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.

Low Tier Carrier Tactics

In matchmaking the first things you need to know is the map and the enemy composition. If the map is small then its likely you will be rushed by sea & air. Knowing if the opposition has carriers or not is also important.

As you play against the same people, especially other cv's, you will learn to associate their names with plane compositions they tend to use.

Generic Start Up

Initially you want to get 2 or 3 fighters up in the air fast. I prefer 3 as I feel more confident to snipe scouts and counter quick bomber rushes.

From that point you have choices to make depending on the map size and CV count.

Small map - if enemy team has carriers 

Start your generic start up. Depending on what the response is, back that up with one more squad of fighters (anything from 3-5 planes).

Now you have a bit of air superiority follow that up with your bombers.

With this strategy, watch for other ships attempting to rush you.

Small map - if enemy team doesn't have carriers 

You could get 1 or 2 fighters up or forego them entirely and get bombers out fast. Form groups of 3 bombers to keep the pressure on. as these will be quicker to launch.

Prioritise any ships running you down.

Enemy team has superior carrier(s) 

In situations where you are outnumbered or outclassed, try one of the following alternatives:  

1. Start with the generic 2 or 3 fighters. Keep them close to your teams' ships (ready to lower altitude & bait them into ships AAA range) or...
2. Load 5 fighters for the first two groups. Hold the first group back so you don't reveal you're spamming fighters. Keep them together. Poke around to see what resistance you meet.

Option 2 can work because of superior numbers. 10 planes should usually win out over 5 etc etc...

[A few times I've suppressed a tier nine CV in a lower tier one simply because he couldn't rally enough fighters and hence gets outnumbered]

I guess he's thinking "Hey I'm in a higher tier, that small cv will only bomb other ships instead of gaining air superiority".  

If he has loaded bombers and sees your planes mopping things up he may switch to fighters, in which case the race is on to maintain air superiority. Load a third group of fighters and maybe a fourth & fifth.

By group 4 + 5 consider whether it's worth loading bombers or not. And by this point your first group of planes will be needing to refuel.

If your first group of fighters is totally spent (weak or out of fuel) let them crash so you can get a new group ready.

Early tier CV's find it easier using torpedo bombers. I say this as TB can avoid both AA and AAA because there altitude is low to the water.

Despite low tier levels (around 50- 70) you will still be avoiding ships and aa, so the planes don't need to be strong/evasive anyway.

Enemy team has inferior carrier(s) 

If the enemy team has lower tier carriers than you still get fighters up and suppress any FW or BW that you may face.

Don't be lenient or complacent over lower tiers. Some high level players with level 100 officers run around in low tier cv's.

One or Two Months

That was the quote from SDEnternet's development team in this forum post about when harbour assault mode will be tested.

This is fantastic news as many will be eager to get involved with this test. Super hyper buzzing right now!

Coming back to reality, the dev team also revealed that the planning period has finished and they are well under way with the actual development of their plan.

They teased by saying that the first test will be a couple months away. Even more interestingly they revealed that the harbour assaults will be on a "grander scale" than in nf1 previously.

The harbour assaults were a 5x5 grid fashion. Win a battle room to win a grid, work your way to the harbour tile, win the battle and then capture the harbour.

It is anyones guess exactly what they mean by a "grander scale". It could be that more than one fleet is involved. Or maybe there is a new world map and/or grid layout that offers new routes and challenges to get to the harbours.

Also what about rewards? If the same holds true from nf1, obtaining a harbour means you get free repairs on ships of that nation and access to producing unique ships.

Hopefully there will be a few more surprises in store for the rewards you get when owning a harbour.

The final note was that screenshots will be coming soon so that we all get a taster of what the new mode and interface will look like in readiness for the live server test.

Exciting times? Yes. We can't wait!

Tier XI Battleships

Having spent enough time & effort along with boat loads of experience & credits you have proudly bought your first BB XI. Either the long range Iowa, the accurate H39, the devastating Yamato, or the speedy and sleek Vanguard

All tier 11 battleships do not have secondary he guns. This means your DPS is limited to your main guns reload time.

However they have the longest range and most powerful guns on the sea. Tier XI's also have the highest amounts of DP in the game so far most sport a formidable AA complement with long range and damage capability. High tier BB's are quicker than previous ones.

But being in a top tier ship whilst every other players is in a tier 10 or less means you are public enemy number one. Every ship will be itching to shoot every form of high explosive destruction they can at you under the sun.

Congratulations, you will now become the biggest electro-magnet of shells and torpedoes ever, good luck.

Gameplay Changes

Play to your strengths: range, high damage, speed and accuracy.
Be aware of weaknesses: slow turn rate, long reload times, easy to hit and bomb.

I've underlined range, because you will definitely want to use it. Once you are in the range of other battleships and heavy cruisers they will target you and that is exactly what you want to avoid: being in the range of several enemy ships at once.

Your speed will allow you to dictate the flow of battle. Push other battleships back by pinging them with a salvo or two. Then watch for support ships rushing in to attack you. If you stray too close to a few enemies, speed away back to the safety of your team.

Stay within the safety net of your team. Going it alone gives your enemy an invitation to attack you whether they can successfully destroy you or just strip your armour and be a nuisance.

Also make it a habit of targeting ships you are designed to hit. Prioritize other battleships and Heavy cruisers that stray too close. It's pointless to attack distant apa's & dd's as most shells will miss and you will be wasting your shells and overall battle effectiveness in the process.

Initially It's far better to land more shells on an enemy battleship dealing upwards of 30k damage rather than missing the majority of shells on a ship who is far away and never going to harm you.

Learn to focus fire and prioritize weakened ships. If you see a half damaged ship that will bug-out try to sink it. Sinking it results in one less enemy firing at you and makes your life that bit easier.

I've seen this many many times where players will target the nearest ship to them, when a ship a little farther away is close to being sunk. In certain circumstances (maybe a crippled BB 9-11) you may want to pursue it to remove its effectiveness from the battle.

Evaluate targets worth shooting. Some targets may be so crippled that you could be wasting your shells on them, while other nearby ships can take them out. Target a new ship and leave the crippled one to your allies. If there are no allies around you finish him off yourself, but switch firing to gradual mode and only use what ammo is necessary to sink them.

High damage is only as good as your accuracy, spread and personal aiming skills are. If you are constantly missing shells your damage output will be reduced and your overall contribution to the team effort will be low.

Items

The best items for tier XI's are the boiler enhancement, and a reload item.
You want to be fast, and reload more quickly in general matchmaking battles. You will probably want some armour. How much is up to you.

In Harbour Assaults you will definitely want to repair more quickly to keep your ships from sinking. Equipping an advance repair crew will increase your battle endurance.

Armour is good for matchmaking. Speed is just as valuable for tier XI than taking a few extra hits. Maybe 1/1 Belt/Deck is sufficient. Don't over estimate the value of armour:  it's helpful yes but it doesn't make you invincible.

Think of armour as a limited buffer of dp. It never lasts forever. And it will slow you down the more you have. It really depends on your play style and the battle situation. In matchmaking you may want a bit or a lot. In fleet battles, speed might be more crucial to attack and withraw instead of having that dp buffer. Time will tell.

Bear in mind that tier XI's won't be the top of the tree for long, as tier XII's have already been leaked by the devs. And will probably be slightly quicker, tougher, dealing more damage and having even more range.

Value of Kiting

Kiting is technique in which a player uses his ship in a hit and run fashion. While the player giving chase is at a disadvantage the runner gains the advantage due to continually slipping out of gun range during every firing cycle.

This is a sound tactic especially if a player is alone and knows he will get sunk by the combined fire of his opponents.

Two keys factors in nf2 are the speed and size of your ship. In relation to incoming shells kiting becomes easier with a faster and smaller ship (CA, CL & DD's). Smaller ships are also much more agile and can turn to avoid shells.

Kiting is an effective method that can discourage  aggressors from pursuing you. Kiting can work in many 1v1 situations regardless of what ship you are in, but it is much more effective if your ship is quicker.

Kiting is an integral part of the game, especially when it comes to ship to ship combat and fleet actions.

Effective fleets will draw a ship towards them, forcing them to miss their salvo, whilst the rest of the team will hit the ship that advances with a barrage of shells.

Basic Carrier Tips

If you are looking for a fresh perspective on the game, carriers might be the place to start. They are a fun, challenging and unquestionably the most crucial ship class in the game.

The entire team looks to their carriers as a source of protection from bombers and most importantly vision for the team during the battle.

Starter Tips

Carriers can operate quickly or slowly. A quick carrier can respond to changing circumstances. 

To begin with you have a small tier V carrier with few planes, a runway that can launch 5 planes at a time and very weak level 1 planes.

When loading planes it's quicker to ready two or three at a time over four or five which take longer to fuel. On small maps being quick is imperative.

You can control 5 groups of planes at one time. You will usually want fighters up first, protecting you and your team. Once secure then begin loading bombers. Rotate planes that are low on fuel.

TIP:  At level 1-59 use torpedo bombers and stay clear of enemy ships to preserve your planes. Level 1 dive bombers just evaporate to AAW.

TIP: When engaging other groups of fighters if you're outnumbered or the enemy is a greater level than you, lure their planes down into your friendly ships AAW radius to shred them.

From this point its up to you to read the battle situation as it develops. Are you getting harassed by small ships, or bombed by another carrier. What targets are easy to bomb, what scouts can you mop up.

Carriers have to be able to think about several different things at once and pay attention to important matters in the air first.

Advanced carrier tips coming soon...

Pre Harbour Assault Era

Now that daily quest missions have been added in the 13th August weekly update, the devs have shifted their focus onto end-game content.

At the moment Navyfield's population is low. However despite that, I can guarantee that not only does everyone want harbour assaults to be added,  HA's are the very reason they started playing navyfield for in the first place and because of this they will come flooding back once the end game contents is rolled out on the server.

Not only will it be a boost to the population but it'll also be a huge boost for the community and for the life of navyfield 2. From the developers point of view it will provide a significant and ongoing boost in premium sales, as players compete to kit out their officers and ships to the limits.

Harbour assaults will prove to be the most competitive aspect of the navyfield experience, and everyone involved will want their ships to perform at there best. Fleet rivalries and alliances will be forged as the game evolves.

Testing Phase

As stated in one of their recent newsletters the developers informed us that active fleets will get the chance to test out harbour assaults. This will be great as fleets can be directly involved in how the HA mode will run.

The development team teased fleets informing us that those most active will be awarded with the first harbours when they go live. This is a great enough incentive for fleets to be getting their ships and tactics up to scratch to be ready for the testing phase.

Being Ready

Many non-premium players know that harbour assaults are a little way off yet and there has been no reason to rush getting multiple end tier ships in record time. And to be honest many who have spent lots of money so far feel short-changed because they can't really use those top tier ships for anything other than end-game content, which simply isn't there.

However all players can still be getting as many ships as they can. High tier or not, the more ships you have at your disposal for a harbour assault the better. Why? Well, during a harbour assault your ships can not be repaired in the shipyard. That means a sunken ship will be unusable for the rest of the assault.

This is one of the defining aspects of harbour assaults, sinking a ship to remove it from further battles. The two fleets go into contention against all the ships in the opposing fleets shipyards. It becomes a battle of attrition, requiring fleets to wear away the other fleets' powerful ships until they are forced to submit.

This makes players act more cautiously than normal, as they do not want to lose their best ships early on. However it also brings other skills and knowledge into the mix. For instance, repair rate becomes more important as damaged ships can retreat from the front line to heal up.

Adjusting from the chaos and randomness of matchmaking games to having two highly skilled fleets battling with their most lethal ships is going to be the challenge this game really deserves along with the satisfaction of overcoming the odds to claim the prize: a harbour.

But we don't just want the harbours, we want the rewards and the prestige that go along with them. Access to unique ships and proof to the claim that our fleet can be one of the best out there. Not just at the game itself, but because of what we stand for.

Daily Mission Update

As of right now the current server update has been completed and will introduce some moderate changes, two of which include:

• Daily Quest Missions (see details below)
• Majority of ships are receiving revisions (see details below)

Daily Missions

The daily mission are pretty much like you would expect to see in most games, complete a mission and receive/claim the reward.

The majority of missions will reward credits, but complete all the mission for day and you will earn some gold. This will be very useful for everyone looking to save up gold over a longer time.

But the incentive is for players to get onto the game server everyday, and get something back for doing that.

Among the ship adjustments are: 

• all battleships receive a universal 1 knot speed reduction
• all light cruiser plane capacity reduced from 5 down to 3
• the battleship New Mexico (USN) receives a 15% reduction in accuracy
• all high angle battleships accuracy increased by 5%.  (high angle = above 41 deg)
• all carriers receive a large DP increase (between 20-30k) somewhere between CL/CA's

*The full update from the developers can be seen here if you're interested in the exact figures.

For their size cv's are quite squishy, hence the dp increase. I'm all for that, as it seems strange that such large ships can be sunk so easily, making any small aggressor a serious problem. Small maps are  notorious for a quick cv rush.

The New Mexico has caused a lot of discussion and debate on the forum months ago and again recently because it is clearly out-classing ships of  higher tiers due a combination of great angles, shell spread, reload time, shell damage, and ship size. We will see after the update how much the accuracy change affects it.

Battleships are being slowed down slightly to help submarines, but also to encourage battleships to use gold boiler items. [yes devs we saw what you did there] Speed is key for battleships. 

High angle guns are slightly more difficult to use, and in line with the NM getting nerfed, the opposite end of the scale those high anglers are getting a 5% increase in accuracy to assist (albeit very slightly) with high angle hang time.

Lastly the light cruiser's plane capacity being reduced. Many would not agree with this. But a ship that has very accurate guns is very quick and highly maneuverable and being pretty small. To have all that AND 5 planes is a bit excessive. And it practically makes light cruisers very (if not too) similar to heavy cruisers.

Light cruisers are in a strange multi-purpose support ship role, being weak compared to DD/CA/BB who can dish out the damage. This makes their role not as well defined as it was previously in nf 1 where they were very potent at AA and/or ASW. Truly a support ship to BB & CV

6 Months of 2015 - Looking Back

Staring August in the face let's look back and review what's happened over the last few month to refresh our memories of some significant changes that have taken place,

So let's have a look:

Increased XP and credit earning - Ranking system

Feb/March 2015 -
The first big changes in-game were the inclusion of increased credits and experience. Firstly credits seemed to be very scarce to come by in the earlier tiers (where you earn less). The devs did an overhaul that included adding a ranking system based on factors such as how much damage you dealt, how long the match lasted and what ship tier you are in.

The F-S rank was included to make players aware of how well they performed whilst giving a sense of their earnings related to that performance.

Major Ship Adjustments

April/May 2015 -
This involved all ships receiving game-changing nerfs/ buffs depending on its current performance.

Changes from damage, speed, defence level, turning rate, dive time, plane speed, you name it it was all there and almost every ship got changed. Let's put it this way, things felt different.

Major Ship Update

May/June 2015 -

This included a large patch where all the 'blank' spaces in the ship tree were filled in. For example tier 10 and tier 6 battleships were added, among others for all classes. Around 50 ships were added in total.

This facilitated an easier and more enjoyable experience to players going up the ship tree. It also gave plenty of players their first tier 11 ship for free. (almost)

New game Modes

June/July 2015 -

Two new game modes were added: Flagship and Occupation. Along with the standard Annihilation mode this gave players a total of three modes to try.

Although still requiring adjustments to improve them both modes tend to finish quickly with little rewards because earnings are still based off damage dealt, not the actual success of the game type.

Website & Forum Updates

July 2015 - 

Changes to improve the fluidity of the website and forum were added. Things like removing captcha (a pain), longer Auto-Log off time (another pain), word wrap (get the gist?) and latest posts-by have now been implemented.

Making for a more relaxed experience when it comes to commenting about things navyfield related.

Future Updates

Latter 2015- 

The biggest focus of attention for everyone now is on the end-game content: harbour assaults. The development team are surely feeling the breath of the community down their neck.

The good news is that development has now begun. The bad news is that it will likely take some months to get to a point where testing will take place, before it gets onto a live launch.

Many aspects need to be addressed like; the world map, the shipyard blimp interface, battle rooms to set up the matches, then the actual game mode itself ( a derivative of annihilation ), along with fleet banks, challenge times and not to forget the benefits of owning a harbour; access to unique ships and production levels for defence. And ultimate bragging rights.

We want the whole package, but we also want it to be done well in the first instance.

Captain's Log: Episode 7

Captain's Log:

The H39 is a interesting ship as you can get the upgrades pretty fast due to earning the most xp and credits. Now that the 'final' tier ship is mine I can branch out into the heavy cruiser line. Already having a the Roon, I've managed to access the First Bismarck and the Scharnhorst very quickly too.

Heavy cruisers' compact size is a big bonus. Not just from the point of view of avoiding shells, but, more crucially, from a psychological perspective. Most players ignore a ship that is smaller in appearance and will focus on a bigger one (like a battleship) instead.

This psychological indoctrination is easy to recognise, and therefore easy to combat. You can practically see how a player thinks. Then you can predict what he is going to do. This means you have the advantage.

Speed, agility and dps are the key things that make a heavy cruiser a serious threat. Alone a heavy cruiser will be ok in a 1 vs 1 fight. But working collectively and letting friendly (battle)ships draw fire is the key to driving a heavy cruiser effectively. Chipping away your victims dp. You have to allow time for that dps to kick in

If you can not overcome your target(s) in that time, then you need to rethink your strategy.

Tier six heavy cruisers lack a scout. Therefore being with team mates and around islands is an essential tactic to improve your vision and effectiveness in battle.

You need to keep on the move. Never wander in a straight line. You are small and nippy but can still get thumped by shells if you take it easy.

I always make my ship difficult to hit by zig-zaging. Evading shells in a heavy cruisers is much easier due to erratic driving and the ship being smaller in size.

I've noticed that it is much easier to target smaller support ships with a CA's guns, as the accuracy of the shells is much better plus the range is closer so it take less travel time for the shell to hit the target.

Heavy cruisers are fun after being in a battleship. You can run and gun. It's a joy in comparison to being a shell magnet for hundreds of games.

It seems like this new class has breathed new life into the game for me.

Weekly Update 16th July - Summer Cooldown Event

After Wednesday's patch which included a few minor changes, the devs are now running a Summer Chilldown Event.

This event encompasses three separate events rolled in one and includes, 50% extra experience, sink ships to earn credit items, and daily missions to earn gold. Read more

This is great as we haven't had an event for a couple months. It provides that litte extra incentive to sink the ships you want to for extra credits, and complete the missions to earn free gold.

And quite a necessary one as many are waiting for the Harbour Assaults to be developed and added into the game.

Captain's Log - Episode 6

Conducting a freemium grind to tier eleven takes its time. Having racked up over 1500 matches so far it seems a bit far to go for the end result. But then again I'm not playing the game several hours per day like I could in times past.

Still it's a fun challenge and playing match after match against similar opponents while a little boring is actually good because I can learn what ships they have and how they prefer to fight. I am still able to mix things up myself by switching between my two primary battleships, the Bismarck (9) and Bayern (8).

The Bismarck is pretty accurate, but can get swamped easily if not paying attention, so I tend to keep it lightly armoured and favour speed over a heavily armoured setup. I find it better operating at the back of your team formation, able to advance and retreat with more freedom. 

The Bayern on the other hand can be played somewhat more aggressively. Loading up 3 or 4 stacks of belt armour you can approach targets at medium/close range and hurl shells on them. With the high dps afforded it by the generous bank of secondary guns, this can be a lot of fun. But beware of torpedoes and high angle shots from supporting ships. If you are being ranged, it's best to retreat.

Alternating between the two ships offers a bit of freedom from one-ship-only stress, coupled with a high level officer crew 90+ makes both ships that much more potent and interesting to play. If I'm not enjoying it in the one ship, however, I can simply switch to the other when needed.

I will be interested to try and unlock the heavy cruiser line for KM at some point, as the tier nine and eleven for most nations ca's seem very agile and dangerous, even able to take on battleships given the right situation. 

Once I obtain the H39 and it's upgrades I have the option to work on another km ship line expanding the officers I have to run them correctly. Initially I could switch to heavy cruisers, the class is similar to BB's in their officer requirements.

Then I always have the option of getting stuck into an entirely new nation. As I already have a USN Bogue, and IJN torp setup for light cruisers and submarines.

Carrier gameplay is very much about managing your squadrons of planes. It feels more like a real time strategy in the sky. Which is somewhat appealing having played many such games in the past.

There is still plenty of life in the game for me.

AP/HE Shells

How do I know if my target is armoured or not?

Test it out. Testing is the primary method of discovering if a ship has armour or not.*

Fire a salvo at your target and follow it up by the other type of shells on your next salvo. 

You need to pay attention to the numbers that pop up over the enemy ship when you score a hit. If they are big white (deck), big green (belt) or big yellow (crit) hit then the shell is doing it's work.

If the digits coming up are small and grey coloured then the shell type you are using is less effective. Either because you fire HE against armour, or AP shells against no armour. Both resulting in a poor hit.

Once you determine if the target is armoured or not, switch to the corresponding shells to inflict maximum damage.

Usually a couple of broadside salvos will eat up any ship armour. If you are taking damage as well get those AP salvoes on target and switch back to HE after the armour is away.

* By knowing what speed your target ship goes when upgraded, see whether it is travelling faster or slower than the known value. It's still a guess if he actually has armour or not. But it's a safe bet that he has armour on board and that's what's slowing him down a few knots.

How much AP shells should I select?

In general it's always a good idea to be packing some AP shells. Usually you will want somewhere between 10% - 20% AP to give you enough throughout the whole battle.

In situations where there are lots of high tier battleships, heavy cruisers and even destroyers, you might lean more toward 20% AP.

You will have to gauge as well as you can if players equip armour. In general most of them do. (unless they travel very fast, in which case they probably are using a speed set up)

Recent Information

Lets get straight to it.

Quest Missions

Firstly the devs are currently working on Quest Missions which will give regular players daily challenges to overcome to earn some free gold.

To be released soon...

Harbour Assaults

The development team have announced (navyfield2.com) that their next main project is going to be Harbour Assaults. Which, let's face it, is a huge task.

It's a necessary step in development to provide navyfield 2 community that top level challenge and strategy that it deserves. Especially for the fleets who are active and want more of a challenge.

So the dev team are knuckling down on harbour assaults constructing it from the ground up to make it work smoothly with the current system. They also announced that testing will take place to work out bugs and issues as they go along, which is always good to know as it gets us involved too.

We'll have to wait and see how the blimps on our shipyards will work with the fleet/ harbour assault information. As they were added months ago (February?) and were directly for this purpose.

Fleet wars should also be heading our way, and whether that is separate to harbour assaults is yet to be determined.

Tier Increase - XII

And don't forget the devs haven't yet revealed when the new Tier 12 ships will be added. But  this will probably be further down the line this year as the leak was only in June.

Lots to look forward to on the horizon!

Captain's Log - Episode 5

Having several hundred matches under my belt I have a firm grasp of the game now.

Certain maps need to be played in certain ways. Ships need to be played correctly. Teams who work together (and work to their ship strengths) really stand out and just dominate a match. Fulfilling your ship roles are crucial.

Currently I drive a tier 8 BB (Bayern). In terms of size, it's more compact than previous tiers and, therefore, it's easier to evade shells from other BB's when at range.

I've learned to appreciate that you need to stick with your team and focus fire more so than before, as BB's don't perform as well on their own.To win battles you must reduce the enemy's offensive capability one ship at a time while keeping your ships in tact.

As most battles progress, picking the right target and picking the right time to strike is vital, asking myself:

• Is this target really worth attacking? Do I have an opportunity to break apart the enemy formation? Will I attract too much aggro and get sunk? Am I correctly positioned?
• Am I able to attack without being attacked? (am I scouted?) Can I retreat? Do I have back-up or not?

The play style of NF2 strongly encourages captains to stay with their team mates. The majority of battles can be won with superior numbers. BB's have lots of DP, but that can vanish if you get torpedoed, or shelled by the combined fire of multiple CA's/ BB's

BB's are vulnerable because of their slower speeds (when heavily armoured), slower turn rate and long reload times. However, get several of them together firing at one target and they will quickly devour it. 

The game is still fun and yet frustrating at the same time, as is the case in most random match made scenarios.

Ship and Item Setups

This is a basic guide ship item, ammo and armour setups. This is not a manual as to how to equip items, you should already know that.

Step 1

Ensure you have your scout plane item equipped. And use the slider to fill the ship with scouts.

Step 2

Ammo - your ship will always have ammo on board. In relation to HE and AP a good rule of thumb is about 10-20% AP.

As ammo is precious in a battleship count the number of shells in AP and divide it by the number of guns that will fire them, to give yourself as many full salvoes as you desire.

This would usually be around 6. Maybe more if you are against lots of high tier armoured ships.

Step 3 

Items

Every ship you have should be running a boiler item. This is a given as it counters the speed reduction of equipping any other items you put on board or adds extra speed if you can't afford (or don't want to equip) other items.

From then on it's up to you to decide how to use the other five item slots.

If you only want armour, a 2 deck 3 belt setup is a good idea for Heavy Cruisers and Battleships in general matchmaking games.

DD's suggested setup are belt armour and bulkhead. Belt helps you shrug off some damage up close when engaging larger targets (bb/ca). Bulkhead for when keeping your hull reliability up (improve the rate at which your ship slows down when taken heavy damage) . Remember that DD's benefit least from armour. Agility is their biggest asset.

CV's can benefit by having armour too, especially with the DP increase they have. Many players get caught out thinking a CV won't have armour. They fire HE rounds to find they are mistaken. It can spare a CV from sinking one or two salvoes early by piling on the armour.

High tier battleships benefit from a reload item to counter their slow main gun reload and armour to help against attacks from support ships. It depends on how you play, if you tend to get too close some belt will help. If you stay at long range, some deck will be best.


Heavy cruisers can benefit from the reload item to increase their (already great) dps even more. A little armour can help, but speed is probably more important.

Submarines benefit from boiler and torpedo reload. Don't bother with armour as you don't have enough DP anyway, plus you need as much speed as possible as you are the slowest ships in the game.

Step 4

As a final suggestion, save up some gold items for Fleet battles and Harbour Assaults. These items provide twice as much benefit over their standard counterparts. Don't waste gold items for general matchmaking though.

Captain's Log - Episode 4

Nearly a month of playing I have a decent battleship with a scout and anti-aircraft guns.  The Mackensen is... interesting. It's so big and the guns spray shells all over the place, but it's definitely a joy to be able scout where I want instead of relying on my team for light.

 AA works well against enemy scouts when on auto aim, and German ships seem to possess strong aa shells and good aa range. I tried manual aiming for a while. It's proving tiresome to aim the secondary guns and main guns. But it is possible.

Some games are very interesting but most are just a matter of sticking to your team and avoiding the rushing ships and bombers.

Matchmaking is pretty much players getting to understand the game. And win percentage is affected by this. But it's only a means to an end.

Because credits are in short supply I'm saving up for the next ship, and only spending xp on the research to get their.

This seems to be what it's like for mid-tier ships. Conserve credits to purchase the next one. Until it takes longer to get the next ship, then upgrades could be (credit) purchased

Long Term Motivation

As a navyfield 1 player coming into NF2, I already know there is going to be a big grind ahead to get the high teir ships and officers.

What can you do to help make things more bearable?

• First, you can remember that NF2 is only a 7 months release and as a new game it still has problems to be worked out.


• Second, learn about the game by reading in-game and online information, going to the nf2 wiki and learning from your own gaming experience.


• Third, set yourself small targets to reach the bigger ones. Here are several things that you can monitor to help in this regard:

• Be time efficient. Don't wait around for several minutes for a loss. Quit and get a new match started.
• Battle efficiently every battle. Supporting and attacking with a team. Earning as much xp and credits as possible.
• Small targets like every 100k, 200k or 500k experience you attain, as a marker to where you want to get to.
• Making the most of xp boost and discount gold events.
• Platooning. Team up for better chances of winning.
• Being part of a Fleet. This is a big one. Fleet mates are your friends. They can spur you on, congratulate you when you get your next ship, share funny experiences, teach you things, provide useful info and have a laugh with too. Strong motivation!

I joined a fleet on the very first day on NF2. I've chatted to them. Do the same, be part of a family, be active and friendly. Join a fleet immediately.

Other Points to Remember

Realise what you can do in the game. Make it enjoyable by engaging with your fleet and by being active. Notice them in battles, tell them when they did something amazing (good shot, nice torps) or laugh when they crashed into an island or sunk a team mate accidentally.

Drive different ships, there might be another ship you could get quicker. In game: Capture bases, focus on AAing, try to learn manual aiming, chat to teammates as they will appreciate the banter and/or teamwork.

Try a new nation: IJN have mean torpedo ships, USN have great CV's, UK have strong BB's and SS, KM have great accuracy.

Remember if you are a non-premium player you wont advance as fast.

Having the top tier ships super fast won't matter because there are no Fleet Battles or Harbour Assaults.

Remember how much time you put in will be what you get back: if you do a couple of hours every day you will eventually get somewhere (tier 8+ ships) in a months time.

Avoid directly comparing NF2 to NF1 where they gave free gold accounts and credits and experience came much more easily.

The developers want to encourage players to spend money now. They will try to limit what non-premium players can do, whilst allowing premium players to feel that they have gotten ahead for money they have spent. 

In time events will come along so that everyone can get some premium items and ships.

Put up with any issues. Things will change sooner or later.

Remember you still get exp and credits if you take part in the battle.

Navyfield Newsletter - Reinforcements Have Arrived

As a brief summary of recent changes to Navyfield 2 the development team have issued the following newsletter:

Tier 12 ships leak

Let me explain. Tier 12 ships don't have holes in them. In fact navyfield 2 does not have tier 12 ships available just yet.

In the 10th June weekly update, the development team listed out ships that were still being planned for release and by so doing sparked a bit of chatter amongst the community. 

However the list only showed that there were tier 12 battleships, the reason for this being recent forum activity based on in-game evaluations*. While this doesn't necessarily mean that there will only be tier 12 battleship while every other class gets behind, it shows us a couple of things.

1) The community is affecting what developers are altering about the state of navyfield 2. *One recent forum post, highlighted the need for improved defence ratings for battleships which generally are lower than other ship classes, particularly past tier 7. This forum post has drawn responses from the community quickly.

2) Battleships, and by extension all ships are still in need of fine tuning. Ongoing balance is always required, especially with some ships performing extremely well and others not fulfilling their intended role(s).

It's tricky to test out just how well a ship is against another ship without having a specific test area to do some trials.

Also in a test setting situations will rarely be the same as a general matchmaking setting where many things happen at once and with many people of varying skill levels and ship/officer level.

And both of those settings will not be the same as the fleet war setting either. Where you will expect all players to be sporting high level and morale boosted officers and their highest level ships.

Tier XII

They will be the BB 4/5 equivalents from navyfield, and will include the:

• USN _ Montana
• RN _ Lion
• IJN _ A150  (super yamato)
• KM _ H44

These ships while never built in reality were planned and had some pretty big damn guns on them some having 20-inch guns.

But these hips were also very very tough things to destroy, and their survivability was a culmination of more than 50+ years of battleship design and testing.

Sadly they were so incredibly expensive in terms of cost and material, let alone the fact that battleships were past their golden years and were a dying breed.

Many on the community forums and in-game are buzzing with anticipation to get enough research on their current tier XI ships so they can buy the tier XII's outright when they get introduced to the game.

Navyfield 2 End-game?

Harbour Assaults

Following the traditional approach set down from navyfield 1, the end game revolves around what is called harbour assaults. Harbour assaults can only be played by fleets who wish to control one of the available harbours.

What will harbour assaults be like?

Quite simply, a harbour assault consists of two fleets who battles it out over who owns the harbour. The victorious fleet gets to keep the harbour for themselves until it is attacked again. The setup may be fairly similar to the original harbour assaults in navyfield 1.

What are the benefits of owning a harbour?

Harbours allow the controlling fleet to get free ship repairs in regular matches. It also allows the fleet to rent unique ships. Harbours are the hallmark of a strong fleet, especially if they control it for longer periods of time.

What are unique ships?

Basically they are like ships on steroids. Compared to mastered ships they are very accurate, fast, quick to reload and have slightly longer range than their standard counterpart.

In navyfield 1 unique ships were a remodelled version of a current battleship. In navyfield 2 there may be unique destroyers, cruisers, submarines and carriers. This could add an interesting twist for fleets if they are included.

How will harbour assaults work?

A fleet takes over a battle area leading up to the harbour. Then they attack the harbour to capture or destroy it. Claiming it for your themselves.

More details on Harbour Assault will be available once they are added.

Platoon Battles

What are platoon battles?

The platoon battle gives you and two friends (or more likely fleet mates) the chance to battle together on the same team.

However, there are certain restrictions on the type of ships you can have in a platoon. For instance you can only have two battleships in your team, never three. Your team can have either one carrier or one submarine running at a time, but never both at the same time .

This is so you could never have a maximum tier battleship, carrier and submarine teaming up together.

Platoon benefits and advantages

Platoons are a great way to have fun with friends and fleet mates. It is also a good opportunity to learn fleet mates play styles, what ships they have, to communicate effectively with them in battle       (using voice chat).

A strong incentive for using a platoon is the 20% increased credit earnings. Which is a great because credits are harder to come by than exp. 

Platoon downsides?

Usually platoons are a good way to make a strong team in matchmaking. Most likely you will be matched against other platoons.

In some games one team may have a platoon while the other team doesn't. In which case, if you're at the short end of the stick, your team will get wrecked in no time.

With active fleets, having only three players in a platoon can be a little restrictive, and you may find because your fleet has multiple platoons out there, that you bump into them more frequently.

Battle Ritual

No, this is not some tribal dance to taunt your enemies and rally your team spirit. It is, however, what you do the instant a battle start. There is a certain routine that players should follow to effectively control his ship before the first engagement.

For battleships the routine is this:

1. Prepare your scout
2. Line all your guns
3. Proceed travelling towards the battles line direction.
4. Look at team compositions

Practice this routine, embed it in your mind so it becomes habitual. I don't use numbered bullet points but this list needed it. The most important point is to get your scout ready. Your scout is the first thing that will detect the enemy and allow you to discern their plans.

Being prepared in advance of the first engagement is key. That scout will alert you to any rushing destroyers / light cruiser torp ships (usually a kuma or kitakami). It will reveal the enemy's composition in the direction you intend to be going. Take particular note of submarines, and battleships.

So much happens before that first salvo is fired and when it is let loose it informs everybody that you're ready for battle. When you hit your opponents first it shows that you are paying attention. You will probably scare your enemy off but you will gain control of the flow of battle. Which is exactly what you want.

That first scout reveals so much. Even if it gets shot down ( but try not let this happen, control it properly), you will know roughly what the enemy is up to. You will also know that they pay attention to scouts and use their anti aircraft guns too.

How do players launch their scouts so quickly?

The scout should always be the first thing you get ready. By default scouts are preselected, but press F1 anyway to select them, as it's good to get into this habit. Follow this up by pressing Shift+Up Arrow, followed by ' ( the key with the @ symbol on).

These are the default keys to select and fuel your scout. It's 100 times faster than using the mouse to ready up a scout. ( takes about 1 second )

Get that scout ready first,  you should do this before moving your ship or guns!

(Side note: even in fleet games, harbour assaults and 98.9% of general matches my scout will pop out first. only a handful of players ever beat my launch time, only when I wasn't paying attention. Be ready to ready-up your scout in the loading screen)

When the scout is ready press F1 to make sure the plane is selected and then press '  to launch.

Step #2

While your scout is fuelling, you have a few seconds to aim your guns and move off in the direction of battle.

You will also be able to take a glimpse at the teams by pressing ` (the button the the left of number 1 key)

When the scout is ready press F1 to make sure the plane is selected, especially after you have aimed your gun groups and moved your ship around. Once the plane is selected press '  to launch. This is the fastest and most efficient way in the game to ready and launch your scout.

# Tip:   Watch for incoming enemy scouts and be ready to snipe them. Most players forget to lower their scouts height and only fly them in a straight line at the beginning. Blasting their scout blinds them and gives you the advantage. (even before they come into your aa range, train your guns to fire on them)

When you are doing all of the above without thinking, you are prepared in the most effective way for battle. You set off in a much stronger stance, a step ahead, even. You can then start catching unprepared battleships off-guard and will be a more serious threat early on in the battle.

Discovering how the opposing team is composed is very important. You will know who their flagship is at what ship he's in, where he's going. You want to take stock of how many tier 9 - 11 ships there are, as these will be the biggest threats. Targets of opportunity such as weaker tiers and lonely ships.

Once all these factors are added together you become a strong player. Able to use that knowledge and ability to hurt the enemy.

New Ships - Major Update

Next weeks' update on Wednesday 27th May will include either some or all of the large ship update promised by team NF.

To view a full list of new ships click here.

Some very promising looking ships will be included across all of the ship classes and tiers. Along with some important tier X ships to fill the large xp gaps between tier IX and XI (9 & 11) and a host of remodelled ship variants will also be added to provide more variety an replay value to the game so far.

There will also be some nifty experience alterations and conversions of ship exp to free exp for those who will come up short of their dream ship before the patch goes live, so don't worry you will all be catered for.

Finally this will be a small glimpse at what we have in store for when other nations come along. Hopefully this will be much further down the line after fleet wars have been added and the current ship pool refined and patched to make things run smoothly.

'Item-up' Your Battleship

As the title suggest you have a maximum of 6 item slots on every ship you own and once you unlock them, you may feel obliged to purchase items continually to improve how your ship plays.

Each ship you will want to equip with slightly different items to boost a key advantage that ship has over others. For a battleship you obviously won't be loading up on torpedo items. However if you are looking for a well balanced ship then check out the first setup.

For all ships you will always want the boiler upgrade. For light and heavy cruisers you will be better served by reload rather than accuracy items.

Armour is best kept for battleships and CA's

Balanced Battleship Setup

It is my firm belief that you should always have the boiler item on your battleship. This can have the effect of increasing your speed and off-setting the speed reduction of all the other items you equip.

Bear in mind that if you are a non-premium player. The boiler item will only afford you +5% speed. Which means if you equip five other items that do -2% to speed you will always be running at -5% speed when using all six item slots.

For non-premium players a good balance setup is:

1x boiler   +5% speed

1x repair   +50dp/s

2x acc/reload items

The logic here is that overall you will have only lost -1% speed for gaining repair and accuracy or reload ability.

Alternatives are to forego the repair, reload/accuracy for armour or a mixture of any of them. But to only have 3 other items used beyond the boiler so that you loss of speed is fractional.

If you are not too bothered about losing some speed or having more repair, then go for any mixture of armour and weapon enhancements you desire.

For premium players the premium items are much more helpful. They are effectively twice as good for their advantages and half as bad in the downsides when compared to the non-premium equivalents.

The boiler item is a must and grants your ship a healthy +10% speed bonus. Couple with the fact that all other premium items affect your ship speed by -1% each you will always be up by +5% speed with a full compliment of 6 premium items.

Armoured Setups (AW BB/CA)

The logic here is to focus on armouring up your ship with 5 armour slots + the standard boiler upgrade.

For non-premium players you can have the boiler upgrade + 2  armour stacks before you lose any speed. If you don't mind losing a knot or two then you can go for filling the other 5 stacks with armour.

Bear in mind that all tier V armour stacks except bulkhead (never use bulkhead anyway) reduce ship speed by 1.8% each 

For premium users you will use the boiler upgrade for +10%, but will lose 9% of that speed if you then load up the rest of your 5 item slots with armour stacks. Which is a pretty good balance.

Speed Setups

For a speed focused setup you will only be using the boiler enhancement item to gain the +5% or +10% speed advantage.

Speed setups are great for all ships. They can really assist already quick ships ( destroyers and light cruisers), or speed up inherently slower ships (like ss, carriers and battleships [particularly the fast tier XI ones])

Plus they are also a cheap alternative, because you will only be spending credit or gold on 1 item per purchase instead of 6.

Armour only setups

If you want to have 6 stacks of armour on your ship then this setup is just for you. Actually this can be an effective setup for the majority of matchmaking games because most engagements take place at mid and close range. And most players are in the frame of mind to close down on you.

Try this setup in a tier 5-8 BB and you will have bunches of fun especially with the higher dps using secondary guns.

However, players will quickly learn that their shells are not doing much damage to you and switch to Armour Piercing. You will be extremely slow. Bear this in mind if the map is very open. Also you may be susceptible to torpedo attacks from subs or dive bombers, there will always be some weakness you have.

If you intend on getting very close to the enemy team a good strategy is to have more belt armour. maybe 4 stacks of belt with 2 stacks of bulge to counter destroyers and submarines. Again you are exposed to high angle shells and dive bombers.

Or you could go for an all round 2/2/2 bulge belt deck setup. The better options seem to be focus on what range you are going to engage. If its med-long range take deck armour and some bulge,  if its low-angle range, then more belt and bulge.

Automatic Aiming Control

In Navyfield 2 automatic aiming is the preferred firing method because of:

1. The fast paced nature of the game. 
2. The spread of shells. 
3. Less effort wasted.

Navyfield 2 is fast paced, much like blitzkrieg battles in Navyfield 1. You simply don't have time to manually aim 2 sets of guns on your target because they move too fast. Couple that with the fact that....

...shell spread gets worse the further away you fire, this is exacerbated when overheating and turning your ship. Most engagements will be in close to mid range. Auto aim helps you to switch targets quickly and fire two or three different weapon banks effectively. Maximising your damage output.

 Manual aiming requires a lot more effort overall, for little improvement on accuracy and therefore damage and dps. Imagine then trying to do that on 2 or 3 weapon groups constantly for 10 minutes. Yea, best stick to auto if I were you. 

Navyfield 2 is built around automatic aiming. But it has its downsides. You are not able to effectively AA scouts at certain heights and you get slightly less accuracy at all ranges than manual aiming does.

So really it's a trade-off between better dps and less effort involved, for slightly less accuracy and the ability to effectively AA scouts that are controlled properly.

The choice is yours, but as the game is now, use auto aim.

That's the why, now for the how.

Auto aiming boils down to a bit of a spam click affair. But you still need to think about what you are doing so that you firing cycles are efficient, so once a salvo is loaded you are ready to fire. And when you actually fire that you've maximised the damage you can do.

It begins once you choose to engage a target and fire for the first time. You start a cycle of reloading and firing that you need to manage.

You will also learn to use the 'E' key and in some cases the 'C' key for improved accuracy on smaller targets, or in 1 vs 1 situations.

#Part 1 - Leading a target

It goes without saying to lead your target the further away they are. Ships travel extremely quickly. 

 #TIP   Aim about a full ship length ahead of a battleship travelling at full speed. (when medium to long range)

#Part 2 - Adjust guns

Allow your guns time to adjust their angle. Be patient. You don't want to over/under shoot if you fire before the guns set themselves.

If you are firing a full salvo, just before hitting the spacebar press the 'E' key to converge your guns. This makes for improved accuracy.

#Part 3 - Evasion

In between a reload cycle take evasive action. By this, I mean press the 'G' key to flick back to your ship and change course towards or away from your target. Doing this achieves two things:

• It forces your opponent to adjust their aim. (travelling in a straight line makes you an easy target)
• It reduces your ship's profile so that fewer shells hit you ( this in turn keeps your DP up so you can stay in the fight longer)

Make sure you line up your guns and ship to your target before the reload is complete. Learn to time it correctly so you can fire immediately once reloaded.

Once you nail the cycle of fire, evade, realign, you will be doing more damage while taking less during the course of battle.

Actually you will become proficient to the point where you can cycle through 2 or 3 gun sets to fire at your target ship and AA any scout planes looming overhead.

Battleship Gameplay Tactics

General Info

Battleship are the 'big-stick' damage dealers in Navyfield 2.

Being large and heavy makes them slow, however battleships have high DP and are tougher to destroy.

Being large targets means that battleships need to be aware of other battleships, aerial bombers, submarines and nearby destroyers who want to launch torpedoes at them.

How to use a Battleship (BB)

In an ideal situation (one where scouting is good and you can see your main guns score a hit) a BB should be looking to do damage to other BB's. [maybe CA/CL depending on the situation]

Multiple BB's on a team form a line to the opposing team. This line is to cover each other and to deny access to your CV's. Your CV is the team lifeline, providing protection and sight. Ultimately they gain you victory.

Engagement Tips

As with most ships, battleships should remain in motion at all times. Generally travelling in a line, but evading where necessary.

In early BB's ( teir IV + V's) players should remain grouped together with their team. Sinking stray enemies. And using team light/vision to shoot at opponents.

Later teir BB's can provide scouting for themselves allowing them the freedom to engage in BB to BB battles.

TIP: Always keep moving at maximum speed.

Battleships should always keep on the move. Especially when on the receiving end of an attack.

TIP: Retreat from the battle line when attacked by multiple battleships, or when you can't see the enemy.

TIP: Change speed and direction to throw off BB's targeting you.

Occassionally turning into or away from your opponent means they have to readjust their aim. But so do you.

In tier IV + V BB's, use auto aim and get used to hosing down your target with Main guns at max range. Use secondary guns if you know they are blind. If a DD appears close-by scouting your position, take this DD out quickly as it becomes a major threat to you.

Tier V bb's have one of the best ratios of DPS and are relatively small in size, making them very efficient at medium ranges. Use this to your advantage.

Remember: at-level the guns will make your shells inaccurate at longer range, especially if you have only 120% max morale instead of a fully boosted morale at 200%

Scouting

When your BB can equip a scout plane, do so immediately and practice with it.

A scout will give you vision over where you are shooting. This is a crucial point because without light (vision) you are vulnerable.

With the correct scouting you can anticipate enemy movement. It also reduces the chance of receiving surprise attacks.

Scout enemy planes.

Scouts also allow you to determine enemy plane movement. This is important, because it gives you insight into your enemy's ideas. Also you can see bomber squadrons from CV's. And all CV's will bomb their favourite targets: Battleships.

A bombing CV will be gunning for a big juicy battleship that isn't paying attention. Why? because CV's can get more damage and more rewards from BB's. And let's face it you would do the same, BB's are big easy targets.

Watch for fighter planes, as they can blast your scout out of the sky. Reducing you to having no light, no visibility and back into that nasty vulnerable state again.

TIP: Keep an eye on enemy scout plane locations to determine if you are able to get within range of other BB's without being spotted.

This is another crucial skill to develope. Determining the right time to "go for it" means you can successfully engage a target without getting shot at. Which is totally satisfying when executed correctly.

Late Game - Stalemates

Eventually when both teams are balanced and filled with experienced players, you will find a stalemate happens.

In these scenarios you can do two things:

Destroy all enemy scouts until they have none left, attacking them when they are blind.

Engage in a line battle at max range and try to goad the enemy towards you, picking them off one by one.

Usually a mix of the two is best because you get damage points while reducing the enemy's offensive capability.

Above all learn to be patient. A BB's fight is never quick and easy. It's a war of attrition with the most patient and level-headed player coming out victorious.

Manual Aiming

Although I mentioned using auto aim for the start, do not neglect Manual aiming completely. Give it a go to prepare yourself for the late tier BB's, where hitting all your shells on a target is even more vital, and can really make the difference.

View a more detailed look at Manual Aiming

Vid-Fest

Surprisingly there some interesting videos you can find of navyfield 2 out there on the web right now. Yes there's one or two who show a first look of the game, and others that are designed as comparisons.

In general there are few that show specific ships in action, or that show a crazy damage battle. We're talking 300,000+ damage taken on video.

Other than that there is a huge wide open space for those epic games, you know the ones where one fortunate guy gets to be in the action so much and plays well with his team racking up tonnes of damage

Also a favoured video from navyfield was the harbour assault battles. Video screening the whole thing is not easy, especially when you need to be focusing on driving your ship.

                                         

Store and Items

There are several types of items that can be purchased in game in the store. Some of the items alter your ship abilities while others can increase your credit and experience earnings.

Current items include: officers, premium officers, aides, premium aides, armour and ship enhancements, planes, camouflage skins etc....

While standard items can be bought with credits, premium items can be bought with gold, which costs real money.

Officers

Officers are the bread and butter of your crew. Only with a full officer crew can your ship perform correctly, to it's full potential.

Every officer starts at level 1 and can go up to the maximum level of 100. At every level your officer is granted a point to spend on a specialisation. These points increase the way your officer 'performs' ship duties. Basically the more points you spend in one area, the greater it will perform.

Premium officers have a higher percentage ability rating and start with 30 specialization points for you to spend.

An additional, and more complicated, mechanism behind officers' ability beyond the points earned per level, is Morale. Morale is represented by a meter that changes based on wins and losses. Initially this starts at 100% with the maximum at 120%. This can later be extended to 200%

To unlock the full morale beyond 120% right up to 200%, you need to purchase morale items. This can be the most tricky, and expensive aspect of navy field 2.

Aides

Aides are an additional type of officer that increase your credit and experience intake. The non-premium aides cost credits, last for 2 days, and increase credit or exp earned by 5%. Premium aides do the same but increase credits or exp by 15%, depending on which one you select.

Item Info

Items can be added to your ship to improve different aspects of how your ship will function in battle. Quicker repairing, quicker speed, better armour, faster reloading, Items incur a bonus but are offset with with a slight speed penalty.

Each ship starts with one item slot. You can buy 5 more item slots with credits. Each new slot is slightly more expensive than the last. Each ship has a maximum number of 6 item slots in total.

 In addition, a separate camouflage slot is available to make your ship look awesome. Camouflage items are only cosmetic and do not incur any advantage or disadvantage when equipped.

While most items can only have only one of them equipped onboard at any one time.

You can add Multiple types of the same item can be added onto a ship. IE: armour items at once.

Some items are limited to one per ship. Weapons, boiler and repair items all have this limitation. You can only have one of each type on board your ship, never two or more of the same.

Armour items have varying degrees of enhancement. For instance, a tier V armour stack will provide greater defence than a tier II armour stack. Note that armour increases ship weight and decreases ship speed.

Cost

Items are relatively expensive early on in the game when you have less credits. With the shelf life of items for their cost you will want to be getting enough out of those items for the price you've put in. Especially for armour which is probably the most popularly used items right now.

Weapon items cost 1620, basic repair crew costs 2430 and the boiler enhancement cost 2020, all in game credits.

For non-premium users the credit prices are pretty good if you want to get a slight increase for general matchmaking games. However it is advised that when harbour assaults or serious matches come along using fleets, you will want to be loading up on premium items. For a more detailed look at the different item combinations look here.

Shelf Life

All items have a shelf life. Some items last for 7 days. The time begins when you equip the item on a ship. Think before you equip it, are you going to get the full use out of it over those seven days.

This is even more important for aides, which only last for 2 days.

Avoid testing out theories before knowing enough information. Items are relatively expensive early on in the game. Read up about the best items for your ship before buying them.

Remember you can only have one of any item on board at once. Only armour items can be duplicated onbaord.

Light Cruiser Gameplay Tips

Light Cruisers (CL) are agile ships bristling with multiple medium caliber guns. CL's perform two main functions within battle:

• They target enemy planes with AA fire.
• They target destroyers and light cruiser.

Ship Role

A light cruiser is a support vessel that helps the team by providing cover from enemy planes. CL's should primarily look for scouts and bomber squadrons to shoot them down with AA fire.

CL's are relatively small compared to battleships (BB) and Aircraft Carriers (CV). In general CL's tend to be targeted less by larger ships because of their small size.

When doing your role correctly, enemy BB's and CV's will be trying to sink you first, because you are stopping them scouting and bombing your team.

Anti-Aircraft Warfare

When you get your first CL, you will be using high explosive (HE) ammo to sink smaller ships. But don't forget to load AA and HE ammo as well. A flexible CL is better equipped to support his team, able to fend off air aggressors and small ship rushes. Always have AA and HE ammo loaded.

When it comes time to practicing AA, the same rules apply for leading a target. Your shells have to travel, and the planes are tiny targets to hit. When your guns are accurate enough they will form a line through the sky and could hit multiple targets at once.

Manual AA increases your gun accuracy. After plenty of practice you will be hitting targets with ease.

Capturing Bases

Light cruisers excel at capturing bases because they are quick. Coupled with excellent AA capabilities and strong landing officers, a CL can capture a base and not get shot at as easily as other ship classes.

Earning Credits Efficiently

The best way to earn credits is to do your bit and survive:

• Do some damage and sink some ships.


• Capture islands, radars or airfields.


• Recieve less damage. Repairing your ship will eat away your credits. Repairs are automatic at the end of a match.


• Dont get sunk. This is a pretty big one. Repairing a sunken ship costs even more.

Sinking a ship will also get you credit rewards. More about those later.

Try reading the after action report to see how much repair costs were on your ship if sunk or damaged. This will show you what you should improve on in your next battle.

The key here is to be very strict about how you play. Dont rush into battle, needlessly take damage, and sink. And never get sunk within the first few minutes of a match.

If your team are winning and you get sunk mid-game, stay until the end and claim the victory and more credits