What are everyone’s favorite tips for naval that maybe not everyone knows?
Here are some of mine:
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Unless you need first strike, don’t spawn immediately. Wait until you can look at the map and see where everyone is spawning, so you won’t get caught as the only target, and ships will already have selected targets when you spawn after 60 seconds.
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Dodge. Even with the dumbed down aiming system in AB, it’s still possible to dodge. Some ships can throttle juke well, while others can turn fast enough to be completely missed. Watch for the ship targeting you to fire. It’s usually easy to see and tell the difference from main and secondary batteries. Take that moment to maneuver.
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Use the right shells. An AP shell with 700mm or more of pen is great, but if you are targeting a destroyer, it might go completely through without detonating. Each shell’s stat card will show a fuse delay and sensitivity. The delay is how long after hitting an object the shell will detonate. Long delays may cause the shell to pass harmlessly through. Sensitivity is how many millimeters of armor are needed to cause the shell to detonate. I’d it’s 30mm, and you fire at an area with 10mm of armor, it will go in one side and out the other. Some nations, like Britain have very sensitive fuses with short delays, so they can attack lighter armored ships with AP shells. Remember that SAP shells act like HE if they don’t own, so use that to your advantage.
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Remember that you can manually target certain secondary and tertiary guns. The default is x+2 or x+3 respectively. This gives you the opportunity to maybe target a problematic PT boat or plane without taking your attention from your primary target. Pick the right shell types for those guns for the appropriate target.
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Turn off automatic damage control. If you want something on automatic, select it using the classic controls. Remember that your primary priority is usually going to be fires, so set that to automatic. If you see that the fire isn’t a shell room or magazine fire, you can always cancel it and repair something more important. Also, if you don’t want to chew through crew like crazy, don’t repair fragile AA mounts unless you absolutely need them. They take a lot of crew, and when the current crew is killed, the next group will happily man them and die as soon as they are repaired. Keep that in mind if you have a lot of small unarmored AA mounts.