I know that I need more engies, I just haven't been lucky enough to roll them yet. I
am told that it is possible to "roll" a 12/12 gunner combo' - but I have never seen it
myself. In fact, I have never seen two 12 growth-stats (in other than potential)
on "any" sailor?

A couple of things:
1) Engy stat only matters for Engies. No other sailor can contribute to overheat time
and overheat speed. Rep is an important stat for your BO as that sailor will be the
biggest contributor to your ships Repair speed after the Reps (obviously) and the
Engies. The gunners after a certain level lose all their repair growth.
1a) Restore stat is sorta important for BO but you'll get to the 900 sd cap with a BVE
support crew around low-80's.
2) Torps are really for noobs only or people who really want to play around with a
Kitakami for awhile. No ship above CL should carry torps unless you want to play
around with the TW role. CA and above your biggest weapon is range and torps
need to be fired from close up.
2a) Even if you say you want torps for antisub use that is also suboptimal, much
better is to use those two armament sailors that you are levelling up to be your dp
gunners on your yammy to fire hedgehogs.
3) Escort ships don't use torps. Escort ships are lousy at AA. Escort ships do not
need to be in the same navy as your main ship. (i.e. I use a q-class to escort my
Fuso).
4) If you do decide to have an escort ship, about the only good use for them is as a
"towed array sonar" so that that SS3 doesn't sneak up on your battleship. Thus you
should consider using one of your rolled BO's as a Sonar sailor.
5) Support crew: Assuming you are doing the BB grind in the long long grind from
Kongo all the way up to Yammy you need 6 supports + scout pilot + 2 dp gunners.
There is a lot of discussion about what is the best split between Engies and Reps.
SuperYam is 7 reps/engies, Amagi is 8.

Engys engys engys!

I'd level 3 more engys (at the very least 2 more) Try to get 10/10/12s or better if you can.

Well, thx for all of the info - after reading all this, it makes it seem as tho' elites are
only for the most obsessed, die-hard fanatics (who absolutely "must" have their stat
counts, even if only by all of "one" growth, higher than the next guy's). So far, the
crew which I've managed to roll is as follows:

IJN
2 x BO (both 14/11/10/10 - pot/rep/eng/res - planning on a third)
2 x Gunner (11/11 acc/rld, forget original repair stat... how do I check?)
2 x DP Gunner (11/11 acc/rld, forget orig' repair stat - levelling as arm' to 120)
2 x Torper (both 12 torpedo stat, forget others)
4 x Repairer (all 11/11/10 rep/res/eng)
2 x Engineer (both 11/11/10 eng/res/rep)
1 x Special Forces (Scout, Figher if I roll another good one... 10/11/11 air/ftr/bmb)

UNCLASSED (LVL 1)
2 x Gunner (11/11 acc/rld)
2 x Torper (12 torpedo)
...I have retained these mainly in case I decide to level an escort crew later on.

Is this a reasonable start... ?

Not quite correct if you take a long term/ end stage look at it
Skeleton elite sub BO is a waste of $2 as it's effective abilities are all 0, in which
case any sailor will do.
Elite gunners are not better, besides the obvious 12-12 combo, 10+/10+ rolled
gunners with 10+ repair are superior as well, due to the low acc and rel caps and
the very high rep cap.
Elite torper nope, torp cap is so low that any extra rep a rolled sailor can give is
more usefull.
Sonar/planesman need that rep/res so elite are also worse there.

You failed to mention the elite repairer though. For sub use some might prefer a
rolled sailor with high res to get (near) 900 SD, but for a BB it's the best repairer.
Also an elite pot medic is worth mentioning, if you think it'll save more vets, than it
will costs you games in lost rep/res compared with a rolled medic.

Just to clarify: in the realm of sailors, then ... the only elites for which you might not
score a better dice-roll are gunners, torpers, skeleton SS operators (as without crew
only potential matters?), and sonar/planesmen (or should they have better eng, rep,
and res)?

82

**************************
FPs: air/fp 11/11 or 10/12
DBs: air/bomb 11/11 or 10/12
TBs: air/bomb 11/11 or 10/12
**************************

The aircraft stats was never activated. At the moment it does nothing for pilots(rookies,
bombers, fighters). Fighter stats affects your attack power and Bomber stats determines
you plane's resistant to attack/immunity to auto AAW.

For more detail please consult Adalbert's guides on abilities in the Tip and Tactics section.

/mythbusted

AAW stat - Currently this stat is not used by NavyField. There are rumours and chances
that someday it will be used again. Thus the only "sacrifice" of proper IJN DP gunner
classing is that you don't gain AAW.

Ergo the only stat really important for DP gunner is Reload. Accuracy doesn't matter too
much (on a Yammy each aa salvo has 6x6.1" bullets and 20x4.7"). Reload caps at
around 2.4mm of true reload ability (which is (4 x vets + experts) * sailors reload ability
<p.s. as long as you have full recruits>). At that level, reload time is 40% of the stated
reload time for that gun. About 6 months ago the reload time was capped at 50% of
the stated reload time. To get 50% reload you need just under 2mm of true ability.

There is much more on this topic on Longrooster's stickied post. Also see Homicide's
sailor calculation tool for a good approximation of reload ability for a sailor.

Yes, 12/11 and 11/12 fighters trump elite fighters. Rolled support can also match/surpass
elite support.

Basically, buy your neutrals from me ;)