A winning strategy

[SoshiSone]

Vanguard bottom tier in a T10 battle.  Three caps.  I spawn East.  We joust for a bit and it's time to kite.  I'm sole survivor vs Iwami, Leeuw, and Daring.  Iwami pushes west to the mid cap.  But Daring (silent mode) and Leeuw give chase.  I'm pushing west to connect with friendlies, but it's a long haul.  I can't see Daring, but when I go silent I'm detected while I'm entering the back row running west...so he's definitely deep in our backfield setting up a torp shot (as I'm the only target).  Leeuw pushing at me too as he occasionally shoots a salvo, and closing to get into air drop range.

My team overall is doing well as they have the other two caps and we're about even on ships, and we have points lead.  So I reconcile my fate that I will not win against these two T10 ships giving chase, but I can do all I can to delay them once they finish me off.  Not to mention my spidy senses say that DD is lining up a kill shot and my options are running out.  So...I reverse course and head back east on the back row.

Daring immediately smokes up and begins to put HE on me.  He was well within torp range and based on positioning was working toward a high probability kill shot.  My "timely" back track took the torp solution out of the picture, so he went to main guns.

About this time Leeuw was in air drop range...and game was on.  How long could I last?  How long could I delay?  It took 'em a few minutes and they had to chase me east.  Leeuw put 105K damage on me (It sucks to be covered in 32mm platting that gets penned by Leeuw's bombs...throw in fire and Leeuw owns Vanguard).  Daring 28K.  I put about 30K on Leeuw.   They finally got me...but when the dust settled, they had a long way to travel to get back into the fight.

It's the little things that bring victory.  My team won.  It was a time points victory.  Did my move decide the victory?  Maybe.  It was a close ending.  I like to think my delaying tactic was just the oomph needed to make the difference. 

[Frostbow]

Good move. That's the way to do it. It forced the Daring to use his smoke. 

(In my experience, there were a few times I had to stop kiting and I decided to turn around to meet them head on to stop their momentum. Most memorable were those times when it was against a submarine.)

I wonder what the enemy Chapayev and Rupprecht were doing to get such abysmally low Base XPs in ships that are amazing and capable. 

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

9 hours ago, SoshiSone said:

So...I reverse course and head back east on the back row.

Daring immediately smokes up and begins to put HE on me.  He was well within torp range and based on positioning was working toward a high probability kill shot.  My "timely" back track took the torp solution out of the picture, so he went to main guns.

This move 'choosing death' is often overlooked by the enemy...you can get a good bit of value out of that surprise which may be enough for the team to pull out the win.

[tocqueville8]

9 hours ago, SoshiSone said:

They finally got me...but when the dust settled, they had a long way to travel to get back into the fight.

A related idea is that, if you're pushed by superior forces on your flank, sometimes you shouldn't kite towards your teammates (to "seek help"), but towards the corner. Especially if you're in a BB.

This forces the enemies into a crossfire (angle against you vs angle against your teammates), as well as away from the caps.

[Aethervox]

10 hours ago, SoshiSone said:

It's the little things that bring victory.

Yes. I've had battles where one is overwhelmed by superior forces/tiers & maybe you sink but you keep the enemy involved long enough for your team mates to win it 😀.