Procrastes

My bet would be that Wargaming will balance out the British battleships sooner rather than later, as they are blatantly overpowered; especially at the lower tiers. Silver ships are not immune to being balanced down, and as fortune would have it, they have not yet released an overpowered premium in the form of HMS Dreadnought. I sincerely hope that this mess will be fixed before she arrives. As for Flamu's performance in the Giulio Cesare, let's not go overboard here. As stated elsewhere, that bloody bastard incredibly skilled player could carry his team to victory in the Kon Tiki. I have long ago stopped taking his exploits as a valid measurement for how any ship might be expected to handle itself with me at the helm.

Thanks for the advice! I haven't gone past tier six in any silver cruiser line. It's a bit of an open question when, if ever, I'll push on - and to be honest, I don't really have the personal skill to reliably carry my weight at those higher tiers, yet!

Hmm, interesting. Would you say, that the USN radar cruisers outperform the Russian ones? I thought that radar + Russian rail guns = ultimate killer combo...? The Chapayev has a rather scary reputation. (I should probably state that I don't own any other radar cruiser than the Indianapolis, and I almost never play her.)

Flamu would have a huge game impact if he was driving the friggin' Kon Tiki.

I agree that WoWs is not a pay to win game. I have never said that it was. I also agree that a promotion text on the WoWs home page shouldn't be taken more seriously than any other promotion text anywhere. And I don't complain about everything (not even, for instance, about people complaining about people complaining about everything). In fact, I believe that WG has lately, with the addition of the IFHE skill in particular, made cruisers almost competitive with battleships again. This is good. Other efforts to promote cruisers in the game can be seen in that they are by far the best ship class for completing Operations, as well as in the rather draconian requirements for completing the Yamamoto Campaign, where many tasks require that you play tier IX-X cruisers. Do I believe that Wargaming pampers battleship drivers in general? I'm not sure. While it is true that battleships have received one buff after another in order to make them more self-sufficient versus other ship classes, such as better AA (versus carriers) and the addition of hydro acoustics and radar (versus destroyers), it is also true that battleships enjoy a far less flexible playstyle than cruisers or destroyers. A cruiser or a destroyer that makes a push down one line of the map, and then realizes that this will fail, has a good chance of being able to withdraw and rejoin the action elsewhere. A battleship that overcommits is generally (and often quite literally) toast. Since this is probably the main reason why we see so many battleship borderhuggers around, I would guess that one reason for the general battleship buffs has been to encourage a more active battleship gameplay. Too bad it doesn't always work out that way! Anyway, I'm sorry if I've come across as a crusty old curmudgeon. I try rather hard not to be; or at least I strive to settle for no more than two out of three! Cheers!

Presumably, not a thing? Playing a low-tier battleship can be an uphill experience, and then some. I can only assume that it's much the same thing with carriers, and maybe even more so. So, go for a destroyer instead? They are much less tier-dependent!

The homepage of World of Warship EU still advertises the game as a "free online multiplayer game about battleships".

Thanks a bunch, guys! I got 36 barrels of the stuff after participating in a battle yesterday, and then I could see what the camo does. It's totally workable, both in bonuses and aesthetics. And yes, aesthetics do factor in my decisions on what to wear when I'm at sea. Only, perhaps not always the way it should. I can't get over the hilarious Candy Cane Camo on the Cleveland, nor the mildly patriotic stars and stripes-camo on the Texas. And so I wear them whenever I get the chance. The fact that these camos actually do lower the accuracy of incoming fire, must be due to the fact that the enemy gunners can't bring themselves to look more closely at my ship...!

The premium shopkeeper just tried to talk me into buying a 50-set of snazzy anniversary camouflage patterns. Only, he didn't tell me which, if any, bonuses this camo will provide, if I apply it on my ships... or did I miss something?

All right, I just tried to vote that you should not skip past the V-25 and the V-170. But the poll only lets me choose one of the ships, which is kind of misleading. So until the poll is corrected, please disregard my vote.

I'm not sure I think that the Halloween skins should be available all year round. That would make them less Halloweenish. And wouldn't it look too weird seeing those monsters sail out alongside the normal ships, in a normal random battle?

I spent about a million free xp a month ago, to promote my Tirpitz captain, Karl Fertig, to Grossadmiral. He's serving on the Scharnhorst, the Graf Spee, the Emden and the Prinz Eugen as well, and I plan to put him on the Bismarck once I unlock her, so he is more than worthy of his new estate, if you ask me. Now he's busy churning out Elite xp like there is no tomorrow, to help his colleagues' careers along. Such a nice guy!

Although it is probably a good thing, that those mods only affect the visuals of the player in question. Otherwise the game would fairly quickly turn PG 35...

Indeed, Sir, you are quite correct. I have now amended my post. Thanks for the help!

No. To give just one reason: Because of the epic payload of refund requests, that would come in from most of those who bought her for the higher xp price. Or wouldn't you think so? Edited: All right, what I probably should have written: Because of the epic amount of grief from those who didn't buy her before the price was raised. Brain not get nuff coffee, today...

The Perth is really good for the Defence of Newport operation, in my experience. She's got a nice combination of smoke, HE+AP shells and torpedoes, that give her good survivability and strike potential in one package.

Operation Raptor Rescue is, as the saying goes, one tough cookie. 1. Sink the destroyer, the cruiser and the battleship Shortly after the little convoy of rescue ships get underway, the intrepid heroes are attacked by a destroyer, a cruiser and a battleship. In order to complete the first secondary objective, you have to sink them all within the space of three minutes. Since everyone has an itchy trigger finger, and these are the first targets to appear, this usually takes care of itself. With a bit of luck, no one suicides on a torpedo either. 2. Seek out and destroy the carrier to the south This is the second secondary objective, and one that is greatly facilitated if there is a carrier player on the team (and he takes an interest). The enemy carrier, whose name I presently can't recall, has an escort that seems to be usually comprised by some cruisers and maybe one destroyer. They need to be taken out and this needs to happen fast. If they are left alone, the enemy carrier will send planes to attack the friendly convoy, and the ships - containing at least one pesky Kuma - will stalk and try to assassinate the Raptor. At least two fast ships, or a carrier and one fast cruiser, is probably the best get-up for this side mission. Having fast ships is imperative, as they must be able to catch up with the main force again once the carrier & co are dealt with. EDITED: As far as I can surmise, and has also been stated by other posters in this thread (see f.e. EdiJo, in post 33 below), this carrier will evidently not start attacking until it is spotted. Until someone disturbs its slumber, it will remain passive. So it is evidently very possible to wait until the end phase of the operation, and then seek out and sink this carrier! 3. Protect and escort the Raptor and the other friendly convoy ships to the exit area The ships that stay with the Raptor, must act like what they are - namely, escort ships. They are there to protect the Raptor and the other friendly ships, not the other way around. Basically, the players should position themselves between the Raptor and the incoming enemy flotilla. Ideally, they should set up an AA screen to keep out the planes from the enemy aircraft carrier (of which there should be only one, if the seek-and-destroy mission outlined above was successful). In addition, they must also act so as to shield the Raptor and the other friendly ships from incoming shells and torpedoes. To some extent, this mean taking the hits instead of their protegés (and this goes most especially for any battleships in the team). During the run for the exit area, there exists one special window of opportunity. At a set time, the Raptor and the other friendly convoy ships will stop and take shelter behind an island. This gives the players the opportunity to take the battle to the enemy, and destroy as much as possible of the enemy squadron - including the second enemy carrier, whose destruction completes a third secondary objective - before the Raptor gets underway again. [This is where the operation has failed most often, in my games. The player ships have remained huddled together with the Raptor in the shelter of the island, largely unable to maintain effective fire against the oncoming enemy forces. Then, when the Raptor has started moving again, the players have kept to the rear, even going so far as to take shelter from incoming fire behind the very ships they are supposed to protect. Given that the operation automatically fails if the Raptor is sunk, this comes across, in my book, as a somewhat inexpedient tactic.] There is yet another secondary objective, which consists of getting to the rendez-vous point ahead of the Raptor. I am not entirely sure if this rendez-vous point is in the exit area, or somewhere before that. ----------------- Problems with completing this operation The most basic problem seems to be that many players fail to grasp the main victory condition, namely getting the Raptor safely to the exit area. I have watched again and again, how gallant cruisers and mighty battleships have huddled together like a flock of anxious sheep, keeping well out of the way as the Raptor and the other friendly ships were chewed up by shells, bombs and torpedoes from the implacable enemy. This is not how you win a war, nor does is gather any laurels on the virtual battlefield. Ironically, the special "repair zone" around the factory ship seems to be a block on the path to victory, since it encourages some players to always remain in that zone, effectively preventing them from fulfilling their duty to shield the Raptor from the enemy fleet. Another problem is how you handle the object of finding and sinking the first enemy carrier to the south, and then getting back in time to join the main action. Accomplishing this usually means that someone has to get a number of constructive tactical suggestions across in the chat. Problems like these are meant to be overcome - there would be little point in playing the operations, if they didn't involve a challenge. But this operation seems to be harder than most. Or maybe I have just not been getting the hang of how to do it? I've started this thread as a sort of platform for an ongoing discussion on this operation, and I've begun with jotting down a few of my own thoughts, above. Now, over to you. What do you think of Operation Raptor Rescue?

If we look at the grand scheme of things, World of Warships is probably irrelevant...

With the removal of the ALT attack option for tier IV-V carriers, and the addition of the Radio Location skill, I have begun to fear the same. The Imperator Nikolai is a premium ship, and the Orion isn't. Although this is not quite set in stone, Wargaming does not, as a rule, nerf premium ships. This should not be seen as an obstacle to balancing out a broken silver ship, which the Orion might well be. Let us just be thankful that we have the time to properly evaluate the current lower-tier British battleships, before Wargaming releases the HMS Dreadnought. She is almost certainly going to be a premium, and a wildly popular one at that. It would be bad for the game if she were to be grossly overpowered!

Well said! I would like to state that I am not actually complaining; I'm voicing doubts. These doubts might very well prove unfounded; in fact - and in part due to input such as yours - I am reasonably hopeful that they will be. But if they are not, then I might begin to consider complaining!* * Given my age, though, it's probably more likely that I will settle for some quiet grumbling.** ** This will mainly concern issues on how much better things used to be, back in the day.*** *** But the young ones today just won't listen.

Huh? Battleships have citadels. Some of them are fairly hard to hit, because of the armour and all, but they are still there... shall I assume that this is sarcasm, Sir?

I completely agree that we want to keep the game dynamic and fluid. What I'm not so sure about, is if this change will have the desired effect. When I lay a smoke screen to cover my allies, it is usually in one of two situations: Either (1) to help allied ships that are currently making a push, so that they can advance and drive back the enemy, or (2) to help the retreat of an allied ship that has been making a push, but got seriously hurt and needs time to recover. In both cases, the smoke screen will benefit team work with ships that are acting in a dynamic way and promoting fluid gameplay. In no situation would I lay a smoke screen to cover a ship that camps at the border as far away as possible from the enemy. So, I am not sure that the smoke nerf will make the game more dynamic, at least not in random battles. It might even make border campers even more campy, in that they will not dare to advance even under cover of smoke. But the bottom line is, I don't know what will happen. I suspect that Wargaming doesn't, either. I guess we will all find out, soon enough?

British torpedoes are actually among the scariest in the game, in my opinion. They are pretty sneaky, they fire single shot, and they do a wicked amount of damage. But what I said in post 293 still stands: It's not the individual smoking cruisers, but team work between destroyers and battleships, that will take the biggest hit from this change.

My experience is, that citadel hits do this kind of damage. When I land a citadel hit, whether with AP or HE, this will generally result in damage to the engine on the enemy ship.

Destroyers regularly lose their engine and/or steering, and often other vital equipment as well, whenever they are hit. And they quickly run out of hit points if they start taking fire. The only time I would feel more tanky in a destroyer than in a cruiser, is if I am doing a torpedo run on a (non-German) battleship at close range while confident that the battleship has only AP loaded. And even then, I'd expect to lose at least half of my hitpoints before having a chance to sink the battleship. If destroyers had citadels, this just wouldn't be possible - and I believe it should be. It's becoming harder and harder to play destroyers as it is. As for cruiser citadel vulnerability, I think it's fairly well balanced with the addition of the IFHE skill. Without a citadel vulnerability in your cruiser, you could just kite a battleship at medium to long range and expect to do more damage with you cruiser HE than you receive in battleship AP, irrespectively of whether the battleship captain manages to hit you or not. Mind you, the arrival of those British HE-toting battleships might upset this balance just a teeny bit...