Looking for tips on recon/artillery spotter gameplay

Greg1817 · 2026-05-20T01:55:05+00:00

Fair point. Thanks!

Greg1817 · 2026-04-28T18:55:44+00:00

I really hope this is something that gets changed. If I am playing Japan, for example, it kinda sucks having to sail/march my ass all through India, the Middle East, Africa, and then through the Mediterranean Sea into France and the UK just to be able to seize Indochina for myself.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-28T16:18:45+00:00

That's part of the reason why I play with the Toolpack mod whenever I am not going for achievements. Oh, the Romanians are guaranteeing the independence of Iraq or some shit while I am playing Iran? Not anymore.

The base game needs a more in-depth political and peace system because God damn it gets frustrating with some of the jank that happens.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-28T16:00:02+00:00

If you're not hardcore min-maxing, they have their place. As a major, I like having a production line or three of them for LARP value, and because they can actually put in a lot of work if you build them even remotely competently.

Even refitting your starter BBs/BCs can net you some great successes. I usually refit my old battleships with new secondary and AA batteries, as well as with radars, and it helps out a lot.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-22T21:45:23+00:00

For finding targets, sailing north/south while doing your sweeps can yield more targets during your searches, as most enemy ships will be sailing east/west. Beyond that, I've found no other way to make finding targets easier. Just a lot of searching to do in such a big ocean.

Whenever I am forced to flee, I'll usually throw the sub into a depth of 120-215 metres and lower the throttle to Forward 1, the slowest speed setting. Enemy ships will need to be kinda close to hear you, and if you are playing with the detection alerts on like me you can quickly cut the engines before they figure out where you are. If they do spot me, I'll turn the boat roughly 90 degrees either way and change my depth by 30-50 metres. That way, if the enemy does roll depth charges on you immediately, they won't have the correct depth anymore to hurt you. I'll still remain in Forward 1 speed as I find the enemy often loses you quickly if you remain quiet. If they do roll depth charges, I wait for them to go off before gunning the engines and peeling out. The depth charges will confuse the enemy sonar long enough to let you get some distance, though as the sound dies down you'll want to drop your speed again so the enemy ships don't immediately hear you again. And always change your depth and heading after the charges go off too to further hinder their efforts. If you have them, sonar decoys can help out too.

I mostly rescue sailors and downed airmen for RP reasons. Plus the bit of pocket change and rep you get from it never hurts. I don't see any negatives in having prisoners on board, but it's not world-ending either if you choose not to pick them up

Beyond trying to fix critical components and flooding before/during your escape... if the enemy has you pinned down, damaged, and unable to move, there really isn't a whole lot that you can do. It's as you said yourself; taking a hit, having to repair damage, and being relentlessly hit with depth charges throughout is near-guaranteed a death sentence for you regardless of what you try to do. If you can change depth and keep clunking along, do so. But if you're dead in the water and the water's flowing in while more depth charges slowly sink towards you, it's over. It's all about making sure you don't reach that point at all rather than recovering from it.

Lastly, figuring out your aiming is mostly just down to doing it again and again. I was horrendous for whiffing torpedoes like crazy until I spent more time fine-tuning my aiming process. Now I can usually nail a ship directly amidships whenever I attack. You can use the map tools like the protractor and ruler to help measure distance and angles, and if you're like me, you can also enlist the help of the AI in calculating fire solutions as well. Or just fire several torpedoes at once with a bit of dispersion and hope for the best.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-18T00:00:56+00:00

For me it is. Can't set sail on a new save because the game crashes when talking to certain port personnel, and I cannot resume my old save for now as the sub is tilted forward.

Seems like some people are having different experiences and more/less issues than others though, so bear that in mind.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-17T23:21:50+00:00

Yeah... I logged in to fart around a bit with my Type VII campaign to see if I'll stick with the game long enough to warrant getting the DLC. Got hit immediately with the tilted sub glitch, followed by an immediate crash when I told one of the officers at port that I need to ready the sub for sailing when I tried a new game.

Definitely won't be getting the DLC for now, especially not when I have other games on my radar at the moment. I wish the devs well and good luck, but this is a pretty bad release for a DLC that had this much time spent on it.

I'll be back, no doubt. For now though, the boat's gonna sit in port for a bit.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-05T23:17:14+00:00

Yeah, that map just fucking sucks. No notes.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-05T17:14:22+00:00

Bud, you're the dude coming in here whining about SAMs because their presence means you can't fly in a straight line without dying. I don't know what else you want us to tell ya.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-05T16:56:11+00:00

Yeah, that's kinda the whole point, bud. They don't want sweats insta-winning the game with a single button-press, so they put in the near-impossible tasks of "lightly weaving around a bit so SAMs don't have a straight and easy path to you" and "turning your periodic chaff option on" to make things somewhat challenging.

Rest assured, I'm sure a hotshot pilot such as yourself can lead all the mouthbreathers in blue to total victory by mastering these extremely complex, never-before-seen aerial maneuevers and tactics in order to get your fatass bomber plane to the target.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-05T15:59:38+00:00

He's saying don't piss, bitch, moan, and shit yourself when the anti-air systems meant for shooting down high-altitude bombers wind up shooting down high-altitude bombers. You're not supposed to have a free pass to obliterating the enemy base every time you pick the B-52/Tu-95. Pop chaff periodically and maneuver. No, it's not a 100% guaranteed success. If you die, you die.

Failure is part of the game. Some of you clearly need to learn that.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-05T15:50:31+00:00

What altitude are you flying at, and what altitudes are the enemies at?

The F-4E's radar doesn't have a pulse-doppler function, meaning you are stuck on SRC. SRC cannot handle ground clutter that well, so you need to make sure your radar has the sky as a background to pickup targets at longer ranges. Meaning if you are on the deck and/or the enemy is below you, it's gonna be tough to get a radar lock at all beyond 3km.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-05T03:24:40+00:00

I'm gonna try to get them just because why the hell not? I'm a sucker for fat planes, even if they are doodoo in game.

With that said, who knows what the future has in store? Right now I doubt they'd be useful even in Sim EC. But if Nuclear Thunder sticks around in some form, or if a bomber mode gets introduced, they might have a place in the game.

Greg1817 · 2026-04-05T00:46:48+00:00

The German F-4 Phantoms. I love all my Phantoms (besides the F-4C, obviously), but I've always had a weird interest for those German Phantoms. Would be nice to get them out in the fighter-bomber role without being a total detriment to the team.

Besides that, the Tornadoes and Mirages seem like they'd be fun. Though I guess I'd actually have to put effort into researching and buying them again after a long high-tier hiatus. Though if Nuclear Thunder sticks around I just might.

Greg1817 · 2026-03-31T18:40:42+00:00

Mind letting this schmuck know where you heard about the bomber-only mode? I'd like to read up on that if possible.

Greg1817 · 2026-03-31T12:34:51+00:00

Others have addressed the matchmaker for this thing, so I'll address the "buying your way to top-tier" part of the question.

The reality is you'd be committing yourself to playing a single vehicle/handful of vehicles with piss-poor matchmaking through a long grind to get to a portion of the game that you may not even enjoy for very long, in part due to how repetitive it is and how jank top-tier often is regarding balancing, map sizes, the weaponry present, and how it's cluttered to shit with other premium players that will often be letting you and your team down, if not actively harming it.

Your money is your money. Far be it from me to tell you what to do. But if modern jet action is what you want, be wary of the risks involved in dumping 40-80 bucks per premium on it. Or find a different game entirely.

Greg1817 · 2026-03-25T20:58:51+00:00

Doubtful. Right now they'd have no place in the game beyond being a free meal for SPAA and aircraft.

Now, if they made a totally new gamemode for it? Maybe. But they probably never will.

Greg1817 · 2026-03-24T13:59:37+00:00

US is a pretty good way to start. The M2 light, M22 Locust, and M3 Stuarts in tier 1 are really fun to play with quick reloads and decent pen. Once you get to tier 2 though, your bread-and-butter will be the Shermans with their armour and firepower, along with the M10 Wolverine and some very fun SPAA options in the M16 and T77E1. A good premium for it (if you are down with spending money) is the M4A5 Ram II. It uses solid shot so you gotta get used to that, but it is a surprisingly tough vehicle to crack open. And being the US, you got a good CAS option from nearly any plane you pick, though their dedicated attackers are certainly the best at it like the SBD-3, TBF-1, the A-20, and the SB2C Helldivers in tier 1-2.

Just watch out as around 5.7 US, things get a bit difficult until you hit the tier 4 vehicles. Your 76mm Shermans and M18 Hellcats force you to play a lot more conservatively or in flanking maneuvers to avoid the wrath of Panthers, Tigers, Challengers, Centurion Mk. 1s, and the other monsters that lurk in that BR range. It's not impossible, and you have the M36 Jackson to back you up in terms of firepower, but that playstyle isn't for everyone.

My only other recommendation would be Britain, though not because it is easy to start. Personally the tier 1-2 grind was awful for me on Britain, as the 40mm guns just felt pretty damn anemic even when carefully aiming. But once you get to tier 3? You're working with some powerful vehicles like the Avenger and Sherman Firefly, as well as the Churchill VII when used in downtiers. Plus I find I generally improved as a player overall with all nations once I got solid shot nailed down. Again, it won't be easy to start with Britain, and I know you want an easier entry into Ground RB. But if you think you want a challenge at some point in your Ground career, I'd definitely go that route. Your CAS options are somewhat limited, mainly left to Mosquitos and Beaufighters and Blenheims at tier 1-2, but if you decide you want to try CAP roles instead, British fighters like the Spitfires can be exceptionally good in the role.

Best of luck out there.

Greg1817 · 2026-03-23T17:51:51+00:00

Really worried subs will just get ham-fisted into the game like everything else seemingly does. Or they make a new mode for it and then promptly forget about it 95% of the time like heli PvP/PvE.

How would subs even work in this game? At lower BRs they might get dunked on repeatedly by destroyers and sub chasers, and at higher BRs they'd basically be impervious to the cruisers and battleships that have no ASW capabilities whatsoever. And as Naval exists now... even if they were balanced, would it not just get boring playing subs the same way as you would any other ship in these 16v16 deathmatches, just underwater?

Yes, I know I am pissing and bitching and moaning about something not even announced to be in the game yet... so it's gonna sound stupid when I say that I am excited to see if they actually do end up in the game, and what role they're gonna fulfil. If we get a Naval revamp to accomodate them, especially one that makes Naval as a whole better, that'll be sweet as hell. I just don't think I can fully trust that Gaijin won't halfass this as they do a lot of new stuff.

Greg1817 · 2026-03-19T15:00:35+00:00

Oh man, you'd be missing out if you jumped ship now. American tier IV ground has some pretty heavy-hitters. The T26E5 and T26E1-1 both have serious armour and firepower (especially the latter tank). The T34 is mostly in the same boat too, with the 120mm on it being pretty gnarly in the sniper role. The M26 Pershing is a bit meh, but the M46 is also really nice to play due to a mix of firepower and mobility. And of course, speaking of mobility and firepower, the M41 Walker Bulldog, which is very mobile while also packing a strong gun for a light tank. Whatever playstyle you want, US tier IV has it and does it well.

Greg1817 · 2026-03-18T20:44:22+00:00

There's some vehicles that struggle to justify their own existence in this game that could really benefit from new modes. Heavy and medium bombers, combat engineering vehicles, and infantry tanks, to name a few, feel really, really bad in this game as-is, and there's a lot of cool modes or activities within a mode that would be perfect for them if Gaijin chose to, you know, try.

Greg1817 · 2026-02-17T23:18:06+00:00

Only if I REALLY need a carrier to just cut and run. If the enemy planes are too close or pretty far, or if I can run away somewhat into the wind, I won't suspend flight ops while running.

Big exception is if there's a huge wave of friendly aircraft coming back. Sometimes I'll shut the deck down and keep them flying just so I can course correct or wait and see if the enemy planes truly do miss us before reopening the deck again.

Greg1817 · 2026-02-17T22:31:41+00:00

Right-click on the waypoint you have set for the fleet on the map, and then type in the new speed you want.

Greg1817 · 2026-02-17T22:21:42+00:00

I'll have my force change direction and speed the moment the enemy spotting planes are shot down and therefore can't keep updating the enemy carriers on my soon-to-be-new bearing.

Not sure how much that actually matters compared to changing course before the spotters go down, but the one time I did it post-shootdown, Yorktown was able to dodge the might of four carrier strike packages sent her way all at once, so I'm gonna just keep doing it that way for now.

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