Yep, "turn the boat" --- three words I hate to hear, because you are about to lose your cruiser or CV and get to start over at your port.
It's a game, and games imitate reality only to an extent. In the real world of surface naval tactics carrier groups are spread over many miles with the well-protected carrier placed dead center inside a destroyer and air cover screen. An attacker might make it to a carrier --- might. In the Aces High game all boats are clumped together a stones throw apart and for whatever reasons the defending carrier aircraft do a poor job of defending the big boat; the general one being that attacking bombers arrive at far too high an altitude to be intercepted - friendly aircraft leaving the carrier nearly always stay at low altitudes to dogfight and attack nearby towns/bases.
In the game your only reliable defense aboard a carrier group is behind an anti-aircraft gun, and it is this defense that is gutted by turning the boat at the first sight of "CV Killers" --- a term that has been coined because of their regular successes. A heavy ship on a beam reach --- meaning a straight and level run broadsides to the enemy exists in a two-dimensional world of gunnery; exactly like land-based anti-aircraft guns and have the same chance of successful defense. But, once the boat begins turning, that world shifts into a 3D box where gunners try to target a moving target from a moving target that is moving in two directions. Imagine defending a land base from atop a giant merry-go round; it's the exact same thing
One night I was trying to explain this to another player who answered that since air-to-air combat involved the same principles, we should let naval anti-aircraft gunnery follow the same rules. I'll leave that one to your own judgment.
The other thing is that turning the boat is by no means an effect response against bombs. Bombs fall at 32 feet per-second/per-second according to gravity physics and the boat is simply too slow to move out of the way. Turning the boat could work if the enemy bombers were high enough, if a ship-based observer could report the moment the bombs were released, and if the Captain went full-rudder at that moment, but I have never once seen this kind of coordination. The enemy bomber on the other hand who is looking to release his load can see the ship turn and only needs to simply bump the pedal to follow the arc. Those of us who've been regularly blown out of the water while turning knows all about this.
There is no perfect solution in the game that will keep your CV from being destroyed, but screaming "Turn the boat" at the first sight of enemy aircraft only lessens the chances of survival in the game. A better solution is to keep an even keel and let the gunners do their job with proper lead without having to factor a turn into their aim. I'd hoped we'd seen enough of the results of "turning the boat" to try something different. Let's hold the boat on it's straight course for a while and see what happens. I'm betting we'll turn out the winner more often than we've been doing.
The second thing that makes me post this is the crazy things we do in CV-to-CV battles. There is one rule dating back to the days of sail and black powder cannons and it's called "crossing the T." When fighting another surface force, you stay broadsides to the enemy while running a straight line as much as you can. Being broadsides is the only way you can fire 100% of your guns at the enemy. If you present the bow or the stern to the enemy you not only lose 50% of your firepower since your guns are hidden on the other side of the boat, but the enemy is also apt to need only a range calculation to hit you because the usual windage (lead) is removed or reduced. Ditto for attacks from the shore batteries; I don't know how many players I've seen who try to outrun an 8" shell in a 26-knot boat with fewer guns to return fire. Further, like the enemy ship gunner, his shore battery counterpart also gains the advantage of an absent or reduced lead factor to place on his aim.
Another story about the ship's attitude is the player who defending presenting the CV's arse to the enemy with the logic that "it makes for a smaller target." Again, I'll leave that one to your own judgment.
I just had to write this. I just finished destroying two sets of bombers from a CV 5" --- for one reason....I didn't call them out and no one else saw them. Had either occurred, someone would have screamed "turn the boat," and if you mess with the CV's you know the end of that story.
For what it's worth, there are three things I hope folks would remember. One, AAA is your only defense in this game; don't sabotage what you have by turning the boat and lousing up your defensive gunnery while causing almost no inconvenience for the enemy pilot. Second, keep broadsides in CV-to-CV battles to better your aim AND have use of ALL your guns --- let it be the other guys riding the merry-go round while you are blowing him out of the water. Cross that T and keep it crossed. Third and last, if you just have to take command of the CV's in the game, please make sure you have at least a novice's education in surface naval tactics. If I had to name a single cause of defeats in the CV part of the game, it would be that every mother's son with a online subscription can turn the wheel.
