LongJohn_

I am pretty no(o)b with this game as well but one thing I've noticed is that different shiplines are very different. Points for WG for that. And because of this I think people should at least try out different ship types from different nations. For example IJN torp boat DDs compared to Russian gun boats. Very very different to play. Same with BBs. I personally first started out with Germans only because of stuff I'd seen in videos and read from internet. But it seems they dont suit my playstyle as well as some other ships.

I know. Alone T8 BBs are easy snacks for my Essex as well. Flooding-Repair-Fire-Repeat... If unchallenged by enemy fighters or friendly AA T8 BB is dead from full HP with one attack run (in two waves, damage over time...). Bismarcks are one of my favourites, Tirpitz is even easier, T7 ships just cannonfodder (or plane fodder...). Today I met one Roon with defensive AA which is pretty rare. Normally KM cruisers run Hydro. But even that could stand only limited time. Fighters shot down its fighter plane, first DB squad got Defensive AA and no hits, next bomber got free run as well as next one and torp planes finished her off. T8 NC can have some decent AA against T9 CVs and then there are Iowas and Montanas. But thats it. Yamatos, Kurfurst.. Big, slow and easy if left alone. But yep. I am wondering off topic here. Sorry.

Ok. More Bismarck combat today. Still pretty lost with it. Some games just run circles in the center and got sunk in the firestorm from all directions. Need to be center but not too center. Avg damage 60k which is 17k better than my first day. Still 13 point captain without MS skill and all ship modules stock. On the bright side I got a good result from T10 game. Played cautiously, used mostly HE against big boys and gained 141k total damage with witherer from all the fire damage. Got grounded in the end and killed by Iowa but we won the battle by points. Also got some attension from enemy Hakyrio at that match but luckily not too much since AA with A hull isn't that great against high tier planes. Overall Bismarck now at 51k average damage and 45% winrate. Both pathetic but still breathing right behind my Gneise and Bayern results. Allthough both are lower tier ships and they should be lower. Bismarck secondaries have great range but mostly its just lots of boom without actual results. Accuracy is still around 10% which doesnt work that well even mind terror. It really needs that MS skill on the cap. In some battles got some good secondary action against cruisers while kiting away.. Overall team balances differ much. Got DD ambushed in couple games while friendly DDs or CV plays all funny and not scouting. Naturally this is also my fault since I should not push without recon. I'll get my B hull in a battle or two... To make up to it kicked some [edited]with Essex. Two battles with 162k average damage, 6 kills in second one, both won... I kinda like that ship. ;)

Thanks for the input. I've looked some videos from Flamu and others. Thry dont seem to have that big problem with torp reload but then again they know what they are doing. Did one 90k game, single Akatsuki game whole day, and while damage was good, defended base and all, finished top of the board... Well. It could have been a lot better. Missed 2-3 complete torpedo volleys. Thought to aim and predict correctly and then it just didnt work out. I try to torp from side, predict what they might do etc. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Also try to torp close to my detection range so torp traveltime and enemy ship change in course would be minimum. Naturally Kagero with CE can get even closer. My Akatsuki has 6,5 detect if I remember correctly, Kagero would be over 1km better. Keeping Akatsuki is also one viable choise. But it also needs CE captain and I dont remember does my reserves have 10 point ijn captain. Some 8-9 points but that requires some grinding to minimum 10.

I understand what you mean. But you dont open fire before spotted from range? That 12km or so where you are spotted even with CE... This has some problems. First there should be part of the team with you and propably enemy has as well. So even 12km spotting distance doesnt help from being spotted by enemy DDs that should be screening in front of their capitalships. And while dds can spot you you dont have a chance to spot them from that range. Unless friendly screening dds spot them. Thats pretty much how it should work. Even while I've seen some succesfu Bismarck solo pushes from some players I dont think its a valid tactic overall. You need your team. You can tank and bully on the way but if you overextend just a few kilometres enemy team shall focus on you and you sink fast. But with multiple ships pushing together, maybe Bismarck as top tier in the middle, it works much better. CE sure helps disengaging if you need to but if you run into secondary range its way inside your detection range even with CE. And without MS skill secondaries are more of psychological weapon more than real damage dealer. My secondary accuracy is little over 10% with module only. That doesnt melt any DDs and even less bigger ships. So even while you can sneak closer with CE you cant deal that much damage without that MS skill. In this aspect its double edged sword... With long range secondaries its basically possible and maybe even valid tactic to engage two enemies at once. Let secondaries pummel smaller ship, for example cruiser or DD, and you can focus main battery fire to other target. Or other way around focus secondaries to angled bb that you cant damage well with mains and aim main batteries towards softer targets in enemy formation. I few times overrelied on secondaries with my Gneisenau. Pushed too far and sunk to petty Königsberg torps from close range etc. Secondaries on these german bbs are excellent but they still dont melt away full hp ships in an intant. So basically engaging more than couple enemy ships at once is overextending and results propably arent that good. Well last stand is the exception. I think its better to die fighting than fade away trying to kite away from multiple ships... At least try to take as many of them with you as you can...

I am pretty average with torp boats. Sucked with Fubuki but almost fell in love with Akatsuki. Dont know why but its been good to me. Got it through pretty fast ans now Kagero is researched. So a simple question: Is it worth it to go Kagero and leave Akatsuki? I am tempted on the detection range and deadly torps. I'be been struggling with Bensons and Kageros in my Akatsuki since they outspot me every time. My Akatsuki captain has CE skill and its been huge advantage in Fubuki and Akatsuki. I also have Russian dd line up to Tash so dd gunnery is very familiar to me. I am not afraid to shoot guns which with some ijn players seem to hesitate to use.

Not necesssary. You can surprice drop enemy dd right at the start etc. But its correct that you cant stop enemy cv from permaspotting your dds at the caps. They need help and you cant do it. In this case they need AA cruiser help closeby. Lex is complicated thing. There isnt a good loadout, all are more or less compromisses. Strike shines in T10 matches where team has AA to protect themselves, standard is propably ok top tier.. I dont know where AS loadout is good. 2-0-2. You can do only very limited damage to enemy ships with that. Maybe with good situational awareness you can farm fire damage to torp victims and most of the time just kill enemy planes and spot enemy ships. In some maps Lex is also handicapped by detection range. Stock is something like 18km. Some maps are just too small and its almost impossible to remain undetected. Essex is much better in this respect. Allthough at this point you should have pretty much enough captain point for both Air Superiority and CE. This means minimum 14 point captain. CE helps quite a bit.

Ok. Thanks for the information. I didnt mean to bumb misinformation, I just thought this is a good thread to ask this subject. 23-25% accuracy is also what good Bismarck players stats say. Players I know use manual secondaries. After all whole secondary thing is still rng based, not based on players aiming skills.

Could anyone open up the math behind dispersion? At the moment I have BFT and AFT skills on my Bismarck commander. Manual secondaries are next. I get little over 10% accuracy to my secondaries at the moment. I have secondary module installed which should drop secondary dispersion 20%. Manual secondaries drop 60% from T7 up. What does this 60% mean in this case? How much the actual hit % rises?

Ok. Math. Manual secondaries reduces secondary battery dispersion by -60% from T7 up. What the heck does this mean in practice? Same with secondary mod 2 which increases secondary battery range and reduces dispersion by -20%. Some crude numbers. After modest amount of games my automated Bismarck secondaries have managed hit accuracy of 10,68%. This is basically just automatically shooting everything in range. Meanwhile I checked Negativvvs stats. Respectable amount of games with Bismarck and from stats he is close to top 10% Bis players in server. Secondaries hit ratio 22,89%. This is over double better than mine. More than one hit out of five hits. While Bismarck has total of 28 secondary guns firing on whole ship, 14 on each side, with 3,35 to 7,5 seconds reload time. So basically there is about 14 shells in the air every five seconds or so if all guns are turned to shoot. With such accuracy enemyship should be hit once in couple seconds. Another example. Flamu stats. Superb results with +80% winrate and super unicum ratings. Main battery accuracy over 30%. Propably because he can play and aim. But secondaries on Bis. Basically same automated click and hope for the best as rest of us. Hit ratio 22,34%. Pretty identical to Negativvs stats. So basically this is what kind of accuracy to expect from manual secondary Bismarck? So are these correct and what is the math behind this dispersion?

I understand this manual dilemma. It really requires time to keep targets pointed. But overall its still walk in the park compared to keyboard polka when you play CVs. Thats serious business to do right. ? I managed couple succesful pushes where I didnt overextend or lag behind, acted as a meatshield to supporting cruisers etc. Pretty much how it should be. But that speed management and angling needs a lot more practice. Over extending even with stock engine is very easy and if you get concentrated fire from multiple ships its gonna be a short trip. Even with Bismarck. One battle I got alone after my T9 Ibuki and two DDs died on that flank. Faced 2 DDs, other was Akatsuki, Nelson BB and Atlanta. After short flee I didnt see chances of victory so I just thought to die with flying colors. So charge into cyclone. Killed of that Atlanta with couple salvos, got a single flooding torp from Akatsuki, repaired and started wearing down that Nelson. In the end 102k damage, best in our poor team, 1 kill and even got that Nelson after sinking (fire from secondaries). Bottom tier battles are much more cautious. T10 ships, Yamatos and Kurfursts, really punish if you give them a chance. But overall Bismarck seemed pretty solid while angled even against those big boys. Citadelled and sunk one Moskva as well today. Overall not that much to praise about. 48k average in 8 games, 5k more than yesterday but still pathetic.

Actually I dont think Negativvs suggested Fire Prevention to be a bad choise either. Bismarck does burn a lot. I am at 13 point at the moment. Preventive Maintenance, Adrenaline Rush, Basic Firing Training, Advanced Firing Training. Thats the first 10. Now I need one more for 14 point to get Manual Secondaries. Fire Preventive could be the next 4 points. Secondaries really shoot a lot and range of 11,3km is hilarious but accuracy isnt great. Stats say about 10%. Even while I've dueled some close range encounters as well. If I get that to +20% with manual secondaries it should be lot better. At least Manual Secondaries skill attributes suggest +100% more hits so that should double them. Sure you can point DD and start blazing it but overally hits and done damage isnt that good. Its more of psycological terror than real threat. I would also expect more fires from those secondaries. Firechance doesnt seem that high. One surprice today was that I managed to citadel broadside Kurfurst from about 15km range.

I didnt get CE skill, only the consielment module to last slot. Seems that the rudder is decent as it is and I think B Hull improves that as well.

Does it actually work? I've understood manual AA controls long range AA guns. So if you dont manually select AA target long range AA stays silent. Naturally short and midrange blaze away normally. Continued Bismarck games today. A bit better results, got my first 100k mark and overall little better. T10 is still intresting mess and did few total blunders while manouvering. Been used to New Mex speed which is lumber behind everyone. Secondaries shoot a lot but dont do that much damage. At my 100k game got 25k secondary damage, most cases just few thousand...

Ok. Bismarck in my port. 5 games tried, only 43k average damage and 60% winrate. Cant say that winrate was because of me. 12, soon 13, point Gneise captain at the rudder. Respecced to Flamus recommended build. PM, AR, BFT, AFT at the moment, two points to spare. Going for manual secondaries as soon as I have the points. Captain is also in retraining so skills are only 50% now. From modules I picked secondary spec stuff plus consielment. Even with stock hull ship behaved ok. Speed is already decent, turns ok and gun traverse is good even without EM skill. Secondaries have 10,2km range at the moment. Accuracy could be better but thats MS skill stuff after I get the necessary points. I think I need a lot practice. Few games I took very carefully, sniped and got hardly anything done. Some games I pushed in but was too aggressive and got sunk. One good secondary duel with Amagi. MM seemed to be what I expected. Sometimes top tier and noticed how potent AA is even with stock hull and 50% BFT/AFT skills.

I've noticed this too but mostly from my Essex deck. Strike one bomber, get one fire, darn, he repaired, hit with to ore squads and get 3-4 more fires. And then just watch the rage. Of cource I can also hit with one, get double fire, they repair and then strike more with planes they didnt see before. But thats not players fault, thats just CV gameplay.

This is very intresting analysis. As for Kongo I play it very randomly, Dont know why. Cant really compare it it two others. Gneisenau games I've commented. I felt guns very inconsistent. You might oneshot a cruiser with blind luck or do 3k damage with full salvo to broadside BB at 10km range. As New Mex I've at least tried to play it like people suggest. Flamus "brawling with a shotgun" style. Not that much sniping from full range. I've learned much from it since its also the last BB I've grinded so far. Tanking, angling etc. I found the guns much more consistent than Gneises guns even while ranges havent been that different. Many close range brawls with secondaries in play as well. In New Mex I've felt I've actually doing something for the team and in that aspect much more consistent and better results. I actually have fracture better avg dmg in my previous Bayern than in Gneisenau.

This is intresting. Read few other T10 CV threads as well. I am at around 200k xp at my Essex so Midway is coming up soon. I've been pretty decent with Essex so far and quite like its gameplay. But should I stick with it or should I try the T10? I've read a lot of stuff about Midways performance at T10 and its been pretty depressing stuff to read. Is it because of opposition aka Hakyrio? Or is it about players? Since T10 should have the best out there... Or is it something else? I have to admit I time to time meet very poor level players at T9 CVs. Really. Point and click, no strafing, no dodging to my strafes, all planes in one easy-to-strafe cluster, auto-drops... very poor stats. How the heck these players ever get to T9? Headbanging and helluva lot of games?

Meaning? If you dont like Gneise you should not go for Bismarck?

I agree about Russian DDs. Propably my fastest grind with most fun. Allthough I am at Tash at the moment but seems very promissing. I also have Russian cruisers up to Bud but I really suck with cruisers. Get deleted soon or play super careful and dont get anything done. DDs however are basically small cruisers without citadel. Ranges are superb, concielment terrible. Flat arcs, fast shells, easy to hit everything. Very good firechance as well. One forum (Dont remember which one) had the perfect example of this gamestyle: Cruise +40 knots speed around the map with mouse button glued bottom and your hair on fire. That pretty much summa it up. I do like my CVs but they really have their times of pain. Game intensity is insane and you really dont enjoy even nearly all games that much and after few battles this intensity starts to take its toll...

Noob question but what is this ship? Some reward etc from something? Premium? Does it make good credits? Played few games. Decent accuracy, crap AP pen, guns turn around in 2 days...

Which captain skills Essex veterans use? I have 15(?) point captain where I have 2 free points. TA, TAE, AS, CE, Dont remember the rest. Which ones to pick up?

This free respec really changed things. Gneise and a big group of other captain freed their point. For example my Tashkent cap didnt have last stand which is a total brainfart from my part. I really appreciate this offer reminder. As of the topic itself. I think I'll get the Bis after I collect the credits for it. Seems like playing my T9s (Essex and Tash) eat more credits than they create. Thanks for these adviced. I get back to you after I get my Bis.

I sort of agree with Esa to the fact that manual secondaries dont engage enemies on both sides of the ship - only the single one you select. But then again if you are in target rich environment its propably going badly wrong anyway. At least without support. Sure secondaries shoot both side but with standard accuracy they dont make that much difference if there are multiple enemy ships to shoot at. So at least in this respect I'd personally kill one (or max two, mains one, secondaries other) targets at once and have some kind of efficiency at it. I understand the gaming mechanic that WG propably wanted with both manual AA and manual secondaries. Sure both give tremendous bonus, is it +100% accuracy buff (aka doubles your hits) but it requires active gameplay from the player while normal AA and secondaries are automated AI controlled rng based setups.

Do I remember correctly or was the mechanic the same with manual AA? AA is firing true but with manual AA control you manage which targets the long range AA is using? Mid and short range AA remains under AI control? So without manually selecting those AA targets long range AA stay silent.