Deciding on a new BB line

[The_Emerald_General]

I have the Iowa and am close to acquiring the Montana. I am looking into both the German and Japanese battleship lines, I have gotten to tier 5 in both tech trees but am having a hard time deciding on which one to focus on first. I would like to hear everyone's opinion on both trees and how they compare to the USN. 

[Fire_Drake_84]

The Japanese line are the snipers, they can stay at longer ranges, and have decent accuracy with their guns

The German line are the back alley brawlers. They can get in close and have the guns and armor to hold up to most ships of other nations.

[TenguBlade]

German BBs aren't as stressful to play, mostly due to having good armor and damage control parties that last for more than 1 cruiser reload's worth of HE.  IJN BBs are good, but they usually don't have the armor to close the range and thus your ability to influence a match is somewhat restricted.

[markus_2017]

Go IJN, there are already too many german BB's. Dont be a lemming, try something different. There aren't brawlers, but then again I have never been any good at brawling.

[Royeaux]

The advantage of the IJN line is progression, at the end of the tree is a real ship, the Yamato.  While the KM line historically ends at the Bismarck.  Once I hit the Bismarck, I lost interest in the line, but the IJN line kept me busier.

[Xlap]

I really love both lines of bbs, ive got until Bismarck for the germans and until Izumo for the IJN. They are very different lines. The IJN hve exellent guns but poor armor, they are good sniper, htey are good at long ranges. The germans are brawlers, they have exellent armor and secundaries but poor guns at long range. They are really good at close ranges.

 

Before choosing one line ask yourself wahat do you want to do, if you want a tank to be in the first line absorving damage and melting people with your secundaries go for the germans bbs. If you want to stay behind and play from the secound line firing from range and be able to one shot enemys go for IJN. Differents playstiles but both are really good on what they do.

[1995firebird]

my vote wold be the German line. i have the t-9 German ship and love the line. the Japanese line i only made it to the Nagato then quite. it wasn't for me!

[Phoenix_jz]

How do you prefer to play your Battleships?

[AdmiralThunder]

I am not that far in the BB's or even the game really( highest ship is T7 Fiji then a bunch of T6's ). I have played US BB's  to T6 and the German BB's to T6. Played IJN BB to T4 and quit. I would say if you were able to grind the US BB line past the awful slow( speed and reload times )of the mid tier US BB's that you would love the German ones. You should already be in love with Konig despite her smallish 305MM's.

 

I absolutely hate the IJN line( Cruisers too - made it to T6 and quit ).​ As I said I only made it to T4 Myogi in BB but it was awful. Most inaccurate thing ever. Just soured me on trying to go forward with the line. Other than speed( which you get with German BB too )I see little advantage to the IJN BB's. They are the BB's I fear the least playing against FWIW. Weak armor and very inaccurate guns. They are fast and hit hard when they do hit you though. Only 2 things I can say good about them from playing against T5/T6+ IJN BB's.

 

No question for me the German line is far superior. So if you are going to grind one I would say go German. Then once done with that try the IJN line.If I ever go back to the IJN line it will only be after everything else is done which is a LONG way down the road for me.

[markus_2017]

My love for the german line ended at Bayern. I then played Gneisenau and Bismarck on three seperate test'. The Bismarck left me cold, the Gneisenau's dispersion bugged the hell out of me. I could see no attraction to carrying on. Obviously its horses for courses.

 

If you want to brawl and dont need precision, fine, go german. Tough as hell, hard to citadel, great seconderies on Bismarck. But like I said above, I am crap at brawling.

[sasquatch_research]

Hey

markus_2017.  I feel your pain.  I hate my Bismarck and i generally like my Gneisenau except the gun accuracy stinks but otherwise it's a good ship.  I got Scharnhorst and fell in love; the smaller guns are much more predictable, faster reloads, much faster turret rotations and my damage number went up by quite a bit.  I love the German line, but because of Bismarck, I have no desire to go to T9 or T10.  T5-T7 is where the most fun is. and I would glad pound my Scharnhorst in a T10 match and hunt cruisers.

Pete 

[Xlap]

My love for the german line ended at Bayern. I then played Gneisenau and Bismarck on three seperate test'. The Bismarck left me cold, the Gneisenau's dispersion bugged the hell out of me. I could see no attraction to carrying on. Obviously its horses for courses.

 

If you want to brawl and dont need precision, fine, go german. Tough as hell, hard to citadel, great seconderies on Bismarck. But like I said above, I am crap at brawling.

Just keep in mind that the german line bbs are brawlers, they are good at close range.  They are nearly impossible to cit, really good segundaries and good turret traverse and guns reload, and at close range dispersion is not a big of a trouble. All about the german bbs are made to brawl. At long ranges though that dispersion really works against you. They are brawlers not snipers.