Are German carriers worth going for?

[Luna]

Firs things first; I have little experience with Carriers. This far I only unlocked the German and USA Tier 4 Carriers, mostly playing the German Carrier and I have a few questions.

German dive bombers seem to be only useful against Battleships, and useless against everything else, where USA seems to be the opposite.

I then thought "I suppose they want me to use the rockets against Cruisers, since Battleships are too thick, and everything else gets overpenetrated by them", but even against Cruisers they seem to deal little damage, even if fired at a flat surface.

Torpedo Bombers are cool, fast torps, okay damage. I can't really complain about those

But what do I do against everything else? I can't really attack Destroyers, neither can I set anything on fire due to everything being AP. USA seems to deal with everything handily. USA also seems to get way stronger down the line because of the sheer increase in payload their planes carry. I don't really want to go down a line with a Carrier that feels useless against anything that isn't a Battleship.


Any tips? Thanks

[Firewalk]

German carriers require a different approach than any of the others.

Your rocket planes are mostly useful against cruisers (especially those with thin armor) and to an extent other CVs if you can make it through their AA. They require flat broadsides to work well. Hits against torpedo belts do nothing and hits against superstructure from any angle mostly causes chip-damage.

AP bombers are your anti-BB planes and also useful against super cruisers like Kronshtadt and Alaska. Very similar to Japanese bombers, but they are a smidge faster.

For DDs, the torpedo bombers are in fact your best tool. If you slot upgrades and skills for torpedo speed and shorter arming distance, they become a nasty surprise, but they aren't easy to use. They do low damage but are highly reliable against other targets. I highly recommend you practice dropping these on DDs, especially on higher tiers.

- RA -

[Luna]

But, well, how worth is it learning how to play them? The USA wings escalate in their payloads, and HE works against everything really well except Battleships. But against those you still have your torpedo bombers, which seem to have a really short arming time with higher damage, be it slower speed.

And what about moving with the Carrier itself? It's actually pretty fast and nimble. Should I try sticking closer to allies?

[christof]

I feel the German CVs are well worth it to invest the time. They may be somewhat weak against DDs and you will have to rely on your teammates there. But the damage you can do to CAs and BBs is not to be underestimated. Especially those dive-bombers can really wreck a ship if it doesn't manage to get them out of the air. You also have quite good secondaries. But that is 'quite good' by CV standards. I have sunk ships with them in co-op, but unless you have the perfect build and a few friends with smoke to hide you, better don't go actively looking for trouble.

Tactics-wise you better ask other people than me, I'm at best average with CVs. Generally speaking you can get closer to the action than in a USN CV, I guess. But remember that any CV spotted in gun range tends to be a dead CV pretty fast. So always make sure to have a screen of allies with you.

[Lunacy]

Not really, t10 is like all that work on rocket planes for 0-2k damage while t6 russian rockets are 15k ezpz

[christof]

Originally posted by Lunacy:

Not really, t10 is like all that work on rocket planes for 0-2k damage while t6 russian rockets are 15k ezpz

Not sure if bringing up the Soviet CVs is a fair thing, honestly.