Fighting the Tirpitz

[Lemasive]

Ok, so I am in an Amagi almost as Izumo and I just cannot win vs Tirpitz, he shoots longer, has no Citadel, better armor, Torpedos makes it impossible to brawl and if I am lucky my broadside will do 12k in the superstructure, there is no way for the Amagi to win heads on vs a Tirpitz is there?

[Panocek]

Well, Derpitz is a b!tch to fight against, if one is sailing straight at you I guess the best you can do is to aim for turrets to cripple his firepower, otherwise wait for broadside and hope for regular penetrations. That or long range plunging fire for citadels.

[procrastinatingStudent]

I haven't played in my amigi vs tirpitz in a while but my favourite way to make them have a fun game is to make forever be on fire. Though you're tight ahe does have hard hitting guns and good amour.

[Azalgor]

Ah, another newbie, who does not know how to use internet, and that it can be used to watch videos instead of making useless threts like this...There is a 'media' on the WoW site, and there is a video called ''Armada - ''Tirpitz'''', where its pretty clearly stated how she is played and how to play against her...And theres youtube also, with tons of videos about Tirpits and how she fits with Amagi and North Carolina. Good luck!

[IamTroublemaker]

Tirpitz has a weak armor against BB guns. It takes a lot of damage and it is even worse than citadelling him. I cannot even number how many times I've had 12-25k salvos on full broadside Tirpitzes. And yes, they are possible to citadel, their citadels are right below frontal turrets, it is harder, but still doable, done it with quite a few ships.

[Nodorf_]

I don't find Torpitz hard to dmg. I don't fear facing them even in my Colorado, tbh. Even if he goes winning from that meeting,i know i will have damaged him enough for my team to finish him off. Sure, there arent as many cit hits as on other ships, guess it's smaller and harder to hit, but each salvo does significant dmg anyway.

[Devantejah]

Long range fire is the achilles heel of Tirpitz

[deadly_if_swallowed]

You can damage Torpitz quite fine - just don't expect to land citadel hits by usual means. It has tremendous side armor but the deck and superstructure are very weak. If aiming for citadel hits, you need plunging fire from almost max range.

She was designed for Atlantic warfare at relatively close ranges (not as far as Pacific battles). If you have a USN carrier in your team, ask him for dive bomber assistance. Lexington's 1000lbs bombs punch right through her deck armor.

[Vaderan]

It´s all about how you want to go against the Tirpitz: long, medium or brawling range. Long range might work and result in occasional citadells, at the cost of many misses. Halfway skilled Tirpitz players however won´t stay at 20km range, because they know that´s the worst range to be with this ship.

Medium range is probably the sweetspot to keep her at. @ about 12km range, even 35cm guns like those of Fuso and New Mexico can score citadell hits, if properly aimed. Around this distance, the angle of AP shells seems to be ideal to penetrate the angled interior armor of the Tirpitz, that protects her so well in close combat.

At close range, especially below 6,5 km, you are definitly at the Tirpitz sweetspot, her killing zone. Her turrets still turn fast enough for brawling your BB at that range, her secondaries, depending on the Tirpitz´s setup, might start wreaking havoc, torpedoes become a threat and her armor works best at that range.

In an Amagi, although i never had the opportunity to play one against a Tirpitz, i would try to make use of my speed and powerfull guns, keeping the Tirpitz at distance and, if necessary, just firing with my three after turrets. If there is one thing, Tirpitz players don´t enjoy much, then it is chasing an enemy BB with just the forward guns able to fire. In addition, i really often take turret kills in my Tirpitz by 16" guns, which seriously makes me freak out.

 

One thing many players just don´t know: the Tirpitz has a very specially side armor layout. In reality it worked perfectly to avoid critical damage, in WoWs, however, it can be abused to score ridiculous damage without citadell penetrations. While the belt armor and the inner layer of armor above the citadell do a great job, there is a belt of thinner armor just above the main armor belt, right between armor belt and deck. This armor was designed to trigger AP shells before they hit the top citadell armor, making their damage potential useless and protecting the vital systems of the ship. However, reality doesn´t know hitpoints. WoWs does, aswell as does the concept of this armor sheme. In this case, it just works against the Tirpitz.

In other words, this one deck high side armor belt is too weak to deflect AP shells, but strong enoungh to trigger AP shells from BBs and even CAs, allowing for tons of AP-penetration damage. As difficult as it might be to citadell the Tirpitz, as easy it is to score regular penetration damage. Instead of going for the 12k damage from a citadell, just aim a deck higher and take 25k of regular penetration damage.

In addition, while the broadside citadell might be well protected, the front and back of her citadell isn´t. If you manage to loop your shells above the tip of stern or bow, you might penetrate the weak deck and hit the flat front/rear end of the Tirpitz citadell and penetrate it.

However, this is rather difficult, since rng is still the major factor in this gamble...

[Sander93]

As said above you won't get citadel hits as easily, but the Tirpitz's heavy armor guarentees you do a lot of regular AP damage. In Amagi I usually did 8000-15.000 damage salvos on broadside Tirpitz. And given that the Tirpitz has horrible accuracy, just turn and angle when it's about to return fire and it will do minimal damage. And remember to keep your distance because that's where the Amagi has the advantage. 

[Ictogan]

Even if you can't citadel it, you won't get any overpenetrations, meaning that you will still do lots of damage.

[Chiyeko]

Keep at range honestly just about anything has better dispersion than the Tirpitz at range, the close you get to the more dangerous they become and when they charge you head on, know torpedoes will happen, sadly they be hard to take out from the front.

 

I find the real weakness of the Tirpitz is simply being outnumbered even 2 to 1 it will to start to hurt and if they keep range I am pointless I will hardly be able to score any hits and my deck armor is tin foil.

 

Also keep in mind if you fire at the same time she will be loaded well before you are.

[Panocek]

Keep at range honestly just about anything has better dispersion than the Tirpitz at range, the close you get to the more dangerous they become and when they charge you head on, know torpedoes will happen, sadly they be hard to take out from the front.

 

I find the real weakness of the Tirpitz is simply being outnumbered even 2 to 1 it will to start to hurt and if they keep range I am pointless I will hardly be able to score any hits and my deck armor is tin foil.

 

Also keep in mind if you fire at the same time she will be loaded well before you are.

 

North Carolina/Iowa/Montana have the same spread as Tirpitz, although last two can mount accuracy upgrade, just like Tirpitz

[Pete_SB]

Long range fire is the achilles heel of Tirpitz

 

Please tell that to the campers

[Devantejah]

 

Please tell that to the campers

 

As if they would listen.

[Chocolat]

I do find the Tirpitz an excellent ship indeed. Who the hell is going to stay at range for long, anyway. And who the hell is going to [regularly] eat shells from long range BB fire with THAT steering.

 

But yes, fire, outnumbering, and AP superstructure/broadsides are her greatest weaknesses.

[Poster_2015]

I recently bought Tirpitz, and its definitely the weakest t8 BB. Dont get me wrong - i still enjoy her a lot - mostly because regardless of its t8 str, t8 BB is still more fun to play than t10.

 

It has absolutely abysmal accuracy, and while obviously its worse at range (and no, tirpitz has WORSE accuracy than US BBs there, slightly but worse), it has RELATIVELY a lot worse accuracy at close range. Dispersion for BBs are calculated with x+y*distance formula - US BBs have low x=50m, and high y coeff = 0.01, tirpitz im not sure about numbers but is around 100 base with smaller coeff (which is the highest short range dispersion - ive had salvos from 2 turrets into head on BB from 1.5 km go around 2 ship widths left and right from the target on tirpitz).

 

This is not to say you shouldnt close - torpedoes help, and the spread is more manageable - but its also reason why angling to present smaller target is even more preferable. Tirpitz also almost always takes huge AP damage as mentioned, and while it doesnt get citadelled often, it very rarely citadels itself. 

 

AA is also somewhat meh on tirpitz - but 5.3 patch actually made it so perks/modules are more important than base ship's AA. When i use my AA Roon captain + modules, i feel really safe vs Shokaku and to less extent Lex captains. If i use the "naval perk" captain, Tirpitz becomes a punching bag for planes. 

[deadly_if_swallowed]

I agree to most points - but not the accuracy part. While Tirpitz does have quite bad dispersion compared to Amagi, its guns are still much more accurate than my North Carolina at any range.

[Chiyeko]

NC has bigger guns and more of them

 

Anyhow Tirptiz likes to brawl, head first saying F-you.

 

Charged a Colorado while broadsiding with a New Mexico, finished of the NW first seeing he was the bigger threat being on my broadside and the Colorado did bugger all with his AP shells just bouncing off. While doing this one of the enemy CVs took interest in me and I was out there alone nearest ally was like 15km away which I knew all to well, but dodged his torps, but the DB did hurt me quite a bit. Anyhow Colorado went down so I turned around low HP by now to face off with the Nagato at twice my HP again a head first charge, bouncing his AP salvos finished him off with a close range torp strike after which an enemy new Orleans finished me off at last. All that was good for 110K damage, not to bad for a solo charge with CV attention, without the CV I would have had a lot more HP left took 19k direct DB damage and lord knows how much fire.

 

The thing I just fear is anything staying at range away from cover, can say what you want, but at range the Tirptiz hits jack crap, perfect aimed salvo splatters all over or if lucky you get 1 measly hit while in return your lack of deck armor makes you cry a bit

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Shoot the Tirp at 15km+ if you're in an Amagi. If she closes with you just keep blasting away. Aim for under the front 2 turrets. Far from invincible a ship.

 

Tirp still more accurate than the NC at all ranges tho.. 

[Xerkics]

I just had a one on one duel with a north carolina i got close from the front and torped it . IT never stood a chance with those 17k dmg making all the difference . We lost but if i didnt have the torps that battle could have gone differently maybe. Torps on BB doesnt seem really fair to other BB.

 

 

 

[BillydSquid]

I just had a one on one duel with a north carolina i got close from the front and torped it . IT never stood a chance with those 17k dmg making all the difference . We lost but if i didnt have the torps that battle could have gone differently maybe. Torps on BB doesnt seem really fair to other BB.

 

 

Why? Historically she was mounted with torpedo tubes, and really it fits with her brawler nature. Plus if someone let a Tirpitz get that close, inside 6km, then something has gone badly wrong given she's going to excel at close range. 

 

Plus us it's really funny when you take out a DD with torpedoes when you're in a BB. 

[Unintentional_submarine]

 

Plus us it's really funny when you take out a DD with torpedoes when you're in a BB. 

 

Even better when you downright ambush a DD with torps... "I R DD" said Mr Tirpitz.

Have done that a few times now. The best one being when a Benson moved into the channels next B cap on North and I guessed he would move down the larger island rather than directly across. Well, not that long after a very surprised Benson ate a torpedo as he came out from cover, and promptly died to my main battery. It still ranks as one of my most savoury kills yet.

[Xerkics]

 

Why? Historically she was mounted with torpedo tubes, and really it fits with her brawler nature. Plus if someone let a Tirpitz get that close, inside 6km, then something has gone badly wrong given she's going to excel at close range. 

 

Plus us it's really funny when you take out a DD with torpedoes when you're in a BB. 

 

So did warspite and you dont see her with Torpedoes in the game even though she had them. ITs purely wargaming choice how different ships are armed they pick the configuration they wanted.

[RamirezKurita]

 

So did warspite and you dont see her with Torpedoes in the game even though she had them. ITs purely wargaming choice how different ships are armed they pick the configuration they wanted.

 

The game doesn't include any submerged torpedo tubes, the Queen Elizabeths only had submerged tubes rather than deck mounted launchers. Contrast this with the Tirpitz as well as the Scharnhorsts that had deck mounted launchers.