Hey there,
my name is Ruserification.
Welcome to this guide on Operations in WoWS.

This guide aims to provide players who are relatively new to the game mode with important information and advice.
I will go over basic information and general advice before moving on to Operation-specific information/strategies.
This guide is not meant to be an expert-level guide, but there may be useful advice even for experienced Operations players.

The new Operations with Flagships (update 14.0) will not be covered here, as I don't have enough experience with those and they are only minor varieties of the "standard" Operations.

Currently (as of Update 14.0), there are 8 playable operations in rotation. These are:

• Defense of Naval Station Newport
  
• Aegis
  
• Killer Whale
  
• Raptor Rescue
  
• The Ultimate Frontier
  
• Narai
  
• Hermes
  
• Cherry Blossom

However, Killer Whale and Narai can not be played with ships of Tier IX or higher, only with Tier VI-VIII. The 6 other Operations can be played with all ships of Tier VI-★

There are different versions of Operations, depending on the team's Tier.
Teams with ships of Tier IX or higher get significantly stronger enemies (i.e. Tier VII Myokos get replaced with Tier X Yoshinos on Operation Aegis).
Here it is irrelevant exactly how many Tier IX or higher ships are on the team. 1 Tier IX ship and 6 Tier VIII ships are enough for the entire Operation to be "upgraded".
Similarly, teams consisting entirely of Tier VI ships play against the same enemies as Tier VIII teams.

However, enemy ships also receive buffs or debuffs depending on the team strength:

Against teams comprising of only tier VIII ships, the enemy bots get improved penetration angles and a buff to their HP and damage of up to 34%. Against teams comprising of only tier VI ships, bots get a reduction to their HP and damage of up to 34%. Against teams comprising of tier IX-★ ships, most ship used by bots are replaced with higher tier ships and the enemies get a debuff based on the number of tier VIII ships while being buffed based on the number of tier X ships. With tier ★ ships on the player team, the enemy gets a much larger buff exceeding 100%

Generally, the "upgraded" Operations are harder than their "standard" versions.



Platooning up for Operations can be very advantageous.
Assuming you can communicate with your platoon mates over Teamspeak or Discord, you can support each other during the Operation more effectively or split up for specific objectives. It also reduces the chance of random teammates ruining the Operation by playing selfishly or going off into the completely wrong direction.

Do however watch out when forming your platoon.
As per usual, you can team up with captains up to one Tier lower or higher. However, the matchmaker can also place you with random teammates one tier higher as well. As such, if you have Tier VII and VIII ships in your platoon, you can end up with Tier IX randoms and face the "upgraded" Operations in a Tier VII ship, which will be more difficult.

The amount of credits and experience earned from an Operation depends on the number of completed objectives by the team and your own battle performance.
If the primary object is completed, secondary objectives reward additional Credits and XP.

Average earnings per battle fall between the earning averages of Co-Op and Random battles.
This might not seem so profitable, but remember that your winrate in Operations and your chances of doing well are much higher, than in Random battles

As such, Operations are fairly good at farming credits with premium ships, especially Tier IX ships. With blue boosters, earnings of over a million credits per operation are not too rare.

There are also Operations-specific achievements/accolades to hunt for, if you care about such things.

My Operations achievements below:

To understand how to best play in Operations, first, you have to be aware of the enemies that you will be facing. Specifically, how the enemy AI works.

Here are some notable facts about it:

• AI ships are incredibly accurate. If you give them any chance they WILL citadel you when they shoot AP and they WILL perfectly hit your superstructure and set fires when they shoot HE.
  These is NOT your Co-Op game AI.
  If you let yourself get targeted by 4-5 enemy ships for too long, you will die quickly, no matter what ship you are in.
  
• AI ships will (almost) always target the closest enemy.
  
• AI ships will shoot at enemy land installations or AI ships if they are closer than any enemy ship. This can be very relevant, since almost all Operations feature one or the other, or both.
  Be careful, since this will include ships/installations you have to protect (like Ruan on Hermes or Raptor on Raptor Rescue.
  
• AI ships have fixed paths and will often sail in straight lines, making them easy to target with torpedoes. Of course, in return, the enemy ships that have torps themselves will use them when you are in range, so don't get yourself dev-striked.
  
• Ai ships have fixed spawns, even though there are some variations for each map. But once you learn their spawns it becomes easier to be ready for them.

Now that we know the enemy AI, we can devise how to best play against them.

Here are some rules you should follow:

1. In general: Never go alone. As these are Operations, you will be heavily outnumbered and if you are alone, you can never shift aggro onto teammates, which means you will die.
   I said in general here, because there are some exceptions. If you play anything that can stealth torp (so mostly DDs,some cruisers and BBs) and you are confident in staying out of detection range, you can go for it, but it will remain risky. The other exception is, if you are going for a side objective and you know exactly how many and which ships you will face. Don't miscalculate here. If you die alone, away from your team, you will look like an idiot.
   
2. Manage aggro. If you take aggro (by being closest to the enemy), stay close to teammates and be ready to "switch" with them if you start taking too much damage. This obviously works best with platoon mates as a coordinated maneuver. But don't be afraid to "switch" with your random teammates as well, whether they want to or not. Also, don't be that one guy who is sitting at the back in a full-health BB, watching your teammates get melted by the aggro, while you are not willing to take any hits. Move forward and relieve your teammates. The best chance for success in Operations is by maintaining a full-strength team for as long as possible. Your HP and heals are a resource. Use them.
   Obviously, if a teammate is seemingly intent on killing themselves by steaming right into the jaws of the enemy, don't join them.
   
3. Follow the objectives. It doesn't matter how many kills you get if you fail the primary objective.
   
4. Be careful of positioning when under fire. As we have established, the enemy AI is deadly accurate. When you have aggro, you have to be careful with your maneuvering. Don't present broadsides to anything that is shooting AP and can pen you. This goes double for cruisers. Obviously pay attention when you are in torp range as well. Use cover if available.
   
5. Learn enemy spawns and routes. The more you remember of how the Operation you are playing goes, the better you will do. Obviously, this is something you can only get good at with time. At the beginning you should just stick close to your teammates and follow their lead as best you can. Of course it's also important to pay attention to the map. It will show you the location of objectives, enemies and allies.

Here I want to make some recommendations for ships that generally do very well in Operations.
However, while I have played hundreds of hundreds of Operations, keep in mind, obviously I haven't played every single ship.
In fact, I have only ever played BBs and Cruisers, with most coming from the US, Germany, the UK and Japan.
Therefore, don't take what I say here for gospel. If you enjoy playing a ship and are good at it, you can of course play it in Operations and probably do well.
This section is just here to list desirable attributes a ship should (not must) have to be a great choice for Operations.

Before I dive into the attributes, let's talk about ship classes.

The best classes for Operations are Cruisers and BBs. I know this sounds stupid coming from somebody, who doesn't play any other class than those two, but hear me out. Submarines and CVs are just nothing in Operations. You can just dismiss those. You will never have the same impact as a competent player in the other classes. Every time I have a CV on my team in Operations, I know my job has just gotten harder. Because they generally don't take aggro and they can't do enough to help the team.
DDs have a different problem. They can do enough to help the team, but it generally doesn't happen. Only very experienced, competent (torpedo) DD players can really carry. It is just a lot harder than BBs or Cruisers. There are several reasons for this.
First, similarly to subs and CVs, they can't take much aggro. Because they have little health, no armor and often no heals.
Secondly, if they do take aggro, they will die very quickly. The enemy AI is more accurate than human players, so DD players are often overconfident in their ability to evade damage.
Thirdly, spotting is less important than in PvP. Because routes are fixed and variation is limited, spotting plays less of a role.
Fourthly, there are no caps to contest. Simple as that.



So, assuming we pick a cruiser or BB, desirable attributes in order of importance are:

1. Great DPM. Especially if you are a good player and want to do well. Lots of targets with increased HP pools means that Operations are in large part a DPM check of the team. Kill them before they can burn down you.
   
2. Decent maneuverability. You will want to have a ship that at least comes close to 30 knots and has good rudder shift/turning radius. All this will help you reach objectives, quickly get close to allies, avoid damage etc. etc. Something like a New Mexico or Colorado is incredibly painful in Operations IMO.
   
3. A lot of HP and heals. Operations take fairly long and you are almost constantly fighting. The more damage you can absorb and repair, the better.
   
4. Good penetration and accuracy. All the DPM in the world won't save you if you can't penetrate or even hit. Still less imporant though, because a) most targets are fairly lightly armoured and b) most engagements take place between 6-16km I'd say.
   
5. Good armour. Same reason as with number 3. However, this one is less important as you will mostly fight enemies that fire HE (cruisers and DDs) anyway. Good deck armour and a small superstructure will serve you well though.
   
6. Torpedoes, ideally long-range, fast reloading torpedoes. Since the enemy AI often travels in straight lines, you can make great use of torps, if you have them. But they should be somewhat long-range, since most engagements are at medium range. I have scored more than 15 torp hits in several Operations in my Karl XIV Johan (13.5km range) for example.
   
7. Hydroacoustic Search. Lots of enemies will fire torpedoes at you, so Hydro is a great consumable to have, especially the German one. Other consumables are of course also good (Radar, FDCT, Smoke, DFAA, Spotter etc.) but way less important.
   
8. Great secondaries. This is far down the list here, since you need to have really strong, long range secondaries to actually make a difference. However, if you do, Operations just get crushed. Specifically Schlieffen and Libertad (and their respective lines) can really go ham.
   
9. Decent concealment. Solely because you'll want to have the ability to disappear from enemy sight if you stop firing for example, but it is not crucial.

From this list, you can tell yourself which ships will work well in Operations.

Here are some ships that I have played and had great results with:

• Annapolis - Somewhat a glass cannon, but if you can avoid too much fire, you just melt faces. That DPM is disgusting. Of course Des Moines works slightly less well too.
  
• Schlieffen - Crazy Secondaries, great maneuverability, Hydro, FDCT, torps - Schlieffen has it all. The previous ships of that line also work well.
  
• Karl XIV Johan - A BB that can stealth torp and reload them in 86 seconds base.
  
• Tirpitz - My go to for farming credits before the 13.8 update, that made me switch to Karl XIV Johan. Tirpitz is a Jack of all trades, Master of none when it comes to Operations, but that alone is enough to do really well.
  
• Mainz and Prinz Eugen - German cruisers in general are fairly good here, because they combine many of the desirable attributes. Of these sister ships (can also put Admiral Hipper here) the Mainz has the higher ceiling, but is more difficult to stay alive in. Prinz Eugen is just a very capable, safe bet if you want to play a Premium Tier VIII CA in Ops.

Defense of Naval Station Newport has the friendly task force defending a base against enemy attack waves. Players are tasked with preventing the destruction of essential onshore installations and support ships.


We're starting out with which for me is arguably the most difficult Operation. DPM is really important here. I had my best game ever in terms of damage on this Operation, 707k in the Annapolis, and we still lost.





At the start of the battle, there will be several forts and two Liberty maintainer ships that can slowly repair ships. However, the forts are inaccurate to be much help, and the Liberty maintainer ships are too far from battle and heal ships too slowly to be of good use, so it is best not to depend on them. The forts do however serve somewhat well as a meat shield to hide behind.

If there are only 2 players remaining, 1 x Kidd and 1 x Fletcher will spawn in to provide support.

At 30 seconds remaining on the clock, the main fleet consisting of 1 Montana, 1 Alaska, 1 Ohio, and 1 Seattle will spawn in and the mission will be completed.




Players will spawn in the south-eastern corner of the map within Naval Station Newport's perimeter, designated by the green circle on the map. Initial friendly forces consist of the seven player ships, three outer gun batteries, two (damaged) inner gun batteries, three surveillance stations, two Liberty maintainer ships, one St. Clair communications ship, and three generic base structures. Near the start of the battle, the two Liberty ships will move out to repair the two innermost gun batteries, and damaged ships can move within the green aura around them at any time to slowly recover their health.

When the battle begins, the first enemy ships of the preliminary waves will spawn and begin to sail towards the base (for list of enemies, see Part 2).



The first wave may spawn around any one of the three surveillance stations but the second and third waves can only spawn at a station adjacent to the previous one, which may be helpful to a defender for positioning for each attack.



If the first wave spawns in the center, the third wave will also spawn in the center.



If any of these ships breach the main defense perimeter or are not sunk before 10:00 on the clock, the corresponding secondary task will be failed and the main attack will begin immediately.

If the base is successfully defended before 10:00, Romeo, a Des Moines-class cruiser, will then spawn at either the south or east edge of the map (whichever side had the 2nd or 3rd enemy wave) and begin to flee towards the base, quickly following by two enemy cruisers.



Ensuring Romeo's survival is another secondary task (pretty easy), and if the pursuing cruisers can be dealt with, the cruiser will stay around to offer its own fire support in the defense of the base. The main attack will often spawn not long after Romeo does however, which can complicate rescue efforts, especially if players are not in a position to readily defend her.

The contents of the main attack wave differ slightly depending on whether all enemies are sunk before breaching the base (view below). In short, if the perimeter is breached, the enemies approaching from North and West gain an additional cruiser, while for Tier VI to VIII the Musashi (Secondary Objective Gunkan) gets upgraded to a Yamato.



Once all remaining enemy ships have been sunk, the mission will be completed.

Preliminary Waves:

First: Kuma, Yahagi, Furutaka, Aoba (T6-8)
or Roon, Amalfi, Admiral Hipper, Yorck (T9+)

Second: Fubuki, Leberecht Maass, Aoba, Bayern, Kongō (T6-8)
or Kitakaze, Elbing, Brindisi, Friedrich der Grosse, Amagi (T9+)

Third: Z-23, Shiratsuyu, Kagerō, Aoba, Yorck, Myōkō (T6-8)
or Harugumo, Yamagiri, Venezia, Hindenburg, Roon, Elbing (T9+)

Chasing Romeo: Myoko, Admiral Hipper (T6-8)
or Venezia, Clausewitz (T9+)


Main Attack (Perimeter Defended):

West: Ibuki, Gneisenau (T6-8)
or Piemonte, Preussen (T9+)

Center: Z-23, Kitakaze, Musashi (Kousotsu) (T6-8)
or Elbing, Harugumo, Satsuma (Kousotsu) (T9+)

North: Roon, Nagato (T6-8)
or Clausewitz, Yamato (T9+)


Main Attack (Perimeter Breached)

West: Ibuki, Admiral Hipper, Gneisenau (T6-8)
or Piemonte, Clausewitz, Preussen (T9+)

Center: Z-23, Kitakaze, Yamato (Gunkan) (T6-8)
or Elbing, Harugumo, Satsuma (Gunkan) (T9+)

North: Roon, Myōkō, Nagato (T6-8)
or Clausewitz, Roon, Yamato (T9+)


There is usually not a lot of strategy involved on this Operation, which accounts for some of its difficulty. DoNSN is really just a big DPM check of your team. Better hope you have enough.
The only tips I can give are the following:

• Do not leave the perimeter / island chain too far unless you are a DD (and even then be careful). Otherwise the next enemy spawn will spot you, focus you and burn you down.
  
• However, if you are in a quick CA or BB, you can try to move out of the perimeter a little bit during the preliminary waves to flank the enemies. This can be beneficial for citadel hits on enemy cruisers or torpedo salvos. But as I said above, you have to be really careful with these maneuvers.
  
• When the friendly Des Moines spawns (see Walkthrough above), try to be close, so you can quickly deal with the two pursuing enemy cruisers, before the main attack arrives in force.
  
• Don't attack the Kotsotsu/Gunkan BB (Musashi/Yamato/Satsuma) until pretty much everything else is sunk. It has massive HP and strong armor, but doesn't have great DPM. So, it should be saved for last. However do be careful that you don't get citadel'd by it. Remember that it has great pen and accuracy.
  
• Once the main attack launches, get out of the healing circles created by the Liberty maintainer ships. As per the section on Allied Support, the healing is too slow to make a difference and you are abandoning your teammates at the front. Additionally, the onshore installations will come under fire here, all of your targets will now be bow-in against you and you will get encircled and crossfired.
  
• Lots of enemies with torps here, so watch out for that. Hydro up if you have it and are close to the enemy.

The voice lines still incorrectly identifies Romeo as aircraft carrier Lexington and Gunkan as a large aircraft carrier.

In Aegis the friendly task force has to intercept an enemy convoy. Players are tasked with rescuing allied ships from the enemy convoy and escorting them to their destination. The allied force consists of 7 player ships and 3 NPC ships: 1 Shchors, 1 Fletcher, and 1 aircraft carrier (Saipan for T6-8, Franklin D. Roosevelt for T9+)

This Operation is fairly easy when the team works together, but can be very dangerous if 1 or 2 BB players decide to hang back and not share aggro. In that case the fire from the mass of enemy cruisers can quickly overwhelm the few players at the front. Out of the secondary objectives, saving all transport ships often fails, because 1 or 2 often get destroyed. The Shchors also almost always sinks, but at least you can sometimes save the commander.



1 Shchors, 1 Fletcher, 5 Liberty Transport Ships.
Potentially 1 Saipan or Franklin D. Roosevelt.




Upon spawning, players will find themselves among a group of allied players, along with the Fletcher and the Shchors, which is carrying the task force commander, Captain Akulov. When players begin heading North, they will encounter the first enemy attack wave (Vanguard). This wave will be traveling from North to South along the center of the map. the Fletcher will drop a smoke screen for the players as soon as the first enemy is spotted. By defeating this wave of enemies, players will have captured the strategic area. From this point onward, players must defend against a second force which will attempt to recapture the strategic area. These ships will enter the combat area from the Northwest.



After or while defeating these forces, players will encounter an enemy convoy which is escorting five Liberty transport ships. Players must sink the captor ships and escort the Liberty ships to the waypoint. Here, players will encounter two final attack waves. Players must repel the attacking ships while escorting the Liberty ships to safety.





First Wave (Vanguard)
North: Tiers VI - VIII: Any 5 of the following: Aoba, Tokachi, Mogami, Myōkō, Mutsu, Fusō, Akizuki, Kitakaze, Kagerō, Yūgumo.
Tier IX+: Any 5 of the following: Hizen, Pommern, Harugumo, Kitakaze, Yamagiri, Yūgumo, Azuma, Yoshino.

Northwest: Tiers VI - VIII: 5 ships consisting of Furutakas, Aobas, Mogamis, and Myōkō[/i[s,]Fusos.
Tiers IX+: 5 ships consisting of Azumas and Yoshinos, and up to 3 Hizens.

Second Wave
Enemy Escort: Tiers VI - VIII: 5 random cruisers from the following: Aoba, Mogami, Myōkō, Ibuki. Tiers IX+: 5 random cruisers from the following: Azuma, Yoshino, Clausewitz.

If the enemy escort goes too far south or a player goes too far northeast before the escorts are sunk, 3 battleships (Amagi, Nagato and Izumo for T6-8 and Yamato, Satsuma and Hannover for T9+) will enter the combat zone from the north (Apparently. This is from the wiki, I have never seen it happen myself)

Third Wave
North: Tiers VI - VIII: 2 Nagatos.
Tier IX+: 2 Yamatos

Northeast:Tiers VI - VIII: 1 Amagi, up to 2 Nagatos, 1 Atago, at least 6 random crusiers from Tokachi, Mogami, Myōkō, Ibuki, and up to 3 random destroyers from Akizuki, Kitakaze, Kagerō, Yūgumo.
Tiers IX and higher will face 1 Grosser Kurfürst, up to 2 Yamatos, up to 9 random cruisers from Azuma, Yoshino, Hindenburg, Clausewitz, and up to 3 Yamagiri.

Ships will spawn in as enemy ships are sunk and time goes on in up to 3 waves, with 3 cruisers ("Kabi", "Kadu", and "Kado") spawning in a few seconds ahead of the 3 BBs required to be sunk for the secondary task.

Rescue the commander of the sinking Shchors: If the task force commander's ship is destroyed, Captain Akulov must be rescued before the ship fully sinks. This is accomplished by entering the visible circle shown around the sinking ship.
Convoying ships: The enemy ships in the convoy (Ibuki, Mogami, Aoba, Myōkō), as well as the 3 BB reinforcements will not be able to use torpedoes or AA guns.
If Shchors does not survive long enough to send out a radio call for help, Saipan or Franklin D. Roosevelt will not spawn
This Operation can succeed, even if all player ships are destroyed. in the case that a transport ship reaches the end goal, the Operation will count as a victory regardless of the state of the player team.

• This Operation is all about managing aggro. The hardest part is fighting the 5 cruisers escorting the transport ships together with whatever is left of the squadron coming from the Northwest in the First Wave. During this part of the Operation you have to be very careful to not face fire from 5 or more heavy cruisers at the same time, because you'll melt incredibly quickly. So stay close to allies and manage your aggro and HP levels.
  
• Don't sail into the middle of all enemy ships to save the Shchors or rescue the commander.
  
• You can get nice citadels and torpedo salvos away against the enemies in the First Wave from the North and Northwest if you are in the right position, but beware of taking aggro alone. Similarly against the escorting cruisers in the Second Wave.

As you'll spawn you will be facing towards a gap between two islands. The intended and better route is to sail fairly straight ahead while fighting the enemies and continue through that gap.

However, many players, especially BBs, have somehow decided to sail around the southern edge of the southern of the two islands (view green arrow on map below). DO NOT DO THIS.



This is a terrible "strategy" for 3 reasons:

• You will often miss out on fighting many of the Vanguard, the enemies coming from the North, because the island will block your vision and shots of them. By the time you have made it around the island, the fight will be over. This is exacerbated by the fact that the enemy will try to push through that gap themselves.
  
• You will completely miss out on lucrative side shots and torpedo salvos against the enemies coming from the Northwest (see drawing below), because you'll be too far away or blocked from view.
  
• Most importantly, during all the time, when the rest of your team fights most of the battle during the first wave, you won't be taking any aggro. Now, this might sound good to you, but it is not good for the team. Some of your teammates taking the intended route will die or at least get severely damaged because there aren't enough players sharing the aggro. And because, at the end of all that, you're likely still too far south to link up with your remaining teammates, the same will happen for the Second Wave (against the escort ships).

This, by far, is the single biggest reason for failing this Operation. The amount of times I saw full-health T10 BBs taking this route and sitting at the back while the rest of the team fell apart is maddening.

So, to help the team and to help yourself, follow the friendly NPC ships Shchors and Fletcher towards that gap, making use of the smoke laid down by the Fletcher and using those two ships as meat shields. Now, a DD player might want to sail north before even reaching this gap, to take full advantage of torpedo opportunity that comes with the enemies from the Northwest. This is fine, as long as you don't get yourself killed, and you can then help the team later against the Second and Third Wave.

Now, assuming you went through the gap and then dealt with the Second Wave, there are two options. You can either follow the island chain to the east, escorting the transport ships to their goal. Or you can sail north towards what I call the 3 northern battleships (2 Nagatos and 1 Amagi for T6-8, 2 Yamatos and 1 GK for T9+).
These 3 BBs represent a Secondary Objective, that often goes unfulfilled in this Operation, since they can obviously take a lot of damage and dish a lot back out. Going after them may present a risk to your ship/team and the success of the mission (although this is the only Operation that can be won, even if all player ships are sunk).



So, whether go after this Objective or take the safe route east is a judgment call, dependent on what shape the team and you are in. If you are in a BB in good condition, and you have, say, another BB and a DD ready to sail north with you, while other teammates can look after the transports, this is a perfectly fine choice. But if the team is barely existent anymore, this may not be a great idea. Maybe there are teammates (DD players often do this) already sailing north and then you have to decide whether to join them or escort the transport.
Remember: It is not worth completing a Secondary Objective, if you fail a Primary one.

Operation Killer Whale has the friendly task force raid an enemy base. Players are tasked with destroying enemy ships and base structures, such as forts and hangers. The allied force consists of 7 player ships and occasionally 1 bot destroyer. This is one of only two Operations that are only playable with Tier VI to VIII ships. If you go into queue in a ship of Tier IX or higher, this Operation will never show up.

This Operation is maybe the easiest of the bunch. I have seen this Operation fail a few times, but only if your team really wants to lose and completely ignores the objective/map. More on that later.





This is a raid on an enemy base. Players must enter the base through channels which are guarded by forts. Inside the harbor there will be several targets including warships, support ships, and on-shore facilities. The first Primary Objective is to destroy these targets. During the raid, enemy reinforcements will appear outside the harbor. Players must repel the reinforcements and fight their way out of the base. To complete the operation, players must escape to the designated area, either in the West or Northeast of the map (decided randomly).

A special guest (Commander Jenkins on Destroyer Benson) might spawn with your team. If he survives the battle (and your team completes the scenario), you get a special achievement (can only be obtained once)

Entering the harbor
The first opposition will be the forts guarding the harbor entrances. There are 9 forts in total: 2 on each of the south, middle and north entrances, and 3 inside the harbor. The two forts on the north entrance can usually be ignored. The forts, with the exception of 2 in the harbor armed with a single 406mm cannon, do not hit very hard but are persistent and can do a lot of damage if left alone. They have very strong AA guns and should be avoided by aircraft, with the exception of the 2 forts armed with 1 x 406mm cannon. A full battleship AP salvo can destroy a fort in one shot, same for some cruisers. Cruiser SAP will not penetrate. Heavy cruiser (203mm or larger) AP can penetrate forts from about 9-10km away. 150mm AP can penetrate starting from 5-7km away. Destroyer caliber AP (130mm and below) can only penetrate forts from within 2km. Outside of these ranges, HE rounds should be fired at forts. Destroying forts is part of the "Destroy all forts and onshore facilities" secondary task.

There are 6 ships inside the base. These must all be destroyed for the first primary task . A Bayern battleship and a Gaede destroyer will spawn at I4. Beware of the Gaede's torps. They can be very dangerous if you go through the south entrance. Try to destroy the Gaede before it hides in smoke. A Nürnberg at spawning at J6 will move in towards the players, and will usually first appear from behind the small island at H5/6. Near the middle another Nürnberg will spawn at F7, and when a player is spotted in its firing range, it will move to fire on and launch torps toward ships at the middle entrance. In the docks at J7 there will be another Bayern which also moves in on the players once spotted. Also in the docks is a Gneisenau . This ship will not leave the dock, but will use its guns, torpedoes (6km range)(careful!) and AA. It is hard to torpedo from the east side, where it is protected by a harbor mole. Torpedoes fired from the west have a better chance of hitting this target.



After these ships are destroyed, the second Primary Objective “Withdraw to the designated area with at least half of of the operational ships” will be triggered. The exit point will be marked on the map, and is either in the west at F1, or in the north, at A8. In addition, the first reinforcement wave will spawn in.

One of the secondary tasks is the destruction of 5 support ships. These are Cimarron freighters which start in the docs at I7 and will head out toward the harbor exits, trying to escape. They have no weapons or armor, and are very easy slow-moving targets. With a low number of health points they can easily be destroyed with a few HE shots. Using torpedoes is usually overkill. Players can ignore these until the enemy warships and forts are all destroyed. If one player sinks all the transports, the achievement "Fox in the Henhouse" will be awarded.

Lastly there are the 11 onshore facilities. These are spread out along the harbor coast from I4 to F10. They are marked on the minimap as small red circles, and show a clear name and health bar, just like ships do. With only 5000 hit-points each these can also be quickly destroyed with a few HE hits. Armor piercing rounds will hardly do any damage. The destruction of these facilities is also part of the "Destroy enemy forts and onshore facilities" secondary task. With 11 facilities and 9 forts there is a total of 20 targets. Only 18 of these need to be destroyed for the task. This is why the two forts on the north entrance can usually be ignored.

With 12:00 left on the clock, if the task “Destroy all enemy ships at the base” has not been completed, enemy reinforcements will arrive. By this time the team should have destroyed all hard targets and be mopping up the last of the Cimarron transports and the onshore facilities, or better still, be moving into position to fight the reinforcements. Two more secondary tasks become available: “Destroy battleships Furi and Dono” and “Destroy the enemy's first and second reinforcements groups”. Most of these ships will spawn outside the harbor near the north-west map border, but two of them will spawn in the north at A8/9. 30 seconds later, the final secondary task is added: “Do not let enemy reinforcements enter the haven”

There will be two target ships, 1 T-22 and 1 Nürnberg in the first wave, and two, 1 Nürnberg and 1 Bayern in the second wave. "Fury" will spawn at the same time as the first wave, and is accompanied by 1 x Fubuki tier VI destroyer. "Dono" will spawn between waves 2 and 3, with 08:00 remaining on the clock, and is accompanied by an Aoba . The destroyers will usually not be visible until they are near the south entrance. The third, forth and fifth wave will consist of various ships (Bayern, Nürnberg, Gaede, Gneisenau, Yorck, Leberecht Maass, Admiral Hipper, Bismarck, Z-23), with 3 in each wave, and appear on the west and north edge of the map.

The waves of reinforcement will arrive regularly every 2:45 after the previous wave, except for the last wave, which spawns exactly 2 minutes after the 4th wave. In between the second and third wave "Dono" will spawn. Waves 3, 4 and 5 will each consist of a BB, a cruiser and a DD. Each wave will be one tier higher than the previous one.


The timing above is only accurate if the players fail to destroy all fighting ships in the harbor by the 12:00 minute mark. If players destroy all fighting ships in the harbor, the spawn time for all waves will be moved up in time equal to the difference between the time of destruction of the last fighting ship in the harbor and 12:00. The "Dono" and the Aoba that spawns with it are the only ships that do not change times based on the completion of the first primary objective.

Note that after destroying the target ships for the secondary tasks, the only reason for players to stick around is to earn higher rewards, but the main priority will be getting enough ships into the exit zone. The more time the team takes to destroy the main targets, the bigger the risk they will be overwhelmed by the waves of stronger and stronger reinforcements, and fail the primary task. Note that some reinforcements spawn quite close to the exit point, and might destroy player ships already in the exit circle. If things go bad, it is wise to no longer persue any secondary tasks but focus on the primary: Get to the exit.



After the first primary is completed by destroying the six fighting ships in the harbor, the main primary becomes available and the exit point is marked on the map with an anchor. It is either at F1 (in the west),or at A8 (in the north). Around the exit point will be a green circle. Ships must be inside this circle to count for the primary task condition.

The operation ends with a success if at least half the player ships that are still afloat are inside the exit circle.
The operation fails if either:
The clock runs out, or
All player ships are destroyed

The phrase "with at least half of the operational ships" has confused many a player. To clarify: if you still have all 7 players alive, then you need at lease 4 ships in the exit circle. Three ships is not enough, because 3 is less than half of 7. If you have 6 players alive, you only need at least 3 ships in the exit circle, because that is exactly half of the ships alive, which satisfies "at least half". If you have 5 players alive, you still need at least 3 ships in the circle, because 2 ships is less than half. With 4 or 3 players alive, you need at least 2 ships in the circle. If you have 2 or 1 players alive, then 1 ship is enough.

The most difficult part of this condition is to reach it before the clock runs out. If the team is slow in entering the harbor, destroying targets inside the harbor, or late in getting out of the harbor again, or spends too much time chasing the targets for the secondary tasks, it may happen that only one or two, or even none of the player ships reach the exit circle before the clock reaches 00:00.

Sometimes it may be necessary for a player ship to be destroyed to complete the mission. For example: suppose there are 5 ships left. Two are already in the circle, two are on their way but probably won't make it in time, and one is far away and will never make it. With 2 out of 5 ships in the circle, the condition for success is not met. But when one of the ships outside the circle is destroyed, there will be 2 out of 4 ships in the circle, which means the game immediately ends with a success. That, in turn, means it is the duty of those ships to commit suicide.

Things may even get worse, when one of the ships inside the circle gets destroyed. Then you have only 1 of 4 in the circle left. In that case two of the ships outside the circle need to die.

One situation where it might be wise to delay the end of the game is when the team has nearly completed the secondary tasks, but needs one more minute or so to destroy that last target ship. But beware of that 5th reinforcement group of tier VIII ships that spawn near the exit points.

• Entering the harbor, the southern entrance is the more dangerous one, since you'll be facing the Gaede (torps!), Bayern and Nürnberg. Use Hydro if you have it. I have also once been rammed by the Bayern for some reason.
  
• Watch out for the Gneisenau's shots and torps.
  
• Don't get too greedy on killing the reinforcement waves. Watch out for them spawning right next to the exit circle.
  
• For the love of god, look at the map. If I see one more player sailing in the wrong direction out of the harbor, I will scream.

There isn't much I can say here. Entering the harbor, the southern entrance is the more dangerous one, but if you spawn at the south, that's just the one you gotta take. Exiting the harbor, just sail straight towards the exit circle, whether north or west.

Raptor Rescue has the team defend the Raptor, a Ranger-class aircraft carrier. Players are initially tasked with escorting support ships to Raptor. Once repairs are completed, players must escort Raptor and the support ships out of the combat zone. The allied force consists of 7 player ships, 3 support ships, and Raptor.

This Operation is not difficult. The only way it can fail, is usually if Raptor gets torpedoed by some DDs.


h2]Allied Support[/h2]
Raptor - a Ranger-class carrier, Engineer - a Liberty-class repair ship, Arsenal - a Cimarron-class freighter and Aviator - a Bogue-class carrier.




Upon spawning, there will immediately be a group of enemies to the west. First, the player team will be spotted and attacked by a DD (Shiratsuyu for T6-8 or Harugumo for T9+). Shortly after, a BB (Fuso/Hizen) and a cruiser (Aoba/Azuma) will come out behind an island broadside to the team.



After destroying these enemy ships, players need to make their way to the Ranger-class aircraft carrier, "Raptor". Once the NPC repair ship Engineer has caught up to Raptor, it will begin repairs. Stay close to the group and prepare for the next assault, which will come from either the north or the south.
This will be a wave of 3 heavy cruisers (Aoba, Myoko, Mogami for T6-8 or Azuma, Yoshino, Clausewitz for T9+). The spawns and routes can very a bit here. If the cruisers spawn in the north, 1 or 2 will sail down the A-line and 1 will duck in around the island at C5/D5. If only 1 sails down the A-line, the remaining one comes up north of the island at C5/D5.
For the southern version, 1 or 2 keep close to the island at G7, while 1-2 sail straight west around the island at G6 before continuing north.



After repelling this wave, Engineer will likely have completed repairing Raptor.

As Raptor begins moving, 1 Hatsuharu/Kitakaze or and 1 Fubuki/Yugumo will approach from the center of the western edge of the map, with the Hatsuharu/Kitakaze spawning either north or south of the Fubuki/Yugumo opposite of the mid-map waypoint for Raptor.

2 Shōkaku/Hakuryu aircraft carriers spawn on the map at the beginning of the match and sinking each of them is a secondary objective, but they do not send out planes until spotted, or until a garbled radio message is intercepted, whichever comes first. The CV that spawns in the south is escorted by 1 Aoba/Azuma and 1 x Fubuki/Kitakaze and will travel in an S curve towards the players and then back down towards the south-west corner of the map. The second CV spawns around H1 and will move north along the map until C1 where in will either turn around and back south along the 2 line, or head towards A4.

A third wave consisting of 2 x ships, up to 2 cruisers, up to 1 destroyer or up to 1 battleship (possible ships are too many to mention here) will spawn either before or after the 2 DDs that come in from the 1 line, depending on spawn location, which could be any one of the 4 corners of the map.

This is where it gets really complicated, because there are 4 different paths for Raptor to take. There are 2 mid-way points, North or South and 3 exit points, North, Middle or South. If Raptor goes north for the mid-way point, it can then choose North or Middle for the exit. If Raptor goes south, it can choose between South or Middle.
Depending on the path, 7 different final waves can spawn in, with the possible spawns listed below. This attack wave will approach Raptor rapidly, so be careful not to stray too far.
Raptor will initially take a halt behind a covering island at the beginning of the final wave, but will eventually start to head to the exit point again, no matter if the final attack is dealt with or not.


There is approximately up to 46 different spawn combinations for this map making spawn locations unpredictable for even advanced players.
The following map therefore only shows the different routes and possible spawn locations for the final wave variants.



After the final wave, with about 5:30 left in the battle up to 2 additional cruisers, 1 x Myoko/Yoshino and 1 x Mogami/Clausewitz will spawn near the exit. If 6 or 7 players remain afloat, and all enemies in the final wave are sunk, the Cruisers will spawn at the same time. If 5 players remain afloat, or if 6 or more players remain afloat but at least one enemy from the final wave remains afloat they will spawn in 1 at a time with the second one spawning after the first one is sunk.[2] If 4 or fewer players are left afloat, they will not spawn in at all. Their exact spawn location depends on the exit and mid point locations for a total of 4 variations.

If a player sits in the spawn location until Raptor makes it to the mid-map waypoint, 2 cruisers will spawn in A1 to sink the AFK player (or stationary CV). After sinking any players in spawn, the cruisers will sail off the northeastern corner of the map and despawn.

If a player is nearby one of the spawn locations, the game will spawn ships at a valid spawn location that is furthest from any player.

Raptor has pre 8.0 carrier rework fire mechanic, and burns for 1 minute when set on fire with a Damage Control Party that has a 5 second duration and a 60 second cooldown. This is unlike player and enemy CVs that only burn for 5 seconds and have a Damage Control Party that lasts for 60 seconds with a 60 second cooldown.

Raptor also starts the match without planes and needs to receive planes from the Bogue (Aviator) to be able to launch strike aircraft. Bogue cannot launch strike planes as all are to be transfered to Raptor but all of her other armaments work as normal.

This is the only place a Bogue remains in the game post-CV Rework.

There is paper cut out ship that may spawn on the 0 line at the exit. Hit it with a ship based torpedo to earn the Insert Coin achievement. This achievement can be obtained only once. This ship also currently will spot players for the enemy, so if you are detected at the end of the match and see no red ships, this is the ship that is detecting you.

• Engineer will repair ships within the repair circle. Make use of this during time between waves if you need it.
  
• Protect Raptor above all else. If Raptor takes too much enemy fire it is game over. In my experience this usually happens via the destroyer spawns of the second wave. Other than that the final wave is the most dangerous, obviously.
  If it comes down to it, put yourself in between Raptor and enemy ships to take the aggro. Once, I knew that the DDs hat launched torps at the Raptor, because we couldn't destroy them fast enough. So I purposefully put myself in the way of the torpedoes. I had to eat 3 of them, but I survived (barely) and so did Raptor.
  
• The two CVs that serve as secondary tasks often tempt away players from Raptor and the rest of the team. Be careful when going for these, especially if you are alone. Even if you survive, you may be too far away from the team to now support them for the second or even third wave. If nobody or only 1-3 ships are escorting Raptor at this time, it can easily get destroyed.
  
• This Operation has several hard-hitting Japanese BBs. Don't get citadel'd. I have seen players get deleted by the Fuso/Hizen of the very first wave because they were broadsiding.
  
• Carrier players are useful in this Operation, because they can spot the spawning enemies long before they get close, avoiding surprises for the team. Beware of the enemy CVs though, as they have strong AA firepower, only surpassed by the collective AA of the "cruiser pain trains"

In The Ultimate Frontier the player team must protect the evacuation of Rouen Atoll. Transport aircraft are sent to the Island to evacuate Japnese scientists and engineers. The task force must defend the aircraft and the aerodrome until evacuation is finished.


This Operation is usually a win, but it can be difficult. Towards the end, the pressure is fairly high and often players are sunk. It is not rare for there to only be 1-2 surviving ships.





The player team's BBs will usually spawn in the north at Rouen Atoll, while the rest of the players spawn in the southeast as "reinforcements", initially met by enemy scouts consisting of a Nicholas and a Mahan for teams of Tier VIII or lower and a Kidd and a Gearing for teams with at least one Tier IX.

Be aware, that the map you will see here is not accurate. Unfortunately I couldn't find the correct version in the map tool I'm using.



In stage one, hopefully after dealing with the first 2 destroyers (they will sometimes flee to E5), the transport squadrons need to be escorted to the aerodrome where the research team awaits extraction. The transport aircraft arrive from three separate locations along the northeastern map border. Focus on keeping the skies clear for them to reach to the extraction point (I have never seen this objective fail, never.). A Dallas (T6-8) or Seattle (T9+) will spawn at D10, near the middle entrance location for the allied aircraft and an Atlanta/Worcester will spawn near the northern entrance, at B10, lead by an Omaha/Cleveland that spawns at A9 and heads southwest. In this direction the team will have support from a friendly NPC Aoba/Ibuki.
This cruiser can sometimes destroy the 2 enemy cruisers on its own, but can equally get destroyed instead. Try to support it.

On the opposite side in the center of the map, there will be 1 Indianapolis/Des Moines, 1 New Mexico/Iowa, 1 New York/North Carolina, and 1 Wyoming/Colorado. These ships start moving north east, but the battleships turn to go north west at G7, while the cruiser continues to head to the closest player.



Depending on how quickly the cruisers in the northeast and the group in the center are sunk, up to 4 cruisers (1 Marblehead/Cleveland, 2 Omahas/Clevelands, and 1 Phoenix/Helena) will spawn in H7 and rush north. If a player enters F5-7 to I5-7 or the west half of G8-I8 before the extra cruisers spawn, a Clemson/Mahan will spawn at G5 and head north to attack the allied base.



In stage two, the extraction begins. Players will need to defend the aerodrome and surrounding structures from 3 main waves of enemy attacks until the timer for extraction completion counts down to 0. The repair base at E6 can help keep player ships afloat between waves by healing ships by 200 hp per second. Fortunately, attack aircraft will support the team by taking off from the aerodrome and attacking an enemy ship in each wave. While defending the base, players will meet an old friend from the previous Operation – the carrier Raptor!

Raptor, a Ranger-class or Midway-class aircraft carrier spawns at the beginning of the match at G2, but does not launch planes until spotted, or stage two begins, whichever comes first. Don't worry about these planes, though, they won't attack anything. The destruction of Raptor is a secondary objective, so ships that can shoot at Raptor, should, when given the chance. When an allied ship or squadron is detected while Raptor is detected, 1 Farragut/Fletcher, 1 Sims/Forrest Sherman and 1 Dallas/Seattle spawn in to escort Raptor to safety for teams of Tier VIII or lower. If Raptor takes enough damage, or the time left in battle is 8:30, Raptor will head south east with the 3 escorts. Once Raptor is sunk, any remaining escorts will move to assault the base.

Each wave randomly spawns in one of 3 locations, east, south, or west, and can only spawn in each location once per battle. Which means all directions are used once in this final wave.
The first wave of 3 cruisers consists of Omahas/Clevelands and Pensacolas/Baltimores with a maximum of 2 of the same ship spawning.




The second wave consists of 2 cruisers with no duplicates from Omaha, Pensacola, Wichita and Cleveland and 1 battleship, either Colorado or North Carolina for teams of Tier VIII or lower.



These are upgraded to 2 cruisers with no duplicates from Cleveland, Baltimore, Annapolis and Jacksonville and 1 BB, either Montana or Maine for teams with at least one Tier IX.



As the second wave spawns, 3 destroyers (code name Whiskey) will spawn in either F5 or F7 and head for the repair base. If they reach the repair base, a secondary objective will fail and the ability to repair will be lost. The possible spawns for Whiskey are 3 ships total from Nicholas, Farragut, Mahan, and Sims for teams of Tier VIII or lower, and 3 ships total from Forrest Sherman, Gearing, Kidd, and Fletcher for teams with at least one Tier IX.



The 3rd wave consists of 2 DDs with no duplicates from Farragut, Mahan, Benson, and Kidd, 2 cruisers with no duplicates from Cleveland, Wichita, and Seattle, and 1 battleship, either Missouri or Iowa for teams of Tier VIII or lower.



These are upgraded to 2 destroyers from Fletcher, Gearing, and Joshua Humphreys, 2 cruisers from Annapolis, and Jacksonville, and 1 battleship, Maine, for teams with at least one Tier IX.



Often, the team won't even managa to destroy all enemy ships (in particular the last BB), before the timer ends and the Operation is completed.

1 cruiser Aoba/Ibuki, attack planes, repair base, forts.

• The repair circle can best be used after dealing with the 4 cruisers coming from the south and before the second phase starts. Don't stay in it for too long though; you'll be an easy target for the arriving DDs of Whiskey and the enemy waves after that
  
• Try to keep the friendly cruiser (Aoba/Ibuki) in the northeast alive. It will serve you as fire support and meat shield for later in the Operation
  
• Towards the end, if you are in danger of being sunk, retreat into the base itself. The forts and aerodrome can be used as aggro sponges while you recover. This is especially important if you are the last or one of the last surviving players. Remember that the team wins if the timer on the objective reaches zero. Of course the protection of the aerodrome and forts are primary and secondary tasks, so don't let them take too much damage.
  
• Torpedoes can be pretty powerful in this operation, for example against the 4 battleships in the first phase, or against the cruisers/BBs in the last waves.
  
• All enemy ships in this Operation are US-American, which means the cruisers have very high DPM and set a lot of fires. Everything from a Cleveland to an Annapolis/Jacksonville is here (for T9+) and they will mess you up quickly, if you aren't careful. Never activate your repair party on single-fires here, unless you are certain no enemy will shoot at you for the next minute.

This is the only Operation with two different spawn points, so initially you have two different routes for the team, even though you'll link up fairly quickly. Battleships always spawn up north at the base. If there are 4 BBs on the team, one will spawn with the rest of the team in the southeast.

Covering the northern spawn first, I always head southeast, along the little island chain, beginning with the island that hosts the repair base. You'll want to be close to these islands, so that you get the best shots at the 3 BBs + 1 CA that spawn in the first wave. You can get juicy citadels here. If you are shooting at the Iowa (which will be the one that appears first), always give more lead than you think, since it is going to fast. After that your priority target should be the Indianapolis/Des Moines. If you feel the aggro is too much or you are giving broadsides to the BBs, turn away to the north to angle yourself and/or shift the aggro. At this point, start thinking about supporting the friendly NPC cruiser against the Omaha/Cleveland and Atlanta/Worcester, if no other teammates is taking care of it; same with the Dallas/Seattle from the east, though normally, this is the job of the southern group. After that, sail back towards the repair station. Along the way, help against the spawning cruisers and (maybe) the lone DD. This way you should be able to stay inside the repair base for a nice long time , while having done lots of damage.



Now, for the southeast, 99% of players should just head straight north / northwest to link up with the BB players. On the way, you should be able to take out the 2 initial scouting DDs from the south and the Dallas/Seattle spawning from the west, while doing what damage you can to the group of 4 in the center. Beware if you are the western-most player here, the BBs will most likely shoot at you first and the nature of the map topography makes it difficult to angle yourself here. So, watch out for citadels as you make your way north.

Now, there is an alternate route here, but it's really one that can only be done in a stealthy DD or a really high AP DPM cruiser, that has at least some armor and torps. A Mainz is perfect for this. Make no mistake though, this is high risk, high reward.

For this route, you turn west immediately. After defeating the two DDs (watch out for torps), you'll come into contact with the group of 4. As you are the closest enemy, every ship will lock on to you, so this is where you need to the armor, high DPM and torps (or just torps as a DD) to destroy those ships (hopefully your team helps), before they can kill you. Now, the 4 cruisers spawn from the south. Again, high AP dpm is important here. You'll be able to citadel them from the side here (as a cruiser). Be quick before they burn you down!

If you've survived so far, congrats. Now comes the easy part. Remember Raptor? Normally this CV only appears just before the final phase starts, but, as I've mentioned before, it actually spawns at the beginning of the match and then just sits at G2. So now, you get to feast on Raptor, without the rest of the team even being in range.
After taking down Raptor, you can finally make your way back to the repair base and the rest of the team. Like I said, this is very high risk as it's not really intended by WG. But, if you pull it off, you can easily have 300k+ damage at this point of the Op.

Example of this route:











Of course, if you fail and die out there, you'll look really stupid.



After that, as with many of the other Operation, it just depends on where the spawns come from. Just stay close to your team and survive/do damage as best you can.

In Operation Narai the friendly task force is tasked with securing the landing zone for troops embarking on a shore assault.
A fleet of landing craft are ready to take the beach, but that beach isn’t undefended.
Several groups of enemy warships, plus an aircraft carrier, lie in wait. The landing fleet has five transport ships headed by a lead vessel. All of those ships have assault troops aboard. Every hit those vessels take will result in troop loss, so it is important to protect these ships.
The lead transport ship can repair ships in her radius, but her primary focus is capturing the Repair Dock at the enemy base. Once captured, the Repair Dock will help defend the landing zone and perform nearby repairs. Once players break through the enemy lines and reach the landing zone, they will have to deal with the shore defenses. Deal with these quickly to protect the transport ships to make sure the troops complete their landing.
At the same time, an enemy transport group will attempt to escape from the nearby bay, and an aircraft carrier will try to escape from the opposite side of the harbor. Take out these ships to accomplish secondary objectives.

This is the only other Operation besides Killer Whale to only be available for Tier VI to VIII.

This Operation is one of the harder ones, especially since you can not cover all routes at once. I once lost despite doing 485k dmg in the Tirpitz. It is incredibly hard to win while getting all secondary objectives.


Five Liberty transport ships and a lead vessel, functioning as a repair ship.




The players spawn with the convoy in the northwestern corner of the map. The goal is to escort the ship to the harbor, therfore it is recommended to sail ahead of the convoy and sink the enemy before they can get close to the transports. Should you take heavy damage, it's possible to retreat to the safety of the convoy where you can be slowly repaired. However, you'll be less effective fighting from there.

The first enemy group spawns directly to the south behind the island and consists of three ships: 1 Émile Bertin, 1 Nicholas, and 1 New York. They pose little threat if quickly taken out, otherwise the shots from the New York and torpedoes from the other ships can do serious damage (as you'll likely be broadside here). The first of several forts then spawns directly ahead.



For the second wave, three more ships will spawn: 1 Queen Elizabeth to the southeast, 1 Leander behind the island just south of the convoy, and 1 Farragut behind the next island further south.



If not already, at this point the players should start separating into three different groups: One to two ships split off east to sink the aircraft carrier King (from here on refered to as the Northern Route) , one to two ships to travel south and intercept the escaping convoy (Southern Route), and the main group to intercept threats to the convoy (Main Route). I will cover the three separate routes up to the point when everyone (hopefully) reunites in the harbor for the final phase.

Wherever you go, keep in mind, that the rest of the team will likely not be able to support you due to the islands in between.



For this route, a cruiser is recommended for quickly dealing with the enemy destroyer and cruiser protecting the carrier. Alternatively, a battlecruiser-type BB with torpedoes and decent speed/DPM is also possible. Also, having Hydro is very advantageous on this route. Only one ship is needed for this route if the player and ship are good. If you are new to this route/Operation, maybe try to have a teammate / Division-mate accompany you or support a teammate who is already going for that route.

While eliminating the second wave, you can travel directly east on the B or C line, however I'd recommend following the convoy until the mouth of the harbor.

1 Dallas will spawn behind the D7 island, giving broadside to the player once it leaves the safety of the island. 1 La Galissonnière spawns further west, just inside the mouth of the harbor, but is much harder to hit due to her high top speed and speed boost. A Leander will spawn further southwest, but you can let the rest of the convoy escort take care of it.



The biggest threat to the player is Little Trouble, a Missouri. Don't ever present broadside, unless you are sure you are not the target, otherwise you can easily be wiped out.

If you are quick and have torpedoes on board, you may have time to make it to the other side of the strait allowing for a torpedo run and broadsides on Little Trouble before it disappears behind the small island at E6. If you are unsure of facing the aggro from the Missouri, you can hold back, letting it focus on other targets before continuing. In any case, try to help the players on the Main Route against Little Trouble as much as you can. You will still have enough time to complete the secondary objective.

Be aware that the Missouri uses Surveillance Radar, so cruisers and destroyers cannot use smoke to hide unless at least 9.6km away. After dealing with the Missouri, you can and should attack the Cleveland if it spawns on the northern part of the harbor as it will focus on any player going after the carrier, as you move north along E7-D8.



Now, the only ships that stand between the player and the carrier are the escorting Farragut and Omaha. All three ships will sail north on the 10-line, with Farragut laying smoke cover starting from when the aircraft carrier is spotted. Eliminate the Farragut first due to her torpedo threat. Omaha comes next, but can be easily dispatched with her vulnerable citadel, heavy cruisers or BBs can even get cits through the bow. The Lexington-class aircraft carrier King poses little threat as she will not launch planes other than CAP fighters, but within 4.5km, her secondaries are very good at setting fires. Use torpedoes against this big, slow target, if you have them.



After completing the secondary objective, the player can either try to join up with the allied convoy escorts immediately and intercept enemy ships arriving in the harbor, or stay at the mouth of the bay and use the broadside shots against the enemies, moving in a bit later (this is my advice, especially for BBs). If you stay there, prepare for quite a bit of aggro to fall onto you initially.

For this route, a 30kt+ ship is recommended so the player can intercept the lead transport before it escapes. Just one cruiser is needed, battleships should not go this way unless there is no other ship that can go. Aircraft carriers can start hitting the transports early as they spawn at the start of the match, but as soon as the Farragut that spawns with the transports is damaged, or one of the transports is sunk, the transports and the Farragut will start moving to escape, which can make this secondary objective much harder.

After dealing with the initial wave of enemies, you should immediately head south/southeast. This awards ample time to deal with their escorts and cut off the convoy. If you don't immediately head south after the first round of ships and instead take part in the fight against the Dallas, Leander and La Galissionaire, you will have to seriously hurry to catch them. It's still possible, but riskier. If you take the direct path, the Queen Elizabeth that spawns nearby is tanky and can pose a serious threat to lighter cruisers. Continue south and you will encounter a fort at I3, which is also easy to destroy unless using destroyer caliber guns, which need to be within 2km for AP to do damage to the fort.



Depending on how fast you rush south, you may encounter the Farragut or the HQ ship first. If the HQ ship has passed the bend near the fort, she takes immediate priority. Once she reaches the bottom left corner, she will have escaped and despawn, failing the secondary objective.

Farragut will lay smoke for the escaping convoy. As long as you avoid her torpedoes, she should go down with minimal effort. After she is sunk, there is nothing stopping the player from sinking all five transports. Three will take the southernmost strait, two more through the H5 strait. If one player sinks all the transports, the achievement "Fox in the Henhouse" will be awarded.



Once the transports have been dealt with, head east. Occasionally, the Cleveland or the Wakeful may spawn on the south side or even head into the harbor where the transports spawned. Take care to avoid the destroyer's torpedoes. Join up with the rest of the convoy to protect the landing zone.

Any ship not following the other two routes (should be 4-5 remaining) needs to follow this route.

Here, we once again encounter the three light cruisers: La Galissonnière will spawn at the north end of the harbor, followed by the Dallas behind the D7 island, and the Leander in the G6 strait. Additionally, there will be a fort at F7. The 2 cruisers with torpedoes are a threat to both players and the transports, and the Leander sometimes may go after the ship headed for the enemy transports since it will go bow on towards the closest player. So it is essential to sink these ships before moving onto the main threat: the Missouri named Little Trouble.

As discussed in the section on the Northern Route, the Missouri will spawn just behind the third wave, moving towards the E6 island before charging the convoy. Unlike previous enemies, she poses a major threat and can sink player ships in a single salvo if they are not careful. Torpedo-equipped and well-armored ships like the German battleships are the best way to deal with her. Destroyers and cruisers can also rush in to deal with her, but will likely take more damage if they ever take aggro. If this is not possible, concentrated gunfire will eventually sink Little Trouble. As a last resort, ramming is an option, but it really shouldn't come to that.



Once the Missouri is taken care of, take the northern entrance into the harbor. A Cleveland and a Wakeful will spawn just inside the harbor (at the same time the 2nd wave spawns in), but both will move as soon as one takes damage, so sometimes they will be exiting the harbor from one of the entrances just as Little Trouble is sunk, which could lead to the transports taking fire if there is not a player in between the transports and both sides of the harbor. The final fort sits on the H10 island, again easy to destroy with battleship or heavy cruiser AP.

Once a player ship has advanced far enough into the southwest zone, or both the Cleveland and the Wakeful have been sunk, the final waves of enemy ships will spawn, aiming to sink the vulnerable transport ships. If a player is fast enough, it is possible for the enemies to spawn even if the transports haven't actually made it into the harbor. The enemy counterattack consists of three waves, spawning after either a period of time has passed or after a number of ships from the previous wave have been sunk.

The first set consists of the following: 1 Mahan, 1 Bretagne, 1 New Mexico, and 1 Omaha all emerging from just within the map border. While normally easy opponents, low health player ships may be sunk if not careful. Players should also be wary of torpedoes from the Mahan and Omaha. The BBs are both heavily armored, so may take some time to destroy, which often results in the next wave spawning while they are still kicking.



Once the first wave is sunk, or 2 minutes have passed since the first wave spawn was triggered, the next wave of 1 Jervis, 1 x Indianapolis and 1 x Queen Elizabeth spawns on the 10 line border. The destroyer should go down with no issue, and the cruiser is vulnerable to AP shells and will die easily. The Queen Elizabeth is tougher, but a few torpedoes and concentrated fire will be enough.



Once one of the ships from the second wave is sunk, or a certain amount of time has passed, the third and final wave spawns the following: 1 x Anchorage, 1 x Chapayev, and 1 x Colorado. Like before, one or two AP salvo into the broadside cruisers while a quick torp rush will take care of the battleship. Once these ships are sunk, the operation will be complete.



Alternatively, should the player ships take too long, but are effective at drawing fire, the scenario can also end once the AI transports unload 2000 troops; though in my experience, this is way less likely. As I've said before, saving all the transports is a rare feat.

• If you need to decide between getting sunk or letting the transports get sunk, save yourself. Destroying all enemy ships is more likely than a successful embarkation. The transports surviving becomes even less likely the more player ships are sunk.
  
• It bears repeating that you will be on your own, should you go for one of the secondary objectives on the Northern or Southern Route. Therefore you should do your very best not to screw up. Getting sunk there doesn't only mean that you fail a secondary objective, but also that you'll be missing for the final fight in the harbor.
  
• Once again an Operation with lots of torpedoes being fired at you. Remember to change up your course and speed when close to enemy DDs and cruisers; use your Hydro if you've got it.
  
• Be aware, that the Missouri and the Colorado are the only 2 ships in this Operation that can overmatch 28mm of armor. If you have less than that at the bow, you can not bow tank their AP.
  Most Tier VIII BBs have 32mm, except for example the Zieten, which has 27. Tier VII battleships and Tier VIII heavy cruisers often have 26mm, which means you can at least bow tank all other ships in Narai.
  
• Don't get caught out by the spawns in the final phase. If you are going aggressive against the spawning enemies, keep in mind that those 3 waves are never separate. The way the spawning works means that the waves blend into each other. You can therefore be surrounded by enemies very quickly.

Operation Hermes features the friendly task force escorting French ships (led by flagship Ruan), whose holds are full of gold, past attacking Kriegsmarine ships and out of the action area. Storms are brewing, however, and weather conditions frequently appear on the battlefield.

If this Operation fails, it is pretty much always because of plain stupidity of your team. This is an easy Operation, as long as the team tries to actually protect Ruan, especially at the end.



Battleship Ruan (Alsace/Bourgogne) and 2 or 3 cruisers or battleships, depending on the amount of battleships in the player team:





There are two variants of this Operation. Either the exit point for Ruan is in the north at A4 (from now refered to as Northern Route) or it is in the west at D1 (Western Route).

The first enemies to appear is a squadron of scout planes, which enter from the south border of the map, coming up on your left side (no matter which Route). Although they are not armed, it is important to destroy them, as even a single plane escaping will lead to more and heavier enemy air strikes for the remainder of the battle. This can be tricky if the team is of Tier VI to VIII, especially if the player ships have weak AA. However, with T9+ ships this is trivial, because Wargaming apparently forgot to buff the scout planes' HP for the upgraded scenario. Remember to focus your AA by using the O key and use DFAA if you've got it.

An enemy division of two destroyers, 1 Ernst Gaede/Friedrich Schultz and 1 Z-23/Elbing, and a Nürnberg/Brindisi will appear out of the thunderstorm front to your left (if on the Northern Route) or right (Western Route) .Just about when you finish off these first enemies, an enemy division of two destroyers, 1 Ernst Gaede/Felix Schultz and 1 Leberecht Maass/Z-52, and a Yorck/Hindenburg will appear behind the islands on the opposite side.

Apologies for the poor quality on the map background here, I unfortunately couldn't find a better image.



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Shortly after, four enemy battleships - a Scharnhorst/Preussen, Gneisenau/Schlieffen, Tirpitz/Hannover and Bayern/Friedrich der Große - will appear from behind the islands near where the second division spawned. Be very aware here whether you have aggro or not. These BBs can citadel you to Kingdom Come, so turn in or away if you come under fire. You can let Ruan tank some shots, but she can easily get sunk if nobody is willing to take aggro.
Also, you will immediately fail a secondary task if Ruan drops below 50% health, even if it later manages to repair that damage during the repair halt.



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For the halt, Ruan will slow down and then stop for 100 seconds, during which time it will repair all ships in a circle around itself. During this repair halt you will be attacked by torpedo bombers and, depending whether you managed to down the scout planes, dive bombers. Also, 3 destroyers, 1 Z-23/Z-52, 1 Leberecht Maass/Elbing and 1 Z-31/Elbing, and 1 Bayern/Friedrich der Große will spawn at either A10 or J1 (Spawn is always on the same side as the 4 battleships).



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From this point on, you should stay considerably ahead of Ruan. If nobody on the team does this and intercept the threats coming, the Operation will fail almost guaranteed.
You will also get constantly harassed by enemy planes once more, especially if you lead the group.

Adler, an August von Parseval/Manfred von Richthofen-class aircraft carrier, will enter from the northwestern corner of the map (regardless of route), presenting a secondary objective. The CV is accompanied by a cruiser division. This division consists of 1 Admiral Hipper/Clausewitz, 1 Prinz Eugen/Piemonte, and 1 Nürnberg/Roon if on the Western Route. On the Northern Route these will be 1 Prinz Eugen/Clausewitz, 1 Admiral Hipper/Clausewitz and 1 Nürnberg/Brindisi instead. These cruisers will head towards the nearest player regardless of that players detection status.
Additional reinforcements of 3-4 destroyers, 1 Z-31/Z-52, 1 Leberecht Maass/Elbing, 1-2 Ernst Gaede/Friedrich Schultz will rush the exit.



OR



These present the single greatest threat to Ruan. If this Operation fails, in 9 out of 10 cases it is because of these DDs.
So, there needs to be at least one player ship far ahead of Ruan to trigger the torpedo salvos coming from the DDs, otherwise they will target Ruan and Ruan will get sunk.
IF YOU TEAM IS TOO LAZY OR STUPID TO THIS, DO IT YOURSELF.
It may also be necessary to sacrifice yourself in this endeavour, so that Ruan gets through. If so, do it. Use Hydro and torps if you have them.
The rest of the enemies do not present a big danger anymore, since they arrive fairly late.
3 more cruisers, 1 Yorck/Hindenburg, 1 Weimar/Venezia, 1 München/Venezia and 1 destroyer, Ernst Gaede/Elbing, will come in from A1 and head near the map border towards the exit for Ruan.


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If you are in a division and/or you have the rare case of actually having a competent team, ideally every player ships surges ahead of Ruan and aggressively intercepts these enemies.
It is actually possible to destroy all these ships before Ruan reaches its Goal if this is done right.

• If you are in a cruiser or battleship, the enemy dive bombers are particularly dangerous. They seem to be very accurate and can do ~13k damage in a single attack. If you are the leading ship close to the exit you will be fiercly attacked by these planes. The torpedo bombers do way less damage (~3k per torp), but occasionally they can cause flooding, so think hard on whether you should use your damage con on fires for example.
  
• When you are coming to the repair halt on the Western Route, you will be situated between two islands. It is advisable to stay close to either. This will make it almost impossible to be hit by the torpedo bombers, since they will either drop on land or not activate before reaching your ship. If on the Northern Route you will only have an island on your right side.
  
• This Operation twice features enemies coming from the opposite side to where you are currently fighting. For BBs, it is often a good idea to turn the turrets early, rather than waiting 20 sec for your reload and hopefully killing the last low health DD on that side (you aren't getting that kill anyway).
  
• The heal during the repair halt is pretty strong, 300 hp per second, and lasts for 100 sec, which means it can heal 30k hp worth of damage. You can use this info to consider whether you need to use a repair party charge before. Be aware though that plane attacks during the halt can cost you more health.
  
• The four battleships are easy to hit with torpedo salvos the moment they leave the island cover.

The only recommended route is closely following Ruan as described in the Walkthrough section. Anything else does not make much sense and will likely see you destroyed. The only exception to this may be destroyer captains, who can deviate somewhat from the rest of the team to take chances for torpedo attacks. However, I would recommend not trying to scout the 4 battleships too early. They start moving as soon as they are spotted and that may present problems if the team is still busy killing the cruiser/destroyer force on that side.

In Operation Cherry Blossom the player team must first reach and defend a marine regiment that is embarking on a shore assault and later destroy 2 aerodromes in an enemy base. During this Operation you will come under attack by Japanese surface ships and planes. The first part of the mission will take place during the night.

At nighttime, the view range and detectability of ships change:

The maximum visability range of ships is limited to 17.5 km
Ship detectability is reduced by 40%
The dispersion of primary and secondary armament fire is increased by 20%
The time of a ship's increased detectability after firing primary armament at nighttime is reduced from 20 to 7 seconds.
Ships within an "illumination bomb" flare's circle of illumination have their detection range increased to 17.5km

Cherry Blossom is usually not too hard. It can still fail if too many player ships are lost during the first part by getting torp'd by enemy destroyers. In that case it may become impossible to eliminate the rest of the enemies and destroy the aerodromes in time.


2 Liberty-Class transports, 2 Fletchers, 1 Lexington-class aircraft carrier Saratoga and 1 Midway-class aircraft carrier Bunker Hill.




When players spawn in, there will be 2 transports several kilometers ahead of them. The players' first task is to defend these ships from the incoming destroyers. There will be 2 Hatsuharu/Kitakaze and 2 Shiratsuyu/Harugumo approaching from the north.
Due to the night mechanics, the concealment range for the destroyers is about 3km, meaning players either need to be very close to spot the destroyers or use Surveillance Radar or Hydroacoustic Search  to spot the destroyers from further away. A ship with radar can usually use it to spot the 4 destroyers starting from 10-20 seconds into the game depending on the range of the radar, so the ship with the longest range radar or Hydro should use their consumable first if available.
Hydro is arguably even more useful, as these DDs will usually get a couple of torpedo salvos away before they are destroyed, and you don't want to lose a player ship only 1 minute into the Operation.
The timing of the torpedo attacks is very inconsistent. Sometimes you have just started moving and torpedoes will already be coming at you (before you've even spotted the DDs) and sometimes they won't launch any torps, despite coming very close.



Once these 4 destroyers are sunk, the next wave spawns in about 5-10 seconds later. The first ships you will see are 2 x Myōkōs/Yoshinos way in the east that focus on shelling the allied shore positions. They do not move, use consumables or activate AA until they take damage. Using this, it is best to allow the ships with bigger guns to fire first and possibly delete the first Myōkō/Yoshino while it is sitting still and easier to hit. The second Myōkō/Yoshino will be sitting with its stern to the players and all 10 guns facing the allied shore position. Once hit, it will make a 180° left turn towards the players so it is best to shoot at this ship as early as possible to get it to turn around so that the slow turret traverse will keep it from shelling the shore position for a while. In addition 1 Hatsuharu/Kitakaze 1 Fubuki/Yugumo 2 Shiratsuyus/Harugumos 1 Yahagi/Azuma and 1 Aoba/Azuma will spawn in the north and travel south towards the allied shore position to assist the 2 Myōkōs/Yoshinos with shore bombardment. To successfully defend the shore positions, at least 5 of these 8 ships need to be sunk before the HP of both shore positions reach 0, at which point the remaining enemies will retreat northeastwards. In order to save both Marine Corps regiments, 1-2 players, preferably cruisers or BBs with strong secondaries, with Hydroacoustic Search to spot torpedoes, should aggressively dive into the bay to get the attention of and sink the enemy destroyers.
Be aware that even after the enemies start to retreat, you can still fail the secondary objective of saving both regiments, since they can be set on fire and burn to death.

Aliied support in form of 2 Fletchers[1], 1 Lexington-class aircraft carrier Saratoga and 1 Midway-class aircraft carrier Bunker Hill spawn where the players first spawned, and head towards the center. The carriers will stop at around E5, while the Fletchers will suicide rush the enemy base. To the right of the island at B6, 1 Hatsuharu/Kitakaze and 1 Shiratsuyu/Harugumo spawn in and head to attack the 2 carriers and any player in between.



Coming from the enemy base, there will be 1 Atago (regardless of player team tier) that tries to leave the bay and flee south at full speed, but it will turn around near the edge of the map to attack the rear flank of the allies. Sinking this ship is a secondary objective, so it should be the first ship focused when attacking the ships in the harbor. In addition, 1 Akizuki/Yamagiri , 1 Shiratsuyu/Harugumo, 2 Myōkōs/Yoschinos and 1 Mogami/Clausewitz will be in the bay to defend the aerodromes.



During the assault on the base, at irregular intervals, starting from when the Atago first starts to leave, one of the following ships will continuely spawn at random at A3: Yahagi/Azuma, Furutaka/Azuma, Aoba/Azuma, Shiratsuyu/Harugumo, Kagerō/Yamagiri. Some of these ships can spawn multiple times. The main objective here is to destroy the aerodromes, so destroying enemy ships should only be done to make it easier to destroy the aerodromes, and not at the cost of the battle.
To this end, the player team should hover around north/northwest of the two allied carriers, making use of the distance and maybe the small island at D4/E4 for cover, until the enemies have been thinned out enough to make a concerted push into the enemy base.
The Northern Aerodrome can easily be hit from this position, but the Southern Aerodrome will have to be engaged from inside the enemy base.
As you push in, watch out for the coninuing enemy spawns from A3.

• The aerodromes will take more damage from HE (or SAP) than AP. Someone on reddit also said that you can destroy an aerodrome in a single airstrike attack from a Dutch cruiser like the Gouden Leeuw or Prins van Oranje. I can't confirm this as I've never see it happen myself, but it sounds plausible.
  
• It might be a good idea to coordinate pushing in to the enemy base with your teammates. If you are on voice chat with platoon mates this is easy, but you can also write in the chat something like: "Push in at 06:00" to coordinate the attack. Otherwise you might find yourself the only one pushing in and dieing quickly.
  
• The Midway provides a 300hp-per-second repair zone until 5 minutes remain in the battle. Use it if your ship gets badly damaged, but do not stay in it with full HP as it is a bit far from the enemy ships. Don't let your teammates take all the aggro while you chill in the heal circle, especially as a BB player.
  
• The Aerodromes are invulnerable until the regiment positions are successfully defended, and take reduced damage until the Atago spawns in, so there is no point in going to the harbor until the first primary objective has been completed. Just go towards the regimental positions with the team first.
  
• Be aware that, when attacking the enemy base, Japanese long-range torpedoes (like from the Yoshinos or the DDs) can still reach you all the way to the small island at D4/E4. In general, be vigilant during this whole operation for torp attacks. Plan your Hydro use.
  
• Don't overextend into the bay during the first half, especially if you are a slower ship. The time it will take you to sail all the way to the enemy base can be costly to yourself and maybe even your team.

First half:
If you spawn on the right side of team and/or you are a maneuverable BB with Hydro, or a cruiser with Hydro/Radar (or a DD), I would recommend sailing along the coast eastwards and take out the enemy destroyers and cruisers attacking the regiments.
If you spawn on the left side I'd always sail northwest to take out the 2 cruisers coming from the north (Yahagi and Aoba/Azumas) with some nice citadel hits from the side. After that proceed east to help mop up the rest of the enemies. After turning around you are in the perfect position to take out the 2 DDs coming for the allied CVs from B6. Beware of torps of course.



For the second half, I always stick around the small island at D4/E4, as it provides cover against torps and can break sight and, with that, aggro. It also gives a good route to push into the enemy base on the left side and attack the Southern Aerodrome.

Thank you very much for reading this guide.

It's the first one I've ever made and I would appreciate some feedback if you have the time.

If Wargaming ever wakes up and adds new Operations, I will try to update this.
(if I'm still playing by then)

I will also try to answer questions you may have, if you put them as comments.
If you have advice that should be added to the guide, you can also put that in the comments.

Despite writing quite a bit in this guide, for new players, I would just recommend to go into Operations, have fun and learn the ropes. The more experienced you are, the better you will be, so don't worry about struggling in the beginning.

Happy sinking!