hi there,

If your gunners have good base stats you will feel very lucky down the road.

You could lvl up a new bo (or even power level a neutral on your cv if you got the supports ready). The guns will definetely work better with the high level gunners and your spread will be better. The only downside will be there weight as at low level the space available is limited.

I dont know if you played any other nations bbs but ijn has some very good ships if you manage to get through the grid. Only thing is the high angles of the ijn guns (45 degrees) which means the shells are longer on the air. You will have to do some kind of guessing as to where the ship will be when the salvo will land. You will get used to it though down the line.

I run my ijn bb5 with 3 reps and 5 engs (prefer the higher overheat/speed) and 1 pair main gunners 1 pair dp gunners and the scout. You should also know that the dp gunners (aa gunners) are tricky to level and it would be best to check the IJN Forum section for more info.

Over all it wouldnt be bad to lvl ijn bb crew since you have already the cv and it would help you with leveling the supports. However, the final decision is yours.

its good to have gunners that are higher level than the ship or the rest of the crew.  No downsides.  (gunners and BO will get more exp than the rest of the crew)  You need the higher level gunners to handle the battleship guns  (ie. have good spread/reload)

like the above post said, make sure you have the proper crew before starting a new bb line.  Understand how to pick sailor bases and level up certain special sailors like the DP gunners.