Verblonde

BTW @hedgehog_s - if you need someone to division with in randoms for as long as it takes to bag that necessary achievement, feel free to ping me in game. I'm not anywhere near a unicum, but I might be able to help keep the opposition off you whilst you concentrate on getting the needed results (assuming that isn't cheating?).

This is my recollection as well - I'm fairly sure that I only knew early on that you had to spend money to get the T8 because some kind souls on here did the calculations. I think it may have been clarified by WG folk on here when they were asked, but I don't think it's been in the 'everywhere' comms, unless I missed something...

Make sure you remove anti-det flag first, plus add the 'extra flooding', and 'extra fires' signals that increase detonation chance by 5% each... Here's the wiki on the subject: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Detonation After you're below 75% hp, you can detonate; I *think* (i.e. may be spectacularly wrong) that getting peppered by lots of smaller shots is more likely to cause you to detonate than one big one? That said, I exploded an Atlanta with a single HE round from a DD (I think) - we were both as surprised as each other! If you charge the enemy and pepper them with torpedoes, you also have a decent chance of getting dev strike, first blood, and/or flesh wound, even if you don't blow up. Suggest apologising to team-mates before trying this sort of thing though, as they won't be terribly happy with you if they don't know you're doing a mission (they probably won't be happy regardless, but...). Personally, what I'm actually going to do (from tomorrow) is try and play my DDs sensibly, but with maxed out chance of detonation, as the Exeter mission requires several achievements, rather than FSW's single one; dev strike, at least, seems to happen reasonably frequently if you're using torps (ditto first blood)...

If I ever have the patience to develop her captain, I'll probably give AFT a go; I think I didn't originally, because (as you say) it's not much use higher up the tree...

I guess it comes down to playstyle, and whether one can dodge or not - I'm distinctly lacking in that respect, so tend to get lots of mileage from AR. Curiously, I note that the wiki thinks that AFT is a really good idea for Fushun i.e. they fancy her for 'full-on gunnery/stealth is for wusses' build... All a bit theoretical though, as I think I moved my original Fushun captain up the line, and replaced him with a standard ten-pointer.

That's what I get for only glancing at the missions last night - thanks for the correction! That 'achievement' one is a stinker; easy for random players, but I think that Fly, Strike, Win should be doable for coop types, if only because Exeter is so resolutely requiring randoms at the moment...

Is there some confusion between Fly, Strike, Win, and the Exeter missions? The latter absolutely have to be done in random, at least in part, but the former don't (at least not so far) - they just take longer in coop is all. I may have missed something, of course...? Edit: unless I'm mistaken, if one can get the Exeter mission completed before the end of the current set of Fly, Strike, Win missions, that's an easy point for each set of the latter (Exeter is one of the 'specific' ships that the last mission of each set calls for).

I might argue for AR over TAE, as that increases the reload of everything, and you are going to get shot a lot in a (essentially) gunboat?

@domen3's excellent answer has covered off most stuff - well done, that chap! I would strongly urge you, as a bare minimum, to get your account to level 15 (when all aspects of the game unlock) before taking out Asashio again - you're seriously gimped without that. It would also be very wise to get a *lot* more playing time under your belt before playing Asashio against real people; she's a weird ship (and also my most played), and not hugely representative of very much else in the game, mainly due to having torps that can't hit DDs or cruisers. The conventional wisdom is to get at least one silver ship of the equivalent tier before playing any premium; that said, an awful lot of people ignore that advice and do it anyway (my equivalent was probably the IS-6 in WOT several years ago) - the level of regret varies from player to player. My suggestion would be to do at least some of the following: Play as many classes as possible (maybe with the exception of CVs, as they're rather in flux at the moment) up to T4; this will give you a better idea of what everything can do, and is trying to do. Stay at T4 or lower initially - T5+ get +2 MM, which means you'll face far nastier opponents; getting exploded quickly makes it harder to learn. If you do get sunk early, it's sometimes worth staying in the game and watching what your surviving team-mates do; you can glean insight into what to do (or, often, not do) by watching others for a few minutes. Skip between different ships on your side by left clicking. There is an awful lot to learn in the game, and it takes quite a long time to fully get the hang of it (this is partly why the game tends to stay interesting for so long); take some time to watch/read at least a few basic tutorials etc. iChase is very good - have a look at the Captain's Academy series: https://www.youtube.com/user/ichasegaming Also, the wiki is stuffed full of information: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships Be aware that CVs (aircraft carriers) recently were heavily re-worked; this means that some information you'll find in various sources is now out of date; the basics for most surface ships are still pretty much the same (the bit that a lot of people miss is that ships' catapult aircraft no longer spot torps for you). Take your time; although it's possible to get Tier 10 ships very quickly, especially if you throw money at the game, the 'point' of the game is not to get to T10, but rather to have fun, and to get good at the game. Besides which, some of the most entertaining ships in the game can be found at low-mid tiers (Vampire at T3, for example, is glorious). Aim to master aspects of the game in turn e.g. T1 teaches you the basics of shooting, angling, positioning, and so on; T2 adds in DDs (destroyers) and torpedoes; at T3 you meet your first BBs (battleships); T4 introduces CVs; T5 +2 MM, and your first brush with radar (T7 is the lowest tier that gets radar), and so on... Join a clan, ideally one that has people willing to teach; you'll get better a lot faster with some input from experienced players. Besides that, there are valuable economic bonuses to be had if the clan's base is sufficiently developed, which make a lot of difference over time. You don't have to spend money on the game; however, you will progress faster if you do (basically, textbook F2P model): premium time is worthwhile, warships-specific if you only play boats, and general WG if you play WOT (say) as well. Premium account works on all ships, and generates silver/xp faster, as well as allowing you to run three campaign slots at once. Premium ships (like your Asashio) have a number of advantages: better income, and the ability to accept any captain without retraining, to name but two; they also have the merit of being fully researched, so you don't have to play with weaker 'stock' versions. In general, only buy premiums that are roughly in line with where you've got to in your silver ship grind (and don't forget you can get free ones with coal, via the Arsenal). If you like DDs, perhaps have a look at Tachibana, and Cambeltown (T2, and T3, respectively) - they're a giggle, and good 'training wheels' ships. That said, I still occasionally play both of them, Cambeltown especially. Your options open up a lot once you get to mid tiers though, with a lot of excellent premiums in the T5-7 bracket. Don't go mental though, unless/until you're certain the game is a long-term thing for you! Random battles are largely where you want to be playing (although maybe give the upcoming space battles a spin - they'll earn you valuable elite captain xp), as soon as they're unlocked, but only with ships of tiers suitable to wherever your skill level is - if you go too high too soon, you'll be a liability to your team, and get a lot of hate from team-mates for it. In randoms, you'll learn more, progress faster, and get better rewards. That said, Coop is a valuable tool for learning the basics of how a new ship handles, grinding the first critical modules, doing some missions and so on; it's also a good place to use any too-high-tier premiums you acquire, until you're good enough to use them in randoms (this isn't just patronising git stuff - my MO still lives almost entirely in coop, as I'm not good enough in her for randoms, and I have several K battles experience!), as no-one really cares if you screw up in coop! Read up on captains, and captain skills: a good captain makes a lot of difference to your effectiveness, especially if you choose his* skills wisely; most of your opponents will have good captains available from (maybe) T5 or so. Ten points is a key step - at that point you can get Concealment Expert (CE), which makes your ship harder to spot; combined with cammo, this gives a significant edge to anything that relies on being hidden. Captains matter - don't go too high up the tiers without a good enough one. Learn what the P key does (if you're playing anything stealthy, especially in CV games) - basically, it toggles your AA/secondaries on/off; when either of these types of weapon fire, you're a lot easier to spot, so you often want them off. Also, read up on spotting mechanics (http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Detection) in general - this is one area where newer players often fall on their faces. Finally, keep asking questions on here: apart from a few special cases, there are lots of very helpful people on here who are happy to help newbies learn (just try and resist the urge to phrase your posts along the lines of "x happened, WG need to change the game" - those sorts of questions tend to get a somewhat less sympathetic reception)... *Edit: I used 'his' for brevity - currently, my port contains more than half a dozen female captains, a cat, a fish, and at least one intergalactic lizard...!

Always a pleasure...!

It's a pity it's RN ships only - the banzai DD approach would be hilarious in some of the Russkies, not to mention Terrible...

The achievements one might give a modicum of trouble in Coop...?

Post-script: I would love it if pre-dreadnoughts could be made to work though; the aesthetics of a lot of them are glorious...

They do. I don't think that's the issue here though. On pre-dreadnoughts, the main armament* wasn't consistent calibres; the main in-game implication for that being you have to pick one of the main gun calibres for the player controlled part, and the rest get lumped in with the secondaries. This results in very few player-controlled guns (four, typically?) and an awful lot of secondaries. I can see this being fun (I actually quite like Mikasa - in small doses), but it does make rather a lot of the gameplay of such ships AI controlled, which could be perceived as undesirable...? *Edit: using the term loosely. Edit2: a quick Google suggests that I'm lumping the actual main armament in with an 'intermediate' armament...

I vaguely recall reading that part of the problem is that pre-dreadnoughts (pretty much by definition) have mixed-calibre main armaments, which the game currently can't cope with...?

When I just clicked on your link it worked fine for me (already logged in) - many thanks!

For the fourth batch, obviously the first needs to be in Randoms, but the rest look fairly straightforward in Coop (playing at weird hours for the 'three kills' one). For the Battle achievements one, I think I'll just play DDs normally, but with their anti-det flags removed...! Edit: thinking about it, flying the increased fire/flooding chance (+increased det chance) signals should be done too - might as well go all in.

Depends rather on things like ship, tier, and opposition, not to mention how I tend to do in whatever ship I'm playing usually. My bare minimum is to basically suck less than usual e.g. I'm reliably bloody awful in cruisers and BBs, so in either of those two classes, actually contributing a bit to my team, and not actively being a liability is 'better than usual', so yay. For DDs, which I tend to be marginally less awful in, anything less than actively helping my team win is a disappointment. For a potato, that's about as ambitious as I get at the moment; maybe one day the aim will be to actively carry, but my skill is simply not there yet.

Most certainly, especially since it's a freebie, and has all the benefits of being a premium. Although there are perhaps better choices, I still use mine for Ops now and again - she does fine. As well as what @Panocek said, don't forget that your catapult plane doesn't spot torps since the rework...

For some reason, I don't get on terribly well with this particular Op (probably ID10T error); that said, the last time I tried it was in PEF, and it went surprisingly not-disastrously - perhaps something worthwhile to do with that ship if you have it...?

Short answer: yes (certainly compared to Coop). Longer answer: you also can make some decent silver in a lot of them too; some players load up with economic bonus flags and cammo as well, to magnify the effect too. They can be a good source of free xp as well as regular xp (with suitable flags/cammo), if you're trying to get ships like Nelson etc. or just research modules faster (generally, never free-xp new ships, only upgrades). If you're a newer player they have the added advantage of giving other rewards the first time you win with each number of stars (up to a maximum of five); for example, several of them will award you 10 point (or more - it's been a while?) captains when you complete them with enough stars. Most Ops are tier limited (I think the current one is T6 only, for example), and sometimes class limited too e.g. Dynamo was for DDs only, allied nations only, and T6-7 (plus Cossack). BTW I said T5-7 earlier - I was wrong; it's T6-7! <red face> My personal view is that it's worth maintaining several ships that are suitable for each Operation (there is a cooldown between uses for a given ship, although not their captain - so you can switch between premiums, say, using the same captain), and it's usually the case that something with a heal will often be extremely useful, as well as something with a decent hp pool - at least some of the time, the bots seem to preferentially target whoever has the lowest hp total within their firing range. I tend to prefer either BBs, or cruisers with monstrous heals, when permitted, but some better players can do splendid things with other classes. If you ever feel an urge to buy a premium ship, how well it plays (or doesn't) in Ops can be a consideration... You can read a bit more here: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Scenarios (the 'on hiatus' ones are those that were removed from circulation with the rework - we're told they'll return, but we don't know when yet); you'll note that of the live ones, all bar one are for T6. BTW the last three on the list are Halloween only, and use rental ships.

@NoobySkooby +1 to the 'join a clan' advice - quite apart from being able to division up with people, there are quite a few economic bonuses to be had. BTW if you're worried about the commitment, you can always leave again if you decide said clan smells and its collective mother dresses it funny, and join a different clan. There's a bit of a cooldown period between leaving one clan, and joining another, but that's it...

@twoCannonsLess - Good luck! BTW if you have the port slots, I might suggest keeping the T5-7 US DDs as you work your way up the line, at least until we know if Dynamo is returning - they're all rather good for that Operation (or were, for the old iteration). I think My T7 has an AA build for that specific purpose...

It's a consumable that, for a short time, increases the effectiveness of a ship's AA firepower. I have to admit, I'm not absolutely sure exactly how it does this since the rework (!); the relevant section of the wiki is here: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Consumables#Defensive_AA_Fire The US DDs get it from (I think) T5, although not on all hulls e.g. the T5 needs to be equipped with the B hull to unlock DefAA: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Nicholas Edit: ninjaed!

The US DDs mostly get excellent AA, especially when you get the option of Def AA; bear in mind though (especially when trying to take caps) that the key threat they represent is spotting you, rather than actually damaging you (at least at lower tiers), and when you open up with AA fire, the distance that you can be seen from expands drastically. The approach I've been taking is roughly as follows (when you face competent CVs), and assumes a DefAA equipped US DD: Toggle your AA off (P key), and enable AA aura indicators on your mini-map, if you haven't already. Don't worry about capping right away; rushing straight for the caps risks getting you killed early, so be at least a bit circumspect. Early game, try and spot the enemy; also, keep a close eye on planes (they'll usually be spotted before they see you). If planes are going to spot you (so, map awareness, and a bit of prediction is called for), try and move to a position where there is an island between you and the enemy ships; this way, when the planes find you, you avoid being sunk by the enemy ships making use of the planes' spotting. Keep an eye on your mini-map; when the planes get to the middle of your middle aura, activate Def AA (which reactivates your AA guns at the same time). If the planes are attacking you directly, probably don't worry about zone reinforcement; if they are passing through your AA aura and/or attacking someone else, perhaps reinforce the relevant side, and keep that side towards the planes (whilst still avoiding exposing yourself to enemy ships' fire). When the planes have been shot down/retreated, toggle your AA off again, and try and relocate (so that the next wave of planes need to find you all over again). Although not always possible, it's often a good idea to try and fight planes and ships at different times, as optimum positioning etc. for one threat may make you more exposed to the other. With any luck, you may give the CV the impression that you aren't an easy target, so they may go and bug someone else; in which case, you can start acting more like a normal DD for a bit (capping etc.). If the CV decides that mortal combat is the only way to respond to the grievous slight that was whatever damage you did on their first attack, then repeat the above process (keeping out of the LOS to enemy ships), using Def AA when possible, and try to make them regret it; at the very worst, you'll have made them a 'mission kill' for as long as it takes them to sink you, so protecting the rest of your team from their attentions. To avoid being a mission kill yourself, don't forget to spot the enemy (and cap, if possible) in between air attacks; the priority is to stay alive though - the value of a DD often increases as the game progresses, especially if you can retain the bulk of your hp. As with most ships, a suitably skilled captain will make your life easier; for most of the US DD line (everything that faces CVs) at the moment I use the 'standard' DD build (so, PT/PM, LS, SE, CE for the first ten points), followed by BFT, then AR, followed by SI, and whichever out of PT/PM you didn't pick the first time. The first ten points are *fairly* standard (with some argument here and there, especially vis-a-vis PT or PM), with the precise order of the remaining (eventually) nine points being more flexible, according to play style/preference (e.g. if CV numbers drop a bit, I would generally take AR before BFT, as the former speeds up reload on torps, as well as guns). It'll take quite a long time to get your first 19 pointer, but ten pointers are fairly easy to pick up (both for free, and variations on paid for); a DD above maybe T4 (T5 is when you get +2 MM) without CE will have a much harder life than one with that skill...