Premium Ship Commanders

[Derv_MS]

Hi,

 

Just looking at the ship commanders for 1500 doubloons. I notice they say things like " Has specialisation for tier 1 ship <<insert ship here>>" What does that actually mean? What is the specialisation and can they just be used with tier 1 ships? Is there any point in spending Doubloons on these?

 

Regards

 

Derv

[ColonelPete]

38 minutes ago, Derv_MS said:

Hi,

 

Just looking at the ship commanders for 1500 doubloons. I notice they say things like " Has specialisation for tier 1 ship <<insert ship here>>" What does that actually mean? What is the specialisation and can they just be used with tier 1 ships? Is there any point in spending Doubloons on these?

 

Regards

 

Derv

Look at the commander of a ship you play regularly and look up what his specialisation is.

EVERY commander has that. It just means that he is trained for that ship.

When you want to train the commander for a different silver ship, you have to retrain him and then he changes specialisation.

 

There is a good chance you did this a COUPLE of times in your past 2600 battles....

[Derv_MS]

"There is a good chance you did this a COUPLE of times in your past 2600 battles....

 

Not really looked at commanders and those battles are spread over 4 or 5 years. Only recently started playing this game in any kind of serious fashion.  It seemed to me that some commanders have skills whilst others don't.. Took a more indepth look at the 1500 Doubloon commanders and there does seem to be a disparity amongst them despite them costing the same. Just wondering if they actually make a difference.

[ColonelPete]

53 minutes ago, Derv_MS said:

"There is a good chance you did this a COUPLE of times in your past 2600 battles....

 

Not really looked at commanders ...

That is the problem.

Players ignore the stuff on their screen too often.

Unless commanders have a stripe on their portrait, they do not have special abilities.

Spoiler

 

[Verblonde]

On 1/5/2020 at 3:21 PM, Derv_MS said:

Just wondering if they actually make a difference.

The unhelpful general answer is 'it depends'.

 

Firstly, if a commander in the armory [sic] doesn't have the red/gold stripe bottom right of his portrait, he's a standard captain (only with ten points to start with); these captains can be used (with retraining where needed) on any ship, with any (sensible) build without you missing out, but without any 'extras'. In terms of cost, 1,500 doubloons is in the same ballpark as 'normal' 10 point captains when they're put up for sale for money (whether they're actually worth that money to you will depend largely on how many 19 pointers you have, most likely).

 

Commanders with the stripe are the 'special' ones (unique commanders) and have some sort of ability that distinguishes them from the standard captains.

 

As an example, this is one of the Dunkirk twins (no points assigned yet, as he's waiting for either a high tier CL or BB; he's displayed in Belfast, hence some of the skills are crossed out for being ineffective):

 

 

Any skill that appears the same as on a regular captain *is* the same as that found on a regular captain e.g. everything on the first row. Anything with a little 'plus' sign top left of the skill icon is an improved version e.g. EM on the above (a complete list of who gets what is here: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Unique_Commanders) - in this case, big guns will turn 1 degree/sec faster than normal, versus 0.7 for the normal version.

 

These improved skills have to be selected, and paid for with captain points, as per usual. So, for a start, improved abilities only make a difference if they are selected in your captain's build (the above example won't make any difference to anything, as no skills are selected yet).

 

The other aspect governing whether a 'magic' captain makes a difference or not relates to the usefulness of their improved skills for the ship they're on: e.g. looking again at the Dunkirks, EM will probably be useful on a BB but not useful on a CL/DD/CV; JoAT will be of use (to a greater or lesser degree) on almost anything; SSE is really a cruiser skill for the Brits (DD smoke is generally too short-lived), especially if you division a lot.

 

So, if you put a Dunkirk on a DD or CV, the positive difference will be marginal (one special skill made use of, maybe), whereas you'll probably see a more positive difference on a CL or BB (two skills, maybe, apiece). Bear in mind though, that the initial ten points may not necessarily use all of the upgraded skills on the first pass; you'll often need more points to be using the maximum number of upgraded skills e.g. if you put a Dunkirk in a BB, you'd be mental to pick more than one of the upgraded skills on your initial pass, as that would preclude a four-point skill.

 

So, are the magic captains worth having? Absolutely, but only if placed in sensible ships that match up with as many of their upgraded skills as possible (and the German one is a bit flaky - Vigilance is not the most widely used skill). Also, bear in mind that the improvements are generally relatively small in most cases (to avoid being OP), so a magic captain isn't an 'I win' button - thankfully!

 

BTW some of the magic captains get visual modifications (tracers, flags etc.) and skills that activate when certain conditions are met; most of the captains in the armory don't get this stuff (except Lutjens, and he's horribly expensive - coal). To get those captains, you *usually* have to complete a campaign/collection/mission chain. The same general principles apply to them as apply to the more more prosaic 'uniques'. Again, these captains are included in the list linked to above.