As the design of aircraft advanced, navy tactics employing them evolved in tandem. With an aircraft carrier, a fleet gained the ability to strike at targets hundreds of miles away with relative impunity. Despite the advance of anti-aircraft weaponry and the presence of defending fighters, aircraft spelled the eventual demise of the battleship as the rulers of the oceans.
A fleet may have supporting aircraft directed to its position from land-based airfields or it may possess its own aircraft carrier. If any Flights of aircraft are bought individually from the fleet lists and not assigned to a carrier also in the fleet, they are considered to be landbased for the purposes of these rules, though they could also conceivably have been launched from another aircraft carrier far from the battle.
In some scenarios, your entire ‘fleet’ can comprise nothing but aircraft. Battles of this nature certainly took place in the Second World War, with Taranto and Pearl Harbor being the most notable examples.
Including Aircraft in Victory at Sea
Carriers in a player’s fleet have the maximum number of Flights they may carry and the points values of these Flights are included in their points value. Players are free to choose whichever aircraft they wish so long as the number of Flights does not exceed their carriers’ maximum, and only Flights that are listed as being carrier-capable are chosen.
Aircraft may also be included without a carrier in the fleet. These aircraft are assumed to have taken off from land bases or carriers much further from the battle. Ordinarily, you may only have a maximum of a quarter of your fleet’s total points value represented by Flights that are not based on one of your carriers, unless otherwise stated by a scenario.
Aircraft perform a number of different functions in game, from dogfighting and bomber escort duties to ship and surface target attacks. An aircraft’s efficacy at a particular task is defined by its type. The game takes into account fighters, bombers, dive-bombers, torpedo bombers and even Kamikaze aircraft.
Let’s take the US Vought F4U-1 Corsair as an example:
| Flight: | Commissioned: | Carrier Capable: | Role: | Flank Speed: | Dogfight: | Damage Dice: | Traits: | Points: |
| Vought F4U-1 Corsair | 1942 | No | Fighter | 30″ | +3 | 0 | Tough | 25 |
We can see that the Corsair is not capable of damaging enemy vessels, and that it’s primary role is that of engaging enemy aircraft. They are best employed as interceptors against enemy bombers and their escorts.
Each of our Victory at Sea fleet boxes contains four aircraft flights. However, with Carriers in Victory at Sea able to carry dozens of aircraft flights, you’ll soon be able to reinforce your fleet with additional flights. Aircraft flights pre-orders will be available on our webstore from Saturday 11th July.
Get a head start on earning your Admiralty with our Exclusive Pre-Order bundles for Victory at Sea. Not only will you incur a significant saving against buying the individual items upon their release, but you’ll also receive two free models, exclusive to the Pre-Order period. These are:
- Altmark – A German Tanker from which 300 Allied prisoners were liberated in the Altmark incident
- USS Arizona – met her unfortunate demise in the attack at Pearl Harbor
Recently announced, you’ll also get access to a whole host of World of Warships digital content, care of our friends at Wargames.net. For full details look here…
Conor Trainer
