B5N2 Kate

Unit Card:

WASB5N2KateStatCard.jpg

Set - Rarity - Number

War at Sea - Common - 51/64

History:

Reviews:

The Kate is not a bad torpedo bomber; but the Jill is superior in virtually every respect for only one point more.

Against UK builds or 1941 US builds the Kate may have enough punch to succeed. Against 1942+ US fighters and air defenses Kates are simply a losing bet.

The good: Kate has a solid 5 armor, so is hard to abort. Her 3 torpedo attack is very solid. The Alternate Payload 6 is the one area in which she bests the Jill—great for putting crippled enemy cruisers and destroyers out of their misery. And the 2 ASW is nice window dressing.

The bad: 7 vital armor is not enough, they attrit quickly. At 13 points, she is expensive. The ASW value is unlikely to hit any submarine, although it has a bit of harrassment value.

The ugly: the Jill is just better.

Anonymous
With the release of the reprinted B5N2 Type 97 Attack Bomber, this version of the Kate is much less desirable than it once was. If I'm using a bunch of Kates, I usually drop in one of the old ones; I find it's nice to have the alternate payload occasionally. But with the cheaper cost of the reprinted Kate, plus the bonus dice against carriers, this older version of the Kate is definitely a bad choice most of the time.

Aran55633
Alternate payload is useless, if you want a bomb attack to go after cruisers and destroyers, take a Judy or a Val. If you want a torpedo attack, however, take the new Kate or the Jill long before these. If you simply must take another torpedo bomber and don't have any others, then you may, MAY want to bring one or two of these… I would sooner find another, more meaningful use for the points, though.

Plastic Figure Notes:

B5N2-Kate_zps8d8282b5.jpg
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