Corvettes and Aircraft Carriers

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    • Corvettes and Aircraft Carriers

      As we all know, corvettes are a basic early game defensive unit used primarily to intercept early game amphibious rushes but quickly becomes outdated by every other ship. It is seldom if never upgraded at all by decent players and even new players avoid doing so for obvious reasons. I have heard of some proposals to create a new “helicopter carrier” designed for cheap coastal air support, something that aircraft carriers are not efficient for. I believe that the best solution resides in giving 2nd tier corvettes 1 capacity and 3rd tier corvettes 2 capacity for helicopters (or at least 1 capacity at tier 3). Indeed, this is not that unrealistic and would definitely help the lowly corvette become a viable build late game.

      To prevent the corvette from taking away all the glory and reason for building carriers, I propose that special forces and airborne infantry be able to airlift and/or air assault on and off of carriers. In the process of doing so they should be considered part of the carrier capacity just as aircraft currently are. We can even possibly consider allowing all units that can air assault (tank destroyers, anti air, recon vehicles, towed artillery, etc) as beneficiaries of this ability. I don’t think this would negatively affect the gameplay since there are definite limits in capacity, the units are still vulnerable during air assault, and these troops are not necessarily or at least widely considered part of the “Meta” by either new or expert players. But this function would open doors to creative gameplay with lesser units in exchange for surprise. This would suddenly make the aircraft carrier more than a toy and a target to a serious mobile threat, especially in situations involving great distances.

      P.S. I realize that there have been multiple threads and similar suggestions but I wish to combine these topics in a single thread
      :thumbsup:
      I am Aeneas, duty-bound and known above high air of heaven by my fame, carrying with me in my ships our gods of hearth and home, saved from the foe. I look for Italy to be my fatherland, and my descent is from all-highest Jove.
    • I’m talking more in terms of game balance than in real life (does a ingame corvette represent a single rl corvette or multiple??) Right now they are useless to upgrade and they don’t have range enough to battle other ships…speed and cheaper cost do not change that.

      They need a special ability that comes in a later tier… I think helicopter capacity suits their role.
      I am Aeneas, duty-bound and known above high air of heaven by my fame, carrying with me in my ships our gods of hearth and home, saved from the foe. I look for Italy to be my fatherland, and my descent is from all-highest Jove.
    • on corvettes: I dont think that giving them the ability to hold aircraft would make a large impact on their performance if any at all. Being able to only land a single heli on it seems rather pointless/frustrating because
      a) corvettes are limited to coastal waters so the limited capacity kinda pales in comparison to building a single airfield near the coast and having unlimited capacity
      b) kinda overlapping with a), that low capacity doesnt really enable the heli to do much of anything because a single heli is exactly that a single heli; yes you could build more to field more helis but uhm see point a)
      Currently its used pretty much only as an interceptor for transports in coastal water and thats a okay role to fill because frankly you will never make corvettes „viable“ lategame in the sense that they’re able to take on lategame navy and win. I think the „solution“ would be to double down on their role as interceptor by upping their speed and maybe even change their naval signature to low to give them at least that surprise moment against „real navy“
      I feel like you’re to focussed on the corvette being a naval unit and its lack in power in comparison to others rather then the role it currently fills, yes it is really weak but so is infantry when compared to really anything thats not inf.

      on carriers:
      a) about your idea
      while interesting i feel that it kind of fails to adress the issues carriers face in the first place, also iirc they’ve been telling that airassaulting from carriers just doesnt go well with the code (citing legacy issues as usual)

      b) more than a toy
      Calling it a toy really is underselling the strength it actually possesses. After all, you get a mobile airfield which also heals the aircraft on it (in coastal waters).
      it’s issues are more along the lines of:
      -aircraft viable for carriers are very limited (you can’t really put mixed fixed wing stacks on carriers, helis dont have that issue tho)
      - any investment into carriers pretty much has to go hand in hand with focusing on navy by virtue of the carrier being a thicc ship and just being really screwed by other people having ships
      - really the lack of areas that would actually favor having a mobile airfield (only really pacific fits that criteria), a lot of the battlefield are just humongous connected masses of land so you at best and up clearing the landing zone and then just get an airfield if you head further inland

      the only points that could be really considered faults on the side of the carrier are the high building requirement and long time it takes but then again one could argue that one by pointing out that you are building what pretty much equals a behemoth, hell you can even name it
      I am The Baseline for opinions
    • I think the best way of bringing aircraft carriers more into the game as an important unit would be to give a big old buff to NPAs, NSFs and ASW Helis vs surface ships.

      If you do that, suddenly it becomes important to control the airspace above your navy in the same way it's important to control the airspace above your land army. Then you'd need to take NASFs with you when you're using your navy far from your own territory, and you'd maybe want to take NSFs as well to help gain naval superiority. Just like that, aircraft carriers would become a vital component of any fleet.
    • Teburu wrote:

      on corvettes: I dont think that giving them the ability to hold aircraft would make a large impact on their performance if any at all. Being able to only land a single heli on it seems rather pointless/frustrating because
      a) corvettes are limited to coastal waters so the limited capacity kinda pales in comparison to building a single airfield near the coast and having unlimited capacity
      b) kinda overlapping with a), that low capacity doesnt really enable the heli to do much of anything because a single heli is exactly that a single heli; yes you could build more to field more helis but uhm see point a)
      Currently its used pretty much only as an interceptor for transports in coastal water and thats a okay role to fill because frankly you will never make corvettes „viable“ lategame in the sense that they’re able to take on lategame navy and win. I think the „solution“ would be to double down on their role as interceptor by upping their speed and maybe even change their naval signature to low to give them at least that surprise moment against „real navy“
      I feel like you’re to focussed on the corvette being a naval unit and its lack in power in comparison to others rather then the role it currently fills, yes it is really weak but so is infantry when compared to really anything thats not inf.

      on carriers:
      a) about your idea
      while interesting i feel that it kind of fails to adress the issues carriers face in the first place, also iirc they’ve been telling that airassaulting from carriers just doesnt go well with the code (citing legacy issues as usual)

      b) more than a toy
      Calling it a toy really is underselling the strength it actually possesses. After all, you get a mobile airfield which also heals the aircraft on it (in coastal waters).
      it’s issues are more along the lines of:
      -aircraft viable for carriers are very limited (you can’t really put mixed fixed wing stacks on carriers, helis dont have that issue tho)
      - any investment into carriers pretty
      much has to go hand in hand with focusing on navy by virtue of the carrier being a thicc ship and just being really screwed by other people having ships
      - really the lack of areas that would actually favor having a mobile airfield (only really pacific fits that criteria), a lot of the battlefield are just humongous connected masses of land so you at best and up clearing the landing zone and then just get an airfield if you head further inland

      the only points that could be really considered faults on the side of the carrier are the high building requirement and long time it takes but then again one could argue that one by pointing out that you are building what pretty much equals a behemoth, hell you can even name it
      Valid points. Then maybe we should give the corvette a greater radar range to assist in that role as transport interceptor, because frankly any other vessel can do just as good in that role right now. In any case…it needs something worth investing into.

      And I agree that the carrier is useful in some situations but not really worth the level five naval base, expensive technology, and high building cost. When I use it I feel like I would have won the battle with or without it. And if I find someone else is building one, I never feel threatened by it but just see it as a nice juicy target (conversely if I find out someone is upgrading their destroyers or cruisers or other vessel, besides corvette, I feel like I have find a way to counter them). But maybe I am just mentally trying to compare them to how they are feared in rl :S
      I am Aeneas, duty-bound and known above high air of heaven by my fame, carrying with me in my ships our gods of hearth and home, saved from the foe. I look for Italy to be my fatherland, and my descent is from all-highest Jove.