Missing IJN Carrier Class

[Eumerin]

I got the main rulebook recently, and as I was flipping through it, it occurred to me that I can’t find one of the IJN carrier classes. Unless I’m missing something, there doesn’t appear to be an entry for the Unryuu-class. The class was designed as an improved version of Soryu. Eight were planned, with three completed. An additional eight carriers of a “budget” version of the class were also planned, though none of those were completed.

Of the three finished ships, Unryuu was sunk by USS Redfin while ferrying aircraft. Amagi was sunk in port. Katsuragi suffered some damage during American air raids, but survived the war largely intact. Neither Amagi nor Katsuragi ever embarked any aircraft.

It’s true that the carriers didn’t contribute much to the war (aside from the expenditure of USN munitions). But given the number of never-finished or even “never got past the blue-prints” ships found in the book, I’m surprised that a class that actually existed doesn’t get so much as a mention in the rulebook. If a player was inclined to use one or more of them, that could be done by treating them as Soryu with late war aircraft. So not having stats for them isn’t a critical oversight.

But it is an oversight nonetheless, and an odd one. Has there been any word on why this class wasn’t included in the rulebook?

[Nat]

They didnt include 100% of any nations ships… (RN M class DDs, mentioned in one of the scenarios – no where in the book same with the Delhi AA Cruiser… mentioned as a refit but no stats!)

As to the why?  no idea how they chose which ships to include or not, but some of the paper ships of the RN that where included in the mongoose version & the mongoos v2 beta (the core of the WL version) didnt make the final cut either….

[Enioch]

The good thing about the system is that you can easily stat ships based on similar classes

——–
Unryu-class CV
Speed 7″
Armour 2+

36/12 HP

Carrier, Torpedo Belt 2, 14 Flights

Weapons as Sohryu, except Local AA 3
————

I really have no idea why the little dragons weren’t included in the base rulebook; we know there’s an expansion planned that will include stuff like the Kaiten, maybe they’re planned for then…

[Eumerin]

They weren’t in the beta ship list, either. I asked the writer about their absence from the beta ship list when he was posting in the game thread over on DakkaDakka (back before the game was released), but he either somehow missed the intent of my question, or creatively redirected it into a non-answer. At the time, I just figured, “Well, it’s the beta list, and they weren’t that important of a class during the war. They’ll show up in the final.” So I didn’t push the matter.

In any case, as you noted, they’re easy to shoehorn in as they’re based on another carrier that’s in the game. And their historical profile is low enough that a lot of people don’t even realize that they’re missing.

Plus, it’s not as if the IJN has a *shortage* of carrier designs…

[Author]

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