IJN AV, CS Assets

[Q-Ball]

I am playing a game as IJN, and trying to figure out how to best employ the AV and CS units, particularly the CS's.

As Allied, the AV's were pretty useful to setup forward Navsearch bases, with an AV parked on a remote island with some Catalinas. After a while it might be found, but 5 VP's aren't that much to use. That was using the AV Ballard's.

The problem I am having with the IJN AV's and CS's are several. First, they come with built in seaplane units, but most of them are either kind of weak (Alf's and Dave's), or **** near useless (Pete's), because their range is so short. Emily's and Mavis's, of which the IJN will get quite a few, seem enough to cover a pretty wide Navsearch range without needing additional units.

The CS's were designed to operate with a surface fleet, but that's not a good idea. Anyone you can see in the daytime you probably can't engage with anyway. The only use I can think of for the CS's is to put them in CV TF's as extra scouting power. Even then, that's a marginal use for something worth 65 VP's if it's sunk.

So far, I've been sending all but one CS unit back to Tokyo, in hopes of getting something else. The AV's are too slow to operate with a CV TF, so I decided I didn't need them when I had all those Mavis's and Emily's. I had 3 CS's, but decided one was enough, since I only had 2 CV's (playing #16).

Am I missing something, or are others having the same quandary? I realize I could swap out the units on board for Rufes, but they are such poor fighters that seems like a pretty weak CAP. Thoughts?

[Q-Ball]

P.S., maybe the IJN was thinking along the same lines, since they converted the 2 Chitose's to CVL's.

[tanjman]

Q-Ball,

I've used them as forward scouts (small TFs forward of my CV TFs), ASW (air) escorts (escorting transport TFs) and as docked ASW (air) & reconaissance bases.

You might want to do a UV Forum search for a post by Mogami (sorry I don't remember the subject), he went into great detail on how to use the IJN assets. Which is were I got 99% of how I use them.

[Q-Ball]

I hadn't thought about ASW, that's a good suggestion. As a forward scout force, that would seem useful, though that also means that CS is going to be toast at some point, and that is 64 VP's. Still, I think I'll keep sending them back if I need something else (along with the extra TK's and AO's it seems like the Japs get).

I couldn't find that string posted by Mogami, but would love to get that. There are a number of units I think I am not utilizing effectively.

[tanjman]

Q-Ball,

Try these AAR threads, they were started by beta tested before the game was released. The second one is one of the largest threads on this forum, so you will have to do some digging, but the threads them self are worth the read.

showthread.php?s=&threadid=18407

showthread.php?s=&threadid=17554