge Operator. You can level on every ship you want and you level him a little bit faster. From my experience operating gives you only better aiming lines. Spotting torpedos depends on FCS (not 100% sure but 99%).

(2) Medic is very useful when you level crew. It really decreases lots of experts you will lost on your pilots during leveling. But when you get there (120 lvl pilots and crew) its rather useless. I've got one and I don't regret it but on HAs and Fleet Wars it's useless. Now you don't lost vets on pilots at all but w/o medic you can lose some big amount of experts.
Seaman? Yes for sure. You ve got support slots and you should get one with the best fighter stat (for fighters) and bomber stat (if you wanna bomb anything). Many ppl I know using elite fighter as seaman and it pays off for FW.

The rest of crew depends on nation.

Gunners. US has just uber AA on midway and it's very useful to have pair of reload gunners (you can use them as AA, normal gunners or HH). UK Midway not so much. KM you can go with AA gunners or reload gunners, same for IJN. Still it isn't as good as US. As of Tsar and Liberte I don't know the guns and seutps you can use but gunners can be useful there (both SN and MN use normal gunners as AA so you can use them in multiple roles).

Sonarman. Sonar works on CV. You should consider it. If you really don't like subs you can get one. If you decide on sonar get some pair of reload gunners with him (for HH) to be full ss immune :) I have KM one with gunners (but I've got SS and BB lines in KM so it's different story for me) and I was never sunk by SS while using them.

Eng/Rep/Rest - It's personal choice. For me reprate is the most important so I'm going with one rep and I like being fast to dodge DBs and run from danger so i get also an engineer.

Pilots. If you like FW get 6 pilots. It's enough even for CV6. Consider getting one Recon (Rookie Pilot) cause with T5 scouts giving vision is MUCH EASIER. Still you have to level them to 120 to be that useful (they are gonna to chnage the level to 115 if I'm not mistaken). As for bombing decide on one thing (TBs or DBs) and be nation wise with it (for e.g. SN TBs are crap) and get at least 2 of those. A pair is enough to have some fun. If you want to be serious with it 3 or 4 are much better.

(3) For pilots elites are the best. Period. This was different back in the day but not now. I ve got some 120 lvl BVE 12/11 KM fighters and elites. Elites are better (same experts and vets). This also applies to bombers and scouts. For DBs/TBs bomber stat is the most important (AAW immunity and auto aiming). For scouts airicraft give better immunity. Not sure of fighter stat on scouts.

(4) I know the theory but I don't know anyone that has such fighters so I cannot compare. Vet cap on KM/US fighters is 218. If you are sure that you want to have more than this you can try not classing them after choosing fighter pilots. Probably you will have better than normal classed fighters. Still getting more than 200 vets is ... very cost effective. I decided to go "normal" way and I don't regret it cause I know that I won't vet fighters more than 200 vets. But that's just me.

Hope I helped. My knowledge is based on my KM De Grasse and tests/talks with my fleetmates (PMW). Stilll TRUST NOONE ;)

1) POWERLEVEL: Class to a nation at level 25, NOT level 60. Level that sailor up to whatever level you want than class as BO. POT doesn't matter since CV's can't carry long range guns. A elite restorer or elite repairer would be better.

LEVEL: Best way is the normal way from DD to CV6. But you could also powerlevel to CV3(lvl 65-70) and level the crew too in a ECL to PCA with AA to level 70 too. But you miss out on playing CV1 and CV2.

2) PILOTS: You can choose any combination of pilots you want as long as you don't choose to have only 1 FP/DB/TB pilot to load 12 planes. You need at least 2 pilots for each type. For beginners it's best to go with 6 FP and 2 DB or TB(I recommend 6 FP, 2 DB for US). You can add 1 or 2 scout too.

CREW: Medic, Seaman are not worth it. Restorer depends, although in some cases restorer is also worthless. I prefer to put a Sonarman with 2 gunners, OR 1 engy, 2 rep OR 1 engy, 1 rep, 1 res.

3)ABILITY: Fighter--> Fighter pilots, Bomber--> Dive bombers & Torpedo bombers, Aircraft--> Scouts. Was tested and confirmed by comparing planes with different bases VS AAW. So yes, elites are best now.

4) CLASSING: if you want to have between 120 vets and 200, class to "ACE Fighter"(not "SQ Leader"). If you want to have 200+ vets, class up till "Fighter". So ACE is best for most people.

See for yourself: http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/1765/habilidadfp.png

Good luck with your CV and watch out for angry BB's :)

Thanks for all the feedback but now you have stirred up another question. How important is ability. Is there really a difference between a fighter with 3million ability vs one against 5million ability? I also heard that micromanaging fighters would be better off such that ability doesnt matter as much.

I'll alwyas pick better player than better crew.

Still I assure you that there is noticable difference even between nations with the same crew level and yeah you can feel it. Better skill though is far more important so don't worry about some minor crew lacks. Just practice.

Someone here on boards stated that winning in NF (more in 1v1 mode) is about 33% of skill, 33% of luck and 33% of crew. I agree with this assessment.