Cruiser and Destroyer Strategies?

[TheTitan0914]

Hey, I was wondering if I could get some help/tips for strategies using my Cruisers and Destroyers. I mainly use American Cruisers which is my Pensacola right now, but I am having a little bit of a hard time getting the hang of her (I know that everyone hates her, but she isn't that bad). Second, I need help deciding between American or Japanese Destroyers. I like the torpedo speed/damage/length on the IJN, but I like the firepower on the USN. So if anyone has any strategies for both that I could compare and maybe add to my decision on which one to go through, that would be great (Nicholas, and The Tier 3 IJN Destroyer). Thank you again!

 

~The Titan

[Destroyer_KuroshioKai]

Pensacola is , in my opinion, too visible to really play with DDs. I'm not saying it can't be done, but they are an easier target for BBs and other CA killers. I think IJN CA work best with DDs, while US and KM CA work better with BBs.

 

I don't drive much CA, mostly DD, but that is my observations.

 

Working with DDs you are mostly shooting targets of opportunity and supporting capping. The best result is the CA driver placing themselves far enough behind your DD to stay concealed and ambush targets that pop up. This is usually 6-8km behind my friendly DD in my atago, more for my Königsberg. Most of my shots are around 11-13km.

 

Play where your boat is strong. My atago I support DDs. My Königsberg I hang adjacent to BBs because of its weak armor and high detection. I primarily target CA unless a DD pops up in effective range.

 

CV seems to be coming back, and US CA will be in higher demand to cover CV and BBs. Covering BB can be frustrating when they are afraid of their own shadow since a CA has a short life facing high tier bbs alone. Sometimes you can get them to push, this usually results in victory.

[10T0nHammer]

Well the 3 DD lines play differently and the 3 CA lines play differently. What tiers and lines are you looking at?

[BarnsBroadside]

Hey, I was wondering if I could get some help/tips for strategies using my Cruisers and Destroyers. I mainly use American Cruisers which is my Pensacola right now, but I am having a little bit of a hard time getting the hang of her (I know that everyone hates her, but she isn't that bad). Second, I need help deciding between American or Japanese Destroyers. I like the torpedo speed/damage/length on the IJN, but I like the firepower on the USN. So if anyone has any strategies for both that I could compare and maybe add to my decision on which one to go through, that would be great (Nicholas, and The Tier 3 IJN Destroyer). Thank you again!

 

~The Titan

 

Japanese destroyers are all about the stealth torpedoes.  When you play them, you don't want to fire your guns at all unless absolutely necessary.  A perfect IJN dd game is one where you are never seen but do tons of torp damage.  If you like sneaky ninja play, they are the way to go.

 

USN dds are more for dd hunting and killing, especially hunting those sneaky IJN dds.  They are also good supporting fire ships, dealing small damage but also setting fires to the larger ships.  Once you get to tier 8 and higher, the USN dds get more stealthy and better at torping while staying unseen, but still have great fast guns.  

 

Haven't played much Russian dds, but they seem to be even more of dd hunters and supporting fire ships.  Their detection range and torp range are bad and won't ninja anybody.  They also have more hit points than the other nations' dds, and can be tough to kill.

[Sniper_Fox]

Cruisers:

Okay you are looking at one of the most demanding jobs in the game right now.  You are expected to be able to intercept all the normal surface ships and deal damage.  Then in later tiers you become the primary source of anti-air fire to ward off the super carriers.  But there is an easy way to organize this.

 

Step 1: look at the enemy team verse your team.  If there are no carriers then you don't have to worry about planes.  If the enemy team is DD heavy then you primary job is DD hunting and protecting the BBs who should in turn be hunting the few enemy cruisers and BBs.  And its really important that you make sure the DDs cant get effective fire on the BBs.  The reason being is that if the BB knows it has a DD on it then the BB captain is going to be worried about a small ship he can barely hit or see while maneuvering against torps.  This his big guns are not doing the damage they need to.  If its a cruiser heavy game then you job is to act as clean up.  The BBs should be doing as much massive damage to cruisers and when a cruiser gets low they should move onto the next one.  Their vollies are wasted on low HP cruisers.  But as always look out for the DDs.  If its a BB heavy game then play super conservative.  sit in the back and use your speed to pounce on low HP targets.  Let the BBs smack the snot out of each other.

 

Step 2: Remember that your speed and maneuverability are your survival mechanism.  For BBs its armor and HP poor, for DD its stealth and raw speed.  When engaging any target you should be accelerating and decelerating and turning left and right all the time.  Never come to a stop.  Your guns will rotate faster then the ship can turn so don't worry about losing tracking.  If you are fighting anything with equal armor to you fire AP, if its light armor or heavier armor fire HE.  If the situation looks untenable then run.

 

Step 3: target priority is very hard for CAs.  You are the guard dog of the fleet.  The most important thing to protect are the capital ships (BB and CV).  If they go then its all over.  Understand that you are the most likely ship to get one shot off the field and or die early.  But if you die early to prevent a capital ship from getting vaporized or killed a few DDs on the way down then you have done your duty.  In my book a CA should clear the seas of enemy DDs first.  DDs are dangerous because they can permanently scout your fleet.  And the CAs guns are ideal for this threat.  But keep them at range, they still have torps and they are far better at using them then your ship if you have them.  Next is any low health ship.  You are clean up crew.

 

Armaments: Cruiser are gunboats.  Even IJN cruisers are gunboats first.  Do not charge into a fight just to use the torps or the hurricane of secondary guns.  Those are best used when the opportunity presents itself.  And the opportunity will come often enough.  Make sure you fire your guns in a s close to a constant stream of fire as possible.  Especially with HE this means an almost constant chance of setting the target on fire.  Ans cruiser guns are far too accurate so take advantage of that.

[KromaBaSyl]

Pensacola is , in my opinion, too visible to really play with DDs. I'm not saying it can't be done, but they are an easier target for BBs and other CA killers. I think IJN CA work best with DDs, while US and KM CA work better with BBs.

 

I don't drive much CA, mostly DD, but that is my observations.

 

Working with DDs you are mostly shooting targets of opportunity and supporting capping. The best result is the CA driver placing themselves far enough behind your DD to stay concealed and ambush targets that pop up. This is usually 6-8km behind my friendly DD in my atago, more for my Königsberg. Most of my shots are around 11-13km.

 

Play where your boat is strong. My atago I support DDs. My Königsberg I hang adjacent to BBs because of its weak armor and high detection. I primarily target CA unless a DD pops up in effective range.

 

CV seems to be coming back, and US CA will be in higher demand to cover CV and BBs. Covering BB can be frustrating when they are afraid of their own shadow since a CA has a short life facing high tier bbs alone. Sometimes you can get them to push, this usually results in victory.

 

QFT

[Xplato]

Cruisers tier 7+

congrats, you are the most usless ship on your team, unable to stop a CV attack, unable to spot DD, and keep up with them, and are utterly incapable of dealing with BB.

 

this is why WG can't balance correctly.

[vonKaiser]

USN DD: You are a Gun boat, who also happens to have Torpedo's

IJN DD: You are a Torpedo boat, who also happens to have guns. 

 

At least that's the way I've been playing them and I'm having a blast with the IJN DD's.  Just have to know your detection range and play on the edge of it.  Done right you can launch torpedo's at a target without them even knowing you're around.  Where the IJN DD line really has trouble though is fighting other nations Destroyers.  You get amazing torpedoes but at the cost of the guns.  Running gun battle with a US Destroyer will usually be painful unless you close in to knife fighting range and get lucky with a torpedo spread. 

 

USN Destroyers I play pretty much as Destroyer Hunters.  Most of the destroyers I've been playing sit at the 6.0km to 6.7km detection range, so when you both spot each other and begin combat, chances are the limited torpedo range isn't a factor.  Hunt down the enemy destroyers first, screen and keep the enemy team lit after that, then move yourself to islands and ambush points to keep hidden and get to torpedo range. 

 

They're nasty to face/deal with if you've got someone who knows how to be sneaky.

[vamrat]

My experience is limited, but I will give what I have figured out.  I have t5 IJN and Kriegsmarine Cruisers, t4 USN.  I have IJN Destroyers up to t4.  (I have t3 Russian DD, but I only have it to play with friends stuck in t3.  I'm thinking about selling it and getting the Tenryu or Kolberg back for this purpose.)

 

Everything that has been said about IJN DD is the same as how I see it.  Be sneaky, don't get seen, use torps.  I use my guns in two situations.  1.) if it is the last ship alive...because then whatever.  2.) Any ship that I foolishly let get too darn close, especially if there are multiple under 5km.  I'm dead anyway, knock out a few modules, start a fire, etc.  Every once in a while I will specifically try to kill a DD with guns.  It is possible, and they are often forward enough that I can still escape and the chance of getting killed is low enough that I benefit my capital ships in knocking this threat out.

 

Note - when I am in a DD, or especially a cruiser, DD's are priority targets.  I have ruined enough BB's in them, I don't like leaving them around to harass my BBs.  And they are a [female dog] to hunt down in end game.  Better to get rid of them early.

 

My brother plays USN DDs.  He ambushes around islands, uses any weapon the boat packs - guns and torps.  He kamikazis in for torp runs, turns and lets off another burst from the other side.  Caveats...I've never played them, that's what I have observed, and he seems to do rather well with them.  (He's up to t4.)

 

In cruisers, I try to support.  As mentioned, I kill any DD I can see asap.  Then I try as much as possible to add fire to whatever anyone else is firing on, or take any and all targets of opportunity while not allowing myself to be hit.  I like cruisers the best because they are pretty nice in supporting fire and can maneuver to plug gaps as the need arises.  I use torps incidentally in cruisers, they are not my main weapon.  Even on the Kuma.  I started out using it as a torp boat, but when I got used to the guns they became my main armament, with the torps becoming opportunity weapons.  I have gotten a decent number of torp kills in cruisers, but usually when they get too close.  One thing with cruiser torps, they don't have to hit to be effective.  Launch a haphazard burst of them and the enemy now has to react to them, giving you more firing time and robbing his firing time.

 

 

[Serge_SC]

Currently I´m a T5 USN DD, T5 KMS CL and T9 USN CA.

 

I shall focus on the USN cruiser line as that´s what I play the most. As a USN CL/CA you are an escort ship, support is your role, and jack of all trades is your middle name. At the start of the match for CAs glue to a larger ship, BB or CV and protect it. You´re not a damage dealer, far from it, you are extra firepower for whoever you are shadowing. Use your agility smartly, especially as a Pensacola. You´re not supposed to charge, lead or knife fight. Mid-range is where you want to be, and where your guns are incredibly effective, with enough speed to keep up the constant zigzagging and enough punch in them to citadel larger ships from lower tiers, or similar ships from tiers around you. Always consider the long flight time of your shell and use lots of ranging shots to find your target, stagger the shots and keep them cycling.

 

Your AA is your "flavour". If there are CVs, you´re the pain in their stern. If there aren´t, well, welcome to the "meh" meta of USN ships. However, you do have an advantage, good firing arcs and decent armour (except the Pensa, but she´s played more like a CL than a CA). Which brings me to CLs. The end-all-be-all that is the Cleveland is well armoured, fast, agile and powerful, and can be played as a fast firing CA. Omaha and lower are true CLs, little to no armor, powerful guns, fast and agile, like the Pensa (originally a CL). Your job here is to spam fire and make those DDs suffer the consecuense of daring to approach you.

 

Most importantly, shoot to everythign broadsiding you and dont show yours. Angle enough to use most of your guns, but not enough to be citadel´d. 

[The_Sovereign_King]

Alright, I'm all the way up to Tier 8 in IJN DD and Tier 6 in IJN CA. Working on Tier 5 USN DD and I've played around 700+ battles (counting CBT).

 

There is a marked difference in gameplay in the IJN DD line. Wakatake, Isokaze and Minekaze all play aggressively, rewarding dancing on the edge of detection range, and with the Minekaze being one of, if not the fastest ship at that point in the game, an ability to make a suicide run viable if you know what you're doing.

 

Once you hit tier 6 though and get the Mutsuki, it becomes an entirely different ballgame. The ships get slower, the torpedoes take far longer to reload, said torps are spotted easier by ships and planes alike and take longer to get to their targets even if they're at farther ranges. Trying to use Mutsuki, Hatsuharu or even Fubuki like the lower tier IJN DDs will just get you killed very, very fast. At this tier, it's far more about predicting the enemy's movements on a strategic scale rather than a hit and run ambush.

 

To be frank, I'm still not that good with high tier IJN gameplay - you benefit your team more by spotting the enemy, not being seen, and either launching torpedoes at places where enemy ships will frequent or through cap circles and perform area denial. Hitting ships is ideal, but difficult, and a reckless pursuit of damage and kills will often just make you a dead ship.

 

Onto IJN crusiers - IJNs are characterized by having larger guns earlier than other nations; the Furutaka is the first to get 203mm guns. On the other hand from my experience with Tenryu, Kuma, Furutaka and Aoba, they seem to be lightly armored in exchange - these are not ships you want to go wolf packing with DDs. I find that typically staying close to the BBs (about 3-5km in front) helps quite a bit. I have less experience with this line though so please take it with a grain of salt.

 

Before I go though - the CA's torpedoes are certainly intended for defensive purposes only, most notably the Aoba's. They're mounted in the stern typically, and trying to do a full turn to launch them at a target in range in Aoba has gotten me sunk more times than I can count.