My experience with Vanguard

[SoshiSone]

This is a plain vanilla T8 BB that for some reason has an appeal to me.  It took me a week or so of play to finally land on a captain skill set that maximize how I play the ship.  A very different experience than my German approach.  I tend toward the brawl, and Venguard is more of a midrange attrition ship that eshews the brawl for a kite.  I have to re-train my aggressive mind.  Find the correct balance of when and how to push up. It kites very well.

Takes a good bit of understanding of switching from AP to HE, which is tier, MM, and situationally dependent.

This is the first ship where I've given up priority target.  Takes some getting used to, and I could probably get rid of it on other ships; it's kinda a comfort skill for a BB.

I've toyed with Cunningham (for his skill activation...an extra heal for killing two ships), but landed solidly on Jack Dunkirk because his Grease the Gears extra 5% is actually a perfect fit with Vanguard.  It keeps the turrets up with ship turn speed, which allows continued engagements on the turn. And Vanguard is all about movement and survival.

It's all survival on the 3 and 4 skill set, but offense on the 1 and 2 skills. 

I've found it can be a potent sub killer with a combination of main battery and air strikes, and some of the skill sets map into this ability.  15% plus radius for main battery fire explosions and the 10% damage boost fro depth charges.

In an all around nutshell evaluation:  Mid range attrition.  Interestingly, as the higher tiers tend to be mid to long range attrition early game, it plays well when bottom tier because it fits that meta.  That is, if I resist the urge to push...and avoid the T10 focus fires.  Mid range gives lots of opportunity to go quiet and heal if necessary.  I can print a new ship with the heals.  Also, the fire spitters are T10 aren't much of an issue.  So even if I don't have T10 smack down, I at least can take up some of the red attention without much worry.

Top tier requires a different mental adjustments.  While it still performs better as a mid tier attrition ship, there is a balance I have to figure out due to the fact when you're top tier more is expected early.  No problem in my Bismarck as it can make an early impact.  Vanguard has to be careful not to win its attrition bubble, but lose the game.

Oh well, after trying several builds, here's Jack:

 

  

[Scrubby_McScrub]

Um no... drop the useless AA and fire skills and get adrenaline rush. AR is a skill EVERY captain should have since it just straight up buffs reload the more you lose health. 

[Ensign Cthulhu]

Here we go again, Soshi's gonna take a ship the whole world despises and tear everyone a new aft with it. 🤣 👍

[SoshiSone]

12 hours ago, Scrubby_McScrub said:

Um no... drop the useless AA and fire skills and get adrenaline rush. AR is a skill EVERY captain should have since it just straight up buffs reload the more you lose health. 

I don't see AR as a good fit for Vangaurd.  A mid range fighter designed to tank, go dark, and heal.  Its secondaries are crap.  

As for the AA, keep in mind that it also has a 10% ASW damage bump and the 15% consumable recovery that, with all those enemy air strikes floating around, has added benefits in today's meta.

As for DE, it's not just the 1% bump for fire, but the 15% radius (which equates to a 32% bump in area) on sub shots.  Subs are very vulnerable to main gun fire when on surface or periscope.  The extra 32% of area coverage is bad news for subs.

But that's why we get to choose our skills.  To each their own.

Oh, incidently, I moved Cunningham back to the captain's chair.  95K plus heal on a 71K hull is...well...insane (and was needed, but I didn't have Cunningham, in a fight tonight).  And if I can ever manage 4 floods on subs...a 5% bump in speed.  But that's just a crazy bonus.  The real kicker is that extra heal upon sinking two ships.