Graf Zep - So Much For The German Turtleback :D

[poeticmotion]

Not that anyone expected the Graf Zep to have a turtleback, I just thought it was funny... Friday night was the first time I saw a Graf Zeppelin ( being tested by @kerensky914, and thank you for your hard work supertesting :D ) and citadeled her with my Baltimore from about 12.5km away. Got a glimpse of the Graf in gun range while capping B on Shards, finished the cap, charged through and got off a couple salvos at him; first salvo was a straight shot at his broadside for a citadel. Then I had to turn away before I could get wrecked by the BBs nearby. 

 

This seems to be a habit for me; the first time I saw a Scharnhorst, when it was in supertesting, I citadeled it with my NorCar. Little did I know how rare an occurrence citadels on those would be. :D

[Peregrinas]

Well, GZ won't have any armor thicker than a cruiser's. A CA can and will hit the citadel of Hipper/Roon/Hindenburg. It's only at close ranges where the armor scheme eats regular penetrations instead of citadels. So GZ's turtleback will probably only be useful to prevent DDs from getting easy citadel hits at close range. 

[poeticmotion]

Just now, Peregrinas said:

Well, GZ won't have any armor thicker than a cruiser's. A CA can and will hit the citadel of Hipper/Roon/Hindenburg. It's only at close ranges where the armor scheme eats regular penetrations instead of citadels. So GZ's turtleback will probably only be useful to prevent DDs from getting easy citadel hits at close range. 

 

Yup. I just was amused by it. I didn't expect a Graf to be as tough as the BBs, that'd be silly. 

[Lert]

3 minutes ago, Peregrinas said:

So GZ's turtleback will probably only be useful to prevent DDs from getting easy citadel hits at close range. 

But watching them try will be funny.

[Peregrinas]

Just now, poeticmotion said:

 

Yup. I just was amused by it. I didn't expect a Graf to be as tough as the BBs, that'd be silly. 

 

While still on the topic of armor schemes, I found out last night that Hindenburg's AP (most likely) overpens straight through a broadside Baltimore without getting any citadel hits at 2-3km. Two salvos right at the waterline and nothing but overpens. Good thing Hindenburg has torpedoes and Baltimore doesn't 

[FayFay731]

Don't they have KMS BB secondaries with 7km range? If someone goes full secondary build...

[Peregrinas]

2 minutes ago, Lert said:

But watching them try will be funny.

 

I would really love to try a secondary build on GZ. Taking all of the required aircraft captain skills leaves you with enough points to get AFT and manual secondaries, but this leaves you without CE, and +20% to secondary range and accuracy isn't worth the loss in whatever aircraft upgrade takes that slot.

 

Now, imagine if GZ got hydro to be in line with the rest of her German sisters at high tiers (minus Tirpitz), GZ with a somewhat decent secondary build would fear no DD. Spot the DD with fighters, then chase them into their smoke with hydro if they try to hide 

[poeticmotion]

3 minutes ago, Peregrinas said:

 

While still on the topic of armor schemes, I found out last night that Hindenburg's AP (most likely) overpens straight through a broadside Baltimore without getting any citadel hits at 2-3km. Two salvos right at the waterline and nothing but overpens. Good thing Hindenburg has torpedoes and Baltimore doesn't 

 

The USN cruiser line was the first line I went up when I didn't know how to play and I ragesold New Orleans halfway through out of frustration. Bought back New Orleans last month and she;s much better post-buff. And Baltimore's AP is no joke; now that I know how to aim much better than I did the first time I played USN cruisers, she racks up citadels. I still prefer my RN cruisers but I'm really enjoying Baltimore. She's frustrating as I can't carry in her at all like I can in RN cruisers or DDs. My playstyle is probably more aggressive than it should be for my skill level with Balti, so I'm very inconsistent; I tend to either get killed fast with 10 or 15k damage, or wreck face and get 60-70k, depending on whether I have teammates pushing with me. But the good games in her make it worth the bad games in her. 

[q_sertorius]

Good Day All!

Ref;

The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun

Book by Stephen Howarth

The Germans were given the blue prints for the IJN CV Akagi from the Japanese, and from those and other donated Japanese Data they built the Graf Zepplin.....

q_sertorius

[kerensky914]

3 hours ago, poeticmotion said:

Not that anyone expected the Graf Zep to have a turtleback, I just thought it was funny... Friday night was the first time I saw a Graf Zeppelin ( being tested by @kerensky914, and thank you for your hard work supertesting :D ) and citadeled her with my Baltimore from about 12.5km away. Got a glimpse of the Graf in gun range while capping B on Shards, finished the cap, charged through and got off a couple salvos at him; first salvo was a straight shot at his broadside for a citadel. 

Laf, good to know what happened!  I was having such lag problems that match - I never saw the salvo hit.  One second about half health, then lag for a few seconds and returned to a burning hulk...

[HazeGrayUnderway]

4 hours ago, Peregrinas said:

 

I would really love to try a secondary build on GZ. Taking all of the required aircraft captain skills leaves you with enough points to get AFT and manual secondaries, but this leaves you without CE, and +20% to secondary range and accuracy isn't worth the loss in whatever aircraft upgrade takes that slot.

 

Now, imagine if GZ got hydro to be in line with the rest of her German sisters at high tiers (minus Tirpitz), GZ with a somewhat decent secondary build would fear no DD. Spot the DD with fighters, then chase them into their smoke with hydro if they try to hide 

 

A while back, just for s--ts and giggles, I redid my Lexington with a Secondary Spec.  Caught a lot of DDs off guard, especially when they're trying to speed in thinking it's a free kill... Only to see Lexington turn towards them with secondaries roaring.  Lexi is different because she sports 8 127mm mounts.  Essex has 4.

 

The tradeoff is your planes will suck bad without the traits (esp without a very high pts CV captain), and no upgrades.  SBM2 takes some nice upgrade slots that would really buff your rate of servicing or heavily buff the fighters (and GZ's fighters are already pretty weak).

[Theorizing follows]

GZ will have far superior secondaries and I intend to try it for the lulz, at least for a little bit.  A DD really needs to be careful going after a GZ.  The planes are bad enough as it is, and long range secondaries from a carrier will be real annoying.  Only a RU DD won't care.  Other DDs that need to get closer due to floaty shells or torpedoes will have a very bad time if spotted by GZ.