Carrier Strategy

Going into a game with a base strategy is always a good way to find success, I discuss my opening with my Essex in a game on Trap. We scout with all the aircraft, identify the enemy strategy, then I attack isolated targets. I hope this can help give you a blueprint of what you want to try and do each game. Hope you have a wonderful day and I'll catch you next time!
Tier IX American Carrier Essex Replay
[e-mail] for replay submission
Streaming at / notser around 2:00pm EDT on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday

[@oddish2253]

I have been playing this game for awhile but I haven't tried the "rely on your team mates" strategy since week 2 of gameplay. I think I'll give it a try again. I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

[@lronhubbard8179]

Unfortunately with carriers you kinda have to. Same with arty in WOT. You need them to scout for you. It's actually kinda the opposite in WOWS because the carrier scouts for the team, but you need to rely on them to take advantage of the info you provide. That's why most top players do not play arty or carriers in random battles. The ceiling is too low.

[@SerialSniper14]

It also helps when you have a clan that sync-dropped so there's a 6-man Div to coordinate their attack

[@ThisOLmaan]

@@lronhubbard8179 ::: i understand good statment👍🏼⚓

[@andrewgaiennie2002]

Thanks for bringing CVS to the front! Some supplemental tips that help me: 1) watch for how he's using strike planes. Notice how he grouped them for nuke attacks? That means on wave 2 you know you have a shot at wiping his whole wing. If you can get 2 waves out and still haven't spotted his planes he's prob edge running to find you so stick closer than normal to your team. 2) while spotting is good strategic spotting is better. Players will shoot at ships they see, no mater what else is going on. Loose vision of ships you don't want the team to attack so they focus on the ones you need to die. This only works at the very beginning, before dds get in and mess things up. 3) line of sight. A CV who can get closer to the enemy will do more than one running to the corner. Plus if it comes down to you u vs the few enemy's at the end you can usually run circles around islands while launching planes. I've won too many matches by running the clock out this way and it's how I got a medal by killing 6 ships by myself because they couldn't see me but I can always see them. 4) if you really want to.be a team player use your spotting circle to get spotted then turn around when you see your team pushing. every enemy on the map will target you and fire. CVS have large health pools so you can tank a few shots which gives your team the guarantee of having the first shot in an upfront gunfight. Short of the rare detonation you usually survive this. 5) if you're mad, don't feel bad about using the auto drop. It's better to put damage out and only hit a few than suffer complete misses because your stress wrecks your senses.

[@jagsdomain203]

Andrew Gaiennie i use auto drop on dds and when i have to use my fighters and dont have time to torp

[@thelvadam2884]

Andrew Gaiennie Thx dude I will try it that way 😊

[@iron_talon]

All excellent points. In particular I think it's important for the CV to stay somewhat close to the bulk of the team. First off it lets you turn around your strike packages that much faster, and lets you more easily use your fighters to protect your team and yourself, and second off it minimizes the chance you get cut off and isolated either by an edge running enemy CV looking to nuke you or a ninja DD that slipped in and puts some close range torps into you. Yeah it's a bit more work as you need to pay attention to where your CV is moving at any given time but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

[@stardestroyer0019]

I'm impressed Notser, these are surprisingly good tips. Good carriers don't just strike, they scout and are the eyes of the team. I recommend this video for those who have mastered the basics of CV play but are looking to improve their winrate.

[@roguestormtv6722]

Thank you for a great video! Really like how calm you are in delivering the voice over. Nice work.

[@Rabin1223]

Thanks for making these types of teaching videos. Btw I was the guy in the balti..seriously had just got home from the bar...Though about turning in to help the battleship, but the des destroyed one on my forward turrets with his first salvo. Wasn't going to go bow first with only one and didn't want to risk showing any side to that guy trying to use the back guns.

[@mrmeeseeks1733]

Very much appreciated Notser, Yamamoto forched me into a Carrier after more than 1.5 years of playing this game. This was very usefull information, thank you Sir, keep it up, and I keep watching.

[@RussNZ]

All I ask is : 1) scout to see where the enemy are heading within the first minute of the game. 2) spot the caps ahead of the dd to scare away any enemy dd that was thinking about taking it. 3) if enemy dd is taking a cap - spot them so cruisers can shoot. After that, hunt and kill the enemy. What happens 70% of the time : 1) team cv is afk for first 2 mins 2) enemy cv does what they should do. 3) our cv border hugs to try and kill enemy cv but messes it up and in that time their cv has killed 2 of our team.

[@HungryAndorian]

Just waiting for the day when you start your videos with "Hey this is dread-notser"

[@starpirat]

notsernought

[@TheGLR89]

what works for me: bring your carrier closer to the fight but within cover of islands. your flight lines will be much shorter so you can help the team much more. Also if you are outflanked by an unspotted dd you have more team members close to help (:

[@finx8931]

GLR89 But if your team dies you are fcked too :D I prefer to place my ship behind my friendly fleet for this reason.

[@suomusintti]

@@finx8931 But if ur team dies it doesnt matter are u close to enemies.

[@SLNT7734]

Thanks for the video Notser :D

[@TrueStahl]

I like it when i have a good cv in my team who trys to coordinate everything. They are rare but you nearly always win with them.

[@paolopizzi5603]

My carrier strategy: send all of the fighters in advance or the enemy fighters will make mincemeat of your bomber squadrons. Find an isolated target, possibly a worthy one, and throw all your torpedo bombers at it in a single attack. Once the enemy is crippled and has hit the DC, go in with the dive bombers. Except for rare exceptions, I don't attack more than one target at a time.

[@familiar1618]

I don't know if you could see this but, can you make an updated version for this one? Pretty new to the game and I'm still getting used to how I play as langley and this did help out a bit, hope you do more!

[@iToddi]

Thanks for sharing shift + F

[@mammothmk3355]

Notser, Des Moines is indeed very powerful and can control the game with her 203mm rate of fire and her AA, not to mention radar. However, those advantage can only shine if she's at close range or mid range. IF the Des Moines is spotted from long rangeand in the open she's toasted because of her rainbow shell arc prevent her from sniping at long range. ;)

[@kebobs3727]

At about 7:00 I would recommend just dropping the dd anyways because if he dies quicker there by just a second he doesnt get torps off into your mass of ships. Also as soon as c was confirmed clear I would have liked to see full throttle to an island near there to set up quick rearm times. Overall though big improvement on the taiho game and good advice for those newer CV players!

[@jvhoef5372]

You mentioned it later in the video but if you do bombs first and manage to set 2 fires you can force out damage con then you can hit with torpedoes and flooding will do more damage. Or if you only set 1 fire just let it burn and go pick on someone else.

[@PetrSojnek]

Really nice video, you play it very much the way I like to do things :) One point, it's important to move your carrier (honestly I thought you stayed in your original position for too long for my taste, actually, but that's just me). Pity you didn't cover it in this video. But anyway I loved it. Intelligence is really a king in battles and good carrier can make a hell for enemy team (especially destroyers).

[@steweygrrr]

Question from someone returning after a long time away from the game (since jus before stealth firing changes) thinking about playing IJN carriers. Seeing as IJN fighters aren't quite as good as USN is it worth engaging them with my fighters at all or should I just strafe out? Also is it better to dive bomb to strip AA and burn damecon and then torpedo or go for torpedo first for guaranteed damecon use because of flooding and then pray to Nuffle and RNGesus for fires from dive bombers?

[@JanGaarni]

Yeah, I'll agree with you that enemy planes over my DD is annoying ...... but, you know what's even more annoying? Allied planes retreating straight over you, with enemy planes hot on their tails while you're trying to maneuver into a surprise position!. :p

[@mariot8732]

Hey Notser good game, showing the CVs and making BBs cry for more nerfs, but I need say:that DM is a god, he wreck everyone that try to beat him, unfortunately (or not) he lose the game. I like this match, show that CVs change completely the way of the game, with info, snipping bad players and the power of utility on the game

[@onlinegamerth2609]

3:23 hahahahahaha nice blind shot xD

[@CorporalAdrianShephard.]

Oh Notser I miss RTS carrier gameplay and the odd tier carriers so much. I had the most fun with my Essex grinding for the Midway. Those were good times. Wish I could go back. But the current carrier gameplay is alright too. People are saying that they want carriers to have their own game mode. I would like and RTS Carrier game mode.

[@fajarnugroho7701]

Yay Essex!

[@dclark142002]

Wait, you can give orders in the side mini-map? Mind-blown.

[@davemiles9344]

Great video Notser, but wouldn't a tutorial video on Tier 4 and Tier 5 carriers be better for beginners?

[@Dick-Dastardly]

It would help me a very great deal to have a tutorial on how to control the squadrons and make the attacks etc

[@Juggy00]

Noster the second you see a cruiser pop def AA you should always pull back planes asap. At higher tiers most cruisers can obliterate you planes so you should bait it out then come back when it runs out. Will save planes that you'll need later in game.

[@cobrazax]

he shouldnt have even got NEAR him. he can easily focus isolated targets instead of going near DM. go there ONLY as a last resort and best if u bait his DF and then attack when its off

[@thebes56]

Yeah Noster watch those Demoines. Don't worry about my AA 71 Atlanta :)

[@sprawn09]

That enemy Des Moines, 1.8k xp in a loss...

[@thebes56]

Andres Montenegro stuck on the lex just sounds awful , says the bouge player....

[@ZebraofHoly]

You taught me little of something

[@pikkozoikum8523]

I wish some ideas of Steel Ocean would be implemented in World of Warships. In Steel Ocean you got Fighter, Torp Bomber, Dive Bomber, and Scout planes. I would like, if we would get Scout planes in WoWs. They could get additional points (EP etc) for scouting or something like that

[@americanace96]

Now do you have any tips for the Bogue?

[@johnborchers1249]

When there's a carrier in the game be aware of fires set by carrier bombs and don't be afraid to help by using HE!

[@Ghryst]

how do you use the map to control planes??

[@bensambell5862]

Notser, how do you select the 2 squadrons at once? I saw somewhere in the beginning you had selected the Torp and DBs and were controlling them both.

[@wileywu8120]

Hold down ctrl and tap the squadron number. Or you can launch them get them near and drag a box to surround both

[@eddievanhalenhoward]

WOOOOO like number 420 :P Good video, would love one on what to click like alt and stuff like that as that is what I dont know how to do in CV play

[@prankovalero]

the friendly team just fed the DM....

[@SoCal-ui6fg]

Notser - can you prepare a video sometime to teach people how to use a carrier and the controls. I have never used a carrier - a how to video would be great compared to reading discussions and learning by trial and error.

[@cobrazax]

as an experienced CV player with both T10 CVs, i can personally train u if u want ;)

[@eddievanhalenhoward]

THat would be epic. Start with low tier and then do a high tier one. As they did change what each one can do

[@kelly89420]

Check out this guy: kzbin.info He has a metric ton of CV guide episodes and is one of the best CV players in the game.

[@_montagne4793]

Does it really matter if you click the same spot for no reason?

[@bTrain246]

Shout-out to the 90TH!

[@Edi_J]

I listen to this as it is some fairy tale ;) Typical T6-T8 CV player has 35-45% win rate, uses either "superiority" (hunts any planes he sees, regardless of AA, or whether those planes are any threat - but at least scouts a bit) - or (usually) we have a "strike setup" which is truly convinced "he can't scout". Keeps his fighters (if any) over his a$$ or with his planes all the time. At the start "he is sneaky" and sends planes aaaaalll-aroooound the map border - but after his (most probably failed) attack he goes straight home, though the AA showing clearly where he is. Then (if he moved at all) we have 2 options: either he is very close, gets spotted & easily killed by some BB, or he is somewhere in the corner and his planes take ages to travel to this end of the world. But very often is thinking heavily for first 2-3 minutes and doesn't do anything, looking AFK or with planes circling overhead. Doesn't use the engine. At all. Only moves when under direct fire. Definitely ignition problems ;) And if by accident some competent 70+% win-rate CV guy loads and is "matched" against such "average" one - the game is basically decided.

[@cobrazax]

send your planes forward to scout ASAP, dont WAIT with them! find ISOLATED targets with your bombers!! your fighter control was really lacking here...

[@davidblackman1586]

I'm watching this vid and you forgot a huge part. You didn't move your ship with your fleet. If the enemy carrier wanted to snipe you through A, there was nothing you were going to do to stop it. you eventually start moving after 5 minutes.

[@Ayanami_Kai]

This might help me defeat you next time we battle. Still mad though you defeated me by the stock mod Lexington ;-;

[@nonofyabidnez5737]

The Des Moines didn't move whole game. Such skill. -.-

[@Allies_USA]

Carrier strategey no1 : Do not play Us Cv no2 : Just play Des moines

[@chnghemeng2845]

KimMillDuck so true I made the terrible decision to play us CV and now I'm stuck on the lex

[@Allies_USA]

chng hemeng I stuck in lex too lol

[@suomusintti]

@@Allies_USA Are Japanese Aircraft Carriers better? Because they have camikaze mode?

[@ThisOLmaan]

thats ur opinion.

[@vasyapetichkin1967]

When I heard about Shift + F trick, at first I was like "Wat, thats a nice trick", then I though about it and that is what I usually do, so I felt like a dumbass :(

[@scivirus3563]

nobody ever sees the cv as a leader .BB and ca should work With CV as well .they should learn what ships are AA heavy and focus on them first . Because cv's can change the game in you're favour

[@FrostyThundertrod]

I have problems with my planes just flying in circles or back and forth when I try to do manually drop or strife

[@Juggy00]

Frosty Thundertrod That means you tried to drop too close to circle

[@cobrazax]

u need to choose attack before they are inside the circle, and they also need to be heading in the right direction before that. get them in position first and in the right direction, then order the manual attack a short distance away from the attack circle

[@shadowgaming5997]

What mod is this?

[@DaxRaider]

what i rly need is a video about the low tier cv's, all the videos are outdated with alt using and loadouts that not exist anymore

[@cobrazax]

the autodrops are shit...they are only good vs horrible players. get to T6 asap. use friendly AA for fighter fights. if u want more tips let me know and i can train u.

[@raf.nogueira]

Why the enemy planes always are more faster then mine ? and why i never win any search points, i played entire day and my search points for next japanese carrier never get lower... this is bullshiit

[@is3t]

PLS gameplay with Giulio Cesare!

[@tanyushing2494]

why do you do you click so much to move your planes

[@heavensauthority1736]

Notser this video is out of date lol Will you make a new video?

[@gtbsatalks]

was that a stock essex or was it a loadout you can choose,i dont know whitch loadouts essex can have

[@cobrazax]

stock loadout. it can have 3-0-2, 1-1-3, 2-1-1 which is stock and i think its the best. good strike power vs isolated targets and good air superiority. also has the most torp bombers of all loadouts as well as a good amount of fighters

[@gtbsatalks]

Ok,i i use balanced whenever i can,i used it in ranger,independence,and langley(only loadout),for t he ranger 1 i either call blanced the same amount of fighters as strike groups or 1 or 2 of each,i used 110 on bogue

[@cobrazax]

i also used 1-1-0 on bogue and it was great...untill the manual drops were disabled. ranger will struggle with 1-1-1 but 2-0-2 is very low dmg... 0-1-3 is ultra vulnerable. lex is similar BUT, its 2-0-2 is more reasonable as the DBs are deadly now, so u can control the air AND do decent dmg with fire combo. i used it after 2-1-1 was disabled and it worked well. u just need to make sure u dominate the air, spot DDs, and completely neutralize enemy CV strike capability.

[@aaronh9653]

Why not play in the map view, Notser?

[@cobrazax]

as a CV player, i NEVER play on map view. i use minimap for info but thats it. normal CV view is more than enough

[@juventus7131]

Hey Notser, I know you're trying to find some new games to cover so you should try Company of heroes 2 out. It's got a big population of players and it's one of the best strategy games out there.

[@clikzip]

Or the original for that matter, only downside to COH is the games can last like an hour

[@TheTBW1]

1800 XP for the Des Moines in a loss is decent.

[@tyronedlisle4412]

How do you do manual attacks? I used to be able to do it ages ago using alt key. Now I've started playing again and I can't find the key. Alt and ctrl don't work

[@fafniricingdeath]

CV's were so ridiculously overpowered, and still are, that they removed the ability to manual drop on tier 4 n 5. If they limited one per match i'd be ok with that borked ship but 2 is 2 too many.

[@parkerzilla6323]

Hi if you were using tier 4 or 5 CVs the manual attack has been removed. You can still "alt" to manual attack with tier 6 to 10 CVs.

[@davidtaylor4308]

tyrone D'Lisle lol well if your playing tier 5 and 4 cv manual attacks were removed !! if your playing tier 6 and above check your control setting and you can see and change it there !

[@tyronedlisle4412]

Great thanks for replies. I wondered what had changed

[@Juggy00]

Fafnir Icingdeath The words CV and overpowered just sound weird together in a sentence

[@Keilen10]

lol voice crack in start of the vid

[@andrew3870ify]

14:07~14:49 just watch carefully on his fighter squard..... discouraging Des moins AA power...

[@DunantheDefender]

Question: Why do you click so much?

[@karl2291]

I think USN carriers are still overwhelmed when fighting IJN carriers they just have far to much utility to counter.

[@dogukanyklmaz9293]

washe pressing on alt when attack ?

[@Notser]

I was using alt for the manual attacks

[@dogukanyklmaz9293]

Notser alright, thanks

[@rafaelnishizumi6330]

Is dis a similar play style to japanese cvs?

[@Juggy00]

IJN CV much more flexible

[@cobrazax]

they got better strike and more flexibility, but less overwhelming AS power choices usually like the late US CVs. still good balanced and strong AS loadout

[@MohdArif-pl3sy]

cv: 200k spotting damage, 123k damage and only get 1.8k base xp dd: 200k spotting damage, 10k damage, 1 solo cap, 2k base xp get cv play not rewarding enough

[@andoman121]

Lol I deleted my ranger yesterday. Such a crappy ship

[@cobrazax]

its usually outmatched by any other T7 CV.

[@jaouhar907]

Play midway please and make a review

[@cobrazax]

2-1-2 is CLEARLY the best

[@ThisOLmaan]

that's one thing i don't understand!!! all KZbinrs show High Tiers, "BUT" yet you have all these High Tier Players coming Down to Mid and Low Tier Battle and take "ADVANTAGE" of players Starting out, No Shame, may well be those "High Tier Players" Cant hack the 9-10 Tier Battles

[@miyabe_k195]

12:40 read ur team mates??? Ur team was out numbering the enemies and someone has to push to kill that des Moines and ofc Noone moves unless a bb moves first..

[@ShadowKick32]

A lot of mistakes here. Could have been better, but it's a decent result.

[@jensfredriksvensson]

Annoying people like you if why I run defensive AA on my DDs Notser ;P

[@jagsdomain203]

its funny how everyone hates on cv and your talking about being the best team playing ship! and it is brovoooo. Could you do some how to for say t6 and up. t10 is nice but i think most people dont get past t7 or 8 because of how much time it takes? the other thing i dont understand about t10 is there is no more grinding so why not be the best team mate. instead everyone is still playing for xp when it does not matter.

[@cobrazax]

xp matters for captain xp... i can give u gameplay tips if u need

[@jagsdomain203]

Bob Ross yea i got the des and bought the camo so i could use it. i stoped at lex because i was losinh wayyyy to much money. probabaly the way to sell gold to make silver.

[@cobrazax]

bogue is now useless without manual drops, i think its a waste. i struggled to earn credits but i managed to get to T10 without a credit grind at lower tiers. now that i got the Missouri for free it really sorts all credit problems u might encounter so u dont even care about T10 credit problems anymore!

[@jagsdomain203]

cobrazax how did you get it for free

[@cobrazax]

i mean with free xp i grinded for free without converting. stacked xp and fxp boosts on my best ships, during events, and did first wins. it got me up to 10k fxp per game MAX. took me half a year though...but it was worth it. no more credit problems if u play it often

[@geraldgray4449]

In a low tier game, I actually sank a very low health DD with a fighter strafe.

[@albundy5398]

This must have been a coincidence, the DD was either burning or flooding. Strafes only affect planes.

[@sailingmaster]

I'm an older gamer, and CVs are just not fun for me at all. Not my playstyle. I can appreciate the skill needed to play them well, but that's not for me.

[@sasquatch2753]

Cv still sucks when it shouldn't have... close beta was so much better.. the fear of CVS was real and justified. You played your heard out and only got a mediocre score. Cha are boring to play and grossly underpowered for a capital ship

[@aurelian3268]

dont use 211 NEVER always go 113. carriers dont work like that Nots, as far as i have learned, doing damage impacts the game, taking out important ships out like DDs or strong battleships

[@Juggy00]

Rafi Saadat Balance loadout works good for Essex. All of the other CV in US line should go strike

[@cobrazax]

i enjoyed 2-1-1 essex. it can easily dominate the air AND have a good strike vs isolated targets. this way u can easily scout DDs and the enemy CV becomes useless. u also got the most TBs possible. with lex i also use 2-0-2 because it was the only way to counter shokaku reasonably well. now with midway i use 2-1-2 which is a good balance.

[@Viking88Power]

First

[@Wildboy0001]

HOPE CV´S WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE GAME:

[@TheLinkandmarioshow]

ok kid

[@chnghemeng2845]

Wildboy0001 so you're the reason we cv players get the shitty stick from WG

[@megarogerish]

u do know why carriers are in the game right?

[@justinlewtp]

You need someone to counter battleships

[@scivirus3563]

how about working with cv player and not against them