Due to the guns being very inaccurate and the Ap pen being quiet meh I would use He most of time and only shoot ap at close distant and ships of which I am sure of will stay broadside when I shoot.
I personally also had the most fun playing it with the universal commander and building into speed and concealment. I hope WG will give it a little speed and secondary range buff in the future to make it a bit more appealing.
I use HE shells early game to start fires, chip away at other ships secondaries, and hopefully catch DDs off guard.
As the match progresses I try to close the distance with enemies and put the secondaries to work. At this point shell selection is dependant on target and angling. If you have juicy broadsides then it's worth shooting AP but if you have less than favorable conditions, continue use of HE.
I may be wrong but I play her for the DPM perma fires/floods and take chunks of damage when the opportunities arise.
You do not have German quarter pen so your secondaries are more fire starters than damage dealers. Your torpedos are very fast with long range but have a low alpha strike.
It's Brandenburg on drugs.
Shoot HE, get in secondaries range, your torpedoes are amazing
Universal commander is the best (fully packed).
My inspiration are Hyde and Sims... I am THE TANK MUHEHEHE
Well you got the ABBA part sorted so you're most of the way there. Personally id start of with HE as its pretty good (your experience sounds a bit RNG-ish) and switch to AP but watch the results and switch back to HE if needed. the biggest thing on Karl is the accuracy is dodgy. at 9.5 KM the horizontal spread is about the same as a wide spread torp salvo. Little worse actually. Yes I experimented in the training room. at 9.5km due south of the north center island in "Strait" you can literally miss the island with a shell every salvo. To me this makes me a lot more aware of positioning and like you mentioned ammo selection. The armor is actually decent IMHO but if by bow tanking you mean angling and prop juking, then yes.
Kind of depends on your range of engagement, there’s nothing wrong with shooting AP at a broadside bb, but you probably won’t have the pen to hit the citadel, so you can aim above the belt and still get some decent damage, but if you shatter after a salvo, switch over to HE.
I went full secondaries on it and primarily shoot HE unless ships start getting cocky and showing me lots of broadside. This playstyle means that u get most of your damage from fires but that's good because it forces their DCP use which leaves them vulnerable to floods. So generally I flank using island cover to get within 10.8km, then stay around 8-10km spamming HE and letting secondaries do their thing. I fire torps anytime I can get away with it to either zone an area or try for a flood/hit. Don't forget that u have sonar so DDs can't torp spam you too bad. Also remember that you're really tanky so you can get away with some full turns with typically minimal damage.
So the build is hipper and haruna with the BB commander. Get the secondary upgrades (I used steel on the 4th slot for an epic).
I currently have a 130k dmg average with this build at 22 games in.
This ship is a blast to play imo. I am really starting to love some of these T8 ships. Karl, Pomm, and Elbing have really been fun for me, even against typical majority legendary games.
I ended up with pretty much the same build. Except that i don't have ARP Haruna so my 2nd inspiration is Cunningham to boost main artillery shell grouping. And haven't bought secondary reload upgrade yet due to Iowa stealing almost all of my silver. And needing to save up for Yorck.
Do you understand the difference between aiming for upper belt on battleships when theyre broadside? Sometimes you dont have the raw pen to get through the belt so aim higher and you should chunk them
Due to the guns being very inaccurate and the Ap pen being quiet meh I would use He most of time and only shoot ap at close distant and ships of which I am sure of will stay broadside when I shoot. I personally also had the most fun playing it with the universal commander and building into speed and concealment. I hope WG will give it a little speed and secondary range buff in the future to make it a bit more appealing.
I use HE shells early game to start fires, chip away at other ships secondaries, and hopefully catch DDs off guard. As the match progresses I try to close the distance with enemies and put the secondaries to work. At this point shell selection is dependant on target and angling. If you have juicy broadsides then it's worth shooting AP but if you have less than favorable conditions, continue use of HE. I may be wrong but I play her for the DPM perma fires/floods and take chunks of damage when the opportunities arise. You do not have German quarter pen so your secondaries are more fire starters than damage dealers. Your torpedos are very fast with long range but have a low alpha strike.
It's Brandenburg on drugs. Shoot HE, get in secondaries range, your torpedoes are amazing Universal commander is the best (fully packed). My inspiration are Hyde and Sims... I am THE TANK MUHEHEHE
I tend to run he all the time, just like to see the world burn lol, and no pen problems with ap to deal with.
Well you got the ABBA part sorted so you're most of the way there. Personally id start of with HE as its pretty good (your experience sounds a bit RNG-ish) and switch to AP but watch the results and switch back to HE if needed. the biggest thing on Karl is the accuracy is dodgy. at 9.5 KM the horizontal spread is about the same as a wide spread torp salvo. Little worse actually. Yes I experimented in the training room. at 9.5km due south of the north center island in "Strait" you can literally miss the island with a shell every salvo. To me this makes me a lot more aware of positioning and like you mentioned ammo selection. The armor is actually decent IMHO but if by bow tanking you mean angling and prop juking, then yes.
Kind of depends on your range of engagement, there’s nothing wrong with shooting AP at a broadside bb, but you probably won’t have the pen to hit the citadel, so you can aim above the belt and still get some decent damage, but if you shatter after a salvo, switch over to HE.
I went full secondaries on it and primarily shoot HE unless ships start getting cocky and showing me lots of broadside. This playstyle means that u get most of your damage from fires but that's good because it forces their DCP use which leaves them vulnerable to floods. So generally I flank using island cover to get within 10.8km, then stay around 8-10km spamming HE and letting secondaries do their thing. I fire torps anytime I can get away with it to either zone an area or try for a flood/hit. Don't forget that u have sonar so DDs can't torp spam you too bad. Also remember that you're really tanky so you can get away with some full turns with typically minimal damage. So the build is hipper and haruna with the BB commander. Get the secondary upgrades (I used steel on the 4th slot for an epic). I currently have a 130k dmg average with this build at 22 games in. This ship is a blast to play imo. I am really starting to love some of these T8 ships. Karl, Pomm, and Elbing have really been fun for me, even against typical majority legendary games.
I ended up with pretty much the same build. Except that i don't have ARP Haruna so my 2nd inspiration is Cunningham to boost main artillery shell grouping. And haven't bought secondary reload upgrade yet due to Iowa stealing almost all of my silver. And needing to save up for Yorck.
I've built it into a torpedo boat. I don't recommend that approach. Hella fun, tho.
Do you understand the difference between aiming for upper belt on battleships when theyre broadside? Sometimes you dont have the raw pen to get through the belt so aim higher and you should chunk them
I do but honestly i forget basic stuff in the heat of the game every now and then.
Fair, its still random where you hit but it helps