re-posted from a forum tips section post :
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When to class AA gunners of the different nations.


KM: Class as AA gunners ASAP (@lvl 21-ish) ...
Then class on time all the way up through the Rapid Gunner line.
This is the one nation that gains reload on classing as AA gunners and each
advancement thereafter.


US, UK, IJN: Speed/power level as ARMAMENT sailors (lvl 12 - 65+)...
Leave your gunners as ARMAMENT Sailors from lvl 12-70 ... then class them up the
AA tree.
(NOTE: for the IJN = do NOT class them as Machine Gunners - that function has been
turned off - wastes your sailor - make sure you class them up the AA DP branch
when the time comes @ 65+).

Generally speaking, 70 is the min for decent gunners from what I have heard. The
longer you wait to class them over, the better reload and accuracy you will have. For
these nations, you loose quite a bit of reload and accuracy growth as you class them
over. (example. if you class US gunners on time, you will have maybe 700-800 reload
and accuracy at lvl 70 with a growth of +2 or so per level. Meanwhile, if you wait till
lvl 70, you will have around 1500 ability or so). The longer you wait the better. There
is also a benefit of leaving them as armament sailors which is a boost in exp. you
can throw them on a PBB for leveling and on a good game get 40k exp pretty easily
on them and 67k+ on a good game. if I remember correctly, I classed my US ones
over at lvl 90 and they had around 2k ability for accuracy and reload. Alternatively,
you can use reload gunners for US or UK (not recommended for IJN) but you won't
have access to the special AA guns that are usually lighter and harder hitting (and
faster reload) or PomPoms and quad aa guns for the dunk.

I did some experimenting and found that the IJN late-classing method works real
well for US and UK as well. I like it because I can get access to the US dual 6' guns
for aa but using the A version instead of the D version of the gun, it weighs less
than half the weight of the D version. As for UK, I have access to PomPoms and the
special quad AA guns for the Dunk. By power leveling them, I could get a pretty good
reload and accuracy ability. Most people just do the reload gunners, but I like the
perks of having the AA gunners. Just had to find a way around the loss of accuracy
and reload. Classing late gets around most of the drawbacks.


MN: Just class them up the REGULAR Gunner tree ASAP. ......
(WARNING: like the ijn = do NOT class as Machine Gunners - that function has been
turned off - wastes your sailor).
Just take whatever sailors you want to make into AA gunners and class them as
gunners - DO NOT MAKE THEM MACHINE GUNNERS!!! BVE reload gunners for MN and
they are pretty good. MN has different options. if you like hard hitting slow AA, they
have trip 6 inch guns or even quad 5.31 (or something like that) DP guns that pretty
much one shot any planes that get in the way. They have a decent reload (faster
than UK) and are pretty good with angles as well. The only problem is that for the
trips, you have to be using a CA and can only carry about 9 binds max and for the
quads, only 4 binds max. However, that was me using the CA.Tourville. If you go the
other rout and get the CA.Algerie not only do you have 4 main guns slots instead of
3, but you also have 11 more gun space, allowing you to increase your ammo
capacity by another 4 binds or so which makes the quads (4 of them, so 16 shells
fired each doing over 100 damage) a viable option.


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re-posted from a forum tips section post :

Just telling you this, USN A guns aren't finished.

USN A guns we're supposed to be much more worthwhile.

I know that on IJN AA gunners I delay classed them at lvl 89 and they work great,
but it seems that it doesn't matter for US as they just don't have that good of an AA
gun selection. Thanks for the heads-up guys.

Ive always been told not to delay classing. I would suppose this would appy to AA sailors
as well.

It would probably be a good idea to delay class if you were going for US AAW gunners.

And actually... there's a trick you can use with US AA guns. Support sailors can use all
of them that we care about. So you can take high reload stat sailors and class them as
Support sailors at level 12, then never class them up again. They will provide good
repair/restore skill and allow your ships to hit that 900 SD cap sooner while still using
AA guns.

Then later in your battleship career when you're levelling extra sailors for the highest
level battleships anyway, you replace those Support-Gunners with Reload gunners once you
no longer need the sailors in the T slots to hit 900 SD.

Note that it looks like this trick would work with UK gunners as well, but it doesn't.
Despite having the listed gun skill, UK Support sailors cannot use any gun over 4.7".
This is a US trick only. =)

Indeed. Don't use AA Gunners. The only gun worth using with them is the 6" triple A gun,
and then it only really fits on the Brooklyn. And the AAW stat is still turned off and
does nothing, so you don't need it.

US AA uses the 3"/70 mk23N with angle 37 or the 5"/38 mk38L with angle 36. Both these
guns use regular gunners (reload is best). There are AA guns with longer range (5"/38
mk29L and 5"/54 mk16 any) but they are either slower, heavier, lower damage, or all of the
above, and they too use regular gunners.

The USN NLD guns are better for AA duty than the USN A guns.

So you are perfectly fine with reload gunners. Those even give you the freedom of
choice between AA and ASW.