This Arctic (or perhaps Antarctic?) map is dominated by a scattering of small icebergs among larger islands that provide lots of cover and hide-and-seek games.
Islands of Ice
Two caps are present, separated by a stretch of open water about 10km width. The South border from about the 5 line and East has a jumble of smaller icebergs/islands, while the North from 3 through 6 has a few very large islands and some smaller chunks floating about.
The spawn points are East and West here, with the East spawning slightly closer to A cap (Center/North) and the West slightly closer to B cap (South/East).
Islands of Ice – General Recommendations
In the classic confrontation on this map – and I do recommend following this pattern, with some exceptions noted below – main body forces of each side will push for an immediate cap of the closer cap point with a DD leading the way. If an extra DD is available, quite often teams will send it to work denial on the enemy cap or cap it early and score a few extra points. A CV should park a fighter over each cap to light up the DDs that try to capture these points.
Once teams reach the caps and get into range with one another, it becomes a medium- to long-range slugfest between the capital ships with various fencing matches by the DDs in the open water “no-man’s land.” Early domination by the heavies or a lucky victory by one side’s DDs generally builds enough momentum to win the game.
West Side Spawn
If you’re a West spawn, B cap must be yours, and it must be your top priority. Big guns should be trained on the cap as the faster elements move on it and start lighting up enemy forces.
DDs should not get into the islands to the South of the cap unless an enemy is already there and you are hunting him/her. You don’t need the cover unless you’re spotted, and the eclipsing of your view by the big chunks will deprive your fleet of valuable shooting time.
Once the cap is secured, DDs can continue through the cap to potentially torp enemy battleships still moving towards A cap, and should spread evenly out into the middle ground in order to find and defeat the enemy DD screen. If you’re a DD, you never want your rudder to stop – you’ll be fighting and spotting directly under the guns of the enemy heavies, and if you straight-line it even for a moment, there’s a very good chance that someone will punch a hole the size of a Volvo in the side of your ship.
J7 and A9/A10 are good CV hull hideouts. Predictable, but still good.
Variations:
- If you have more than one DD, take a single one (probably best with a Benson or Mahan) and move up the 2 line around to the North of A cap and approach with the idea of popping out from behind an island with a solid torp salvo into an unsuspecting CA/BB. I’ve also seen a particularly good (or maybe he was just lucky?) Atago pull this move – if you’ve got a stealth build and a skilled commander in it, this is pretty effective (I have not seen it often, though).
- Taking a fast DD up to F5 to cap/deny A cap – nice idea, but very risky. A lot of DD captains hide up against the South side of that rock, and get pulverized doing it. I can’t count how many times in Season 2 of ranked I told my heavies to focus their guns there as I sped in to light up the poor unfortunate who thought he was being tricky – and within about 2s of his “detected” light going off, he had incoming from four heavies plus my own guns. If it didn’t vaporize the ship immediately, I’d almost always cripple the engine and the second heavy salvo would reduce the ship to just so much floating crap in the water.
- All to A cap, one DD to B – I’ve seen this work, it’s a valid tactic. Guaranteed to be a fast, bloody fight. Changes the dynamic a bit by pivoting the fight along the G/H horizontal line instead of the 5/6 vertical. Don’t make this a regular occurrence, but it can be a really fun change of pace. Just be ready for a sharp and bloody encounter if the enemy fleet decides to meet you head-on.
- Split force – carving half of your heavies to B cap and the other half up the 2 line and then turn in to E/F/G-5 will give you a potential cross-fire situation where at least half of your heavies will have clean shots at the exposed sides of enemy forces. If you have good gunners on your team, this is a great way to farm up some citadels, but do be careful: if the enemy decides to push one of your splits, you will need to be ready to keep the distance open or seek cover. If your team is still new to this competitive style, this might not be the best tactic for you.
East Side Spawn
East side is all about A cap, just as West is all about B. Get your fastest DD on the way there to cap it fast and establish an early point lead if you can. Heavies should drive straight to the cap and get all their guns pointed at the South side of the rock in F5, so when your DD lights up the smartypants who thinks parking a DD there is a good idea, they can rip him a new asshole. Be wary of IJN DDs that like to spam torps into the cap from G/H 5 line.
If you have one to spare, you can potentially send a fast DD into the South islands to harass B cap and provide your fleet with crossfire, and who can potentially de-cap or fire denial torps into the cap circle to delay capture and give you a point advantage. A DD here can augment your fleet’s performance simply by being here – the enemy fleet will feel a need to keep guns pointed at it, and hence not at your main fleet, so as time ticks by you are costing them firing opportunities just by your presence.
Variations:
- All to B – as with the “All to A” variant above, this switches the axis of play on the map to E-W instead of N-S, and is a valid tactic. Can make for a very short game if the enemy decides to contest the cap in force.
- As mentioned above, sending a spare DD to contest/deny B cap while your main force takes A is encouraged. The DD should be ready to fade away through the Southern islands when spotting becomes imminent. This has the benefit of slowing the cap as well as forcing the enemy to send some portion of its force into the islands to kill or push out your DD, which temporarily takes them out of the action against your main fleet. Not as risky as the opposite start’s F5 gambit, because you have more options for seeking cover, and the enemy that detours to go get you will have a harder time rejoining the fight.
- Split force – same as above, if you send half your heavies down the 9- or 10-line and then turn nose in to the cap while your others are taking A, you can then present a 90-degree crossfire, probably granting half your heavies with a good chance at getting solid citadel hits on exposed enemy flanks.
