In a different thread, a popular misconception was brought up recently - that carriers are basically a useless (or very limited-use) unit and they shouldn't be built. I don't really understand why carriers are so unpopular - they are simply a GREAT unit, and barely a 100p map goes by where I don't build them. Let me make some observations:
- Obviously, you will need enough of them to base a complete air force on them. We're talking 20+ capacity; any group under that is, indeed, practically useless...
- except for the carrier bridge; carriers are also very useful when there's an ocean between your main production centres and the battlefield. Bringing planes from South America to Africa, for example, typically takes 3 hours embarking, many long hours of sailing, and 3h disembarking. Not even talking about all the dangers lurking in the skies or under the water here. A single carrier (plains are typically built drip-wise, so you don't need much capacity) halfway reduces that to less than an hour flying and two refuelling stops.
- Back to the 20+ operational carrier group. They are a mobile air base which can provide air cover when your landing forces are at their most vulnerable - those horrific 4.5 hours when they are basically sitting ducks to anything the defender throws at them. True, traditional navy can also provide this role, but air is much more versatile, for example, they can take on an enemy force inland that is coming up to the coast to defend, or take on an RRG that is out of range for ship artillery.
- After the invasion, carriers can sail up the coast to support the part of your expansion which moves along that coast. And with "along the coast" I mean up to 3-4 provinces, which isn't an unusual range for most planes. Every air user knows about the annoying 5h wait time to build an air base in a province you just conquered to support the troops rushing further ahead; your rush screen can even be blocked by a few infantry or AT units then. Carriers can come up much faster, and clear blockers like that easily. A naval invasion doesn't even have t be involved; when you are expanding from, say, Indochina to Khabarovsk, your carriers will be there for you immediately, every step of the way. And on top of all that, your planes don't have to refuel when rebasing - their base comes with them and many more half-hours of refuelling are won.
(and I'm not even talking here about the risk of losing arovince again (to a rebellion, a straddler unit, you name it) and having to wait for another 5h)
- And of course, when you get too far inland, you can just build a new air base network in the occupied territories, and start using them as "normal" land-based planes again
- A carrier group can't be gold razed like an air strip can. Nor is it vulnerable to strategic or tactical bombers; a carrier air force will never be "trucked" unless the carriers are sunk.
- Bringing up AA to an air strip can be a real pain in the ass - and we all know how much we would want to. Or maybe we don't even know that anymore; it is simply impossible. In practice, even the most used air strips are not defended by AA. Still, there will always be a situation where you're refuelling, and vulnerable to enemy bombers - but AA takes so long to get there; and then when the main air base changes, you have to bring it there again - hours of marching even in the best circumstances. For fleets, it is easy - just send some cruisers along and your base is safe from those nuisances.
- And all of that, you get for just an extra 17% cost for your planes - assuming you're using L3 carriers with 6 capacity, so you need one for every six planes, that's 17%. Oh it doesn't work exactly like that of course; you'll have to do research and shipyards too. But on the other hand, they don't eat goods and rares (always popular for big air people) but food and steel, which don't really mess up your aircraft production schemes.
All hail the flat tops!
