Battleship 101. Destroyers.

[xXSpotted_HyenaXx]

Hi all, I just wanted to put my two cents in on how to deal with the bane of my existence. The Destroyer. 

Mind you, my tactics and strategy is not 100%. Some destroyer captains seem like theyre always two steps ahead of you no matter what you do. Nothing replaces having a cruiser, or another destroyer to help deal with these little pests, but in the case you are alone, here are a few things for new captains to remember. 

 

You can't fight what you can't see.   If you see a cloud of smoke, but don't see the tin can that caused it, don't go charging into it, you're just setting yourself up to run right into a wall of torpedoes. Destroyer captains are crafty, they're good at laying traps. 

Call for help  While destroyers may seem like easy targets for your 14' guns, you will find that a good destroyer captain will make it impossible for you to hit him. If you find yourself powerless to stop a destroyer from stalking you, or attacking you, ask your team for help. No-ones going to think you're a wuss. 

​Maneuver Erratically If you think a destroyer is in your area, employ good old real world tactics used during both wars when a fleet thought that a pack of U-boats were nearby; Don't sail in a straight line. For example, if you decide you're going to take on your destroyer bad guy, and decide to sail right at him, then you need to throw off his ability to to place his torpedoes where he thinks you're going to be. But also, don't make it a pattern. For example, when I zig zag, I will angle to port for 5 seconds. Then turn, and angle to starboard for 7 seconds, then angle to port for 3 seconds. So on, and so forth. Torpedoes take a while to reload, doing this may make your foe try to get in close for a better shot, which will cause him to face down your secondary batteries. 

Make yourself a small target Sailing broadside to a destroyer is just asking for it. If you are taking on (or trying to escape) a destroyer, the best thing to do is to present only your bow, or your stern. Trying to torpedo a 100 meter wide target is much harder than trying to torpedo a 800 meter target. 

Monitor your foe Generally I have found, that when destroyers are shooting their spitwad cannons at you, they aren't torpedoing you. While this means you can relax a bit in terms of maneuvering defensively and possibly angling a bit to get those secondaries ready and train your main battery, it doesn't mean the threat is over.  Stay on alert, stay vigilant. Torpedoes reload, and if you're not familiar with the destroyer that your enemy is commanding, then you won't know when that moment may be. 

Another key thing to watch for, is to watch the way they're maneuvering. If a destroyer is charging you bow on, or running from you stern first, they are not torpedoing you either, take this moment to think about your next move, and to predict his. If a destroyer is turning his broadside to you, or is already broadside or anything less than a 45 degree angle, and is not firing his guns. Drop everything you're doing, or that you're thinking of doing, and bring her around. You may have a split second to get off that one last salvo, but do not wait for a moment long. Fish will be in the water soon if they aren't already, and they'll have your name on it. 

Do not put all your eggs in one basket  Lets say, you're taking on a destroyer. He's coming bow on to you, his guns are not firing. This means only one thing; He's charging you to get in that all important 10 torpedo hail Mary, and blow you back to Tier 1. Doing this is a two fold tactic for the destroyer captain. He is closing range with you very quickly, and by presenting only a bow on target, you only have a sliver of a ship to shoot at. Battleships are notorious for their inaccuracy, the chances of you hitting him, and the chances of you doing any damage with that hit, are nearly zero. So what do you do? Simple. Let's use the Colorado as an example. You have four main battery turrets totaling eight guns. . If the destroyer is charging you bow on, he's not firing his torpedoes. Use this moment, to angle your ship. Get your rear batteries into firing position. Once that is achieved, fire ONE turret at him. 80% of the time, you will miss that shot. However, the destroyer captain will maneuver his ship to port or to starboard to try and dodge your next shot, or may attempt to zig zag. Most destroyer captains I have noticed, will zig zag sharply, in other words, they look like a car fishtailing out of control. Even though they are zig zagging, they are not going either direction far enough to throw your aim off to far. In this example, we will say our destroyer captain has a made a split second decision to snap to port. This is your chance, captain. You have 3 batteries ready to fire. Let him have it. Despite how maneuverable destroyers may be, they can't turn a 90 degree angle on a dime. With a fair competency in gunnery, and knowing how fast your shells travel, your destroyer friend will be  annihilated, or at the very least, rethinking his life. This tactic is only achieved through practice and experience. 

Secondary batteries, give them the best opportunity you can Secondary batteries are a battleship's best chance at defending against those pesky little torpedo spammers. So give them the best opportunity that you can without risking your ship or maneuvering yourself in such a way that you present a big juicy target. 

If a destroyer is close enough to receive fire from your secondary batteries, use the zig zagging maneuver. But also keep in mind of the defensive firing arc of your secondary guns. This maneuver does not come without risk; To get the most out of your secondary batteries, you will have to present a bit more of your broadside to get them all throwing rounds at your opponent. This can be achieved however, without going completely broadside. My rule of thumb when I perform this, is I pretend as if I am angling to get my rear batteries into position. As soon as I achieve approximately a 45 degree angle to my opponent, I wait for maybe a split second, let my batteries fire maybe one, or two salvos, then I turn sharply to the opposing direction. Your secondary batteries are mounted on both sides of your ship, and will not suffer the penalty that you do from having to turn your main batteries to fire on your opponent. I have found many times, depending on the ship you chose to command, destroyer captains will quickly broadside, fire an ill aimed salvo of torpedoes, and then try to sail away quickly. 

Make them chase you  It's silly to suggest that a 32,000 ton dreadnought with 8 16' guns running away from a 1500 ton destroyer. But there is method to the madness. The first advantage, is that you're heading in the direction of possible support, instead of away from them. The second advantage is, a destroyer travelling at you, at 32 knots, and you charging the destroyer at 21 knots adds up to 53 knots. Put it in laymen's terms, you will be closing in on one another VERY quickly. This also means, that the destroyer will have a much easier time getting in close enough to you, to send you to the bottom of the sea with minimal effort, and reduces the time you have to react to his strategy. Now, lets use the same math above to calculate if you're running away. The destroyer, at 32 knots, you at 21 knots. That is 11 knots. The destroyer has to overcome your speed, and make up the difference with his speed to catch you. This means, the destroyer will now have to take much, much longer to close on you. Given that you have 4 guns on your stern, and those secondary batteries, your foe will have to weather more incoming fire for a longer period of time, giving you one or two more crucial shots that would otherwise not be possible were you charging one another. 

Do not let them get to close to you  Although sometimes you don't have a choice, the key for any of these tactics working is not to let the destroyer get to close to you. In my experience, if a destroyer gets within the 5 to 2 kilometer range, it is over for you. A wall of torpedoes will soon be on it's way, and you will take every single one of them. Unless a destroyer is heavily damaged, and you're confident that allowing him in close will give your secondary batteries a chance to finish him off before he can fire his torpedoes, this will get you killed quickly.

Know thine enemy. There are many different types of destroyers with many different types of torpedoes. All low tier US destroyers have lousy, lousy torpedo ranges. They will have to get in very close to be able to torpedo you. Many Japanese destroyers have long range torpedoes that A: Travel fast but do moderate damage. or B: Travel slow, but deal heavy damage. It may not be a good idea to invite such a destroyer in to the danger zone I have stated above. 

Stay away from land masses.  If your team mates, or you, spot a destroyer sitting behind an island, or you have chased a destroyer to an island and he has yet to come out of the other side? He is baiting you for a trap. The tactic is simple; He waits broad side, next to the island for your big, slow battleship to come around and try for that deceptive easy kill a 7 kilometers away. Just before your bow rounds the island, he will fire all of his tubes. Since you have an island to one side of you, you cant turn that way. There is only one way you can turn, and most likely, the destroyer captain has already planned this out. Secondly, you will be at such a range to where, you will not be able to react in time even if you wanted to. In a single moment, 50,000 hit points are gone, and you're manning your lifeboats. If such a situation arises, you have two options. The easiest, don't go over there. You won't be able to engage the destroyer, but you will still be alive to engage that Nagato bearing down on an objective later. The second is, turn away and put some distance between you and the island. The further you are away, the longer his torpedoes will need to run to reach you, and the more he will have to lead you to hit you. 

Finally, build a captain.  I build my battleship captains to increase my ship's defensive abilities. My offense is there, I have 8 massive guns which can pen ships 2 tiers above me at close range, as well as the armor to get me there in one piece. So I teach my captain perks and purchase upgrades that will increase my range, fire rate, accuracy and damage per second of my anti-aircraft and secondary batteries above all else. Another good perk, would be vigilance. The faster you can spot incoming torpedoes, the more time you have to react to them. The longer range and more accurate your secondary guns are, the further away your enemy will be when your guns will begin talking, and the better of a chance they have to actually hit and do damage, rather than just make a bunch of noise. 

 

In conclusion, these tactics can help you mitigate, if not take care of those pesky torpedo launching tin cans. As stated above captains, these tactics are not 100%, and some of them require at least a fair knowledge of the ship you're commanding along with a certain amount of situational awareness on your part. As well as predicting what your attacker is going to do next. 

 

Hope this helps!

[Cruiser_Senjo]

I love the blow you to tier 1 xD has a kagero cap i hate this post ... but has yamato i love it xD

[dionkraft]

Kudos to you! GREAT WRITE UP witha splash a nice humor!   I  Thank you for your insight and efforts!

[xXSpotted_HyenaXx]

Thank you, I just never see any good threads on how to counter destroyers. To me, destroyers always have been, and most likely always will be my worst enemy. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way, so I thought maybe I would try and give BB Captains out there who, like me at first, are at a complete loss at what to do about DD's when facing them alone. 

[ntp_ntp]

Great write-up. ...deserves Kudos.

 

Please, if you would, In the future maybe try and look and work on that formatting?  ...it's nauseatingly cramped.

+1

[xXSpotted_HyenaXx]

Great write-up. ...deserves Kudos.

 

Please, if you would, In the future maybe try and look and work on that formatting?  ...it's nauseatingly cramped.

+1

 

Sure, I can do that. Trouble is, I dont have very many words of wisdom very often. So other than maybe some tips and tricks on making bad ships work, or my review of a ship. I most likely wont have another post like this.

[BlackstoneRC]

Nice write up, couple suggestions as love to play DD's.

 

Find a Cruiser, ask them to slow down and stay with you, and YOU protect them from opposing team's BB's.

 

Don't sail alone, you're my number one target, If you're sailing bunched up with just other BB's, just means more targets.

[xXSpotted_HyenaXx]

Nice write up, couple suggestions as love to play DD's.

 

Find a Cruiser, ask them to slow down and stay with you, and YOU protect them from opposing team's BB's.

 

Don't sail alone, you're my number a target, If you're sailing bunched up with other BB's even better.

 

Misread the post. Sorry. Forget I stuck that there

[Estimated_Prophet]

Preaching to the choir here, (+1) many lessons learned the hard way in what you have written that now serve me quite well when I drive BBs. In fact, I take an extreme amount of pleasure in being able to predict the movements of and in hitting DDs with battleship guns at ranges most think are impossible. Thank you South Carolina for helping to teach me how.

[ArcDeath]

Nicely said. Though I do not run BBs I do run cruisers and this will work there too I believe.

 

[Wulfgarn]

Very nice!!

 

I am all for BB's getting the knowledge of how to counter DD's instead of them crying  that DD's are OP. That in turn causes WG to start nerfing them because the majority complains too much. It's actually pretty easy to get away from them.

[ntp_ntp]

 

Misread the post. Sorry. Forget I stuck that there

 

​I constantly spew crap from my fingers daily, no butts-hurt.

+1

[PENGUINBOYS1912]

If I can make a suggestion. On some of the BB's you can change the catapult planes from the spotting to fighter. I use the fighter a lot to help me spot DD's that maybe hiding around the corner of a island or in a smoke screen. The spotting plane just give you more range, but can not help you if are trying to shoot at something that is closing in you like a DD. Both planes can still help you spot enemy ships, but it depends on what you want out of your ship. Do you want more range or to know if a DD is lurking around you like a shark.

[TheOssifrage]

Good to see someone who's learnt how to combat destroyers instead of whining about them! Good job!

[iEaTDaGrudge]

 

I didnt really read what you posted OP But i can tell you really put a lot of effort doing it..by doing like that i thank you with respect...ill be going back and read again your post bfor i go to bed ..Gj sir.

 

[Valas1]

If your BB has the option for a float fighter plane, instead of a Spotter plane, I tend to use those instead.  While a 20% range boost is nice, it doesn't last long enough. Where as a fighter stays airborne for several minutes and can spot a DD AND Torpedoes. I use a fighter on my Tirpitz for just that reason. As a DD player, I routinely find myself pulling my hair out, when I see a BB charge into smoke (when they are on my team that is). It very, very rarely plays out well for the BB. It CAN work, but you really, really have to know your target well, like reload times, potential torp damage if you eat the whole volley, etc. If you don't know, don't go lol.

[RampantFury]

It would help if the cruisers actually did their job and fought off destroyers.

[Harv72b]

I'm one of those sneaky bastages you all hate.  In the interest of fair play, at least until we're in game, regarding your "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" point: I would love to have every battleship driver I charge try to nail me with one turret at a time as I'm closing in.  The shots are probably going to miss for the reasons you mentioned, and even if you do land a round it's most likely not going to kill me from that angle (or even knock out my engine or rudder).

 

A better strategy is simply to wait it out while tracking the destroyer with your guns the whole time; we have to turn and present a bigger target before we can launch our torpedoes, and in many of these ships we then have to wait another few seconds before the tubes line up properly for the shot.  So you wait until we start that turn, fire everything, and probably either sink us with that one salvo or disable every module we have.  And as an added bonus, your secondaries have probably already knocked out an engine or rudder on our way in, so our damage control is already on cooldown.

 

One other point: a smart destroyer captain has already fired his torpedoes at you when he starts pumping HE into your superstructure.  We're counting on you being so preoccupied with getting your guns to bear on us & screaming for help in chat that you'll forget to turn.

[Camo68]

Thank you, I just never see any good threads on how to counter destroyers. To me, destroyers always have been, and most likely always will be my worst enemy. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way, so I thought maybe I would try and give BB Captains out there who, like me at first, are at a complete loss at what to do about DD's when facing them alone. 

 

Worst enemy, no never, we keep sending you presents don't we.

 

Nice common sense write up. Well done

 

Couple of thoughts:

• With timing of zig zaging - knowing the reload time of the DD is a huge advantage. You ideally want to anticipate when he will be reloaded and taking aim for his next volley. 
• If a DD is very close hold fire until he turns broadside to you before you send the volley, you will do far more damage
• If you kill him there is still a very good chance that torps are in the water, don't forget to still maneuver!     I have 100+ "It's just a flesh wound" achievements that show how many players forget this bit