deadly_if_swallowed

I did, but I thought you were asking about the use of AP shells in general, and took 155mm only for personal reference ;) Same should work for either caliber though, only with a different dmg scale - with calibers that range from 105mm to 203mm, I have much better experience with HE hits on DD than with AP due to the fact a DD does not have a citadel. It is possible to seriously hurt a DD with AP but HE will always be my ammo of choice.

As a BB with 356mm to 410mm guns, your shells will hopelessly overpenetrate and only do their minimum damage of approx. 1000 to 1200, so you can imagine how many hits you need to sink a mid-tier DD. Eventually you can hit a section of the DD at which a BB shell causes about 3000 dmg but that's it. It IS possible to sink a DD with AP though, even with one salvo. I had a Devastating Strike with Izumo once when a DD ate 8 of 9 410mm AP shells. But that was mere luck. BB HE shells on the other hand can cause a lot of dmg with each hit, about 2500 to 5000 each, plus fire, plus module destruction. Much more convenient

I rarely use German torps offensively, maybe just to pre-torp narrow passages or stop pursuers. I think they are exclusively meant for self-defense, scaring off cruisers/destroyers rather than sniping or gamemaking. For torp hunting or ambushes, this vessel is just too long and sluggish.

/signed by a BB player. In terms of teamplay and fleet success, Japanese torps from Tier VII upwards are better spent on area denial and "misguiding" enemy BBs who, trying to dodge, steer themselves into a more unfortunate angle (for them) and force them to re-arrange their turrets, rather than sniping.

Iona's voice is cute as hell. But it is not Kongou

Torp bombers and me, we just cannot get along quite well and will never be friends. So I utterly sucked with Hosho but made quite a lot out of my 1 fighter squad. That was reason enough to switch to USN CVs with air supremacy config (stuck with Independence at the moment). It is not that hard of a task and 3 squads are comfortable to manage. I enjoy such matches from time to time. Of course, you do not get much exp since you only have 1 dive bomber squad (a lot of Clear Sky awards though), but you can put a lot of pressure on the enemy CV, eventually rendering him useless. For grinding up Tiers, I guess IJN CVs are the way to go. If you get along with torp drops better than me, that is.

I got Königsberg during the trials and was pretty surprised. What a great ship! When the German tech tree was released, I rushed towards it, skipping Dresden and Kolberg, struggling with Karlsruhe (gawd, I hate that ship). When I got to Königsberg again, I totally screwed up. Guess I was too used to Nagato gameplay back then, and/or was used to my role as AA escort with Cleveland or Pensacola - two things that you should not even try when sailing Königsberg. It sucks at performing either of these roles. Yesterday, I tried this ship again. And man, this was fun. First match: 234 shell hits, 11 fires caused, a couple of citadel hits, 4 ships sunk (2 BBs), Confederate award... I think, of all my ships this one depends on environment the most. But once you got yourself a nice little spot between islands, its fire arc will do all the work.

With Pepsicola, I had a pretty rough start myself. Stock config sucks and turrets turn so slow that you can fire only when sailing a straight line. But when fully upgraded, this ship can make up for its Tier as heavy cruiser (even without having any armor at all), oneshotting DDs, citadelling other CAs, and assisting BB kills, with HE and AP shells alike. To me, it is the most balanced cruiser that I played so far. I upgraded mine with AA setup and got me a Clear Sky award once. It does very well as CV escort, and once CV is safe, it has sufficient speed to return to action.

Well, the Yamato-class was designed to be capital ships, and in that respect they really were the pinnacle of BB engineering. If I remember correctly, Montana was intended more as fleet support, being able to protect CVs that held a different importance within the USN. Having said that, we are back to playstyle, when a Yamato can very well lead a charge up front thanks to her surprising maneuverability, and her secondaries doing a fine job setting things aflame, especially when upgraded; while I presume Montana needs to be centered within the fleet to do so. I have no experience with high-tier USN BBs (got my New Mex yesterday) so pls correct me when I am mistaken.

It is a Kongou, fair enough - great ship for her tier and one of my favourites. The ARP adaption looks very nice. But why does it have Iona's voice, not Kongou's?

Yeah, I wonder... But still, once hit directly from the front without any side angle, your citadel will suffer a couple of painful hits. But I do not know the exact impact area.

Nagato does indeed have a very fragile front. It is fairly easy to pierce the citadel through the turrets/barbettes (probably?) or through its deck. Also, it is possible to detonate its magazine hitting underneath turret 1 from a good frontal angle - something that I did not experience with other BBs, not even Kongou. Angling is important, just as with every Japanese ship. On the other hand, its guns can take on pretty much anything, including Iowa, so I guess that evens the odds. It still remains my favourite ship

If you look for rating or statistics, I recommend checking http://warships.today/eu from time to time. But of course, in the end you are successful when you yourself feel satisfied with your performance and results.

I got me a Mikasa just to see if it is an easy way to earn some Close Quarter Expert flags I did not expect much from her main guns, and I did not gain any flags either. But her secondaries are just fun to watch. I think this ship was not implemented to be effective in any way, but only for looks (I love the model design) and a bit of derpy rampage.

Most probably you were too close so that they had to adjust flight angle (and utterly failed), or your fighters were already engaged in air combat. Try again with a bit more space and enjoy air supremacy

I can imagine that Atlanta is quite a decent ship. Despite one-shotting one Atlanta once (Detonation), I had some nice duels against them, and their rate of fire is a real asset to any BB flotilla, given you actually do some teamplay. In return, since I mostly play BB, I choose Atlanta as priority target to protect our DDs, and to prevent the rain of fire on fellow BBs. That rof and potential dpm draws a lot of attention. I think that is the main issue - everyone wants to kill you because Atlanta is quite effective against anything. The fact it does not have any armor at all is not the reason why I try to kill it.

I play USN CVs and this ability is the only thing that gives me a hope of catching up to fleeing IJN planes

This. Yesterday, when playing Independence, I discovered the advantages of manual fighter barriage. Had a great CV duel against a Ryujo afterwards, as we both had fighter config, resulting in somewhat of a draw as we tore apart each other's aircraft, leaving only a few dive bombers for each of us. I really enjoy US carriers and the struggle for air superiority. On the other hand, I really screwed up with IJN carrier Hosho and US stock carriers - I utterly suck at using torp bombers

As BB player, I love BB vs CA/CL 1v1 Good odds for Devastating Strike or Die Hard, even at extreme angles.

My Yamato is pretty new (damn you, Wargaming, for Christmas sale...) so I am still learning its handling as I do not use this vessel quite often. But I got the range upgrade for secondary armament and now enjoy the ~10 km range. Long range shots are mainly guessing so accuracy is not that much of an issue at 26 km. Once I hit, I have good chances of piercing the citadel or inflict some grave damage at least - if I miss, an upgrade would not have changed that. I think I will further bolster secondaries with reduced reload time once I feel like spending credits. Even if it does not sink anything reliably, it is fun to watch destroyers and cruisers panicking in those volleys. As for AA, I did not see it in action yet.

Amagi is a beast, even with stock config. Once you get used to its playstyle, meaning gaining experiance and eventually C hull, and sink your first USS Iowa with a well placed broadside (Devastating Strike), I am sure you will love this ship. I played Amagi during the last Ranked Season almost exclusively and it carried me from Rank 10 to 5. It really is all about guns. Just stay angled to BBs and take out Cruisers one by one to help your DDs sink the BBs threatening your citadel.

I would love to see this ship burning by DD invis HE spamming

I started the second season with Cleveland, and later Königsberg, and failed really hard. Had to fight a long way up the ladder with Kongou (since I sold my Fusou some while ago) but managed to get to Rank 10 thanks to Kongou's maneuverability and firing range. From hereon I played a lot with my all-time favourite vessel, Nagato. But soon I realised that BB playstyle has changed a lot, especially due to Tier VIII I think, adding fast battleships North Carolina and Amagi. So now I reached Rank 5 by only playing Amagi, Rank 7 and 6 being the hardest obstacles I ever faced (in every 4th star battle, my Teams refused to communicate). I think I will leave the ladder at Rank 5 and keep it as a nice memory. Next season, we all may have more and different ships, facing new challenges and playstyle. All in all, I still enjoyed the ranked season a lot. I like the challenge itself, the rewards for climbing up, the anger of falling down.

I played IJN BBs up to Izumo ©, and I had some of my greatest matches with Amagi (in terms of damage output and kills per match). But there is no ship I enjoyed more than my fully upgraded Nagato. Once you learn how to use her properly, as she is not a fast battleship or battlecruiser unlike her predecessors, she really is a beast to be reckoned with. I think the change of gameplay after Kongou and Fusou is a really rewarding experience.