Do I suck at Iwami...

[SoshiSone]

...or does Iwami just suck.

I thought I'd like this ship.  Spend some Coal and Capt train points to bring it up to a good fit.  I just can't get it to work.  It seems anemic at best.

 

 

[Aethervox]

Too bad you lost one battle. You won four. That's 80%. What is your point? I'll take 4 Ws & 1 L every time I play but that won't happen due to outright CHEATS like the  following ...  a complete farce of a MM.

[BOBTHEBALL]

32 minutes ago, SoshiSone said:

...or does Iwami just suck.

I thought I'd like this ship.  Spend some Coal and Capt train points to bring it up to a good fit.  I just can't get it to work.  It seems anemic at best.

 

 

It's not the best, quite mediocre.

[Unlooky]

4 hours ago, SoshiSone said:

...or does Iwami just suck.

I thought I'd like this ship.  Spend some Coal and Capt train points to bring it up to a good fit.  I just can't get it to work.  It seems anemic at best.

 

 

It's painfully mediocre. Play some more games though, with 5 games, one of them is pretty much guaranteed to be a loss. 

[Project45_Opytny]

52 minutes ago, Unlooky said:

It's painfully mediocre. Play some more games though, with 5 games, one of them is pretty much guaranteed to be a loss. 

Quote

Honestly, I just can’t recommend the Iwami, even if you missed Hizen and Musashi. She isn’t absolutely worthless but compared to most tier IX battleships, she just doesn’t stack well. She suffers from a massive identity crisis, failing to be a good standard Japanese battleship because of the lack of punch of her main battery compared to other battleships at medium and long-range. At the same time, she also fails to be a brawling ship because of her lack of survivability, and underwhelming secondary battery. If it wasn’t enough, Japanese battleships actually have the worst dispersion at close range so that doesn’t help either.

If you want a Japanese battleship captain trainer, you have Hyuuga, Ashitaka, or even Kii. If you just want a strong Japanese tier IX battleship and don’t have Musashi, just get Izumo. If you want a brawling ship with strong secondaries, grind the German battlecruiser line. The Iwami… she is nothing more than a coal or doubloons sink. Even in that regard, there is still a long list of ships available for coal that are just better.

Yuzorah's Final verdict on Iwami, from July 7th 2022, courtesy of The Daily Bounce. I consider it sums up what's wrong with her: being not good enough for either the traditional role of Japanese BB or a brawler. And for participants of Spring 2023 dockyard there's also Daisen that is a much more interesting though also challenging Japanese T9 premium battleship.

[palestreamer]

I have been very happy with Iwami. Seems tough and hard hitting to me.

 

[Wolfswetpaws]

9 hours ago, SoshiSone said:

...or does Iwami just suck.

I thought I'd like this ship.  Spend some Coal and Capt train points to bring it up to a good fit.  I just can't get it to work.  It seems anemic at best.

 

 

Personally, I like the Iwami.

[OT2_2]

Iwami is a very pleasant ship to play, and I rate her as better as both Izumo and Daisen. 

Edited April 8 by OT2_2

[SoshiSone]

2 hours ago, Project45_Opytny said:

Yuzorah's Final verdict on Iwami, from July 7th 2022, courtesy of The Daily Bounce. I consider it sums up what's wrong with her: being not good enough for either the traditional role of Japanese BB or a brawler. And for participants of Spring 2023 dockyard there's also Daisen that is a much more interesting though also challenging Japanese T9 premium battleship.

Thanks for that review.  That's exactly my experience and basically how I feel.

[clammboy]

Perhaps it's just that the Iwami strengths and weaknesses don't match up well with your strengths and weaknesses. If you have any weaknesses being the good player you are.

Edited April 8 by clammboy

[Nevermore135]

3 hours ago, Project45_Opytny said:

I consider it sums up what's wrong with her: being not good enough for either the traditional role of Japanese BB or a brawler.

^This.

The armor and IJN BB dispersion model encourage long range play, and while she has a “good” suite of secondaries they lack the range and dispersion to be effective. I suspect she would be an even rarer sight if she wasn’t available for coal.

Edited April 8 by Nevermore135

[Kruzenstern]

For me, the Iwami was a nice surprise during last years asymmetric battles. I didn't even acknowledge the ship (it fell out of some container and was left to rot in port like so many other tier9s and 10s) until I figured I would try all those unplayed tier9s and 10s I have as long as the chance is there (and for flakes), and boy, it was amazing. Those secondaries are far better than that review makes them look, basically a supercharged Akizuki on each side with enough accuracy to get some really high damage values (using IFHE and against lower tiers of course). And the main guns are nothing to sneeze at either, fairly accurate at range and very good firing angles. The lackluster pen doesn't really matter in PvE, just like its weaknesses when it comes to taking damage do not.

The 20km loltorps are a nice icing on the cake.

In direct comparison with Daisen, Iwami did considerably better for me, because secondaries are king in PvE.

Where the Siegfried was my biggest disappointment among the ships I got intentionally, Iwami was the most pleasant surprise among the ships I got without wanting them.

[Viridem]

I really like Iwami. It's one of my best performing BBs, and works especially well in game modes with fewer opponents, like brawl, ranked and currently pinata mode.

I have set her up for secondaries, with DE, IFHE, long range secondaries and manual secondaries skills, and of course all the related upgrades.

The rest of the skills are PT, vigilance, BoS and emergency repair expert (yes, no fire prevention, which sucks, but I like to live dangerously).

The guns are good for long to medium range, as they're slightly more accurate than Izumo's, but with less penetration. Standard Japanese stuff.

You basically play her like a regular Japanese BB, with the added bonus of being able to send long range torps from time to time (they're unlikely to hit, but they're "free", might as well use them if it's safe to do so).

Once the number of opponents gets low, or if you have a golden opportunity for flanking, you can get in there and shred things with your secondaries. Approach with caution however, as you have only average maneuvrability (although the rudder shift is great) and no hydro, and she doesn't really like focus fire.

The secondaries' only weakness really is their standard base range of 7km, otherwise they wreck things with improved dispersion, very high DPM and improved HE penetration on the 100mm guns that simply eat up cruisers, and BBs if you pick IFHE. Maybe the firing angles aren't the best? (I'm not sure).

The nose is prone to leading shells to her citadel, while the armor belt extends far toward the aft end.

So when using secondaries, you can either rush towards your opponents if you have a solid advantage, otherwise because of her armour it's best to show your rear while angled and let them come towards you. This way, it's easier to land torpedoes, too.

 

She demands quite some caution to be properly used: you don't have the armour to rush like a madman guns blazing, and the angles on the torpedoes aren't the best either. But in good hands she can perform very well.

Currently at 63% solo WR over 182 random battles, and holding the damage record for both EU and NA servers in her.

 

She might not be the best at what she does, but she's still a very decent ship.

If anything, she's better in almost every single way to Hizen. Now THAT is a mediocre ship, at best.

[New_Jersey_prpr]

I play Iwami in traditional way and here are some of my opinions:

1. HE shells with usable ballistics is a huge plus on this ship. I missed them when playing other IJN BBs and opponents only show bow or stern to me.

2. Low alpha damage and fast reload means if you can't get constant spotting from your teammate, her damage output capability would be heavily hampered. (Guns are already reloaded but you can't get a target to shoot at.) But when you do get constant spotting, her short reload would be comfortable.

3. Her speed drops to 21~kts when turning, idk if it's normal for a BB with 28 kts top speed, but this does make flanking harder than expected. Speed flag is highly recommended when playing.

4. 20 km torps can land some surprising hits. Throw them into channels for maxium effect.

5. I don't invest into secondary gun skills when playing random. But her secondaries are arguably better than Georgia's, in modes against bots this would be helpful.

 

[Rollingonit]

Not a fan. I wouldnt spec secondary on it (mine is). And I love secondary boats. 

GA is a wayyy better ship than the Iwami. 

I still play it for lols though. 

[Kruzenstern]

22 minutes ago, Rollingonit said:

GA is a wayyy better ship than the Iwami. 

Georgia is a wayyy better ship than a whole plethora of ships. My short experience with it led me to actually think of her as moderately overpowdered. Easily the best tier9 BB in my port. Probably also overall. Playing asyms with her occasionally felt dirty.

[Wolfswetpaws]

Commander ARP Musashi is the Captain of the Iwami in my Port.

Captain's skills (14 points utilized of 14 points available)
~Preventive Maintenance
~Grease the Gears
~Long-Range Secondary Battery Shells
~Manual Secondary Battery Aiming,  ~Fire Prevention

Hull Modules installed as of this writing:
~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

Signal Flag
~Sierra Mike (Improves ship's speed by 5%), which provides a Maximum Speed of 29.6 knots.

The turning circle radius is 880 m.
The rudder-shift time is 11.2 seconds.
For a "big girl" she can "wiggle" decently, in my opinion.

Detectability Range by Sea is 14.3 km

Main Battery maximum dispersion is 227 m., with a maximum range of 22.3 km.

Secondary Battery maximum range is 8.8 km.

Damage Control Party consumable has "unlimited" charges.
Repair Party Consumable has 4 charges.

While I primarily enjoy sailing the Iwami in Co-op battles, I wouldn't mind sailing her into randoms or Asymmetric battles.

With two main-gun turrets fore, and two main-gun turrets aft, she can push or kite with the same amount of gun-barrels available.

If she kites, or brawls, her torpedoes have potent warheads, good launching arcs and a long 20 km range.

The arrangement of the three 155mm sec-bat turrets is a bit of a 'head-scratcher'.  I'm not sure what the designers were thinking or intending.

The 100mm sec-bat guns are in a reasonable layout, though.

With a minimal amount of consumables to manage, the Iwami can focus on finding opponents and sending ordnance at them until they're sunk.
That's her "Zen", I feel.  🙂 
 

[Kruzenstern]

21 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

~Long-Range Secondary Battery Shells

~Manual Secondary Battery Aiming,

~Auxiliary Armaments Modification 2

And yet...

21 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

~Aiming Systems Modification 1

Aren't you shooting yourself in the foot with that? You give up a lot of secondary potential for a very questionable gain on an already reasonably accurate main battery here, when everything else is geared to make the secondaries as best as can be...

[Wolfswetpaws]

Just now, Kruzenstern said:

And yet...

Aren't you shooting yourself in the foot with that? You give up a lot of secondary potential for a very questionable gain on an already reasonably accurate main battery here, when everything else is geared to make the secondaries as best as can be...

A fair question.
I could go "all in" on secondary-battery guns.  
But, I find that I also like the 7% better dispersion for the main-guns.  I've scored hits on targets from 20+ km away (which is personally satisfying).
So, the build is a "hybrid" or "compromise" to provide most of what I want with the options available to me.

[Nevermore135]

On 4/8/2024 at 11:05 AM, Kruzenstern said:

Those secondaries are far better than that review makes them look, basically a supercharged Akizuki on each side with enough accuracy to get some really high damage values (using IFHE and against lower tiers of course).

IIRC, Iwami has the same improved secondary dispersion as tier VII+ German battleships (base -20%). While this is workable in Coop/Assymetric Battles against bots, my experience is that with the current iteration of the manual secondaries skill (with its long ramp-up period) this level of accuracy doesn’t work nearly as effectively in Randoms.