Geek Control 2 Major Tim: World of Warships for Newbies

World of Warships recently went live, and the game has been flooded with new players, all looking to get themselves hooked on the fast-paced, explosion-laden naval combat. The game is free to play, meaning that there is little to no restriction on who can play, but this also comes with the problem that frequents most F2P games, which is its vulnerability to being swamped with casual players, and botters looking to grind their way up the ladder without actually playing. The quality of play is certainly not as high as it was during the closed beta, and with so many new players looking to joining up, I thought now might be a time to give some tips to new players, starting with an introduction to the most newby friendly ship lines, and a few ideas on how to get good at the game fast.

To begin with, your first ship will be a dinky little cruiser with no real specialty, and no real character. While you may want to get away from it as fast as possible, you should instead consider spending a few hours plugging away in it. The ship has no complicated gameplay mechanics associated with it, except for basic manoeuvring and gunnery. It is a good ship to get used to sailing in, since it has tight turning, fast rudder shift, and won't get you killed every time you make a mistake in plotting out your course. Similarly, the starter ships have no torpedoes, meaning you won't become a hazard to your own team as you figure out how to use the damn things. The guns are simple, and will get you used to the idea of ranging and rotating your guns for maximum effect. I'd also practice your aim at these tiers, figuring out how the AP and HE ammo system works. Go out and read up on it quickly, so as to avoid spamming one round or the other, without ever understanding what you are achieving. The final benefit of these low tier ships is that they won't likely encounter most of the other ship classes in the game. For the most part, your starting ships won't encounter carriers, or particularly powerful destroyers, and the kind of ships that will make you confused and unsure how to respond. You might even discover the value of teamwork at this tier, or at least learn how to exploit your enemies' distractions in order to punish them.

After your first tier, I recommend jumping in to American cruisers as your first ship line to grind. American cruisers mostly don't use torpedoes, and will focus instead on gunnery and manoeuvers to achieve victory. Spending some time grinding out this cruiser line will mould you into a much better player than you would be if you decided to try out destroyers, or battleships, both of which are more complicated to play. Remember that cruisers are support ships, and while they can be dangerous alone, they are even more dangerous when supporting bigger, tougher ships, like battleships. In my next blog, I think I'll explain a little more about early American cruisers, but also give some more reasons why you should hold off before going nuts with torpedoes. For now, I'd just recommend you watch some training videos, and stick with the advice I've listed here.

Happy sailing