Russian Navy (VMF) - Tier 2: Novik

After a few games at tier 1 i earned enough experience to progress to the next stage: Tier 2, home of the "Novik"

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Speaking from a future perspective, the Novik would share similar game-play styles with the next 2 tiers (Tier 2, 3 and 4).

The Novik boasted Napoleonic era guns situated all around the ship - 6 in total, 1 situated at the front, 2 on each side of the ship and 1 at the rear.

The Positives and Negatives

The only thing i could say was a positive was that the Novik's guns slightly out ranged most of her opponents. but this is where anything good about the ship stopped for me.

Her speed was mediocre and it seemed like i was punished incredibly hard whenever i was out of position.

Despite the range being a positive, i still found that it was only a slight advantage often letting you get the first salvo off before the enemy could.

You might be thinking that the range could be used to "run and gun" away from the opponent; that point would be valid if the ship was faster. Often i found myself being caught by pursuing ships, keeping me inside their range and thus nullifying my range advantage.

The general game-play feel of low tier i spoke about in my Tier 1 post still exists. Guns don't have long range and it often boils down to a close quarters combat mosh pit somewhere around some islands

Confusion at low tier

Playing World of Warships for the first time was very daunting, even more so at low tier. The Novik was the first ship i could feel myself struggling to understand the game. I didn't know the appropriate ammo type to be firing at enemies so i ended by just firing Armor Piercing, something i came to understand was incorrect when learning more and more.

I had an extensive understanding of armor angling - the art of tilting your armor to a certain degree so that it would give the maximum armor protection to incoming projectiles - due to my many hours in War Thunder Ground Forces (Over 1000 hours).

This being said, i don't have a lot of experience in the understanding of armor on a naval vessel. All my military knowledge and understanding is primarily focused on infantry, armor and leadership. I am slowly beginning to understand how to angle my armor so that i shatter or ricochet incoming rounds. I still visibly play like a new player, but at i read and watch reviews of ships and their play-styles i am slowly picking up hints here and there.