Figment

Oh I know the aircraft are squadron to squadron worse off. So that's why you don't engage them squadron to squadron... He said crypticly, not expecting the other person to understand you simply do not engage unless you're over friendlies or your own ship. Look, IJN CV used to simply overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers of squadrons, which was virtually impossible to defend against as there was no taking out enough squadrons to reduce the actual numbers flying out. The amount of damage an IJN could deal due to not having to think about where to engage and what units to evade (simply spamming and derping over the enemy interceptors instead) was silly. Given you exploited that so much, you would think you'd at some point learned how to deal with enemy aircraft. Apparently not. Which is a bit of a shame considering you've been stat padding them so much: I'm willing to bet you hardly ever used setups that had interceptors in the first place and never learned to deal with their inferior squadron firepower.

Actually the carriers were last to go in that match, but we bled them dry from aircraft by engaging them over friendly cruisers and my CV.

Yes. But if you're too stupid to understand that a dice roll in one part of the map results in something different than that same dice roll in another part of the map, then you're just not intelligent enough to be worth talking to.

Do you know what positioning is?

Herd mentality. When players are insecure, they group up, but since there's no herd leader, they have no idea where the rest is going and they just keep going until they hit a wall (or island). Only thing you can do to break it is communicate, assume leader role and keep clicking that map.

If that's the case, why did your Zuiho perform so poorly compared to mine? You deal ample damage, but you couldn't be decisive? How's that? Target prioritisation? Or are you one of those CV users that parks their CV in the far rear all match? Do you upgrade your AA on the ship? Do you actually USE the ship for AA purposes, or is it just a placeholder on the map? See, I don't use the quicker turn-around time (it's short enough as is) but save time by being close to the frontline. That actually makes my ships AA extremely useful and the chances of being camped by enemy fighters is pretty much zero. At leasts it hasn't happened to me yet and believe me, they tried. Don't be such a drama queen with exagerated statements like this anyway. It's your frustration speaking, not reality. I don't get it, what are you doing that makes it so hard for you to win with a CV?

If you want feel free to invite me at some point ramjb.

Would be nice to see a vid, hard to tell what exactly happened. Playing Mutsuki btw? Is it a Mutsuki only issue?

Hmm weird, not like I'm never on bad teams. At higher tiers being bad has more impact though and I really have to do a lot of things to keep the team working. Yeah, I'm cocky enough to assume basic command, but more as a tactical advisor and intel officer. I'm not sure if you nanny other players, but I backseat drive a lot from the start. Typically I first try to get a conversation about something light or point out the (tactical/positional/specific unit in match, like low health or beached, isolated) weaknesses in the enemy team and continuously suggest a priority target by either marking it. I tell people what I'm up to and why, keep sharing intel on positions, hp, threats like DDs and air, point out time left, mark targets and very importantly request intel on what I can't see. Basically I both try to keep an eye on everyone and move when I think one side can handle it, but the other cannot, but on top of that I try to raise situational awareness for all. Target marking is so crucial in that process, but so is pointing out people a DD is (probably) about to make a move on someone. It sometimes keeps people alive. My priorities are always: DDs -> cruisers -> BBs -> CVs (couldn't care less about hunting CVs as BB tbh) and try to have the team focus fire and remove light targets asap. Typically I don't get to fight many BBs due to that till the end, let alone full health BBs, as by the time I select those as target, my team should have numerical superiority and bombard it with HE faster than I can citadel it thrice. Due to the focus fire, if I need to fire more than three volleys at a target, it is a lot. I try to avoid drawn out fights. I tend to leave enemies at low health for others if my team is able to finish it off with HE any time soon, focusing on weakening, detering and isolating or forcing enemies to commit to a course that drives them into a crossfire through positioning. I don't recall seeing you on my team as of yet, but I'm genuinly curious how much time you spend on the team compared to focusing on personal combat. Certainly at higher tiers, making them avoid wasting time and getting early numerical advantages can make a lot of difference. Not saying you don't, but I'm honestly curious what we do different. Btw, do you go with the main group, or pick the weaker flanks? One other question: if you can't relocate quick from a flank, why go all the way there anyway? I don't go to the far sides of the map often, plenty of range and yeah, slow ships shouldn't want to have to cover long distances if they can't. Look up my BB strategy map with plot lines, see if you use the same routes or if you use routes that go in the opposite direction. I work from flank to center, if you work from flank to far flank or center to flank, you'll be further away from your objectives and the other flank later. If you move towards the center after five minutes, you should be able to help anywhere later on, even with a 20kts ship. Look at my New York for comparison.

95% of torps fired at a target from the front just allows them to pass through the middle of them, especially at longer ranges, remember that the torps widen near the end. Always make sure the BB has to do a lot of turning to steer clear through them if firing from long range. But yeah, best torp results you get under 6km. If US DDs wern't so high profile they would still be great at torping. Sadly they get spotted too soon to really use them in more than situational circumstances. In your case though, sounds like IJN torps. If it is a Benson you use, the torps are really slow and easy to dodge. But with IJN DDs, try to get to about 6km with camo skills.

@johnhusky: Benson was okay, but, slow torps at that tier meant long range was out of the question. All US DDs required the fog to last a few minutes and were balanced around staying in that fog to reload. Unlike other DDs, you won't get a second chance. In that respect the 4.5km sidegrade torpedoes deal potentialy 40K more damage, allowing you to miss more at the risk of closing in. With the basic hull I have circled a Kongo before and HE'd it to bits (deliberately taking out all secondaries I could hit at short range btw), killing it with over 80 hits between 7 and 2km distance, and hitting few torps. Big problem with the torps is the reload of well over a minute, making it unlikely you get a second chance. If your trap fails - and with the buffed rudder shift times of the BBs and cruisers and slow torp speed it frequently does - the risk of close range torping simply becomes too high, especially now that BBs were buffed in accuracy in mêlee range too. Add to that the buffed sonar special ability of cruisers that didn't go for AAA specials (up to tier V and people not knowing you can exchange specials) and the little bit of fog (25s deployment and little time or sight of where it is) becomes meaningless. If it covers you in the first place, since you have to see your target too to strike. You simply have to hope you'll win an engagement and tbh, the only real chances you get are at islands and against DDs and CVs. Due to that, you're much better off using the sit behind an island and use the epic curve to spam HE at BBs. Did 60K with that tactic and two DD kills earlier today with my Farragut (Hull B, nothing else unlocked).

High rate of fire allows for quick adjustments though. If it was too flat, it'd be too easy.

From what distance are you firing?

Well there's a very good upside to them: they have range and stay undetected while firing. So you can deal a lot of damage with HE. In fact, there were matches in CBT where I hit 180 HE shells dealing around 90K damage total and didn't use torps at all.

USN DDs used to be great high risk high reward units, untill they nerfed the fog hard due to bad players whining. The Mahan and Farragut used to be among my fave ships in CBT. Hit and run close range and all, excellent. 4.5km torps at this point while going up without fog against a Tirpitz with 6 km torps is just laughable though.

You playing for maximising your damage output or to actually win? For those are two different things. Just saying, looking at your ships, your trackrecord is incredibly inconsistent, could be your positioning that allows you to deal a lot of damage, but not be decisive at the right time.

Well consider that to hit a Pensacola at top speed, facing its side, you need to aim about 2.5 hulls in front of it and you have a travel time of about 8-14 seconds at its max range.

Nobody else having a problem with this?

Of course. But if you're adding more circles you need clarity, so colour code is one thing. Plus it might help for some people to know when to switch to torps and not have their guns retrained while they check if it's possible.

Once you have unlocked a ship you can always purchase it if you have the silver. Be aware though that if you move the captain to the new ship and start retraining, you can't let him go back to the previous ship without retraining. That's a bit annoying sadly. Be careful not to accidentally dismiss your captain though! And think about planning the points for the type of ships the captain will sail in the distant future. So do not go for torp skills on a US cruiser captain even if it helps at tier 4-5!

It would help if they would read these forums and devs would respond now and then. :/ The few WG staff members can't relay all the info I bet.

Having all separate circles for AA is probably too much info. You could make it so that you could have a simple and complex version though (by clicking one extra time).

There will be mods (if they don't exist already) that will show these kind of things. That's great for the people using them, not so great for the people who don't have access to them. The "vanilla" version therefore should have access to the most important range information. I suggest the following: As not all information is always necessary and it can clutter the minimap, it's imperative you can deactivate some of this information to filter and only display the important information. Hence one should indeed create a number of map toggles which can be activated (and IMO stored!) per unit (!) used, because each unit relies on different information. Toggles could be activated or deactivated by pressing Ctrl and left clicking on them. I've colour coded them such that each toggle is easily related to a circle. Note that detection circles have a different shape from ammo types as well. A mouse over should provide a short description of each toggle, obviously. I know there's already mods that show unit names and last known positions. I'd say the names should be added in with a toggle as well. It could be possible to have dead ships toggable too. Either way, a lot more can be done with the UI.

With many cruisers it is okay to stay on the edge of the range when fighting BB, they are slow enough for you to be accurate with HE spam and you have to dodge their AP fire especially. But against cruisers, it is often better to get them to 9-11km (provided that doesn't take you into range of too many ships). I personally use islands to block line of sight from other ships and continuously zig zag at about 10-12km if it is ocean. Of course, being with more ships always helps, but once there is four-five ships you start getting in each other's way. That is why I only find big fleets useful on Ocean. The most important thing is positioning though, since this game is very time management heavy: if you place yourself well, depending on what your team does, you can increase the chances of a win. What I tend to do is go to the weakest flank and hold it, I first try to deter enemies when they don't know I'm outnumbered by getting in their face enough to make them circle around at least once. If I then circle away and start kiting, it saved me two minutes of them advancing already. Always of course taking out DDs and cruisers first, since the slower the enemy the easier to kite (kiting is having them chase you while you zig zag at the far end of their or your range) and the longer it takes them to reach either base. Meanwhile, in such a retreat you move closer to your allies, after three minutes you should have help or can fix a problem at base or the other flank by re-prioritising threats. If instead you would stay out there on a flank all match, you would be isolated from your team, possibly going to get circled (always better to have all chase you from the same side and rear) and out of reach to help others. If instead you win a flank, immediately cut to the next bit of terrain. Very often I see five ships wait till that one ship is destroyed before they start moving to the next region. That can take these ships out of the important fight for minutes. Worse is getting baited into a chase of a ship. It would lure you to a corner of the map where travel time increases double (you went there an dhave to get back) in that case, cut off and long range fight it as you plot a course towards the middle or next objective. Force that player to come after you, rather than the other way around. Meanwhile, you have the added benefit you can cut it off from its objectives, making it harder to rejoin its allies, save their base or capture the next zone. I see a lot of players hang around far too long in these situations, even chasing an enemy that is out of their range for 10 minutes (that includes a lot of enemies ;)). Think about your logistics and where you will need to be in four to five minutes, including base caps. A lot of people complain about draws, it is those people that don't think ahead on where they will be needed, but just think about how to deal a lot of damage. You deal enough damage to be more decisive though. That damage will increase, I'm sure. You're critical of yourself, so you are capable of improving. Don't worry too much about damaging, focus on being a captain first, gunner second. When you control position and range, damage will follow.

Albany is the most underrated.