DD's could care less whats near you. I was caught on the surface while attacking a merchant with the deckgun in daylight when i got spotted by a flower DD. I stuck close to the unarmed merch when the DD tried to ram me, but ended up slamming into the merchant, and propped himself up so high that his gun couldnt hit me anymore. the merchant he hit exploded and began to sink slowly, so i manouvered to the side and began pumping AP rounds into the bottom of his exposed hull, and then to his rear and pumped a few HE into his exposed deck - he detonated like the Hood.
But if you are a wiley captain you can take on a destroyer. Close in and keep turning. hammer his guns, stay in the rear and hammer those guns. if its a flower corvette you have no worries about rear guns. but a tribal has rear turrets, but easily overcome if you can nail em quickly. once the turrets are down close in, but stay out of machineugn range, those guns are next to impossible (if at all possible - I've never disabled them) to disable. Remember keep him turning, and stay slightly on the outside of him, so if your both turning right, stay on the outer left edge of the turn so his fore guns are blocked by his command deck. it is harder to keep this spot on the inside of the turn. when on the outside if he switches direction then you can easily maintain position. Dont dive!!!!!!! if you do yer ****ed.
Once his guns are disabled destroy the upper works. His hull is too armoured for your 88's. If you are using a IX then your 105's will do much more damage to his hull. Once the gun is disabled your next target is the screws. Destroy them with High-explosive. Now his rudder is buggered. his engine is stopping. Slow down and stay in position. Hammer his command deck and other things with HE. stay behind him and keep firing.
God speed!
