Nechrom

In the time leading up to the official release of the Missouri, WG was very clear in every communication I read (meaning not NA) that she would be available for the foreseeable future with no time frame set at release. They never even got close to hinting that it would mean "forever". If the NA community wants to confront WG for taking liberties with the wording of the Missouri release article then I totally understand that, but I have no beef with WG about this. They were as clear as they could be as far as EU is concerned.

Yeah, and I've had battles with zero BBs (not at tier 1-2).

Seeing as 5 per team is the soft cap, I find that very hard to believe.

It's not hard to figure out why they would want to swap out the Missouri. Back then the economy was different and 750k free XP isn't as big of a stretch as it used to be. They've said multiple times that if the Missouri would have been added now it would cost a lot more. Now they have an excuse to swap it out and if there are still people grinding for it at that point, they have a new ship to get instead. Of course there's also the fact that by now the people who would have paid for XP conversions or signals/camos have already done so. Those left are mostly people grinding for it the old fashioned (and less lucrative) way.

I'm sure there are people that would like to play subs in this game (I do), but the main problem with them is their speed. So either they need special spawns on every map, making them very predictable, or you need to buff their speed to unrealistic levels. Sailing around in a 20kts DD with better concealment only works on the small low tier maps. Covering the bigger maps at that speed is completely unrealistic when you also take into account that most sub-launched torpedoes were smaller than the ones we're used to.

Consolidating of EU, NA, RU and ASIA server tech-tree premiums. It's not going away from the store. I don't think we'll get both. They will test the two versions again on two different ships and then pick the most popular one for the final version. The chance that we'll get two load-outs on one CV is extremely small, but I guess it could happen. Personally I think the 1-2-1 will be great. I liked it when I tried it the first time and now you also get to pick regular torpedoes.

Just noticed the rare situation we have now with the premium shop, the fact that there are no ships on special offer. Usually they either swap one for another or even in many cases overlap two or more ships. So with as many premium ships as WG has teased lately (I think we're up to 7 or 8), is this the calm before the storm? Saving up for post-holiday shopping? If this is the result of WG actually holding off on releasing ships until they are ready (learning from Graf Zeppelin), then I'm very much in favor of having an empty store every now and then. Bonus: Next premium ship released? T-61?

But her 0.2km better concealment is so strong.

There, now you don't have to buy the actual ship.

I'll just leave this here: https://clips.twitch.tv/DelightfulExcitedBearBCouch

I wouldn't actually mind if WG held off on the paid and grindy stuff until after the holidays. I know that's probably not going to happen, but I don't feel like spending money on myself just before Christmas or start stressing over completing some timed event when I really should be preparing for the holidays.

I'm also more likely to play ships that look good. While my tastes differ slightly from some, I agree in general with with the consensus that German ship design is very pleasing to the eye. I also tend to like IJN ships with some exceptions. Mogami (and Ibuki) has that raised middle hull that is flush with the belt, never been a fan of those tall flat broadsides (looking at you USN cruisers) so those are the big exceptions. Love the design of Myoko and Atago/Takao though, not to mention the Zao even if it's pretty fictional. On the DD side of things I can't get enough of the IJN fleet destroyers and the Akizuki is the queen of those. The later USN DDs with fully enclosed gun mounts are also pretty sexy, though the Gearing is a little too thicc for my taste. Don't care much for the RU DDs with one exception, Grozovoi. It has that rough utilitarian "I'm gonna f*** you up!" kind of look. When it comes to BBs it's not as simple and I tend to gravitate towards the more modern ships with some exceptions. The IJN BBs are quite nice as long as they have the full pagoda superstructure. Surprising no one I'm not a fan of the Izumo though. The USN dreadnoughts are not my cup of tea, and out of the fast BBs I really like the design of the Alabama with its small and cute hull and compact superstructure bristling with AA and secondaries. Scharnhorst of course wins the BB beauty contest, pretty sure I'm not alone with that opinion.

In this case it's less about the dps and more about the health difference. He has 2.8k health on you assuming you are using the same captain build. Even still you should win a straight dps race with HE, so either he was more accurate or he was running Survivability Expert and you weren't. Both the Kidd and Z-23 has 5 guns. You have almost exactly twice his rate of fire and he only has 22% higher damage per shell. So on paper you have quite a substantial advantage there. Plus you can further increase your RoF with BFT while he can't. In practice the Z-23 will probably gain the upper hand past a certain range where he can more easily avoid the slower shells from the Kidd.

It's alive!

I never recommend CV strikes, ever. You bet so much on something which has so many points of failure. He can easily put two and two together from your planes being absent for the start of the battle. Enemy ships can easily stray close enough to the border that you get auto-spotted. If RNG isn't with you at the time of the attack you can miss enough bombs that he survives, meaning you have wasted half the battle for 0 pay-off.

At tier 6 IFHE isn't a requirement. You end up shooting a lot of DDs and other cruisers and less BBs anyway due to the short range. I'm using my Anshan captain and while it's not optimal, it does have EM rather than LS, which helps.

Okay then. First you figure out what kind of CV player he is. Does he keep fighters close to his strike planes? If he does, how many? If he keeps one or none close then just ignore his strike. If he keeps more than one close, then try to threaten his strike as much as possible without getting locked up by his fighters outside of friendly AA. Ironically the less he focuses on defending his strike the less you should focus on targeting it. Your main job is baiting his fighters because you have little to gain from shutting down his strike while he has everything to gain from shutting down yours. Assuming worst possible scenario and he doesn't give a f*** about his own strike, you need to just try and spread out as much as possible. Keep your ship close to the middle as much as you're allowed and send strike planes around both sides and pick one to escort. If your only targets are in the middle then it sucks to be you. Nail the strafe and hope for the best. Saipan captains can get cocky, so try drawing him over friendly AA. There is only so much you can do against AS (which is why it's gone where WG could take it away). If the Saipan captain is competent then all you can hope for is one or two sneaky strikes while sacrificing most of your planes in the process. Not much fun or rewarding, but at least you end up doing more damage than him.

How did you play against USN AS for 3 years up until now? That's your answer.

Myoko's camo isn't bad. Not the best looking camo, but a lot better than some.

I actually wouldn't mind a Kitakami with "regular" DW torpedoes. Just to give friendly DDs some peace of mind and lessen the chance of friendly fire. Also making it unable to hit DDs could make room for some other buff(s) instead so it's not complete trash.

But they're not vanity items though...

Which is still better than every other BB at that tier.

It's the other way around for me. Unfortunately there is also no challenge and nothing to gain, so that's a big turn-off. Can't beat it for getting some quick wins without losing your mind though.