Hayashio

The Smith Hey everyone. Welcome to the second last instalment on the Grand Naval Battles ship previews. Today we are looking at probably my favourite gameplay-wise. You can go and check out the other ones I did, currently we have: "What is the Smith?" you may ask. Well, to put it simply, it’s a Sampson with one more gun and a lot less torpedo tubes. At least that was the first impression I had of it. Here I have listed a table with all key differences. Basically, on paper, the Sampson does everything better or on par with the Smith. Later, we will be having another look at these two again in detail. First of all however, I want to focus on the Smith itself. Like in my previous previews, we're gonna have a shakedown of the ship itself, then move on to a short conclusion of the given stats, finally follow up with a verdict and some gameplay. Pros: -Very good concealment. The concealment comes close to that of a Japanese destroyer. 5.6 Kilometres aren’t enough to drop your torpedoes concealed, but allow you to get quite close to your enemies before they can shoot at you. -Great Rudder shift time 2 seconds is a good rudder shift time, beating the Sampson’s by 0.7 seconds. -Large number of guns The Smith is able to fire 4 of her guns in each direction at a time. That’s 1 more than the Sampson and a lot better than the Umikaze. -Great torpedo reload At 11 seconds the Smith has arguably the fastest reload of all torpedo bearing ships -Good Turn circle The Smith comes very close to the Tachibana in terms of turn circle, putting it in second place out of the tier II destroyers. Cons: -Slow for a destroyer It’s 28 knots wouldn’t probably only look good on a cruiser. It’s however manageable with engine boost. -Low count of torpedo tubes The Initial payload the Smith can launch is a lot smaller than most of it’s DD counterparts, Therefore a player has to be quite precise with his torpedoes, as he can’t fan them like with other destroyers. More on that later. -Low amount of hitpoints Even the Storozhevoy beats the Smith in terms of hitpoints. You can’t be shot at for too long since you will die very quickly. -Short range on her armament This is probably in combination with the small calibre. 6.5 kilometres doesn’t leave a lot of engagement space. -Tiny calibre on it’s main armament (76.2mm Main guns) The guns which otherwise would be secondaries (like the Umikaze’s) are considered primary on the smith, the Sampson’s guns are 30mm larger than the Smith’s. With this, penetration and damage output drop as well. AP penetration and fire chance are very low as well. Conclusion: This ship can’t fire concealed, not even with AFT, which can push the gun range up to 7.9 kilometres by the way. The guns are nothing I’d go gunboating with, but can be quite useful when dealing with enemy destroyers and finishing enemies. Overall the first impression feels like the Smith is very much a Kamikaze boat. But so are most Destroyers in low tiers. The Smith and the Sampson Like before stated, the Smith seems to be like a slightly worse Sampson. However, I can tell you gameplay-wise, both ships are very different from one another. The Smith doesn't play like any destroyer I've had. The Models: The Smith's waterline profile sits a lot higher than the Sampsons. This means you are a bigger target for incoming fire. This handicap is only really significant for the bow of the ship, since unlike the Sampson, the Smith doesn't have a lot of mid-ship objects on it. Therefore, it is in fact harder to hit the Smith from the side over the Sampson. The smokestacks are more spread out, with only the 2 and 3 one being close to each other, meanwhile the Sampson carries 4 lifeboats and has cram tightly packed smokestacks, which make it susceptible for HE hits. The weaponry placement: The two ships only share the position of 3 of their guns, these being the front placed, and the front-mid-ship guns which can only fire into one direction. Therefore, the Smith can fire 4 guns each broadside, while the Sampson can only fire 3. The torpedo tubes on the smith have a similar layout to it's mid-ship guns. It has one single tube launcher that can fire in both directions towards the aft, while it has 2 single tube launchers which can fire in each direction respectively. The Sampson has 2 twin tubes for each side at mid-ship. Torpedo Armament of the Smith and Sampson The Sampson can fire 4 Torpedoes in one salvo in each direction at a time, while the smith can only fire 2, the Smith can, however fire her torpedoes twice as fast: Torpedo launches over time Final Conclusion: Is it better than the Sampson? No, it's not. There are clear problems with this ship, it's hitpoints, it's speed, it's armament. The Sampson beats the Smith in every respect. The Smith however, has the unique torpedoes. While firing a whole bunch of torpedoes with a single salvo has a huge damage output, once you fired, you have to reload. While other ships would have to wait a significant amount of time before you can launch torpedoes again. And what if your target dodges your spread completely? You see these kinds of problems don't affect the Smith, at 11 seconds reload time, you're basically firing your torpedoes as some ships would with their main guns. This allows for some very unique gameplay, here is a screenshot of my very first match in my Smith. For the Smith, it doesn't matter whether you miss with some torpedoes, because you can just fire again and again, at some point you will hit your target. You force enemy players to spend their whole time dodging your torps, or get hit. It's not unlike a gunboat at higher tiers, you're the annoying mosquito, that constantly harrasses other ships. Everyone wants you dead. Which is why the bad concealment-torp range is a big problem. You need to make islands work, get your positioning right, use your engine boost to position yourself close to an island and close to the enemy, pop your smoke if it gets dangerous, don't manfight. Surprise battleships that don't expect you coming around the corner. You can bait people with your guns to come into the little trap that you prepare with this nasty little strike package. Use. Your. Torps. I know this might sound like a nobrainer, but your guns are not worth the effort once your enemy is torp range, you can pop some shots at them, but you should really be focusing on your torpedo launching. This is how I feel the Smith plays like. Rapid torpedo launching is it's game, and islands and smoke screens are it's best friend.This is why, for me, this is the best out of the lot. Katori gets all the collector points, but gameplay-wise, the Smith takes the crown. So If you are wondering what you should do with your diamonds, prioritize the Katori if you're a collector, take the Smith if you want some unique and fun gameplay. Or take both, since why wouldn't you if you can! I have read very often people saying that previews and reviews don't really reflect the gameplay of a ship since the reviewers only show the ship at it's best. Therefore I have picked an average gameplay video to present what a match in the Smith might look like. How did you guys feel about the Smith?

Here's a quick guide on how to create custom camouflages in World of Warships. I am using Shimakaze's unique camouflage slot in the example, but it's pretty much the same for all ships. Tools used WoWs Unpacker Notepad++ GIMP DDS plugin for GIMP Find below, in detail, what which section means:

Strefs' Warships Postcard Contest! postcard front example The year is coming to a close, and you know what that means! Contests! Prizes: Following Prizes can be won by entering: Special flag pack 5x Special Container Best Postcard Design (Front) 1 Special Flag Pack, 4 Special Containers WINNER: io_pilot Best Postcard Design (Back) 1 Special Flag Pack, 3 Special Containers WINNER: Ar_Es_Two_Thousand Most Creative (Author's Pick) 1 Special Flag Pack, 2 Special Containers WINNER: MrFingers In addition to these prizes, everyone who participates in the voting (stage 2) has the chance to win 2 Small Special Containers! (x3). WINNERS: Fyeris ENFrostburn Gamebird_EU Your names have been forwarded to WG and you'll receive your prizes shortly! postcard back example Congratulations Captains! Postcard Templates.rar work_images.zip

Christmas Poem Contest Here's a small contest for the holiday season. As you are all probably aware of it now, there are a couple types of Santa boxes available for purchase in the Premium Store. As luck has it, I've got a few to give away to you guys. So what we're going to do is the following. We're going to do a set of fun Christmas giveaways. The idea is to give everyone the chance to participate, and hopefully win something! Here's what you do: 1. Write up a Christmas and ship themed poem. 2. The poem should be between 4-12 lines. 3. The poem is to be written in English, since this is the English section. 4. You may be as creative as you like, but please keep it clean, no racism, profanity, or the such. As the main prize we have 1 huge Santa box for each winner. There are also lots of smaller prizes. Depending on the entries there might be many, or fewer winners. Please also tell me whether you've won in any giveaways of other Contributors, due to the nature of the codes you might not be able to use it otherwise. Happy Holidays!

The training room will be marked with V-25 joust. We'll be streaming the whole thing for coordination, too. So keep an eye on the training rooms around 17:00 CET

The Second Stage of the V-25 Jousting Tourney (Now Annual!) Bite-sized: We will be hosting a torpedo joust tourney on the 31st of October @ 17:00. The duration of the event will be approximately 1,5-2 hours. Sign ups are not binding. There are a few prizes up for grabs. The event will be broadcast on twitch, in case you would like to watch but not participate. Hello Forum-Goers and Warshippers! I'd hereby like to extend an invitation to a little fun event I'll be organising together with the @Aerroon and @Data_Unavailable. As you may or may not be aware last year I hosted a v-25 jousting tourney. This year, I'd like to open the second stage on the 31st of October, around 17:00 CEST. There are no strict sign-up requirements. If you are interested in joining, give me a signal by replying to the thread so I have a general idea of the attendee count! The Tourney Rules The matches will be a free-for-all/last-man-standing type mode. Players will be put into one team, they will line up around a central area, and then we'll have at it. Front facing launchers only; All consumables and flags allowed. The last person to live will be declared the winner of the match. Prizes While this is a mostly fun-oriented tourney, there will be stuff up for grabs - namely some camouflage codes and CCT containers. Broadcast The match will be broadcast on twitch.tv - either here, or here! You can tune in if you don't want to participate (or tune in if you are participating). We'd be happy to welcome you, regardless. Judging by the size and success of the event we may do this more frequently and/or on a bigger scale! If there are any questions I'd be happy to answer them here directly. Stay safe, have a lovely weekend, and I'll see you out there!

Terribly sorry everyone, I have made a mistake when displaying the time. it is CET, not CEST! I forgot about DST. That means 3 hours from now

Congratulations to @goldust, @TeaAndTorps and @Nerdromancer for winning the CCT Container!

Siliwangi’s release went mostly unnoticed. There were no big outcries about her needing to be nerfed, perhaps even a few short discussions about potential buffs. Thus in a timely fashion, she was released to the public for purchase during the Lunar New Year event, and was removed shortly thereafter. Nowadays these ships - Siliwangis - are far and few between (even if they’re starting to increase in numbers), similar to Yukikaze. If they’re good, they enter the hall of the infamous overpowered ships. We’re either glad that they’re gone so that the seal-clubbers of WoWs don’t get their hands on it, or perhaps sad, since we didn’t grab one when we had the opportunity to do so. If they’re really bad - well, still they're memorable at least, right? But what if they are just ‘fine’? What to do with Siliwangi then? She isn’t a bad ship, but she isn’t particularly strong either. She has a respectable choice of consumables - similar to Loyang - and while her DPM isn’t amazing, she does boast a decent pool of hitpoints and good armament to deal with most engagements. Overall a very rounded ship, which doesn’t excel at anything, but doesn’t fall short at anything either. Siliwangi, tragically, has been swept up in a sea of never ending premium ships. Many which are very strong. Siliwangi’s crime is that she wasn’t, and isn’t. And her retribution was to be forgotten. It has been perhaps a little longer than five months and already people ask what a Siliwangi is. They’ve heard the name, maybe snickered at it for a bit, and moved on. Whether these ships falling into forgottenness is justified or not is a completely different debate, though. I am here to inform you about this ship. If I also - in addition - manage to bring remembrance of an obscure ship, then that is only a pro in my book. Beside being a rather humorously named ship - the actual namesake being King Siliwangi of the Hindu Sunda Kingdom - Siliwangi is also the second T8 Pan-Asian destroyer premium to be added to World of Warships. She is, for all intents and purposes, an Ognevoi that has had its normal torpedoes stripped and exchanged for Deepwater ones, while the Engine Boost and the Repair Party have been replaced with a particularly strong Hydroacoustic Search. Siliwangi isn’t 100% identical to Ognevoi, as she is actually an improved variant (Projekt 30bis as it was known, while Ognevoi was Projekt 30) known as the Skoryy-class. For the sake of comparison however, and as it is the closest counterpart, we’ll analogize Siliwangi to Ognevoi. For her strong parts, Siliwangi has more hit-points (1100 more than upgraded Ognevoi) at 17200HP. She also has stronger torpedo alpha (17933 versus 15100), they are 6 knots faster than Ognevoi, and as they are DWT, they’re also more stealthy, by 300 metres (0.8km detection range). She’s more maneuverable than Ognevoi, with a 0.8s faster rudder shift at 4 seconds, but also has a worse turn radius by 50 metres (660m). For her not so strong parts, Siliwangi is missing out on the DP AA mounts that Ognevoi in her top hull configuration has, this is doubled down with the missing DefAA Consumable. Her torpedo reload is also significantly longer (a whole 36 seconds worse for the same amount of torpedoes). Finally, the consumable choice you have lowers your survivability quite a bit, as you are missing a heal. I should mention here though, that the smoke consumable Siliwangi has is very much Pan-Asian, not Russian. Short downtime and fade time, long active time. She also receives 6 charges with SI of this. Siliwangi thus is essentially a side-grade, which is ideally what you would want of a healthy premium ship. What you lose in survivability you make up with your smoke charges and hydro. What you lose in DPM you’d hopefully make up with your stealthy torpedoes, any target from destroyer upwards - of course. As with most destroyers that try to balance guns and torpedoes, you can focus on bolstering one or the other (or have some kind of compromise of both). In my case, I tried to work on the guns. You should absolutely take Concealment Expert and Survivability Expert. Once you have those two skills, you can mix and match to your own preference. Want faster reloading torpedoes? TAE. Want more range? AFT. And so on and so forth. Again, mostly bog standard DD with the new TT Mod. 1. Some people like to use Steering Gears instead of Propulsion in their 1 million credit slot. I am pretty conservative in that regard. I mostly get hit by torpedoes when slow or stationary, so the extra acceleration is more useful to me. There is a certain level of bias that I have towards good looking ships. I find it extremely hard to see something attractive looking, and then having to face up to the fact that they are, sadly, not as good as their appearance may suggest. Siliwangi is very much an aesthetically pleasing ship. Her performance as a whole, though, leaves some to be desired. Mind you, this is coming from a person who enjoys playing Kagero in a gun-boat fashion. I am no stranger to less than adequate setups. But while a well-aimed, flat-trajectory Type 3 salvo will yield a satisfactory 3000+ damage hit, perhaps even fires (if you’re lucky), Siliwangi’s lacklustre artillery, long reload time and ‘Marmite’ torpedoes don’t even imply a similar level of feel-good when in use. A smokescreen and a long range hydro-acoustic search - something that many of us would look at and think that it couldn’t possibly be bad. Unfortunately, as you inevitably enter that capture point to contest it against an enemy destroyer - A player that hasn’t even heard of someone that has heard of the Siliwangi - you soon realize that there might be some room for more interpretation of the above sure-fire formula. You have line of sight to him, you wait for him to come within hydro range. You slow down, pop both hydro and smoke. You open fire. He, dumbstruck by the fact that he is now spotted, despite him now having smoked up himself, and having scanned the enemy team for radar ships prior, is caught with his pants down. Fastly, he attempts to get out of the cap. As he turns his ship 180 degrees towards his spawn, you continue your barrage on this poor soul. This is when you realize that you are - not in fact firing at him with destroyer guns - but rather that you are attempting to bludgeon his ship into sinking using a pool noodle. When he has finally finished his, what can only be described as a meandering flail out of the cap circle, he is still - despite your best efforts - at more than 70% of his hitpoints. How can this be possible? Is it the alpha? Is it the rate of fire? Is it the amount of guns? It has been some time since I have played the Ognevoi, but I cannot imagine that this lack of firepower is a Siliwangi-only problem. At the same time, Ognevoi doesn’t pretend to be a super effective, cap-contesting gun-boat with its consumable choice. Siliwangi kind of does. In this regard, she is outclassed by her Pan-Asian predecessor, the Loyang. Nothing’s quite the thorn in the eye - or thorn in the cap - as the Loyang is. Lest we reduce our little Skoryy-y friend to a permanent port queen, there is mayhap still a space for her. While she on her own may not be able to carry the weight of a team on her shoulders, she is certainly equipped to support one. If you are willing to forfeit the limelight to someone else, then she definitely fills a very good side role. If you are able to buddy up with another DD, or even better - division with a second DD, then Siliwangi can truly shine. Partly, since your consumable charges can be more effectively used, and also since you are not confined to endless skirmishes with enemy destroyers, and instead you can focus on landing torpedo hits on unsuspecting battleships and cruisers. Perhaps this is why Siliwangi isn’t for me. I will, of course, keep on playing her from time to time. But mostly in divisions with other destroyers, and not as frequently as I have done while testing her. If this kind of gameplay fits your style, however, then a Siliwangi may be something for you. If you are looking for bad firepower wrapped in an otherwise strong package with better match-making, you should opt for the Z-39. If you want a strong solo-capper at tier 8, go for the Loyang. As always, this month's giveaway can be reached under this link. Giveaway entries are up for one week after which 3 random winners will be drawn for a CCT container! Make sure you keep an eye on your inboxes, and good luck!

Hello forum-goers! Today I bring you a Giveaway for a "Tier 9 Premium Container"! If you're curious how I procured such a container, I made a short compilation of the events on twitch as they unfolded: Link to the giveaway is: https://forms.gle/tFukFrtDer1NwRK17 The Giveaway will be open for a week, after which I will randomly pick a winner. (please note that entering multiple times will not increase your chance to win. Duplicate entries will be removed. The prize will be credited to your account by WG.) Good luck!

Congratulations to @PrinzessinLuna69. Your name has been forwarded to WG for crediting.

That's fine, your prerogative. I did ask WG about 2 years ago and they said it was fine to post them into General discussion. If you guys want them here instead then so be it. Absolutely, but it's still a 10% improvement.

True, but there's not exactly much you can do to change a tier 8 destroyer's base reload stats. Without it, it would be even worse.

If you're interested in being kept up to date on Yashima and other test ships, keep an eye on the DevBlog section on the forum, or reddit: https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/forum/754-development-blog/

Yashima's Initial Test Iteration - Quick Preview Playing Yashima made me somewhat reconsider my attitude towards Battleship players. For those of you that don’t know, Yashima is a Tier 10 freemium (a pseudo-premium that can be acquired by means of in-game resources) battleship. Yashima herself is based on the A-150 design battleship, also known as the “Super Yamato”. A design it stayed - none were ever built, as more recent warfare technology became the focus of Japanese naval armament. In essence, she presents herself in game as an up-gunned Yamato. Her announcement had been some considerable time ago on the DevBlog, and a few weeks ago, contributors had gotten access to Yashima on the live server. Some of you may have already seen her perform (or not perform) in videos or on streams. I thought this would be the perfect time for me personally to clock in a few extra hours in my least played class - battleships. Most BB lines I have grinded up to tier 9 at this stage, and I do own a couple of Tier 10s like Conqueror and Republique. I just never really find a good enough excuse to play any of them. Personally I find them a bit slow and too RNG heavy to be enjoyable, despite them certainly having their moments! So, if you like, this is a non-battleship player’s perspective on an upcoming tier 10 freemium battleship. Ship initial test rundown Yashima, for all intents and purposes, is a Yamato with 510mm guns instead of 460mm. In addition, the AA suite of the Yashima is significantly improved. The final difference is an improved rudder shift time of 18.7s, as opposed to Yamato’s 22.1s. Both ships have an identical profile and armour layout, and share the same amount of HP and torpedo protection. They also mount the same consumables and upgrades, minus Yamato’s Legendary Modification. As they are the main selling point, let’s focus on the guns. Yashima’s guns have a calibre of 510mm. They are housed in the same turrets as the Yamato, and therefore come in twos, not threes, like Yamato. This means Yamato has 3 extra barrels over Yashima - 1 per turret. Yamato’s reload is a respectable 30 seconds stock, while Yashima has to load for 35 seconds with ⅓ less guns. Both turrets turn at the same 60 seconds stock. Yashima does receive an improved dispersion by 4m at maximum range, which is identical on both ships - 26.6km. The shells on Yashima hit harder than Yamato - 19400 maximum damage on AP, 8100 on HE. Yamato comes in at *only* 14800 damage AP and 7300 damage HE. But Yamato's shells are faster: 780 m/s on the AP and 805 m/s on her HE. Yashima’s HE and AP both come in at 720 m/s. Due to the higher calibre of Yashima, she is able to achieve higher penetration values. Her overmatch is also higher than Yamato’s. 35mm on Yashima versus 32 on Yamato. Conclusion In practice these are massive drawbacks for marginal improvements. 32mm of overmatch is more than enough to deal with most if not all targets at tier 10, while 35mm is not high enough to tackle the next armour threshold (i.e. 38mm US decks). Higher penetration values will also mean more over-penetrations. The 6 shells per salvo will with high likelihood mean more misses and less of a chance of hitting ships in places where one will deal proper damage instead of just over-penetrating or ricocheting off. This is coupled with worse reload (again, 35 seconds with 1 less barrel per turret), with already bad rate of fire - and significantly worse DPM - on one of the perhaps most dated battleship hulls in the game right now: big and slow, with ample weak points. Luckily, Yashima has a very strong point. Her AA. Carriers will have a hard time focusing on you for prolonged periods of time, as her AA suite is perhaps the best in class at the moment. While nowadays we can’t really speak of “stopping a drop before it happens”, Yashima certainly has very good AA sustain - she has enough health, and heals, and strong enough AA to win the war of attrition against the flat deck, providing they are not equal tier. That’s really what playing against carriers has boiled down to nowadays: Disencourage them from attacking you again, or just bleed them dry so they cannot drop you any longer. All in all, she is not overwhelming the way she stands right now. But this is the first test iteration, there certainly will be more to come. And while I cannot say that I was overly thrilled with Yashima’s first performance, I do have to concede that it was a very enlightening week of testing. It would be an exaggeration to state that I have a full grasp on all difficulties BBs face on a day to day basis, but I did get a bit of an insight why Battleships ( and their players) behave certain ways. I have mostly been on the other side of the encounter so far, so I never really questioned their patterns. I’ve just learned to accept them, even if they, for me, were not immediately comprehensible. For example, why does a Yamato spend her time sitting in the back? Well, perhaps because her accuracy makes her decent at range, and if she were to push in, she would most certainly be the focus of the enemy fleet! That, along with some other things, made this test, yet still too early to write off the ship fully, worthwhile for me. I do encourage everyone exercising a single-class diet to venture out and try being the cruiser, or destroyer, or even battleship for once: you might learn something new that you didn’t know before, even if you don’t end up picking up the class in the end - it might become useful the next time you face up against them in battle. Have a nice rest of the week, and stay safe and healthy (especially in these times)!

I am not sure, but if I were to make an educated guess, it'd either be for damage control, or something to do with the aircraft! Recharge for her fighter consumable? (probably for historical model accuracy/aesthetics[?]) As promised, the poll has closed, and I have randomly picked the winners from the voter's pool. With an overwhelming majority, you guys have voted to have codes raffled out at random, so in upcoming posts, we shall be doing exactly that! Winners are: ComradeMacgyver CCT container MhSVlSchorsch CCT container Captain_Newman CCT container ForlornSailor Camouflage code _Abyss_Watch3r_ Camouflage code Congratulations to the winners, please check your forum inboxes for the codes, (do let us know if you get something good from those containers ;) In case you don't know how to activate a wargaming code, click your name up in the top right corner of your screen, it'll open a drop down menu, there you should find Activate Wargaming Code:

Yahagi in Review - Destroyer in cruiser’s clothing Yahagi is the latest addition to the Japanese premium ship lineup in World of Warships, and is now one of many premium cruisers at tier 5 that players can choose from. In this review I'm looking at Yahagi, giving my feedback on how I feel the ship performs, what she's like to play, and whether she's worth the price tag. Yahagi is fully released, and it is highly unlikely at this stage that her stats will change. Bitesize Yahagi is a light cruiser that borrows heavily from her destroyer sisters Her main drawbacks are bad gun handling, light armour, and bad torpedo angles. Her strengths are strong torpedoes, great concealment, good manoeuvrability, and fast speed. Yahagi is a challenging ship to well in, but can be rewarding if played correctly. History Yahagi was one of four Agano-class vessels built during 4th Naval Armaments Supplement Programme. She was completed at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal in late 1942, but was not put into service until a year later. Like the obsolete, preceding light cruisers of the IJN, Aganos were to serve as destroyer flotilla leaders. As such, she was put in command of 3 DesDivs for the Japanese 1st Mobile Fleet. Yahagi participated as escort during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, as well as taking part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where she was assigned to Force “A”. Despite being subjected to numerous attacks by air, Yahagi managed to come out unharmed in both. During the follow-up Battle off Samar, Yahagi again pulled through without being damaged. Her luck would run out, however. Under the command of Tameichi Hara, Yahagi departed, together with Yamato, 6 Type-A and 2-Type-B destroyers, on April 6 at 16:00 from Tokuyama. Their suicidal mission: Stop the invasion of Okinawa. With no air cover and being spotted and shadowed by US submarines within hours of departing, the task was doomed to fail. The attack on the vessels of operation “Ten-Go” came the next day at noon. Over 380 US aircraft swarmed the task force. Yahagi was hit by a torpedo during the first attack wave and was dead in the water, Kagerou-class destroyer Isokaze attempted to assist, but to no avail, as she was also sunk briefly after. Yahagi took another 12 bombs and 6 torpedoes before she began to capsize around 14:05 toward starboard. Minutes later, the flagship Yamato, which had be subject to unrelenting air attacks in the last 2 hours, and was also capsized at this stage, detonated in an explosion that could reportedly heard and seen 200km away. The following mushroom cloud reaching 6km into the sky. At the foot of this cloud were the 280 survivors of the Yamato, less than 10% of the original complement, 800 men of the 3 sunk destroyers, as well as some 555 crewmen of Yahagi. 4137 men would die that day, including 100 Navy aircraft, many of them Kamikaze, in what can be described as a final, desperate and deliberate suicide attack of the Japanese Navy. Ingame In World of Warships, Yahagi is a tier 5 premium Japanese light cruiser. In her setup, she is very similar to the tier 4 premium, Yuubari. Her main selling point is speed, concealment, and strong torpedoes. She is also one of the few IJN “modern” CLs in the game. Stat Rundown Yahagi is 25700 hitpoints strong, with 13mm overall armour, with parts of the superstructure being 10mm; and a citadel belt of 60mm - a significant part of this is above the waterline. The Citadel deck and the portions below the waterline have 20mm plating, with a small area being as thin as 6mm. Yahagi isn’t the least healthy CL at her tier, in fact, she ends up being somewhere in the middle. Her armour allows her to absorb a lot of high calibre damage via over-penentrations, with only occasional full penetrations happening while being angled or at range (where avoiding shells becomes easier). With lower calibre guns at medium to close range, there is a good chance of citadeling a Yahagi. One should keep this in mind when going broadside. Her 13mm overall armour makes her very susceptible to every type of HE, even that of Destroyers, and it will be AP overmatched by anything above 186mm. Yahagi’s armament consists of 3x2 152mm Type 41 guns with a reload time of 9 seconds and a 180 degree turn rate of 30 seconds. If I were to liken these guns to anything, it’d be the IJN Type 3 destroyer guns found on virtually every IJN DD from tier 6 onwards (excluding the Akizuki and above). The range is 14.9km, and the initial shell velocity is 850m/s. A strong point is the high alpha of the HE: 2600 damage. AP is at 2900 damage. Captains will find the shells to have somewhat unwieldy flight characteristics - they arc, seem to take forever to reach their target, and disperse considerably. The latter is most noticeable due to the low volume of fire. Whereas Mogami makes this up with sheer shell count, Yahagi is stuck with a mere 6 shots per salvo. One interesting feature of Yahagi is her torpedoes. Two sets of 61cm torpedoes with 60kn speed and 12km range. The configuration is unlike that found on any other ship: 17233 damage, 120 seconds reload time, 6 seconds 180 degree turn time, 1.6km detection range. This is coupled with another notable feature: The quite bad torpedo angles, which force captains to be almost completely broadside to be able to fire their torpedoes. Initial tests with Yahagi used the 10km torpedoes found on Kagerou. More alpha, and faster, but with worse range. Thanks to the 2km improvement, they have become a bit less situational, albeit losing out on very good handling characteristics. With the significant focus on the torpedoes in the development, it is clear that they are more than just an afterthought. If you play carefully, you’ll be able to bolster your damage output with just a few hits from these. Yahagi’s AA suite consist of the all too well known 25mm autocannons found on virtually every Japanese ship. On Yahagi, they make up the 0.1-2.5km short range AA, with 186 dps and an 85% hit rate. The medium-short range AA is made up of 2x twin 76.2mm guns, with 49 dps at up to 3.5km range. Yahagi has no long range AA, and no flak bursts, but is armed with a fighter. Due to the limited range of her AA, Yahagi will have a hard time defending even herself. This is not necessarily uncommon at her tier. Her air defence is somewhat alleviated by the addition of a fighter, which can act as a deterrent for CVs - anything more would be an overstatement. In short: carriers are not Yahagi’s friends. Yahagi is a very fast ship, with a base speed of 35kn, a rudder shift of 5.1s and a turning circle of 690m. With “Sierra Mike” she can go 36.8kn before engine boost. This, in combination with the engine boost, makes Yahagi extremely slippery at range, similar to a French cruiser, or a DD. Finally, concealment. Yahagi has an 11km base detection (9.9km with CE). 5.1km air detection (4.6km) and assured smoke acquisition of 5.3km. This is one of Yahagi’s strong suits, though she’s only marginally better than other T5 premiums like Genova (11.5km) and worse than Exeter (10.7km). Her main problem will be dealing with destroyers, as these will outspot you by a significant margin. Consumable Choice Besides the usual cruiser DCP (Damage control party), and the aforementioned fighter, Yahagi also gets access to a Japanese engine boost (+8%), lasting 120 seconds; and a hydro-acoustic search (4km range for ship acquisition, 3km for torpedoes) that lasts for 100 seconds. Other than the engine boost, this is pretty standard for a Japanese cruiser. Captain Skills and Upgrades While I always like to hold the position of "build your captain whichever way you want to", I'd like to show my captain build for Yahagi. I have picked CE, Survivability Expert and IFHE as my "must haves", due to their clear advantages over other skills. Furthermore, Expert Marksman is a strong pick, as it allows her guns to turn faster at closer range. Torpedo Armament Expertise is something that can come in handy, but is not a must. If you have the points to spend, you could choose between that, or Superintendent, the latter being limited in use, as matches don't last as long, and I've rarely found myself running out of any of my consumables. I personally don't feel that Upgrades are as important at this tier, but I do recommend picking Aiming Systems Mod. 1 to improve your accuracy at range. Yahagi in practice I’ve spent about 4 weeks on and off testing the released version of Yahagi. Something that almost immediately struck me was how comfortable the ship felt. The reason for this was the similarities between IJN destroyers and Yahagi. While the gun layout on Yahagi is switched - two guns in the front and one gun in the back - the overall performance feels very similar to that of say, a Kagerou. The gun handling characteristics and shell travel reminded me of an upscaled Japanese destroyer. The greater ranges make the dispersion difference all the more noticeable, however. The awful torpedo angles, which are similar to the ones found on the Yuubari, also immediately stuck out. Ideally, I’d overlook this, and just make seldom use of the torpedoes. However, because of the damage potential, and because it was one of the main selling points, I subdued the urge to ignore them, and tried to use them as often as possible. Due to low success rate (about 7.33% hit rate), which was mainly due to unwilling (running/kiting/staying at distance) enemies, I was stuck using mostly my guns. The Destroyer Problem Yahagi is on the better side when it comes to her detection range. If she contends in her own matchmaking and class, there are only a handful of ships that outdo her in this regard. Sadly for Yahagi, this game features multiple ship classes, namely, destroyers. If we look at an equal tier Minekaze for instance, we will find that there is a multiple kilometre concealment difference between the two (9.9km on Yahagi versus 5.4km on Minekaze - a 4.5km difference). And even if it isn’t a Minekaze, virtually all DDs in Yahagi’s bracket have a decent stealth window over her. While this doesn’t mean you can never make use of her good concealment, it does mean you will have to be more aware of the flow of battle, and may have to deal with the odd “being spotted in the worst position” scenario. Just like a real destroyer after all! Too bad you’re still a cruiser with all cruiser caveats. The Cruiser Problem As Yahagi’s effective combat performance is more resemblant of a DD than a cruiser, others of her class can become a hassle. Her 6 barrels don’t exactly make a massively strong broadside. And while the HE with it’s strong alpha is respectable, it’s rate of fire isn’t. Königsbergs, for instance, dish out shells 1.5s faster per turret and have an extra barrel in each mount. At a distance, this is not as much of a problem as it is at close range - which is something you should absolutely avoid in a Yahagi. Bad reload and bad turn rate, coupled with sub-par torpedo angles AND super soft armour make a bad match for close quarter fights against enemy cruisers. The Battleship Problem This isn’t Yahagi specific, but rather a curse of all low tier cruisers. Battleships will find the most random moments to wallop you for half your health. There’s not much you can do except play with your speed, attempt evasive maneuvers, and stay at a distance. Ironically, this is where you’re most likely to arm high calibre shells for the most damage! If you are lucky, and you make yourself as unappetizing as possible, enemy BBs will maybe try to look for something else to shoot at. But never take this for granted, for they will be waiting opportunistically for you to make a mistake. A strong point for Yahagi here is that she does have an engine boost, allowing her to escape sticky situations more easily due to the improved manoeuvrability. In Conclusion To summarize, Yahagi ends up being a cruiser that trades firepower for concealment, manoeuvrability, and speed. She shares many aspects of her lightly armoured peers, but has the offensive armament of a mid-tiered destroyer. A destroyer with a citadel and bad concealment, then. She is very fragile, and doesn’t like to get in close quarter engagements. While her survivability is the highest at range, her bad gun handling characteristics at distance force her into a more medium range role. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Yahagi (most of this owed to the fact that she is very much like an IJN 12,7cm gunboat), I personally don't think she’s a good premium cruiser. Nothing about her is particularly strong, her playstyle probably isn’t most people’s cup of tea, and her strong points - of which many are just national traits - come with significant drawbacks. Yahagi can be fun if you enjoy being the underdog. Play her right, and you will be rewarded for your hard work. Play her wrong… and you will be punished accordingly. She isn’t much different to equal tiered CLs. High risk, decent reward. If that kind of playstyle is up your alley, or you are looking for a cruiser that makes you work for your kills and damage, then a Yahagi might be for you. If not, even with the comparitvely (to other premiums) low price tag, I'd recommend against her. She is absolutely gorgeous to look at, though. P. S. If you're looking for a premium to grind Free XP or Credits on, then I would also skip the Yahagi, due to the aforementioned. This week's CCT containers Due to a longer absence from the game, I am giving away 3 CCT containers this week (if the system allows me to). I'll draw 5 winners from the poll, the first 3 will receive a CCT container, the other 2 camouflage subscriber codes. To enter, all you have to do is fill out the poll. Note: the poll is public so I can view the entries. This poll will help me decide how to distribute the containers in the future (I have done giveaways in both ways in the past, but I'd like to hear you forumites' opinion on this), so pick what you feel is the best! Looking forward to hearing your opinions, and good luck in the draw! Winners will receive their codes next week on monday (27/01/2020).

I personally don't have a problem with how she performs. She isn't bad, just not particularly strong like some other premiums.

It certainly wouldn't!

Yuudachi In Preview - Yuudachi's Poiculiar Adventure Through Testing [WiP] Yuudachi is very much work in progress, so all the stats and numbers here are subject to change. Any opinions presented here are purely mine. Yuudachi may very well change (again) as the testing continues. [disclaimer] I may use the “Poi” throughout this preview. Note that, in that case, I am simply referring to Yuudachi in a different manner. History Yuudachi was laid down as the fourth hull in the Shiratsuyu-class of destroyers, an improved, redesigned Hatsuharu-class. Following the Tomozuru incident of 1934, a Japanese investigation called for a retrofit and redesign of all existent and to be built destroyers and escorts. Following this Shiratsuyus, as opposed to the Hatsuharus, were larger in size and displacement, and had a wider flare design to improve seaworthiness and roll. Due to these changes, and the fact that they still retained the same propulsion system, their effective top speed was significantly slower. Yuudachi was launched on January 7, 1937, together with her sister ship Murasame. Both were assigned to DesDiv2. During the early stages of the war, DesDiv2 participated in numerous invasions and raids, among others Tarakan and Balikpapan. In mid 1942, as with many IJN DDs, Yuudachi was assigned to doing “Tokyo Express” runs, transporting troops and supplies to Japanese held territories and islands. During one of those runs, Yuudachi participated (and claimed credit) for sinking two USN Wickes-class destroyers Gregory and Little. Assuring their victory over the outdated ships, the IJN vessels headed straight through the crippled vessels, and continued the shelling and strafing of the sinking destroyers and their survivors. Yuudachi continued to run troop and supply transports for the next two months. Participating briefly in the Battle of the South Pacific. On the night to the first Battle of Guadacanal, Yuudachi was assigned as an escort to Admiral Hiroake Abe’s force. Coming within proximity of a US cruiser group, Yuudachi had to go evasive. She then proceeded to torpedo USS Portland. During the confusion, Yuudachi mistakenly signaled USS destroyer Sterett, who opened fire on her, disabling the No.1 boiler room. Dead in the water,Yuudachi’s crew was removed by sister ship Samidare. After an attempted scuttling with torpedoes, the ship was abandoned, later to be destroyed by US gunfire. Some accounts state that Yuudachi’s hulk had the white flag raised when it was later destroyed by USS Portland’s gun fire, which was deliberately ignored by Portland’s captain. Poi? Yuudachi has become a very iconic ship, and character, due to the browser game Kantai Collection, where many of her ship lines end on the almost verbal tick-esque word “poi”. Ingame Yuudachi has been for the longest time one of the most requested Japanese ships. Now that she's making her debut, many people have high expectations of her. Can she live up to the standards? Poi has been in testing for so many iterations that I’ve almost lost count (we’re at 4 I believe?). Being on a not-too-great basis to begin with, she'd require a lot of work to really become interesting enough to warrant being picked up by players. Initially a very interesting concept of a long range, slow torpedo sniper, that required a little fine tuning, she’s since been all over the place. I think we’ve finally hit a direction in which this ship is to go, but more on that later, let’s give this ship's stats a look! Run-down Yuudachi is a tier 7 premium destroyer of the IJN. She is 13200 hitpoints strong (400hp better than Shiratsuyu), and is armed with 2x2 12,7cm guns, 1x1 12,7cm gun, and 2x4 61cm torpedo tubes. Her AA defense is laughable, and her manoeuvrability is basically which you would find on her sister ship, with a slightly worse rudder shift at 3.2s, but a better turn circle at 570m. Her top speed is 34kn. Fully concealed, Yuudachi is detected at 6.1km, her air concealment is 2.7km. In many aspects, her stats are those of Shiratsuyu, in particular the ones for gun firepower, ship handling, model and armour layout. What makes Yuudachi unique Yuudachi has by far the lowest alpha on contemporary 61cm torpedoes. With 15633 per hit, she sits right between stock and upgraded Type 8s (tier 6). Furthermore, these torpedoes are very slow, with a top speed of 57kn, but have a range of 15km. Sadly the detection on these torpedoes is quite bad, at 1.9km. Yuudachi does get access to Torpedo Reload Booster in a separate consumable slot, allowing her to fire four instead of two consecutive sets. The Poi has has 400m worse concealment than her non-premium counterpart (6.1km full stealth build). Changes during testing I will do my best to summarize what has changed on Yuudachi during testing. The initial test of Yuudachi, was interesting. She was essentially a premium Shiratsuyu with 15km torpedoes that went 57kn. The reload on the torpedoes was 101 seconds, which is standard Shiratsuyu. Her abysmal torpedo detection really cut into her effectiveness, however. With 2.5km (versus Shira's 1.6km), players had all the time in the world to avoid the torpedoes, by either slowing down, or just speeding out of the torpedoes’ path. Buffing of torpedo detection by 600m, knocking down the reload by 10 seconds. The second test of Yuudachi was, in my opinion, one of the best. She had a better reload over the Shiratsuyu. She was sneaky, had good range, alpha, but her torpedoes were slower and less stealthy. A trade-off, but certainly not bad. The only problem with this version of the Yuudachi was that it just simply wasn’t very interesting. An inherent problem when creating premium ships that are very close to the non-premium counterparts, she just didn’t really have that much appeal. And here is where things got interesting. Note above that Yuudachi, statistically, shouldn’t be outperforming Shiratsuyu. She’s essentially identical, with the torpedoes being somewhat worse in hit potential, but better in range. Nerfing of torpedo damage, 17 233 to 15 633. Nerfing of flood chance, 287% to 259%. However, Her stats were deemed to strong, and she was overperforming for an IJN DD. The choice was made to lower Yuudachi’s torpedo alpha, which seriously cut into her damage per drop. While it wasn’t such a huge change superficially, you could really feel it when playing her. Combining with the other already worse torpedo stats, she would most likely turn out worse than Shiratsuyu if kept this way. "Torpedo reload boost" consumable added to a separate slot, detectability range by sea increased from 6.48 to 7 km, detectability range by air increased from 2.784 to 3.01 km. Detectability range firing main guns in smoke increased from 2.42 to 2.61 km. I am not 100% certain, why this direction was taken, but I understand a part of it. You see, Yuudachi’s torpedoes are not great at this stage. Their per hit damage are certainly far below other Japanese destroyers. It is also a lot more difficult to hit ships with them. So what do you do? You can adjust the torpedoes to deal more damage, be more stealthy. Or you can increase the volume. Personally, I think improving the hard stats of the torpedoes would yield good enough results, but it could be considered a step back from an already taken route. Furthermore, we'd be again facing the question of lacking interesting gameplay (fundamentally embedded in the Japanese torpedo only meta). Increasing the volume with a consumable is one way to approach this problem. It also offers a lot more dimensions to balance the ship. Yuudachi with the current set up is a lot more "noob" friendly. A less proficient player may find it easier to hit a target with more torpedoes at his disposal, while a better player can compensate for the lacking detection by running more predictive drops. Increased torpedo load time by 9 seconds Smaller adjustments of the ships stats to accommodate the new consumable. Yuudachi as she is now I for one absolutely despise this quantity over quality approach. But I do have to concede, you can get good matches in Yuudachi. A lot of times your torpedo hits will happen because a target simply isn’t in a position to avoid torpedoes. Speed and concealment help, but they only work if someone isn’t expecting to be hit. Which is an art in and of itself: being stealthy and smart about your torpedo placement. Poi is much more user friendly than most IJN destroyers. People facing her won’t have too bad of a time dealing with her. She has bad concealment for IJN standards, and her torpedoes are not as punishing. At the same time, Yuudachi's captains will have a more forgiving ship to play with. You can botch a set of torpedoes, you will still have another. We’ll see what the future holds for Yuudachi. She’s not for me as she is right now, but I can go and play Yukikaze instead. Wishing everyone a good start to the week, see you on the seas! Strefs

Okaaay, now it should be fixed properly.

Fixed! Thanks for pointing it out.

correct!

I guess it's a bit of a nod to the old Shiratsuyu