Once upon a time, there lived a Minotaur in a labyrinth of islands,
and all sorts of people would come to try and defeat it…
I'm kidding, my friend, we're not here to tell fairy tales.
Our show is different.
We have seas of fire, waterfalls of shells, squalls of torpedoes,
and the most intense naval action there is!
It's Sea Smackdown time!
We begin at Islands of Ice— a great location for a warm-up!
It's here that player me0102, fighting in a Division with Goliath and Grozovoi,
has presented their research report
about the harmful effects of British shells on ship HP.
Minotaur took her mission to raise awareness very seriously
as befits a true professional.
She made some armor-piercing arguments
to convince Lighting that an aft protruding from behind an island
is not the best defensive stance.
She used remote education to explain to Yoshino
that danger can come from anywhere.
Then she took a coffee break
to have an artillery discussion with enemy cruisers and a battleship.
After that, our professor inspired Asashio to explore the underwater world.
Gave a short explanation to Prinz Rupprecht
about the negative impact of British shells on her HP pool.
Proved again the credibility of her scientific theories to Tirpitz.
Although, the latter, together with Monarch and Salem,
needed a lot of persuasion.
But it's truly impossible to resist when you're treated to a tasty British torpedo.
Minotaur's skillful artillery fire closed the deal.
As for Salem, she was an easy target.
While carrying out her educational activities,
Minotaur destroyed seven ships,
which made her the winner of our "Maximum ships sunk" category.
It's the best result among all players
who sent their replays to Sea Smackdown during Update 0.10.11!
Is everyone warmed up?
Let's move to the main battle of this episode,
which also happened on the Islands of Ice map.
What's the most important thing about any game?
Enjoying the process, of course! Otherwise, why play at all?
For this reason, when asked where to go at the beginning of a battle,
serious players like wwg_2019 always answer—
head to where the heat is likely to begin as quickly as possible.
So, they sailed to the closest flank.
You should choose a target that presents the biggest threat
but is also easier to penetrate.
Minotaur on Minotaur— sounds about right!
However, as soon as our hero was spotted, they fell under crossfire.
Of course, everyone hurried to hide in smokes,
but it didn't protect them from AP shells.
First blood!
There's still time to shoot from smokes,
but an enemy Shimakaze sinks our Gearing and Des Moines.
What a combo!
It's boring in smokes, time to get out.
All of a sudden—well met!
Shimakaze realized she was doomed but set the smoke screen nevertheless.
Our hero managed to both evade the submarine's torpedoes
and sink the destroyer.
But success came at a price— half of her HP pool.
It would seem like it's a good time to slow down
and bandage those wounds with Repair Party,
but the enemy has other things in mind—
an intact Gouden Leeuw jumps out from behind an island!
Our Minotaur discharges both torpedo launchers,
but the Dutch ship catches only one torpedo.
Fortunately, her allies helped score the third frag.
Schlieffen emerges at once.
It's good that she hasn't coordinated with Leeuw.
Carefully, from behind the island, Minotaur showers her with shells
and exchanges 5,000 of her own HP for 14,000 of the enemy's.
Her allies finish off the daring German.
Hindenburg, fleeing at full steam, gets spotted behind the island.
It's impolite to leave a party early! The fourth frag for our score.
Now, let's capture a Key Area.
Our allies will deal with the submarine without us.
Kurfürst is way more interesting!
Setting a smoke screen, turning around, and firing!
The battleship hid behind an island.
Well, time to get closer.
Here it comes, an excellent duel—
an almost intact German versus our battered Brit.
But first, the damage…
To be exact, the winner of the "Maximum damage dealt" category.
A player with a self-explanatory nickname—Torpedodead—
managed to score over 300,000 damage in a Ranked Battle.
Some might say "Minotaur got lucky,"
but we're sure that skill had something to do with it as well.
Not only did the Brit play without Smoke Generator,
but she also spent most of the battle in the F7 sector on the North map.
Once they reached the position,
our hero robbed super battleship Satsuma of almost 90,000 HP
and scored 10 citadel hits on Moskva, which had hospitably turned her side
to welcome a couple of armor-piercing salvos.
Kremlin appeared after the heavy cruiser,
but the battleship considered Minotaur to be an unworthy opponent
and disappeared behind an island.
Our Brit wasn't sad about this because Satsuma followed Kremlin's route.
This time, a condescending attitude toward Minotaur
played a bad joke on the super battleship—
something to think about back in the Port.
The cruiser left her hunting grounds for the first time after 14 minutes of battle
to finish off the last survivor from the red team.
Minotaur scored 742 hits; dealt 323,000 damage;
defended Key Area C 19 times; and captured it once!
Fun fact: Despite their nickname,
Torpedodead hasn't hit anyone with torpedoes.
Nevertheless, it's a confident victory, both in the battle and in Sea Smackdown.
Let's return to the British-German duel.
Minotaur launches torpedoes.
German secondaries are dangerous— extinguishing the fire straight away.
Kurfürst clearly understands who the most dangerous enemy is—
our cruiser has lost 14,000 HP.
Two of our torpedoes hit the battleship! Time for Repair Party!
Launching the remaining four torpedoes
and continuing to shower the battleship with AP shells.
Ouch, that was painful! Minus 10,000 HP!
All of our torpedoes hit the target,
and at the same time, we get a slap from Kurfürst!
It's a good thing that our hero made repairs in time.
Now, to finish the enemy off. It's Kraken Unleashed!
No opponents left here. A long voyage to another flank awaits.
You can hug an ally on the way.
It would seem that everything is fine— time and two Key Areas are on our side,
and our team has two more ships—
but it's moments like these that can turn a sure victory into a bitter defeat
and leave the entire team wondering what went wrong.
That's why Minotaur is cautious.
Firing only from smokes or from behind an island.
Another Kurfürst loses her HP little by little.
All of a sudden, an enemy Montana lands a hit on us—
she followed our tracers and fired blindly but took 4,000 HP away.
Minotaur is lucky to still be alive.
Meanwhile, allied Yueyang sank Kurfürst and seriously damaged Stalingrad,
which was then finished off by our teammates.
On the downside, our Yamato sinks!
Moreover, Thunderer destroys our Petropavlovsk.
Caution is now more important than ever!
Firing a little at Thunderer and hiding behind an island.
The enemy Montana suddenly launches fighters!
Our hero is spotted!
Thunderer fires and…
And it's time to switch to another category for a while.
Here we have two battles at once.
In the first one, our player nicknamed Averlord, together with two allies,
took care of enemy Stalingrad and Z-52 on their flank.
In the second battle, player TORPEDA_Maminoj_Podrugi,
who has already been featured in one of our previous Sea Smackdown episodes,
also confidently dealt with a heavy cruiser and destroyer.
Only in this case, they were Napoli and Småland.
Then, each of the Minotaurs rushed after the enemy carrier.
By the way, those were Ranked Battles in both cases,
and the carrier was Nakhimov.
To do the latter justice, they fought back valiantly,
but that wasn't enough to overcome the British anti-aircraft defenses.
The first Minotaur managed to reach
an unbelievable number of 82 aircraft shot down before the carrier sank.
However, the second cruiser showed an even more astonishing result—
99 destroyed aircraft!
Excellent performance
and well-deserved victories in the "Maximum aircraft destroyed" category.
Let's get back down to the Islands of Ice map—
to the battle that was almost over for our hero.
Fortunately, they still have 3,500 HP left.
The last Repair Party is activated.
Carefully withdrawing and firing at the retreating Montana from behind an island.
Setting a smoke screen and focusing on Thunderer.
The enemy tries to pinpoint us by our tracers but without luck,
and our hero confidently destroys the battleship.
As for Montana, she became the seventh frag—
the final and completely deserved trophy.
3,700 Base XP; 328,000 damage dealt;
seven ships sunk, and a heap of medals earned—
that was the best battle playing Minotaur in Update 0.10.11
among those sent to Sea Smackdown.
The players whose battles we showed today will receive some special rewards.
Want some too?
Read the rules of the contest carefully, formalize your replays correctly,
and send them to us!
We need your best battle playing Gneisenau for the next episode!