Battleships

Hi folks!

Today, we'll take a closer look at the battleship class. Once you got some XP from the initial games, you can quickly branch out from cruisers, and battleships are one of the obvious fun choices - lots of guns, heavy armour, what's not to like.

The Battleship

Battleships have around twice the health of a cruiser, and much better defences (damage reduction, fire / flooding protection etc). Their main batteries consist of large-calibre guns, usually in turrets of two or three. We're talking 300 mm plus shells here. Unlike the early cruisers and destroyers, battleships will use armour piercing shells by default, instead of the other ships' high-explosive ones. They won't cause fires, but due to the high damage output, critical hits (those penetrating into the internal structure of the enemy ship) deal massive amounts of damage.

Their secondary guns are usually mounted on both sides, and have a much shorter range, but a higher rate of fire.

On the downside, battleships are usually quite slow - slow in terms of speed, slow in terms of turning, and slow in terms of realigning their turrets. This means they're delivering deadly broadsides, but are in danger of being flanked.

Against other classes

Battleships are pretty deadly against cruisers. Their heavy armour means they can't be easily damaged by the cruiser's smaller-calibre main guns, and cruisers are large enough targets to be fairly easily hit by the devastating main batteries. US and Soviet cruisers have to get very close to hit them with torpedoes, usually not making that an appealing option.

Destroyers, on the other hand, are a huge nuisance. Due to their slow turning speed, and inability to realign their main turrets in time, destroyers will often flank a battleship, meaning they simply drive around them and approach from the "other side". Close-range torpedo salvos will hurt even the mighty battleship, and well-driven destroyers never stand still long enough to be hit reliably by the main batteries.

Success in Slugging it out with other battleships mostly depends on positioning, concentration of firepower and luck. Critical hits from main batteries can do as much damage as a torpedo. The ideal position is an "angled broadside" - just enough for both fore and aft turrets to be able to zero in on target, but exposing as little surface as possible to enemy shells. Ideally, "crossing the T" can be achieved - you catch the enemy battleship out of position, and can land one or two full salvos before they can respond with all their guns.

Battleships have the strongest set of AAA, but they're also the least manoeuvrable, making them prime targets for enemy torpedo bombers. Fortunately, air-dropped torps don't do quite as much damage as the ones launched from destroyers and cruisers, and usually come in smaller numbers. Once a carrier is spotted successfully, battleships can shred them to bits in no time.

Strategies

Battleship captains should pick a side of the map early on. Sailing head-first into an enemy formation is a recipe for disaster - flanking fire will come in quickly, and is hard to react to. Instead, keep the enemy fleet on one side, and keep your turrets trained on that side.

Be sure to target the main batteries as precisely as possible - reloading them takes a really, really long time. You can use the secondaries while waiting for the next salvo to be ready, but they do comparatively little damage. Choose targets wisely - firing a full salvo at a fast-moving destroyer at long range is pretty much a wasted one. A good hit at a damaged cruiser at medium range can possibly sink it, removing its firepower from the battle.

Don't forget to use the secondary guns while the main batteries are reloading - you can usually get two salvos off before the primary ones are ready again. If you've got a clear target, go for a full salvo, but if you're not sure, "zero in" with firing turrets individually first, especially at long range.

Nations

Only two nations currently have battleships in the game - USA and Japan. The Japanese ships tend to be faster, but less heavily armoured, whereas the early US ships are dreadfully slow, but can take a bit more of a beating. They're fairly equivalent, so it's really just a matter of taste which tech tree you chose.

Next time, we'll take a closer look at the destroyers.