HELP... how to play Bismarck

[HassenderZerhacker]

Bismarck seems to be completely useless as a ship... guns don't hit the barn door, takes damage from every angle and burns like a matchbox, turns like a brick, and is almost always bottom tier, CV run 4 attacks on it laughing at the AA... is there any upside to Bismarck?

[ColonelPete]

11 minutes ago, HassenderZerhacker said:

Bismarck seems to be completely useless as a ship... guns don't hit the barn door, takes damage from every angle and burns like a matchbox, turns like a brick, and is almost always bottom tier, CV run 4 attacks on it laughing at the AA... is there any upside to Bismarck?

• Bismarck is more accurate than some other BB
• Every ship can take damage from every angle
• all Tier VIII BB have the same fire coefficient
• her turning is standard for that Tier, some BB are worse, some better
• all Tier VIII BB have the same MM
• all Tier VIII BB have a problem with CV, some even more

Her upside is that she wins matches:

http://maplesyrup.sweet.coocan.jp/wows/ranking/20200523/eu_2month/average_ship_u.html

 

[Karasu_Browarszky]

20 minutes ago, HassenderZerhacker said:

... is there any upside to Bismarck?

 

Highest placed historically existing German BB at tier 8.

[HassenderZerhacker]

4 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

• Bismarck is more accurate than some other BB
• Every ship can take damage from every angle
• all Tier VIII BB have the same fire coefficient
• her turning is standard for that Tier, some BB are worse, some better
• all Tier VIII BB have the same MM
• all Tier VIII BB have a problem with CV, some even more

Her upside is that she wins matches:

http://maplesyrup.sweet.coocan.jp/wows/ranking/20200523/eu_2month/average_ship_u.html

 

 

well, thanks for the Communist Party's official stance on this...

 

49% and "wins matches" ??? you serious ???

[ColonelPete]

Just now, HassenderZerhacker said:

 

well, thanks for the Communist Party's official stance on this...

 

49% and "wins matches" ??? you serious ???

You can always prefer the NC...

[SnuSnu_RIP]

Right click - sell. Play NC instead. Thank me later and have fun. 

[Hirohito]

I somewhat liked the Bismarck compared to the crapturd that was Gneisenau, but generally I feel she was lacking in the accuracy department as you described.
Her hydro however is pretty good, and should be used whenever you want to push in your BB.
Make use of it, it gives you a good edge for the job.

When bottom tiered she really struggles though.
Generally I tend to hang back a little bit when in a bottom tier BB against T10, but her accuracy at range works against you in this department as your main benefits are derived from being closer than the average BB.
She uptiers really poorly in my opinion.

[HassenderZerhacker]

2 minutes ago, Hirohito said:

I somewhat liked the Bismarck compared to the crapturd that was Gneisenau, but generally I feel she was lacking in the accuracy department as you described.
Her hydro however is pretty good, and should be used whenever you want to push in your BB.
Make use of it, it gives you a good edge for the job.

When bottom tiered she really struggles though.
Generally I tend to hang back a little bit when in a bottom tier BB against T10, but her accuracy at range works against you in this department as your main benefits are derived from being closer than the average BB.
She uptiers really poorly in my opinion.

at least I had some good battles in Gneisenau... Bismarck just feels like it's impossible to do well in it.

[MementoMori_6030]

Vor 12 Minuten, Karasu_Hidesuke sagte:

Highest placed historically existing German BB at tier 8.

Hell yeah. I always get confused when I play one of my Bismarcks instead of my Tirpitz, pressing "3" and nothing happens in inopportune moments...

 

But to OP: Bismarck/Tirpitz are ok ships. Don't try long range sniping. Get mid distance - the 11,3 km 2ndaries are excellent, and if some desperate DD smokes up under the murderous hail of fire, you can use your Hydro and finish the pest.

 

Edit: Just checked, my PR in Bismarck is 1607 and 1591 (2282 in Tirpitz) - quite ok for a casual gamer, I guess.

[DFens_666]

If you havent done it, go for tankbuild. Secondary build is fun when you are toptier, but as lowtier it wont help at all. Then you are better of having FP/BoS and other stuff.

[Karasu_Browarszky]

1 minute ago, MementoMori_6030 said:

Hell yeah. I always get confused when I play one of my Bismarcks instead of my Tirpitz, pressing "3" and nothing happens in inopportune moments...

 

But to OP: Bismarck/Tirpitz are ok ships. Don't try long range sniping. Get mid distance - the 11,3 km 2ndaries are excellent, and if some desperate DD smokes up under the murderous hail of fire, you can use your Hydro and finish the pest.

 

Depending on your team.. I think my team had 3 DD's close to my Bismarck just now, none of which bothered to try and spot the enemy Shima nearby... I get the bestest teams.

[Hirohito]

Just now, HassenderZerhacker said:

at least I had some good battles in Gneisenau... Bismarck just feels like it's impossible to do well in it.

You are most likely not used to the ship, as they are very different despite being close-range ships.

Gneisenau can be played somewhat like a cruiser early on due to her speed, but you can really only charge enemy BBs in her in a 1v1 (preferably late game) due to your torps.
Early and mid game however, those crappy 6 guns just dont allow you to do anything meaningful apart from getting to (and away) from a cap faster than other BBs.

The Bismarck while technically a brawler, brawls in a very different way.
You have better secondaries, but you cannot devstrike stuff with torps anymore.
You can however hydro, which allows you to push more confidently into a position with cruisers and DDs.

If you have played Massachusetts before, you can somewhat translate that playstyle to Bismarck. 

[Hirohito]

3 minutes ago, DFens_666 said:

If you havent done it, go for tankbuild. Secondary build is fun when you are toptier, but as lowtier it wont help at all. Then you are better of having FP/BoS and other stuff.

That's my main gripe with German BBs though.
The secondaries are what sets the line apart from other BBs, but you can't really spec for it without hurting yourself.
And when you do spec for a tank build, you are left with a BB that does "general BB things" worse than other BBs (mostly due to their terrible main battery dispersion).

My subjective opinion of course.

[Miscommunication_dept]

I would love if German battleships got the Graf zeppelin secondary dispersion.

 

Unfortunately, looking at what happened to the Agir, Wargaming don’t like this at all.

[The_Norwood]

The Bismarck is a close range brawler. To be effective, you need to do a tanky build, or a secondary build, or combination of both. Don't bother with the spotter plane, take the fighter for AA help - it can still help with spotting things behind islands or smoke too. 

When fully upgraded the secondaries can shoot out past 11km, and with manual secondaries captain skill, they are quite accurate and can melt ships quickly.

The turtleback armour on the Bismarck gets more effective the closer you get, favouring short range combat at around 8-10km, so you want to to engineer a close encounter with your target. At long range, the guns are not very accurate, but at 10km it is hard to miss.

It's main advantage is that it can happily engage 2 ships at the same time - when you are duking it out with another BB, a wild DD will inevitably appear at close range to get a torpedo run in, this is where you train your secondaries and watch the DD melt.

[HassenderZerhacker]

some replies, but no workable strategy.

just now I got owned by a single cruiser HE spamming.

I couldn't even hit it properly, got 3 overpens and 5 ricochets.

 

Bismarck is just good for nothing.

[HassenderZerhacker]

2 minutes ago, The_Norwood said:

The Bismarck is a close range brawler. To be effective, you need to do a tanky build, or a secondary build, or combination of both. Don't bother with the spotter plane, take the fighter for AA help - it can still help with spotting things behind islands or smoke too. 

When fully upgraded the secondaries can shoot out past 11km, and with manual secondaries captain skill, they are quite accurate and can melt ships quickly.

The turtleback armour on the Bismarck gets more effective the closer you get, favouring short range combat at around 8-10km, so you want to to engineer a close encounter with your target. At long range, the guns are not very accurate, but at 10km it is hard to miss.

I miss even at 5km range.

aimed a bit over water line (about a third of the hull up), half of the shells go overpen into the superstructure, other half go into the water. about 1 in 10 hit the target, it's ridiculous.

 

[Miscommunication_dept]

2 minutes ago, HassenderZerhacker said:

some replies, but no workable strategy.

just now I got owned by a single cruiser HE spamming.

I couldn't even hit it properly, got 3 overpens and 5 ricochets.

 

Bismarck is just good for nothing.

Could the problem be something other than the ship?

 

[The_Norwood]

RNGesus is a fickle master. Did you sacrifice enough goats before battle?

[DFens_666]

20 minutes ago, Hirohito said:

That's my main gripe with German BBs though.
The secondaries are what sets the line apart from other BBs, but you can't really spec for it without hurting yourself.
And when you do spec for a tank build, you are left with a BB that does "general BB things" worse than other BBs (mostly due to their terrible main battery dispersion).

My subjective opinion of course.

 

Well, i think, german BBs are more helpful when played in a division, since random teammates simple cant or wont make use of the tanking ability of german BBs. They are still the best ship to go in, as they have Hydro and a turtleback. Getting a broadside volley hurts, but not as much as eating multicits as other BBs.

F.e. if you have to make a move, and you need your team to use that time to kill enemy ships, thats when a division comes in useful. You might go down, but it could get you a win.

 

3 minutes ago, HassenderZerhacker said:

some replies, but no workable strategy.

just now I got owned by a single cruiser HE spamming.

I couldn't even hit it properly, got 3 overpens and 5 ricochets. 

 

Bismarck is just good for nothing.

 

The small caliber guns can have issues these days, as almost all T9/10 Cruisers have sideplating thick enough to bounce your shells when properly angled. The smaller the caliber, the more you rely on shooting at broadsides.

[Riggerby]

8 minutes ago, gopher31 said:

I would love if German battleships got the Graf zeppelin secondary dispersion.

 

Unfortunately, looking at what happened to the Agir, Wargaming don’t like this at all.

 

Eh, i think it would be overpowered on the battleships to be honest.

[HassenderZerhacker]

3 minutes ago, gopher31 said:

Could the problem be something other than the ship?

 

you mean the problem is located between the chair and the screen?

what could it possibly be?

 

[The_Norwood]

It sounds like the Tirpitz may be a better alternative for you (unfortunately it's a premium), as it adds torps to the mix, so the 5km miss would be irrelevent as you would already have torps smashing into their side.

[Miscommunication_dept]

If you can’t handle the Bismarck, you really shouldn’t get the Tirpitz. They are almost exactly the same ship.

[The_Norwood]

Personally i love the german BBs - all of them, as there is no better ship to hold a flank against superior odds and expect to survive the encounter.