Alright, I've seen way too many obvious and easily fixable mistakes made by players in this game who then turn around and start asking for modifications to the ships stats so the game plays as they believe it SHOULD play ( so that they win instead of lose ).

Time to give those players the means to correct their mistakes INSTEAD by APPLYING SUN TZU TO NF2.

First lesson: "THE BATTLE IS WON BEFORE IT STARTS"

That's part of the strategy of the initial stages of a battle. Press #, look at the ships on both sides, look at the names, take notes. Are there dangerous players? Which ship do they captain? Are there dangerous ships? What are the high tier ships on both sides? Their locations? Your own friendlies locations? Directions? What is the balance between the teams? Subs? CVs? Are there fleeted players? Which fleet? Top ranked? Mostly unknown? Take notes of their ships and names as well as numbers.

If you're not situationally aware strategically speaking. If you don't know if there's a player named Fordring, Kuze, NullSunset, Akiyama, Flotte, Seamonette, Auxo, Franmax, Spar, Pnw ( or any other dangerous player, make a mental list of them, update it regularly, observe, take notes ). Any of the big dangerous players on the other team. If you don't know there are Jedis or ICBMs or CHNs or whatever other top ranked fleet players on the other side, or even on your own and which ships they're in. You just made your first deadly mistake. These players, including me, will prey on you and wait for you, or try to provoke you into making tactical mistakes later on. If you're not aware we are there, you won't look for us, making our job of slaughtering you MUCH EASIER.

What to do: Take notes, these players you must try to keep track of during the game and AVOID THEM AT FIRST. Warning your team at the start about them also helps... if they listen. A sound strategy I use is to thin the herd of the enemy ranks first so as to keep my teammates alive and keep them for the end so you and your team can easily gang bang them. Only engage them if they do stupid mistakes while you thin the herd, if you avoid them they might be tempted into making gambits and playing carelessly. These players can also use your strengths against you, if you focus on one of them, they will try to lure you into their teammates so that while you focus on them, you get caught with your pants down. BRAINPOWER is much more potent than firepower against them.

If on the last radar ping they were isolated, then you can relatively safely gang bang them, if they're blind even better, if not, BEWARE. You can also try later, once you're more adept, to isolate those players for, maybe not easy, but easier kills.

Second lesson: "KNOW WHEN TO FIGHT AND WHEN NOT TO FIGHT"

So you've just spotted a dangerous, or not, player entering your guns range. Should you fire? That depends on many factors...

-What is their health?
-What is your health?
-Is he alone or accompanied?
-Are you alone or accompanied?
-Look at the map, is there a chance for a pincer on you or on them?
-Are they distracted?
-Are there enemy recons on your position?
-Are there friendly bases around?
-Are there enemy bases around?

Sometimes its better not to fire until they get into your "sweet spot" range. If you fire too early while they're distracted, you'll warn them of your presence and they'll easily outmaneuver you. If they can't see you and they're distracted, WAIT and maneuver into the best possible angle and position, away from possible ambushes and so as to get them in a crossfire if possible. When at your sweet spot range, LET LOOSE but keep track of your target and its companions, what are they doing? If continuing to be oblivious, then by all means pummel them while keeping your range steady and continue to be situationaly aware as to avoid falling into traps or running blindly into enemy ships. If they're maneuvering and training their guns on you, KITE THEM and run. If you kite them and run, sometimes they'll just switch back to their earlier targets or choose new targets who rushed toward them, stay aware and ready to bank on any enemy mistake ( and friendly mistakes too in case someone rushes in and attracts his attention, diverting it from you ). Sometimes they'll also chase you, giving you the upper hand if you can see them because if they chase you, your shells have a shorter hang time, more precise, more damage.

The easiest way to win in this game is to bank on enemy mistakes. The 2nd easiest way is to try to provoke them into making mistakes then banking on them.

The easiest way to lose is to not even be aware that you're making mistakes and the 2nd easiest is to not be aware that you're being lured into making mistakes. KNOW WHEN TO FIGHT AND WHEN NOT TO FIGHT, which leads us to...


Third Lesson: "DON'T ENGAGE ON OTHER PLAYERS TERMS, ENGAGE ON YOUR OWN TERMS" Which is essentially a subset of the first 2 lessons.

Other players will sometimes engage you when you are at a clear, or at least, a relative disadvantage, its sound tactics. Should you choose to stay engaged and try to win the engagement, you just probably made a mistake, especially if its a dangerous player as they don't engage unless they know they either: have the upper hand, know that it would be a mistake if you engaged back, already have a plan to kill you, are just engaging to harass you, just want to damage you enough to remove one of your advantages ( armor ) or push you into making a mistake. As such, the wise thing to do is, when possible, to only engage on your own terms and let the OTHER PLAYERS make this mistake.


There are other lessons and rules of thumb too. Whenever possible, always let the enemy chase you. Whenever possible, don't chase them.  There's much more of them, figure them out, learn them, apply them. Most of them are obvious, others... not so.

Of course these are ground rules, ideas to get your brain running, I could go on and on and on about strategies and tactics in this game, about mistakes, etc. There are other lessons from Sun Tzu you can apply to this or other strategy/tactical heavy games. Do your research, apply them, THEY WORK.

In most games I alone can bank on 5-10 player mistakes or more and sink or heavily damage them as a result. Sometimes I can even CHOOSE which player mistake from 2 or more ships making the same or different mistakes at the same time in my vicinity I'm going to bank on and even get a serie of enemy player mistakes on which I can sink ship after ship after ship. It's not that I'm overpowered, other players with the same ships are canon fodder, it's not that my ship is drastically better than yours ( tho it sometimes is when you, like everyone, must go through the crappy ships in all ship lines, we've all been there, there's only so much I can do in say a Worcester or low tier Omaha against higher tiered ships and that's OK ), its that some people do more mistakes, some less and some people bank on enemy mistakes while others don't even recognize the other's mistakes or their own. That's what differentiates one of the dangerous aforementioned players from the herd. That's the main difference between a win or a lose, most of the time.

This game is won FIRST with BRAINPOWER combined with CONSTANT SITUATIONAL AWARENESS and SECOND with FIREPOWER. Always keep that in mind, ALWAYS.

After the game, take some time to think on your mistakes, what you could've done differently, don't chastise yourself tho, just analyze, memorize and try to come up with a better alternative in your head of how it could have turned out differently had you chosen differently. As time will pass, you will make less and less mistakes and you'll be better able to recognize enemy mistakes thus giving you opportunities to bank on them. Make new strategies, try them, think of new ways to better bank on enemy mistakes and avoid making mistakes of your own. Think, Think, THINK.

Seamon ( Seamonette ) from "LaRoyale" signing off.