German Battleship Effectiveness?

[Speedstang]

Just wondering as these ships are apparently new, and I'm unable to find anything on google about it. (I started this game a few weeks ago).

 

Anyways, how do the German battleships stack up against the US and Japanese ones? I'm a US BB player so I know they're basically big, good damage, good armor, and very slow up until North Carolina I think. From what I've heard Japanese battleships tend to be more battlecruiser like with more range and speed but less armor. But how do the German battleships stack up? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

[awiggin]

Just wondering as these ships are apparently new, and I'm unable to find anything on google about it. (I started this game a few weeks ago).

 

Anyways, how do the German battleships stack up against the US and Japanese ones? I'm a US BB player so I know they're basically big, good damage, good armor, and very slow up until North Carolina I think. From what I've heard Japanese battleships tend to be more battlecruiser like with more range and speed but less armor. But how do the German battleships stack up? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

 

Germany rules the seas....Until Russian BB's come out...

[Sirus_Patton]

They're pretty solid (although I personally despise the Gneisenau due to her horrific accuracy for only 6 guns).  You need to get up close and personal due to their armor layout, as long range fire will hurt a lot more than getting hit inside 10km, so if that's not your sort of thing I would stay away from the line.

[MagentaTears]

Most of the German battleships do great at closer-mid range. They have pretty strong hull armour but some are a bit lacking in deck armour. The guns tend to be pretty decent despite the dispersion and lower caliber due to their higher rate of fire. Most of the German battleships also have great secondaries, especially the higher tier ones. Just watch out for torpedoes. These ships tend to have weaker torpedo protection and bigger turning circles. 

[devastator5000]

 

Germany rules the seas....Until Russian BB's come out...

 

Maybe find the bismark to be very very good (unlike history) but other wise I find them a very balanced addition to the game, I perform if not better in my Colorado 

[TenguBlade]

If you want to see how they stack up stats-wise, the major sites should all have plenty of data on them by now.

[Sirus_Patton]

 

Maybe find the bismark to be very very good (unlike history) but other wise I find them a very balanced addition to the game, I perform if not better in my Colorado 

 

To be fair on the historical sense, what happened to Bismarck is basically the same as being detonated by a single shell the moment you first get spotted in-game.  She was quite the good ship, but there is only so much you can do against overwhelming force in a crippled boat.

[awiggin]

 

Maybe find the bismark to be very very good (unlike history) but other wise I find them a very balanced addition to the game, I perform if not better in my Colorado 

 

Stats say that while it may work well for you, doesn't seem to be much of a comparison at the moment.....

 

[Capt_Binkley]

They are great fun as brawlers.

[Gregarious_Maximus]

German BB's are real hard to Cit, and their armor can be trollish.  The tier 4 and 5 seem to have better secondaries, so when you get into knife fight distances... it's real dang gnarly and generally, you'll come out on top if all things are even going up against same tiers.

[Estimated_Prophet]

They are great fun as brawlers.

 

Only until Bayern... After that they just torp each other to death.

[kerensky914]

 

To be fair on the historical sense, what happened to Bismarck is basically the same as being detonated by a single shell the moment you first get spotted in-game.  She was quite the good ship, but there is only so much you can do against overwhelming force in a crippled boat.

 

No, you just described what Bismarck did to Hood.  Bismarck is like taking that steering crit from the first salvo ... except there's no magic repair potion to help you.

[JochenHeiden]

German battleship effectiveness?  Well, I played 6 rounds tonight... you tell me!  See the spoiler, as the enemy teams saw me spoiling their night.  6 battles, 6 wins, 12 kills, 0 deaths.

 

 

 

[Deathskyz]

German BBs have a low skill floor due to their Good Armour, Decent Firepower with Powerful Secondaries and Above Average AA (becomes great when specced for AA).

 

They also have a rather high skill ceiling, their inaccuracy, poor torpedo protection and large turn radius means that to play them really well, you need a lot of deliberate planning and decision making.

 

They are newb-friendly and good players play well in brawls.

[Taichunger]

German BBs?

 

The T5 Konig, my favorite ship in the game, is still marginally out-damaging T7 Colorado and leading all its tier mates, including ARP/Premiums (two weeks data, warships today)

The T4 Kaiser is still marginally out-damaging T6 New Mexico (two weeks data, warships today)

The T3 Nassau is 2K damage ahead of the T5 New York (two weeks data, warships today)

 

No point in going on.... German BBs are easy to play, have good shell groups, reload quickly, absorb tons of damage, and have magnificent secondaries. In almost every case, German BB vs US BB, I'd rather be sitting in the German one. 

 

Oh, and get a Konig Albert, it averages almost as much damage as a New Mexico. 

[Foxfire1337]

 

No, you just described what Bismarck did to Hood.  Bismarck is like taking that steering crit from the first salvo ... except there's no magic repair potion to help you.

 

Bismarck is like ignoring all common sense and throwing away your pinnacle of naval engineering in a suicidal endeavor because of pride...actually no, that's precisely what it is.  When the only man to ever command the ship runs every hypothetical scenario to conclusion, and they all end in a life jacket, maybe you should stop taking tips from a feeble minded drug addict suffering from Parkinson's but hey, taking orders from a guy who goes from wanting to build a floating death fortress with gun caliber exceeding anything remotely buoyant, to insisting on scrapping said nautical death stars out of spite (with a habit of war declarations with no F***s given), is never the soundest of plans in the first place.  On a serious note, Doenitz' memoirs are very telling of this whole fiasco with the surface fleet, among other things.  The man at least had enough stones to call Himmler an idiot to his face when the time came.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

For stat pulls, I had been getting BB stats at intervals so we can get snapshots in how they're doing over time.  I have a thread about it here, the next pull I intend to do is mid-October.  For most parts, the German BBs are doing well.

 

But they are, IMO, not the "End-All-Be-All" Battleship line.  In very broad, general terms, there's 2 general, successful BB themes.

 

The Brawler - Kriegsmarine

The German BB line is the epitome of Brawling BBs.  Their armor, turtlebacks, strong secondaries, torpedoes for some (no other BB line has them) are key features that are designed specifically for this type of fighting.  Another main thing is that for Tier VI-VIII, German BB guns are quite mediocre at range.  Their dispersion at those tiers is very "meh" and sometimes they scatter badly.  German 15" rifles are quite notorious in this for me.  They also don't have the punch of IJN & USN 16" rifles.  This changes with Tier IX & X and access to the AWESOME 420mm rifles.  These are good at range and with a Main Battery Build, are wonderful weapons at range.  Until then, if you're going to try to plink at range with a German BB, you're going to fail.

 

The Ranged Fighter - IJN

The IJN BB line epitomizes this.  They inherently, in general, have the longest ranges.  They also have a number of BBs that either A) Fire so many shells that hits are going to happen (i.e. dat Fuso Shotgun) or B) are accurate and will hit you with precise fire (i.e. Nagato, Amagi, Yamato).  IJN BBs, like USN ones, starting from Tier VII, favor big calibers with 16" as the smallest, and Yamato is Queen with her 18" rifles.  IJN BBs have, IMO, the best all around BB rifles.  They are reliable at range.  They pack punch.  They have good dispersion or shoot tons of shells at one time.  IJN BBs also rely on respectable gun calibers throughout the line.  356mm is the smallest from Tier V onwards, while some German BBs are sporting smaller caliber stuff, and the German 15" isn't up to snuff.  From Tier VII on, they also have very respectable secondaries.  They're also fast and easy to flex around the map with (well most of them).  They are, however, with the exception of Yamato, their protection is mediocre or poor.  These are not Brawling Battleships because they'll get rekt hard.

 

Lack of a Mission - USN

... Well, for Tier VIII onwards, they do have great AA.  Anyways, before the German BB line arrival, people liked to lump USN BBs as "Brawlers" despite a number of them being totally awful in that capacity.  NC, Iowa, Montana specifically.  But now with the German BB arrival, who are by design, THE Brawling Battleship line, well, what are USN BBs then?  AA Boats, I guess?  Despite nobody playing CVs anymore? 

[Uber72]

I just started a few days ago with the German BB line. I like the Nassau, the Kaiser...I think I need to rethink how I play her. Getting killed too fast.