Suck as battleship

[txtspeak]

I got no problem dodging torpedoes or angling to enemy fire, but my guns are USELESS!!!! in the kongo specifically (doesnt seem to happen with the Arpeggio ones for some reason) every single shot I fire either misses or overpenetrates, I always get overpenetrations, to the point where I am no use to my team as anything but a bullet whore. seriously. even firing at a cruiser 2 tiers above me I cannot get a single citadell on the myoko. they always overpenetrated and do 1000 damage, I do more damage per salvo in a phoenix class cruiser than a kongo class battleship and that thing fires more often and has torpedoes.

why? why do I suck so badly? im firing at the broadside of the cruisers hitting them with plunging fire and... nothing. haven't had a citadel hit in over a week except for on my own ship (no I did not shoot myself lol) and if I fire when they are front on charging or angled I just can't hit

[waxx25]

aim lower then.

[ItachiZero]

I got no problem dodging torpedoes or angling to enemy fire, but my guns are USELESS!!!! in the kongo specifically (doesnt seem to happen with the Arpeggio ones for some reason) every single shot I fire either misses or overpenetrates, I always get overpenetrations, to the point where I am no use to my team as anything but a bullet whore. seriously. even firing at a cruiser 2 tiers above me I cannot get a single citadell on the myoko. they always overpenetrated and do 1000 damage, I do more damage per salvo in a phoenix class cruiser than a kongo class battleship and that thing fires more often and has torpedoes.

why? why do I suck so badly? im firing at the broadside of the cruisers hitting them with plunging fire and... nothing. haven't had a citadel hit in over a week except for on my own ship (no I did not shoot myself lol) and if I fire when they are front on charging or angled I just can't hit

 

rngesus dont like you. I guess. 

[txtspeak]

aim lower then.

 

below the water line?

[Pekoe_Darjeeling]

 

below the water line?

 

Yes but if rng says no all you can do is to ram the enemy. Don't rage on chat and wg system will not punish you with bad rng. Trust me I know about this

[BillydSquid]

I got no problem dodging torpedoes or angling to enemy fire, but my guns are USELESS!!!! in the kongo specifically (doesnt seem to happen with the Arpeggio ones for some reason) every single shot I fire either misses or overpenetrates, I always get overpenetrations, to the point where I am no use to my team as anything but a bullet whore. seriously. even firing at a cruiser 2 tiers above me I cannot get a single citadell on the myoko. they always overpenetrated and do 1000 damage, I do more damage per salvo in a phoenix class cruiser than a kongo class battleship and that thing fires more often and has torpedoes.

why? why do I suck so badly? im firing at the broadside of the cruisers hitting them with plunging fire and... nothing. haven't had a citadel hit in over a week except for on my own ship (no I did not shoot myself lol) and if I fire when they are front on charging or angled I just can't hit

 

 

What's your engagement range? 10-15km is ideal for BBs, the further away the greater the dispersion. Don't sit 20km away and snipe like a scrub while your CAs get ripped apart. I hate it when BBs do that.

 

As to the lack of citadels, vs CAs you don't really need to apply plunging fire, you can aim directly for the belt armour with the Kongo, the shell calibre will punch straight through CA armour preventing over penetration most of the time. Stagger your shots as RNG Gods will often laugh and punish you with bad dispersion so you don't want to fire a full broadside and be left with no shells loaded when the CA turns. (I always try to wait for a BB to reload it's guns before I turn away as exposing a broadside leads to a lot of damage)

 

You'll want your shells to arc down, so aim at the waterline the shells arc down into the waterline and below into the citadel from there. You only really need plunging fire vs BBs if you can't penetrate the armour belt and need to punch through the deck eg: vs the Tirpitz. 

[gbgroger]

well kongo is quite accurate for a low tier bb. Play better.

[txtspeak]

 

Yes but if rng says no all you can do is to ram the enemy. Don't rage on chat and wg system will not punish you with bad rng. Trust me I know about this

 

wow... in the face of my scepticism I tried aiming below the waterline and holy crap was I suprised by the results. still not getting those citadels but I am getting PUNISHING penetrating hit barages, now doing the damage a battleship should be doing in a battle

thanks guys

[txtspeak]

well kongo is quite accurate for a low tier bb. Play better.

 

 and also, advice like this is useless to me, play better means nothing.

[Admiral_Noif]

Battleship playing require very good skill how to play correctly on it. Don't always show your broadside, keep some angle, Always use AP ammo (HE only vs dds) and try get your shells right below enemy turrents or smoke pipe. If possible, try use your front side, because enemy have hard time to get any dmg to you if you show your front. Get correct upgrades and captain skills also helps a lot to get better dispersion, ROF and get situation awarness. Youtube is great source to find videos, how to play well as battleships. I also highly recommend to watch wows streamers -> see, ask and learn how they play as battleships and think, what goes wrong in your gameplay.

 

I know... bad battles happen sometime even on battleships. 

[EsaTuunanen]

wow... in the face of my scepticism I tried aiming below the waterline and holy crap was I suprised by the results. still not getting those citadels but I am getting PUNISHING penetrating hit barages, now doing the damage a battleship should be doing in a battle

thanks guys

Yep, massive BB APs can actually travel some distance in water and hit ship near bottom with shell having been slowed down enough to not overpenetrate even flimsy bow or stern.

Also if RNG dispers shells above waterline they have better chance to still hit upper deck area instead of small and practically always ovepenetrated superstructure.

[Ferry_25]

 

 

below the water line?

 

Yes. But only on short range! Just so slightly below the waterline in order to remove some of the speed of the shells so they'll detonate inside the ship and not overpen. (on a BB vs CA situation of course). By mind it's an all or nothing tactic: either you one shoot them or you'll miss completely. And in many cases the cruisers have torps to return fire at you. So it's a quite rare opportunity by can be real fun! Don't do that on mid and long range. That's were RNG-us roles the dice.

[ghostbuster_]

 

 

below the water line?

 

yes a little bit. to shoot a broadsiding target for example. when you aim at the target, you have to see a little bit water between your aiming line and the ship. 

[Procrastes]

Wow. I've been trying to understand the science of aiming for quite a while now, and this is news to me.

 

Do I get this right:

• Battleship vs Battlsehip: Always aim for the waterline.
• Battleship vs Cruiser: At medium to long range, aim for the waterline. At short range, aim slightly below the waterline.

[Xevious_Red]

Something worth remembering is that a lot of the ships the Kongo faces are very squishy and easily over pen if you're using AP and don't hit the citadel. If you're having trouble citadelling things with regularity, then use AP against the more armoured targets like st Louis and other BB since they have enough armour to trigger the fuses. Against squishy stuff using HE does a lot of damage - not as much as a good citadel so don't expect to be deleting them but it does give you a good solid damage. Also you break a ton of modules which is always funny.

[WolfGewehr]

 

Yep, massive BB APs can actually travel some distance in water and hit ship near bottom with shell having been slowed down enough to not overpenetrate even flimsy bow or stern.

 

Like this? (SS from YT, video filmed at Kure Maritime Museum)

 

 

 

 

[urr027]

 

Wow. I've been trying to understand the science of aiming for quite a while now, and this is news to me.

 

Do I get this right:

• Battleship vs Battlsehip: Always aim for the waterline.
• Battleship vs Cruiser: At medium to long range, aim for the waterline. At short range, aim slightly below the waterline.

 

I suppose this depends on the definition of long range, but can you really aim for particular parts of the ship from long range?

[Procrastes]

 

 

I suppose this depends on the definition of long range, but can you really aim for particular parts of the ship from long range?

 

You can always aim...

 

But yeah, allegedly there are captains out there who routinely aim for specific weak spots on ships more than 10 km away. Only last week, a very well-meaning piece of advice on precisely which narrow strip of side armour to target to achieve a citadel hit on the Tirpitz almost made me hand in my epaulettes in shame. I'm just not that good.

[malcheus]

 

 

You can always aim...

 

But yeah, allegedly there are captains out there who routinely aim for specific weak spots on ships more than 10 km away. Only last week, a very well-meaning piece of advice on precisely which narrow strip of side armour to target to achieve a citadel hit on the Tirpitz almost made me hand in my epaulettes in shame. I'm just not that good.

 

The door behind Bruno turret has a staircase the leads straight to the ammo magazines, hit it at a 63.5 degree angle and it's a guaranteed citadel hit.

 

[Procrastes]

 

 

The door behind Bruno turret has a staircase the leads straight to the ammo magazines, hit it at a 63.5 degree angle and it's a guaranteed citadel hit.

 

 

So it was YOU who sank me with that single-shell hit, yelling This is for Hood you kraut sonofabitch!!! in the chat that time?

Well done, Sir! I salute you! 

[Kaladania]

I seen shells from Kongo miss by one time ships size on 7km - sometimes its just not your day. Same as i was in duel with Fuso in my Haruna and first salvo 2x hits did no dmg on 10km and second salvo (he was moving save way for entire fight didnt turn or change speed - special that one ) on same distance same heading resulted in 1x citadel +3x hits for 20k dmg. And about overpen - its so funny that when game left close beta your AP didnt overpen that often and cruiser showing side was like oneshoot - now you actualy need cruisers on low tier to go strait on you or under angle to citadel them instead

 

[OOAndreasOO]

If u have overpenetration it depends by 2 factors

 

1-enemy ship's armor

2-distance

 

If you use AP against cuisers under 7-8 kilometers distance you often have overpenetration.

Same if you shot AP against low tiers cruisers (under tier 4 usually)

 

It not depends by ship...Kongo is a wonderful BB for his tier (sameone says she's OP)

[kountouriotis_gr]

 

Yes but if rng says no all you can do is to ram the enemy. Don't rage on chat and wg system will not punish you with bad rng. Trust me I know about this

 

aim lower then.

 

 

below the water line?

 

After 1535 battles i didn't know that you can hit a ship aiming below the waterline.

[Admiral_noodle]

Re: below the waterline

1- shells can pass through some water and into the ship. But not a lot.

 

2- ships are fat. They "swell" towards the middle. If you are using the bottom of the bow to aim "at the waterline" you aren't. The waterline is slightly below that due to perspective

[kennydbt]

BB guns are like a shot gun. they suck at any range but the longer the range the worse it is.