How to deal with 1v1 BB chase?

[BubbleRapper]

I have to put a stop to my terrible performance in these situations. I'm getting extremely frustrated at this point. I have been playing Nagato a lot recently, but I am having a terrible time every single case where I get into a 1v1 chase situation with another BB.

 

In the past couple days I have had 2 scenarios perfect for analyzing I think. 1v1 Nagato vs another Nagato. In one situation, I was the one being chased. In other other I was the chaser. I took way more damage in both situations and died both times. So what am I doing wrong?

 

When I was chased:

 

Enemy Nagato chases me at around 7km. I kept AP loaded, thinking he may turn or that I could do damage to his bow or superstructure. I was told this works, but it doesn't. At all. It did essentially nothing no matter how I shot, and usually the shots just had massive dispersion anyway and missed entirely. He was firing HE most of the time with some AP a few times and was doing consistent solid damage to me almost every salvo. I think by hitting my stern? So that ended with me dead and him at nearly the exact same HP he started with.

 

When I was the chaser:

 

I thought I had learned from the previous scenario. So in another game I was easily dealing with an enemy Nagato for most of the game. He seemed like an inexperienced player because he was almost entirely shooting HE and he exposed his broadside to my full salvo which I used to hit him for big damage.

 

So later, he's alone in the north and I come up behind him at 6-7km and chase him for several minutes. In that time, I switched between HE and AP, fired at his stern, fired at his superstructure, fired at his angled upper belt. Did basically nothing every time. And as usual most shots just flew all over the place and missed (I feel just as accurate in German BBs).

 

Then, despite me maintaining ideal angling (varying around 10-25 degree angle, couldn't use my rear guns) he blasts me for about 10-14K in one of his salvos. How? I don't recall if it was AP or HE, but regardless, how is that possible? I have never managed to do that myself except ONCE on the NC before the armor model changes (and never since, on any ship, not even cruisers). Then after one of my HE salvos, he shows perfect broadside, thinking I kept HE. So I fire my front 4 guns with AP on him at 5km and it hits right under the smokestacks at the waterline. "Perfect shot" I think. But nope. 2K. O.o (I then die to multiple torp bombers because I can't afford to turn enough, but that's understandable)

 

*****

 

This isn't just RNG. I do terribly in these situations every single time, and I am never able to replicate what other players are able to do to me.

 

What advice do you have for these situations? Where exactly should I be aiming with each ammo type in a chase scenario?

 

 

******

 

EDIT: Nagato is fully upgraded and I have a captain with secondary build (but not manual secondaries).

[MrDeaf]

do you have a replay?

 

check the armor layout on Nagato.

[ErichTopp_U552]

Assuming you have fully upgraded the Nagato's hull and the modules, strong captain, then it sounds like an aiming issue or knowing when HE is your friend. And yes, shooting HE from BB has a place. Part of the damage mechanics in this game deals with saturation...( you can find info on it in forums or YT) , and HE is helpful here as AP will OP and do no more damage. HE will start to burn em down.

 

In a cat and mouse chase, the mouse is going to die unless a team mate steps in from another part of the map or your aim gets good enough to start chipping him down. Dispersion with Nagato can be dicey. Highlight your target for priority secondary fire by using Ctrl and left mouse click over the enemy's title bar...that does help.

 

The moment you try to turn out from a chase, you're gonna get nailed. If you can, try to lead enemy back towards some friendly ships (if any are alive), and beg for help.

 

[Veasel]

You should be over-matching the Bow or Stern with AP, check your not getting over pens - do you have details damage ribbon enabled?

 

First thing I can think of is where are you aiming, are these water line shots?  As you may be splashing a lot of your rounds, unless you've got a broadside and an exposed citadel, it's better to aim half way up the hull and go for standard pens.

 

And don't be afraid to use HE if your bounced and over-penning with player who know how to hide there broadside.

Now the other thing is it's rarely worth chasing a battleship, wait for their salvo, then  turn and return to fighting the objectives with your team, continue to harass as you open range.  Also added benefit off heading toward supporting friendlies.

 

If your being chased 1v1 and have a health advantage, time the volley turn and just force the fight.   You can often get them to panic turn, and eat a broadside.   Biggest mistake here, don't be tempted to open all the guns, just use the forward turrets.  And after the cross don't turn into them exposing you broadside trying to get all guns to bare.  Turn out and just use the back turrets, maintain the angle.  They'll often turn in and you'll get the broadside.

I'm far form the being best BB player, but I hope this is helpful.

[TTK_Aegis]

As said above, don't aim for waterline when shooting at a bow. Also, watch your shell arc. If you shells lob at that range, you want to aim a little ahead of the approaching ship so that the shells fall more on the deck or their forward guns, or even at the start of the superstructure to penetrate downward into the ship and maybe hit something vital. 

 

In general though, the best bet is to fire HE till you get a fire or two going, then swap to AP. More over all damage unless you shooting at a ship with a god-like bow such at Tirpitz. Then you might just stick with HE. 

[Crucias]

My advice would be don't sail in a straight line, but don't turn dramatically either. Wiggle your rudder perhaps 45 degrees? The idea is to get your stern/bow, superstructure, and turrets changing angle with respect to the other ship so you can thrown off their aim. If they are close enough try using AP to blow their turrets up, if they aren't then fire AP or HE at the superstructure depending on tier difference and length of their superstructure (longer length fire AP so you can damage more sections as the shell passes through them).

[BubbleRapper]

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

Yes, my Nagato is fully upgraded. Secondary build captain.

 

I have detailed ribbons enabled. I should go rewatch the replays perhaps and see what happened. And I think I will try out the training room to see what works.

 

I wouldn't have chased him, except he was the only enemy left aside from the CV which we couldn't see. Given how the chaser Nagato in the other game had seemed invincible and could do good damage to me, I figured it would be easy to chase this guy, especially since he had about half my HP. Amazing how I failed. Zero self esteem left.

 

As for shooting at the bow, I always shoot higher up, not at the waterline. I only get bounces though. Or 1K hits that randomly fly into the superstructure.

 

As for hitting their turrets, I've tried that quit a bit before but have given up on it since it just ends up doing nothing every time in my experience, no matter what BB it is.

 

[Sir_Godz]

of all the times it was a fair chase scene for me I find the times I am most likely to lose, assuming neither of us does something stupid is when I choose AP and the red chooses HE. Over time the HE will overwhelm the repair and heal. The trick is to do long paced ripple fire of the HE so there is never a real viable window for the ship to heal without a fire on it. If you shoot a turret every 15 seconds you will only have the smallest chance of landing shots during the immune period.

 

Nagato and colorado can both over match their bow armor I believe so in that battle AP is still best but the HE dmg over long engagements is more of a guarantee to win.

 

Another viable strat is if you have secondaries that out reach the red is to get close enough for the guns to light them up. This works better being chased than chasing. 

[Swagger897]

Both T7 BBs, Colorado and Nagato, can indeed overmatch the bows of each other. If there's slight angle, I'm talking tiny, where you shouldn't be able to shoot #3 and #4 guns, you can possibly bounce, but you can still take pens.

 

In case of what to do however, shorten the distance a bit. use the secondaries a bit within 6km and see if you can get some secondaries to light some fires. As far as where to shoot, with AP loaded, aim just above the water line. You'll tend to get pen hits more reliably than hitting water line. You shouldn't have to load HE, but if you do for some reason, aim at the super structure. You want to keep AP loaded in for all times however, even against DDs. You'll either do no damage at all due to dispersion rolls, or anywhere between 6-11k damage, even through the nose.

 

I'm guessing you were shooting far too low if you couldn't kill the one who was initially trailing. 

 

edit:

dammit Godz, you beat me to it

[BubbleRapper]

Unless the enemy is broadside, I always aim high with AP, or in a chase I sometimes use HE and go for super structure. I'm just baffled at how ineffective it works out for me. I mean literally almost zero damage. Some no-damage salvos. Some 1-2K salvos, which just isn't enough when I'm taking a lot more than that and I need to kill the enemy before the time runs out.

 

I guess my current plan now is to only use HE and just try to burn them down. And just avoid chases if at all possible. Honestly I've started just going for rams in Nagato when I get into non-ideal situations because I have no faith in its ability to do anything else. It's worked a few times lol.

[anonym_ix2LQemoTpfh]

I hate loosing. Ill log in, play game in till i loose and then log out. Today first one win and sec loss. I am done for the night lol

[NCC81701]

If you are the one being chase, then lead him to where you team is and turn a 1v1 into a 2 or 3 v1 engagement in your favor. 

 

If you are doing the chasing, then chase him to the point where he has no effective control over important positions on the map, turn around and help the rest of your team out; turn 1v1s at other places on the map into 2 or 3 v 1 in your favor. If he comes back then chase him away again. You don't need to sink him if you have more cap points when the game ends.  

 

Don't fight on even ground, you want all the advantage you can get. 

[BubbleRapper]

If you are the one being chase, then lead him to where you team is and turn a 1v1 into a 2 or 3 v1 engagement in your favor. 

 

If you are doing the chasing, then chase him to the point where he has no effective control over important positions on the map, turn around and help the rest of your team out; turn 1v1s at other places on the map into 2 or 3 v 1 in your favor. If he comes back then chase him away again. You don't need to sink him if you have more cap points when the game ends.  

 

Don't fight on even ground, you want all the advantage you can get. 

 

I agree, but these are situations where I end up in a 1v1 later in the game and I have no allies anywhere close. Hence why it is a 1v1 chase and I can't get out of it because he doesn't need to angle or change course to anyone else.

 

When I'm chasing, in the case I dealt with today (which I described in the OP) it was a standard battle and we were chasing right at their base, and points-wise we needed him dead in order to win (well, honestly it was probably hopeless anyway since they still had a cv). It should have been an easy kill since I had more HP and he had appeared to be a poor player based on his play earlier, and I thought I had learned from my other chase experiences in Nagato. I still don't understand why I wasn't doing more damage, and why things that work for others don't work for me like AP through the upper bow. Oh well, I'll just try to stick with HE in these cases. Not a play style I enjoy but I'd rather grind them death slowly instead with fire instead of failing to do damage at all.

 

 

[Edgecase]

In an overmatch situation, just pretend the bow/stern isn't there and aim for the bulkhead.

 

If you don't know what counts as "bow" or "aft":

1. Go to Armor Viewer for the ship you want to shoot
2. Turn off external plating
3. That's what your target actually looks like if you overmatch bow/stern armor
4. Shoot the citadel