What's your captain strategy?

[gustywinds]

Do you keep your Captains with ship or pay to move them onto the next one up the tree?

 

How about premiums ? Do you move the same captain around or keep with the one you get with it?

 

Lastly, how about the special Captains? Do you put them on one ship and leave them or move them around?

 

I've tended to just level a captain with the ship. I have a few 'specials'

• Bert Dunkirk I put straight to Minotaur but I often wish I'd put him on something I play more frequently.
• I got the Russian guy in the spacesuit and, as the only Russian ship I had was the free Okt Rev I got from a cracker, I plonked him there but I hardly play him so am considering moving to Molotov which I also got free.
• I've got Da Rong but not used him as I'm only up to T IV on PA DD's and cant be bothered leveling them.
• Got enough coal to buy on of the Arsenal ones - probably the German  or French as I'm leveling both BB tress at the moment.  I did consider the US one but my Big Mammy already has the only 19 point captain I own (was originally on the old Ranger)

[Tyrendian89]

6 minutes ago, gustywinds said:

probably the German  or French as I'm leveling both BB tress at the moment

there's a slight difference between the two: The French dude is useful, the German one is not. Both in general, and for the respective BB line specifically. So you might want to pick accordingly...^^

[Allied_Winter]

Regular captain on a line I have to start from T1: Moving him up through the tiers from T4 onwards. I have the elite commander XP available that I have little issues with captain retraining. That is however in case I sell a researched ship. If I like a ship enough to keep it, I train up a "new" commander (I have plenty of 10pt captains waiting in the barracks).

 

Premiums: Some premiums have a dedicated captain (Belfast, Asashio), some share a captain with one silver ship (Mikhail Kutuzov + Budyonny), most captains however move around from their designated silver ship to all premium ships suited.

 

Special comanders sit on their respective ships and are treated like any other captain with regards to moving around (e.g. using Yamamoto on the Ishizuchi as well as the Katori, the Ashitaka and the Zao.

[ColonelPete]

• Captains move up the tree
• My premium ships do not get specific captains
• Special captains remain on one ship

[RAHJAILARI]

Well, as for myself. I first decide, what role each ship would be best at -> A DD hunter, torpedoboat, gunboat DD, AA ship, Heavy Gun Support Cruiser and so on. Then I choose the modules and upgrades that best support this "Mission" from those available to the particular ship. Captain skills come last. I will choose those, which either best amplify each ship's strengths OR mitigate the most glaring weaknesses on a case-to-case basis.

 

This naturally means, that each Captain will stay with the ship and the same goes for Special Commanders. I will decide in which ship their special skills would be best and most comprehensively utilized and then assign them there permanently (of course, they would have to be the ships I like to play the most as well). In my case this is not a problem, as such since all my commanders are already at 10 points or more with a total of 63 -19 point Captains in the roster. Moving them around at this point would in fact be more of a problem than of any actual benefit. I will then use the accumulated Elite Commander points to promote other Captains to 19 points, one-by-one.

 

Hence, for example: Yamamoto is assigned permanently to my 155mm Mogami. Because I always wanted a chance-heal for it, faster turret traverse helps with her mission of DD-hunting and close support to our DD's, this is where the buffed preventive maintenance is also useful (because I will inevitably take some damage - it's a dangerous occupation), as well as the possibility of faster gun and torp reloads can both be fully taken advantage of, if ever. I have turned the tracers off though, because why let the enemy know what my "Ace" is?

 

Target is to get all my Cruiser and DD Commanders up to 19 points first, then BB's and CV's the last (as I do not play them much).

 

When getting a new ship & Captain, I will also use the reserve Elite XP to immediately promote him to 10 points, then later prioritize which Commander to promote to 19 points next, depending on how much I like to play the particular ship. So my favorites always come first!

 

In addition, I will always prioritize the DD Captains first when promoting to 19 points, then Cruisers. This is simply because I play DD's better and this will max out my further potential Elite XP earnings. For that reason ALL my DD captains are already at 19 points, still working on the Cruisers...

[loppantorkel]

Captains move up the ladder, but usually 2-3 captains in a tree which, when the tier 10 is reached, are put in the ships I play for fun, sometimes more captains if the line is good.

Premium ships that are fun get dedicated captains. Most of them get them, but not all high-points. I move around captains as little as possible. Special captains sit in one single ship like most other.

[Bear__Necessities]

To be honest I have so many I’ve lost count. I think for RN and IJN I have about 7/8 19 point captains for each nation. Several specials including Yamamoto, Halsey, the Dunkirk brothers and all 3 Ovenchickens. I just move them as I see fit. Only Belfast has a dedicated captain as it’s different from all the other RN ships, even Exeter. 

[Ze_Reckless]

I used the captain respec with update 8.0 to redistribute all of my captains for free. You can do this for all or some selected captains when update 8.2 hits. Beware, it takes a lot of time if you have 100+ ships in port.

 

I always move captains to the higher tier ship and boost the new captain with elite xp to 10 points.

How to move captains from ship to ship: Pay 200k credits for 50% retraining, click '+'-icon and complete the retraining with elite xp.

[gustywinds]

34 minutes ago, Tyrendian89 said:

there's a slight difference between the two: The French dude is useful, the German one is not. Both in general, and for the respective BB line specifically. So you might want to pick accordingly...^^

Yeah,

I was thinking that the French guys was probably better.

Also means I can adopt an outrageous accent

 

[Verblonde]

In general, I move captains up the trees, as I go; I usually have two or three that 'leapfrog' each other though, so as to not waste excessive doubloons/elite xp on retraining.

 

For example, I just got the T10 German DD; I moved the (19 point) T8 captain up to the T10, and left the mid-teens captain on the T9. I'll probably give the T8 a new T10 captain the next time there's a free retraining thing (unless a need for the ship turns up in the meantime).

 

As I don't have buckets of spare elite xp yet, I try to balance the need to have the best captains exactly where I need/want them, and keeping doubloon use sensible.

 

I also try and arrange for my best captains to work with as many premiums as possible e.g. my Gearing's 19-pointer works admirably in all of Sims, Kidd, and Black (plus is okay for Monaghan). Sometimes this isn't possible e.g. I have a 19 pointer on Fubuki (I think), but only because said captain is really built for Asashio, and Fubuki is the silver ship where the skills in question arguably work best. You also have several premiums that really need a specialised captain - Belfast being an obvious one.

 

At the moment, I'm working on getting as many 19 point captains available as possible for ships I play frequently, as once that's done, I *should* have enough elite xp coming in to do more or less whatever I want with the rest, as needs arise.

 

As to special captains, all of mine are still sub-19 points; the aim is to get them to 19 points and slot them in where they're most useful; for example, one of PA ones is currently cycling between the two PA premium cruisers, and the other is going to be put in the T9 DD when I unlock it (where he'll stay, as I don't think I'll bother with YY, unless it gets at least partially 'de-nerfed')...

 

 

[fallenkezef]

I have 4 19pt captains in my Conq, Mino, Daring and Belfast.

 

My conq skipper I use in my Nelson, Hood and Warspite as the tank build works in them all.

 

Daring skipper does duty in my Cambeltown, Gallant and Cossack.

 

My "keepers" all got a 10pt (I used captain elite exp) and those captains will stay.

 

Grinding froggy bb line with the collection 10pt and will transfer him till he gets to the T10. Any "keepers" will get thier own 10pt

[SgtTincan]

my only rule for captains is that none shall enter a tier 8 ship before having at least 17 points

[ilhilh]

Usually captains move up the tree... but sometimes I find a ship that is a keeper.  At that point usually I will just leave the captain and start a new one, although I may put a fresh captain in the keeper if the ship is high tier - it can be more deirable to keep the high point captain heading to the high tier ship.

 

I recently started the French BB line and then I bought the french dude from the arsenal.  He is currently in my Jean Bart, but in about 2 games I will finish the Lyon, keep her with my 14pt captain and put the french dude into the Richelieu and he will eventually become my Republique captain.

I have quite a lot of premiums so I used to be able to boost a new captain to enough (at least 10) points relatively quickly.  But, now I have at least 4 x 19pt captains (maybe more) and over 1 mil free XP, plus loads of flags and camos to help so I can just boost some captains up if needed - it is certainly a lot easier than it used to be.  As I say 10 points is usually enough for a captain to make the ship a lot more comfortable.

[El2aZeR]

- Halsey on Midway. -20% plane respawn time on Confed, which I'm almost guaranteed to get, is hilarious.

- Yamamoto on Yamato. Don't think any other IJN ship benefits as much.

- Dunkirk on Mino.

- Anime captains on their respective ships if available. If not then distribution at whim (Hood is on my Conq e.g.).

 

Generally speaking I bring captains along when advancing in tiers, pay 200k for half the retraining and the rest with free captain exp.

On premiums it is a mix of dedicated captains and captains from other ships. Depends on whether said premium ship needs a specific build or not.

[Gnirf]

3 hours ago, gustywinds said:

Do you keep your Captains with ship or pay to move them onto the next one up the tree?

 

How about premiums ? Do you move the same captain around or keep with the one you get with it?

 

Lastly, how about the special Captains? Do you put them on one ship and leave them or move them around?

 

I've tended to just level a captain with the ship. I have a few 'specials'

• Bert Dunkirk I put straight to Minotaur but I often wish I'd put him on something I play more frequently.
• I got the Russian guy in the spacesuit and, as the only Russian ship I had was the free Okt Rev I got from a cracker, I plonked him there but I hardly play him so am considering moving to Molotov which I also got free.
• I've got Da Rong but not used him as I'm only up to T IV on PA DD's and cant be bothered leveling them.
• Got enough coal to buy on of the Arsenal ones - probably the German  or French as I'm leveling both BB tress at the moment.  I did consider the US one but my Big Mammy already has the only 19 point captain I own (was originally on the old Ranger)

Do not move a captain between premium as their home just change skills in the free reset I suppose will come soon in 0.8.2.

 

As a collector I start always a new captain on every ship with few exceptions. With the instroduction of elite xp and also my larger number of premiums and 19 p captains, no captain except low tier starts at lower than 10 p. If necessary I may play in coop should a new line that depletes eliteXP too fast. F.e the RN DDs where I got all 4 ships by missions instead of usual grind I did not have enough elite XP for all 4 as 10 p then.

high tier cruisers and DDs that demand IFHE like RN DDs started on 14 p. For the RU BB line I have 7 premade 10-12 pointers (N ikolai, missions, Arsenal etc), and for future Italian 8 10 p future French DDs 5 10-12 p.

+ a lot of Elite XP.

 

Below T5 I accept starting with lower captain. It is abalnce between making functional captains (10-14 depending on ship) and the 19p as the difference is almost 10 times the XP from 10 to 19.

I have risen my demands step by step. But getting 19 p in silver ships that you play and which can be used in premiums are a goal for you.

Also when you begin amassing T10 ships it is worth investing in Perma camo not only for the credits but for the generation of elite XP when the captain reaches 19.

 

But you should have fun playing the ship, I have 19 p f.e. on König and KGV which I play a lot.

 

I have mismanaged my captains a lot in terms of optimizing placement, have moved them too little, but how much? It is expensive to move if you are F2P, and have no money to spend but I would have moved more in retrospect to get 19p in my T10s faster, I have only 6-7 but I concentrate on them now during my leg upgrade grind  which I do in coop with permacamos which gives boring but efficient grind.  

[jss78]

I'm fairly systematic about trying to minimize the number of captains I run:

• Captain for a specific ship line moves down the line until I reach the ship where I decide to stop (often but not always the T10 ship)
• IF there are multiple "keepers" in the line, I train an additional commander.
• Premiums never get a dedicated captain.

I have a fairly large number of 19-point captains at 17, considering the number of games played.

 

Nowadays I almost always play with 19 pt captains and accumulate crazy amounts of EliteXP. I never play with <10 pt captains, and in some cases have trained a 19pt captain with EliteXP before ever using the guy.

[Panocek]

Yamamoto on Yamato, Dunkek captain on Conqueror to help with heal cooldown, Hodore on IFHEnri IV to help with turret traverse (and even then they break off target during hardest of WSADs)

[Max_Kammerer]

Every ship (236 ships in port) has special captain, no moving except Atlanta-Flint joined 19p skipper. I have 36 19p skippers and over 50 14-17p skippers, so all ships which are often played are well equipped. But mostly I'm playing ships with 19p skippers and obtained elite points are immediately used for exping of a new captain to the final level...

[Egoleter]

6 hours ago, gustywinds said:

Do you keep your Captains with ship or pay to move them onto the next one up the tree?

I move them up the tree. I'll pay the 200k silver to accelerate their training and then use elite commander XP to compensate the rest.

 

6 hours ago, gustywinds said:

How about premiums ? Do you move the same captain around or keep with the one you get with it?

They usually get a well trained captain from another ship. No need for a fix captain in most cases.

 

6 hours ago, gustywinds said:

Lastly, how about the special Captains? Do you put them on one ship and leave them or move them around?

Mostly on single ships were they fit best. They might fall into the "well trained captain" category though and move to premiums sometimes.

 

Only exception to the above are the ARP captains. Those only command my ARP ships.

[wilkatis_LV]

6 hours ago, gustywinds said:

Do you keep your Captains with ship or pay to move them onto the next one up the tree?

Neither, but closer to the 2nd

 

Captain, starting from t4....5 moves up the line to t10. Before I had a 19pt captain and thus EliteCapXP I would pay 200k credits for 50% retraining, and get the rest on my own. These days... 50% for 200k, the rest with EliteXP, and never play with untrained cap

 

Ships I liked along the line get their own cap after the "original" one has moved along. The only one moved "backwards" is my YueYangs cap getting back into ChungMu, as the t9 is a straight up better ship

 

6 hours ago, gustywinds said:

How about premiums ? Do you move the same captain around or keep with the one you get with it?

Mostly premiums can be played with captain from some other ship in their respective line.

 

Or, if I am not playing some ship for a while - like Nagato - I can use its captain for something specific - like AA Kii.

 

6 hours ago, gustywinds said:

Lastly, how about the special Captains? Do you put them on one ship and leave them or move them around?

In one ship where I feel it would be useful, mostly tends to be t10 unless I'm not playing that ship (like pre-Yamatos-turret traverse buff my Yamamoto was on Izumo not Yamato, because I would at least play that). And then, of course, they are preferred for premiums because they are slightly better

[asalonen]

It changes once you gain experienced captains and more ships, and especially premium ships that can share the same captain with each other and with a tech-tree ship.

 

I now play almost solely with 19-point skippers that are built with a specific ship type and and playing style in mind. For example:

• I have a French BB captain that I have in Richelieu, and I use the same skipper is in premiums Dunkerque and Jean Bart since they have a very similar playing style.
• I have a Russian skipper for the gunboats that have 130 mm guns. Currenly he's trained for Izyaslav, but I also use him in premiums Okhotnik, Krasniy Krym and Leningrad.
• I have a secondary-oriented skipper trained for Grosser Kurfürst, and I also use him in Tirpitz.

...and so on. By now I have 25 captains with 19 skill points, and including premiums about 50 ships in port that I can use them with. In some cases I have bought a premium ship specifically because it allows me to utilize the same skipper as I have in a tech-tree ship. That's why I'm playing Tirpitz and not Bismarck. There's a lot of OCD involved in this, no doubt. There's no good reason to particularly anal about this.

 

In specific cases the skills are REALLY useful, like the 130 mm Russian gunboats I mentioned above: They become very strong with EM, BFT, AFT, DE and CE, so they are just very skill-sensitive. But for most ships a 10-point skipper gives you what's truly essential and the rest is really just small details.

[Max_Kammerer]

34 minutes ago, asalonen said:

In specific cases the skills are REALLY useful, like the 130 mm Russian gunboats I mentioned above: They become very strong with EM, BFT, AFT, DE and CE, so they are just very skill-sensitive. But for most ships a 10-point skipper gives you what's truly essential and the rest is really just small details.

Yes, 10 pt captains are especially for DDs and CLs good enough to serve well, with some exceptions which need 14p skippers for IFHE (Harekaze, Akizuki, Jutland, Cossack, Daring... Balefast and some other CLs)

[eliastion]

My strategy:

1. Pick a captain I want for the ship, mostly based on the picture and special voiceover.

2. Train the captain for the ship using Elite XP.

3. Use Elite XP to get the captain to the needed skill level (usually no lower than 15, in some cases all the way to 19)

 

The perks of having played relatively few ships that I liked - for a long time

[MRGTB]

5 hours ago, Max_Kammerer said:

Every ship (236 ships in port) has special captain, no moving except Atlanta-Flint joined 19p skipper. I have 36 19p skippers and over 50 14-17p skippers, so all ships which are often played are well equipped. But mostly I'm playing ships with 19p skippers and obtained elite points are immediately used for exping of a new captain to the final level...

How have you got 36 19pt captains trained with only 19,000 battles?

 

I mean, 19,000 battles is not low, but seems somewhat low to have got 36 captains trained to 19pts unless you spend money doing it with experience conversations using doubloons

[MRGTB]

11 hours ago, gustywinds said:

Got enough coal to buy on of the Arsenal ones - probably the German  or French as I'm leveling both BB tress at the moment.

I would go with the French special captain if doing BB ships in both tech trees. The French captain 2 special skills are better suited I think for a good BB build. You would usually take them anyway for a BB. Improved Expert Markman and Adrenalin Rush.

 

Especially that improved Adrenalin Rush, because ships like Alice at T9 has good secondly and that skill will make them even faster firing when you take damage than they' usually would be using that skill. And gaining a faster turret rotation than normal on a BB with improved Expert Markman is another good bonus too.

 

The German captain has 1 of the special skills for spotting torps further out, can't think now what it's called. But you're wasting 3 points on it and not really a skill you would take in a German BB, which is more about building it's secondary guns. You can't afford to waste 3pts on that special skill doing it if you wanted IFHE used as part of a full secondary build. I think the German special captain is probably better suited to a Cruiser than a BB.