El2aZeR

You run out of TBs in 1/5 games, I agree. But against 2/1/2 Midways I have always clawed for every single fighter I could put up since Midway has so friggin' many of them. Even if you trade favorably in every engagement you run into danger of losing all of them before your enemy does. A couple of fighters more simply makes the margin of error a little bit more comfy, not to mention it makes outtrading an enemy Hakuryu running 2/3/3 a piece of cake. Also there have been no situations in which I needed 3 DBs for overall spotting or setting fires. 2 are more than enough.

Well, as does any T8 BB when you include TBs in the strike. I'm asking for the performance of AP bombs specifically for the sake of my waifu Enterprise. :)

I just made this. Not the 37km test (in which I got no citadels whatsoever trying to pen the deck) but there is a target at 30km which should be sufficient for all intends and purposes. So, with a total of 198 shells fired in 22 salvos at various ranges over 12km I got 5 citadels to show for my effort, all of them from waterline hits. Even that isn't reliable enough as you can clearly see, depending more on luck than anything. Previous tests have shown that Conqueror is not liable to take more penetrations than any other T10 BB from a source that cannot overmatch 32mm armor. Thus Conqueror is the 2nd best protected T10 BB against AP shells after GK. She may even be the overall best protected one when the concealment is considered. Stop with this ridiculous notion that Conq is somehow vulnerable to anything that doesn't also apply to other T10 BBs as well. She isn't.

I already did. Lower belt hits dealt nothing but penetration damage. Only waterline hits had any chance of reaching the citadel, bypassing the belt armor completely. I am currently testing deck and belt hits at 37km with Yamato range upgrade + spotting plane. The results are not in your favor to say the least. Test results have proven that Conqueror is second in protection only to GK against AP shells that cannot overmatch her 32mm armor.

That would require a ship to penetrate the entirety of the belt armor in addition to having an angle steep enough to touch the citadel roof. An unrealistic prospect at any range for any ship.

32mm deck armor will autobounce anything but 460mm shells from any realistic range. Also the main armor deck on Conq isn't visible in the ingame armor viewer.

No, that's not how it works. If you get a strike in, especially with an AS CV, your enemy has already misplayed. A balanced CV, which is capable of fulfilling all roles a CV must be able to play, will have no problems shutting you down equally as hard as you're doing to him. He however gets the spotting advantage since you cannot pull fighters to deny DB scouts (since if you do you're exposing your teammates), while he has nothing to worry about when he chases your DBs away from whatever you're trying to light for your teammates. After all if you pull fighters to save them he can swoop in with TBs to capitalize. So even if you play perfectly (aka deny all enemy strikes) you're at a disadvantage when playing AS, thus you have turned into a tremendous liability for your team. In the role section you can only do air control (and that not even all that well. If the enemy CV knows his stuff he can easily put you into dilemmas from which point there is no winning for you), spotting and striking are well beyond your reach. Outplaying AS was the easiest thing you could ever accomplish in CV play. It didn't even matter how skilled your opponent was as obviously skill cannot overcome the hilarious amounts of fundamental limitations such a worthless setup had. You never want to see only fighters in the sky. Likewise only bombers is equally as bad. What you want is all of them.

I think Tirpitz got buffed in that she got lowered a bit further into the water. Looking at old videos it does indeed seem to be the case. Tirpitz got so many buffs that I don't even remember all of them.

So, Flamu left one question remaining: How does she fare against AP bombs?

No, it was actually absolutely useless. If you're capable of doing damage (or really anything) with an AS CV your opponent is clearly vastly inferior to you in skill level, thus the result is completely non-telling. In an equally skilled match up, AS is worse than worthless. It is a liability.

I could've told you that. At high tiers AP bombs are a anti-cruiser weapon ironically. Here's to hoping WG will change it. Then again they're [edited] on cruisers at every turn, so I wouldn't be surprised if they don't. I don't have the Midway yet, but I would think Haku is just a tiny bit superior since she still has that extra edge in flexibility thanks to more squads + faster turnaround times. Still, with the new loadout Midway should be fairly close, so engagements come down largely to skill and not to CV choice. Btw, never understood why you would ever want to play 2/3/3 on Haku. 2/3/2 yields you a few more fighter reserves which is imo more than worth losing that extra DB squad.

I was actually going for Unryuu, but at that point I was just glad I got something. Well, that pretty much means you should be able to kill her on a good run. I'd say keep trying. :)

Barbette penetrations are rare but possible. Likewise if the GK is making a full turn towards you and you aim towards the waterline the amount of armor your shells have to penetrate is very small as they're bypassing the turtleback (aka the entirety of the belt armor) completely. Those are really the only two ways to citadel a KM BB in this game.

Farming node J, probably over 100 runs already. Mostly rubbish drops, Kamikaze & Harukaze are the only ones worth mentioning. When finally

Sure, but that would entail nerfing BBs. After all CVs being this powerful is only one of the logical consequences of BB overpopulation.

Well, nothing, but there's a problem with AP bombs. They're sadly inferior to HE bombs against T9+ BBs with FdG being the sole exception. They're topkek against cruisers however if you manage to catch them with their pants down. So unless WG gives us better AP bombs for high tier CVs I recommend using HE bombs on Essex & Midway instead. A viable case can be made only for Lexington as she meets plenty of BBs vulnerable to AP DB citadels in her MM spread.

CV play rests on three pillars: - air control - spotting - dealing damage If a CV cannot do all three of these in a sufficient manner it sucks and shouldn't be played. If it can do two well but has to forgo one of them it's equally bad and shouldn't be played. There are no compromises to be made. You either take all or go home. AS in this regard was particularly worthless since it could only do air control. And that not even all that well. Outplaying AS was among the easiest things you could ever do in CV play once you understood the monumental limitations of the setup. I would regularly deplane an AS CV completely and rack up Clear Sky regardless of how skilled they were. Even had time to taunt them in chat while doing so. It was one of the most boring things ever. For the sake of the game I am glad to see AS gone. Well, that would imply that this is even possible in the first place. AS was flawed in its very fundamentals as you would always have less influence than the enemy while playing it. Even if an AS player sacrifices his damage potential completely, using his bombers only to scout like our buddy here, nothing will stop the enemy fighters from denying it, chasing them away from whatever he was trying to light up. An AS player on the other hand cannot do the same thing if you decide to drop your bombs on your DBs and just fly around the map. As soon as he pulls fighters to deny your scout you can swoop in with your TBs to strike whatever exposed target you like (or alternatively bait the enemy fighters into a trap and kill them, securing air control). Thus he either lets you scout freely or he lets you get a strike in. So even if he plays perfectly and denies you any opportunity to strike, he must allow you to scout freely while he himself cannot do the same. Either way he automatically lost and placed a burden on his team by choosing to play such a worthless setup. Having serious strike potential actually helps you in maintaining air control. A fighter keeping your bombers in check is a fighter less you have to worry about when you or your enemy decide to make a move. Fighters alone with no strike potential to back it up are predictable and easy to outmaneuver.

WG recognized they made KM BBs too gimmicky, so they introduce another gimmick to counter them. Is perfect sense comrade! xaxaxaxaxaxa

I was ready to call it quits when the Gneisenau and NC settled in behind the island at D8 to camp right next to me. I should've let them lose, really. They had no right to win, but seeing the rest of my teammates, especially our Ashitaka, try and do their utmost I simply couldn't let their sacrifice be in vain. I mean,

Taiho, like the rest of the IJN CV line, didn't get AP bombs.

Taiho DBs? The combined alpha strike of both Taiho DB squads isn't enough to kill a Tirpitz even if they get citadel hits (which they cannot due to the very nature of HE bombs). Unless ofc you got #funandengaged.

Don't buy into this weird myth that Conq takes more AP pens than other BBs. She doesn't. She is the second best protected BB against AP shells that cannot overmatch 32mm armor. I tested it in the training room using my Monty, DM and Mino to shoot stuff. Result: - All BBs bounce shells equally well with their belt when properly angled, regardless of upper or lower belt. - All BBs bounce shells equally well when bow on. - Superstructure pens were prevalent on all T10 BBs. No BB took more damage than the others in this regard. - When broadsiding Yamato is by far the most vulnerable to citadel hits, followed by Monty which you can reliably citadel at any range as well if you aim right. Conqueror citadel was impossible to hit within 10km, occasional hits were observed from further away (though keep in mind Monty's particular shell characteristics aid in this, Conq's citadel may very well be impossible to hit at longer ranges for other BBs). GK didn't take any citadel hits at even extreme ranges (30km+, achieved using range upgrade + spotter plane and by queuing with a bot CV which would spot for me when attacking). Thus Conqueror is second only to GK in terms of protection against AP shells. Theory on why Conq players feel like they take more damage: Everyone knows Conq's citadel is submerged, so they don't even bother shooting at the belt and go for superstructure pens instead. Just like how some German BB players seem to think they're taking more pens than other BBs.

The point isn't to go bow on, as the bow can be overmatched. The point is to show a little bit of broadside so that the Monty is tempted to shoot at your belt, which can autobounce 406mm shells. You know, like this: Yes, that's a T1 Hermelin bouncing Yama shells.