Panocek

Server movement is very unlikely. Though Czech beer might make WG team bit more talkative

Shells ricochet when they hit armor they can't overmatch at too steep angle. So angling is still relevant. Against angled T8+ battleboats superstructure is your primary target as you can't overmatch them.

You could take Alabama into randoms for few battles and evaluate her there. There are already more than plenty of people who "play4fun" and aren't concerned with their abysmal performance so yeah, it can't get any worse

Only case when lack of credits interfere with your ability to win is when you can't afford to repair ship post battle. Thats why you keep midtier ships to cover expenses or buy premium ship/account. In random battles you and only you alone is responsible for your performance and earned exp and credits.

And retaining those pre nerf torps turned those "okay" midtier premboats into mythical p2w devices everyone overhypes about. FYI, the same torps albeit in 2x2 config were available at tier 4

5in guns with IFHE can damage plating up to and including 27mm, so you can dent hightier cruisers and midtier BBs, hightier battleboats are still out of question.

I've got recently Retardieu and I'm positively surprised by her - guns are surprisingly accurate and in stock you have more than plenty range and speed, latter being handy as I consider 32mm armored BBs to be battlecruisers than actual battleboats. If you need to slug it out, bow on and if things get uncomfortable, reverse with Engine Boost. Certainly more fun to play than Tea equivalent, despite dpm and concealment disadvantage

In World of Tanks when I was playing tier 10 was popular, but battletiers above 10 kept things in check. At some point WG removed these extra battletiers, which had lesser impact than in WoWs due to way larger playerbase, then introduced 3/5/7 MM, with grand battles (30v30 of T10 only) to clear up queues. In WoWs we had reduction in cost for hightier boats, then permanent premium paints with considerable economy gains and no wonder T10 is popular if you can play them all the time, breaking old design of "play midtiers to fund hightiers"

Add battle tiers 11 and 12 (Tier 9 and tier 10, tier 10 only) to the MM and problem solved.

I'd say grind yourself Kongo, Fuso, Nagato and maybe Amagi, Free Exp Izumo and get Yamato proper. Then if you feel extra rich (and you get along with Yamato) slap premium camo on her for extra monies.

I don't think Sims is outclassed by Mahan, but certainly Mahan is outclassed by Maass - comparable gun power, way more hp, better speed and better torps, Mahan have 3rd launcher on other side tho. So by metric of hp and dpm Maass should outclass basically every destroyer at tier 7, while torps aren't to sneeze at either.

Sims pulls out 72.7 shells/min, Mahan 75/min. Former have no issue switching turret sides due to lol turret traverse, Sims also have edge in concealment. Leningrad have pretty bad turret firing angles and even worse turret traverse. Top speed is fun and games until you realize RU DD turn like a truck... not helpful when Sonar guy start sweating. Z39 have hilarious amount of hp but guns are far from effective, Maass is something to be legitimately scared due to comparable gun power (assuming turrets are preaimed) and 2nd best hp pool on tier 7. Hydroacoustics can spoil smoke camping too. Some time before USN CA/CL split, that way I've got T6 Pensa and T8 Cleve premcamos for 500 doubloons Shame I didn't bought for T8 Nope Orlean, new Baltimore is certainly gud.

Keep for demounting upgrades and occasional skill respecs, especially when those are discounted. Also IF another premium camo discount happens, you could buy those for your favourite midtier boats.

I'd advise against Atago or T8 premiums in general due to brutal MM I haven't played Clemson in like centuries, but if you expect ship to contest caps and bully destroyers with guns blazing, while having Freedom smoke and to troll CVs with Defensive Fire AA, then Sims (and USN DD in general) provides

On topic of premium DDs, Sims is excellent captain trainer for USN DDs and quite fun on her own. Excellent short range firepower, DFAA, solid speed, hampered only by hilariously weak torps.

Leningrad is good multipurpose ship, but awkward captain trainer. And IMO Błyskawica is better than Leningrad, at least doesn't suffer from potato firing arcs.

You can always slap 19lvl captain on T10 with premium paint to farm Cpt Exp

Lyon have 30mm deck and Mogami's upper hull come to think of

Are you certain it was torpedo that caused flooding?

Then you have hightier french CA, which with double rudder mod and engine boost play like 3xl Kebab Hightier FR battleboats should get Kebabable mention with 36kts speed with flag and engine boost. Quite hilarious

IIRC that was the reason why Kitty was replaced with Atago as hightier premium IJN cruiser. TKs counter being uncomfortably close to kill counter server wide

457mm nie ma overmatcha jak Yamato

And who uses Range mod on Des Moines in first place?

with 16in guns one case when you would ever consider HE shells is angled battleship at mid-long range and no other targets in sight. Otherwise AP all the way. Long range shelling isn't something you would want to do on regular basis, USN (and any battleship to be honest) work best just outside of their detection* so you disappear between shots, assuming no DD spotting you. 16in/406mm enables you to overmatch plates up to 28mm, so you can lolpen all cruisers except tier 10 (with reinforced amidships) and you can overmatch tier 6 and 7 battleships. So if he is angled, just put shells through his bow. Be warned tho, German and French battleboats have armored strip at waterline, so in these cases you would want to land shells on upper bow. That way you won't get citadels unless miracle happens but you should get consistent penetration damage. Other option is aiming for turrets - German and UK usually are the thinnest so repeated blows to them tend to destroy them permanently Skill wise, your setup is sound, though I find base turret traverse to be "good enough" on hightier USN BB as in they usually don't lose track on target during hard maneuvers, so I've went with Adrenaline Rush. *that being 13-15km away so don't use it as excuse to snipe at 20km in Fuso

Armor works both ways and Groz have actually useable torpedoes, so should you run out of heals/smokes you can always pretend you're torpedobote. Not so much in Khaba.