Possible 5 point battle fleet

[Tankdriver]

The next time my borthers in law and I get together we will be playing either a 5 Battle VaS game or a 5 War ACtA game. As I am the resident American, and as I like ships that carry lots of little things in them, I have created the following fleet list, and was wondering if anyone would like to comment on it. The game is a three way, perhaps four way, free-for-all.

Point One
Yorktown-class Carrier

Point Two
Essex-class Carrier
Gato-Class Submersible
Gato-class submersible

Point Three
Essex-class Carrier
Gato-clas Submersible
New Orleans-class Cruiser

Point Four
Atlanta-class Cruiser
Atlanta-class Cruiser
Fletcher-class Destroyer
Fletcher-class Destroyer

Point Five
New Orleans-class Cruiser
Portland-class Cruiser
Portland-class Cruiser

as you can see I am usin ACtA type point breakdowns, but then so are my opponents.
My only concern is that I will not have the table space to protect my carriers, but entire fleet moves at the same speed, so that is a plus.

 

[Pavlov Grenadier]

Hi Tank! Couple of items:

Each of those are supposed to be a Battle Point, correct? I believe the Yorktown is a Raid level and the Essex is the Battle level.

In my two games against US, he played with Yorktown class carriers and I think its a better purchase. You get more planes overall and 2 Yorktown ships vs 1 Essex at Battle level.

As for having enough room, I agree…it’s a little disconcerting to have your very easily hit carrier being shot at by BBs across the table. In our game, my friend used smoke very effectively to screen his carriers. I never got a shot off at him since he kept them behind 2 Destroyers that laid smoke and moved along the back edge. You could try and target the destroyers but at range they are virtually invisible…I like it.

In our game, he didn’t have a lot of the cruisers so I cant speak to their effectiveness but he did use the Gato to amazing effect.

One thing I have noticed in my very limited experience is that the Light and even Heavy cruisers (Skirmish and Raid Level) go away really quickly if a battleship shows up.

I am interested to hear what you think about air. We played with carriers in both games (one of the main reasons we got into this) and it was ok. I can see what people are saying about it not being as effective as they would like. Of course, as a wargamer it is my duty to create some house rules to use for air. We are currently looking to steal…er…I mean borrow some of the house rules we have seen from several people on the forum.

 

[Tankdriver]

From what I've seen in the rules, it would be nice to have a reload option fo the planes, especially if a carrier is on the table. But the amount of time it would take to rearm fighters means a delay of about two or three turns until they are ready, and then a turn or two in transit, so maybe once per game is best.