IT Cavour

The Cavour, as seen in-game

* Base
* Top

## Background History

The Cavour (C 550) is a V/STOL aircraft carrier of the Italian Marina Militare that entered operations in June 2009. Built in Genoa, she underwent her first sea trial on December 22, 2006 and was commissioned on March 27 , 2008. The ship is equipped for amphibious operations and has been designed to perform various functions, although its aerial use predominates. Its displacement is 27,900 tons, and it can exceed 30,000 at full military operational capacity.

## Overview

Cavour is a very strong Carrier in the game, being one of only 2 carriers to carry main guns, 2 of them, even. Not to mention it carries a full aviation complement of Strike Fighters, Fighters, and Helicopter combo. It also has decent maneuverability for it's size, which comes at the cost of speed and health, but overall it's a great ship to play.

## Tactics

### Playing as a Cavour

At the start of the game, launch all aircraft (helicopter included), and use the fighters or strike fighters (preferably the former) to spot the enemy ships and conduct SEAD (supression of enemy air defense, in this game its basically destroying helicopters that have AA capabilities, like Osprey and Lynx). Then, use your strike fighters to quickly strike an enemy ship. There are 2 ways to play Cavour, as a gunboat sniping everything in sight, or as a typical aircraft carrier with a close in defence system (the gun). If you choose the former, after striking the enemy target, press the rearm button next to the kill counter (while controlling your jets), and said button will return your jets to your ship to rearm, and your player view is also shifted back to the ship, so you should quickly take aim and shoot enemies in range, shoot the enemy CV if possible. Or, you could pick the latter playstyle and conduct long-range attacks with your jets, in which case you don't even need to move your ship closer to the front line, in range of your guns, you just use your strike fighters like a conventional carrier.

### Playing along a Cavour

IT Cavour is one of the strongest aircraft carrier in Tier II, mainly because it has more defensive armament such as missiles, cannons and autocannons, therefore, while playing along IT Cavour as a Caio Dullio or submarine, it is recommended for you to stay close to the ship and follow wherever it goes while defending the carrier from submarine attacks, while the Cavour provides you with air support and air defense from anti-ship missiles.

Like many other aircraft carriers, a fully upgraded IT Cavour only has a maximum speed of 12 knots, hence, controlling your ship speed is very important while voyaging along an IT Cavour so that you will not stray too far or go too fast for the carrier, leaving the carrier behind.

### Playing against a Cavour

The Cavour is vulnerable to submarines and torpedoes, as it has little anti-submarine capabilities. It's also vulnerable to missile spamming ships, such as the FFGX or the Derzkiy, or, worse, Loon.

## Suggested Armaments Setup

The ship, with its flexible armaments setup, can be armed with various weapons that will furthermore improve the ship's performance. Below are some suggested weapons setup. But, bear in mind that these are just suggestions.

Strike fighter: Su-34 Fullback (for high durability and good burst damage), F-14 Tomcat (for multipurpose aircraft, the default AV-08 Harrier may also work\*),Su-47 (For high maneuverability and multipurpose aircraft), F-2A (for a strong damage dealing aircraft, costs gold)

Fighter: F-18 Hornet (because it is very balanced), T-4 (very good health, damage and speed, best for spotting)

Helicopter: SV-22 Osprey (for good spotting, defend the ship from missiles, anti-submarine capabilities and can target aircraft), or 360 Invictus (if you want to work with an Apache-like heli), WG-13 Super Lynx (because it has two machine guns, overall best DPS out of all T2 helicopters, extra ASuW capability).

Cannon: Type 210 or Mark 45 for high damage but the former has longer reload and the latter has subpar accuracy or Melara Rapid which is balanced and can target fighters and strike fighters, but deals low damage to ships, Bofors NAG Stealth for the highest anti surface DPS in Tier II, MONARCH for tier III

Missile: Tomahawk (Nuclear Warhead)( for Hero-status players), SSM-700K C-Star, PJ-10 BrahMos (for high damage per shot, recommended for ships that have less than 2 missile slots), Zircon, DF-17 (for Tier III)

AA defense: ZM-47 Gibka (for anti-aircraft) OSA-M(for anti-missile AA), Sea RAM (for quick reload AA defense), THEL Laser defense (for Tier III)

Autocannon: MK-19 (for long-mid range), Oerlikon KCB (for close range brawling, highly recommended)

\*: note: Since the gun fire rate and accuracy changes since the latest update have affected the harrier, it's pretty much obsolete unless you're patient enough

## Advantages and Disadvantages

### Advantages

* Has guns AND missiles, allowing it to be played as a gunboat.
* Has a full aviation complement (for tier 2), meaning it has a Strike Fighter, a Fighter, and a Helicopter
* Is actually quite maneuverable for a carrier

### Disadvantages

* Low durability
* Slow speed, like all carriers
* Has weak AA for it's type

## Trivia

* This is the only Aircraft Carrier besides the USS Nemesis that comes with main guns slots.
* This ship originally costed 3,250 gold, but was increased to 4,500 gold on July 1, 2022.