What would happen if... (all battleships were overmatched by own caliber guns?)

[Gavroche_]

To clarify: "Overmatching" is a mechanic where it a shell meets armor that is less approximately 14.3x the caliber of the shell, the shell automatically penetrates into the ship. One example of this is the Yamato, who's 18" overmatch the armor on most places of most everything, leading it to be the most powerful BB in WoWs.

 

Currently, the armor on most battleships is enough to defeat similar caliber weapondry, yet be overmatched by larger caliber guns. Basically, all tier VII and below BBs can be overmatched by 16" guns found on most tier VII BBs and up and most battleships are overmatched by 18" found on the Yamato. This leads to relative invulnerability for most BBs when 1v1, until an opposing battleship exposes enough side to be penetrated (lewd). This leads to "bow-on-and-reverse" battleships when there aren't (and sometimes, if they're foolish, when there are) dangerous enemy cruisers and carriers to punish them for it.

 

Currently, only the tier VII battleships can defeat their own bow armor. In Ranked season 4, we saw that this meant that battleships were incredibly damage prone. It was unsurvivable to be focused-fired, which meant that the only way to last the game was to stay at long range (or push to the front and hope your DDs smoked you). I think that this lead to more stale (and stalemate-y) gameplay than in the previous ranked season. Battleships were slow and ponderous, and their main goal was to stay alive and not be the first to die (in the higher tiers at least). In Random, of course, nobody even notices that Colorado and Nagato are extremely squishy to 16"s and people deep around like potatoes in a blender.

 

So what would happen if all battleships could overmatch their own bow armor? I think that battleship gameplay would be a lot slower and less interesting. Being invulnerable (to certain shells and angles at least) lets the battleship survive despite it's non-existent concealment and poor maneuverability. Indeed, and fight with a Yamato usually leads to battleships cowering in the back like CVs. 

 

TLR

So, in conclusion, bow-on meta is good. Battleships deserve to be invincible (to a limited extend) and tier VII battles suck:

[HazardDrake]

Alternative solution: get rid of overmatch mechanics that make the Yammy a LOLpen monster.

[Rolkatsuki]

Yup just make the Yamato's pen only slightly better than the Montana's

[HMSTog]

Yup just make the Yamato's pen only slightly better than the Montana's

 

I don't think this is a good way to fix the T10 BB balance problem. The fact that the Yammi overpens everything is what makes it special. So don't take that away from the Yammi, but decrease it's RoF and accuracy. Also buff the accuracy and RoF on the Month and GK (judging by the vids I saw the GK can't compete with the Yammi either). If the Yammi is still OP after that, then give the Monty and GK the Yammi's old heal. 

 

The recent buffs to high tier USN BB accuracy is a step in the right direction but I don't think they should take away the Yammi's lolpen ability. If they do, the Yammi is gonna be a pretty lame boat.

[Amogussy]

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