NavyField Basic BB Gameplay Guide

NavyField Basic BB Gameplay Guide by Aingeal

A guide to a better understanding of the core abilities of the BB gameplay in NavyField.

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-=Introduction=-
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This guide is first and furthermost addressed to players who have just gotten a BB, or feel they do not manage to extract the full results of their ships. It is meant as a vulgarization of the core ability a BB player should master before moving on more advanced tactics that, with work, will make them a force to be reckoned with in any gunship of any nation.

For simplicity sake, as I mentioned, I’ll divide this in three core abilities I feel once mastered makes you a fearsome BB player and give some advice at how to improve each of them. Note that this guide won’t help you if you do not choose to help yourself. My goal today is to help the player identify where he may lack a bit of training or be less efficient so he can, if he so wish, work on it to grow as a better player in the heart of the NF competition: BB fighting.

While blitz are mainly dominated by who got the best crew, once cap start hitting home, your game skill becomes much more important than the amount of vets on your gunners. You might have some people with more SD, more OH time, better rep. This is all helpful. But at the end of the day, it won’t save you if you do not know how to use a Battleship properly in NavyField.

Those core abilities I will focus on today are the following:

1- Accuracy
2-Dodging
3-Awareness

I’ll refer to them as ADA for the rest of the guide.

That may sound overly simple, but as I mentioned, this guide is NOT an advanced BB play one. An issue I tend to notice a lot in NF nowadays is that some people are trying to master advanced part of BB play while they heavily lack the basics. Some ships forgive players lacks better than others. But some don’t. At all.

However I shall first enumerate the Basic Rules of The BBs. They shall guide you from your first BB1 throught your whole NF BB player career. No matter the nation. Think about them as the BBs Commandments. Safe I only wrote 6. 10 is so overused anyway!
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A- A blind BB is a dead BB if the situation isn’t corrected.
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B- Range is LIFE. You CANNOT use massive firepower if you cannot get it in range.
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C- If available, ALWAYS have a scout (so any BBs safe nelson). Do not count on other people to scout for you. Nobody knows better than you where you need visual at any moments of the game.
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D- NEVER use a BB you do not have a sufficient crew to handle. BO is the least important sailor on your ship. If you cannot get the right gun, or have similar performance to same tier ships, you are going to be a liability to your team. You shall run the lower level BB for a few extra levels if you must.
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E- Restorers on BBs are eventually going to be a dead weight. Your support will cap 900 SD without one eventually. If you still choose to level one, know it shall be nice at BB2-3 level maybe, then become a useless weight, and you’ll wish you had a rep or an engy instead.
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F- Always gather information on a nation’s BB line before making the crew. Some have special classing procedures, namely for AA gunners. Messing up a crew, and realizing it at BB1-2 just sucks, especially when lots of people are going to gladly give you the information if you ask. Redoing 60 levels just to correct something is annoying.
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If you are going to retain something of those, memorize A through D. Its crucial.

So now without further delay :

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-=1-ACCURACY=-
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Simple eh? You need to be accurate in your shots. But so many people do not know their angle past the 5 last angles it’s ridiculous. YES BB fight at range. But NO it doesn’t mean at all you will never go under max.

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—Using Guidelines wisely and learning angles—
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First step is adjusting your guidelines by adding/removing sailors on the BO. Ideally your lines should end exactly at your max range. In no way it should ever be longer than that.

If your BO lines aint long enough to reach the max range, then you have to memorize the average length past them the shell falls to, and memorize the exact angle than marks your guidelines extremity. It’s quite playable, but it is an extra difficulty.

For mid-angles:

A good way to memorize them at first is memorizing exactly each multiple of 5. If you KNOW 5-10-15-20-25-30-35 it’s about 6 position to really have burned in your memory. Its not that many. That way, when looking at a ship, you’ll be able to narrow the possibilities to 2-3 angle max, and out of those, find the one that seems the more likely. If someone is halfway between 20 and 25, but maybe a bit toward the 25, you’ll shoot at 23.

There is absolutely no use at being a master of predicting an opponent behavior if you cannot aim correctly. In fact I’d say you cannot go more basic than that as far as requirement for half decent BB play goes.

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—Hang time and moving targets—
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Now, you trained your accuracy a bit, and you can with good success hit static target in your range and evaluate a the good angle quickly and accurately. The next step is to correctly evaluate the shell traveling while aiming at a moving target.

Many people seem often to put their lines at the “current” spot their target is in, and end up shooting behind it, or again overestimated their hang time and shoot way in front (that one is less common tough).

Again not EVERY ship has the same hang time. It’s a value that is heavily dependent on the gun used. You might even encounter a situation where you have 2 gun options for a given ship, and that it is one of the factor that could influence your decision.

In the meantime, I urge every player to understand both higher angle of 40-45 and the lower 30-40. I will not go into advantage and disadvantage of either today, but I will say neither are better, but they do impact a lot on a ship playstyle.

What you need to be aware, is that a longer hang time does mean from the moment you fire, to the moment the shell hit the target, more time passed.

It requires you to correctly estimate the future target position, and movement more than a lesser hangtime gun does.

It requires you to know if you are running after someone, since the air travel is longer, between the moment you fire and the moment the shell fall back to the ocean, the target can will have moved a greater distance than with lower angle guns, and you closer to the place you aimed, therefore reducing the distance between the hit and your ship further (as you are “chasing toward” your firing point).

On the opposite, running from that point increase the range further with an high angle, and the effective dynamic range will be greater in that attitude.

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—Accuracy Vs Dodging : Anticipation—
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You know your angle, you can compensate accurately for the hang time, long or short. Now comes the point where 2 part of the BB play gets into a confrontation. Accuracy VS Dodging. Your part in that as the firing BB is to ANTICIPATE your opponent movement. 95% of the BBs will try and move away from you in order to use a running attitude to shoot you without being hit back.

But there are signs that one could rush, especially if you hold the range advantage. This is the most basic way to use the hang time to your advantage, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, no matter if said hang time is long or short.

An important part of correctly shooting is to know a ship in Navy Field turns on its middle axis. That mean the part that will move at a constant speed and will be the less affected by the radial speed (turn rate) of the ship is the middle. That’s where you want to aim at; the place where you think the middle is going to move to.

Simply, the place where the middle was before whatever move your opponent will do is the last place that gets cleared by a sudden move in whatever direction, often by the aft part of the ship (stern). I often call landing a shot there “buttslapping” a running ship. (Punish the runner!)

Aim too much to the front to get a nice full “hit” in the middle and any turn will make it more likely your shot will fall in the water after the rotation point where your opponent initiated his turn, as movement gets less and less forward. The ship extremities will have the fastest movement, as all the ship turns at the same radial speed. The longer the ship, the more the illusion of greater rotation speed is there.

With time, you will notice your prediction gets more and more accurate, and you’ll be able to “read” behavior signs much better. That said, it is extremely important to know a good analysis of the battlefield is crucial in some point to make the correct guess. Some factor will heavily factor in the possibilities an opponent can take. Easier and most common example is if your opponent is blind or not.

And I’d like to point out that mastering that part of the Accuracy requires an acknowledgement of the whole ADA basics, as you will use your understanding of Dodging to counter it while being Aware of any factor that might influence your opponent.

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—Advanced tactics that are linked to Accuracy—
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Advanced tactics that are considered linked to accuracy : AAing angles (“sniping” planes at all altitude) and slinging (linked to hit and running tactic, or correcting a non-broadside accuracy penalty that comes from the ship length between the front and aft gun mounts).

Those are what I consider advanced gameplay at that point, and shouldn’t be focused on till the rest is mastered. You build a house starting with the basement, not the roof.

AAing should be ideally be practiced in a dedicated AA ship, as your focus is less there when you also have to hold the line. There are different angle behavior that varies between all nations, and even between guns of a single nation.

Slinging shouldn’t be attempted before you totally master the basic of accuracy. I won’t cover it today.

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-=2- DODGING=-
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So you are quite the sharpshooter now eh? Or not? Well this could be the point where you win a few points over your opponent, even if HE is quite the accurate shooter.

I personally consider this my strongest point in the ADA.

While to the outside eye, some BBs seem to be randomly moving around to confuse their opponent, and the sole reason they get hit or not is luck, they are not.

While the keyword I chose is “dodging”, this could also be called “reducing damage taken to a minimum”. Meaning while a full dodge is always great, there are time you’ll choose to simply reduce the profile to the shot, rather than attempt a full dodge. Better take 2-3 shell than a full salvo.

A player that masters the D of the ADA will be noticeably hard to full salvo, even caught unaware. They will be therefore be quite hard to oneshot, and if they have sufficient SD, hard to cripple fast. They will be confusing and unpredictable in their movement.

As with the ACCURACY, there is a big part of dodging that is anticipating your opponent shot, as he is working to anticipate your move. In a way, it is a war of confusing him to your real intentions.

The dodging starts even before the shot leave your opponent guns when you are in mid range battle. On a line fight, it is more of a step back.

I will focus first on mid range dodging.

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—Mid Range Dodging—
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Where does it come useful? Mainly 2 situation : A ship appeared mid range that you hadn’t seen before, due to distraction or being blind it matters not. Battle Awareness helps you prevent those situation at best of you can, but you need to be ready for it as it WILL happen to you regularly enough.

But mostly, it is crucial for people that are “aggressive” BB players, and is in my mind the edge between a “fictory” rush and a dangerous, well executed one.

Most useful in the earlier stage of BB tiers, as you are 100% sure you’ll encounter BBs that outrange you in GB, meaning when you shoot at them, you WILL be in their mid-range. Also getting in range can be done by avoiding damage till the point where you also hit if you feel like trying a broad light rush. I’ll come back to those kind of rush in a few lines.

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–Confusing the opponent–
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The first step is confusing your opponent. If you didn’t do this, and your opponent is a good shot, chances are it’s too late to completely dodge.

First, the most BASIC thing, something you shouldn’t ever be caught dead doing: DO NOT STRAIGHTLINE. Nothing is easier to aim at than a ship going as straight of a ruler ahead. That’s asking to be oneshotted. Heck that’s begging for it. Monty player will LOVE you. They’ll nickname you NomNomNom.

Always move left and right, even if you do not see a threat. It’s a great reflex to have. In a linefight, people will eventually be so used to seeing you moving in and out, they might even miss the telling sign you are about to rush.

Now keep in mind some ships have better natural ability to dodge than others. This includes speed, hitbox and turn rate. Obviously, the faster it turns, the more of a backbend it can do to dodge an incoming salvo.

In extreme case, the AD for example can go from broadside to perpendicular in the last few seconds before the shells hit.

The faster it is, the more the “area” it can move to while the shells are in the air, so the harder to predict it is. And being smaller is a permanent advantage of course, especially VS some ship that have a bit more random spreads.

But no matter what the ship, the following tactics improve your chances. If you are in an H44 or in a Paris, it’s the same basic moves.

A simple confusion you could make if you are 1vs1 with a ship, would be to keep a certain average bearing (not a straight line, but an overall south course for example) and then when the other ship fires, to suddenly make a sharp turn in another direction (let’s say a sharp west turn).

That’s a classic, and just has the shield and sword combo in MMORPGs, they are called classics because they work well, no matter what other fancy move you can pull on the side.

Beware if you have a ship with both high speed and turn rate. If you stay on a too sharp turn, your ship will pretty much turn on itself, its relative position staying the same.

I am mainly thinking about Dunkerque (both MN and RN). I’ve seen too many players thinking that the turn rate was an auto dodge, and their maneuver was almost hitting the brakes as far as center ship was concerned (remember, that axis?).

You better make a no more than 90 degrees turn, go back straight and another 90 degrees turn than a complete 180 in one go with those ships. This however is mainly something you will see for yourself as you progress as a BB player and try different ships with different playstyles.

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–Profile Manipulating–
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Now if you judge your chance of totally avoiding damage are lesser, mainly if you are really close to mid range of a lower angle ship, or if your opponent spread is so wide it’s hard to totally dodge, you might want to prefer profile manipulating to trying a total dodge.

Profile manipulating, rather than aim to avoid damage, aim to reduce it, by, as the name suggest, manipulating the ship profile you offer to the incoming salvo.

Basically, NEVER you should offer a total broadside in mid range fighting. The step back of linefight I’ll cover in a bit is another matter. For the moment, as far as “knife” range BB fight goes, you do NOT want to offer a perfect broadside profile to an incoming salvo(I’m repeating myself, but I think it’s a crucial point).

That’s where profile manipulating enters. You are basically going to turn your ships “into” or “away” from the incoming salvo.

What you are aiming to do, is offer the width of your ship rather than its length, so you go perpendicular to the shot. Most spreads are dispersed on a horizontal plan compared to the firing ship. So you efficiently offer a lesser profile to hit, and might reduce the salvo hit from 60%, easily. Note that this will have less success against tight spread or block (most people fail at aiming the block guns anyway).

Against such a ship driven by a player skilled in aiming, your best bet is confusion and aiming on all or nothing dodge, or keeping your range, as they typically lack range.

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–Playing the mid-range: Gameplay–
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At all time, always try to keep your intention as uncertain as possible for your opponent. If you have a range advantage and you believe you can take it back, do not start all out running. You’ll be easier to aim at, as it wouldn’t be more obvious what you are aiming to do. You might as well install a flashing “I’M RUNNING” advertisement panel on your deck.

A good move, would be point your bow briefly as if you were going for a rush, and THEN pulling back. The effect will be:

“He is rushing! Oh no its his zigzaging pattern again (because you ARE doing it right?)…DAMN he got out of my range!”

On totally opposite idea, you might want to rush, maybe a single BB trying to run, or an AW ship in its “immunity” zone (area between the point AP don’t have a sufficient angle of penetration on the deck to pierce, and the point you start hitting the unarmored belt).

A tactic that allows for the fastest rushing, but without straight lining it, is taking a step aside, a bit in the line fighting fashion I’ll describe soon, but applied to a rushing trajectory. Note that it is doable mainly if you have a significant enough speed advantage on your target, as it IS losing a few knots rushing toward and sending them aside to avoid damage.

If you cannot reach your target while doing that, no matter if you dodge 2-3-4 shots that way, the end result will be you will get sunk without getting in range.

Factor that might influence either a push or a fall back are mainly linked to the Battle Awareness part of the guide and your judgment as a player of the situation, which means taking the best decision given the conditions you see.

That’s going to be covered in the third part of the ADA, obviously, so for now we’ll move on another part of Dodging, and I’m talking about the line fighting damage evasion.

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—Linefighting—
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Linefight is a max range fight between two BB of similar static range, normally of the same tier, but can also be between a high ranged BB of a tier, and a lower ranged BB of a tier above it. KM BB3 going in a line fight with MN BB4 for example.

The linefighting BBs of any given battle form what we call the “battle line”. That proverbial line is the step between being raped by 3 BBs firing at once if you go a step too close, and being pushed back to the wall if you are a step too far. In any situation, the line is determined by the longest range in a given area.

Due to the nature of linefighting, you KNOW unless you are hard rushed, you have a “safe” zone slightly behind you. Therefore, you shall hold the line at the best you can, then move in and out to try and hit your opponent, while avoiding damage yourself. The avoiding damage will be done with the step back.

In a linefighting situation, you are in a battle rhythm where accuracy role is lessened, as it goes to “max range” and hang time is at its peak. In this fighting, the window to dodge is therefore at is peak. That means more time to move away once the shells are fired, and a “safe zone” just behind you that can be used to rep if need be.

When a BB takes a shot at you in such a battle stance, what you are going to do is take a simple SHORT step back. You DO NOT want to break in a full run. Your goal is to HOLD the line. Unless forced, you shall NOT let it collapse. Always play it as if you were the key component of the line, even if you are a BB4 with 2 BB5 beside you.

But you cannot just stay there and get shot like an idiot! You cannot either rush under the shot and be killed by 3 BB5 firing at once! So what you are going to do is take a small step back to have the shot crash the closest to your ship possible, while keeping a small security margin.

The closest it is, the less effect on the line it will have. The movement is simply a small turn back, followed by a moving back parallel as soon as your middle clears your previous course. (Remember, your ship turns on its middle axis? Good! If not, go back and give the Accuracy section of the guide a little loving.) You also want your hitbox to clear your previous course, and a small margin for possible spread inconsistency of the incoming shot.

The best step back is normally between half a ship width to no more than a ship width. More than that is possibly giving ground to the enemy line. Less than that is pain and a few minutes of repairing, and in some case sinking.
(**Note that is in case of a perfect linefight, where your opponnent didn’t “rush” past his line much to shoot at you.**)

At first, you’ll probably take your steps a bit too far. Then you’ll try and correct and not move far enough. Keep on practicing, and eventually you’ll naturally get the correct distance without even having to think actively about it. That kind of playstyle normally starts being used at BB4 level, and with some BB3s in GB.

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—Conclusion of Dodging—
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Always keep in mind, unless you are using an “h4x” ship like the AD, with ridiculous submergence, turn rate and size, and a BB6 crew reping it on board, in NO WAY dodging can keep you alive if you try to play Rambo in broad daylight in the range of 3 BBs. At 2, you are pushing it.

Taking a risk can pay, but the line between boldness and suicide can get fine indeed. And that’s what the next part, the last of the 3 core ability but not the least : The 2nd A of ADA. The one linked to your JUDGMENT as a player, the most crucial thing many people lack. That thing is waiting for you in the next part of the guide.

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-=3-AWARENESS (Battle Awareness)=-
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GBs are always moving, the battle line pushing at each other, ships trying to sneak in range, sub diving heading for your line, CV casting a veil on part of a map. They are highly dynamic, and if you do not keep up with the game, the game will overwhelm you quickly. No matter how good you are at 1vs1, dodging and aiming.

The best BB players are always on top of their games, they know where their opponents are, and even if they do not see a part of the map anymore, they know what threat is lurking there. They develop a sort of “battle sense”. The little inner voice that tells you: “if I do that, I got the feeling I’m toasted”.

That pillar of BB play is your judgment. It’s your ability to quickly take in a situation, get an accurate analysis out of it, and take a judicious decision about it. The complete process is much alike what you might find in many decision taking circles.

Observe situation (gather information) -> Analyze correctly information gathered to identify options -> Take a decision and apply it -> Back to 1.

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—Observation and information gathering—
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That is probably quite the most crucial thing, since if you fail to correcly observe any situation you are in, you are stopping the decision making process before it even begun.

Element to observe includes, but are not limited to :

Is that guy blind? Is he distracted by another ship? Was there a sub in the vicinity? Is my visual stable or about to get raped by fighters? Are their visual totally dead, or about to get back on? If it does, do I have time to get back to safety before I get raped? Or is that ship isolated enough I can drop on it with a good chance to overcome him, even if their visual will be re-established soon?

Those are observations your brain should be constantly receiving from your eyes, and those will be the element you will base your future decision upon. If they are wrong, it is impossible for you to take a good decision compared to the battle.

Having a good Observation normally also the element that makes it that at some point, a player notice something, then suddenly finds a weakness in the opposing battle line, and use it. I’ve seen battle lines crumbled over a small weakness a perceptive player spotted, and used to its advantage.

However, you might have spotted elements that hint at a weakness, and it won’t make a difference in the world. Why? Because everyone look at the battlefield. But do you then procede to the next step? I’m afraid 75% of the BB players nowadays aren’t. But you will right? Its just a few lines down!

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—Analysis of the gathered information—
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Quite obvious eh? If you see a ship is blind, or a part that isnt covered by any major battleship, or a “weakest link” skill wise you know off in the opposing line, it doesnt mean squat unless you can procede that information and transform those crude information into accurate conclusions about the situation before you.

If you cannot use your brain here, you cannot count on your judgement to take a good decision afterward, since you do NOT have the CORRECT FACTS on which you must base it!

This part is the part that you will noticeably improve as you gain experience in the game. It is the place where your brain will mix your observation, your experience (knowledge) and a few dangerous bad habits of the human brain

Knowing the various nations and their possible setup can also quite enter that section. If that ship is armored, can your HE at max pierce it? If you try and rush that ship, will that 2nd ship a bit farther rush you? If it does, do you have the time to still pull your rush and go back to safety? Is it worth the risk?
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Now those bad habits of our brain? One to beware off is the anticipation. I do not mean anticipation of a person’s movement or shooting decision, as I did before. No here I mean anticipating a situation so much you actually get convinced its real and take a bad decision about it.

Our brain is a powerful tool, but a tricky one. Part of what it does is mix constantly observations and its previous experience. You’ll often notice in your life times where you expect so much to be told something, or to see something, you can actually miss an important difference in what you saw or heard that leads to a mistake or an accident. This is actually something you are more subject to falling into as you grow experienced in the game. The only thing you can do against it, is be aware of the phenomenon.

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—Taking a Decision/ Applying it—
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So you have a good understanding of the factors around you, both human and environnemental. Now what are you going to do about it?

Enter judgement. Your brain is now suggesting a few options to you. It took your observations, made conclusions, and you are thinking about what you could do with that. You must now take the course of action that seems to be the best at that very moment, and apply it.

Then what are you doing? THATS RIGHT!!! Back to Observing! Now you’ll analyze all the thing again to decide if you took a good decision or not! It never stops.

In an epic fail on the opposing team’s part, I once got my BB1 totally past a GB BB line, using a spot of blindness they hadn’t spotted (but that sadly I did).

Surprise, they saw their CVs suddenly being crushed from BB shots while their line was still holding ours.

That is however an exemple of a successful complete decision taking process.

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—You and your environment—
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You’ll find some ship quite depend on opportunities to work well. Others are adept at CREATING those opportunities, and taking them.

A flawless decision process might finish on “there is nothing I can do right now”. What you should be thinking next is: How can I change that? You’ll find some ship gives you appreciable tools to do so.

But no matter how you want to take it, the way you move tactically, the decision you take will quite often factor more in the outcome of the battle than the fact you are quite the sharpshooter. It is manipulating the battle to maintain a position where your ship can use its full capabilities and keep its weaknesses to be used against it. Moving in a position to intercept a rushing ship nobody else has spotted. Rushing in a blind spot to get in range of an opposing ship, and get a free salvo in.

No guide can truly teach you that sadly. It’s the sole point where I can only urge you to never neglect, and always stay sharp. Take a few second every once in a while to see how the rest of the battlefield is evolving. Is your north failing? Is there a ship that is waiting for you to be blind/distracted to rush you? Have a wide look at your surroundings!

If you got a bad feeling about it, don’t do it. You’ll probably remember soon enough why if you do it still.

In a linefight, is that BB about to pull a rush? No, ‘,ve got 2 other BB5 with me. Mmm we will go blind soon. Can I take steps to prevent it? (whining at your CVs might vent frustration, but it won’t help you any).

That also brings me to another part of Awareness, that I am splitting from the decision process, as it is basically giving you the tools to Stay Aware and denying the opponent that possibility.

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—AAing and scout managing—
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We’ve already established at the very beginning of that guide 4 very important general rules.

What were A and C already? Right.

A Blind BB is a Dead BB.

You shall always run a scout on your BBs (safe nelson obviously).

Keeping visual can decide whole battle if a side really is superior in that aspect. There are way however to try and influence that as a BB. Some nations sport impressive AA batteries on their BBs that can be used efficiently to blind enemies, and defend your team against CVs.

At the same time, you should never forget your scout. Scout managing is part of being able to be kept aware of your battle. NEVER leave a scout at default. Nothing is easier than set an AA guns to the golden angle and spam the spacebar. Always try to keep away from enemy fighter and AA ships that are going to do their best to snipe in out of the air.

If you cannot get something to take information from, I believe your decision process just made a big false start, complete with oil spill.

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—Conclusion of Awareness—
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This might all look mindblowing, but it is all step we unconciously apply in our everyday life, and that we in the end apply subconciously to NF as well. That little feeling you got? thats your subconcious that registered an information as your brain is used to storing that information when you are playing NF.

We constantly are taking decision about important and trivial things. In fact, if you look at it, I believe this set winners from losers not only in NF, but also in real life, as make no doubt people that succeed are people that are the best at taking the best decision at any given time. With a bit of luck sometimes ;)

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-=C.onclusion=-
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This guide is here to help you identify your strength and downfalls. It’s there to give you the tools to correct them, either by suggestion, or decomposing a move you might have missed an important part of.
But always remember, you cannot succeed if you do need achieve proficiency in ALL 3 at a bare minimum.

You cannot have simply a good aim and hope you will wipe the floor with everything.

Sure, if someone attacks you in broad daylight, its sunk. But you’ll end up most game getting rushed or attacked by something you never expected. Or a ship will achieve range, and his dodging will reduce your great accuracy enough to allow him to suddenly take the advantage over you.

You will also notice you have strength and weakness. You’ll redeem a weakness in a certain part by compensating by being really above average with another.

Some players might not be the best at moving around in mid range, but they are smart, conservative and accurate players. They have no equal at creating opportunities and using them.

You’ll notice these players using SY and being lethal with it. No matter how you try to catch them off guard, they always seem to be expecting you.

Others will be sodding hard to hit. They got an H44 and damn, you are struggling to get a good hit on them! Some might be surprised with a shot, but spring in action so fast, they barely got hit and they are already preparing for a close range fight, their first shot is on the way to your deck and they are ready for your next!

As you play, you’ll notice some nations are easier than others. That some have ships that naturally take a part of a player’s burden from them, and allow mistakes. Others will rather be unforgivable on any failures on the player part.

That shall be the final word of this guide, a short explanation at perceived imbalances, that aren’t, and I shall try to explain why.

I am thinking mainly here of UK and KM.

UK has better per shell, which gives a decent enough punch even on partial salvo, therefore forgiving a player’s lack of accuracy somewhat.

UK ships have better submergence and get back quickly on their feet after being hit. They therefore can forgive you taking a bit more damage than you could have. They might even withstand a surprise attack! Some are AW, and might bounce it, surprising the attacking ship!

UK is also the easy nation.

KM on the other hand has less damage per shell. A KM player wants every possible shell to hit.

A KM player must ALWAYS stay on top of its game. If you slip and a L2 appears in range, he has the upper hand unless he really totally fails.

If you are unable to move around in a way to reduce damage, you are doomed to be oneshotted quite a few times.

Does that mean KM sucks? No it doesn’t. KM is simply hard to play, and a KM driver must always strive in ALL core abilities. But if it does, good luck at besting it, even if you play flawlessly with your L2. You’ll find the “easy” H44 not so easy anymore.

I hope any new BB players reading this have found this useful, and if you have question, do not hesitate to ask them. Comments are also welcomed by experienced BB players that want to add their opinions on some part, constructive criticism also.