The domestic fleet has long played a supporting role - it is among the Americans that "fur seals" are valued on a par with our ferocious landing force. Therefore, the task before the studio Lesta from the port city of Leningrad was obviously more complex than those who once worked on the odious "Tanks". No one will melt at the first glance at just because “woo, this is the great T-34!”.

Nevertheless, this game comes out much more majestic and unhurried than the sessions about ground and air vehicles.

In heaven, only talk about the sea

The main thing that I feared before the first acquaintance with World of Warships, - that Wargaming will simply drag the game base from the "Tanks", replacing the old tracked armored vehicles with ships of the same troubled era. This is partly what happened. There are few similarities with the naval battles of the Second World War - after all, the virtual battle for Prokhorovka has little in common with the real one.

The fight begins. Twelve ships on one side, twelve on the other. The most courageous and stupid squeeze "full speed ahead" and rush to capture the point. The equipment is prone to breakage, a health bar, "light" ... A lot of acquaintances.

The pace of the game, however, is completely different, as are the requirements for the player. Losing sight of friends is almost impossible, because the distances of combat and detection sometimes overlap up to a quarter of the map. The offensive is not carried out by separate small groups, but by a relatively united front. Even ships far apart from each other support their comrades with fire.

And their firepower is incomparable with the tank. The most fragile ship - and that one carries two or four banduras on board, with one exhalation demolishing other people's cabins. What if there are a dozen?

After the start of the battle, the ships usually stray into "jambs". Loners here, as elsewhere, live only if they know how to deftly avoid hits.

Dancing on the water

Tactics are changing: if a tank is a single point from which a projectile flies, then a ship is a gun battery afloat, and the angle of rotation towards the enemy is important for it.

As in single ship adventures - both in sailing ones and in pro ones of the same smoky cruisers - there are two options for action. Turn your nose to the enemy's battery and avoid damage, but deprive the lion's share of your guns of the opportunity to even look in the direction of the enemy. And you can turn perpendicularly, sideways, arrange a deafening cannonade - and catch all the shells that came from the stunned enemy "for surrender" into the hull.

World of Warships offers to behave differently when meeting with the enemy. Tank hide-and-seek in the folds of the terrain are replaced by unpredictable maneuvers right under fire. Reset move, pick up move, turn, turn around. The strength of the vehicles is also incomparable: even "cardboard" destroyers do not sink from one hit, and battleships generally calmly digest dozens and hundreds of shells, stubbornly refusing to go to the bottom.

Each shot in itself turns into a small task. Remember, shells fly several kilometers. You can aim at any knots only at the closest approach, but there is no time - you have to mercilessly bomb your opponent in the hope of making holes or burning everything to hell.

The ships are worked out very meticulously, but do not expect space graphics. Better watch the sunsets.

The rest of the time, you need to calculate the distance, choose the vertical angle, make allowances for the speed of your own and enemy ships, take into account the location of the guns and guess where the fried rooster will peck at the enemy. And then - to give a long stepped volley and with a beating heart to watch how half of the shells poured onto the bottom of the sea, and the other half onto the deck. Badum! Ammo rack! Ugh, that is the citadel!

The hit mechanics are particularly interesting. There are armor-piercing and high-explosive shells, and if everything is clear with high-explosive shells (they explode on impact with armor), then armor-piercing ones act differently. In theory, the projectile should pierce the outer armor and detonate inside, breaking equipment into pieces. The joke is that if the thickness of the ship's hull at the point of penetration is less than a certain value, the "suitcase" will simply fly out from the back and dive into the abyss. This forces you to sort through the shells every couple of minutes and figure out by eye which one will be more useful.

Torpedoes bring unique experience. In essence, their main "beneficiaries" from time immemorial have been submarines, but World of Warships left submarines, hehe, overboard. A torpedo is such a low-speed unguided rocket. They are released together, like a fan. Two fans of five pieces, going in close courses, is a dangerous trap.

Even two torpedoes are enough for a new checkmark in the track record, but this is such a tool that it is impossible to use without proper skill, and sometimes even harmful. The torpedo is a skill saving throw for both the shooter and the target. The shooter must choose the right angle and moment so that the target does not have time to dodge. The target must keep the torpedo bomber away from him and maneuver, avoiding being hit.

Combined with the long-range shooting mechanic, this creates a specific behavior pattern. For most players, it is simply unprofitable to get close to the enemy - it is more convenient to throw "suitcases" from a respectful distance. And the captains, counting on the frenzied damage of torpedoes, on the contrary, are obliged to shorten the distance without dying along the way, and to process the most appetizing target point-blank.

You can choose the width of the fan. But it is much more important to choose the distance and the moment - so that the target cannot slip between the torpedoes.

Frags steal all and sundry. On the other hand, if someone is trying to steal it, great, you are not firing alone.

The last trip of "Yamato"

The usual division into light, medium and heavy vehicles is only partially preserved, but their role is different. The lungs include destroyers, fast and maneuverable. They do not need to detect the enemy - targets within the firing radius will be found earlier, and there is no evil artillery at the base.

In fact, destroyers - destroyers - are designed to deal with the submarine fleet, but it is not in the game, so their role has changed a bit. Destroyers here are the main ones in terms of damage. Their path is not easy: to sneak up on deadly battleships and sink torpedo fans. The destroyer is deprived of both armor and caliber, but its speed and low draft are a sure remedy against heavy fire. Having a tolerable evasion skill, you can bring enemies to hysterics.

Tasks for cruisers and battleships, of course, are simpler. Cautious offensive, well-aimed shooting and eternal paranoia - what if a destroyer suddenly jumps out from behind the island? Although there are important differences between a cruiser and a battleship in real life, in game they differ mainly in armor thickness, displacement, speed, and main caliber.

A strategic view where you can give orders to the ship, like in RTS. However, outside of it, too, no one forces you to press WASD to the point of nausea.

Perhaps the most important parameter is the reload speed: the numerous barrels of a cruiser are loaded with shells in a matter of seconds, and the battleship is able to change its “clip” for at least a minute, which makes the captain of a battleship think about every shot. The crew of a cruiser can afford to fire at random.

In theory, cruisers should act like "wolf packs" of medium tanks, but this does not happen. World of Warships completely devoid of relief - except for the islands that serve as rare shelters. So using the terrain to compensate for the vulnerability of the hull does not work, and the rocky islands provide shelter, but do not allow you to shoot. Cruisers also lack the maneuverability of destroyers, and therefore their task, as a rule, is to accompany the clumsy battleship, protecting it from all the same destroyers. The battleship, on the other hand, will hit the nimble scoundrel, and after a miss, you can safely announce the evacuation.

In this system, aircraft carriers stand a little apart. But in vain - in reality, aircraft carriers shoveled the tactics of a naval battle and became the basis of any fleet. In World of Warships, aviks are silent extras in a far corner of the map, flooding the skies with planes. Playing the Avik only remotely resembles the game on the SPG - rather, it is a mini-strategy about territory control.

With a successful disposition, you can shoot a "canopy" blindly, over the island. But more often land mines crash into rocks.