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Ferrard
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=====
Purpose:
=====
As brought up by Legend0424 recently, the Royal Navy is the only faction within Navyfield
lacking an AA Guide, and while LK's USN AA Guide is certainly very very useful, there is a
significant difference between the two nations AA styles. This guide is intended to
outline the methods of AA available to RN players.
As usual, respond with any critiques or requests for more information. There will be
rolling updates, and I will check back periodically (possibly to keep this bumped to at
least the first page so Newbies can see it)
============
Acknowledgements:
============
I뭗 like to thank the following forumites for critiquing and expanding upon this guide:
- Megadone
- Boydyma
- Notyad
- Longbow11
- Thancor
- Tipsypo
- RichardPhat
- PittPossum
And finally, a big thank you to lanthanide for coating this guide with epoxy and throwing
it against the wall =)
=============
Version Changes:
=============
v0.5 - Started Guide
v1.0 - Completed Guide
v1.1 - Edited various sections as critiqued
v1.2 - Fixed those annoying "?"'s littering the guide
v1.3 - Minor edits that were a long time coming. Also, Tiger.
=========
Introduction:
=========
So you've had your fill of the Charlie-Foxtrot that is Hobbit Wars Blitz, and you're
looking for something better. Welcome to GB2, where you are so much food for BB4-6's.
How do you avoid being food? There are two roads for you to take - Anti Sub Warfare (ASW)
and Anti-Aircraft gunnery (AA). Chances are, you're already into the Light Cruiser levels
by now, so ASW work is really below you (you won't earn full exp on the best ASW ships).
So you want to AA. Well, read on.
========
The Basics:
========
First off, I've got a couple links for you.
DO NOT CONTINUE UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THESE GUIDES:
The Holy Grail of AA (Obst's Guide to AA):
http://www.nf-guides.com/aa.htm
LordKelvin's Guide to USN AA and General AA Tactics:
http://www.navyfield.com/board/view.asp?Num=99573&Sort=A01
Cubone's AA Academy:
==========================
Why Can't the English Learn to AA?:
==========================
Even with those guides out there, however, it's exceedingly rare to find a British AA
ship. Of course, those you do find will generally know their angles much better than the
equivalent KM or US AA ship, and with good reason.
The major weakness of RN AA is that troubling RN reload time. The most effective guns
have a reload of two-and-a-half seconds and upwards, which may not seem like much, but is
an eternity when a flight of dive-bombers is about to smash your Flagship into smithereens.
In order to make up for this crippling rate-of-fire, good RN AAers act more as snipers
than your typical KM or US AAer who spams shells across the screen until there뭩 a neat
black ring around their ship. A good RN AA ship will down scouts in one volley, a whole
flight of bombers in two.
======================
Sailors, Ships, Guns, & Scouts:
======================
This is the first step into AA Godhood: Picking sailors, a ship, and guns. The scouts
bit should be obvious, but bears reiteration.
======
Sailors:
======
First off - for the most effective dedicated AA boat, you want Reload sailors. Now, if
you followed the general advice of the forums, you'll have Reload sailors anyways as your
main gunners (due to them capping both Acc and Rel in the late 80's), and these will serve
the purpose beautifully. Actual RN AA gunners are inexplicably nerfed beyond belief -
they are given gains in the AAW stat (useless) and lose an immense amount of ground in
Reload (critical), thus the advice of experienced players is to delay classing them up
from Armament Sailor until level 90 or higher.
For the obvious reason, never use Accuracy gunners for AA unless you truly have no other
choice.
Why would we even want AA sailors if they fail so miserably? Because only AA sailors can
use one of the most enjoyable guns in the game - Pom-Poms. I shall touch on those later,
but if you have the spare space, you should consider leveling a pair of AA sailors just to
play with these.
=====
Ships:
=====
There is one boat, that you should prefer over the use of all others except when leveling
higher level crew: The Emerald (or as I refer to mine, My Bewuved Emmy). The Emerald is a
run of the mill ship in every factor except for one. She has nine crew slots (the BO,
Main Gunners, T-Gunners, and four supports). She goes a respectable 34 / 41 knots when
ideally loaded (33/40 at max displacement, and 35/43 with pom-poms), has a pleasantly
sharp turning circle, and can mount four (4) scouts, making her a good support ship.
Where she really shines, however, is in her guns.
The Emerald has seven gunslots total, although the weird placement of the C and D turrets
means that only six will fire out of either broadside. Those six, however, are more than
enough to deal huge clouds of death to planes. Even better is the unconventional division
of guns - your six gun broadside is split 4:2, with four in the forward arc, and two in
the aft. For most ships (e.g., the Ise) this is considered bad, as the arrangement makes
it difficult to aim precisely. On an AA Emerald, this is golden. One of the easiest ways
for a CV to mess with an AA ship is to fly repeatedly from one side of the ship to the
other - in order to bring all their guns to bear, a ship has to swing their guns to port,
then to starboard. With an Emerald, however, you can ignore your aft guns and keep
tracking those planes with your forward ones. Four guns still spits out enough firepower
to put serious hurt on a flight of planes.
===========
Why so Sirius?
===========
(Sorry, couldn뭪 resist). The only other ship in the RN lineup besides the Emerald that I
consider fit for AA duty would be the Sirius. A level 34 Remodel of the Dido, the Sirius
is best known for being an Armor-Whoring beast in blitz. Its tightly packed five-gun
broadside, however, makes it almost as good at AA firepower as the Emerald - enough so
that it doesn뭪 make much difference. Where the Sirius starts to lose its luster,
however, is in the details. First off, the Sirius cannot mount scouts. Strike One.
Second, while the Sirius can reach roughly the same speed as the Emerald, she has a great
deal less turning force. What that means, quite simply, is that you dance with two left
feet in the Sirius. The Sirius has significantly more difficulty dodging incoming fire,
combing torpedo walls, and keeping out of the way of your battleships, all of which
combine to make the Sirius much more difficult to play with than an Emerald. Strike Two.
Third, the Sirius뭩 firing arcs are much less forgiving than those of the Emerald, with
24 degrees less in each gun뭩 traverse. This, combined with her weaker turning force,
makes it harder for a Sirius to bring all her guns to bear on a target. Strike Three. Out?
No. Where the Sirius shines is being a functional AA ship for higher levels. Face it,
once any sailors you뭨e trying to level reach Level 36, you start losing exp for them when
using an Emerald. However, the Sirius comes along at Level 34 as a slightly weaker, but
still workable substitute. Bingo.
==================
Heavy Make Okay Team:
==================
Every now and then, you뭠l see these monstrosities in a battleroom - an Edinburgh, County,
or Surrey mounting 5.25" guns and huge amounts of ammo. I used to consider these ships
rather useless when it came to AA - a distinct lack of broadside strength and the widely
spaced gun placement meant it was more difficult to aim properly. Add their large turning
circles into the mix, and it all added up to a group of ships I severely disliked for AA.
Further discussion, however, brought up another point: When properly loaded out for AA, a
County can reach a speed of 32 / 48 knots and still have the capability to snipe scouts.
While relatively helpless against bombers or fighters when compared with the Emerald or
Sirius, this does mean that as long as the enemy carriers don뭪 hover fighters on top of
your Battle Line, you뭠l be able to keep the enemy just as blind as with an Emerald, but
have seven extra knots of overheat (and longer overheat to boot) with which to get to
hotspots. An extra 4000 DP and higher structural strength and defensive values also mean
that it뭩 more likely you뭠l survive a BB salvo and live to run away.
Finally, there뭩 the leveling considerations: Once you reach level 44, any sailors you
were leveling on your Sirius again start to lose exp for being "level inappropriate." So
stick them on the Level 43 County and see your exp scores keep appropriate pace. You
won뭪 be as effective an AA ship as the Emerald and Sirius could be, simply from your set
of four badly positioned guns, but it'll be workable, and some of that problem can be
countered by positioning your ship better with your extra speed and longer overheat. When
it comes down to a simple contest of clearing the sky, however, the Emerald will shine
through superior.
=======
Pew-Pew:
=======
There are really two main options for RN AA when it comes to guns. Sniper, or Dakka.
Those two choices are represented by... three guns. You thought I was going to say two,
right? Well, you thought wrong.
In a nutshell, Snipers accept the weaknesses of RN and play to its strengths - they are
bested only by Yamato's for the number of scouts they can eat, and RN Snipers will spend a
great deal less ammo doing it.
Dakka are the KM wannabes and the players who just want to have some fun. See the section
on Pom-poms for more information.
-----------------
Dual 5.25" QF:
-----------------
The first of the appropriate AA guns available to you, the Dual 5.25" QF's represent the
very extreme of RN AA. They fire a very heavy shell - possibly the most damaging AA shell
in the game - for a very long distance. While IJN and MN AA will still range yours and
fire faster, the Dual 5.25" QFL's are the indisputable kings of the Power & Range combo.
Unfortunately, their reload time is stupendously long - you could order a pizza with three
toppings, get them to change a topping halfway through, and take your first bite of it
before your guns reload (I kid, I kid... but seriously, it's bad). The N, D, and A
variants gain in loading time, but begin to lose out on the most important advantages RN
AA has. They fire shells at higher Golden Angles for shorter distances. Where these guns
shine, however, is with high level gunners, whose ability more than makes up for the
horrendous reloading times. If you're a carrier, beware of Queen Vics kitted out with
these guns - they will ruin your day.
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Dual 5.25" RP10:
--------------------
The other Sniper setup, the Dual 5.25" RP10뭩 are easily the most popular among RN AAers.
They retain the shallow angle of QF's, but trade a tiny fraction of range and damage in
return for a full second of reload speed, precious time when intercepting bombers. These
guns are the mainstay of RN AA, and with high level gunners can easily match the AA
capability of a German AA ship with half the ammo and twice the range. These are the guns
that any RN AAer should cut their teeth on, as the reload time is much more forgiving than
that of the QFs.
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HE Ammo:
-------------
Here뭩 something that slips the mind of a lot of people - in GB2, always remember to put
at least one bind of HE ammo in your B ammo locker. Battles are unpredictable, and it
would not do at all for you to find yourself within spitting distance of the enemy
flagship and armed only with ineffectual AA shells.
A note to fleet members: In fleet wars / harbor assaults, your priorities shift immensely
towards pure AA - if you뭨e in HE range of a ship, then something has gone wrong either
with your team (in which case you should have retreated) or their team (in which case, why
are you rushing ahead of your battleships?). Stick with only AA shells in the lockers for
these.
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Pom-Poms:
--------------
Now it's time for the fun. Pom-poms are rather unique among the nations - rapid fire
Anti-Air weaponry that shoots a lot of little shells and can, under the right conditions,
sweep a sky clear of planes. These hilarious little buggers churn out low-damage shells
like the dickens, especially if you delay the classing of an AA sailor as long as your
patience allows.
Unfortunately, except for the occasional time an inattentive CV parks their planes in a
circle, it is very rare and difficult to build up the necessary dings and scratches it
takes to down a plane with pom-poms, especially with only half the range of a set of
RP10's and a higher (and thus smaller) Golden Angle. Still - these are great fun.
----------------------------------------
A Special Note on Golden Angles:
----------------------------------------
Trainworld is ever so slightly wrong (read, "outdated") about these. For your
edification, these are the Trainworld recommended Golden Angles, followed by the angle I
find to work the best:
Dual 5.25"QF/RP10L:
Trainworld: 31 Me: 33
Dual 5.25"QF/RP10N:
Trainworld: 32 Me: 33
Dual 5.25"QF/RP10D/A:
Trainworld: 36 Me: 36
Pom-Poms:
Trainworld: 51 Me: 46
============
Other Pew-Pew:
============
So, you may wonder why I only listed those three gun sets - there are plenty of other ones
which can fire AA shells, so why not use those? Examples include Dual 4", Dual 4.5" (both
of them), Dual 4.7", and other like weaponry.
The reason I advise against using these guns is that quite simply, they aren't as good.
All deal less damage than 5.25" shells, have shorter ranges, and higher (thus smaller)
Golden Angles. And what about the infamous RN reload times? There is one gun (the Dual
4" - weakest of them all) which has a faster reload than RP10's, reported by Trainworld to
be exactly 0.4 seconds faster. In return, the Dual 4"s do just over half the damage of
the RP10's, with shorter range, and a higher angle. Better than nothing, but still
relatively useless in comparison.
What if your gunners aren뭪 high enough level to shoot RP10's? Either keep blitzing, or
ASW their way to 31 - it뭩 not worth buying ineffectual weapons and losing money upon
selling them back.
The only possible exception to this would be the Dual 4.5" QF L뭩. These guns deal a
little over half the damage of 5.25" shells, have a slightly higher golden angle, and have
a reload in-between the two 5.25" sets. However, what the Dual 4.5" QF L뭩 don뭪 lack is
range. Ballistically, these guns perform very similarly to the 5.25" RP10's, and are
available starting from Level 20, making them a good stop-gap measure until your gunners
reach level 31 and gain access to the 5.25" RP10 L뭩.
==================
Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright:
==================
So during the most-assuredly-awesome summer event, I got my grubby paws on a Tiger and a
Resolution. The Resolution is awesome, but we're not here to talk about one-shotting the
odd Montana. We're here to talk about the Tiger, fitted with AA guns.
You may ask, "But why? The Tiger's only got two gunslots, what could it possibly mount to
make it good for AA?" You'd be right to ask that, except that the Tiger has access to the
Dunkerque's Premium AA guns, giving it a total broadside strength of 8 shells, equivalent
to the front arc of the Emerald. These Prem AA guns are decently ranged, have a golden
angle of about 35 IIRC, and reload slightly faster than 5.25"RP10L's. So far, so good.
The problem with this setup is that you need late-classed AA gunners. It used to be in
days of yore that you could slap a pair of reload gunners on the guns and you could use
'em. Now it takes grinding out 50 or more levels with a pair of relatively useless
armament sailors. If you're up to it, then by all means do the grind - they'll make
pom-poms and RP10A's that much better when you switch back.
Also, the Tiger is slow. Like, unbelievably turtle-bogglingly slow. She's small and hard
to hit, but that won't matter much, since you can't exactly dodge or run away very
quickly. With this boat, you're better off slapping trip-6"L's on here and wreaking havoc
on anyone who wanders in range or AWing the crap out of Blitz, where very few people have
a good enough spread to even hit you.
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A Note on Tea-Slots:
=============
The proper tea to use on your Royal Navy bridge is Earl Grey.
============
A Note on T-Slots:
============
Traditionally, T-Slots were filled with secondary armaments, meant to engage targets close
enough that main guns would track slowly and possibly not even be able to hit. After
aircraft showed such superiority over naval vessels, AA guns began to find their way into
T-slots instead. So what do you put on the T-slots of the Royal Navy?
If you're an Emerald: Consider this, if you have three spare sailor slots: stick a
sonarman in the supports and two torpedomen on the T-slots. Fit yourself with four
Depth-Charge launchers. If you spot any submarines near the BBs you뭨e escorting, sink 'em.
If you're a Sirius: Don't bother. That's how crappy your T-slots are.
If you're an Edinburgh / York / County / Surrey: Your best bet is either pom-poms or
hedgehogs, depending on which role your secondary armament plays. Obviously, hedgehogs
become a tricky (and expensive) proposition on CA's, considering you won뭪 be able to spot
the sub yourself, but pom-poms are surprisingly useful for sweeping scouts out of the sky.
This also frees up your primary armament if you so wish. As a note: I've played a 2-gun
York with pom-poms on the T-slots, and she is a BEAST. In today뭩 GB2 environment, you
can easily score 20 or 30k damage per battle with a near-blockshotting York, and off a BB4
or 5 at that! Combine with a moderate ability to blind, and the York ends up performing
beautifully in GB2.
If you뭨e a battleship: If you can mount 5.25"A's or better, I really recommend doing so,
and mounting pom-poms if you can't stick with the 5.25"'s. As a battleship, your primary
worry is shooting enemy ships, but having a workable scout-sniping suite is very helpful -
you can create your own blinding opportunities to exploit.
Of course, a lot of people prefer not to do this, especially KGV and PoW drivers who play
the speed game. AA guns take up valuable displacement and usually drop the ship at least
two knots in speed. Ultimately, AA on a battleship comes down to personal choice. AA on
a BB is very useful and game-changing if used properly, but if it hinders your ability to
shoot the enemy, then it뭩 better to run without it.
More specifically: If you're driving a QE or a Renown, you ought to have an AA suite.
Besides the QV, those two ships are the only ones who can reliably mount 5.25"A batteries
without crippling themselves. Your range is poor compared to BB5's anyways, so just snipe
at scouts while you bide your time waiting for an opening.
=====
Scouts:
=====
The Emerald is where you first gain access to a Scout, and this is important enough to
bear reiterating: With one exception (remember Strike One against the Sirius?), ALWAYS
CARRY A SCOUT. A depressing number of battleships fail to carry the one most critical
component of their existence, and even those that do often run out of them halfway through
today's fighter-heavy GB2 experience. For this reason, keep your scouts in reserve.
Whenever you either see or predict a blind-spot in your line뭩 vision, send one up.
Providing vision for your own team is often more important than denying vision to the
enemy, so don뭪 skimp on this.
==============
General AA Tactics:
==============
There is literally /nothing/ I can say here that hasn뭪 been mentioned in those three
guides I linked to at the beginning of this post. You did read those, didn뭪 you? Good.
I won뭪 trash their work by pretending to know more about those tactics than they - and
they can do visuals much better than I.
==========
In Conclusion:
==========
So there you have it. All the information you need to AA effectively as a captain of His
Majesty뭩 Navy - take it and make the carriers cry from [strike]vet[/strike] expert loss.
~ Ferrard
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