Shoho

War at Sea

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Allied Nations

• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• France
• Greece
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Soviet Union
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Allies stat table

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Axis Nations

• Finland
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
• Romania
• Siam (Thailand)
• Axis stat table

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Neutral Nations/Installations

• Sweden
• Spain
• Turkey
• Argentina (WAS)
• Chile (WAS)
• Installations
• Neutral stat table

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Sets

• War At Sea
• Task Force
• Flank Speed
• New Starter
• Condition Zebra
• Set V (Fleet Command)
• Surface action
• First Strike (Forumini Expansion Deck A)
• Infamy (Forumini Expansion Deck B)
• Battle Line (Forumini Expansion Deck C)
• All Hands on Deck (Forumini D)
• Action Stations (Forumini E)
• Dead Reckoning (Forumini F)

Unit Card:

Set - Rarity - Number

War at Sea - Uncommon - 59/64

History:

The Shoho was a light carrier for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Shoho means "Auspicious Phoenix" in Japanese. Shoho began life as the submarine tender Tsurugisaki. In 1940, it was converted into an aircraft carrier, and was renamed Shoho.

It's aircraft complement was of 16 A6M Zeroes and 14 D3A "Val" dive bombers.

The Shoho was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea, sunk by a combined strike of American SBD Dauntlesses and TBD Devastators. These aircraft came from the carriers USS Lexington and USS Yorktown.

Shoho was the very first Japanese carrier lost in battle in World War II.

Reviews:

nrnstraswa
Shoho serves as a cheap carrier for the Japanese in the game. The Expert Dogfighter SA can be quite useful in an IJN carrier build.

Greyh Seer
Take the Shoho with a fighter to provide constant air coverage and expert dogfighter for cheap. Because of her extremely weak armor, the Shoho can be a double edged sword, so be careful. The enemy (especially American fleets) will look to hit the Shoho early for easy points and to deny your fighters expert dogfighter as well as the ability to fly every turn.

Obviously, never leave her alone (I recommend an Akitsuki for the escort job or perhaps the Tone if you are playing a larger, air-heavy build.

The easiest way to combat her being an easy target is to give your opponent a target that is a much bigger threat - or better yet, multiple targets. Many players make the mistake of deploying a Yamato class battleship with a Shoho in the back. Even with AA escort, your opponents Dive bombers are going to look for an easy target - which they will not find in the Yamato class battleship. Give them a lighter battleship or a juicy cruiser group to fly after. A Long-Lance swarm works too. If your opponent is too worried about all of the Long-Lance ships coming his way, he will be less likely to target your defenseless Shoho. When all else fails, keep in mind that the boat is just 9 points and if you lose it, make sure you were in a position for its escort to move up and send some Long-Lances at the enemy.

Also, in larger games, the Shoho makes an excellent choice as often there will be plenty of targets for enemy air assets to attack. And if they DO attack the Shoho…well shame on them for wasting an airstrike that could have been used against a fleet carrier. :) -Greyh

Supermini

She is nice and cheap, and the SA is perfect for this type of carrier. She is very easy to hit or vital so keep her escorted.

anonymous

The Rufe makes the Shoho less useful than it once was. If you're considering the Shoho, it's probably because you want aircover but you want it on the cheap (without investing in a full-sized carrier). With the Rufe, you can get aircover every turn for just 8 points; you can essentially get two Rufes for the cost of a Shoho + any of the Zekes, giving you two anti-air attacks instead of the one that you get with Shoho. The Shoho isn't useless, however, since there is a significant drawback to the Rufe: its anti-air attack is much weaker than a Zeke using the Shoho's expert dogfighter bonus.

Aran55633
The Rufe does not affect the value of the Shoho in any way. The Rufe is useless (weak AA, no escort = worthless aircraft), a Zero boosted with this carrier is actually useful. If you can't afford the Shoho and Zero combo, DON'T turn to the Rufe. Just get a Zero. Won't fly every turn, but at least it does something when it does fly, whether that just be that it acts as an escort or actually being able to make an armor 5 aircraft abort once in a while…

Crissie's Critiques
The Shoho is the cheapest carrier in the game and is best used in smaller battles where you want to use primarily surface ships but you are worried about enemy air power. Due to it's capacity of only one, the best use of the Shoho is to put out a fighter each round to cover your ships, however you will find very quickly that you will end up using the fighter to cover only this unit as it is where your opponent will likely drop his/her planes due to the Shoho's weak armour. CC Rating: B-

Plastic Figure Notes:

Supermini
I really like this one, the cutouts are nice and her details are well defined.