I’d like to know which is the best naval nation, separating Bluewater and Coastal fleets (and classes, if necessary), plus any tips you might have for this mode.
I’m curious about a few things:
First, does the Iowa have fire-control radar?
Second, regarding AA: the Iowa has an advantage over the Yamato because of its HE-VT shells, but does the HE-VT actually make a difference in-game? The game doesn’t have aircraft carriers or large air squadrons, unlike World of Warships, which has carriers and squadrons (I know War Thunder is more realistic while WoWS is arcade).
Third, does the map size increase when you reach top tier, or is it the same size as low tier? I find them quite small.
Thanks in advance to everyone who comments, especially to the only 6 naval players in the game.
As one of the six players…
The best nation is totally up to you. Take a look at the boats and decide which ones you like the look of. Japan’s deep-water boats have great torpedoes, while Germans can reload fairly quicker. Americans and English are all arounders. Italy and France are… well, Italy and France.
To be honest, I play all nations and both coastal and deep water. I like them each for different reasons.
Japan is a pain in the beginning for coastal due to weirdly placed guns (think Archer) but finishes strong imho.
Russian river boats have great armor and can take a beating.
US and England have tons o’ guns.
And Italy and France are… well, Italy and France. I kid, I kid! They have heavy hitting guns and are fast for coastal.
Germany is my favorite for coastal though. They have the torpedo boats and the 802 is my (although premi) favorite boat. Not to mention the party barges! Woo Hoo!
And remember, you are not stuck to only one nation. Like I said, I play all nations both coastal and DW. Find what tickles your pickle and have fun! I hope to see you out there. o7
Edit to answer your three questions:
In War Thunder , the USS Iowa does not have a dedicated fire-control radar like some other modern naval vessels. Instead, it relies on optical range finders and ballistic analog computers for targeting, similar to its real-world counterpart.
Tbh, I don’t think that the secondary guns matter much for AA fire. I keep mine loaded with solid shot and use them on the other ships. You will have so many bofors, 20mm and 50 cals that they are not needed. And by the time you get that high into the BRs, there will be vessels with guided missiles that’ll take the planes down before you even see them.
The maps for larger vessels is bigger. Depending on the weather, you may not be able to even see the other ships. Lower level DW may be placed into coastal maps though.
To answer your original question I quite enjoy Britain, Germany is okay but I like the British SAP shells. Japan is rough, their destroyers mostly have HE, Russia is amazing, USA is amazing, Italy… Italy? France… no