Angle

[Dragnorak]

How much is the desired optimum angle in a BB?

[Talladega_Night]

Broadside on is the best angle to be.

[MacFergus]

Situation dictates I would have thought some BBs have great belt armour which allows you to go broadside more like the KGV where others like the Tirpitz are better ships bow on I would advise looking at the armour layout in port for the BB your playing imho

[AnotherDuck]

Usually slightly less than what you need for a full broadside, and then swing out slightly when you shoot to get the last bit of angle you need for that.

[Dragnorak]

So about 30 degrees then

[RUSSIANBlAS]

It really does depend on the BB.

 

One thing to remember is T8+ ships have 32mm bow armour which can completely stop AP from 16" guns or less a lot of the time. You obviously sacrifice the rear turrets being able to fire then.

 

In fact different ships will have different firing angles. The GK is particularly bad from memory as firing the rear turrets expose you to damage. 

 

Others have mentioned using the rudder to swing in and out between salvos but that's not always possible in fat high tier ships with slow rudders.

 

Belt armour is often very strong on ships, KGV and the two T7 German sisters are examples. Too much bow is bad in those as bigger guns will blow through your bow armour. Problem with belt armour is the superstructure will still take damage and in KGV especially there are gaps that mean even good angles will get you slapped.

 

Finally I'll add the Hood has excellent firing angles that makes her extremely tanky as you don't need to expose yourself to fire all 8 guns.

 

Generally if you take yellow damage instead of red or even bold red then you're angling well.

[Myrmix]

Depends on the ship, and the ship you are facing.
With ships who have good turret-angles, you can use a slalom-style to shoot at the enemy with beeing just able to bring all your guns to bear and then angle in again (preferably timing it with the enemie's shots).

With more static ships like US and japanese, you usually only angle and use the front guns (maybe aside from Amagi, who is better suited for a kiting-style of gameplay).

 

Also, against a Yamato, who can penetrate you through the bow, better try to bring all your guns to bear than to angle completely.

 

Ships like gneisenau and scharnhorst are special, since they have a really strong plating at the sides, rather than the front, so you have to lure the enemy to shoot at your "cheeks" at an angle, instead of your front.

 

TL;DR: never ever show your full broadside to anything (DD, CA, CL, BB, CV-planes), and if you have to, try to time it between enemy shots. There is no ship where you have to show full broadside to shoot all guns.

[walter3kurtz]

You want to cross the "T", so you can use all guns and the enemy can only use the front guns.

[AnotherDuck]

30 minutes ago, Myrmix said:

With more static ships like US and japanese, you usually only angle and use the front guns (maybe aside from Amagi, who is better suited for a kiting-style of gameplay).

 

I'd say not just Amagi, but that's the last ship in the line you should show more of a broadside occasionally. Fuso loses a lot of firepower if you go straight ahead, and her main strength is the many guns. You want to keep them firing, but never give more broadside than strictly necessary to achieve that, and angle in while reloading. Kongo is so fast and agile you should always turn one way or another to dodge shells. Does not have a problem with showing a little side just when you're firing, since the rudder is very responsive.

 

31 minutes ago, Myrmix said:

Ships like gneisenau and scharnhorst are special, since they have a really strong plating at the sides, rather than the front, so you have to lure the enemy to shoot at your "cheeks" at an angle, instead of your front.

 

This holds true for most German BBs. Also, in Bismarck with a secondary build, you need to show a little bit of side to get the secondaries to start firing, since they have poor arcs forward.

 

But the most important piece of advice, if you have a low hit percentage (~25%), you're probably too far back. Don't snipe. You have the health and armour to tank for your cruisers, and while you have better range than them, they have much better accuracy. They're not going to lose nearly as much firepower due to misses as you will at max range.

[Blackcoffe]

52 minutes ago, walter3kurtz said:

You want to cross the "T", so you can use all guns and the enemy can only use the front guns.

That only works irl. Its suicide in WoWS. Never show your flat side.

[AmazingBeaver]

Best and most used angle in a BB when enemies are spotted is 180 degrees and full speed

[wilkatis_LV]

Depends on a ship by ship basis.

Angled Yamato is one of the easiest BBs to citadel in the whole game.

Amagi angles better towards the rear.

Monarch angles better towards the front.

And so on.

[EsaTuunanen]

7 minutes ago, AmazingBeaver said:

Best and most used angle in a BB when enemies are spotted is 180 degrees and full speed

And against RN BBs with thermonuclear HE even that doesn't matter that much, because HE ignores angling and doesn't overpen doing some consistent damage and most of the time starting at least one fire even with Fire Prevention.

[Ubertron_X]

23.58°

[22cm]

1 hour ago, Blackcoffe said:

That only works irl. Its suicide in WoWS. Never show your flat side.

 

Angling is a concept taken from WoT, where the shooting distance is much smaller and trajectories are flat. It does not exist IRL in ships where the hulls are already angled, and the bows even extremely angled, and at long distance the deck was usually hit. 

[Skyllon]

Something is telling me, we are not talking cup sizes, are we?

[rvfharrier]

It's different for every BB, but as a general rule I always angled until I could almost but not quite fire my rear turrets. If you're able to fire your rear turrets, then you probably aren't angled enough.

[lameoll]

12 hours ago, Dragnorak said:

So about 30 degrees then

in general yes.  but it will always depend on your armor layout and the ship you are fighting.

[Prospect_b]

4 hours ago, AmazingBeaver said:

Best and most used angle in a BB when enemies are spotted is 180 degrees and full speed

That's only for those idiots who moved forward to begin with.

Real pro's do 0 degrees and full reverse from the beginning yo.

[Capra76]

14 minutes ago, PzychoPanzer said:

That's only for those idiots who moved forward to begin with.

Real pro's do 0 degrees and full reverse from the beginning yo.

 

That's why they put the majority of the guns at the front.

[22cm]

5 minutes ago, Capra76 said:

 

That's why they put the majority of the guns at the front.

 

Nelson and Izumo being specially designed to be idiot-proof. 

[AnotherDuck]

37 minutes ago, 22cm said:

Nelson and Izumo being specially designed to be idiot-proof. 

 

Izumo's third turret is for shooting those who dare to approach you from an angle. Speaking of that ship's turrent angles, though, I think the middle turret is a definite contender for having the widest shooting arc. You can shoot almost straight backwards with it. Not that you should use that, as the rear protection is awful.

[lameoll]

40 minutes ago, 22cm said:

Nelson and Izumo being specially designed to be idiot-proof.

I wish ! :d 

[elblancogringo]

Why angling on a BB? Play like wargaming wants you to play, show full broadside and delete cruisers with firing salvos with all your guns. Don't worry, if you don't play IJN BBs you have no more citadel and you won't be punished. 

Yes I'm salty, so what?! 

[Bigtime_Alarm]

Usually its an angle other than straight into the middle of the enemies, not hitting an island or another ship, not being really broadside to any of the 4 or 5 ships who could hit you and if you are lucky being able to shoot at least some of your guns at something. Then you will probably have to turn anyway because some joker dumps 50 torpedoes at you.