Montana Vs Iowa playstyle?

[Parliament_Funkadelic]

The real question boils down to is the Montana much of a different beast than the Iowa or Missouri? (sans radar). I'm near the end game in researching most ships and do have the Missouri. The Iowa and Montana combined is like a 40-50mill credit purchase....but is the game play at tier ten basically the same as Iowa/Missouri.... it's not worth the effort to get them.  Any thoughts?

[burlington40]

Montana is an interesting case of having the guns of the Iowa but the playstyle of the Arizona and New Mexico. The NC & Iowa playstyle focus on using your front guns with limited use of the rear turret. The Montana on the other hand having that extra turret in the rear gains the familiar playstyle of the NM where you actively angle and use the belt armor and not just the bow (FYI the belt armor when angled can easily bounce all shells in game). The added speed and good rudder shift time (for TX at least) give you flexibility and the ability to choose your fights. If you enjoyed the accuracy of the Iowa imagine that with 3 more shells, devastating strikes galore. I have really enjoyed the Montana due in part because I love the Arizona, so if you are similar I would greatly encourage you to purchase the Monty.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

For Tier VIII-X USN BBs, Montana plays closer to North Carolina, but having more, reliable gunnery at range.  Slap APRM2 and suddenly you have 12, hard hitting 16"/50 guns with very respectable accuracy this side of Yamato's 18"ers.  If you liked how hard the 16"/45 shells hit at Tier VIII, you'll love the power and accuracy of 12 of 16"/50 versions at Tier X.  Shots you tried at range you knew would be a waste with NC & Alabama, Montana can do.

 

You protect the sides of Montana, just as you would any BB.  You don't have Iowa / Missouri's speed to quickly extract yourself out of a spot or move from Point A to Point B in very quick order.  She's much, much more comfortable to play now compared to the ridiculously high citadels she used to have before.

 

Conqueror easily surpasses Montana's stealth build now, but that doesn't mean Monty is now [edited] in detection range.

[Parliament_Funkadelic]

ty both! I have certainly been trucked by a Montana, just hard to justify the grind and cost to get through the Iowa and purchase Montana.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

2 minutes ago, Sweetsie said:

ty both! I have certainly been trucked by a Montana, just hard to justify the grind and cost to get through the Iowa and purchase Montana.

 

Just understand that Tier X BBs handle like pigs.  You have to be forward thinking when playing a Tier X BB because if you put yourself into a bad spot, you're too big, too slow to change your mind and turn around and head back the other way.  Once you commit, it's troublesome to extract.

[Parliament_Funkadelic]

1 minute ago, HazeGrayUnderway said:

 

Just understand that Tier X BBs handle like pigs.  You have to be forward thinking when playing a Tier X BB because if you put yourself into a bad spot, you're too big, too slow to change your mind and turn around and head back the other way.  Once you commit, it's troublesome to extract.

I do have the yamato and Kurfurst I'm just trying to justify the cost and time vs just sticking with the Missouri.

[GUNSTAR_THE_LEGEND]

33 minutes ago, HazeGrayUnderway said:

 

Just understand that Tier X BBs handle like pigs.  You have to be forward thinking when playing a Tier X BB because if you put yourself into a bad spot, you're too big, too slow to change your mind and turn around and head back the other way.  Once you commit, it's troublesome to extract.

Is not that the dam truth lol

[burlington40]

1 hour ago, Sweetsie said:

I do have the yamato and Kurfurst I'm just trying to justify the cost and time vs just sticking with the Missouri.

Montana is still a fun ship to play as it has a different play style just like all the TX BB. The perma camo makes it a good  half premium and will generate good amounts of credits and XP accordingly. 

[CoffeePoweredSquirrel]

This is one of the very few threads I have looked up on the NA forum and I like the forum already. Coming from EU where Montana is being considered a PoS, it's quite refreshing seeing people who actually like her.

 

Just as Hipper and Hindenburg are "jack of all trades, master of none" cruisers, Montana takes a similar approach in the BB section. She is the most maneuverable of the T10 BB bunch while still being quite tanky, has comfortable turret traverse, superb accuracy, and great pen on her 406mm guns without suffering as many overpens as 420mm and 460mm guns. To me she is the perfect BB. Simply great in all perks but resulting in a perfect package.

If the sole question is whether to get her or not, my answer is an unshakeable YES.

[BrandonKF]

4 hours ago, CoffeePoweredSquirrel said:

This is one of the very few threads I have looked up on the NA forum and I like the forum already. Coming from EU where Montana is being considered a PoS, it's quite refreshing seeing people who actually like her.

 

Just as Hipper and Hindenburg are "jack of all trades, master of none" cruisers, Montana takes a similar approach in the BB section. She is the most maneuverable of the T10 BB bunch while still being quite tanky, has comfortable turret traverse, superb accuracy, and great pen on her 406mm guns without suffering as many overpens as 420mm and 460mm guns. To me she is the perfect BB. Simply great in all perks but resulting in a perfect package.

If the sole question is whether to get her or not, my answer is an unshakeable YES.

Welcome to American and Canadian territory. Enjoy your stay. ;)

[1995firebird]

i have found great success with my montana more so then my iowa. because of the low detectability on the montana i am able to use all 12 guns at range then disappear again until i get a good target, when i am in close quarters i stay bow in. i just mounted the level 2 dispersion mode on it love it

[Big_Spud]

Montana is a traditional tank. It fills the gap in terms of survivability and gunnery between Yamato and Grosser Kurfurst. It has excellent protection, excellent speed, good guns ( and a lot of them! ), decent maneuverability and good AA. It operates most comfortably between about 12-15 kilometers but can really push if it needs to, while maintaining a good solid attack angle to allow for wiggeling the rear two turrets out and baiting Yamato shells into the belt. While it's survivability has greatly increased following the citadel lowering, its still liable to take cits when caught broadside because it still pokes up above the waterline, and its looooooong. Be aggressive, be aware, and don't be afraid to use your speed to flex. You can do all sorts of builds with it, and get decent utility out of all of them. Popular ones are AA and Stealth, but Montana can do a very nasty secondary build, as the guns fire fast, have great firing arcs, good ballistics, and a wonderful fire chance. The only limiting factor keeping the secondary build from best in tier is the range topping out at 9.2 km.

 

On the other hand, Iowa is basically North Carolina or Alabama +6 knots and 60 meters per second of muzzle velocity. No other major changes in playstyle, apart from the much longer turning circle, so keep aware of that when dealing with torpedoes. Iowas best defense is speed and angling. I usually sail around at 2/3 speed during the opening parts of the match so as to not outrun friendly ships ( and to throw people's aim off, as they will usually assume you are going full tilt at 33 knots ). This lets you accelerate out of destroyer torpedo spreads fairly well, and can occaisionally foil CV torpedo drops when paired with good usage of the rudder. It also keeps you from getting into trouble all by yourself.

 

Iowa is a fantastic flanker and support ship. The speed really comes into use mid-late game where you can redeploy as rapidly as a cruiser to any flank to fill a hole or exploit a gap. Using speed flags you can push her up to nearly 35 knots, which is enough to chase down some cruisers. Her guns are incredibly brutal when firing AP at broadside/poorly angled enemy battleships and cruisers, but the dispersion can still be a bit "American" at times. The main downsides to Iowa are her massive turning circle, and weak sides. Since the citadel was lowered, you mostly likely won't be deleted by a single salvo, but 1/2 or even 3 citpens can happen if you get caught out. It's best to keep her moving at an angle, rather than stopping bow-on and just reversing. Even going 1/3 speed allows you to accelerate and turn out of an engagement if things get hairy, and Iowa can kite with the best of them when running away at 33 knots.

 

 

Good builds for Iowa are either Stealth or AA, much like Montana. Stealth is self explanatory, although with Lion now hitting the field, you are no longer best in tier in this regard. AA remains king though, and with a full spec it can seriously dent even tier 10 strikes, maim tier 9s, and utterly annihilate tier 8s. I would seriously advise against a secondary build. The 5"/38s rate of fire is literally half of what it was in real life ( WG just really hates the 5"/38 in secondary mounts on any ship ) and only has a 5% fire chance. I've run secondary build Iowa, Missouri, NC and Alabama to try and test its utility. It's just not worth it.