Upgrading carrier air groups with XP

[Commander-DK]

Hi there,

So, Japan starts collecting air xp and naturally I want to upgrade my carrier air groups, but I am uncertain how to get the most of the xp. I looked at upgrading the weapons on my CV Nav, but the first 25 xp don't even change the damage 0.1 point!?

Is it better to skip CV Navs and dump all the xp into CV fighters? (I assume more agility is still the way to win dogfights and air superiority?) Do you ever increase the range of your carrier air groups?

What about reliability? In the war against China I lost 3x more to accidents than to air battles or AA?

 

[mackau]

Carrier range is irrelevant for naval combat. It only matters for using your carrier planes as force projection. Personally I don't even bother doing that. My fleets only exist to enable & prevent naval invasions.

Use Naval XP on increasing the deck size of the new carrier, I usually do this for 1940 carriers. After that, I use naval XP on Super Heavy Battleships to increase the guns to level 5, and any remainder on engines.

If you go down the right side of the "base strike" Naval Doctrine, you will eventually reach a tech that gives you a -50% to carrier overcrowding. This means that when you build a carrier, you can click the little aircraft, and you can pack extra planes in. I usually go with about 150% total. Never build more than 4 carriers per fleet. Try to add at least one Super Heavy BB per fleet.

Never let reliability drop below 80% for tanks or planes so with whatever you do upgrade, always do a reliability upgrade as well. Depending on your political power, you should consider hiring a designer with increases to reliability for specific types that you use, as you can do more upgrade.

I use Air XP on increasing the attack ability of dive bombers, and then the range of strategic bombers. If I have a lot of XP and I'll not have new dive bombers or strategic bombers, I might upgrade a new version of a torpedo bomber.

Last thing to note, is that any new upgraded variant will count as a "replacement" of the previous type (for vehicles & planes). I never use XP on something I've already built large amounts of. I only upgrade after I've just researched it.

Imagine building 1000 dive bombers, you send them out in locations on mission. If you then go and upgrade to a "Dive Bomber Mk2" and start build them, they will start replacing your existing 1000 dive bombers, which is a pain because you won't have new planes in reserve ready to go, you'll be getting your old planes back from the units being replaced. Annoying.

 

[Commander-DK]

So... you don't upgrade carrier fighters?

 

[mackau]

Nope. If you build your carrier fleets right you will have so many more planes than the AI anyway so upgrading the fighters is pointless overkill when you should be upgrading the attack power of CAS or Torpedo Bombers (or the range of Strat Bombers).

 

[adam_grif]

In my experience, naval doctrines are far more important to increasing the effectiveness of carriers and their air groups than the specifics of the plane. I don't play multi though, so it's possible those differences matter when you're facing down a human player who is also fielding their own carriers with good doctrines.

 

[Pro_Consul]

So... you don't upgrade carrier fighters?

I might spend a few points to bump reliability, just to keep non-combat losses down, since I often use my reserve CAGs for local air superiority at whatever airbases they are stationed at.