Japanese BB setup

[palestreamer]

I am working on the grind up to Yamato, currently at Amagi. To be played in Randoms and Ranked. My captains only have enough points to get one 4 point skill, so I am choosing between Fire Prevention Expert (-1 fire, -10% chance of catching fire), and Emergency Repair Expert (+10% Damage Control Party and Repair Party Times, and +1 of each consumable). 

Which is the more useful skill if you can only have one?

I notice the Japanese BBs have nice secondaries, but only short range. Is it worth doing secondary builds on the Japanese BBs?

Edited November 22, 2023 by palestreamer
more info

[TimurGlazkov]

FP should be your first choice. ERE is a solid skill but as a long-range sniping BB (with a bit of self-conscious positioning and angling) you won't be making use of the 5th heal very often, save that as your 5th skill when you have 14pts.

You can certainly build secondaries on tech tree Japanese BB (Amagii's 140mm has improved accuracy, Yamato's 155mm with IFHE can pen 32mm) but there're premium alternative.

If you want a secondary build Amagi, save money to buy Kii (Has 2 Akizuki strapped to the side, very respectable AA, has torp)

If you want a secondary build Yamato, save steel to by Shikishima (Has 2 Harugumo strapped to the side, better AA than even USS Montana)

In the middle (Tier 9) you have the coal ship Iwami which is an upgrade Kii (personally I still think Kii is better)

[palestreamer]

45 minutes ago, TimurGlazkov said:

(Has 2 Akizuki strapped to the side)

(Has 2 Harugumo strapped to the side)

LOL. All great info, thanks!

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 hour ago, palestreamer said:

I am working on the grind up to Yamato, currently at Amagi. To be played in Randoms and Ranked. My captains only have enough points to get one 4 point skill, so I am choosing between Fire Prevention Expert (-1 fire, -10% chance of catching fire), and Emergency Repair Expert (+10% Damage Control Party and Repair Party Times, and +1 of each consumable). 

Which is the more useful skill if you can only have one?

I notice the Japanese BBs have nice secondaries, but only short range. Is it worth doing secondary builds on the Japanese BBs?

I have the Yamato, the ARP Yamato and the Shikishima in my Port.

I sail them with a compromise version of a sec-bat build.

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Yamato 
Equipment
Main Armaments Modification 1, Damage Control System Modification 1, Aiming Systems Modification 1, Steering Gears Modification 1, Concealment System Modification 1, Auxiliary Armaments Modification 2.

Commander Moeka China's Captain's Skills (14 skill points)
Preventive Maintenance, Grease the Gears, Long-Range Secondary Battery Shells, Manual Secondary Battery Aiming, Concealment Expert.

A viable alternative would be Fire Prevention.  This would reduce the chance of being set on fire and reduce the total number of fires allowed.
Since the recent Captain's Skills re-work, I've been giving Fire Prevention more consideration for ships that frequently enter brawling situations or face multiple opponents attempting to set my ship on fire.

ARP Yamato
Equipment
Auxiliary Armaments Modification 1, Damage Control System Modification 1, Aiming Systems Modification 1, Steering Gears Modification 1, Concealment System Modification 1, ARP Main Battery Director System Unique Upgrade (this module was bundled with the Ship because I purchased the "bundle" of ARP Maya, ARP Yamato and Commander ARP Musashi during the collaboration event.  It reduces main-gun dispersion by 7% with the trade-off of a 13% reduction in turret rotation rate).

Commander ARP Yamato's Captain's Skills (14 skill points)
The same as Moeka China's with the exception of taking Fire Prevention instead of Concealment Expert.

Shikishima
Equipment
Same choices as tech-tree Yamato

Commander Yamamoto Isoroku has 15 skill points available, but I'm only using 10 of them at the moment while I ponder where to put the remaining 5 points.
Preventive Maintenance, Grease the Gears, Long-Range Secondary Battery Shells and Manual Secondary Battery Aiming.
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"Is it worth doing secondary builds on the Japanese BBs?" - @palestreamer
Personally, I feel it is a lot of fun. 
It is useful in Scenario Operations and Co-op battles.
It is sometimes useful in random battles.  I say this because random battles tend to have less brawling.  The early part of a random battle tends to benefit from having accurate long-range gunfire available to chip-away the HP of opposing ships.  
As Colonel Townsend Whelen said, "Only accurate rifles are interesting".  Hence, my choice of Aiming Systems Modification 1 as a hull module.

Hope that helps, or at least provides some food for thought.  🙂 

[tocqueville8]

Fire Prevention comes into play any time anyone shoots HE at you, or drops you with HE rockets/bombs.

Emergency Repair Expert does give you +10% healing, but 1) sometimes you'd rather use a partial heal just to get it going and start reloading it, in case you still have several heals but the game isn't going to last much longer; 2) the main benefit, the extra heal, can only come into play after about 9 minutes of playtime, given the use/reload cycle and the fact that you won't take any damage for the first couple of minutes, realistically

[ReDiR20]

Always fire prevention as first 4 point skill for BBs that has standard heal

[Nevermore135]

2 hours ago, ReDiR20 said:

Always fire prevention as first 4 point skill for BBs that has standard heal

While this is generally good advice, the other case to consider are ships with the Soviet-style DCP, i.e. Soviet BBs and German CCs. These ships don’t need FPE (and an optimal secondary build on German CCs requires you to skip it entirely), so the best choice for the first 4 pt skill is either ERE (to make up for having one less heal than standard) or Concealment Expert.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Nevermore135

[ReDiR20]

36 minutes ago, Nevermore135 said:

While this is generally good advice, the other case to consider are ships with the Soviet-style DCP, i.e. Soviet BBs and German CCs. These ships don’t need FPE (and an optimal secondary build on German CCs requires you to skip it entirely), so the best choice for the first 4 pt skill is either ERE (to make up for having one less heal than standard) or Concealment Expert.

 

True, forgot about those

[Admiral_Karasu]

I won't make any recommendations about captain skills, not least because 99 percent of my captains still have no skills assigned and it will take a while before I will commit to anything, especially beyond the first 10 points.

Equipment wise, this is what I have:

Yamato

Damage Control Party Modification 1

Damage Control System Modification 1

Aiming Systems Modification 1

Damage Control System Modification 2

Concealment System Modification 1

Gun Fire Control System Modification 2

 

Musashi

Damage Control Party Modification 1

Damage Control System Modification 1

Aiming Systems Modification 1

Damage Control System Modification 2

Torpedo Lookout System

Auxiliary Armaments Modification 2

 

As you notice, the equipment is different for slots 5 and 6, and I'm not sure if there's any rational reason for this beyond experimenting. The concealment system adds a complication to the CE skill, as you can take both, or one or the other, in which case I don't know which is the better option. Anecdotally, concealment used to be the best option to go, but I have a nagging feeling this bit of wisdom dates back to the RTS CV years and earlier meta in general.