Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-24413265-20140504151410/@comment-36.73.119.12-20140504153023

"Light Aircraft Cruiser"? You mean Light Aircraft Carrier.

Put it simply, CVL is the "lite" version of CV. They use less resource, but also carry less planes. In general, they work similarly with CV (like your Akagi), so put planes on them. Nothing but planes.

They have one trait which distinguish them from CV, though. Namely, they can attack submarines like DD and CL/CLT, but not as effectively. Still, loaded with planes that have high anti-sub stat (e.g. autogyro, Ju87 Kai) plus proper formation, they can be credible threat to subs.