Lightninger's Operations Guides.

[Andrewbassg]

I think it will be fitting to start with this. These guides (by now) are outdated, (coz ops rebork reasons) but nevertheless I think they belong here, for multiple reasons.

 

DISCLAIMER. THESE GUIDES WERE ORIGINALLY WRITTEN AND POSTED ON THE NA FORUMS BY  Lightninger  https://forum.worldofwarships.com/profile/1002406932-lightninger/  AND WERE SIMPLY COPIED OVER , SO ALL CREDIT IS DUE TO HIM. Original text will be posted in ITALIC

 

Killer Whale

Killer Whale is a current operation in the rotation, having been changed once in preparation for the aircraft carrier rework replacing all the aircraft carriers with battleships. It is still considered one of the easiest if not the easiest operation. Whether your random pickup team when solo queuing understands what they need to do of course can sometimes be a completely different matter. Here are the analysis videos for the operation.

Discussion Analysis

 

 

General Replay Analysis

 

Destroyer Strategy Analysis

 

 

Now for additional replay videos.

This is a replay of running only a 5 ship division while playing the Makarov.

 

New video with an update for aircraft carriers as anti-air has been added to forts now.

 

Replay for Budyonny showing how well it works in the cruiser role and shows how uniquely strong it can be.

 

A replay added showing the Izmail. I've made sure there is consistency before showing anything off for battleships.

Older replay sent by Vader_Sama using the Ryujo with no fort anti-air moved further down so there is no confusion which one is newer.

 

With a destroyer not really needing to use smoke most of the time for this operation, it was the natural place to try the Guepard first and grind through it.

 

A replay with the Furious in Killer Whale. Just so everyone is clear, this is a replay from myself, not Vader_Sama.

 

Gaede replay where I discussed solo queue strategy with a destroyer. Apparently my voiceover didn't take and need to record again or use a different replay later.

 

Ranger replay of mine (not Vader_Sama). You can see how this aircraft carrier scrub manages with some practicing for directive grinding.

Ark Royal replay from Vader_Sama. This is a must see for anyone wanting to excel at aircraft carriers in Operations.

 

[Andrewbassg]

 

AEGIS

With Aegis being a current and active operation still, a full analysis was done for this operation, starting with a discussion analysis, general replay analysis, and destroyer strategy analysis.

 

Discussion Analysis

 

Gunboat Destroyer Analysis

 

This one has a special ending if you want to watch until the end. You will know at the end what I'm talking about and this occurrence has only happened once that I know of.

 

My talking could still be a soft on these as I recorded a whole bunch at the end of 0.7.12 and I will probably rerecord the discussion analysis later if it is an issue. A couple previous videos to come in a second post.

 

One of my highest damage games in Aegis if not the highest for a destroyer and a brief talk about how to better farm damage if that is the goal.

 

A Ryujo replay that Vader_Sama sent me for Aegis, which I am adding here for easy viewing.

 

 

This is the route I take with the Izmail that has proved consistently effective and you are able to help with any of the Northern Battleships as needed.

 

A replay with the Anshan that is my new highest damage without spawning the Extra Battleships.

 

 

Interesting Aoba replay sent me by GhostSwordsman

 

 

Special Section for Extra Battleship Spawn for anyone interested.

Here is one replay to inform everyone on how the "Extra Battleships" spawn.

 

 

 

Replays from one game where we purposely spawned the Extra Battleships so you can see multiple perspectives

 

Budyonny

 

 

Monaghan

 

 

Aigle

 

 

And here is an image of what the spawn box looks like.

 

 

I've posted these two replays before but for anyone who hasn't seen them or wants to watch them again, check it out.

 

Hatsuharu

 

 

Fubuki

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

"BIG piece of advice. Don't sacrifice the primary objective by going for the optional ones. Been in too many matches where half to three quarters of the team ran north to take out the 2 bonus BBs, allowing the convoy ships to be overwhelmed by the group of enemies coming in from the west."

I'm honestly glad you posted this, despite how counter-productive it is. It actually reminded me to add a video to my second post which I will do momentarily about the extra battleships.

Now to address your post, everyone should take this with a grain of salt. I am guessing you are referring to the spawn of three battleships I refer to as the "Northern Battleships." Sure, If you lose a couple ships early and things are going badly, you should try to exit to try and finish, but if things are going fine, there's no reason to lose out on a star. Now if you are talking about the player spawned "Extra Battleships," I would never recommend it with a random pickup group as more than likely you're not equipped to deal with it.

The point of the videos and this thread is to give everyone as much information as possible so you can consistently 5 star this operation most of the time if not every time, which means you shouldn't need to avoid the "Northern Battleships" as you are saying here.

What you are saying is the equivalent of:
-Letting the Shchors sink and not rescuing the captain because it is not mission critical.
-Letting one transport sink because who cares about having 5 stars.

Or the equivalent in some other operations:

Cherry Blossom
-Letting the Atago escape because you don't need to sink it
-Destroying the airfields too early and you miss out on the 50 plane kills
-Not caring if four ships remain alive

Narai
-Letting the enemy transports escape
-Letting the Missouri ram or kill one of your transports you are escorting outside the base
-Letting the aircraft carrier escape
-Not protecting the lead transport ship

Newport
-Letting the enemy ships cross the perimeter
-Letting the Baltimore die
-If you lost stars already, not killing the Izumo to keep a star

Killer Whale
-Not destroying the base buildings
-Not sinking the enemy transports
-Letting the enemy ships into the haven

I could go on with many more objectives you could "fail" and still finish the operation with a "win." It is suboptimal to lose out on stars when you don't have to, especially when you've gotten all the rewards from the stars already. The point of the videos and the thread is to give everyone as much information as possible to get the 5 stars and max your earnings each time.

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Andrewbassg
Formatting

[Wolfswetpaws]

🐺

[Andrewbassg]

Defense of Newport News

With the next operation being Defense of Naval Station Newport next in rotation coming this next Wednesday, here are the analysis videos for this operation. It is definitely considered one of the harder, if not hardest operations to do, especially if you are solo queuing as it is easy to lose stars, and even for things to escalate quickly into a loss when it starts going wrong.

 

Discussion Analysis

 

 

General Replay Analysis

 

 

Destroyer Strategy Analysis

 

 

 

Additional replay videos on this post.

First one is a replay sent by @Vader_Sama in the Ranger showcasing playing an aircraft carrier in this operation.

 

 

A second replay sent by Vader_Sama, this time using the Ryujo in this operation

 

 

 

Here is a video of a proactive strategy I created for the Izmail in this operation. What you're able to do and where I am located throughout the operation might be a surprise for some.

 

 

A new proactive strategy was developed for the Prinz Eitel Friedrich for Newport and you can see both pikohan and myself are playing it this game.

 

 

A new replay from Vader_Sama in the Ryujo for Defense of Newport Station.

 

 

 

[Andrewbassg]

Narai.

Narai is currently an active scenario, having been changed twice already, with yet another minor change. It is still one of the operations that players like a lot, including those in the group in the Hoperations discord I play with most of the time. Here are the analysis videos for Narai, with a second post for more replays.

Discussion Analysis (version 3.0 video, may make a new one for 3.1)

 

 

General Replay Analysis (version 3.0 video, may make a new one for 3.1)

 

 

Destroyer Strategy Analysis (version 3.0 video, may make a new one for 3.1)

 

 

Here are more replays for more specific ships.

The Shchors seems to be a ship most have little confidence in taking into Narai saying it is too easy to kill. I am here to show you how easy it is to take this ship in and how well it can excel in this operation.

 

 

After grinding through the Hatsuharu in Aegis/Killer Whale, I figured I can try grinding through the Shiratsuyu in Narai, despite it being probably the least optimal ship for this operation. Following my destroyer strategy which I have a video for in the previous post, you can see despite its weaknesses, you can still do really well in it. I also explain the differences here between the most optimal destroyer being the Leningrad, and the least optimal being the Shiratsuyu, with all the rest falling in between. If I can do this with the Shiratsuyu, surely you can have a decent destroyer game with any destroyer using my strategy.

 

 

A replay for the Minsk is now being added to illustrate that short range torpedoes, while a disadvantage doesn't make you ineffective either.

 

 

 

This is a replay sent to me by AoSApocalypse of his strat that he uses for playing a Scharnhorst in Narai. Let's just say he is in a real hurry most of the time.

 

This is a strat/route I had in mind once I got my Sinop, with its bow tankiness in mind. I have found this route can be applicable to most other battleships in this tier as well for this Scenario.

 

This is a video that while shows no new strat, is a good illustration of a point I was making on a different thread about how you want to be proactive in how you play. This serves you well in other modes as well as making others react to what you are doing rather than the other way around means you have a greater influence on the battle.

 

 

 

This is just another run in the Minsk doing the same route I showed off earlier, but this time in a 5 ship division and I've also done it in a 4 ship division in Narai. The main point is, if you know what you are doing, you can do well even with something not necessarily optimal.

 

This is a replay from Vader_Sama where he is using the Vauquelin during early access period in patch 0.8.6. See what you think.

 

 

I have a couple tactics video for just showing doing the transports before this but here is a full replay, along with showing some aggressive play afterwards once you get inside the base area.

 

 

Last replay to add here being an aggressive version of the northern route I use with the Shchors.

 

"I think I would rank Blys and Sims lower than Shiratsuyu, if only because of the weakness of their torpedo armament vs. what I consider to be the DD's only reason for being there - the Missouri.  Both do have good main guns, and a DD player in Narai should certainly be getting a lot of work done with them, but when it comes to the knock-out punch on the 'big guy', they just come up short."

While a major reason to bring a destroyer in Narai is to sink the Missouri, it's also important that it should be able to take care of itself for the most part or be able to clutch a win if needed. Damage on the Missouri can be compensated by your teammates, while being able to take care of yourself or do a clutch win is not as easily made up for. This is why Shiratsuyu is less optimal than something like a Blyskawica or Sims.

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Andrewbassg

[Andrewbassg]

Hermes

I created a similar thread for this a while back before this section got made and I think it got buried in the PvP content. With Hermes being another scenario removed from rotation, it will be interesting to see what they do to change it. This one definitely got mixed reviews on arrival and was fun and helpful when you had ships you were grinding in it. Also not the most easy one to run, but having battleship players who knew what they were doing definitely helped a lot.

There were definitely some other issues that were problematic that I heard about, like the thunderstorm causing visual problems for some players.

What would anyone like for changes to this one if any?

 

Basic Tactics Videos

 

 

 

Lyon

 

 

Richelieu

 

Also a couple funny moments from different games.

( little did he know that subs will come to the game.......)

 

[Andrewbassg]

Ultimate Frontier

 

The scenario Ultimate Frontier is still currently out of rotation pending finalization of bot aircraft carriers which they are testing in patch 0.8.6. I used the most recent recording I had (Patch 0.7.11) for this and added voiceover to do a review of this operation, pending a new release. If you're wondering why I am calling it version 1.2, they haven't made any official version change to it but there have been changes that have had an impact on how well you could achieve a 5 star results. From release to patch 0.7.2 would be Version 1.0. Then with patch 0.7.3, they amped up the difficulty and increased the forts saved required to 3, making it nearly impossible to achieve 5 stars, which I call version 1.1. They toned the difficulty back down in 0.7.4 but kept the 3 fort requirement, thus Version 1.2. There was one more change which didn't really change how the scenario worked with the USN cruiser split, making it Version 1.2.1.

 

 

 

[Andrewbassg]

Dynamo 

Like Ultimate Frontier, Dynamo is out of rotation due to aircraft interaction and will hopefully return soon. This scenario first originated with the release of the Dunkirk movie with ships that are no longer used anymore with no information whether they will be added for normal play at some point. As such, this was recorded using one of my already pre-recorded replays since there was no new replay to use.

 

 

 

 

[Andrewbassg]

Cherry Blossom

 

With Cherry Blossom removed from the scenario rotation, I had decided to skip doing a scenario discussion analysis, but that doesn't mean I can't help inform everyone about it. Here are the latest videos where I talk about the operation, both the normal version with the Charles Martel, and a permanent night with the Chapayev. Let me know any thoughts or questions you may have.

With the operation removed, we can make suggestions as well for how it can be improved, and maybe the developers can incorporate it if they like it.

 

Normal Cherry Blossom

 

 

 

Permanent Night Cherry Blossom

 

 

As mentioned in the Chapayev replay, the regulars on the Hoperations discord have figured out what causes a Permanent Night version. I never received any confirmation from WG when filing the ticket about the bug whether they figured out the cause. If anyone thinks they know the cause, feel free to throw out your guess in a post, and the solution to the cause. Maybe you will win something if you get the cause right, and maybe something else for the person figuring out the solution. And no, sorry my regulars on Hoperations discord are not eligible to win something as you already know.

 

(P S I also encountered this bug, with some variations, sometimes Narai was permanight  and AEGIS was bright and sunny  . No clue why)