How to BB Gud

[Hunter_Steel]

Sooo... At the moment, I am playing BBs rather regularly, due to my performance in Cruisers dropping, I have no idea why though... But that's a poast for another time.

 

Seeing as how BBs are becoming the major class I play as I grind for Yamato-sama, I am encountering problems, currently my greatest problem is with my Nagato.

 

In Nagato, I have absolutely no problems hitting citadels on BBs. Just in my previous battle, I hit 3 citadels, 2 on a New Mexico, and 1 on a North Carolina, both were at 17km distances. (My preferred range of combat.) But when it comes to Cruisers, I find it exceedingly difficult to nuke a Cruiser's citadel for some reason, I have this exact problem with my Myoko, in that I am having problems even getting citadels on a broadside enemy Myoko at 10km with my AP, and I hit just under the smoke-stack each time, but it's like only 4 of my shells pen. Anyways, I'll get to my Cruisers in the cruiser section tomorrow. For now, performing my best in my Nagato and my Kongou are my priorities, my current stats in Nagato sit as such:

 

Overall Results
Battles	44
Victories	23 (52%)
Battles survived	22
Damage caused	2,307,106
Warships destroyed	42
Aircraft destroyed	32
Base capture	0
Base defense	0

Average Score per Battle
Experience	1,226.39
Damage caused	52,434.23
Warships destroyed	0.95
Aircraft destroyed	0.73
Main battery hit ratio	28%
Base capture	0.00
Base defense	0.00

Highest Score
Experience	2,226
Damage caused	106,643
Warships destroyed	4
Aircraft destroyed	5

 

And here are my Kongou's stats:

 

Overall Results
Battles	103
Victories	63 (61%)
Battles survived	49
Damage caused	4,388,232
Warships destroyed	85
Aircraft destroyed	187
Base capture	17
Base defense	240

Average Score per Battle
Experience	848.42
Damage caused	42,604.19
Warships destroyed	0.83
Aircraft destroyed	1.82
Main battery hit ratio	28%
Base capture	0.17
Base defense	2.33

Highest Score
Experience	2,114
Damage caused	124,426
Warships destroyed	4
Aircraft destroyed	19

 

So it looks like I am doing okay in them, but I feel like I can do more. I just don't know how, my current play-style and beginning strategies are such:

 

Starting from the beginning of the game, I always load AP, and when I see an enemy that's within my range, I begin firing, this is usually between 21 and 19km, like this, I can begin lowering HP from range, and when the enemy and I actually exchange shots at 16km, I have the higher advantage because I generally have all my HP. Last battle, I knocked off 40k HP with my Nagato firing against an enemy Nagato and enemy New Mexico at 19km, when I got into the range where both of them felt confident in being able to reliably hit me, I had the upper hand and sank the New Mexico within 3 salvos and badly damaged the Nagato with 2 salvos. This process took 10 minutes, but me, a Hatsuharu, Myoko and Cleveland held an entire line against a Nagato, New Mexico, Aoba, Yorck, Cleveland, Myoko and a Sims, my fleet looked like this:

 

1 BB

1 CA

1 CL

1 DD

 

Their fleet:

2 BBs

3 CAs

1 CL

1 DD.

 

Helps when your BB (Me) knew the virtues of wiggling, and making sure not to close within 10km of their CAs, I managed to keep their BBs at a range between 13 and 16km, while keeping their cruisers at 12km. During this battle, I shot at:

 

Nagato, New Mexico, Myoko, Yorck, and Cleveland. When you're A cap on Big Race, and their Cruisers are constantly dodging between the islands, I had to take pot-shots at them, but in all honesty, when I fired my first salvo at their Myoko, it was 12km, I hit under smoke stack, just above the water-line with 2 shells, but only to do 5k damage, I hit their Nagato next, under the smoke stack, with 4 shells, and I am rewarded with a 14k critical hit, I hit their New Mexico under the smoke stacks with 5 shells, and I get a lovely 25k citadel. I fire on their Yorck, 2 of my shells hit amid-ships, and 2 of them in the aft and fore of the ship, and I deal a measly 4k damage. Their Cleveland I managed to hit with an 8k critical hit, but I only landed 2 shells on him at 12km because he turned as I fired. Now, all those shots against those cruisers, I am dead sure my AP should've put them out of commission, or at least give me a 20k citadel hit.

 

So I am wondering, how are you BB gurus, managing to delete cruisers at distances of 13 and 15km? At the moment, I am having a VERY hard time doing this, and it's the same with my Kongou when I fire at Tier 6 and 7 cruisers, it's troublesome to me.

 

But overall, I would like to be able to start putting my average on Nagato to at least 60k damage with a 1.2K/D (WR isn't really all that important, but I do contribute to my team by smashing BBs.) and 50k for my Kongou with a 1.3K/D

 

As I said, I love both ships, but my average stats in them make me feel sub-par and I would like to learn how to be good in them.

 

(Don't suggest videos, I have a limited cap.)

 

Thanks

 

~Hunter

[Enforcer017]

First off, detailed post, it gives us a lot to work with. I have not played Nagato since CBT but I have been enjoying battleships in general lately and she is one of the ships I vowed to get back.

 

Bear in mind that you are going to have some games where no matter what you do, you just cant score a citadel on that pesky cruiser 12 kms away. But there are 2 things it sounds like you can do to increase your odds. The first is hold your fire. That may sound counter productive, but it isnt. If you dont have a perfect angle yet but it looks lkke you will in a few seconds, hold your fire until that shot is perfect. If the enemy is executing a turn, it will take some practice with each BB to know the right moment to fire. Hell, maybe you already do this.

 

The second is to aim even lower. It sounds like you are aiming at the hull but perhaps too high if you are hitting 'just below the smokestacks'. Aim right at the waterline unless you are at the edge of your range, in which case aim for the deck. Also, with german cruisers I found its best to aim slightly below the waterline. Even then they can be difficult to hit.

 

You should find it easier to score those big cits with the Nagato than the Kongo. The performance of those 16.1 inch shells is much better than the Kongo's 14 inchers.

 

I hope this helps!

[aether_tech]

*pray* to whatever divine entity you think will actually be benevolent and give you good RNG.

Because right now, BB penetration values are terrible against other BB's, and dispersion is worst than it ever has been for some reason (groupings are fine, but hitting the broadside of a ship at any range is giving headaches beyond measure.)

[TenguBlade]

*pray* to whatever divine entity you think will actually be benevolent and give you good RNG.

 

Because right now, BB penetration values are terrible against other BB's, and dispersion is worst than it ever has been for some reason (groupings are fine, but hitting the broadside of a ship at any range is giving headaches beyond measure.)

If you're referring to the fact that you don't cit while aiming as high up on the hull anymore, it's because WG fixed the error where an AP shell would hit the armor belt and deflect downwards into the citadel if it penetrated back in 0.5.0 I think.  It was a while ago at any rate, and AP penetration seems to be back to where it was except for the lower rate of cits because of that.  I still have no trouble citting (and getting cit'd if the enemy BB aims right).

[Spongeman131]

I'm finding my shots near the waterline are disappearing again like back in the earlier versions. Like back when if so much as a millimeter of water touches the round, it disappears. Makes getting citadels a pain since even the low dispersion (read: very accurate) rounds never seem to actually hit the marker where I'm aiming, they always drop a bit short.

 

[Higgle]

I'm not finding it difficult to delete cruisers even if they're at long range in my Nagato. Good aiming comes with practice, no matter the fact that they're 10+ seconds of shell flight away. The problems come when the player you're shooting at is good enough to actively maneuver, essentially making your gunnery ineffective. The other problem is that cruiser citadels can be horrendously difficult to hit, largely due to the dispersion of your own shells. The best advice I can offer here is to just mount the main battery accuracy upgrade module and pray.

[Hunter_Steel]

I'm not finding it difficult to delete cruisers even if they're at long range in my Nagato. Good aiming comes with practice, no matter the fact that they're 10+ seconds of shell flight away. The problems come when the player you're shooting at is good enough to actively maneuver, essentially making your gunnery ineffective. The other problem is that cruiser citadels can be horrendously difficult to hit, largely due to the dispersion of your own shells. The best advice I can offer here is to just mount the main battery accuracy upgrade module and pray.

 

Well, I'll have to buy some gold and unmount of secondaries mod then, as I don't want to lose that module incase I find that the accuracy module is detrimental to my Nagato's late game performance. I like making DDs think twice about engaging me when they believe my secondaries will get them from 7km away. I already killed 5 DDs, 2 Clevelands and 1 Nurnberg with my secondaries haha

 

~Hunter

[Spongeman131]

 

Well, I'll have to buy some gold and unmount of secondaries mod then, as I don't want to lose that module incase I find that the accuracy module is detrimental to my Nagato's late game performance. I like making DDs think twice about engaging me when they believe my secondaries will get them from 7km away. I already killed 5 DDs, 2 Clevelands and 1 Nurnberg with my secondaries haha

 

~Hunter

 

​Let me know how you find it. I can never make up my mind on which to install on the ships that have them both in the same slot.