World of Warships Blitz - Japanese cruiser "Aoba" review 

I've only played a couple of games in the Myoko. She's certainly got improved firepower over the Aoba, but feels like a much bigger target. I'm usually a very aggressive cruiser player, so we'll see how she turns out for me. But yes, I've quite enjoyed the Aoba for her different playstyle.

Heh~?

yes, the IJN CA torpedo arcs are tricky to work with. You don't want to give broadside, but they're better towards the rear, so you want to either use stealth to get into positions where you can use them, or get someone to chase you, set them on fire and drop torps in their path.

Yep, Myoko review will come, I've unlocked her already.

I've actually unlocked her a couple of days ago. Enjoying the vastly upgraded firepower so far, I'll do a video soon.

Tier 7 will get you into tier 8 battles, so expect the difficulty to ramp up. The Yorck in the German line is an excellent HE ship (unusual for German ships), sturdy and torps for close-range fights. The Myoko is more squishy, definitely a ranged ship, but if you enjoy the Aoba, she's pretty much a linear progression. You can't go too wrong with the USN heavy cruisers, the New Orleans is a good ship, well armoured and good guns. If you're more looking for a ranged HE spammer / DD hunter, Shchors is a great choice. In terms of battleships, the Gneisenau is... a bit special. I haven't played the tier 7 USN BB yet, so can't say much - Nagato has good guns, but relatively weak armour. My personal playstyle is very aggressive, so I'd go German BB, but if you're ok with a more ranged role, USN or IJN should work well for you.

hehehe, yeah, it's getting a little crowded there, even though I do have a tendency to sell ships I'm not using. I'll put it on the list.

Oops, I hope that wasn't me... she can be quite dangerous, when played appropriately.

Hehehehe~

Got you in my dock lol. Might level and use you

Sure. The choice of ammunition depends on several factors: * what is the calibre of your gun? * what is the armour of the target you're shooting at? * how far away is it? Armour piercing (AP) shells are designed with a fuze that needs to go through a certain amount of steel plating before it activates and detonates the shell. In the game, AP shells can do full penetrations (full damage), half-penetrations (didn't get through the armour, 50% damage), overpenetrations (not enough armour, went clean through, 20% or so damage) or bounces (ricochet, no damage at all). High explosive (HE) shells have a different fuze and are designed to explode no matter what. They can do full penetrations (shell gets through the armour and detonates inside the ship) or half-penetrations (shell didn't get through the armour and detonates outside the ship). They cannot over-penetrate or bounce. HE shells can cause fires, which will do additional damage over time. Now, let's go through the calibres. First, destroyer guns, around 130mm (they're also often used as battleship secondaries). Their AP shells can penetrate other destroyers, but mostly their HE shells do about the same amount of damage, plus can set fires. Their AP shells will bounce of pretty much everything else, so it's a safe bet to just stick to HE with those. Light cruisers have around 150mm main guns. Their AP shells will reliably penetrate destroyers, and usually do more damage than the HEs. They can penetrate other light cruisers as well, but will usually bounce off anything with heavier armour (some cruisers and pretty much all battleships). With 150mm guns, use AP against destroyers, and it's pretty much safe to use HE against everything else. This is a bit of a generalization, as it always depends on the individual ship you're sailing. For example, most German cruisers have pretty poor HE shells, but unusually good AP ones, if you can target a ship's superstructure, you can AP penetrate with 150mm, but not the belt armour and so on. Don't worry about those finer details too much, it'll come with experience. Heavy cruisers have around 200mm main guns. My rule of thumb is the "6km" rule - their AP will start overpenetrating DDs at around 6km and closer, but do relatively reliable full pens beyond that range. So with 200mm guns, if I shoot at a DD at 6km and closer, I'll switch to HE. They do reliable pens against lightly armoured ships, so I'd usually stick with AP against light cruisers and carriers, but switch to HE against heavy cruisers (the difference isn't that great). 200mm will not get you through battleship belt plating, so I'd usually recommend to use HE against battleships. Again, some German cruisers with their poor HE performance can be an exception here (except the Yorck, which has excellent HE shells for some reason). Lastly, battleship shells of 300mm or more will do reliable penetrations against anything except destroyers. So for BB drivers, use HE against destroyers and AP against anything else. There are, as usual, exceptions - the Nelson, for example, can be more successful with HE. In terms of nations, German shells usually have very good AP, but poor HE performance, whereas Japanese shells have very good HE, but comparatively poor AP performance. In the video, you've seen me use AP against destroyers at range, but having to swtich to HE once they got closer. I've used AP against light cruisers (I think it was an Atlanta), and HE against battleships exclusively (reliable damage, and chance to set fire). Ammo choice is the most complicated for cruisers due to those factors, it's much more clear-cut for DDs and BBs. One thing I often do when I unlock a new ship is play a couple of rounds against bots, just to try out the ammo at different ranges and against different targets (doesn't matter if I win or lose those, just for research). Lastly, there are still more variables - aiming, armour zones, shell arcs, captain skills etc, but that's too much for a comment to run through :) Try to stick to these basic ammo selection principles, and see if it makes a difference for you. Most of the things said here are not "official", but from my experience over time.

@@FunandGameswithTerry Danke Bruder

@@FunandGameswithTerry how to identify bots?

Bot players will have a colon in front of their name, so if you see ":WinstonChurchill", that's a bot, whereas "WinstonChurchill" would be a real player. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when facing bots: Bot DDs are absolutely harmless. For some reason, their torpedo launch algo doesn't work, so they almost never fire torps at you, unless you continuously sail in a straight line right next to them. They will keep firing their guns, though, and might set a fire occasionally, but can mostly just be ignored. Bot ships target by proximity - a bot will always fire at whichever target is closest to it. You can easily avoid being shot at by a bot by not being the closest target. Bot carriers need someone to spot for them, they will not launch planes unless a target is seen. Then, they attack by proximity. Bot carriers do not have manual targeting control over their torpedo planes, so they'll mostly drop miles away by the time they get there. Dive bombers find their own targets, so they will work. They won't re-target once they sent our their planes at whatever was closest at the time. Bot cruisers and battleships will change ammo types, but are not very good at it. You'll often find BBs firing HE at you, when they could have used AP to much better effect. But don't rely on that. Bot BBs can actually be quite dangerous when you're in a DD, due to their habit of firing HE shells. Bot ships have magical turning powers. You'll occasionally see a bot BB turn like a tank would - on the spot. Made me wonder if WG had mixed up their algos with WoTB :) This makes them relatively hard to torpedo from a distance, since they will vary course and speed, often quite radically. Close range torps work better. Bots will not actively cap, they only get into the cap circle by accident, and usually won't stay there. If you see a bot in your cap, usually a DD, don't panic. Bots do not use damage control or heal. If you're in an HE spammer, it's usually beneficial to set some fires on bots first, and then focus on other ships once they're saturated (three fires). Flooding does massive damage against bots. Bots will usually rush forward without any regard for positioning. Since both sides get the same amount of bots, they normally cancel each other out. When fighting in a battle with lots of bots and few human players, it's often a good idea to try and take the enemy human players out as priority targets.

That's rng at its finest.

Wow, thanks! IJN CAs are certainly different, I'll be reviewing the Myoko as well, since she seems to be a big step up from the Aoba.

wow, that's probably more than I have done :)

Ooh, I'm going to have to do a Mino video soon. I just adore that ship, she can take on pretty much anything else. And that feeling when you sink 8 torps in a single line into a certain tier 9 premium BB? Priceless. For me, Mino is the perfect combination of dps, manoeuvrability and aggression. Sure, she can't tank for shit, but I have more torps than a Shima, with a faster reload, smokes, very good AA and guns that no one wants to get close to. I'm very close to get the APCS captain skill, can't wait to see what the impact on penetrations is going to be. If I can start penning BB deck plating or superstructure reliably with that, she'll be outright ridiculous. T10 meta tends to be very static, true. I don't play extended periods of time in 10, agreed that 8 is usually the sweet spot. But 10 can be fun, in the right ship :)