Naval Warfare game

[Mammomax]

And I bet you got crazy money for doing so, right?

Yeah, I haven't played since my previous post. Not sure why.

[Soddball]

And I bet you got crazy money for doing so, right?

Yeah, I haven't played since my previous post. Not sure why.

Disgusting amounts of wonga.  Get this - if I lose a battle in a carrier, I can get as much as winning in a cruiser. 

Madness.  In my Mogami CL I was getting as much as half the total kill points for my team, regularly sinking two or three ships a battle, and getting a maximum of 4,000 points.  In this rather naff CV I might score one hit with a torpedo and I'll get 4,000 points.  If my team wins I can get 12,000.

[Mammomax]

Oh, you can get way more than 12k. Up to 100k, even.

Yeah.

[Keano]

This looks interesting.

But I think I'll try the Blitz 1941 first. I always was more of a tanker than a sailor. :mad:

[Keano]

I just spent a few hours too many playing with Russian tanks. 

You should try Blitz 1941 aswell, if you like the navy game. It's not too groggy, but serves as a "lite" multiplayer tank-game. And you can pimp yo' tank too, bitch!

Off to sleep now...   

[Angus]

I tried Blitz 1941 but couldn't really get into it.  I stopped playing after an enemy tank "cast" a confuse "spell" which froze my tank for a few seconds. 

They already had a gun elevation system in NF, why didn't they use that instead of the timing system?  It would have been cool if you had to guess a target's distance and raise your gun accordingly, instead of just putting the cursor in the right spot and clicking at the right moment.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Don't tell me everyone is going to be switching games just now that I've given Navy Field another try.

[Soddball]

I'll play both.  Neither game has the 'just one more' itch of something like Civ, so I can dip in and out of them.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

PS, I'll be on the Hood server piloting HMS Polychrest (or possibly another vessel from the Aubrey/Maturin series) while named elmarby.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Got my hands on the Yubari CL. Now that's a fun bit of kit! Using it as an oversized DD I'm finally able to be a part of victory rather then just letting go with torps and hope for the best.
Love how I can send DDs packing with my 4x2 5" cannons, while I get much better use out of my 2x4 torps. I can get closer and have a reasonable expectation to nail whatever I can't blow out of the water.
I can see myself using this till I get my grubby paws on the Mogami class. Think I'll go for a Yank carrier if I manage to get that.

I did give up on manual targeting. The basic concept seems fun but getting all turrets aligned is such a pain. A bit of zig zag-ing and all turrets are all over the place. Maybe, maybe, if I get BBs and needn't move about so much. But getting all turrets pointing the same way really shouldn't be such a PITA. I wish there was some intermediate method.

[Mammomax]

A word of warning about carriers: once you level out of blitz, your planes will be fucking useless. Rather, your regular fighters will be fucking useless. There'll always be fighters high enough level to eat yours for breakfast. So, you can use your fighters to scout (and you will be cursed at if you don't), you can chase down scouts, you can try to intercept bombers (though you will find some that are high enough level they mostly ignore you. If you want to take on fighters, you have to use locals, which can remain in the air for  whole 45 seconds. Which makes for an extremely frenetic game, as it means that, in order to maintain air cover, you must be constantly launching/directing fighters.

It can be fun, but you should know what you're getting into.

[Soddball]

Got my hands on the Yubari CL. Now that's a fun bit of kit! Using it as an oversized DD I'm finally able to be a part of victory rather then just letting go with torps and hope for the best.
Love how I can send DDs packing with my 4x2 5" cannons, while I get much better use out of my 2x4 torps. I can get closer and have a reasonable expectation to nail whatever I can't blow out of the water.
I can see myself using this till I get my grubby paws on the Mogami class. Think I'll go for a Yank carrier if I manage to get that.

I did give up on manual targeting. The basic concept seems fun but getting all turrets aligned is such a pain. A bit of zig zag-ing and all turrets are all over the place. Maybe, maybe, if I get BBs and needn't move about so much. But getting all turrets pointing the same way really shouldn't be such a PITA. I wish there was some intermediate method.

I've been playing Japanese almost exclusively, so here's what I've found out (the hard way).  Armour is worthless.  Carry as many torpedoes as you can, and don't be afraid to launch a spread of 10 or 15 at long range.  They can seriously disorganise an enemy attack even if they miss their target.  If you fire in to a crowd of four or five enemy ships you will hit something.  You don't get many credits for torp hits, though.

One rather fun trick you can do later on is as follows.  Take the quintuple torp launchers.   Set both on wide spread, one fast and one slow.  On your attack run fire the slow spread and as the enemy ship maneuvers to dodge it loose off the fast spread at a different angle. 

Hedgehogs are incredibly expensive to reload.

Always sell your guns, don't replace them, since if you just replace them you don't get your credits back.

When you move up to the Mogami and Agano light cruisers, take the big ole slow-firing 7.9" guns, with huge shells, and stand off with a screen of other ships between you and the enemy.  Rain explosive hell down upon them.  If you get rushed by destroyers a brace of 5 fast torps will see them off.  If you get in close with the Mogami a single triple turret salvo at close range will ruin just about any destroyer.

Finally, keep practicing with the manual targetting. It will pay off.

[Soddball]

I have also just started on the US line, and I have to tell you the Somers DD is fabulous.  It can carry 4 x 2 5.25" dual-purpose guns, with a super ROF and reasonable damage, and 3 x 4 21" torp tubes.  I'm doing so much damage with it.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Somewhat disappointed with my Agano light cruiser. Much more expensive, not that much more potent.
If I had known I would've kept my cash till I had access to the Mogami class. Didn't help that I thought 80k cash was enough to switch. I was basically hoping no-one would notice I only had torpedoes to bring to a fight. I'd hang around the CV to supplement their AA, then dart out to launch torps and back to hide next to the CV.
I further complicated things by promoting one of my guys to AA Gunner earlier. I didn't think this would be bad but it seems I've only got one high level gunner in charge of my front 2x2 7.9" guns, the AA gunner not fit to fire any competitive naval gun. Oops! My rear guns are forever doomed to wait for their gunner to catch up to adopt the then optimal type of turret. Any way to give that gunners growth an extra boost?

[Soddball]

Somewhat disappointed with my Agano light cruiser. Much more expensive, not that much more potent.
If I had known I would've kept my cash till I had access to the Mogami class. Didn't help that I thought 80k cash was enough to switch. I was basically hoping no-one would notice I only had torpedoes to bring to a fight. I'd hang around the CV to supplement their AA, then dart out to launch torps and back to hide next to the CV.
I further complicated things by promoting one of my guys to AA Gunner earlier. I didn't think this would be bad but it seems I've only got one high level gunner in charge of my front 2x2 7.9" guns, the AA gunner not fit to fire any competitive naval gun. Oops! My rear guns are forever doomed to wait for their gunner to catch up to adopt the then optimal type of turret. Any way to give that gunners growth an extra boost?

The Agano is a nightmare, it took me weeks to get out of it because I hadn't read the NavyField forum.  Basically, the forum FAQ for the Agano says 'pack 7.9" with heavy HE, carry planes to spot, stand off at maximum range behind a screen of ships and bombard'.  It also suggests that you set your torps to fast (60 knots) and save them for when a destroyer sneaks through the enemy screen and goes for you.

If you're facing a ship that's heavier than you then attack it head-on.  Your turrets are much more accurate when fired directly forward and you should be able to deliver 2,000+ points of damage with a single salvo if all four shots hit.

You can also use your torps to launch a barrage at long range.  If they're in slow mode their range is huge and dumping 10 torps at a group of enemy ships will usually reward you with at least one hit.

I haven't seen any use for an AA gunner as Japanese since their AA is so rubbish.  But then, I'm probably not at high enough level to benefit.

If you do the stuff I've suggested the Agano will be merely dull instead of painful.  Agano can upgrade to Oyodo CVL, so it's worth starting to train some pilots up to level 36+.  You can have 4 pilots on the Oyodo, one recon, one fighter, one torp bomber and one dive bomber.  Dive bombers become available at level 45 so I haven't seen any of those yet.

If you go the Agano/Oyodo route you'll have more cash than you can possibly know what to do with.  I had saved up 300,000 using my Mogami over a period of about 4 weeks.  I bought an Oyodo and had earned 300,000 with it in 5 days of on-off playing. 4,000 credits for a humiliating defeat is not uncommon.