Tier 12 Battleship Announcement

Well after 1 year this week we get this major patch update. It includes a two fold introduction of the hotly anticipated tier 12 battleships, along with modifications patching:

•  all battleship gun turn speeds increased
• all battleship defense levels increased
• a universal 5% increase to destroyer torpedoes against battleships
• and finally a speed reduction for all light cruisers.

Here is the full data changes that will take place

And the BIG part of this update includes these four wonderful new ships. Behold the tier 12 battleships. Derived from original plans that were around during WWII that were never totally built or had been re-purposed for aircraft carriers. Some characteristics of the ships have changed and are not true to real life, as they simply would not be up to the required standard for gameplay here. However feast your eyes on these:

IJN A150 - Which is basically a Yamato with another triple gun.

KM H44 the faster bigger brother of the h39, still running 8 guns as standard.

RN Lion 2 which has the addition of a fourth triple gun over it's navyfield 1 counterpart. It also boast the highest defense level

USN Montana, which is pretty much a larger Iowa with the addition of another triple gun.

Three of these ships have an interesting symmetry having four sets of triple guns. What we are all really hoping for is that they play differently and give each nation a unique feel.

As with navyfield 1 the RN Lion 2 was an extremely tough ship to sink, having good natural armor (in this case defence level) and having the smallest length and width of its class. This new one has an additional gun set to add extra umph!

The USN Monata was a fierce battleship in navyfield and could even oneshot a Lion 2 with a perfect full hit, which was tricky for the others ships due to high hang time (yamato) or weaker shell damage (h44).

KM H44 was the master of range and speed in the prequel. It has the same layout as you see above. While being physically weak, it was very quick. We'll have to see if it matches the same style as the original. H44 also had the fastest reloading AA battery to boot that could mess up scouts and bombers.

The IJN A150 you see above is also a big change from the previous iteration. It now has a fourth main gun turret. The current tier 11 Yamato has the heaviest damage in class when landing salvos. This ship looks set to be monstrous in it's damage output.

We can't wait to get our hands on these beauties come post-patch on Thursday.

First time through - Battleships

This post aims to highlight the key points that you will come to appreciate as you play battleships  to get to that maximum tier. We'll take a look into them tier by tier starting from tier five and point out the key advantages and disadvantages of each class.

As a general note, throughout your battleship experience you will come to appreciate the following points:

• until you get good accuracy at higher levels and with high morale, your long range shell spread will be poor. Only target other battleships at extreme range. 
• be aware of the rockets ships that are destroyers. Only subs and carriers are slower than you.
• be aware of submarines: take note of when and where they dive/surface and fire.
• be aware of packs of bombers flocking towards you, they WILL be targeting you. I guarantee it.
• do not buy armor items for your BB's in early tiers. Its best to wait until around tier 8 . This is because you wont be able to afford replacing 4 slabs of armor on a regular basis without it affecting your fund and thus restricting you purchasing the next tier ship.
• don't forget to buy credit/ship exp aides. You shouldn't be running a ship without one. Aides  are far more valuable to you than blowing money on armor early on and are still extremely productive when used regularly. Its quicker to progress to the next ship using an aide rather than spending credits on armors in the early stages. 
• take note of the damage you deal. Figures will pop up to show you how much damage you made, if these figures are lower than your ship's damage values then your enemy has armor equipped. Fire armor piercing (AP) shells to strip the armor away first. Literally landing one full salvo is sufficient against even the biggest battleships.
• income scales to your tier, meaning higher tier ships earn more exp and credits than lower tiers.
• tiers 5-7 are relatively quick to level through. From tier 7-8 it takes a bit longer, then tier 9-10 becomes slightly grindy and tier 10-11 is the main bulk of grinding. 
• with premium accounts some of these grinds can be reduced drastically. Premium is the best thing to spend money on if you are unsure about how morale benefits your ship.
• battleship AA is relatively weak until tier 9, then becomes very good in the high tiers.
• tier 11 guns at max-range will not always produce a perfect blockshot even with 200% morale gunners. Tier 9 & 10 spread can be slightly better.
• do not waste gold on gold items for general matchmaking. do make use of regular items like the boiler and reload for your battleships, as you can afford them.

I can't stress this point enough: every other ship out there has a means to deal lots of damage to a battleship and will always go for you because you are big, slow and an easy target that they can cause lots of damage to.

Think about it, why target a small fast ship that can dodge when there is a juicy big battleship that is far easier to hit and, at times, not paying attention?

• Destroyers and light cruisers will use their torpedoes along with their faster speed to torpedo run you. IJN torp ships Shimikaze, Kuma and Kitakami are lethal. Also be aware of the USN gearing.
  
• Subs will stay hidden and attempt to alpha strike you. 
• Carriers will send dive bombers straight at you because you are impossible to miss and yield the most damage.
• Heavy cruisers will use the high dps of their guns coupled with their agility to whittle away your health (dp) while dodging your attacks making life difficult and aiming more fiddly.
• other battleships will be aiming for the bigger easier targets, which will be you in your bb.

A battleships life is hard because you need to pay attention to every possible threat on the battlefield. Then ultimately realize that you can only deal with one or two of those threats at any given moment.

Reading the battle and multitasking become extremely important the higher level you get. Its good practice paying attention to the sky and sniping down scouts and bombers. You can AA planes and fire your main guns quickly, dealing with scouts or bombers and dealing with a bb/dd/ca/cl threat at the same time.

Tip: If you know a CV will be dive bombing, aim all AA guns sets directly up by clicking on your ship. Both left and right side guns have a chance to score big hits on these bombers directly overhead and can easily shred squadrons of planes this way.

Recognize that if you drift close to a group of enemies who have a good composition of ships you will be forced to face a variety of threats, which will make life very difficult for you.

In the initial minutes of a match don't be overly aggressive by engaging multiple ships, let your teammates draw attention first. You can then settle into bombarding your target while not being bombarded yourself.

Avoid getting outnumbered and surrounded. Always keep at a comfortable range, a range where you can deal damage to a target without one or more targets can repeatedly fire back at you.

Avoid doing too little. As you increase the tier of ships more action is expected from the firepower you have brought to the fight. Doing nothing until you have to will infuriate your team and could cost you the match. Learn when to engage and be prepared to take a hit or two as that's what battleships are designed for, taking some punishment.

Remember though that your first few hits are crucial, and after armor is gone and you dp is declining you will notice all types of ships CA/CL and BB's take more interest in you because you are easier to destroy.

Smaller fast ships will time your salvos and turn away from you to avoid being hit. Try using gradual fire modes and predict their movement to score hits. Aim to fire when they present a larger target for you (broadside)

Below is a general tier by tier breakdown that we mentioned in the intro. It will explain some of the pros and cons of each tier and provide a little insight into how to use them effectively. It will also feature some specific ships to watch out for and why that is the case.

Tier 5

These 'pocket battleships' are a generally considered powerful for their tier because at such an early stage they have a few advantages which include:

• high dps from primary and secondary HE guns
• decent speed
• small size/ ship profile

Being small combined with high dps makes tier 5 'pocket battleships' a joy to drive as they can tear up tiers 4-6 quite comfortably. The KM Moltke (seen below) is one of the more powerful tier 5 because it's tough and armed to the teeth along with being a small target.

Disadvantages:

• no scout
• slow turn rate 
• slow speed compared to higher tier BB's

The one major downside for tier 5 is their lack of vision. Not having a scout means you rely on teammates and islands for vision. The second downside is overall speed, being slow means you cant attack/retreat as quickly as other tiers if you're not vigilant you could run into trouble.

Avoid destroyers and submarines who can cripple or outright sink you.

Best practices for tier 5 bb's include sticking around higher tier battleships and avoid taking fire from multiple enemy battleships. Retreat behind larger ships until they are the focus of enemy attacks.

Tier 6

These battleships give you access to your first scout which is the most important aspect of navyfield. Vision is a battleship's life.

Three of the four nations tier 6 bb's come with a scout. If you picked the RN (uk) unfortunately the Revenge and the tier 9 Nelson don't have scouts. RN captains have to wait to tier 7 for your first scout.

T6 advantages include:

• improved gun range
• higher damage per shell over tier 5
• more dp (damage points)
• first bb with a scout 

Some tier 6 main guns are powerful like the USN lexington which can deal a fair bit of damage when landing a full salvo. Most of the tier 9 and 10 bb's have similar caliber guns.

T6 disadvantages include:

• large ship size. (Most are bigger and longer than t5, 7& 8's)
• poor shell spread (with low level gunnery officers)

Now that you have scouts, use them to avoid running straight into the enemy team.
The scout is your newest best friend, no more relying on allies and islands for vision. Now you have to watch out for enemy flak!

At this early stage your main gun shell spread will be bad, so be selective and aim for larger targets at medium to long range, try to avoid drawing too much attention to yourself. If the target is blind then approach to allow for more shells to hit it. Always watch for incoming scouts that will reveal you and retreat accordingly if spotted.


Tier 7

These battleships tend to be smaller in length compared to tier 6 and offer some minor improvements like:

• slightly better DP than tier 6
• more shell damage
• slightly improved speed & turning force.

Again with tier 7's you shouldn't be too aggressive and attacking above your weight as t8's and above will crush you in a head-on battle. Watch out for tough tier 8/9 BB's who have stacked on heavy armor, as they can afford armor at this point armor.

It's best to stick close to high tier allies and not draw attention to yourself. Play to your ships strengths, use scouts and aa enemy scouts down. It will make life much easier for you in the long run.

Tier 8 

Ah now we're onto tier 8. These ship begin the more powerful end of the battleship spectrum. They  shine when it come to mid-range engagements due to two key factors:

• high DPS due to HE secondary guns.
• strong armor setups (like 4-0, 3-1 or 2-2 belt/deck, which becomes more affordable). 

Tier 8's can now afford to purchase regular armor items because they earn more credits. Try usinga  credit aide & premium account for maximum income. Sadly they are also the last tier of battleship to have secondary HE guns which allows them to be fairly more aggressive and able to counter support ships better.

Use these secondary guns to the full against other battleships. Use AP shells to strip your target of armor before firing you main guns. It's very effective and can catch higher tier ships out.

Tier 8's also benefit from being relatively small in size, making them harder to land shells onto. Their accuracy is very good at mid-range meaning more shells hit their mark translating to more damage being dealt with each salvo.

The USN New Mexico is considered one of the more powerful tier 8 ship even after being nerfed. This is due to having twelve main guns which fire at lower angles. When fully upgraded the New Mexico is a potent ship with its high accuracy and low-angle flight time of shells combining to make this battleship lethal at medium ranges.

Tier 9

These ships are generally a stronger breed of battleship benefiting from the following advantages:

• higher defense levels, which mitigate damage better. (see UK Nelson)
• high caliber guns
• improved AA over previous tiers 
• strong armor setups 

In particular the UK Nelson is a very potent ship when armored. It can head straight towards groups of ships with relative impunity, seemingly brushing off damage.

However, all tier 9 ships can be tougher to sink due to improved defense levels coupled with armor. They benefit from being slightly faster than previous tiers and retain decent accuracy.

Tier 9 disadvantages:

• all tier 9 ships lose their secondary HE shells and are replaced with AA ammo instead.
• tier 9 ships are relatively bigger and/or wider than previous tiers (making them easier to hit)

Transitioning up to tier 9 can be a little strange at first because of the different play style. Losing HE secondaries means you generally want to fight at longer ranges, attacking and retreating based on your main gun reload times. Drift into range of multiple ships will result in your armor and DP promptly vanishing.

Also be extremely aware of scouts in BB vs BB encounters. Denying an enemy battleship his vision is crucial,  a blind bb can not hit its target. Shoot scouts down with your improved AA guns before you engage. Attacking a blind enemy gives you the advantage as they won't be able to hit back.

Pay attention to specific ships, like Nelsons (t9) and Amagi (t10) who will probably rush anyway because they lack scouts. Both of these ships deal lots of damage so monitor their movements towards you.

Tier 10

These bb's get a slight increase in performance over tier 9's in the following areas:

• faster ship speed 
• slightly longer gun range
• improved gun damage
• high gun accuracy

The USN South Dakota is one of the best tier 10 ships due to its small profile and high accuracy.
The Bismarck 1945 & Vanguard P  are equally quick and accurate too. At this stage your gunnery officers will be getting decent accuracy even without high morale.

Tier 10 downsides include:

• No sub detection
• Long ship length ( making shells and torpedoes easier to hit you)
• Slightly less range than some tier 11's

As with all battleships avoid getting swarmed and deal damage to the targets you should be aiming for, that is other battleships primarily.

At tier 10 it is advised to get the ship upgrades first, starting with speed, dp and guns. It doesn't take too long to acquire them and they will make your ship operate correctly for the grind to tier 11.

Tier 11

These bb's are the cream of the crop when it comes to bb's, at least until tier 12's are released in 2016.

Tier 11's benefit from:

• Highest shell damage (IJN Yamato is currently the highest)
• Longest gun range (USN Iowa)
• Superior AA capabilities
• Highest DP (damage points) in game.
• 5(7) Scouts
• Fastest BB class, especially if not armored and using gold boiler

Tier 11 downsides include:

• They are massive targets having large profiles to hit. 
• Longest reload times.

Tier 11 BB's are tough to take on alone, but are not invincible. With combined fire they can be worn down over time. Any respectable tier 11 captain should know which targets to take down, and will be alert to a variety of threats. Being a torpedo and bullet magnet means staying on the move is strongly recommended. Speed is your new best friend.

Once you get your tier 11 battleship, work through getting the upgrades like speed, dp and guns. Once you master the ship you will be able to get more exp for the tier 12 ships.

Tier 12

These ships are coming soon to the server. They include the USN Montana (see image), IJN A150, RN Lion and the KM H44.

Conclusion

Battleships are a less forgiving class of ship to play in navyfield. You need to stay alert at all times and be active in the battle. They can also be very fun and challenging to master their play style especially when you get some of the biggest guns to rain down destruction on others.

New Years Update

So 2015 has ended and here we are on the cusp of an exciting new year ahead, especially for Navyfield 2. On the 31st December the dev team at SDEnternet posted the following announcements of upcoming plans for 2016 here.

For the abbreviated details if you simply can't wait look below:

• Tier 12 Battleships will be introduced during January or February.
• Significant balance patch  will be made affecting BB's reload time, gun turn speed and defense power, CL's speed reduction, DD's torp damage increased. During January.
• Certain ships' credit gain increased.
• Planes now becoming permanent. The 7 day timer will be removed.
• Fleet Battles will be introduced. During March.
• Harbour Assault will be patched. Sometime during April or May.

This is great news as almost every month should include some form of major alterations to hold us out until the big game modes are available. So many of the long term veterans are looking forward to fleet battles, and the high level of strategy in the upcoming harbor assaults.

These features are exactly what the game is about, getting lots of fleets together in big battles with an end goal in sight: being the top of the leader boards or holding down a harbor for the longest.  

But the strategies involved and the tactics employed will show who has their wits about them and which fleets truly are up for the challenge.

For more details on the updates to come your in 2016 check out here. 

Southern Seas Event - Q & A

From the previous post you will now know the details regarding the southern seas event, and how you can use this time to improve things as best you can.

I had a few nagging questions that could only be answered by playing the game and trying it out for myself. So I logged in and spent about 30 minutes sorting through my officers to get them correct.

Here's what I found:


Q. How many times can you reset your sailor's skill points?

A. One time.

The way this operates is that you have a global reset on all sailors on all nations already done once you log in.

Once you have allocated your officer's points they are once again set and you must then pay gold if you want to redo them again.


Q. Are captain points reset?

A. No.

This one was a bit of a bummer as it would have been helpful to reallocate some points on my captains.

The gold cost of changing (resetting) a captain's skill points is not as bad as resetting a single officer.


Q. Are officers able to change their types from gunner to support, or special?

A. No.

Only the officer ability points can be changed, not the type of officer itself.


Q.  Do the ability caps coincide with the ability bars you see for your ship performance?

A. Initially this is a bit of a tough one to tell.

My fleet mates mentioned that should get all 5 gunners to 100 accuracy. It appears that only with full 100 accuracy that each officer's ability bar will fill completely and by extension only will the collective ship performance bar reach the top too ( assuming you have with 200% morale)

While I was looking at only getting to the ability cap (of 480 for accuracy)  which works out 96 acc per sailor, I may have actually done myself some damage in the long run. 20 points in reload isn't going to make even the slightest difference anyway.

Thankfully I listened to my fleet mates.


Q. How does gold payback work?

A. The developers have added the 20% bonus onto the total amount of gold you purchase.

For instance if you choose the 6250 gold option the initial 250 bonus gold is added as normal. Then the 20% event bonus is added on top (1300 gold) giving you a grand total of 7800 gold.

The Southern Seas Event

For this weeks' update the development team have unleashed a wave of content for October under The Southern Seas event. Details include:

• South American players are now able to join the server.
• Sink ship event  - sinking the required number of ships rewards you with credit packs.
• Crystal event -  active players get a chance to earn a navyfield 2 crystal trophy.
• Gold payback event - 20% increase on new gold purchases.
• Sailor skill reset - free officer skill points resets.

The officer reset part of this event is a very important one. Many players have discovered that they would prefer to change their officer points. While this can be done at the cost of gold, the developers realise how helpful this will be to the community, especially with harbour assaults on the horizon.

Many gamers have placed points incorrectly on their officers to find out what works and what doesn't and quite simply refuse to use their gold for a reset if they selected incorrectly.

This is a good move as all players will now be able to fine tune their officer ability points to maximise their ships' effectiveness. Combining this with the ability caps mentioned on the nf2 forum here players can allocate the exact number of points as they wish.

The gold event is also great. If you're looking to spend some money on gold this really sweetens the deal with an extra 20% added on to what you buy.

Patch notes for this week also mention that matchmaking has been adjusted so that only tiers 1-5 and tier 6-12 will be matched together. This will stop the low tier population battling the higher tiers.

Also this is reflected with platoons having the same limitation as well. If a platoon wants to join a match only ships from tier 1-5 or tiers 6-12 can be used together. Ship from different groups won't be allowed to start a match if attempted.

So there we have it, have a great October event, fine tuning your sailors and welcoming all those new south american players.

Tier XI CA vs BB

The main idea of this section is to compare the differences between a tier XI Heavy Cruiser against a tier XI Battleship to see how they function against one another. This post will not detail specific ships and their playstyles its more of a general comparison of the two classes characteristics at tier XI. As such both ships are assumed to be fully upgraded and the condition would be a 1 vs 1 battle situation.

Heavy Cruiser

Pros:   8 

• 40% smaller than a BB   (great benefit the further the range)
• 15% faster than a BB (great for evading shells at max range)
• Reload 40% faster than a BB ( can easy get two main salvos in against a BB's one )
• Turn rate faster than a BB (great for evading, especially the further the range)
• High Shell accuracy (low spread, even at its max range)
• High defence rating 
• High dps for main guns 
• High Damage Points (comparatively considering its smaller size)

Cons: 2

• Weaker hitting guns 
• Only 3 scouts

Battleship

Pros:    4

• Longest gun range    
• Highest damage guns   
• Has 7 scouts   (providing greater visibility for longer)
• High DP ( Due to their size, BB's should have a clearer advantage in DP, say 20 or 30k, and better damage mitigation [defence rating should be better because its a bigger, slower & less agile ship].)

Cons: 7

• No secondary HE guns 
• Slower gun reload  
• Slower speed  
• Slower turn rate
• Largest ship size 
• Poor accuracy (shell spread) at maximum/long range (rendering it less effective vs smaller & faster targets)
• Fewer total shells ( important in a sustained fight against  smaller and faster CA )

In a 1v1 situation scouting and AA become very important. The BB doesn't need to rush in and get kited. He can sit back and snipe scouts down to increase pressure on the enemy, but to reduce his opponents vision capabilities.

This puts the pressure on CA's to initiate hit and run attacks. Being faster and smaller the CA will try this, but will need to find a balance between getting his damage up while avoiding shells from the BB. Get too close and the BB will be landing full broadsides.

From the BB's perspective he can't run away or rush in close as the CA has greater speed, thus giving him control of the battle's range.

The BB has a few options: 1) he can snipe all 3 scouts down first.  2) he can rush to try get close  3) he can attack at mid range, trading shells  4) he can wait for max range broadside opportunities.

Option 1 is probably the preferred because the BB has impressive AA capability including secondary and tertiary AA gun sets. This means you have more guns to shoot down the fewer scouts a CA has.

Option 2, getting in close is the aggressive way to get more shells to hit the target and is more of a brute force option which can overwhelm the CA. However smart CA's will recognize the rush and kite you.

The best scenario is to play option 1 and 4 being very selective on salvos. Then transition into option 3 or 2 if the CA engages.

CA's know all of this, and will want to be in the most comfortable position at their max gun range.  This allows them to get hits, avoid some shells and AA scouts.

CA's will rely heavily on their speed and agility coupled with it's smaller size to engage and disengage at will.

Because of this, tier 11 CA's are referred to as pocket battleships and have a definitive and important role in a given battle. They are quick and should not be taken lightly.

Current Update

In truth there has been no changes to the game since last week, save for the usual server maintenance (boring). But that's a huge positive, why? because we know the devs are hard at work preparing for the launch of the harbour assault tests.

As mentioned in our previous posts this will be the end-game content for all fleets to get involved in, and a chance for them to use their best ships. And the devs mentioned the test could be within the next month or two, with a release soon after adjustments are made.

Top five Fleets to be looking out for when Harbour Assault are being tested and go live are:

Chinese Fleet  - Chinese flag
Japanese Fleet - Yin/Yang flag
Jedi - Yoda Flag
Icbm - Bio-hazard flag
Australia Fleet - Australian flag

You will notice when playing against other fleets, especially the top 5, they have multiple players who have maximum morale crews which make their ships as fully effective as they can be. Coupled with the players' skills and competency, knowing how to play against skilful players, they are some of the best players in game right now.

Currently the top 5 are among the most active fleets right now given the low population (what I'm calling The Depression) This will change once HA's come in as everyone will jump back into nf2 to get in on the action.

We will see a plethora of fleets who will be eager to form alliances and dominate the high seas together.

Finally, can you guess which fleet I belong to? I'll give you a hint it's one of those mentioned above.