Board Thread:Game Updates/@comment-26154973-20190329092028/@comment-32647310-20190403151252

Tennousu wrote: Kongou needs to beat Bismarck drei before she can claim a spot in escort fleet of Kidou or Suijou Butai. Although looking at it, it's not that hard to beat. Probably not, because the main reason why Bismarck Drei is really viable at night is due to how the Torp stat factors into damage calculation...and she is the only FBB that *has* a Torp stat.

Tennousu wrote: How can you say escort fleet only shines at night...

Kidou Butai and Yusou Butai relies on having strong enough escort fleet that is gimped with bullshit accuracy penalty and often pitted against high-evasion, high-armored ships, forcing you to send support expedition (not so much for Yusou Butai as it's mandatory) and depleting even more of your resources. You kind of just pointed out *exactly* why I say that Escort Fleets shine at night. Day battles are primarily for clearing out the 'trash' (read: anything except the Flagship). If the hard-hitting Main Fleet from a CTF or STF are able to inflict damage to the flagship, so much the better.

However because night battle mechanics have different damage caps and calculate damage differently, night battles tend to be a case of rocket-tag. BBs don't do well at night even in regular battles, while for DDs, CLs, CLTs and CAs (depending on the ship and build), that's their bread and butter...so these are the ships you are relying on to sink the boss in a Combined Fleet.

Tennousu wrote: When you put fast battleships (read: Bismarck drei) in escort fleet, that's because you want to have stronger daytime punching power to have bigger chance of sinking enemy ships in exchange for weaker nighttime attack (that's actually still as strong as many Kai IJN CAs).

Bismarck drei is good to have especially on Kidou Butai escort fleet because of this, plus her innate torpedo stat, allowing her to do chip damage during closing torpedo phase against enemy bosses. People *DON'T* put FBBs in the Escort Fleet for precisely this reason. While there is merit to putting an FBB in the Escort Fleet, it is mostly to do as you say; have a harder-hitting round of shelling during the day and 'pretty good' damage at night with the FBB positioned to take care of any leftover escorts.

Tennousu wrote: And against installation weak to Type 3 Shell, BB > CA due to BB can spare being moderately damaged while CA's damage plummets down. All ships suffer significant reductions in damage output due to be moderately damaged, it's just that BBs have a higher starting damage stat, meaning that after the penalties, they still have some hefty hitting power.

...however, CAs *STILL* perform better than BBs at night across the board, which means that, at night, you are still wanting to have a CA in the escort fleet istead of a BB as a general thing.

Nevermind the fact that given how combat mechanics work, it's actually beneficial when planning for/anticipating the night battle phase to put your night battle workhorses in the Escort Fleet because the Main Fleet will be the one taking most of the punishment, leaving the Escort Fleet to wreak havoc at night (though this depends on the type of fleet being sortied).

Tennousu wrote: What's stopping you, then, from using Bismarck drei? THE MAP ITSELF. Especially the part where the map punishes you for using too many capital ships. What is stopping me, personally, from using Bismarck Drei is the fact that I don't have Bismarck Drei.

With regard to using certain ships, while map composition requirements are always a factor in determining how many capital ships are brought, this is usually a matter of the speed of ships (favoring Fast compisitions) and ship-locking more than anything else. That said, if there is a reason to bring an FBB in the Escort Fleet, and there is a capital ship cap for routing purposes, one can always put CAs in the Main Fleet. Heck, just in the *last* event, there were reasons to put FBBs in the Escort Fleet because FBBs got damage bonuses against the boss, which was *very* useful due to that boss' heavy armor.