Panocek

Regardless which battleboat you will use, keep in mind RNGesus is a fickle entity

If you mean rushing past them for surprise buttsecks World of Tanks style, then no. Not even Russian gunboat destroyers are fast enough to close lets say 10km distance without minute of sailing straight at maximum speed possible, and they clock over 45kts Speed on battleships is more to keep with the fleet and in case flank collapses, at least try to disengage From mid tier specific BBs I can recommend: IJN Kongo - battlecruiser with BB guns. Which means with some angling skills you can tank battleship grade shells while returning favor in kind, when bottom tier you can use her speed to act as overgrown cruiser. Hampered by only 8 guns total with only "average" accuracy IJN Fuso - old but gold tier 6 battlship - guns are the same as on Kongo, but you have 12 of them and there isn't an issue you can't deal with by putting more ordnance on it. Suffers from showing broadside but when angled she can withstand disturbing amount of punishment, also amidship armored enough to shrug off small and mid caliber HE and have tiny superstructure on top of that (tiny in terms of area covered, not in terms of height) RN Queen Elizabeth - while Fuso is smashing with 12gun broadsides, QE is precise (by BB standards) scalpel to brutalize enemies. Not as armored and she suffers from HE shells from cruisers, her 381mm guns can overmatch up to and including 25mm plating, which means tier 6-7 battleships and tier 8 cruisers (with Germans and USN as exceptions) MN Normandie - what happens if Kongo and Fuso have kids - okay armored 12gun fast battleship, with main drawback being turret placement - bow on you're limited to 1/3 firepower, at angle when Fuso can smash with 12gun salvo you can use only 8 and you need to show entire broadside to use 3rd turret. AA is also abysmal, so beware of that. MN Lyon - take Normandie, fiddle with armor and plant 4th turret for meme 16gun salvo. Solve whatever issues with accuracy you have by adding more guns

Upgrading to W10 usually works okay... Usually. For starters run WGC check and repair and for peace of mind I'd format and do proper reinstall from newest edition of W10, M$ likes to release new every 6 months or so If W7 was activated before upgrading W10 should be automatically activated (with W7 key binded to this computer), if not you can safely reuse W7 key it to activate W10, it will bind said W7 key to this specific machine without option to move it though.

Don't give them ideas, WG might automate strike aircraft so player is left with fighter to fighter combat. I'll see myself out

I'd toss Haku AP bombs into the mix. Those with RNGesus approval (as dispersion is quite bigger than Shokek) can brutalize cruisers and BBs alike while rendering heal nigh useless.

You know game options are a thing?

Which will bring Haku to clan wars due to ability of stealth spotting CLAA, so you would have CV vs CV "interaction" of spotting each other planes to prevent stealth spotting friendly AA cruisers

You can always force other voiceover for all captains, Haruna is one damn calm one if you happen to have her. Or AL Hipper for tsundere needs. And I doubt for spare Yotaroh lines as WG certainly isn't willing/can't add new lines to catch up with the changes. And tbh Kirishima isn't that high pitched for "normal" actions. She definitely gets excited for kills though.

IIRC Kirishima discovered "thrill of battle" for first time during Yokosuka battle instead target practice on usual surface vessels she encountered so far, so I guess she went tad too enthusiastic.

Next Freemium ship expected is IJN Azuma, which is going to be basically japanese Alaska, another battlecruiser. There was hope for Neustrashimy Russian DD, but WG confirmed it will be ship for steel only

Is she viable? Yes. Does she have hardcore gimmick like Kron, Moosashi or Missouri making her stand out of the crowd for good or ill? Not really.

So was Prinz Eugen... two years ago? You can't get any more balanced than literally copy/pasting existing ship and I'm not so sure pudding was "commercial success", although production time was short I guess.

Umm, its just "shoot the red ones" tactic, there isn't much more than that.

I never got impression of Kutuzov being OP, Chapayev stealth firing from 14km onwards was Bussian Rias incarnate though

Balanced in unbalanced world isn't really that good

You get it wrong. When questionnaires were sent after public tests, feedback was according to WG "overwhelmingly positive". No wonder when answers like this -liked: visuals and sound -disliked: entire gameplay were considered positive

Gold ammo was definition of p2w when it was literally available for gold only, hence "gold ammo". Availability for credits somewhat negated that, though at later date WG started removing weakspots from tanks, basically removing "skill" of knowing where they are, rendering "gold" ammo only reliable solution to stubborn overarmored tank on a map not really conductive to flanking maneuvers. Solution only midly suggesting purchasing premium account and tanks to cover 100k ammo bill, when T10 tank repair is 25k Only "crew" related p2w I can think of are those "rare" crewmembers having BiA as "perk 0". Then you can get yourself few sets of (female) crewmembers with the same properties for free from long term personal missions.

Not really. Gearing vs Khaba assuming same skill level is more of a "mutually assured destruction", though it depends on who plays to who strengths - long range shelling Gearing is going to lose hard, other way around if Khaba gets caught broadside for AP massage at short range. Harugumo may outgun Gearing, but then Gearing noticeably outspots and more importantly, no longer eats AP pens everywhere, while Haru isn't really unsuitable for open water gunboating with her clumsiness and attention her rainbow gets.

Those ranges and beyond. Its not hard to farm them due to their totally not massive superstructure. And bow/stern is valid target although kinda small. That and somehow every BB seeing hail of white enables angling_hax and options suddenly get limited. Upper belt on ze Germans is around 150mm, same thickness as Des Moines citadel. And to punch through that with any sort of consistency from my experience, you need perfect broadside at <8km. Not ideal when every other BB have 32-50mm on the same place

Ze germans don't follow all-or-nothing scheme and they dared to reinforce upper hull enough to ignore CL guns at most ranges. So by shooting at center of mass at most combat ranges have only superstructure to play with. Not optimal when every other BB have basically entire length with exception of main belt.

Actually that 6.1km detection is THE very reason you want go sneeki breeki with IJN - you outspot 152mm AA cruisers with them.

Cosplaying NFS: Hot Pursuit with Shokek. Also Hakuryu researched

Besides speccing usual BFT and AFT, there isn't much you can do. Khaba with 50mm sides can to an extent ignore some rockets, not TiTs though. Only idea I can think of, last second course change to hopefully dodge most of the rockets. That or embrace way of the baguette and play french cruisers the Russian way with double rudder and Engine Boost. St. Loli and Henri IV AA is quite formidable, even more so with DFAA

Thats the price for ability to vaporize anything sans German BB when given broadside. Keep in mind, Brit CL AP deals roughly the same damage as (in)famous IJN HE on heavy cruisers. With way, way, waaaaay higher rate of fire.

French cruisers, making use of double rudder and Spood Beest (preferably with rare upgrade). Concealment be damned, play russian gunboat in 3xl size Line is okay up to tier 7, but really starts to shine from Charles Martel onwards, with IFHEnri IV being one heck of a Moskvagrad/BB dislodger and brutalizing odd Minotaur with AP. Bonus points for temporary Des Moines experience Henri IV kinda needs Hodore unique captain with his improved EM to not break off turrets off target during hard WSADhaxing, something you will be doing. A LOT