In every game, you will be the “fill in” members of the team with a potential starring role – AA, DD-hunting, burning BBs, you are a fast assault force or a fast reaction force depending on the needs of your FC / team.
Russian and American cruisers equipped with radar are anti-DD monstrosities, and if you have either the Chapayev or the New Orleans, give serious thought to sacking your AA capability and going for a strong DD-hunter approach using your radar consumable. The ability to pick up a DD at 10km+ and light him up for the rest of the team (potentially without him even knowing he’s been spotted) is of tremendous value.
Your guns are a significant piece of firepower, almost equal to the battleship – and with torpedo armaments, you can exceed the alpha capability of even the largest capital vessel.
Ammunition selection is surprisingly important for a cruiser, and can make the difference between a sub-10k damage game and a 50k+ one. Many players simply load HE and leave it, not paying any more mind. That’s okay if you’re drunk or don’t know what to use, but in Ranked and Team fights, you’ll be assumed to know what you’re doing. HE is best for DDs under almost all circumstances (but don’t wait to switch if you have AP loaded – throw the AP at it and reload to HE). Against Battleships you’ll generally use HE, though certain angles against a battleship will call for AP if you can get it loaded in time. Against other cruisers, the general rule is if you’re firing nose- or tail-on to use HE, and AP if they present you a side to shoot at. There are plenty of videos on youtube that will show you how to aim for good citadel hits on most ships, and at the higher tiers you’ll have the caliber of guns needed to accomplish it.
A few cruisers don’t really fit the traditional mold here – notably the USS Atlanta, and the Mikhail Kutuzov.
The Atlanta is a short-ranged cruiser (armed with destroyer-level armament), and behaves really more like two DDs welded together than a cruiser. Its armor is negligible, its torpedoes are shamefully short-ranged. However, as a destroyer-hunter it is insanely capable. It is also quite handy as an anti-aircraft platform, also fully able of launching a surprise attack around an island and wiping out a battleship if given the opportunity. In general I would recommend against taking such a ship into a fight unless you specifically know you will be dealing with a situation where it can excel.
The Mikhail Kutuzov is the other strange case – very long ranged weapons, very capable ones at that, extremely good AA and also a good destroyer hunter, the MK is hamstrung by its weak armor and tendency to simply evaporate under enemy fire. Its smokescreen is absolutely indispensable for avoiding this fate. This is a suitable ship to accompany a team CV, or a singular team member which will provide long-range fire support, but it is not the best choice as an all-around brawling cruiser. Better so than the Atlanta, and a well-versed driver can make up for its deficiencies, but if you have just purchased this ship I would not recommend taking it into a fight until you have really developed a solid understanding of its quirks.
Early game, you should be moving to group up with the concentration of power that your FC dictates – most times this means getting to within about 5km of your battleship group and leading them as they approach the designated cap. You are leading them because you are needed to exert your zone of control out ahead of them and deny enemy Destroyers the opportunity to fire torpedoes unanswered at the battleships. Due to your maneuverability and speed, you are a good screen for them. If there is a CV on the enemy side, your BBs may request you get closer in order to overlap your AA capability – if you have significant AA, then stay within about 2km of the main force so your fighter and AA consumables can be used to protect potentially weak BBs.
Here at the start, as you maneuver, get your guns trained on the cap(s) that your DDs are aiming to take. As they enter those cap points, the temptation will be to start hammering the battleships and cruisers they light up first. Resist this unless your FC specifically designates a target. Keep close tabs on those DDs – because they will light up the enemy DDs doing the same job only moments after you see those big capital ships, and your guns will be needed a lot more in wiping out enemy Destroyers early on. Denying the enemy a strategic asset like a DD hull for the rest of the game is enormously more valuable than setting a few easily-repaired fires on one of their battleships or splashing harmlessly around a cruiser hull.
Mid-game, stick with the bulk of your fleet and fire on the fleet’s primary target until it dies. If a DD appears in shooting distance and you know you can hit it, do – don’t ask, just do. You might not have time to wait for an answer, and that’s a more important target than anything on the map.
If your team is in the lead, stay tightly grouped at the cap(s) you have already captured, and as the enemy trickles in, destroy them in appropriate targeting order, or the order the FC indicates (sometimes a BB will be on very low health and despite being given a chance to shoot at a DD or CA, your commander may decide it’s more important to take out that BB hull – just trust your FC and follow through). Keep your eyes on the likely approaches and if you have torpedoes, seed those areas with speculative spreads (I shouldn’t have to say this, but do NOT fire torpedoes if you have friendlies downrange).
If your team is behind, then your role changes a little. You must now either kill a targeted enemy ship, or recapture/deny a cap point to them. Perhaps both. If you have DDs remaining on your team, coordinate an approach with them and give them fire support as they move in on the cap point. Since your team’s victory depends on accumulated points, look for low-health “easy kills” – anything low health will do. Battleships, cruisers, and especially destroyers become opportunity targets to hammer hard and possibly set fire / flooding loose on them. You need to kill a target, so coordinate with your team to find one and destroy it to get that score back to even or counting in your favor.
End-game, if you are in the lead, is quite simple: get to your cap(s), on the far side from where the enemy is likely to appear, and destroy anything that pokes its nose out in front of you. Never stop moving, particularly if there are enemy DDs on the board somewhere. There will be strong temptation to chase down singular enemy ships that are fleeing from you – don’t succumb to this. A battleship running for a corner is no threat to your team’s victory unless (s)he’s going to have time to heal up and return (which, at the end-game, (s)he won’t). A CV could be worth chasing if there are still planes that can de-cap or destroy your teammates. If not however, let it go.
If you are losing at this point, your guns are in a position to destroy weak enemies that your remaining DDs might spot, and if at all possible lead assaults to take away cap points from the enemy. Stick close to your remaining team and work closely with them to try to pick off the sick and wounded while the entire group sets up for an attack on a cap. Depending on the amount of time left in the match, you might be forced to simply “yolo” it, but if there’s still time, you can be a little more strategic in singling out a target or two for special attention to grant your team more time and weaken the enemy’s position before an assault.
