Not every unit can be played at once, but there are those that really end up missing out on the action.
It can be for any number of reasons: points, bad/gimmicky SAs, competition with units that are just a tiny bit better, that sort of thing. Maybe you only really bring them off for fleet showcases or historical scenarios, but otherwise you pass them over for something else. Maybe to don't want to pass them by but you also enjoy winning and there's that other model that would be better for that purpose.
For me personally, the one I come back to the Vittorio Veneto. It's not a bad ship- it's got decent firepower and armor and it's cheaper for the kind of early war fast battleship. Problem is, the Roma and Littorio have better SAs (Flagship 2 and Sharpshooter respectively) for only one point more, and compared to what other battleships can do at similar prices the Veneto comes off as either overpriced or underpowered for what it brings (kind of a sticking point for a class that was comparable to the Bismark class in terms of firepower, at least from what I remember from my research). I want to take the Veneto for some of my Italian builds, since it was the first Italian unit and first Axis battleship I ever got (because I was in elementary/primary school at the time and couldn't spring for a Bismark/Yamato) and I'm fond of it as a result, but I'll inevitably pick out something a little better.
So what ships do you gloss over like this?
The man who gets beat down isn't the loser. The guy who can't tough it out to the end, he's the one who loses.
HMS Warspite is overlooked because it doesn’t have Torpedo Defense. Otherwise it’d be in heavy rotation all the time since 1) it has a cool SA, and 2) it’s a historically important ship.
Adding two more that I just remembered. First is the Haruna (and to an extent all Kongo Class ships, but the Haruna is the one I own). I like the look of the ship, something about that kind of old-school battlewagon design makes it really eye-catching, but I have one specific incident that has led me to bench it since the time I got it.
It was one of the last in-person games I played before my old group folded, back in 2008. I accepted a challenge and built a list out of what little I had (and I do mean little- at the time my collection could barely fill a small shoebox) and my opponent brought out a pretty decent 1941 IJN list- Kongo, Tone, supporting destroyers. Had I brought a 1941 list of Americans it probably would have been a closer match.
I didn't, though. All I had was 1943-44 Americans. And this was before the destroyer rules were updated. My Iowa vitaled every single enemy ship at range 5; my opponent didn't even get to roll an attack. Out of fear of this happening to me, I've neglected the Kongo class since.
Second one would be the Intrepid. Again, another model I like the look of and it has some okay rules. It's just that I got the Saratoga first, and it can do just a bit more for the same price (though I suppose an argument could be made for the Saratoga being one of those carriers that gets pulled in different directions and can be surpassed by more specialized ships)
Edit: so of course I go and make a 400 point list that uses Intrepid over Saratoga. How quickly my mind turns
Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 21:13:11 GMT by iowaforever
The man who gets beat down isn't the loser. The guy who can't tough it out to the end, he's the one who loses.
All my 1 cap escort carriers... they just don't provide the "bang for the buck" that other carriers do. And I can get 2 decent land fighters for the same cost of a carrier fighter and a escort carrier with no chance of the land base getting blown up.
Makes me sad... they just sit there singing "put me in coach" with that sad stare begging to be put into the game.
All my 1 cap escort carriers... they just don't provide the "bang for the buck" that other carriers do. And I can get 2 decent land fighters for the same cost of a carrier fighter and a escort carrier with no chance of the land base getting blown up.
Makes me sad... they just sit there singing "put me in coach" with that sad stare begging to be put into the game.
You raise an excellent point there. I feel bad for the poor cap 1 carriers, they are of such limited utility in this game.
All my 1 cap escort carriers... they just don't provide the "bang for the buck" that other carriers do. And I can get 2 decent land fighters for the same cost of a carrier fighter and a escort carrier with no chance of the land base getting blown up.
Makes me sad... they just sit there singing "put me in coach" with that sad stare begging to be put into the game.
You raise an excellent point there. I feel bad for the poor cap 1 carriers, they are of such limited utility in this game.
I think the best I got out of a 1 cap carrier was in a 300 point match with the Shoho, and even then I think it was of dubious help (my Zekes had already chewed up and spat out my opponent's airpower by turn 3) and could have easily been replaced by a FAB
The man who gets beat down isn't the loser. The guy who can't tough it out to the end, he's the one who loses.
Cap 1s fall into the trap of being a strategic asset in a tactical game. If you think about it, W@S is more Battle off Samar than Leyte Gulf. Sure you could play a leyte game but you dont get the manouvering aspect of the battle, ie Hasley/tf34 chasing the decoy fleet exposing taffy 3. But you do get a good sense of the clashes between taffy and center force.
The units on the shelf are all of them at the momemt. I cant brain properly to play.
If i have to pick a single unit, uss wasp. The mini is gorgeous but its just not in any of the scenarios, fleets or set ups i typically played
Ranger is even below that. It’s a fun piece but very much a glass cannon. I guess if you know your opponent is not bringing strike aircraft, that’s the carrier you want.
I've been trying to get some use out of Wasp since it's cheap and I think Fighter Umbrella could be fun to use, but now that I think of it I haven't really been successful at that (especially without Ex Dogfighter to make your attacks better).
Guess Intrepid and Saratoga are my new best friends now
The man who gets beat down isn't the loser. The guy who can't tough it out to the end, he's the one who loses.
It’s first world problems that Team USA has so many unplayable pieces yet is cream of the crop nonetheless.
I suppose so.
In a more broader sense (and on that theme of first world problems), my Germans get next to no action because I like playing mono-nation lists (unless I can justify it like with UK/Commonwealth) and my Germans are horribly underrepresented in my collection. I have three U-Boats, ZG-3, Prinz Eugen, Schleswig-Holstein (which would be included on this list anyway given how laughably weak it is in a World War II setting) and a Ju-88. That's it. I can build a better French list than I can a German list
The man who gets beat down isn't the loser. The guy who can't tough it out to the end, he's the one who loses.