ilhilh

I didn't get them often in the first place. I still don't. From my narrow viewpoint, nothing has changed ;)

See, now I can be disappointed. 15% off 1 year premium. No silver ships on sale. Well, it is fine I guess there is nothing I was desperate for - anything approaching the 52% off 1 yr premium NA got would have been sweet!) Maybe I will get some paypal dubloons and take advantage of the XP->freeXP conversion rate (40% increase) to prepare for the Missouri, although latest indications are that the Missouri will really take the biscuit on its cost... but I still really want her. EDIT: for clarity.

I feel really unlucky at 3 in 80*... it is nice to see I am not the most unlucky though! *I saw people in another thread with 7 in 70!

This is the events calendar by a WG staff member: MrConway, on 31 October 2016 - 05:29 PM, said: 26-29 November: Weekend Special: Cyber Sales Name says it all, doesn't it? And there is also some XP bonus there! (XP bonus). And this is from another WG staff member: Both quoted bits can be seen in the earlier pages of this very thread..

Test server closes Monday I think. Reasonable chance our patch day will be next Thursday (1st)

Thing is, I pretty much expect ours won't match the NA server - it rarely does, and that is a shame I guess. Even with my lowered expectations WG EU has the capacity to disappoint, but that is the point where I will express it. I just really don't understand people getting worked up before that point. Anyway, I've said my piece - I best stop before I get worked up about other people getting worked up :p

Let me try this slowly, and in caps: THEY. HAVEN'T. ANNOUNCED. OUR. EVENT. YET. Your sulky petulance is misplaced... for now.

Good work! ID: ilhilh Ship: Graf Spee if released, otherwise Dunkerque.

As someone with over 100 unplayed games on Steam I have entered a self-imposed steam exile. Until I play/complete some of these titles I am not getting any more games I don't have time to play. A game @ £5, 80% off in the sale is only a bargain if you actually then play it! Incidentally, for everyone going on about Steam, their sale started on Wednesday so even if WG EU had put their sale starting today (like the other regions) then Steam would have already had their advantage - perhaps they really should have started their sale a week early?

No! Please a) read and b) think before posting. We will get them Saturday-Monday. Also, please see:

Sure, you can bring up the October calendar and it is a valid point, but there is a difference between having the calendar information there and the actual detailed event information there i.e. even when the October calendar wasn't there we were still getting a detailed Friday event post about the weekend event starting on the Saturday. The problem was we had no advance knowledge whether it was going to discount Japanese or German ships or whatever that they did over September/October. The actual detailed event information has been pretty consistently posted 1 day before the even for as long as I can remember. It will arrive today (probably this afternoon) in advance of it starting on the Saturday.

As Takru has quoted, the events calendar tells us that we have a Cyber Monday sale running Saturday-Monday. Some of you really work hard at ignoring stuff so that you can get angry.

My question is... how much money can I make from this? I currently only have the Kagero in port... but I have the port slots. Given the 50% silver return from selling I guess answer is... only if I can pick them up discounted. Next question, possibly answered by the XP remaining on the ship... do modules such as hull upgrades and torps get mirrored when you get the ship and its replacement? Is there any benefit to upgrading all modules on the ships pre-patch?

I would jump on that in a heatbeat if they replicated it over here. I expect they won't be so generous with us though.

I've been trying to collate my thoughts on this by a mix of what I see in game and things I read on the forum/reddit elsewhere and I'll list some of it here, but chances are I'll forget things: UI is a bit crappy. Even for experienced CV captains there are elements of the controls that are not very intuitive and this can be off-putting. It is a massively different play style to the other 3 classes. you move to top down RTS style gameplay. Some people struggle to make this transition. They maybe find it boring, or difficult and they are essentially left to themselves. Big learning curve. View, controls (including grouping squadrons), plane types (what each can do, how you attack with each etc), manual vs/auto attacks, deck loadouts (AS/balanced/strike), arming distances (torps), torp spread patterns, AA (including auras and short mid and long range), consumables such as def AA (its effects and which ships have it), knowing which ships have strong AA and this list goes on. And this is before you start tackling the more advanced techniques such as cross dropping, baiting, DoT attacks, picking the right target, dealing with enemy CVs and just generally what your role is as a CV. No tutorial. This point essentially ties up the above points but as you can see there is a lot to know and the game does nothing to teach you. Want to learn how play CVs? We ain't going to show you! You can either search the internet or just keep trying/failing/improving slowly. I can see how it is hugely frustrating. AS loadouts. They don't work. Recent changes to XP for killing planes doesn't change the fact that they don't work. And, in fact, if they were to work so an AS CV could lock out a non AS CV then that would be horribly bad experience for anyone not AS. Bad concept, poorly executed. Not only that, they make a low level CV (Bogue) the most viable option that misleads new players and promotes the use of a broken setup. Auto drops. I'm mainly talking TBs/DBs here. If you had a decent tutorial you wouldn't need this ability that only reduces your effectiveness. Often people get a way up the CV line before even learning they can manual drop and it makes them do worse than they would if used manual. Sure, it makes thing easier but it also makes you weak and ineffective. Economy. It is broken for CVs at high tiers. I'm not sure how WG can't see it because it is plainly there but they are not attractive to players who have credit issues... so most players. Reputation. 2 strands to this. First, you get people on the forums repeatedly peddling this drivel about how they have CVs have no targets because of the current AA situation. Second, for those with a soft skin, you get a lot of grief as a CV captain from both your targets and your team mates. Goes with territory. I will add that, there are still problems with CVs from the other angle i.e. not them being useless, but actually with the massive alpha capabilities they have. Look at my screenshots - I ruined his game. From full health he was back in port after 1 attack run having shot down 5-8 planes only (no other damage at all). Is that good for the game as a whole? Not really. I read something recently with someone suggesting that reduced alpha but faster turn around might be a route to go. So, the damage a CV could do in a game stays relatively constant, but their alpha power is lowered. Going more into AS loadouts... it is a problem with fighters in general. The class doesn't work properly - your fighters lock theirs, they stop moving (by moving I mean moving across the map - they go into dogfight mode on the spot) and it is a fight to the death. Sure, there is a bit of strafing but that has a limited role in fighter v fighter combat. Take the Hiryu 2/2/2 loadout against a AS Lex 2/0/2 loadout: I can lock both his fighter squads with both of mine and then he can't fulfil his role as AS until he wins the fight. sure, he will win that fight, but I make sure that fight happens when my strike planes are ready and I can hit who I want - it has failed its primary function. So locking fighters in 1 spot is a broken mechanic. Potentially they could look at making fighters relatively ineffective at killing fighters but much more effective at killing TBs/DBs but I have no idea if that could be made workable and enjoyable. Conclusion: AA is an entirely manageable part of CV gameplay if you have the knowledge/skills to do it. The problem is that too many people don't have the knowledge/skills and the game doesn't help them to acquire them. Hell, if enough people were competent in CVs then you would see all kinds of threads in the forums about needing to improve AA. Fix a tutorial and fix the economy and we would be swimming in CVs.

This morning I took my Taiho out for its daily bonus game. I realise personal experience is banned from discussions of what CVs can do, but there were several German BBs so I went straight for the FdG (same tier) BB to see what would happen and... well it was this: Things to note: The timer: 3 minutes in. My first attack run. He was on full health when I started the attack - it was at the beginning and he had been in cover until I got him. This means he had his full AA working for him. He has the B hull (83.4k HP - the A hull has 72.5k HP) I attacked from the North across the volcano. I didn't waste time with a cross drop (I rarely do unless hitting a DD) He had friends around. He wasn't even solo! - another of these KM BBs no less and even a Kagero adding its puny AA. It was a manual attack (obviously). I hit 11 torpedoes. Out of 12. E l e v e n. Between the ships present they shot down 1 TB before I dropped (would have hit with all 12 had all 12 dropped). Between the ships present they shot down 5 TBs total. Bonus: I'll happily admit that he screwed up and turned out from my TBs meaning I could easily hit all torps from close range (it is an absolutely huge ship after all) but is this the fearsome German BB AA? With other ships around him, and no AA mounts destroyed before I attacked (for any ship involved) I lost 8 planes total for a solo kill. Tell me again how CVs have no targets. Tell me again that German BBs have AA that is too tough. And then explain to me that this is a big reason people don't play CVs. EDIT: Just to add that I only played 1 game in a CV since yesterday and this was it - I'm not selectively picking out results.

It doesn't happen often, but if you were to make it so that CAs couldn't but BBs still could then that is simply backwards. It makes no sense. Also, making it so cruisers no that they can sit bow/stern on and be relatively safe isn't promoting the right kind of play either in my opinion.

If they do that is it ok that BBs can get citadelled through the nose? #devilsadvocate

You mean like a DD starting to reverse only to find that they have just got enough speed up to prevent them from stopping when torps appear a second later? It can even happen to BBs who turns to angle against a BB only to see a shima torp wall appear when he is locked into full turn. Admittedly, not very often and it has to be a serious torp spread to spell death... but we are playing devils advocate right?

This is rubbish. Top to bottom rubbish. Let's start with a CV's role: Primary: deal massive alpha strikes, and deal them at any point on the map. Secondary: protect your allies Secondary: spot enemies. Now, I really hope we can take AS loadouts and kick them the hell out of this discussion. They don't work. Even if you want to make the argument that a CV's primary role isn't alpha damage and the huge match-altering effect it has, an AS CV removes 1) almost completely and then it is unable to do both 2) and 3) at the same time to a standard that compensates for doing no damage: If you focus on protecting your allies then when the enemy CV is reloading... so are you and spotting goes out of the window. If you focus on spotting, the enemy CV can just avoid your fighters and gets that match-winning damage in. On top of that, a semi competent CV captain will, with relative ease be able to get around your fighters and do the damage even if your sole purpose is preventing that. The above is mainly me thinking about USN CVs but I can wade in on the half-way-house IJN AS setups if you insist. Non-AS CVs can be devastating with damage and do limited spotting/protecting but the primary role of their fighters is protecting their strike squadrons, and then team mates is a distant second. Incidentally, this is something many players fail to understand when they are asking "why you no cover me CV?". Ok, let's move on. Now, we have established what CVs are supposed to do we can ask the question "can they fulfil their role still?" Yes. If you don't believe me, look at my stats. I am yet to find a CV that cannot perform. Some, like the Bogue are pretty lacklustre, but every CV I have played I have been able to be an asset to my team. I haven't got to tier 10 in CVs yet but given what I can do in my Taiho in tier 10 games I have no fear about the Hakuryu. For completeness I should state that I have played tiers 4,7,8 and 9 against German BBs but I feel this is a broad enough range to have gotten a reasonable picture. Can many BBs sail around on their own safe from CVs? No. And more No. How do I know this? Because, I bloody well sink them day in day out. A couple of recent examples: This morning I figured I would try low tiers again. In my tier IV Hosho, with a newish captain (maybe 6-8 points) I went after a full health tier V Konig. He killed 2 TBs on the way in and 1 on the way out. 6 torps in the water. 4 hits. And that is on a BB a tier higher. I feel like he could come out of that feeling CVs are OP... Yesterday in my Taiho I took out an Iowa on his own. He had lost perhaps 1/4 health and was barely moving. I lost I think 4 planes on the run in but hit with 7 torps (from 12). And that is one of the few BBs I would label as an AA fortress (see below). People are obsessed with the idea that the German AA is OP, and it does force you to not be lazy, but they are juicy targets just the same. And it is rare that anyone specs them AA because most go for secondaries or a secondary/CE hybrid. I feel like some people would only accept German BB AA if it was at IJN levels, but the reality is that it is somewhere between IJN and USN. People need to stop propagating this myth that German BBs are unassailable because they are not. Hell, in the USN line only the NCal, Iowa and Montana (oh and Texas!) can be prickly targets on their own (although again, they need to spec for it to really feel safer) but the others can be classified as just strong. My final 'people need to stop...' statement is to say that people need to stop saying that CVs don't have anything to attack, and this is because, as I stated at the top, it is complete rubbish. I mentioned in my previous post there are issues with CVs such as the economy (high tiers), the learning curve and UI, but these are issues that affect people's desire to play them, not their ability to do their job and they are not a consequence of increased AA. I will concede that AS CVs are broken and this may turn some people away from CVs, but that has nothing to do with the proliferation of AA either.

I think I created a RU account because I wanted to do something on the forum I couldn't without it (I can't remember the details at all), but I only have 1 profile with any games on it.

Saw Admiral_Noodle this morning in his Tirpitz on the enemy team. I started on the other flank in my stock FdG but we did trade shots when he pushed into A... and regretted his decision but he had got our Minotaur and our team collapsed resulting in an easy win for his team.

Generally this is solid advice but I would add to this that the US BBs are fine and due to their AA they can be quite forgiving. Any BB line is fine. In terms of classes, I would recommend in the first instance starting 1 BB, 1 DD and 1 CA line. CVs work differently from the other 3 classes and I would leave them until you are more familiar with the game. You might decide you never want to play CVs but, I would argue that there is value in learning the capabilities and limitations of each class by playing them as it helps inform playing against them If you do go for CVs then the IJN line is superior.