Technically returning, but the last time I played the game, carriers were RTS so it's been awhile. Nothing personal against carriers (yet), but if I felt like chilling and just going support, I used to enjoy every now and again pulling out those American cruisers that were pretty much area-denial versus planes, or all-fighter loadouts on carriers and hugging the AA-weak battleships to keep the skies clear for them.
Now, I get that things have changed a lot. I'm regrinding through the low tiers so I'm not yet at the point where I recall AA diversity across ships really picked up. Is the above dream still viable? I did a little research and it seems that AA isn't as strong as it used to be? And with the new carrier system, it looks like fighters are an auxiliary ability instead of an actual deployable squadron? Lmk!
- also, semi-unrelated question. First match against carriers earlier today, I was dodging torpedo bombers. I can't tell if I'm misremembering how it used to be, but I think in the old RTS system there was bit of a commitment window that the planes had to take, allowing ships to react once they saw the planes start to dive. Is that still the case? I might have just missed it.