World of Warships: Sweet South Carolina

After my long absence from writing about WoWs (it was exam time), I've decided to return by priming all you young captains for your career in battleships! Up until this point, you've probably noticed that I favour cruisers as the ship of choice for new players, and implore newbies to stay away from destroyers until they've come to understand the game a little beyond the basics. I still stand by that, and encourage you all to unlock a Cleveland class cruiser before you touch anything else in the game, but I know that many of you come to WoWs specifically to get your hands on a battleship all of your own. The appeal is simple enough, when most people think of warships the term battleship is typically what comes to mind. They are a romantic concept, the biggest and best, the most expensive, the pride of a nation; and that kind of thinking pervaded the era of battleships as much as it appeals to the modern mind. While battleships are kind of a pointless concept now, we still like to imagine them somehow being resurrected and plying the seas once again. Thus we seek to live out that grand fantasy here in WoWs, and there are three main paths to take, currently. You can captain a Japanese, or American BB and grind up to tier 10, or you can jump into one of the premium BBs that are available for purchase. I've already warned against the dangers of jumping straight to tier 8 in the Tirpitz, and I'm still going through the motions of mastering the Warspite, so lets talk more about your low tier options.

For me, I chose to start out with the American BB, the tier 3 South Carolina. Compared with the Kawachi, the Japanese counterpart, the SC probably seems like a bit of a lightweight. Sure it has the classic BB configuration, with fore and aft super-firing turrets, but it has fewer guns overall, with only 4 turrets packing x2 12 inch guns, compared with the Kawachi's 6x2. Of course, the big difference here is that the SC can actually put all on target at once. That superfiring configuration was actually a world first on the SC, so you can thank it for setting that fashion trend. Comparatively, the Kawachi's 6 turrets are spread out in the style of the early dreadnoughts, with a fore and aft turret mounted centreline, while the other 4 turrets are mounted in the sides of the hull. The advantage for the Kawachi is that it can shift from one side to the other and still be able to fire, but it can still never bring all guns to bear at once. The SC not only has the ability to bring all of its guns onto a single target, but it can do it at longer range. What is really strange about these two ships is that they seem to reverse the roles of the American and Japanese BBs. As the tech trees go along, the Japanese emphasize faster, less maneuverable ships, with longer range guns, and strong deck armour. The Americans will go on to emphasize maneuverability over speed (much to the chagrin of destroyer captains), and shorter range but better performing guns. So as indicators of how the two lines perform, these two ships are a bit of a false start.

The SC is a sweet southern belle once you get used to her quirks. As with the Kawachi, she's a typical dreadnought era ship, other than her super-firing fashion statement that would set the world on fire (literally). The 12 inch (305mm) guns only reach out to 11-11.8km, which is longer than the guns on the Kawachi, but will seem utterly pathetic compared to the ranges that BBs will get up to. The tier 5 Kongo, which the SC can actually encounter in battle, can reach out to a staggering 21km. However, her 12 inchers are pretty nice guns, with a good rate of fire, which will teach young BB captains to get their aim in, without punishing them too much for missing. Her maneuverability isn't as good as the Kawachi, but it's still good enough to jink the occasional torpedo salvo. I found that I was never getting struck by more than 1 torpedo when playing this, and can't say whether it is due to the SC's agility, or the low tier DDs captains' lack of skill. The relatively short range of its guns mean that the SC has to get uncomfortably close to its enemies, and exposes one of its more annoying weaknesses, a lack of decent secondary armament. The SC has a huge battery of 76mm secondary guns, but these have a pathetically short range, and the enemy must be suicidally  close to activate them. The Kawachi, meanwhile, can punish little ships that violate its personal space bubble with a terrifying array of 152mm, and 128mm secondaries.

What the SC probably does best is that it teaches its captain patience. The key to being a good BB captain is to think strategically rather than tactically. BBs move slowly, react slowly, and aim and fire slowly. If you find yourself in a situation where the enemy takes you by surprise, you know you've failed. A good BB captain simply never lets themself get caught out, and always positions themself where they can avoid having to make rapid changes of strategy. The good BB captain keeps one eye on the map at all times, and is always planning their next move long before it happens. What makes the SC an excellent ship is its less punishing nature. Its guns are a little longer range than average, meaning it doesn't get caught out of range as often. Its maneuverability is good enough to avoid being king hit with torpedoes. Most importantly, though, its guns rotate and fire quickly enough for a new player to get his aim in, and avoid the humiliation of firing a completely ineffective salvo, and then sitting on his arse for a minute waiting to reload.

Take the SC for the sweet belle that she is. Take her out, and treat her nicely, and you'll find that she's as kind as she is classic. Much as I said with the Chester, don't squander your time at the lower tiers with dreams of tier 10 monsters. Your time at this tier should be spent perfecting your basics, such as marskmanship and maneuvers. The game gets so complicated later on that you'll find yourself missing that sweet Southern belle.