Post by nagato01 on Apr 6, 2017 1:11:54 GMT
I was reading about the I-26 on the A&A W@S Wikia page the other day, and saw it wasn't very popular. But I looked into it, and may have found that it is much more powerful than many may have stated.
Now most people have said that 16 points is too much for a submarine, particularly with a special ability like "Infiltrator" which doesn't always work so hot, and prefer the cheaper I-19 which has "Finish Him Off", however I think that the I-26's SA "Carrier Hunter" might actually be something that can drastically help the IJN's odds of winning the air battle. All but two of the USN CV's made throughout the 6 sets of W@S lack "Torpedo Defense", meaning it takes in most cases (Hornet, Enterprise, Yorktown, Wasp, Princeton) only two torpedo hits to sink one. Now look I-26's torpedo value of 3-3-2-1, and give that a +1 for Anti-Carrier, and it now has 4-4-3-2. Then take the Chikuma and use her torpedo boosting against that carrier and she now has a 5-5-4-3 against CV's. Now that to me is a huge weapon. Now someone can always argue that the USN DD's would just focus the sub, but this has some advantages. First, being that this distracts the USN DDs which relieves some of the pressure on the IJN destroyers. Second, this gives you a new target for your dive bombers to hit. IJN dive bombers aren't always the best, and against a weaker AA unit they'll perform great. If you can protect one or two I-26's with your CV's and you can knock out one of your opponents carriers, now you have air superiority and who knows, you may take out his other CV next turn.
Granted, this strategy only works well in larger point games, and I think it doesn't hurt to also integrate an I-19 and even an I-25 to balance it out, but if you are concerned about USN air power overpowering all of your units, the I-26 serves as unit to take out the enemy where they are weakest.
Let me know what your thoughts are though!
Now most people have said that 16 points is too much for a submarine, particularly with a special ability like "Infiltrator" which doesn't always work so hot, and prefer the cheaper I-19 which has "Finish Him Off", however I think that the I-26's SA "Carrier Hunter" might actually be something that can drastically help the IJN's odds of winning the air battle. All but two of the USN CV's made throughout the 6 sets of W@S lack "Torpedo Defense", meaning it takes in most cases (Hornet, Enterprise, Yorktown, Wasp, Princeton) only two torpedo hits to sink one. Now look I-26's torpedo value of 3-3-2-1, and give that a +1 for Anti-Carrier, and it now has 4-4-3-2. Then take the Chikuma and use her torpedo boosting against that carrier and she now has a 5-5-4-3 against CV's. Now that to me is a huge weapon. Now someone can always argue that the USN DD's would just focus the sub, but this has some advantages. First, being that this distracts the USN DDs which relieves some of the pressure on the IJN destroyers. Second, this gives you a new target for your dive bombers to hit. IJN dive bombers aren't always the best, and against a weaker AA unit they'll perform great. If you can protect one or two I-26's with your CV's and you can knock out one of your opponents carriers, now you have air superiority and who knows, you may take out his other CV next turn.
Granted, this strategy only works well in larger point games, and I think it doesn't hurt to also integrate an I-19 and even an I-25 to balance it out, but if you are concerned about USN air power overpowering all of your units, the I-26 serves as unit to take out the enemy where they are weakest.
Let me know what your thoughts are though!
