Procrastes

I must try this at home. I mean, I have tried yolo rushing in my Tirpitz, but usually this just leads to me eating a faceful of torpedoes and going down like a stone...

I use AFT and CE on my Tirpitz captain! Whether it's to good or bad effect is not for me to judge, but if I regularly fail myself across the battlesea in this Teutonic Titan, it's because I sort of suck at gunnery, and not because of my skill choices. I just can't be bothered to activate my secondaries manually, and also I quite like the fact that my crew takes an active hand in dealing with the opposition without me always telling them what to do. So in short, yeah - I think the combination of AFT and CE is perfectly feasible!

Being late to the evac point is indeed the reason behind most failures in this operation. I have this recurring evil thought, that it would be a nice touch if those ships that do reach the evac point once the primary objective is completed, actually leave the map, and avoid getting sunk. Maybe they could even leave a message-in-a-bottle floating around, "Dear Captain Clyde, where were you? We waited and waited, but in the end we decided to..." But I realize that this would be a bad idea. Quite apart from the amount of unnecessary programming space, it would also undermine one of the best parts of this new game mode; namely how much it has promoted actual team work. Because I feel that 'Operations' works really well as a game mode. You get a relatively small number of players, that are all given incentives to communicate and co-operate with each other in order to secure a win. Of course it doesn't come together every time, but what online multiplayer game does that? When it works out, it's great! That's why I regularly keep coming back to operations, even those I have completed with five stars. Wargaming has made a great start with this game mode, and I hope they continue to develop it with new and varied scenarios!

This. And play the "Das Boot"-theme over and over while you do it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkgtA30tZn8

This is good to know. I have been thinking of trying to do that operation in a destroyer, but have hesitated because I do not want to cripple the team. It seems that I may have been overcautious. I have considered the following ships: - The Farragut, obviously, because of her good firepower for a destroyer, and she has the option to mount the Defensive AA consumable. - The Gallant, because of those single-shot torpedoes. They should be good for taking out the moored carrier and battleship, if nothing else. - The Gremyaschy, because of those magic 130 mm guns.

Which way is that, in a DD?

Thanks for your nice replies, guys!

The De Grasse is a solid all-rounder tier 6 light cruiser, good in most games and excellent for operations. Her guns are her greatest asst. Her weak armour is shared with all light cruisers, so I would say that her somewhat large detection range is the only real weakness. I currently have an 11-point captain on her, and I chose IFHE as my first level 4 skill, but i do feel that CE is necessary to have at some point. My advice: Buy her!

I have now played about ten games in the Orion. This is obviously nowhere near enough to serve as a base for a definitive opinion, but here is a tentative first impression. What do I think of the Orion? I wouldn't want to fight her in a cruiser. In the opening phase of my last game in the Orion, i fired a ten-shot HE salvo against an approaching Danae cruiser. Three HE shells hit; one of them in the citadel. They took out approximately half the Danae's hit points, two torpedo launchers, her steering and her engine, and they set her on fire. The fact that they also knocked out two of her AA mounts was probably quite incidental to her captain's decision to break off the attack and attempt a tactical retreat (which failed). It should be noted that this was by no means an isolated incident. I, who have always regarded myself as being a somewhat less than mediocre gunner in World of Warships, have managed to land an unprecedented number of devastating salvoes on cruisers when driving my Orion. The reason, as far as I can determine, is that hits with her HE shells never result in overpenetrations. If they hit, they do 1/3 damage, or even full damage if they manage to pierce the citadel - which, as it happens, is a far from unusual occurrence. Is the Orion overpowered? I's still too early to tell - but against cruisers, she may well be. Against battleships? I am not so sure. In a one-on-one fight, I think most battleships from other nations might manage to hold their own, especially since they will use AP shells whose damage is not so easily healed up with the Damage Repair Party consumable. As for destroyers, the "yolo torpedo charge" is obviously a less than optimal tactic when facing any battleship that happens to have HE loaded. This is probably the greatest problem when fighting the Orion, who is is more than likely to have HE loaded as her standard ordinance. But then again, I don't really consider yoloing to be a valid destroyer tactic against German battleships either, since their secondaries tend to make mincemeat out of any hapless destroyer that gets too close. I took out my Clemson against a few Orions last battle, and took pains to fire at them only when they were busy with other engagements. This worked out very well, as the Orion seems to be rather esily set on fire. I have yet to try out the AP shells of the Orion. Reputedly, they have shorter fuses than the norm, making them less prone to overpenetrations against weakly armoured targets, but more likely to shatter against heavy armour. If this is so, then I guess it's more bad news for the cruisers...? Edited: During my last battle, I fired HE continuously at a close-range St Louis, without making much of a dent in him. And the St Louis is a well-armoured little bugger, so it does make sense. I will try out the AP shells next time I face one of those, and see how that works out.

Does anyone know if the 'Perth smoke bug' has been fixed?

The Perth is great for Operation Killer Whale, since her single-shot torpedoes can swiftly take out the anchored battleship and carrier with one torpedo salvo each. Her smoke and spotter gives her added survivability. The De Grasse is an excellent all-rounder for most operations. The Graf Spee really shines in Operations, due to the easy way you can get citadels on most enemy cruisers. The Leander is, I think, a bad choice for Killer Whale, since her AP-only guns reputedly have a hard time hurting the on-shore forts. The Budyonny is, as always, a very strong ship in Operations. The Molotov should be great at taking out the forts with her 180 mm AP.

There is always the possibility to give several "upgrade" options for a premium ship; such as with the Harekaze and the Lo Yang, for example. Giving a battleship the option to choose between better AA/secondaries or a spotter plane, well, I guess it could work. A choice between better AA/secondaries or a fighter plane might be awkward, though, since a fighter is - on a battleship, at any rate - mostly there for a temporary AA boost (on a cruiser it is also excellent for close range torpedo warning, due to the longer flight time).

Two active plane launchers? An interesting idea! But, since you can already get two plane launchers (sort of) by choosing the relevant level 1 captain skill, we should ask ourselves what effect this skill would have on a ship with two active launchers to begin with. Would it then get three planes airborne at the same time? That could be nifty; especially if we are talking about fighters!

George Washington's father would probably advice you to get your teenage son to grind together the same amount of elite and free xp, that he wilfully, and - I assume - wrongfully, spent on your account. In fact, that would be my suggestion as well.

I'm sorry, maybe I've missed your point here. Serious questions in the chat are usually given some kind of serious response, as far as I can tell. But if someone starts to write stuff like "HOW DO I SHOT" in the chat at the beginning of a battle, in capital letters no less, I would probably assume that he or she was deliberately trying to clog up the chat, and I would ignore it. I wouldn't report it, though; I save that stuff for deliberate abuse and the like. In my opinion, the chat communication in World of Warships functions rather well, and the tone is generally good and amicable. I typically give more compliments than I make reports, and as for the karma score, I have never been able to find mine.

So what you are saying is, basically, that since the chat ban system is broken, you troll people in chat all the time? Have you ever considered that it might be the other way around...?

It will be interesting to test the mettle of the Giulio Cesare, in a battle with the König. "Der Schlacht beginnt!"

Lovely pictures! Another fun fact: When I was in Tuscany some twenty years ago, one of the locals asked me if I knew why the carabinieri* always patrolled two and two together? I said, 'no', and she replied: "Because one of them can read, and the other can write." * One of several branches of well armed and snappily uniformed Italian policemen; not always too popular among the local populace.

Thanks for clearing that up! It's that sort of in-house knowledge that we landlubbers can't really get access to.

You sneak up... get real close... place those 320 mm beauties right behind the smoke stacks... scream out in the voice-chat, at the top of your lungs, "THIS IS THE DAY WHEN THE CESARE FAMILY SETTLES ITS DEBTS!!!" ... and you pull the trigger.

Again, good questions all! Launching torpedoes from second line... ...is one of the more prevalent causes for careless, or even intentional, team killing. What it means is, that you launch your torpedoes in a situation where one or more allied ships are in danger of being hit. This is obviously something you should never do. There have been a ton of posts about this matter, but the bottom line is really very simple: When one of your torpedoes strikes an ally, it is always your fault. It is always up to you to make sure that there is no danger of causing damage to an ally. Sometimes this can be tricky to decide in the heat of the moment, but you should never intentionally take the kind of chances that means you are gambling with your team members' hit points; doing so is simply not fair. Even so, accidents do happen, and in such a situation a sincere apology in the battle chat will usually go a long way. Priority Target... ...is a 1st level skill, that tells you how many enemy ships are targeting you with their guns at any given time. It is very useful on most ships. You turn your ship, but the enemy captain has anticipated how you would turn, and aimed his torpedoes so that your attempted dodge fails? This means... ...that this enemy captain knows his business, and deserves his win as well as your respect. Compliment him in the battle chat, and play another game! In time you will get better both at dodging torpedoes, and at torping your enemies. Unlike real naval warfare, WoWs is all about second chances!

By the powers, you're right! What dark sorcery is this?!!! Also: Dang it. Didn't see that. Let the dead posts rest, then.

I agree that shortening the range of battleship guns, in order to discourage camping, would not be good idea. It wouldn't fix the problem by suddenly making bad players into good ones, and it would hurt the gameplay by creating a really weird situation for battleships. There is a limit when balancing efforts start to have a negative impact on immersion, after all.

Locking down enemy planes in a dogfight with one of your own squadrons, and then strafing the lot of them, can actually be an efficient - if rather cold-blooded - tactic. "Order the archers to fire, captain!" "Excuse me, Highness, but... won't we hit our own men?" "Yes. But we will hit theirs, too - and we've got reserves." __________________ From the movie "Braveheart"

First of all, kudos to you for asking constructive questions instead of going into a diatribe against destroyers. How you avoid torpedoes: - Keep changing course and speed now and then, unless you are positively sure that you are not being spotted. - Always assume that any nearby smoke screen is your enemy. If you see one, chances are good that torpedoes (hostile or friendly) are already in the water. - If you are approaching an island, and get spotted, you should assume that the first thing that will meet you as you come around the corner, is a shoal of metal fish. This kind of torpedo ambush is a favourite destroyer/cruiser tactic. How you torpedo a battleship If your target practises safe battleship driving, as outlined above, pulling off a surprise torpedo attack is not as easy as it sounds. Here are some few tricks that I have picked up. - If you attack an enemy that is already spotted by other ships, he will not be warned by his detection sense suddenly going off. - If you attack while the enemy is distracted, such as when he is under fire or is himself shooting at your allies, the chances to achieve surprise is better. - The shorter the range at which you manage to launch your torpedoes, the less time will pass until they reach the target, and the less risk for the target making a random change of course or speed. - Wait a few seconds between each torpedo launch. If the torpedoes come from different angles, it will usually be harder to dodge them all. - More importantly: Try, and try again! Keep launching torpedoes, not only at targets you can see but at places where a target might conceivably appear. Try to outguess your opponent; "If I were an enemy captain, where would I be going right now?" - Most importantly: Do not fire torpedoes from second line! Good luck with your future endeavours! I look forward to meeting you on the battlesea!