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BB1
===
As I said in my BB tactics guide, most BB1s are simply the first ship that players get
their hands on that are classified as BattleShip or BattleCruiser. In this case, the USN
BB1s are the pre-refit Standard Type Battleships, plus the two members of the Alaska class
Large Cruisers. Now, historically, the Alaska and Guam were Large Cruisers, not
battlecruisers, but SDE saw fit to term them as battlecruisers, so you get stuck holding
the short end of the stick there (which you should get used to). But besides that, pretty
much all BB1s for all nations are hard to play, and only really get "good" once your crew
is ready to handle the next ship down the line. Not exactly fair, but something that you
should get used to.
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ALASKA
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Right when you start out, you will learn to absolutely hate the Alaska as a BB. While its
capabilities allow even a Blitz noob to wipe the floor with most other CAs in the game, it
doesn't fare so well against other BBs. It has the support slots of a CA, the least range
of all BB1s in the game, absolutely horrid at-level spread, and paper-thin durability.
Still, all is not lost. Why is that? Well, besides the fact that what makes the Alaska
suck is because your crew is at-level rather than flaws with the ship itself, the Alaska
is one of the few BBs in the game that can hit the overheat cap without even trying, among
its various perks. If you can use the advantages that the Alaska provides properly, it can
serve as a worthwhile ship to drive.
The mistake that most new players make with their Alaska is that they try to play it as a
line ship; with no range, firepower, or durability, this almost always ends up with the
Alaska being one-shotted by that BB5 across the map without a second thought. Trying to
put an Alaska on the battle line is an absolutely terrible idea, so don't even try.
Fortunately, as you will see, there are other ways to use your Alaska successfully,
without the risk of being pulverized by the big guys.
One of the biggest problems in playing the Alaska is in dealing with the spread of the
guns, which is horrible because of the level of your gunners. The only way to deal with
this is either by spending money on your crew or by leveling them up higher. However, this
isn't as big of a problem as it was before, since the guns that the Alaska normally uses
have an accuracy revision bonus, which becomes more apparent at higher levels (my gunners
can practically block with them). Until you reach that high level though, there's not much
you can do except deal with it.
Durability is also a huge problem, as the Alaska has the same number of support slots as
the Baltimore you commanded before, and is a large target to boot. There will be times
when you will think that your Baltimore was more durable, since it could absorb BB shells
more reliably, and this is not far from the truth. However, this is also something that
you have to deal with until your support sailors get better. Be warned, though, that this
"glass jaw" effect is something that doesn't ever quite stop bothering the Alaska.
In general, most players use the 12" N's as the main guns on their Alaska, since the 12"
L's only afford you two binds of ammo. The high slinging angle on these guns makes them
hard to use in a chasing scenario, and as a result some people opt to mount the 14" Mk 9
L's or 14" Mk 10 D's for their lower angle to reduce the hang time, though the
disadvantages from doing this are generally not worth it in my opinion. How you set it up,
however, is entirely up to you. But my experience tells me that the 12" N's are the best
gun to use on the ship.
The secondary battery on the Alaska is quite nice, far better than what you can expect
from the Standard Types, which makes it and the Guam unique among USN BB1s. With AA
guns mounted on it (see my AA guide sticky for more details), the survivability of the
Alaska can be increased considerably; you can shoot down scouts to blind your opponents,
or bring down those bombers gunning for you. When used behind the line, the Alaska can be
used quite successfully as a support ship.
The engine choice can be a bit complicated here. While most new players choose the BC
Heavy Engine, the CV IV Heavy Engine is a better choice because it's lighter, giving you a
bit more usable displacement. Performance-wise, though, there's not that much of a
difference; the Alaska's high overheat ratio means that it will hit the overheat cap with
either engine, but the CV IV engine will give you an extra bit of overheat time. In terms
of cost, the CV IV engine is also cheaper, so it's overall superior. In this case,
researching your options before buying something really does pay off.
Because of this, the Alaska is a very fast ship, and you shouldn't hesitate to exploit
every last ounce of that 49+ knot overheat speed. It's quite long, which makes it easy to
land shells on, but it's also very slim, which can make it extremely hard to hit if you
know how to maneuver it. In fact, the slimness, combined with the speed, can make the
Alaska a very hard ship to bomb, which can greatly frustrate the CVs on the other team; I
once managed to completely avoid being damaged for five minutes in my Alaska while under
the full undivided attention of three enemy CVs.
The Alaska has the ability to carry 5 or 6 scouts, which will come in very handy for your
team, and can launch two of them at a time. Compared to later BBs that you will drive, this
is a boon that you cannot afford not to exploit. Use those scouts frequently, and don't be
afraid to conduct risky maneuvers with them if it will result in better scout coverage for
your team.
When playing the Alaska, you have two choices, as elaborated in the Pre-BB1 Reading
section: Support style and Ninja style. If you're just learning the ropes with the
Alaska, then Support style is a good way to ease into the ship. You can start by playing
Support for the biggest ship on your team, and as you get better, do it for a group of
ships in your hemisphere. When you feel confident enough, you can switch to Ninja style.
Overall, the Alaska is certainly not the best BB1 out there, but it does have some
surprises up its sleeve that can be used to pull off some nifty tricks that only the
Alaska and Guam can do. Your speed, AA, and scouts are your biggest assets, so don't be
afraid to use them. Your spread is the least predictable factor in using the Alaska, so
when in doubt, be sure to make your shots count. And try not to get hit whenever you can,
as at-level, it only takes a few heavy shells to put you into a bad situation.
The vast majority of players tend to remodel their Alaska into the Guam, or skip the
Alaska altogether and remodel straight to the Guam upon purchase, since the Guam is better
in most areas overall than the Alaska, and at-level the Alaska is one of the hardest ships
in the game to play. As a result, most players see the Alaska as more of a stepping stone
ship rather than a true BB1 in itself, and this is fine since the Guam does outstrip the
Alaska in virtually every way at high levels. However, at-level, the Alaska does hold the
advantage of hitting the speed cap right off the bat, which very few ships can accomplish.
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GUAM
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As a remodel to the Alaska, there's not much more that you can expect from the Guam than
what you would have expected from the Alaska. The Guam is better in almost every way than
the Alaska except for speed, but not by much. As a result, you really should play the Guam
like you did the Alaska, but with these changes in mind.
The Guam isn't much more durable than the Alaska, but it does come with an extra support
slot, which does help immensely. Your durability is still that of a BB1 though, so don't
get your hopes up too high. The extra DP and support slot help you absorb hits somewhat
more reliably, but any big BB will still have more than enough firepower to take you out
very quickly if you decide to go toe-to-toe with them. Just think of it as having more
elbow room for making mistakes, but not much more. Beware of the glass jaw though, as that
is one flaw that's carried over from the Alaska.
Gun spread will have hopefully improved as well if you've leveled your gunners properly,
so hitting targets more consistently will be easier in the Guam. The general
recommendation here is to use the 12" L's as they offer the best combination of range and
firepower for the ship, but as with the Alaska, putting on 14" guns could improve your
rushing and speed capabilities at the cost of firepower, ammo, and armor penetration.
Again, my experience tells me that the 12" L's are the best way to go.
The AA suite for the Guam is basically an improved version of that for the Alaska, so you
can mount the same types of guns with more ammo, which does come in handy. Which guns
you mount are entirely up to you, or even if you want to mount AA guns at all. However, as
with the Alaska, using AA can increase the viability of your ship considerably, and it
wouldn't be smart not to take advantage of such a great secondary battery.
The Guam mounts virtually the same engine as the Alaska, but because of its lower overheat
ratio, it can't go nearly as fast right off the bat. At 42 knots with average at-level
engineers, it's still faster than most other ships out there, but you won't be able to
streak across the battlefield like you did in the Alaska. Most people consider this a
small price to pay for the other advantages that the Guam has over the Alaska, though.
Again, the Guam can carry 5 scouts with two-plane simultaneous launching capability, so
again, you should use these to the utmost advantage that you can. As I've stated multiple
times in my tactics guide, the team that does not scout properly will almost always be the
team that loses, so do your part in making sure that your team scouts properly.
Tactically, the Guam is played much the same way as the Alaska, but with more overall
resilience in exchange for speed. Both the Support and Ninja styles are viable, though in
this case players are encouraged to test their skills at the Ninja style, as it promotes
skill growth more than the Support style, and the Guam's enhanced capabilities allow you to
play Ninja better than Support. Used properly, a Ninja Guam can throw some extremely nasty
surprises in your opponents' faces, and alter the battlefield situation in a way that very
few BB1s can.
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NEW MEXICO (1930)
--------------------------
Coming six levels after the Guam, having access to yet another BB1 may not seem like
an upgrade at all, but the New Mexico (1930) offers a completely different style of play
from the Guam. In fact, depending on your play style, you may find the NM30 to be more fun
to drive, as it offers a slower and steadier approach to BB play than the battlecruiser
style you learned from the Guam. While it can't quite be said that this is a complete
upgrade from the Guam, the NM30 is often underestimated by its opponents, to their
eventual sorrow should its driver be skilled. If you learn to master the battlecruiser
ninja style gameplay of the Guam as well as the steady line-battle tactics of the New
Mexico, you will be well on your way to become an expert in BB driving.
The very first feature that you'll probably notice about the NM30 is that it has four R
mounts over the Guam's three. This lets you bring more overall firepower to bear on your
targets, and should your gunners be good, allow you to sink most ships of the same tier
under most conditions. The recommended guns to use on the NM30 are the triple 14" Mk 10
L's, which are very different in performance from the Guam's 12" guns (you can read more
about in the "12" guns vs. 14" guns" section). With a total of twelve barrels of raw 14"
firepower, you can put a serious amount of hurt on your opponents if you're smart and lucky.
One of the downsides of the New Mexico is that you have nowhere near the amount of speed
to get within range of your opponent as the Guam; with a base overheat in the mid-30's,
you can only really hope to break into the high-30's with good Engineers a few levels
above the ship, a far cry from the Guam's minimum overheat speed of 42 knots. You'll be
roughly as fast as a Nevada, and a bit faster than a Penn30, but the differences at that
level are lost in the noise. The upshot, though, is that the New Mexico family doesn't
have the glass jaw of the Alaska family, so you have somewhat more survivability than you
would think. Just remember that you're still a BB1 though, and most medium-level BBs will
still have little problem putting you down if you challenge them brashly.
If this is your first line, the NM30 will be your first ship since the Brooklyn that
cannot carry any decent AA on the secondary batteries. If you got used to plinking scouts
in your Guam, then the transition can be somewhat rough here, but the bright side is that
you can use the T mounts to carry support sailors to extend your survivability
considerably, on top of the NM30's innate damage resistance. And at BB1 level, this can
make quite a difference. However, if you choose, you could opt to carry the 5"25 single AA
guns and give enemy scouts a nasty surprise.
On this side of the tree, the NM30 will be the first ship that cannot carry 5 scouts; with
a carrying capacity of 3 or 4 scouts, you'll have to learn to conserve your planes to make
the best of them in every situation. The numbers don't get better until you reach the
Iowa, so get used to it.
The NM30 has the ability, like its Standard Type brethren, to play a line battle against
other BB1s, rather than relying on ninja tactics or simply supporting the line like the
Alaska family. Against larger enemies with more range and firepower than you, though,
you'll have to rely on other techniques, like the Raging Bull (discussed in the Pre-BB1
Reading section). You won't really be able to rely on blinding the enemy to approach them
since you can't really carry a reliable AA suite, but if you can get within range of the
enemy, then you'll be able to dish out a fair amount of punishment on them, and maybe even
sink something. Learning to use your brain to tactically engage the enemy with your
inferior range is something that will serve you very well later on down the line.
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NEVADA
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Nicknamed the "Potato" and "Hamster" at times, the Nevada was once known as the
Suckvada, and held the reputation as the the worst BB1 in the game, tied with the IJN's
Kongo. Successfully playing through the Nevada in that time alone made players a SONS,
Survivor of Nevada's Suckiness. With patch cycles though, the Nevada has turned into a
nice boat that, while still a BB1, has the capability to surprise its opponents at times.
As a Standard, the Nevada doesn't have the advantage of having a large number of scouts,
or a usable AA battery, or even speed. What it does have, though, is firepower and durability.
It starts off with the proper number of support slots, is tougher than the Guam yet doesn't
share the glass jaw of the Alaska family, and sports more barrels and firepower at the same
range as the Guam. While it does still share the at-level pains of bad spread and horrible
support, these things are to be expected, and proper leveling will fix them.
The main guns for the Nevada are the 14" Mk 9 L's on the B and X mounts (those are the
ones closer to the superstructure), and the 14" Mk 10 L's on the A and Y mounts (the ones
closer to the ends of the ship). While the 14" guns do less damage per shell than the 12"
guns, the Nevada can carry ten barrels, as opposed to the nine barrels of the Alaska and
Guam. As a result, the Nevada can field more firepower, and the pure saturation factor of
ten barrels versus nine makes hitting targets easier as well.
The secondary battery on the Nevada leaves much to be desired, but that's to be expected.
Most players opt to leave the mounts gunless and put support sailors on to increase their
durability, but some players like to put the 5"25 singles on as a surprise factor. While
the 5"25's are far inferior to the 5"38's or 3"70's, if only because those guns have two
barrels per mount, most people don't expect a Nevada to carry AA, and as a result, will
blindly fly their scout right on top of it, only to be shocked as it gets picked off by a
4 barrel broadside.
One of the major reasons that the Nevada was horrible to play was because it was an
extremely slow ship. Nowadays that's not as much of a problem since it can carry a usable
main battery, but the Nevada remains a fairly slow ship by today's standards, coming in at
an overheat speed around the mid-30's with at-level engineers. As a result, conducting
combat maneuvers can be quite hard, and giving chase to an enemy is almost suicide if they
have half the brain to run. So you'll have to choose your engagements carefully, and make
absolutely sure that you can win that engagement or at least do as much damage as possible
before succumbing to the enemy's shells.
The Nevada can also only carry 3 or 4 scouts, which makes each individual scout more
important, and can launch them one at a time. If possible, try to use them sparingly and
carefully, and do your best not to lose any of them. The last thing you need is to have to
call in your allies to scout for you halfway through the game when there are still enemy BBs
lurking in the darkness around you. There will be times when you will need to sacrifice
one of them every now and then, but judgment and experience will help in that.
The way that I played the Nevada was by using the Raging Bull (discussed above). The
slowness of the Nevada doesn't help matters much, but by playing aggressively, you'll be
able to take your opponent by surprise and perhaps even survive the encounter to do it to
someone else again, depending on how good you and your crew are.
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PENNSYLVANIA (1930)
----------------------------
As a pre-cursor to the BB2 stage, most USN players must first get the pre-model to that
ship, the Penn30 being one of them; the Colorado is the only USN BB2 that does not have to
go through this. As an end-stage BB1, the Penn30 plays much like its peers, the NM30 and
Tenn41. It carries the same guns and has more or less the same capabilities, but it's the
remodel where things change completely. Initially, the Penn30 seems like only a minor
upgrade from the Nevada. You have more durability and firepower but less speed, and your
AA battery is still useless, but used properly, the Penn30 can tear holes through the
enemy like the Nevada.
The first thing that you will notice is that the Penn30's mounts are uniform, so you can
put 14" Mk 10 L's on all four mounts. This, in effect, gives you twelve barrels of raw 14"
firepower to dish out at targets. Some people option out for the Guam's 12" L's for
increased per-shell damage and better deck penetration, at the cost of losing speed and
rushing capability. This is largely a preference of playing style, with the 12" variant
excelling in passive combat, while the 14" variant can charge enemies more efficiently. I
never ran with the 12" guns since I wasn't so keen on losing speed and rushing capability,
so my general recommendation is to use the 14" Mk 10's.
The secondary battery, again, is more or less useless, and most people put on support
sailors for more durability and speed. You could choose to put AA guns on if you wanted,
as with the Nevada, since the surprise factor is quite considerable, but in some cases the
increased durability and speed can be a godsend.
As slow as the Nevada can seem, the Penn30 is even slower, but be comforted by the fact
that it's only by a knot or two. Still, this makes charging your opponents harder to do,
but when you do get in range, you'll hit like a pile of bricks. The trick is to get into
that range to begin with though, which will require practice, judgment, and a lot of luck.
The Penn30 carries 3 scouts like most other USN BBs, and launches them one at a time. This
bears the same issues of scout scarcity that the other BBs also suffer from. Use your
scouts carefully, and make sure that you get the most use out of them in each game.
I basically played the Raging Bull with the Penn30, like I did with the Nevada. Pick a
target bigger than yourself, cruise outside of enemy range, wait for an opportunity, and
charge in and beat them down when they're distracted. Again, when you charge in, you'll
essentially have to commit yourself to that battle, since retreating is a dangerous
proposition with such slow speed and inferior range to your opponent. Don't stop attacking
until your target is dead, or you are.
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TENNESSEE (1941)
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I have not driven the Tenn41 or Tenn45, so I can't offer any personal insight to how to
drive it. However, its general performance set is similar to that of its other BB1
Standard Type brethren, the Penn30 and NM30, so look at those respective sections for more
information. The one exception is that its T mounts do have enough space to mount a
limitedly useful secondary battery, though it does squeeze the ammo count a bit too close
for comfort; how you use that secondary battery is up to you.