How do I Nagato

[tread50]

I have the Nagato fully up graded but I just can't figure it out. I angle I get citted, I go straight I get citted, I run away I get citted. The guns don't seem very accurate ( compared to my stock Colorado).

I have a 13 point captain. I loved the previous Japanese BB's, I just can't Nagato.

Please Help!  

[Billy_Sastard]

Stay at mid to long range and keep angling. She's not a brawler.

[Aduial]

Don't show your broadside. I haven't played the Nagato, but i farm so many citadels off Nagatos who show their broadsides in my Gneisenau. 

[Grand_Commander_LuXun]

Nagato's not a brawler???? Oh my! The 3 words of doom. Not-A-Brawler.

[Pocket_Yorck]

Nagato has belt armour but not enough to stop Bayern, Gneisenau or Colorado from getting critical hits at close range, I find the ship has a very good secondary battery that can handle DD & CL that get too close but have not yet tried them on enemy BB.

 

Nagato deck armour on the other hand is much better than Bayern or Gneisenau so Nagato can trade blows with them at long range... will most likely win thanks to having more HP. I recommend fighting at long ranges and not being afraid to use high explosive on angled targets to set them ablaze.

 

Of course I have recently gotten Nagato and so far have only played PVE mode so I am going mostly by stats, experience from playing Nagato in PVE and experience from fighting Nagato in PVP but I can say the ship plays differently from previous JPN battleships.

[Grand_Commander_LuXun]

How does she play differently from the Kongo and Fuso? What are the fighting ranges where she's effective?

[Ace_04]

I had a miserable time in the Nagato grind.  Didn't enjoy her at all.

 

Probably one of my least favorite battleships, period.  Just couldn't get her to work for me.

[Grand_Commander_LuXun]

Oh. Then which BBs did you do well in? So far I've done alright in the Kongo, NM and CO.

[11thACRColdsteel]

IJN BBs are almost all best used as snipers from mid and long range.  They do not brawl well.  Even though trying to hit a cruiser is frustrating, Naggy's eat cruisers for breakfast.   Also stay angled ffs on an angled approach or angled going away, don't ever give up broadside.   

[Grand_Commander_LuXun]

I see. Nagato should be more accurate (2.0 sigma), and easier to use than the Fuso due to its turret arrangement. Anyone agree or disagree? Also we have to keep in mind that T5 and T6 are in a really bad sport right now when it comes to the matchmaker. What are the ideal engagement distances for the Nagato?

[desmo_2]

Hmmm, I didn't have any trouble in Nagato.  I found her quite useful, actually, and the 'grind' didn't feel like a grind.

 

I played her just like I played the other IJN BB's.  Protect your broadside, stay at a bit more range than you would in a US BB, and try to convince a teammate or two to support you.

[Billy_Sastard]

12-13k is the sweet spot for me. And with t7 matchmaking the way it is, she should be top-tier more often than not.

[TenguBlade]

If you can think of the Kongo as a .308 Winchester rifle, and Fuso as a sawn-off shotgun, the Nagato is the Barrett M107.  Her accuracy is amazing, surpassing that of Kongo handily, and she hits magnitudes harder.

 

The chassis on which those guns are mounted on is much more heavily-armored than either of her predecessors, but handles a little worse and is a much larger target courtesy of the chunkier upperworks.  You will be detected at long range and shot at accordingly for being the first target in the enemy's sights, hence why you want to use those powerful guns to knock the stuffing out of those annoying HE spammers ASAP.  While you do finally have a decent secondary battery, be advised that it fires mostly AP and thus you can expect 90% bounces, and take note that the HE secondaries have the worst arcs of all your guns; you will have to show a decent amount of broadside to get them into play.  It's generally not worth trying to use them.

 

Do not let the statement I made about the armor fool you: Nagato may possess the heaviest armor of all IJN battleships hitherto, but it's still the weakest armor at its tier.  Scharnhorst and Gneisenau both have 350mm main belts, and Colorado 343: by contrast, yours is a measly 305.  At 10km and below, you will start taking massive damage from anything that you broadside: it's not uncommon for CAs, USN ones especially, to citadel you at close range.  Even Cleveland can do it at point-blank.  In addition, all T7 BBs have 25mm of bow armor, which will always be penetrated by guns of 357.5mm caliber and larger: the only BB that you can see and are safe from while bow-on are T5 BBs, New Mexico, Fuso, Arizona, Dunkerque, and Scharnhorst - less than half of the myriad of battleships from T5 to T9.

 

All of that means you shouldn't be getting within 7km of another battleship unless he's either distracted or has a massive HP disadvantage.  Brawling with CAs and DDs, while more acceptable because the AP secondaries can actually do something, is also risky because most have torpedoes with ranges not much shorter than your secondary range if not longer, and your 32-second gun reload does not forgive mistakes - the great accuracy works against you if you don't take time to line up shots at any range, but especially at close range.  Stay at 7-12km, and whack stupid people with your main battery.  Act as a damage sponge and support unit for your CAs, so they can help keep enemy BBs and DDs at arm's length, where you have the advantage.

 

A special word of caution: Scharnhorst and Gniesenau have a 5 and 7 knot speed advantage over you respectively, excellent armor protection (less than half of either the bow or stern is armored with 25mm plate and the main 350mm belt extends across almost 75% of the ship's length), much better secondaries, and most importantly, torpedoes.  Scharnhorst can't do much to you while angled without using HE (but beware most drivers of the ship know this), but Gneisenau's 15" guns can lolpen you so be prepared to take substantial damage from them both.  All you can do is run away from them and either win a war of attrition (i.e. HE spam or lucky AP penetrations if the guy screws up) or bait them into overextending so that allied ships can tear them down with concentrated fire: in a one-on-one, both ships outclass the Nagato entirely.

[Rub_My_Cit_BB]

While its in port, right click on the Nagato ship icon, and left click on "sell." 

 

[Murcc]

I liked my Nagato.  I have a great win percentage using that ship.  That is mostly because I could, as TenguBlade mentioned, "knock the stuffing out of" those annoying HE spamming cruisers.  I also knew that any ship, BBs included, that tried to turn away from the fight was going to eat a big dose of broadside AP, no matter what.  Now, I have to qualify that a bit.  I used it before the German line was fully introduced.  Most German BBs, unless you are perfectly lined up beside them or have a big arc to hit their top, bounce a significant amount of AP shells.  I experience this German BB issue even with the higher tier Amagi and Izumo.  That being said, I felt safe pulling my Nagato into the fight with any ship as long as I maintained a slight angle to my opponent.  Just do it from a medium distance where your shells maintain a nice cluster for multiple hits, without getting too close so that you get fired upon by the whole team.  By maintaining a safe medium distance, you avoid long range broadside hits.  Yes, you will take a few bow hits or top hits, but thats OK, you have lots of health in this ship.  Enjoy it.

[orangeandblue]

Might just be me but I'm finding Nagato to be a bit of a tinderbox. I've enjoyed my IJN BB's including Nagato but I would have to say Nagato is the least favorite of all. Kongo probably most favorite, so far.

[Grand_Commander_LuXun]

Do you have the Fire prevention skill?

[TenguBlade]

Do you have the Fire prevention skill?

Who the hell uses that?  Investing in that's like buying a pickup truck for speed.

[tread50]

Cheers guys, for all the advise I will practice and hopefully get bet at it.

[Aquitanic]

Don't show broadside. Ever. Or I'll do this to your Nagato

[zessisamess]

nagato