It happens to the best of us, I've had my ship shot out from underneath me more times than Uncle Albert, but you get there eventually. I'm only on the basic RN destroyer (O-class) but mucking in with other fleets it's an absolute blast! :up:

Generally when the match starts the ships will charge forward, the scout planes will go up, several players will open fire at the sea randomly, I've no idea why, ranging perhaps? Then when contact with the enemy is made it all goes a bit Nelsonian with all ships turning 90 degrees to each other and unleashing broadsides, sometimes plucky little destroyers will dash forward, close the range with the enemy, turn and drop torpedoes. Torpedoes, particularly for the RN are helluva powerful, three or four will put a big dent in a BB. Hit and run attacks with your destroyer will work, use your speed to dart in, hit them hard and dart out. Of course, this is primarily an RN tactic since we have the armour and repair speed to survive this. Be careful of those who manual target, I've seen a BB put a full broadside into a destroyer, destroyed it in one round :o He was definately targetting manually. Find yourself a big hitter, such as a CA, CL or BB and hang around near it, if you do find yourself in trouble you can run back under his protective umbrella and let him finish off your enemy.
As for the manual target vs auto target, if you can, try manual target, however in the heat of the moment it can be tricky to get angles bearings and the like right, so until you're happier and faster with the manual targetting, stick to auto.
You will be sunk, a fair bit, and at first you'll not sink much in return, but you'll still get XP and you'll slowly level up. Then you can start dishing out the punishment. :rock:

EDIT: Oh, nearly forgot, watch your arc of fire, and watch out for people crossing you. If a player opens fire whilst on top/under you then I do believe you will take damage, likewise they from you. So try to stay clear. Likewise if there's a ship between you and the target, beware that your shells might not clear him. Not only will it annoy the other player if they notice but you'll get an XP hit IIRC.

RN Torpedoes are quite powerful, but their range is one of the wors't in the game

If you want good Torps, get an IJN ship...

Many a noob has been sunk by the allmighty Kita

Oh, and I find it very hard to use Auto now that I know how to use manual, clicking around during a battle is much harder than aiming with the angles

Yep, I set my turrets to 30 Degrees so I got a good base range marked that way I have a general range for further angle changes.

Concur, many players simply fire a shot at max angle so that they can see where the shells land at their maximum range. For BBs, this automatically lets them know when an enemy comes into range, plus the "G" key lets them switch their view automatically to where their last shot landed (maximum range, in this case).

Though bear in mind, if you're using a setup that gives you very little ammo (Colorado with triple 16"s, Bismarck with triple 14.96"s), doing this isn't highly recommended since even that one salvo may be critical for usage.

Do you have to have AA guners to use the level 30 flak guns?

If so meh.

I took the plunge. Was the first blown out of the water the first time around. Second time around, got lucky and blew someone else out of the water so got a heck of an experience jump.

Think the wife is going to pull the plug...it was somewhat addictive for the day...

At what level of experience can you move up into the CL area? Anyone know? These DD's are driving me nuts...

http://www.trainworld.us/NF2/English/Ships.html

:D

Answers those questions nicely...TY