Remind me how to use Graf Spee

[PFC Demigo [29th ID]]

Like I can't remember why I bought her and now I forgot how to play her effectively.

[christof]

You have few, slow firing but hard-hitting guns. And torpedoes with long range for German cruisers that also do very decent damage and have some of if not the best firing angles in the game. You get repair teams and can take quite a lot of damage, but are not as nimble as many other cruisers.

Basically you are a light battlecruiser. Somewhere midway between a cruiser and a BB on the same tier.

Graf Spee does not work well against DDs, the low rate of fire and amount of guns being a problem here. It makes decent damage on BBs, but mostly can be very devastating against cruisers.
The extra 2km range on the torpedoes against the typical German 6km can also lull people into a false sense of security.
And the ship tanks exceptionally well for a cruiser, especially at that tier. But always remember that you're not actually a battleship! You do not have the same hp pool, nor armour. Nor main gun calibre.

Outside of scenarios, Graf Spee worked best for me as a first stopping block for enemy cruisers and above. Buying time for the real heavy hitters of the team to arrive. Then withdraw a bit to heal up and return into the fray. I'm sure other people will have played it quite differently though.

[PFC Demigo [29th ID]]

Originally posted by christof:

~~

Ahh Cool, Thx for the Answer :D Gonna play to this Strat

[christof]

Word of warning though: It does depend on people actually coming to help you! If they don't, you'll basically be playing a suicide rearguard action.

[jaquig]

When you look at what she was deigned for irl, as a "commerce raider" ( aka PIRATE ) she wasn't truly meant for combat.

[ex-Admiral]

Do you really need such big guns for commerce raiding?

[Jackson]

Originally posted by WoWarships Admiral:

Do you really need such big guns for commerce raiding? :wowshmm:

It was to smack the cruisers about that might be guarding convoys I think. And she had the speed to outrun BB's of her day with the exception of Hood. Prob didn't expect to see Hood guarding a convoy ;)

[christof]

The big guns probably made for a very convincing threat to convince commerce captains to quickly give in as well. There's something to be said about a group of large barrels being pointed at you. ;)

[Lavian]

Originally posted by Jack:

Originally posted by WoWarships Admiral:

Do you really need such big guns for commerce raiding? :wowshmm:

It was to smack the cruisers about that might be guarding convoys I think. And she had the speed to outrun BB's of her day with the exception of Hood. Prob didn't expect to see Hood guarding a convoy ;)

On the other hand, the Dunkerque-class was tailor made to chase down troublesome cruisers that were conducting raiding, including having her armor specifications being made specifically to be able to take the guns on a Deutschland-class cruiser.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by Lavian:

Originally posted by Jack:

It was to smack the cruisers about that might be guarding convoys I think. And she had the speed to outrun BB's of her day with the exception of Hood. Prob didn't expect to see Hood guarding a convoy ;)

On the other hand, the Dunkerque-class was tailor made to chase down troublesome cruisers that were conducting raiding, including having her armor specifications being made specifically to be able to take the guns on a Deutschland-class cruiser.

Yeap, every country was trying to one-up the others.