How to Play Battleship in World of Warships

The Battleship was once the pride of many superpowers back in the early 1900s.

Among other types of warships, the Battleship-class were the largest and often housed the most robust armaments in naval war history. However, these behemoths often saw little to no action on the battlefield, as the operating cost of deploying even a single Battleship versus its overall effectiveness was often a point of contention for many countries.

Battleships often hovered in the back lines, providing cover fire from long range as needed. Due to the Battleship-class’ heft and size, they are inherently slower than smaller warships and expectedly have trouble maneuvering in and out of battle. Battleships often require an escort group consisting of Destroyer-class, Cruiser-class, and Aircraft Carrier ships to make sure it does not end up as a glorified target practice dummy for faster enemy ships such as Destroyers and Cruisers.

World of Warships stays true to many naval warfare nuances such as warship roles. This article will look at how to play the Battleship-class in World of Warships best. Let’s go!

How To Play Battleship in World of Warships

As previously mentioned, Battleships have some of the largest guns mounted in any other warship class in World of Warships. A large gun will inherently fire equivalently large shells. As a result, Battleship guns have the farthest reach of any Main Battery Guns in World of Warships.

We know, we know. We can not fault you if you fall into the shoot-at-will trap that most Battleships urge you to do. The sounds emitted by a Battleship’s Main Battery Full-salvo’s are some of the most euphoric sounds you will ever hear in-game. Who does not want to shoot full-salvos every chance they get?

However, we have to remember a few key things about Battleships to understand what we can and cannot do with these behemoths in-game.

Here are a few key points to remember when playing Battleships in World of Warships:

1. Do Not Rush Into the Heat of Battle

Four enemy warships in range. Is it too late to turn around?

Battleships are very slow, and we are not even referring to their overall acceleration; we mean they are slow in just about everything they do.

Due to their massive size, Battleships take a while to turn their entire hull in just about any direction. Slowing down, turning, accelerating after slowing down, turning the Main Guns, and even reloading all take a while to complete. In general, Battleships are just really sluggish.

With this in mind, Battleship Captains have to be methodical in positioning on the Battlefield. Every action takes a while to complete, which means that Captains will have to think far ahead before engaging in any duel.

2. Don’t Spam the Main Guns

Battleship main guns take a while to reload in-game, which means that Battleships can only really fire off a few salvos within a 20-minute match.

With this in mind, it might be best if Captains treat the Main Guns as if they’re a sniper rifle; it often pays to be patient. A good sniper will wait for the perfect shot, even if it means they will have to wait for their target to be at their most vulnerable before any shot is fired. In this case, Battleship Captains ideally need to wait for a warship showing full-broadside to maximize the amount of damage that their salvos can deal. 

The same mindset must be adopted when aiming and firing off Battleship shells. The Main Guns take a while to reload, so landing the perfect shot is better than spamming the main guns for the sake of firing them off and hoping for a lucky shot to land.

3. Stay in the Backline as Much as Possible

One of the Battleship’s greatest strengths is its ability to out-range smaller ships such as the Destroyer and Cruiser-class warships. As such, it does not make sense to get closer than necessary to fire your main guns and forfeit the Battleship’s range advantage.

It is often best to stay farther back from the front lines and fire off cover salvos to provide fire support to smaller ships in your fleet.

4. Do Not Leave Your Fleet

If you take a closer look at the warships’ spawn positions at the start of every game, you will notice ships are usually grouped in fleets. This is because Battleships, like in real life, are often part of a fleet that consists of Destroyer-class and Cruiser-class warships.

These smaller ships provide important assistance to the Battleship-class, such as Anti-Air support in airstrike situations. Destroyer-class warships are frontline ships that rush into enemy territory to secure objectives such as capturing areas and providing information about enemy locations.

As a warship with long-range firing capability, it is the Battleship’s job to provide cover fire for these smaller ships to make sure that they can secure objectives confidently and safely. 

5. Do Not Be Afraid of Tanking Damage from Smaller Ships when Necessary

Battleships are the most durable warships in the game. The Battleship-class warships have some of the most Hit Points of any other warships. It also helps that Battleships have some of the thickest armor platings of any other warships in-game.

Warships with relatively small-caliber guns such as those found in Destroyer and Cruiser-class warships won’t have enough juice to damage or penetrate thick Battleship armor. As such, Battleships can tank a ton of damage from various sources with very little problem. Thanks to their thick armor, Battleships only really have to worry about other Battleships and Torpedoes. 

6. Do Not Waste Your Time on Destroyers

Destroyers are the fastest warships in the game, a stark contrast to the slow and sluggish Battleship-class warships. 

Battleship Main Guns are already slow to reload and fire as it is. From longer ranges, a Battleship’s Main Guns’ shells will take a long while before it finally lands at the target destination.

With this in mind, it does not make sense to try and snipe off a quick and agile Destroyer that can accelerate and turn almost instantly. Destroyers are already difficult to time due to their speed, and their inherent agility allows them to evade your salvos easily.

Leave the enemy Destroyers to your team’s Destroyers and Cruisers. You will be better off firing full-salvos against slower and larger Battleships counterparts and even most enemy Cruisers.

Naval Sniper

The Battleship-class of warships in World of Warships is the most fearsome warship in the game. With the right strategy and decent aim, these behemoths from the old war have enough firepower to decimate lesser ships with just a single salvo.

However, due to their enormous size, the inherently slow Battleship is often forced to hold the backlines, only providing support and long-range fire against other Battleships and Cruisers. Captains need to think long and hard about the ideal course of action for the entire game to maximize their effectiveness in battle.

Due to their slow overall gameplay, the Battleship class is arguably the most tedious and methodical warship to play in World of Warships. However, the euphoric full-salvo sound and the satisfying single-salvo kills are often enough to keep most Battleships Captains coming back for more.