About Aircraft carrier

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    • Czar's guide has some good info but it's a bit out of date. There are a number of informative guides on the forum, many of them pinned to the top, and in general the forum is usually full of useful information. It would be good to find an alliance also where people can tell you what is up.
    • I built a carrier once. I think the map was over before I had it researched enough to be useful. I have had allies use them with great effect on large maps like the 100 player world map, but they are mostly a waste on a small map in my opinion. I have also played a 100 player world map where I did not see a single carrier. Neither allies nor enemies built any. The thing about big navies and air fleets is the amount of oil it takes. I suggest your consider your oil budget when ordering your navy.

      Carriers were introduced after the Czar's time, so they aren't in his notes. Also many units have been tweaked a bit since then, so his opinions might be outdated in some cases. Don't get me wrong that field manual is great, but old.

      My advice is to read everything on the forums here that you can. Especially the "pinned" messages above this one in the "questions and answers" section. Don't be afraid to ask questions either.

      As DxC suggested finding a tutor is good. Dx happens to run a training alliance.
      War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin keep out of the way til you can. - Winston Churchill



      VorlonFCW
      Retired from Bytro staff as of November 30, 2020.

      >>> Click Here to submit a bug report or support ticket <<<
    • One game where I made good use of carriers (and reasonably early) was a 100 player where I started as British Columbia and my task in the coalition was to secure the Behring Straights and project North American power over into Asia. The biggest problem for me was that the provinces up in Alaska and Siberia are BIG so that air units (especially Ints) had no chance of flying from my factories into the front lines in Siberia without becoming convoys on land and at sea. CV's were very useful to help bridge the gaps so my air units could transit quickly and safely. Of course you have to protect your CV's so there was a lot of DD's and Sub's required to make sure the CV's were safe so all in all it was an expensive exercise but my position was such that the only way for me to expand successfully was to go west. It ended up being a very frustrating but at the same time challenging and enjoyable game
    • Carriers are only useful after day 24, when you can base tacs on them. Then, they are great for exerting power over an enemy continent up to several provinces inland (yeah, that means 100p mappish), sailing along the coast and picking off units moving around inland. You ALSO need a surface fleet that is bigger than your enemy though. And yeah it is a big investment, but by then (after day 24) in a successful empire, it shouldn't be TOO much trouble.
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.
    • In-game aircraft carriers serve several potential uses, including:

      1. fly-on/fly-off delivery of aircraft units, thus avoiding up to 3 hours of embarkation time and up to 4.5 hours of disembarkation time when transferring aircraft units across oceans, and also allowing the aircraft units to be better protected from attack by enemy submarine or surface naval units.

      2. air cover during amphibious invasions, thus providing some measure of protection against enemy air strikes against your invading ground units while they are highly vulnerable during the 4.5-hour disembarkation process.

      3. air strikes against coastal provinces, thus permitting unexpected damage/destruction of enemy units your opponent believed were outside your aircraft range (and thus probably unprotected by anti-aircraft units).

      4. air strikes against naval units and convoys, thus permitting air attacks against enemy units in mid-ocean that would otherwise be outside the range of your land-based aircraft units.

      5. submarine detection, providing a mid-ocean platform for naval bombers, the only in-game unit that can detect and expose hidden submarine units.

      That said, I tend to agree with Vorlon and K.Rokossovski's comments above, that in-game aircraft carriers tend to be most useful in longer games played on the bigger maps, such as the 50-player Pacific map, 50-player Americas map, and the 100-player world map.

      In my opinion, aircraft carriers tend to be an expensive luxury in shorter games played on the smaller maps because (1) they compete for limited research time with other more important unit types; (2) their production requires resources that may be in short supply in the early stages of the game; (3) and their aircraft-carrying capacity is rather modest during the first three weeks of the game ---- two, three or four squadrons per carrier for L1, L2 and L3 carriers ---- making them a relatively weak offensive weapon in the early game. Moreover, as K.Rokossovski rightly points out, tactical bombers are not available for carrier use until the L4 tactical bomber research is completed sometime after Day 24, and L4+ TB squadrons will provide most of your carrier-based airstrike capability against enemy ground units.

      Because I refuse to do without the research necessary to maintain my aircraft and essential ground units at up-to-date tech levels, I usually spend a little gold to accelerate the research cycles for aircraft carriers (and battleships) when I use them in order to integrate their required research cycles into my 24/7 research schedule.

      For all of these reasons, I see carriers as a more important piece on the bigger maps, and the Pacific and world maps in particular, where they are arguably indispensable.

      FYI, a good way to get some experience with carriers is to keep smaller map games going for a while longer after you and an ally have effectively already won the game, but neither of you has attained the requisite victory points for an automatic ending of the game. This is a good time for you and your ally to experiment with the more exotic units like carriers, battleships, mechanized infantry, self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft units, and nuclear rockets and bombers, which usually are not produced in games that end before Day 30 or so. You can also create a "private" game (one per month after you satisfy the Level 11 player experience requirements), and invite a friend or two to experiment with the full range of all available unit types.

      One cautionary note: The in-game aircraft carrier is still a relatively new unit that is subject to several known bugs. One of these bugs is the disappearance of carrier-based squadrons while they are in the air, which in the past has been triggered by the addition or removal of other naval units from the carrier's protective convoy/task force stack. My emphatic advice: don't futz with the carrier's stack of naval unit escorts while the carrier has any aircraft units in the air. Don't do it. Please.

      The post was edited 3 times, last by MontanaBB ().

    • VorlonFCW wrote:

      I built a carrier once. I think the map was over before I had it researched enough to be useful. ca
      My knowledge of this part is little fuzzy. So AC needs to be lv.4 to carry tac bomber, but all other types of planes can be carried by Ac before lv.4? Or is the tac bomber that needs to be lv.4 to be carried?


      MontanaBB wrote:

      1. fly-on/fly-off delivery of aircraft units, thus avoiding up to 3 hours of embarkation time and up to 4.5 hours of disembarkation time when transferring aircraft units across oceans, and also allowing the aircraft units to be better protected from attack by enemy submarine or surface naval units.



      FYI, a good way to get some experience with carriers is to keep smaller map games going for a while longer after you and an ally have effectively already won the game, but neither of you has attained the requisite victory points for an automatic ending of the game. This is a good time for you and your ally to experiment with the more exotic units like carriers, battleships, mechanized infantry, self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft units, and nuclear rockets and bombers, which usually are not produced in games that end before Day 30 or so. You can also create a "private" game (one per month after you satisfy the Level 11 player experience requirements), and invite a friend or two to experiment with the full range of all available unit types).
      just to clarify, AC only carry aircrafts right? so any land unit that's out in the sea will be a convey?

      and to play after winning, that's like if all the active player is ur ally/coalition but doesn't have the required amount of VP to win? oh and creating games; only the games that has elite AI and/or tournament Is. map needs gold right?
    • lt. gota wrote:

      . . . and to play after winning, that's like if all the active player is ur ally/coalition but doesn't have the required amount of VP to win?
      Correct, sir. And any time there are only three active human players left in a game, you will be given the option of retiring the game in the in-game newspaper, but all three remaining players must agree. Or, if you want, you can fight it out among your allies to achieve the required victory points; personally, I prefer not to fight against someone with whom we have already conquered the map together.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by MontanaBB ().

    • lt. gota wrote:

      just to clarify, AC only carry aircrafts right? so any land unit that's out in the sea will be a convey?
      An aircraft carrier may only carry certain aircraft units (including naval bombers, interceptors, and L4+ tactical bombers), and not strategic bombers, rocket fighters, rockets or nuclear rockets.

      As used here in the forum, "convoy" is an ambiguous term. It may refer to any of the following:

      1. a stack of ground units crossing a body of water, and the stack will appear as a transport ship icon on the water;

      2. a stack of naval units in any combination, including submarine, destroyer, cruiser, battleship and aircraft carrier units, which will appear as the icon of the most powerful naval unit in the stack;

      3. an ocean-going stack of ground units combined with naval units for protection against enemy naval and air units, which will appear as the icon of the most powerful naval unit in the stack;

      4. an ocean-going stack of aircraft units (not on an aircraft carrier), which will appear as a transport ship icon on water;

      5. a stack of aircraft units moving on the ground, because they are not within flying range of their destination, which will appear as a small truck/lorry icon.

      Note that aircraft units in an ocean-going convoy will not combine with naval units for protection, nor will aircraft ground convoys combine with ground units for protection. This is an unresolved programming problem.

      The post was edited 2 times, last by MontanaBB ().

    • MontanaBB wrote:


      lt. gota wrote:

      So AC needs to be lv.4 to carry tac bomber, but all other types of planes can be carried by Ac before lv.4?
      No, sir. Your L4 tactical bomber research needs to be completed before TBs may operate from your carriers. L1 naval bombers and L1 interceptors may operate from your carriers from the git-go.

      i see. nice to learn this before I get my first AC (tho I'm not even close to that). Thx for answering them, it's a lot of help
    • Regarding the usefulness of an aircraft carrier to me:

      Capacity of the carrier compared to the cost of building it means that I can't justify building 5 carriers to cart 10 planes around early in the game, so until carriers get the capacity for 5 planes each I cant afford the oil drain.

      Naval bombers can't hit armor targets until they are researched to level 4, so aside from sub hunting they aren't that useful early game.

      Tac bombers can be carried once they are researched to level 4.

      So all three of those research levels unlock at day 24, and you need say 3 days to research them and a couple day to assemble your fleet, so you can set sail on day 30, and reach somewhere exotic in 5 days. That means you have a powerhouse fleet for a week, but once someone has nuke rockets on day 42 or so you have a big floating target.




      The other facet of this is tying up a large part of your force strength in ships and planes. Neither ships or planes can take or hold ground. So if you have all your oil production tied up in air and navy you don't have any surplus production to rebuild ground forces that get destroyed.
      War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin keep out of the way til you can. - Winston Churchill



      VorlonFCW
      Retired from Bytro staff as of November 30, 2020.

      >>> Click Here to submit a bug report or support ticket <<<
    • VorlonFCW wrote:

      So all three of those research levels unlock at day 24 . . . but once someone has nuke rockets on day 42 or so you have a big floating target.
      That's true, Vorlon, but it also ignores the simple fact that every stack of 10+ units becomes a potential target for a nuclear rocket from Day 40+.

      There are, of course, a number of tactics for reducing your risk in an environment where nuclear weapons are in play, starting with practicing tactical dispersal of your high-value units. But an in-depth discussion of that and related tactics is beyond the scope of this thread topic.

      Your statement above also ignores the fact that a fast carrier task force comprised of L6+ aircraft carriers (or nuclear carriers) and L6+ destroyers is better able to scurry out from under a nuclear rocket attack than all but a handful of the fastest ground units. As an example, a fast carrier task force of say 4 carriers and 8 destroyer squadrons may be tactically dispersed into two smaller task forces of 2 carriers and 4 destroyer squadrons to reduce the risk.

      So, in summary, I would say know the risks of operating aircraft carriers (and large stacks generally) in a nuclear weapons environment, assess the likelihood of those risks based on the construction of L3 air bases and reactors, and take appropriate steps to minimize the risks. If you, as an aspiring game winner, are not aware of which players have L3 air bases and reactors after Day 40, you may be in for an ugly surprise regardless of whether you have aircraft carriers or not.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by MontanaBB ().

    • VorlonFCW wrote:

      That means you have a powerhouse fleet for a week, but once someone has nuke rockets on day 42 or so you have a big floating target.

      just out of curiosity, how common is Nuclear weapons? Is it like the common end-game unit or if it drags on u'll see it kinda weapon?

      and if it does get targeted and destroyed while the aircrafts r flying around, what happens to the aircrafts?
    • lt. gota wrote:

      . . . if [the aircraft carrier] does get targeted and destroyed while the aircrafts r flying around, what happens to the aircrafts?
      If the aircraft are within range of a friendly land-based airfield, or another one of your aircraft carriers with empty capacity, they will jump there. In the absence of somewhere else to land, however, the carrier-based aircraft will be destroyed when their parent aircraft carrier is destroyed.