Struggling with IJN BBs

[pihip_wg]

This is an easy one - past Myogi, I'm having trouble making Japanese battleships work.

 

It probably has to do with my (lack of) aiming skills, though I'm improving, but the lack of significant armor on the IJN ships is also a glaring issue, because I can't just camp and snipe in a battleship but at the same time I'm afraid of closing in and getting smashed by anyone who so much as looks at me funny.

I have ARP Kongou in my port, next week Fusou will be on discount (and I have her fully researched) and Mutsu is an upcoming premium I'm interested into, but all this means little if I can't make the ships work and end up as dead weight for the team.

Would you guys mind giving me some advice on how to properly play these ships if you don't mind? I'd appreciate it greatly.

[WingedHussar_Adler]

This is an easy one - past Myogi, I'm having trouble making Japanese battleships work.

 

It probably has to do with my (lack of) aiming skills, though I'm improving, but the lack of significant armor on the IJN ships is also a glaring issue, because I can't just camp and snipe in a battleship but at the same time I'm afraid of closing in and getting smashed by anyone who so much as looks at me funny.

 

I have ARP Kongou in my port, next week Fusou will be on discount (and I have her fully researched) and Mutsu is an upcoming premium I'm interested into, but all this means little if I can't make the ships work and end up as dead weight for the team.

 

Would you guys mind giving me some advice on how to properly play these ships if you don't mind? I'd appreciate it greatly.

 

Use IJN strenghts - more precise guns (higher caliger on t7+), good speed...and angled eaven nagato/amagi is hard to pen.....no need to hide with IJN on any tier....angled they will not take big dmg.....Fuso has very good armor.

 

Personaly i speced my nagato for full cecundary build and go head on on enemies...it works OK....others plays it like middreange snipers...10-15 km max range.

 

Dont open broadside and your armor will do its job.

[Cyclops_]

I have an Amagi, Izumo and a Yamato.

The Amagi is a good CA killer, fast, but watch your angles, 10-15k is good range.

Izumo, a very strange ship indeed, I used to hate it with a passion, very soft aft of the 3rd gun, dont camp and snipe from a distance, crap dispersion, get in below 15k slightly bow on and blast them. 

Yamato, fantasic ship, get you captain skills up and tank with another BB & CA, awesome combination.

[pihip_wg]

The Amagi is a good CA killer, fast, but watch your angles, 10-15k is good range.

 

I think I'll have to commit these numbers to memory. I had a couple matches in ARP Kongou, and I've noticed that I'm either too far away, so I often miss, or too close due to her high speed, where I get my face redone by stronger ships.

 

If the 10-15km window is workable for every Japanese battleship up to Amagi, then that's what I'll have to master first.

[Kazeshiki]

Japanese ships are really the ideal ships to angle on. The guns are long ranged that u shouldnt be in a situation where ur getting hit by multiple ships. At the start of the game ur speed will put u ahead of the other BBs where u can start shooting at enemy cruisers where the IJN accuracy and big guns kicks in. 1 or 2 lucky hits will shave off alot of hp. If the armor is the problem then just go bow in wait for them to shoot then turn ur ship and shoot. Rinse and repeat.

[pihip_wg]

Japanese ships are really the ideal ships to angle on. The guns are long ranged that u shouldnt be in a situation where ur getting hit by multiple ships. At the start of the game ur speed will put u ahead of the other BBs where u can start shooting at enemy cruisers where the IJN accuracy and big guns kicks in. 1 or 2 lucky hits will shave off alot of hp. If the armor is the problem then just go bow in wait for them to shoot then turn ur ship and shoot. Rinse and repeat.

 

Understood, and yes timing my shooting with the enemy's is also something I have yet to master. With battleships I can tank if I make a mistake, but as I'm also interested in cruisers, I can't escape if I mess up pulling a wrong turn at the wrong time (got citadeled to death more than a few times).

[CPL_Sivi]

 

Understood, and yes timing my shooting with the enemy's is also something I have yet to master. With battleships I can tank if I make a mistake, but as I'm also interested in cruisers, I can't escape if I mess up pulling a wrong turn at the wrong time (got citadeled to death more than a few times).

 

When u get citadeled in a cruiser it doesnt mean u made a mistake. U can play CA perfectly and still got citadeled. Its a life of a cruiser. Only way to avoid that is not getting hit. That means keeping at an arms length from a BB which again means u often being behind the front lines, which means u cant hunt DDs with effect... So when in a CA i make peace with my Maker before i sail out and go flank speed ahead. Killing 2 DDs before they land a dev strike on me i consider a good game

[anonym_MfZ6T7iwWpUC]

Its taken me a long time to get BB's in general. Most games I do ok in them now, but I am still far from epic. The IJN ones in particular were tough.

 

Its the old advice, you need lots of games in them. Dont be in a rush to upgrade to the next one. Dont use free-xp to unlock a ship, use it on modules. But at the end of the day, you are going to have to work it out yourself. Get as much advice as you can, but only you can work it out.

[Kazeshiki]

Practice in Co-op games. Most people keep saying "Noob u are so bad dont play randoms and go back to bots" In my opinion BB bots are perfect practice for aiming. believe or not the bot BB's play like any experienced BB will play. Going bow in. Few things to know about bots is that they are insanely accurate, no human aiming errors. go broadside to a bot and ur dead, you cant torp them at middle to long range due to superhuman reaction times. Their torps are hard to dodge and u eat atleast 1 torp most of the time, trading torps with a bot at point blank will always end in mutual destruction. New players playing bots will learn the proper skills, instead of winning against a new cruiser player who drive by u broadside. or a new BB player showing his broadside trying to fire all his guns against a target going bow in. 

[fnord_disc]

 

I think I'll have to commit these numbers to memory. I had a couple matches in ARP Kongou, and I've noticed that I'm either too far away, so I often miss, or too close due to her high speed, where I get my face redone by stronger ships.

 

If the 10-15km window is workable for every Japanese battleship up to Amagi, then that's what I'll have to master first.

 

Those numbers are ideal for all Japanese battleships. 10km becomes rather short later when Bismarck can shell you with secondaries from 10km, so I would recommend 12-13km. 10km is fine at T5 or T6, but it gets rather short later on.

 

Japanese battleships are generally fast enough to decide the range. Use that to keep the enemy at 10-13km and whittle them down. Japanese battleships have decent armor if you dont show your broadside too.

 

Your biggest asset is having accurate, very punchy guns - the most accurate battleship guns in the game, and with excellent penetration. Use them to sink the enemy while they're in that ideal zone.

[TheOneAndOnlyGoldstein]

When you get Fuso, get straight away the B hull, A hull is atrociously bad and it will make you hate the fact that you play the game. Do your best to save free exp or convert free exp to skip it. Angling is a must because deck armor is not stellar and bulkheads get penned fast. However fully upgraded is a ship that you will love when it shreds even BBs a tier higher with the 21km range.
If you play Kongo, Aiming Systems is a must since you will spend quite a lot of time sniping from far. If you want to brawl from closer distance, get camo and flags since Kongo can get spotted very easily.

 

In rest, aiming is a mandatory skill. There is no way to learn it other than practicing, practicing and practicing, especially when situation asks for long range encounters. It might sound cliche, but we've all been there and it needs only time to play to perfect it. Also do not confuse bad aim with high dispersion, you can aim perfectly, shots landing smack in the middle but they land everywhere but the area you wish for: that is normal and the situation gets better the higher you go up the tiers (18km and below, above that you need Aiming systems so your shots don't go in every direction)

 

[JOVA1982]

Japanese BB's are quite good, From Fuso onwards 12-15km range, althuogh later later in bettle most can brawl reasonably well (I'm currently in Amagi)

 

Kongo is interesting ship, it's very fast which is prone to get you in trouble. How ever if you manage to time your turn well it also get's you swiftly away from trouble. Then again it has relatively poor turning circle,

Then again those are benefits and and hinderances of it's long and slim hull, so that was to be expected.

 

Fuso ispretty good sniper. it has issues on extreme range, but it puts so much iron in the air that something will always hit. and it has reasonably good armor, so going closer is not an issue either.

 

Nagato is slightly odd one for IJN ship, as it is quite slow, But as long as you can keep German and USN BB's over 8km away or you get close when they are pointing their guns to other direction you should be good. How ever German premiums, and Gneisenau have torps, and Bismarck has devastating secondary arnament, so it's better to be sure that they are 1 salvo kills even if you wouldnt get citadel on them.

 

Overall they are great mid range ships (9-15km) until you meet Bismarck, and from that you better shy away to at least to 11km

[Panocek]

OGHF_Cyclops, on 15 January 2017 - 01:00 PM, said:

The Amagi is a good CA killer, fast, but watch your angles, 10-15k is good range.

 

I think I'll have to commit these numbers to memory. I had a couple matches in ARP Kongou, and I've noticed that I'm either too far away, so I often miss, or too close due to her high speed, where I get my face redone by stronger ships.

 

If the 10-15km window is workable for every Japanese battleship up to Amagi, then that's what I'll have to master first.

15km and below is optimal range for all battleboats actually. Granted, USN dreadnoughts don't have accuracy issues at 20km, because their range ends at 16km or so

Though North Carolina with maxed out concealment, appearing out of nowhere at 11.8km and delivering Freedom into someone broadside can be genuinely scary. Amagi has worse concealment than NC, but getting down to 13km should be possible. If you don't care too much about AA or secondaries, Stealth is certainly a solid option to build.

[pihip_wg]

Some of you pointed it out but yes, I did fall for the same trap I fell for when I joined World of Tanks and tried to rush the techtrees. Then I remembered what a friend told me about the learning curve being much steeper, and paid the price with strings of mediocre to disastrous games.

 

Anyway, thank you very much for your advice, all of you.

[Raziel_Walker]

1. Angling

2. Stay behind a german BB

3. Don't t stay at max or brawling range, 11-15 km is best. Just outside German secondary and torp range.

[X_MonsterMilkMan_X]

 

I have the Yamato and from my journey through my the IJN bb line with some exceptions to the Yamato, the IJN battleships are more suited to mid- long range engagements due to the excellent dispersion and gun handling, I wouldn't recommend brawling due to the thinner armour and fairly easy to hit citadel, leave brawling to the German BB's.

It will be worth the grind when you get the mighty Yamato.

[pihip_wg]

It will be worth the grind when you get the mighty Yamato.

 

More like 'IF'. It's way too early for me to think about Tier 10s, and while there are a few I like for weird reasons (most notably Moskva), I will probably end my journey at tier 7-8. I'm a cheap captain after all.

[X_MonsterMilkMan_X]

 

More like 'IF'. It's way too early for me to think about Tier 10s, and while there are a few I like for weird reasons (most notably Moskva), I will probably end my journey at tier 7-8. I'm a cheap captain after all.

 

it will be worth it In the end when you can taste the salty tears of the tier 10 cruiser captain you have just 1 shot, especially the Moskva which is made of citadel

[pihip_wg]

it will be worth it In the end when you can taste the salty tears of the tier 10 cruiser captain you have just 1 shot, especially the Moskva which is made of citadel

 

Tell me of a cruiser that is not made of citadels and doesn't suffer against battleships, I'd be all over it.

[X_MonsterMilkMan_X]

 

Tell me of a cruiser that is not made of citadels and doesn't suffer against battleships, I'd be all over it.

 

only can think of one, the mighty St. Louis.

[Cyclops_]

When you get to the Izumo, don't shoot from long range, get into the 10 to 15km rang, go in angled with CA support, it can be a monster.

I first played it at distance, bow on, it was crap, a CA would turn as soon as you fired, and with some CA that have long range, you take the damage.

Most BB's need CA support, get it and reap the rewards ( I wish)

[pihip_wg]

Well, I think I more or less got the basic gist of IJN BBs. Since I have ARP Kongou I will practice with her first, then go on with the Fusou grind... unless I pick up the Soviet cruisers again.

 

Of course, no one forbids me from grinding both at the same time, but that would probably bleed my silver coffers.

[Cyclops_]

Well, I think I more or less got the basic gist of IJN BBs. Since I have ARP Kongou I will practice with her first, then go on with the Fusou grind... unless I pick up the Soviet cruisers again.

 

Of course, no one forbids me from grinding both at the same time, but that would probably bleed my silver coffers.

 

main to remember is to make sure you dont rush through the tier, learn how to play the ship and pick up your captains skills, wish someone had told me all this when I first started though, I would be in a lot better shape than I am now 

[Plaztma]

Well, I think I more or less got the basic gist of IJN BBs. Since I have ARP Kongou I will practice with her first, then go on with the Fusou grind... unless I pick up the Soviet cruisers again.

 

Of course, no one forbids me from grinding both at the same time, but that would probably bleed my silver coffers.

You should grind the russian cruisers, from Tier 6 its all good. It should make you money too. I ragesold my Nagato and new york after finding myself in the same situation as you. Now after a couple of tousand matches and a great run trough the german BBs I am compelled to start grinding theese lines again. I am mainly a cruiser and dd player and i know to well how easy burning targets the IJN shps are, thats my main concern about starting again

[X_MonsterMilkMan_X]

Well, I think I more or less got the basic gist of IJN BBs. Since I have ARP Kongou I will practice with her first, then go on with the Fusou grind... unless I pick up the Soviet cruisers again.

 

Of course, no one forbids me from grinding both at the same time, but that would probably bleed my silver coffers.

 

the best thing to do would be to watch flamu or notser and see how they play the japanese BB's, and i am also thinking of starting on the soviet cruiser line