I reached rep cap because i used a seaman instead of a scout.

1 BO, 2 main gunners, 5 engineers, 3 reps, 1 scout and 2 FT/DB/TB.

That way, should you decide to get the US CV6 as well, you already have 2 of your pilots ready to go, saving you the hassle of levelling them up from scratch.

Supposing you take your main gunners over, and a few engineers or reps to your CV6, you'll only need to level 4 or 5 more pilots to have a good CV6 crew.

Had you wasted those T slots on AA gunners, you would need to level 6 or 7 pilots instead.

It's not orthodox, but my principle is, why do things the hard way when there's a shortcut that will give you the same, or close to the same, results.

"Wasted T slots on AA"...

Yes, I don't believe in AA and will never waste those slots on AA gunners when I can level up other stuff instead, be it pilots or powerlevelling neuts for additional BOs to complete my ship collection.
In my 6 years of NF, I have never relied on AA and never will.

Even without it, I have fared quite well in the game, and my records are comparable, or at times, even better than those AA fanatics. So it's not the be-all-end-all as some might make it seem.

For the US line, did the 120 grind twice to Nebraska and Midway just fine with an AA-less Monty.
Yes, I may be at a slight disadvantage, but I don't need the enemy to be blind to kill them. As long as I can see my opponent, I have an equal chance of winning.

There is more than one way to be successful at this game. While a particular method may not be the orthodox way that everyone follows, as long as it suits you then I don't see a problem with it.

AA does not define my play, but rather supliments it. AA for me is a source of experts and low level grinds.

In BB rooms it can frustrate the heck out of other players. In BB1-3s (depending on nation and ship) AA can help to create opportunistic chances that would otherwise be unavailable.

One last item that almost always triggers an internal reaction with me is people who will put down a setup (right or wrong) but then speak about open mindness towards (in this case the word unorthodox) setups.

Smoke spamming adds just about as much frustration to a fight as AA whoring. As this game isn't complex enough to permit the player to expand his/her skill in depths or scope, people resort to obsessing and abusing what limited options they have. Some of these methods are commonly termed "skill," whereas others may be viewed as "exploiting" or simply annoying. For example, AA whoring, running, fighter dragging, border humping.

1 BO, 2 main gunners, 5 engineers, 3 reps, 1 scout and 2 FT/DB/TB.

That way, should you decide to get the US CV6 as well, you already have 2 of your pilots ready to go, saving you the hassle of levelling them up from scratch.

Supposing you take your main gunners over, and a few engineers or reps to your CV6, you'll only need to level 4 or 5 more pilots to have a good CV6 crew.

Had you wasted those T slots on AA gunners, you would need to level 6 or 7 pilots instead.

It's not orthodox, but my principle is, why do things the hard way when there's a shortcut that will give you the same, or close to the same, results.

I understand. Well, I'm kind of lazy to expert whore through AA, I just buy them or depend on item drops from events.

On the BB rooms part, that's exactly what puts me off from playing it - the excessive amounts of players nowadays who are more interested to sit back and AA instead of actually fight a gun battle. It has become more of a cat and mouse game of patience rather than a game of who's the best fighter.

Can't speak for others, but I'm the type who enjoys a good, full blooded punch up between two fighters, and may the best one win. With the AA, it becomes more a case of one fighter trying to gouge out the eyes of his opponent, and only when his adversary is incapacitated, will he actually make an effort to punch the other.

It was never that way in BB1-3 rooms of the past. When I did my first grind back in 2006, when the North Carolina only went 21 knts, everyone simply fought each other with guns. It was a heck of a lot of fun - a good old fashioned shoot out.

But then in recent years, the trend changed, as more and more adopted AA, and BB rooms became battles of attrition. The straw that broke my camel's back was a BB1-5 game where I was the last one standing against a Super Yammy, and I spent the good part of 10 mins just moving my scout around. He had no interest in killing me, and just kept running and trying to shoot my scout (unsuccessfully). I had enough and retreated off the map.
It put me off BB rooms for good.

To be honest, I loathe AA-dependent players many times more than I loathe subs. At least subs, even though I can't see them, make an effort to fight instead of dance around. I'm a 'get to the point and get it over with' kind of guy, and I simply hate prolonging what can be settled quickly.

Which is why I feel AA is quite a waste. Not only from the levelling crew slot standpoint, but it also wastes a lot of time. A gun fight that should have lasted 1 min can be dragged to 5 minutes when both players try to blind each other instead of simply kill each other and get it done, then onto the next fight.

1 BO, 2 main gunners, 5 engineers, 3 reps, 1 scout and 2 FT/DB/TB.