Montana - What Am I Doing Wrong??????

[Formosa_Straight]

So I finally got to the Montana. Mass was heaps of fun, Iowa also was great fun. I kicked off pretty good with the Montana winning the first few game, citadels all over the place,100K+ hit points, 60+% win ratio. It was all looking good and seemed to be worth the slog. But recently I have just been going backwards with it. I feel my game play is pretty much the same, I start off at long range sniping and then push in to try and hold a position or flank. But recently my shells seem to be just over penning everything or bouncing. How does the Montana's guns bounce off the stern of a Russian cruiser!!!!!!!!! I have switched to using HE but feel this is kind of a soft option. Yeh, I am not getting as many ricochet's but if I wanted to spam HE I would have stayed with my DM or gone the British BB route. I think my positional play might be contributing to this performance as well. I am finding that I am often in front of cruisers and being focus fired on. But the cruisers I am in front of are on the B & C line so I really can't get much further behind them and be effective (this is a completely different topic but something I have been noticing with cruiser drivers lately). I also have a Champagne. I got that because I wanted a challenge and it is good fun if driven like a Battle Cruiser (because it aint no battle ship). But as everyone knows it is made of paper and my win loss ratio with the Montana is now the same as the Champagne. Clearly I am doing something wrong and using this BB the wrong way. Any tips welcome except for advice telling me to go the Russian BB route. Thanks. 

[desmo_2]

If a ship with any good amount of armor is angled to you, aim for the super structure rather than the hull.  You will get fewer bounces that way.

[Navalpride33]

23 minutes ago, Formosa_Straight said:

How does the Montana's guns bounce off the stern of a Russian cruiser!

Well depends on what cruiser is it... Some RU cruisers can and will angle to negate your shots... Which brings up my first point...

• Target selection
  • Know what targets to aim and where... You happened to hit a target that can bounce BB shots.. (RU cruisers do that except for the light RU cruisers)

OP, please out of the kindness for your readers... Avoid the wall of txt...

Anyway.. From what I gather, you're not using or utilizing the terrain to your advantage.. It doesn't mean hind behind rocks, it does mean in some terrain features in maps, you can score hits but they cant shoot back.. I recommend

• Map awareness
• Learn to negate dmg or improve on your DMG control of incoming shells
• Situational awareness
  • Knowing when to push and when not to push..
    • IF you ever extended its your fault...
    • If you dont push at all and you see you guys die, its your fault.
• If you dont know how to do the above 3 points... I highly recommend to change your build to fire prevention and Survivability.

If you need more insight from the guys... A replay would help us out a lot.. We have a lot of people with a lot of opinions. Now, if you want say more detailed analysis

Send your replay to @Lord_Zath

[Gabriel_LXIX]

16" rifles don't overmatch alot of the tier X cruiser plating.

[SilverPhatShips]

Experience 

[Usedcarjock]

Montana can absolutely chunk RU cruisers bow or stern on, but only if you aim for the superstructure. Volume of fire will hit the blighter for 10k+ salvos. Your ship is the master of cross fire, meaning you want to position yourself to hit targets that either don’t see you or cannot angle against you. Sometimes that means you actually sit yourself in the back-middle of the map, yes the spawn.

[Snargfargle]

I've noticed that the better players among the streaming and YouTube posters don't just shoot at the first thing that is in range but wait a while until they find a suitable target. It's better to wait 30-45 seconds for something to present a broadside than to shoot at the first ship you see and waste your salvo on ricochets. Many of them try for a position near the middle of the map too, rather than on a flank, and (as previously said) far enough back so that they don't get too much return cruiser and shorter-range BB fire. 

[STINKWEED_]

Listen very carefully. What you are doing wrong is playing that ship. Take a deep breath and place it back in your inventory where you don't have to look at it until the next snowflake event. 
You can thank me later

[HazeGrayUnderway]

Some things to consider in helping improve your Battleship game.  I wasn't doing this for a long time and was just squaring off with the reds.

 

[iDuckman]

4 hours ago, Formosa_Straight said:

Any tips welcome

First off, you have a 23% hit ratio over 2700 battles.  That is not good.  No wonder you're so sensitive to ricochets; any hit is to be treasured.  Your main battery hit ratio in Iowa is better at 28%, but that still isn't that good.  Montana 26%.  Your K/D ratio in those ships is <1 and could be improved by a) not dying so often, b) killing more ships (again, gunnery).

Suggest you go back to T7-9 USN BBs (same guns) and the Training Room and work on your gunnery. 

Positioning may well be an issue, but it's very difficult to critique without watching you play.

Also, you may be having trouble managing your damage control /  repair.

Get thee to Lord_Zath.

[Sweetsie]

4 hours ago, SilverPhatShips said:

Experience 

What game are you calling this week?

[Sweetsie]

5 hours ago, Formosa_Straight said:

So I finally got to the Montana. Mass was heaps of fun, Iowa also was great fun. I kicked off pretty good with the Montana winning the first few game, citadels all over the place,100K+ hit points, 60+% win ratio. It was all looking good and seemed to be worth the slog. But recently I have just been going backwards with it. I feel my game play is pretty much the same, I start off at long range sniping and then push in to try and hold a position or flank. But recently my shells seem to be just over penning everything or bouncing. How does the Montana's guns bounce off the stern of a Russian cruiser!!!!!!!!! I have switched to using HE but feel this is kind of a soft option. Yeh, I am not getting as many ricochet's but if I wanted to spam HE I would have stayed with my DM or gone the British BB route. I think my positional play might be contributing to this performance as well. I am finding that I am often in front of cruisers and being focus fired on. But the cruisers I am in front of are on the B & C line so I really can't get much further behind them and be effective (this is a completely different topic but something I have been noticing with cruiser drivers lately). I also have a Champagne. I got that because I wanted a challenge and it is good fun if driven like a Battle Cruiser (because it aint no battle ship). But as everyone knows it is made of paper and my win loss ratio with the Montana is now the same as the Champagne. Clearly I am doing something wrong and using this BB the wrong way. Any tips welcome except for advice telling me to go the Russian BB route. Thanks. 

Don't sweat it.

I find the Montana is one of the most RNG frustrating ships in the game. I have flown out of my chair in rage with how many perfect shots I sent only to miss or do no damage. I do think there is something weird with this ship. And I have played them all.

[SilverPhatShips]

5 minutes ago, Sweetsie said:

What game are you calling this week?

 Eagles/Browns

[Lord_Zath]

Appreciate the referral!  OP, feel free to e-mail me (see signature) or join my Discord https://discord.gg/5y2Nrx7 I stream Sundays 12-6pm on Twitch (twitch.tv/lord_zath) and post the replay streams on my YouTube after (youtube.com/lord_zath). 

[IfYouSeeKhaos]

44 minutes ago, Lord_Zath said:

Appreciate the referral!  OP, feel free to e-mail me (see signature) or join my Discord https://discord.gg/5y2Nrx7 I stream Sundays 12-6pm on Twitch (twitch.tv/lord_zath) and post the replay streams on my YouTube after (youtube.com/lord_zath). 

Time zone?

Note OP...don't send 1 of the awesome games if you have 1...send 1 of the frustrating ones so he can see the issues you got going on to give advice on.

[Lord_Zath]

6 hours ago, IfYouSeeKhaos said:

Time zone?

Note OP...don't send 1 of the awesome games if you have 1...send 1 of the frustrating ones so he can see the issues you got going on to give advice on.

Central Standard time. Thanks I'll update that :)

[IfYouSeeKhaos]

39 minutes ago, Lord_Zath said:

Central Standard time. Thanks I'll update that :)

NP :-)

[Impitoyable_5929_x]

Shoot HE when BB is angled. Monty is a cruiser hunter. Make use of your firing angle (if you played GK or Pommern)

Go for a survival build

[tcbaker777]

On 11/20/2020 at 10:50 AM, STINKWEED_ said:

Listen very carefully. What you are doing wrong is playing that ship. Take a deep breath and place it back in your inventory where you don't have to look at it until the next snowflake event. 
You can thank me later

dont listen to this man, he knows not what he says, Montana is one of the best T10 BBs in the game

[iDuckman]

16 minutes ago, tcbaker777 said:

dont listen to this man, he knows not what he says, Montana is one of the best T10 BBs in the game

It's not about the ship.

[Tzarevitch]

On 11/20/2020 at 6:27 AM, Formosa_Straight said:

So I finally got to the Montana. Mass was heaps of fun, Iowa also was great fun. I kicked off pretty good with the Montana winning the first few game, citadels all over the place,100K+ hit points, 60+% win ratio. It was all looking good and seemed to be worth the slog. But recently I have just been going backwards with it. I feel my game play is pretty much the same, I start off at long range sniping and then push in to try and hold a position or flank. But recently my shells seem to be just over penning everything or bouncing. How does the Montana's guns bounce off the stern of a Russian cruiser!!!!!!!!! I have switched to using HE but feel this is kind of a soft option. Yeh, I am not getting as many ricochet's but if I wanted to spam HE I would have stayed with my DM or gone the British BB route. I think my positional play might be contributing to this performance as well. I am finding that I am often in front of cruisers and being focus fired on. But the cruisers I am in front of are on the B & C line so I really can't get much further behind them and be effective (this is a completely different topic but something I have been noticing with cruiser drivers lately). I also have a Champagne. I got that because I wanted a challenge and it is good fun if driven like a Battle Cruiser (because it aint no battle ship). But as everyone knows it is made of paper and my win loss ratio with the Montana is now the same as the Champagne. Clearly I am doing something wrong and using this BB the wrong way. Any tips welcome except for advice telling me to go the Russian BB route. Thanks. 

Truthfully, you've kinda answered your own question. Monty does have to change ammo to be effective. There's no way around that.  The shells do very good damage but AP is not the ammo for all occasions like it is with ships like Yamato. It can't overmatch angled BBs or some of the CAs in its matchmaking spread.  It also  is not an HE spammer like Conqueror.  You have to know when to switch between AP and HE for Monty to be effective otherwise you will have long periods of ineffectiveness until someone angles poorly. Expert Loader is a skill that works well for Monty (also with William Halsey as captain for even faster switching). 

[tcbaker777]

3 hours ago, iDuckman said:

It's not about the ship.

oh, it was hard to tell that he wasnt talking about the ship

[iDuckman]

1 minute ago, tcbaker777 said:

oh, it was hard to tell that he wasnt talking about the ship

He thinks it's about the ship.  It's really about the driver.  That's my point. 

[STINKWEED_]

23 hours ago, tcbaker777 said:

dont listen to this man, he knows not what he says, Montana is one of the best T10 BBs in the game

Oh yes, and if you believe that I have a wonderful Florida Everglades property to sell you. 

[Formosa_Straight]

On 11/21/2020 at 12:32 AM, iDuckman said:

First off, you have a 23% hit ratio over 2700 battles.  That is not good.  No wonder you're so sensitive to ricochets; any hit is to be treasured.  Your main battery hit ratio in Iowa is better at 28%, but that still isn't that good.  Montana 26%.  Your K/D ratio in those ships is <1 and could be improved by a) not dying so often, b) killing more ships (again, gunnery).

Suggest you go back to T7-9 USN BBs (same guns) and the Training Room and work on your gunnery. 

Positioning may well be an issue, but it's very difficult to critique without watching you play.

Also, you may be having trouble managing your damage control /  repair.

Get thee to Lord_Zath.

That's really constructive advice. Thanks I will give it a go. I enjoyed playing the Mass and the N.C. Will go back to them and practice aiming.