World of Warships Japanese Carrier Tips

World of Warships Japanese Carrier Tips by VerySpecialGreg

Hello everyone! So as the title states, I’ll be talking about Japanese carriers. I just got to tier 7 on the CV line so I’m no “pro” player and my advice needs to be taken for what it’s worth.

Tips:

Manual drop:

When you hop for the first time in the Hosho, I suggest you forget about the AI controlled drops. It will be painful and you will often miss but the sooner the better. There is one situation where you should AI drop, it’s when the ennemy ship is heading straight for your planes and you can attack both on the right and left of the ship at the same time (will try to find a pic)

The cat and mouse game:

If you want to play air superiority right away then don’t pick the jap CV’s. You will start off by being the mouse big time.

Your tier 4 and 5 fighters are only there to sacrifice for your bombers to get to the target. At those tiers AA is not quiet developped yet so keeping the dogfight above friendly AA will most likely result in your fighters going down no matter what.

The only thing you can do is get good at the cat and mouse game. You have more squadrons so make distractions by sending one squadron on one side of the map and your strike force on the other.

The first fighter loadout you get is at tier 6 and it’s most likely the first thing you pick to get vengeance over those hundreds of fighters you lost to american fighters. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Don’t pick the fighter loadout:

Of course this is subjective but the fighter loadouts are not worth it. If you get to tier 6, then you’re most likely used to the cat and mouse game, just keep going with it. At tier 6 your upgraded fighters actually have a fighting chance if you engage over firendly AA, make the best of it and sacrifice them to other fighter loadouts so your bombers can make their attack or simply use them as bait.

You will run into other fighter loadouts constantly and you will get recked from time to time but don’t go desperate, they’re not making any XP =). Indeed the game doesn’t reward taking planes down (for now) so there is really no incentive to play with a fighter loadout.

Fear the AA, fear the cruisers:

As you hop on for the first time in your Ryujo, your first thought might be to go obliterate that petty Myogi spearleading in the center of the map. Those times are over. If you haven’t played against Clevelands and other abominations before, now you will.

You need to see USN cruisers as the biggest threat there is now. It’s a general rule to avoid them. It’s a little better with JAP cruisers but they can still reck your planes if you stay in the area for too long.

You should also consider the cruiser AA ability. They will launch a catapult fighter that will shit on your attacks. If you see a catapult fighter, don’t even try an attack unless you have fighters to deal with it.

Do not attack BB’s only:

Indeed do not hesitate to dive bomb a dd or torp a lone cruiser if you judge it’s worth it.

Your main strike force is passing islands and you spot a DD waiting behind one of them, well dive bomb his ass it will most likely set him on fire and make him use his repair ability.

The damage of your bombers is actually relevant against a DD so keep that in mind. Same thing for torps and cruisers.

The only thing you should never do is torp a DD. I did that several times and every time I was reminded of their excellent maneuverability.

Always check how many planes you have left.

At tier 4 and 5 do everything to keep your planes alive, you don’t have enough. At tier 6 you start having a half decent hangar capacity. Check the state of the battle, if it’s soon over, then take more risks. If it’s the end of the match and you still have some planes left then don’t bother bringing them back after their attack, leave them over enemy AA and get a brand new squadron a few seconds later.

Don’t try to take out the enemy carrier right away.

This might be the less important tip as it is the one completely dependant of your skills and the enemy’s. You might be the best CV player in the world, that doesn’t reduce your torpedo spread. At tier 6/7 you have 2 torp squadrons maximum which makes 8 torps. In my best attacks I landed 6 torps (your torpedo spread is simply bigger than an Independance for example.) and 6 torps is most likely not enough. Sometimes you lose planes before they get there, sometimes you get intercepted. Even if you land 6 torps the carrier will repair and it will take you 5 more minutes to make another attack.

You can of course try the “Cause flooding and divebomb once he’s repaired technique” but it’s pretty hard to do.

If you can communicate with the other carrier on your team (assuming there is one) then definitely suggest a joint attack, with 4 torp squads you can bring it home =).

Know your enemy’s loadout and speed

At this point you probably know the Jap loadouts but it’s very important that you get to the tech tree and check out the American ones. If I’m up against an Independance and I see a torp squadron I know it’s 1/1/1 and I will play around one fighter squadron etc…

It’s also important to know your planes’s speeds and your american couterpart’s one. You have the advantage of having much faster fighters. Use it as bait or just taking out enemy squadrons before their fighters get there.

Anyway that wraps it up for my tips. Of course some can be wrong, feel free to tell me what you think. I might have forgotten a few things so I may edit them in.

Good luck and fair seas!