A quick Sprint

[Rina_Pon]

After making an initial mistake of trying to play in Yugumo, finished the 3x3 ranked sprint in Kitakaze very quickly. I lost a star once, and a match three other times (plus 3-4 early on in Yugumo at R9-10).

My basic complaint here is that there are only three optimal ships for this format. Pommern, Alaska, and Kitakaze. Drop a little and there's a few "still good" alternatives, Georgia and perhaps FdG and JB and Musashi and maybe Izumo, Riga, and Jutland and Mogador. Then you drop right down to the bottom of the utility barrel with "everything else".

A BB with secondaries, speed, torps AND hydro is just going to be better at this job than any other, so Pommern is just head and shoulders above any other pick. Georgia loses the hydro and torps, but adds BB overmatch and still has withering secondaries so is also strong. The two cruiser choices are Alaska and Jean Bart. Yes, for these games JB plays as a supercruiser, very much the same role as Alaska - anti BB and general support fire.

And then we have the DD. Kitakaze is just so strong here. Huge dpm, TRB, 76 knot torps, smoke, decent concealment. Even has speed boost. Independent of how the game develops, Kitakaze is always in a position to do damage. The only ship that gave me grief playing Kitakaze was Roon, since if he pops hydro and moves into the cap I am forced to run for it. The thing is the hydro doesn't last forever, and unless his DD smokes him up he has no exit plan.

Most games are BB-CA-DD or BB-BB-DD, but I did get one CA-DD-DD match, which, I felt, was a lot more interesting and open ended than the others. To me that suggests a way forward for next time: get rid of BBs in these close in matches, they dominate too much and make it impossible to play any CL or most CA effectively. All cruiser/dd games would be interesting, and cv/cruiser/dd games also.

Finally, "idiot awards". First prize goes to the BB drivers (of course) who bring a FdG or Georgia and then proceed to camp instead of pushing into the cap. I mean, if you are in an Izumo it's excusable even if its a losing strategy. For a secondary focus BB it's just throwing the game. Second prize goes to those Yugumo players who figure they can gunboat my Kitakaze. You cannot win that. Ever. The only way to win in Yugumo is to evade Kitakaze while using your superior torp output to kill the enemy BBs.

Anyway, it was a fun couple of days.

[edit - uploaded my Kitakami stats]

[yobbo1972]

Yes, so many players didn't get the memo about which ships are best for tier 9 rank.

its not that hard to look on you tube.

so many thinking its like a random battle and need to camp at back of map.

 

 

[Grygus_Triss]

One of the problems is that some players  are using it as a quick way to grind their T9 ships. So will not necessarily bring the optimum ships.

[RalphTheTheatreCat]

1 hour ago, yobbo1972 said:

Yes, so many players didn't get the memo about which ships are best for tier 9 rank.

its not that hard to look on you tube.

so many thinking its like a random battle and need to camp at back of map.

 

 

 

37 minutes ago, Grygus_Triss said:

One of the problems is that some players  are using it as a quick way to grind their T9 ships. So will not necessarily bring the optimum ships.

Which is the beauty of living in a society that allows choice.

[Moggytwo]

I played with a friend in a Jutland/Friesland div in ranked last night.  We went 11 straight wins and no losses until my friend ranked out (he'd played a few battles before that, I hadn't played yet this sprint season).  Most of these battles were completely brutal, and not even slightly close.  We had a few where our third ship was obliterated in the opener, but we managed to win them pretty comfortably.  I had two go down to my Friesland (no CE, 7.1km detection) vs a Kitakaze 1v1 on equal health, and both times I won very comfortably.

Basically, other ships are indeed viable, it's just a matter of playing them to their strengths.

[Reinhard_of_Avercland]

I wouldn't say Roon to be viable. The A-XY turret layout is useless on maps other than Northern Waters. Agir & Siegfried are better.

While Neptune is basically free citadel for all BBs in that tier. Smoke? The average BB players in T9 can blindshot the Neptune, and the rather short-ranged engagements make it even easier. I've seen a Mogador murdered the Neptune effortlessly.

Z-46 might be better than Jutland. Z-46's hydro can outrange Jutland's hydro.

Surprisingly I never saw Black in that mode.

[Grygus_Triss]

1 hour ago, RalphTheTheatreCat said:

 

Which is the beauty of living in a society that allows choice.

Yes. I agree, If WG did not want us to forsake random in order to find more effectively, they would either stop us from doing it, or make random more appealing.

[Rina_Pon]

5 hours ago, Moggytwo said:

I played with a friend in a Jutland/Friesland div in ranked last night.  We went 11 straight wins and no losses until my friend ranked out (he'd played a few battles before that, I hadn't played yet this sprint season).  Most of these battles were completely brutal, and not even slightly close.  We had a few where our third ship was obliterated in the opener, but we managed to win them pretty comfortably.  I had two go down to my Friesland (no CE, 7.1km detection) vs a Kitakaze 1v1 on equal health, and both times I won very comfortably.

Basically, other ships are indeed viable, it's just a matter of playing them to their strengths.

Sure, if you are playing in div you can sync complementary ship traits and have much greater freedom of choice.  Friesland + Jutland : very strong. Friesland as the only DD on the team against a Jutland : close to useless.

Another symbiotic pairing would be Fletcher and Seattle, probably. Or Kitakaze/Jutland + any other DD, really.

[Project45_Opytny]

Due to my current working life I have only managed to reach R5 by now.

After coming to R5 with Sovetsky Soyuz I decided to have a change and try Jean Bart. To be honest, as you have concluded, Jean Bart is indeed a much better choice: as neither Soyuz nor JB can overmatch the common battleship bows and their respective bows are too immune to most AP overmatches except Musashi (thanks to her special armour configuration Soyuz can even tank some 460-mm overmatching shots), Jean Bart's armament is much more efficient thanks to her faster reload and the MBRB "clip-gun" that punishes enemies' mistakes. Also her faster speed also makes flanking attacks, which in turn she excels in and are so prevalent in the season, easier, while on the other hand she has much less vulnerable sides comparing with Soyuz had you find yourself has made a potentially deadly mistake (being flanked) in positioning.

On the other hand however the previous stages has helped me greatly in grinding Soyuz.

[S4pp3R]

JB was good if I positioned on the flank early...

I was then able to provide crossfire with MBRB which led to some big scores and topping the board most of the time.

Grats!

[TakemoriKohoto]

My Georgia, would like to had a few word with "proceed to camp instead of pushing into the cap". I dont know if you mean Camp like stay at border and snipping then 10 out of 10 that would never work, but if camping as not pushing in, then I had more battle where Georgia burn down her enemy using secondary than her main gun, and  yes I know using HE on Georgia is cursed moved but who knew might aswell help your secondary

 

[Scholesy]

3v3 is good and bad. Fun fast paced format yes - but:

Every player is even more valuable in 3v3 and if you get even someone even remotely with a few sheep running loose in the top paddock it is over.

On a server that is so well reknowned for its excellent communication amongst players, its teamwork, and strategically aggresive thoughtful play some of these games have been 'trying' to say the least. And yes, I dived up for this.

1v1 or small game format is great fun and fast paced, but then make it so a whole div can join as a small squad, that way any loss is squarely on the team, not some potato in a radar neptune sailing broadside to an alaska and missouri from 9 km away. 

Just my 2 cents. 

[mazed_1831]

I played solely Chung Mu with radar this season and found it to be surprisingly effective. A very good counter to kita when it smokes up. In most of the match I ended up at the top as the torps are op in these kind of game mode where the bbs are rushing. But true is the brawling ships that are at an advantage. 

[Lowyat]

41 minutes ago, Scholesy said:

Every player is even more valuable in 3v3

Not really. You have more carry capacity personally since you are going up against 3 even if your team is filled with 2 bots. Try going up alone against 4 to 7.

[Project45_Opytny]

Ranked out with Jean Bart after a night of ups and downs at R2. Even though I admit I am an average, mediocre player that ranked out mainly with good luck, the close quarters combat of this sprint season is indeed thrilling and a nice change to the Random meta (though this does mean some ships, like Izumo, Iowa, Drake-I have seen one this night- and Azuma are naturally at disadvantage).

I have also encountered one Yugumo that uses TRB rather than smoke that indeed catch me by surprise by four torpedo spreads.

I wonder how Riga performs in this season indeed, as my experience with Tallinn tends to imply that she is somewhat overly specialized for one purpose, counter enemy cruisers, only, and she will be rather ineffecient against battleships unless in close quarters.

There are also some fun moments like after scoring one killing blow towards an enemy JB, my Jean Bart, with little health left, finisheded another enemy BB with about half health that was engaged in CQB by going asternway and rammed her.

[Rina_Pon]

19 hours ago, Project45_Opytny said:

I have also encountered one Yugumo that uses TRB rather than smoke that indeed catch me by surprise by four torpedo spreads.

I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that. Not that it would usurp Kitakaze as the in-meta choice, but the "torps on demand" aspect of TRB would be make Yugumo viable a little later in the game when everyone has reached the cap and starts parking it. Of course, you switch in the F3 torps instead of the usual Type 93s. 4x2, 103s reload (before TAE) + TRB , 76 knot torps punching 21k each would make you very unpopular over on the red side.

Kitakaze has a similar strike, but you have to be much more careful to save it for the right moment because the reloads are so much longer. It doesn't matter because your gunpower is so useful and you smoke as well as TRB, but it terms of meme potential I was not exploiting my Yugumo properly in ranked.