[2022] 3/1/22 - New Player Captain’s Log: Down and Derby 2 - Cruiser Control

Greetings Captains,

Welcome to this week’s edition of the New Player Captain's Log! For those of you who aren't sure what this is or what it might do, feel free to check out the introductory post here.

Without further ado, let’s proceed with Week 7!

Accomplishments
Here’s a list of personal milestones that I hit during the week:

1. Played with several community members in our Discord “Play with WoWs” event
2. Once again played several rounds of Dirigible Derby
3. Unlocked the Tier IX US BB Iowa

Focus Points of the Week
After talking to a number of you in last week’s thread, I made a few changes in focus that I think were beneficial to my learning experience. Here’s a few things I accomplished:

1. Looked into using the Priority Target skill for some builds
2. Played around with other less comfortable (for me) classes in Ops and Co-Op

Dirigible Derby
I continued having a great amount of fun with Dirigible Derby this week! I still only used the Moskva exclusively, as I still don’t have any other suitable options at Tier X. The game continues to be a blast, though I did see way more Defeats this week compared to last week. I am choosing to chalk it up to the volatility of the mode, but I am sure I am not being as productive as I can be.

Ship used: Moskva Observations: I continue to feel a bit overwhelmed with Tier X play, especially when I am in a cruiser (which isn’t my strong suit). The advice I’ve been given regarding the Moskva is to watch your side and aim bow in and I’ll be in decent shape. I’ve had mixed results so far. I do love that she’s an effective gunboat with solid accuracy, but I have trouble getting myself into an effective location to make her count. Things I need to be more cognizant of:
1. Positioning, but again - As mentioned above, I need to find ways to get in the best position with the Moskva. This may be utilizing islands more or just covering my sides as much as possible. I am not entirely sure yet.

Operations - Raptor Rescue, Newport, Narai
This week I had the opportunity to play more Operations than I normally would have. Mainly, I played a few rounds with @Boggzy, @Ahskance and @Legionnare among others as a part of our Battle of Java Sea livestream last Wednesday. I also played a few rounds on my own as well as a few rounds with community members Friday evening as a part of our Discord event (more on that later).

They continue to be a ton of fun for me! I love playing to objectives and using team work and strategy. Second, I used this as an opportunity to play ships that I don’t have as much experience with in hopes that I can use these opportunities to learn more effectively.

Ship used: Repulse, Warspite, Perth, Ramat Observations: I was right at home in my comfy BBs, as usual. I will say that I think I prefer the Repulse to the Warspite, despite the differences in how they’re played. I like the speediness that the Repulse awards me, and I want to continue to improve with her. When it comes to the cruisers, there were a lot more growing pains. I found myself playing much more conservatively than I had hoped due to me worrying that I would be focused. This made me retreat more and be a bit less effective.

Things I need to be more cognizant of:
1. Class Roles: I need to do a bit more studying on how to effectively use each class in operations. I find that I am flying by the seat of my pants way too often, despite now knowing how all of the available ops work in general.

Community Discord Event
For those of you who weren’t aware or aren’t a part of our Discord community, we ran an event there last Friday evening! It was called “Play with WoWS” and it gave us a fun opportunity to talk to and play with community members in a Discord call. @Maredraco, @Legionnareand myself had an absolute BLAST! Everyone I met was so kind and funny, and I even happened to learn a lot from some of our more experienced players. We even got to meme around a little bit and play some Ops with funny divs (shout out to the 3 Ise’s, lol). It was just so much fun, and I hope whoever joined us had as good of a time as we did. There’s nothing really to break down here beyond I loved it and hopefully we can do something else like that again soon. If you’re interested in being a part of our Discord events in the future, you can join the server here.

I think that about covers it this week! See you next week for some more New Player musings. Fair winds and following seas!

You hit the nail right on the head! I want to continue to play, get better and learn the game so I can be the best Community Manager that I can be. I have no intention of stopping.

I plan on playing with it more this coming week, but I am loving it so far! I think this will satisfy some concerns I had with taking in ship classes that I am less comfortable with (namely DDs and cruisers).

Yup, I am fully experiencing these complications. I do wish that I had more Tier Xs to work with at the moment (for now it's just the Jinan and the Moskva for me) but I am going to take the Moskva tips into consideration this week when I am Down and Derby once again!

These are all excellent tips (as usual) and really good things to keep in mind. As survivability is always a concern for me, I think I will continue to focus on broadsides with Cruisers in Ops this week and see how I fair. I can see myself moving onto DDs if I get comfortable with this.