Struggling with picking a side to fight on

[tooboku]

I always seem to get stuck playing on the side with less support. It's just something I do by instinct since main IJN DD - but it's also usually the side I spawn on. I could usually hold one side off with torpedoes long enough for the lemmings on the other side of the map to overrun the enemy but I'm used to being out numbered. I can't do this very well with Nagato - or at least do it and score enough XP to cover repairs and maintain 1:1.

 

No doubt I need to get better at angling but if you get flanked - which is easy if you're a BB with maybe one CA helping you - you're showing citadel to someone for sure. That and your guns turn so slow, by the time you get to point at a reasonable target, it's angled.

 

It is a curse though - always picking the weak side to fight on. As a DD, it's okay since that's more torpedo food but slow guns, thin deck armor, and bad concealment means you're not getting out of that match alive unless you manage to detonate all five of the ships you're fighting alone with one other ship.

 

Anyway, advice. I need advice on how to hit badly angled ships and how to get in to do the point blank thing at cruisers that have torpedoes. More importantly, how to tell who is going to be a [edited]and run with the lemmings so I can at least be in a good spot if I'm gonna have to fight alone.

[tooboku]

Check it out. I spawned with 4 DDs and 2 Omahas... All the DDs ditch us. I ask for one to spot for us... CAs get ambushed and I'm left running away from 2 DDs and 4 CAs which are behind smoke.

This game isn't the exception though. Lots of [edited]human beings around. He also tries to torp me for some reason...

 

 

 

[Gavroche_]

I think that it's pretty good. It's better to be overagressive than underagressive. You just need to play more games to gain better map awareness.

 

Other suggestions:

1. Maybe watch some of your old replays to see how your team deploys? Or you could just focus more on that at the beginning of matches.

2. Ask for help from your team (although this doesn't really work, you only get support if your team is good, but if your team is good they'll support you anywasy and you'll win; if your team is bad, they won't support you and you lose, but it's more or less given that your team was going to lose in the first place) (okay maybe that's a bit of a generalization, but you get what I mean)

3. Maybe choose a course and angle that gives you options to break off.

4. Always strive to be the second closest ship to the enemy ;)

[tooboku]

On some maps it's not that hard to turn tail when you can use islands to block LOS while you turn... but still... by that time my CA friend is in the drink and the citadels aren't really happening for me. Those opportunities are hard to catch when you're outnumbered because yours are the only guns they are watching... but I do need to get better with large caliber gunnery. I hit okay when they're showing me broadside although RNG hates me and I'm lucky if I hit more than one citadel a game. It's not unusual for me to only land 14 shots a battle in these matches. Fuso was a lot easier to handle gun-wise.

 

I do try to start off slow to see where everyone wants to go but they always ditch after I've committed to their direction. At least in a DD I have speed and stealth but BBs are slow and are basically XP pinatas when they're alone.

[TenguBlade]

I would say that you need to take charge of your flank a bit more.  Ask for support, warn your allies of what will happen if you don't get it (especially in a battleship or carrier, because those classes can singlehandedly turn a game), try to improve upon or cover your allies' mistakes, and most importantly, work in conjunction with your teammates.  That doesn't have to be at a tactical level in chat, it could be as simple as waiting for an allied DD to force a turn from an enemy ship and using the opportunity to waste him for it with a battleship salvo.

[tooboku]

work in conjunction with your teammates.

 

Hardest part of anything below T8. 

[G_Mang]

You just wanted to say lemming.  This is better as a team game than an I game.  Go back to your NES.

[G_Mang]

Sorry OP.  That reads harsher than intended.  Suggest you rethink the use of "lemming" as a way to describe players that are not dping exactly what you think they should.  It is also a rationalization that THEY are the problem rather than some other more personal reason.  You posted about input then derided your team mates.  Gl.  Have fun.  Continue supporting and encouraging smart play.

[tooboku]

LOL. I do put value in teamwork and maybe the other problem is that I'm too embarrassed to sortie Nagato when with a division but no, you are correct that I do just want to use the word lemming. If the problem really was everyone else, then there is no explanation for people who do decently.

 

However, there is also a difference between sailing with your fleet and just ignoring a whole side of the map because you're a wuss or because you only know how to play a certain area of the map. There is also value in leaving at least a small force on the other side to address what would otherwise be an easily avoidable defeat. We can't all be with the party all the time but you need some sort of workable composition in the reserve force that is left behind. At least one of each class to cover the gaps, that's all. You don't need a big force, you just need a unit that can work together. That's where the instinct comes from - and I do slow the one side down enough for the lemmings to clear the other side. I just don't score a lot of XP because I can't shoot anything larger than 203 mm reliably. In a DD or in the Atago, I can start floods and set fires all day but in a BB, when the lemmings do finally make it back to my side or take the cap, I'm either sunk or they hit citadels on the ships I was working on all game. It's a dirty job but someone has to do it... but at the same time there are people who are good at it... and they get better at it when they have the right support.

[tooboku]

I guess in a ship as big and slow as a BB, you're committed to a side way before any of your teammates are simply because everyone can see you from 17 km out and you don't have the same opportunities to turn around and follow everyone else if they decide to ditch you half way. In a Nagato, that's almost a guaranteed your getting touched in the special place if you show broadside while running away.

 

Maybe the real question is...

1. How do you plan ahead so that you don't get committed to a side that is going to be badly outnumbered?

2. How do you do that without compromising half the map?

3. If you do get stuck alone or with a small imbalanced force, how do you position yourself to brawl without getting flanked?

4. When everyone is watching where your guns are pointed and angling their ships accordingly, how do you pick a target that is going to give you the most yield?

[Taichunger]

I guess in a ship as big and slow as a BB, you're committed to a side way before any of your teammates are simply because everyone can see you from 17 km out and you don't have the same opportunities to turn around and follow everyone else if they decide to ditch you half way. In a Nagato, that's almost a guaranteed your getting touched in the special place if you show broadside while running away.

 

Maybe the real question is...

1. How do you plan ahead so that you don't get committed to a side that is going to be badly outnumbered?

2. How do you do that without compromising half the map?

3. If you do get stuck alone or with a small imbalanced force, how do you position yourself to brawl without getting flanked?

4. When everyone is watching where your guns are pointed and angling their ships accordingly, how do you pick a target that is going to give you the most yield?

 

1. Put BB in center of map. Push up to control center of map, thereby controlling the map. That is the essence of BB play. So the real skill is sniping first, then pushing up.

2. On some maps you can't. If you don't want to make a choice, sit on one side near the cap, so you can snipe and then return to kill ships trying to cap you out.

3. You're a ship, you don't have flanks. If you're out alone, you should turn and run. There's no way to avoid getting hit from two sides. So the real skill many BB drivers need to learn is to run away, and to stay in the center of the map.

4. Don't worry about targets angling. Just shoot them if they are in range. Pick off immediate threats first, like DDs and cruisers in torp range. Then hit BBs and cruisers out of torp range. If angling bothers you, choose more distant ships with their sides to you. The main issue here is practicing hitting with your guns so you can hit the ships you choose.

 

 

[tooboku]

Great video.