Procrastes

Which was their least over-rated one?

Independence (1/1/1) : 20Independence (2/1/0) : 17 - 3 = 14. Less versatile than the alternative setup.New Mexico : 20 Cleveland : 25Farragut : 22 + 1 = 23. A strong, solid performer. The option to choose Defensive AA is a nice touch, simply because no one expects it. I have bloodied the nose of overeager carrier captains on more than one occasion, in this ship!Arizona : 19Shinonome : 20Mutsu : 21Ryūjō (1/2/2) : 17Fusō : 18Aoba : 26Fubuki :17Graf Spee : 24Bayern : 5 Ernst Gaede : 18Warspite : 17 Leander : 21 Molotov : 16 Budyonny : 14Gnevny : 17Dunkerque : 15Anshan : 17Duca d'Aosta : 22Perth : 29

Alabama: 16 - 3 = 13. Not the Tirpitz. (Toward the end of these threads, it comes down to making a choice between several good ships.)Benson:12Atago: 50 Mikhail Kutuzov: 37 Tirpitz : 20 + 1 = 21. An Armoured Colossus. Now with extra secondaries!Shōkaku (2/2/2): 28

And lo! She rises from the seabed, to yet again lead the Geek Navy toward victory...!!! Good detective work!

I fought the good fight, for a good long time, to keep the Tirpitz in the thread. My hope, my dream, was to see her as one of the last three ships to remain afloat - but, alas, this was not to be. I will never forget the Tirpitz. She made me proud. But the war goes on.

The Alabama was added late into the thread, and she's not yet so well known that many will rush to vote on her. At least that would be my guess.

I agree that high skill levels are generally much more useful on destroyer captains, than on battleships. Cruisers are somewhere in between, as usual, as the IFHE skill has quickly become almost mandatory for light cruisers. But I digress. To get back on topic: What about the smoke screen characteristics for the Gallant? Will it be slightly worse than on USN destroyers, but better than on Russian/IJN ones, perhaps? And will the torpedoes be single-fire RN specials, or not?

So, I guess I am not the only one tempted to put that 12-pointer into a destroyer instead?

What I'm wondering is, will the Gallant have the same manoeuvrability characteristics as the RN cruisers? With better than average acceleration and deceleration, and the ability to accelerate while turning? If so, this might be a very nice little ship indeed!

Actually, you can buy signal flags in the shop. Only they come in pre-designed bundles, so you can't buy, say, just 150 'Sierra Mikes' because they happen to be kind of flag you need right now. I try not to be a grumpy old man about this.

Radar on a tier VI ship? Has that even been on the table?

Alabama: 22 Benson:15 Atago: 51 + 1 = 52. Beauty and majesty on the high seas. Mikhail Kutuzov: 34 North Carolina: 1 - 3 = 0. Sayonara! Shōkaku (2/2/2): 28

Independence (1/1/1) : 20Independence (2/1/0) : 17New Mexico : 20 Cleveland : 24 Farragut : 25Arizona : 19Shinonome : 20Mutsu : 21Ryūjō (1/2/2) : 20Fusō : 18Aoba : 26Fubuki :16Graf Spee : 24Bayern : 8 Ernst Gaede : 18Warspite : 20 Leander : 21 Molotov : 16 Budyonny : 14Gnevny : 17Dunkerque : 13Anshan : 20 - 3 = 17. A poor man's Gremyaschy.Duca d'Aosta : 22Perth : 28 + 1 = 29. Special anti-torp spam moving smoke, great manoeuvrability, and a cute little upgraded Walrus spotter plane with long-haul petrol tanks. Also, koalas!

Which ones are the other two? (And why?)

This. Although "a few hours a day" should, at this particular time, be "a few hours per week". (Note that this is no complaint; those hours I used to spend online are now spent on other, even more fruitful and personally fulfilling endeavours.) And yes, I am aware that once Wargaming sniffs out precisely what will be the most tempting sort of offers for people of my generation, we might be flooded with 12- and 15-point captains, put on sale "for a limited time", for "a reasonable price". I'll take that risk. I won't follow Marcellus Wallace's advice, and "f--k pride". Rather, I will attempt to bribe it.

Alabama: 22 Benson:18 Atago: 49 + 1 = 50. Pushing fifty. Can still perform. Mikhail Kutuzov: 33 North Carolina: 7 - 3 = 4. I could never get any of those US battleships to work properly. (Except the Arkansas Beta.) Shōkaku (2/2/2): 28

Independence (1/1/1) : 20Independence (2/1/0) : 17New Mexico : 20 Cleveland : 24 Farragut : 25Arizona : 19Shinonome : 20Mutsu : 21Ryūjō (1/2/2) : 20Ryūjō (3/1/1) : 5 -3 = 2. Seems a lot less versatile than the strike set-up.Fusō : 21Aoba : 26Fubuki :15Graf Spee : 24Bayern : 8 Ernst Gaede : 18Warspite : 20 Leander : 20Molotov : 15Budyonny : 14Gnevny : 17Dunkerque : 16Anshan : 20Duca d'Aosta : 22Perth : 27 + 1 = 28. A unique ship, with bonus koalas.

The only aspect of the stealth fire removal that bugs me somewhat, is that I worry whenever I see something that might herald a trend to nerf small, fast and lightly armoured scout vehicles into the ground (or the seabed, as it were). I am not saying this is going to happen in WoWs. What I am saying is, I hope it won't.

Alabama: 22 Benson:18 Atago: 48 + 1 = 49. A beautiful ship and a solid performer. She has weathered many storms and she's still got it. Mikhail Kutuzov: 33 North Carolina: 10 - 3 = 7 Shōkaku (2/2/2): 28

Independence (1/1/1) : 20Independence (2/1/0) : 17New Mexico : 23 Cleveland : 24 Farragut : 24Arizona : 20Shinonome : 20Mutsu : 21Ryūjō (1/2/2) : 20Ryūjō (3/1/1) : 5Fusō : 20Aoba : 26Fubuki :18Graf Spee : 24Bayern : 11 Ernst Gaede : 18Warspite : 20 Leander : 20Molotov : 15.Budyonny : 14Gnevny : 17La Galissonnière : 2 - 3 = 0. Le Coup de Grace. Dunkerque : 18Anshan : 20Duca d'Aosta : 22Perth : 26 + 1 = 27. A nice little ship with a truly unique playstyle. Also, she's got koalas!

I don't think you're the only one, no. And it's not strictly true that you have no legal rights. In fact, there are a bunch of European nations with rather strict consumer laws, that do apply even to international online gaming companies like Wargaming. I believe that Wargaming has gotten into a bit of a hash a couple of times, when they had to reimburse customers who used their legal right (according to the applicable national law) to demand reimbursement for a purchase within a certain legally stipulated time. This is probably one reason why Wargaming has an inofficial policy to not directly nerf premium ships. The other reason being, of course, that nerfing premium ships, which people have bought with real money, has a tendency to piss off the player base. Doing that is generally bad for business, irrespective of any terms of agreement. If Wargaming suddenly started to change premium ships for the worse to the left and right, people would be far less likely to spend money on them. As it is now, if a new premium is found to be blatantly OP, the worst Wargaming is likely to do is to permanently remove it from the shop - this is what happened with the Gremyaschy and the Imperator Nikolai I. An overall change to the game mechanics, however - like the removal of stealth fire - is not the same as a direct nerf to a single ship. Such a change will typically apply to all ships, whether premium or silver, and I believe this is the only reasonable way to go about it. Otherwise, silver ships would quickly be rendered totally redundant. Now, if such a change made a certain premium ship significantly less competitive, it would make sense for Wargaming to compensate that with some sort of buff. But I honestly don't think that this is the case for the Blyskawica - she's still a very strong ship, in my opinion. But then, I never relied that heavily on the ability to stealth fire. If I had, I might certainly miss it more than I do!

The Blyskawica is still an excellent ship, even after the change to the spotting mechanics. The ability to stealth fire was just one of her aces-in-the-hole, and not even the strongest, at that. She needs no buff, balance-wise. As for your view, Krikkio82, that a buff to the Blyskawica would be "fair", considering that you bought her with the ability to stealth fire, I can understand why you would feel that. But it is explicitly stated in the terms of agreement (or whatever they are called, exactly), that Wargaming reserves the right to change the game content however they wish, whenever they want. It could be said that, basically, you are not really buying a premium ship, as such - you are renting it for an unspecified time. If you considered these terms to be unfair, at the time of purchase, you had the option not to buy her. It is really that simple.

The 12-point captain is worth a lot, to me. I don't have the time to grind for commander skill xp so very regularly. But on the Graf Spee, I could actually get the 10-point captain with only a modest - if rather focused - mission-based effort. Hopefully there will be such option for the Hood, as well?

If you are in a knife fight, and firing your guns outside of cover, you will be visible to the whole enemy fleet, whether you have the AFT skill or not. As long as even one single enemy spots you, your position will be known to all. So the only situation when the AFT skill would make you visible to more enemy ships, would be if you fire your guns from behind cover (say, an island or a smoke screen), so that the target does not spot you, but there is another enemy ship in a position to see around that cover, and this enemy would be outside of your non-AFT derived gun range. At least, this is how I understand the spotting mechanics. It would be good to know if I am wrong!

Alabama: 22 Benson: 24 Atago: 45 Charles Martel: 5 Mikhail Kutuzov: 32 North Carolina: 16 - 3 = 13 Tirpitz: 19 + 1 = 20. A beautiful, close-range brawler. Shokaku: 28