Hi folks!
With the latest update, we've got some new ships in the tech tree. This time around, it's mainly Russian (and later Soviet) destroyers. I've started with some low-tier ships, and so far, it's been great fun.
Of course, we'll need to compare them with the US and Japanese destroyer lines. Overall, the Russian destroyers have great fast-firing guns, are quick, and have rather shitty torpedo range and damage.
This is the tier three destroyer of the Russian imperial navy, the Derzky.
She's got three 103mm guns, with a base reload of only 5s, as well as five (!) dual torpedo launchers, that reload in a blistering 26s. They only have a range of about three kilometres, and only do about 1900 damage each, but they reload almost as fast as a battleship's main battery.
This ship is so much fun to play, that I haven't even bothered to unlock the higher tiers yet. While it doesn't have any health whatsoever, you can two-shot a US battleship. Other destroyers are in for a nasty surprise as well, since you can fire three salvos of torpedoes at them, have them dodge, only to run into two more on the way, all while you're peppering them with the main guns.
These guns do almost 300 HE damage when fully upgraded, which is on par with other destroyers of similar tier, but reload so quickly that you can put out some serious damage while you're waiting for your torpedoes to reload, and that doesn't take long at all.
Battles with the Derzky are hectic, fierce and just plain fun. With a detection range of 5.3km, you can't get close enough to launch torpedoes without being spotted, but it's great for just running along the side of the battlefield and surprising the enemy battleship line from behind.
In higher tiers, things get mildly better in terms of torpedo range, but also with higher reload times. The Russian / Soviet ships retain their great guns, and while not as numerous as on US destroyers, they've still got great reload times.
Hi folks!
If you've been playing "World of Warships" for a while, you will have noticed that there are two different types of ammunition for your ship's guns: armour-piercing (AP) and high explosive (HE) shells. Today, we'll have a closer look at these, and what the impact of using the correct ammo for the situation on the game is (spoiler: it's huge).
High explosive
These shells carry a large amount of explosive in a solid casing, and some form of fuse. The effect is done by detonating the shell, which has a hot explosive blast, and a wave of very fast shrapnel. These things are very good at causing damage to lightly-armoured ships - imagine a heavy naval shell going through a thin armour plating, and then blowing up. Carnage. Due to the large amount of explosive, they've also got the tendency to easily set fire to flammable things, which is a nice side-effect for some additional damage over time.
But then, consider a more heavily-armoured ship, like a heavy cruiser or a battleship. HE shells will be much less likely to make it through the thick steel plates, and will detonate on the surface. So while it will cause damage (there are lots of useful, and vulnerable, things on the outside of a ship), it won't cause the same devastating damage it does to ships with less or lighter armour plating.
Armour piercing
That's where AP shells come in. They have a much smaller explosive payload, but in return, are designed to get through pretty much all armour plates. That means they can penetrate deep into the innards of the enemy ship, and explode there, causing damage to critical parts, by help of e.g. a timed fuse, giving the shell a moment to get through the armour before blowing it up.
But what happens if you fire an AP shell against a lightly-armoured target (or something like a ship's superstructure)? Depending on the weight and power of the shell, you might end up going clean through it, and not actually causing much damage at all.
Why can't I sink that destroyer?
Consider a common situation. You're in a battleship, a slow, heavily-armoured, can with huge 350 or 400mm main guns. Your destroyer or cruiser screen, as usual, is pretty useless - they've all gone off by themselves hunting, leaving you exposed. You see an enemy destroyer steaming through their lines at full speed, coming towards you. You know what's coming - they're looking to get close to you, and then fire a full load of torpedoes into your side.
You bring your main battery to bear, and unload at him at a good range. You've got AP shells loaded by default, and they do somewhere beyond 1200 damage - per shell. Your guns fire away, and you get some good hits - but they only do about 200 damage each, barely scratching the destroyer. Now, you have to wait 20s for the reload, and your secondaries don't have the range. Even if you could get a second salvo in, you'd only manage to take away about half of that destroyer's health before they unload their torpedoes on you.
I've been in that situation before. It's utterly frustrating, and I believe one of the reasons so many people play destroyer - they really don't have to worry much about battleship guns. So what's going on here? Some weird kind of rock-paper-scissors?
No, you're simply using the wrong ammo type. Your big, powerful AP shells are great at dealing damage to cruisers and other battleships, but they'll punch pretty much right through a destroyer. So next time you're in this situation, switch to HE, and the destroyer will be having a bad time indeed.
When to use which
A lot of this comes down to experience. Some rules of thumb:
- Destroyers - they'll mostly have relatively small calibres, around 120mm. You can use AP shells against other destroyers, or maybe light cruisers, but anything else, use HE rounds. The guns fire quickly, so you've got some chance of causing fires, in addition to the flooding from your torpedoes.
- Light cruisers - they've got guns between 150 and 180mm. AP rounds are murderous against destroyers, and will get through most cruiser protection, but mostly bounce right off battleship armour, doing no damage at all. Use HE rounds for these - a light cruiser at range is hard to hit, and can fire a constant barrage of HE shells, causing fires and slow, but steady, damage.
- Heavy cruisers - bigger guns at 200mm. If your cruiser has good HE damage, you might consider using these against destroyers, as APs have a tendency to sometimes overpenetrate. Against anything else, AP is the way to go.
- Battleships - as discussed, the 350/400mm main guns are useless against destroyers with AP - they actually do much less damage than the secondaries. HE, on the other hand, can burn these pesky little ships with surprising effectiveness.
- Carriers - I normally load AP, since I often have to deal with destroyers as a last-ditch defence. Doesn't really matter all that much, though.
Don't forget to fire your loaded shells before switching ammo types, otherwise you're just wasting them.
All in all, using the right ammo type is one of the most important skills in the game, together with dodging torpedoes.
Hi folks!
After saving up for quite a while, I've finally made it - the tier 8 "Admiral Hipper" class heavy cruiser. And I have to say, I'm not disappointed, it was worth it. The tier 6 Nürnberg was already a mean weapon, but I was struggling against battleships, due to the light armour and ineffective 150mm guns.
Strengths
The "Admiral Hipper" is classified as a heavy cruiser - she's got eight 200mm main guns, set up in four twin-turrets. They reload slightly slower than the Nürnberg's, but do significantly more damage - and, most importantly, they can get through battleship armour.
As secondary, she still has the torpedo launchers - with two triple-launchers on each side, she can field more torpedos than many destroyers.
The defences are good, and with over 30000 health, she can withstand quite some punishment.
Weaknesses
Her main weakness is the slowly-responding rudder, which makes dodging torpedoes rather tricky initially, so definitely consider getting both rudder upgrades to compensate. For the third upgrade, I chose the 5% reload time again, so she's got the same equipment as the Nürnberg.
My Playstyle
If I compare her to my tier 5 "Kongo" class battleship, she's got pretty similar defence and health, but main guns firing twice as fast, doing almost the same amount of damage with AP shells. I'm playing her more aggressively than my Nürnberg, since she's got more health and better defences. The torpedo launchers have a good forward angle, so with the rudder upgrades, I can attack a battleship head-on, turn one side, launch six torpedoes, and quickly turn about, launching the other six, all while raining gunfire on the target.
She's at a slight disadvantage against destroyers, since her guns are slower than the Nürnberg's, and she's less mobile, but it's not a big difference. The sonar is improved, giving her great detection range - which is important, since many destroyers at that level have smokescreens.
All in all, I'm really happy with this ship, she's a great allrounder, suits my aggressive playstyle, and has enough endurance to get through the fight.
This is the tier three destroyer of the Russian imperial navy, the Derzky.
