Kaiho - Taiho Sister **DONE**

Here is the information I looked up on this unit for the dev team. I am copying and pasting over here.

Conway's says, "Two further slightly enlarged ships proposed in the 1942 Programme (Nos 801, 802), and five more in the 1942 Supplementary Programme (Nos 5021-5) were never begun."

Fleets of WWII says, "A proposal for two refined Taihos eventually expanded to include five ships (30,360 tons, 16 x 3.9 in DP guns, AC 53, 33 kntos), but no construction took place. The desire frolarger air groups prompted a look into 50,00 ton possibilities.

I have assumed that this would be a simple sister-ship of Taiho. The navypedia article says the "improved sisters" would have been a little longer and the maximum width of the flight deck would have actually been the same. So the two sisters would have been only a tiny bit bigger (only 700 tons more displacement.) I would be okay with repeating the specs for Taiho with the longer length and width, and increased number of 3.9 in DPS, and assume everything else was going to be pretty much the same. Note Conway's states in the text that Taiho had a "practical maximum of 75 planes even though the specs table says 53 operational max, and 84 with replacements (that would have been in boxes.) Since the sisters would be only a little changed I think 75 AC and CAP 3 will do the job.

It looks to me like the two original sisters were going to be just minor improvements. I am totally okay with that. The five additional might have been much bigger, but that is really getting into napkin territory IMO.

I will look through my other books and see if I can find anything more. My guess is they would have crammed on a lot more 25 mm's by the time it was completed.

So far it looks like we have:

Kaiho

Commissioned: Not started
Decommissioned: Not started
Displacement: 30,360 tons standard
Length(OA): 858 ft
Beam: 98.5 ft (actually the same as Taiho according to Navypedia. 6 ft wider than Taiho according to Conway's.)
Speed: 33 kts
Armament: 16 × 100 mm (3.9 in)/65 cal Type 98 anti-aircraft guns (8x2), 66 × Type 96 25 mm (0.98 in) anti-aircraft cannons (22x3)

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Year: 1945
Type: Carrier
Cap: 3
Cost: ?
Speed: 2
MG: 4/4/3
AA: 9
A/VA/HP 4/10/4
AC: 75

Add some kind of AA special ability to account for the increased AA if you don't bump it to 9. Going to AA 9 might raise some eyebrows. The Essex class had 12 x 5 in guns increased to 18 with Midway. Taiho had 12 x 3.9 in guns increased to 16. Close call IMO. I think 9 is okay compared to the other ships with 9 AA in the game. But no additional AA Special Ability if 9 IMO.

Next post:

Japanese Warships of World War II says, "Nos. 801-802 of a modified type were ordered under the 1942 Programme but were never built. They were to have been of 30,100 tons and 33 knots. Nos. 5021-5025 were ordered under the 1942 Modified Programme but were cancelled. These were also modified Taiho type of 30,360 tons and carrying 16 x 3.9 in A.A., and 66-25 mm A.A. and 53 planes. They would have been 867 ft 9 in overall length with a flight deck 858 x 98.5 ft.

Next post -

Japanese Warships of World War II says, "Nos. 801-802 of a modified type were ordered under the 1942 Programme but were never built. They were to have been of 30,100 tons and 33 knots. Nos. 5021-5025 were ordered under the 1942 Modified Programme but were cancelled. These were also modified Taiho type of 30,360 tons and carrying 16 x 3.9 in A.A., and 66-25 mm A.A. and 53 planes. They would have been 867 ft 9 in overall length with a flight deck 858 x 98.5 ft.

So it looks like the Conway's specs actually match the second design. We are only talking about 1,000 tons in difference in displacement. At this size that isn't really very much. In WaS terms there really isn't any difference so I think we should go with the variant we actually have specs for. I will increase dimensions and the 25 mm to 66X in the summary above.