Procrastes

So it's not just me then. Good to know, and hopefully this also means that there is a chance WG might make an adjustment to this in the future, if enough people see it as an issue. (Maybe @MrConway , for one, can shed some light on this?)

On your first question: I can't see why your drop chances would be affected by which silver tier ships you have. So you should be able to receive any of the drop ships! On your second question: If you have played the Weser, and then get the tier VIII carrier (Parseval?) in a drop box, all the xp you have accumulated on the Weser will be available for transformation into free xp (for the usual doubloon price). Whether that makes it worth grinding, is of course for you to decide.

This... ...gives me hope for future CV fun in scenario battles! In the Rhein - which is the only new German CV I've unlocked so far - I have experienced a problem with the aiming reticle turning brighter during the attack run, making it harder to see against the waves and messing up my aim on a number of occasions. I don't recall having this problem in other CV:s, but maybe I'm imagining things? Biplanes are great fun, to be sure. That said, where are my Stukas...?!!!

Being a less effective CV is less of a problem for your team in scenarios, than it would be in a random battle with an actual player-controlled CV on the enemy team. Or so I figured, anyway. There are few things that will kill off hope more quickly in a random battle, than reading the opening lines from your CV player going something like, "hi gyus first game in cv total stock nocapkillall :P:P:P;)".

I got my first 19-point commander by spending about a million free xp to promote my German top commander at that time, Karl Fertig, from somewhere around 12 or 13 to a full 19 points. Totally worth it, since he's commander not only of the Tirpitz, but also of the Scharnhorst, the Prinz Eugen, the Emden, the Mainz, the König Albert, the Gneisenau and the Graf Spee. That's a lot of Elite Xp rolling in, so he has already returned my initial investment many times over.

I'm not saying that you are wrong - on the contrary, and judging solely from your post that I've quoted here, I'd say that you know a lot more about these things than I do. But from what I can recall, LWM usually recommends a secondary build on relevant ships mostly "for the fun value", and in spite of such a build being (according to her) less efficient if it just comes to winning the battle. And I also seem to have read somewhere that an IFHE build with the single aim of bolstering the secondaries, is no longer considered to be worth it even on such a ship as the Massachusetts - but I'm not sure if this was LWM:s opinion, or whether I read it somewhere else. Whatever the case may be, these evaluations tend to have as much to do with one's own personal playstyle as they do with straight up math and computation. As for me, I have neither the inclination nor the patience to do all the math and comparisons on my own - which is why I am so very grateful to people like Little White Mouse, who are gracious enough to do it for the benefit of everyone. For the record, I agree that cruisers bear watching. WG seems to have begun experimenting with giving some cruisers worthwhile secondaries, as of late. I wonder where that trail might lead...? Cheers!

To be fair to Wargaming, they have regularly done a first-rate job on their animations almost from the start of the game. So Captain T0byJugs explanation seems a likely one, to me.

I believe that the Gospel of IFHE is already written, by the esteemed Little White Mouse: https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/213359-ifhe-all-night-long/

That's precisely what I did, yeah. As a matter of fact, I seldom play CV:s outside of either Co-op or Scenario Battles, since I do so badly in them and I don't want to deprive my team of the effective services of their one and only CV.

I seriously doubt that the reign of the Hosho is coming to an end anytime soon. The Rhein dropped out of a container last week, and landed in my port. I've done one (1) battle in her so far, which went abysmally bad. But then again I am very bad at playing CV:s in general, so my performance is no clue to the Rhein's potential. I saw Toptier's video on the Weser, where he goes on to dish out an inhumane amount of damage to his fellow human beings, so the German Flugzeugträge can clearly be played to good effect. The trick seems to lie in knowing how to use those AP rockets, which can land absolutely filthy hits on cruisers and even battleships if you know how to aim properly. When your rocket planes have taken a beating, you can rely on your torpedoes to do some steady albeit limited amount of damage until you have printed a new squadron of rocket planes. The AP bombs seem to be slightly more RNG-dependent than your other ordnance, but I can't say for sure since that's also probably my own lack of skill talking.

I confess to having been somewhat lukewarm in my feelings toward the Orkan. But having read this.. ...I'm glad I bought her. And come to think of it, players have generally been much more apt at shooting at spotted targets in ranked than in normal random battles, which helps a lot if you're in a non-smoking DD and thus reluctant to open fire yourself. I shall have to wrap up my work and get home to try out some ranked battles forthwith. Yet another engaging and informative post from your prolific pen, Captain @Verblonde! Much obliged!

What I would recommend, is to try to always have a Commander camouflage on any ship with a 19-point captain. If you do this, it will quickly net you a metric ton of Elite Xp, which you can then use to promote other commanders to flag rank etc etc...

Thanks for letting me know, or I more than likely would have missed this! I bought a bunch of bundles, but it really is a bother having to buy them in packages of only ten at a time. I remember when they were sold in packages of 100 at a time, but I suspect the price per flag has increased since then. I don't quite remember what they used to cost...? Anyway, this Commander camo and the red-and-black one they call Victory Salute (or something like that), are by far the best ones I have seen on sale with this kind of wholesale deals. I sorta regret not buying the green-and-goöld Celtic one as well; it has less hefty bonuses but it's very good-looking!

Good to hear from you again, captain Saltface! I hope all is well with you? I also had the Cossack and the Lo Yang pegged as two strong destroyers for this season of ranked battles, maybe with the Kidd as a good contender. But the Orkan has just been a bit too frustrating to me, except for those occasions when I've teamed up with a buddy in a smoke-equipped destroyer. If you do that, and get the timing and maneuvering right, it can be brutally effective.

There will be at least a few ships with prominent depth charge racks remaining in the game, if Wargaming's latest promotion campaign is anything to go by... ...I'll get my coat.

Well, you would, wouldn't you? Avatar names aside, so do I. Having a hedgehog or squid launcher on board might actually give me a fighting chance when going up against a submarine in an early-game cap contest. So I guess we will see if WG intends to give destroyers - or ships from other classes as well, for that matter - a fighting chance, when the new submarines are introduced.

Surely, it can't be that the new U-boat class is about to be... coddled? Coddled to the point of removing any effective counterplay to all but a number of select ships and ship classes? Coddled in in order to ensure its appeal to that particular breed of player who will play CV:s only up to tier VI because ships at higher tiers can actually shoot down their planes? No, surely it can't be that. Edited: Irony aside, I believe there is a good possibility for making submarine gameplay balanced - if WG avoids making submarines user-friendly to the exclusion of all other concerns.

Congratulations, mate! Quick question about the Orkan: Can it really handle itself in ranked, when there are carriers around? I was figuring it to be rather no smoke + crappy AA = Sad Orkan Panda...?

Low-tier ships I still have fun in T1: Black Swan, Orlan T2: Tachibana (Lima), Mikasa, V-25, Emden T3: Bogatyr, König Albert, Nassau, Vampire T4: Shenyang, Orion, Kuma, Friant, V-170, Clemson At tier 1, I can have a good time with the sheer firepower of the Black Swan, or enjoy the speed of the Orlan (I think she's the fastest tier 1 ship in the game?). At tier 2, I drive the Tachibana (Lima) and the V-25 for fun, and the Mikasa and the Emden for the historical value. At tier 3, the Bogatyr is ridiculously strong with an AFT-specced captain aboard (and since she's Russian I can state this without any risk of having her nerfed). The König Albert brings the full majesty of the German Empire to the table, whereas the Nassau adds a fun touch of steam punk. The Vampire serves more or less as the pleasure yacht of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Harold Allen, proud commander of the Haida and the highest-ranked officer in my Commonwealth Navy. At tier 4, the Shenyang and the Clemson are superior in their respective roles as torpedo ninja and gunfighter respectively. The Kuma and the Friant still hold their own as excellent light cruisers at a tier where you can still hope to dodge battleship salvoes with any regularity. The Orion is quite simply the master of the seas in her role as the Great Battleship, a Behemoth at her tier.

Given how close to each other ships in a team start out at the beginning of a match, and the ridiculously small maps and narrow confines where the battles in WoWs take place, imposing harsher penalties for ramming a friendly would most likely have a hugely negative impact on the game. I don't know what forms of "stringent penalties" you have in mind, but if a collision with a team mate resulted in any kind of "realistic" damage, rammed by ally would quickly top the lists as cause of death. And if it led to a ban, or even just being tossed out of the game, I think the game would quickly become unplayable. Truth to tell, I have seen next to no griefing in the form of deliberate ramming or blocking in this game, which is a welcome difference from World of Tanks. This might be partly due to the fact that it is quite a bit more difficult to pull off such maneuvers in WoWs, but I like to think that it is mostly due to the WoWs player base being generally nice and friendly. There is certainly much less toxicity going on in the chat, for one thing. Imposing harsher penalties for ramming an ally is not only uncalled for, in my opinion, but it would also lead to a lot more unnecessary bad feelings between players. Of course, this is just how I see it. Individual experiences will doubtless vary!

This was news to me. In a case of collision, I think it would be fair if either both players, or none, should be pointed out by an automatic system. But if guilt must be assigned, basing it on the in-game karma score seems completely wrong. On the topic of bad luck with in-game penalties, I witnessed a situation about two weeks ago where a destroyer on almost no remaining hit points maneuvered in such a way as to collide with an allied battleship. It was not in any way an intentional ram, but the collision was very obviously caused by the destroyer. The net result, though, was that the destroyer sank and his battleship buddy turned pink for team killing. My heart went out to that battleship player, I hope he didn't toss his computer out the window. And this is just one example of many to showcase why I usually tend to give pink players the benefit of the doubt... it would appear that the Fickle Gods of War, too, have a dark sense of humour!

That once happened to me as well, with some goofball player in a cruiser trying to steal my smoke. Unfortunately for him I was in my Haida, so when he pushed me away I just took my smoke and left, and he ended up sitting still in the open with about half the enemy team piling metal on his sorry a$$. So that's one for the family album, all right...!

I tend to make a habit of always apologizing in chat if I have collided with a team mate, no matter how it occurred. It's the polite thing to do, as it can happen so very easily without being anyone's fault in particular.

New CVs incoming? - USS Curling, HMS Coddles and KMS Verhätscheln, ahoy! I am currently running the "Strong-Willed" campaign, in the hope of netting that special Polish captain Jerzy Swirski. One of the missions (should I choose to accept it) is to shoot down 300 aircraft, in Pan-European ships* of tiers VIII-X. Fair enough. Shooting down planes is always satisfying, and although I would have appreciated being able to do this mission in destroyers of any nation, the Pan-European Swedes are by far the most qualified for the task. If they get the chance, that is. The number of carriers present at higher tiers seems to have dwindled as of late. After cruising around in my Halland for a while, vainly looking for some turkeys to shoot down, I am tempted to speculate whether high-tier carriers may have gotten a bit shy at the same time when the Halland and her tier IX sister, the Östergötland, arrived on the scene? I must admit that finding myself pining for carriers, in any ship or ship class, is a new and slightly uncomfortable feeling. But after being their whipping boy while going through the lower and middle tiers, it is oddly annoying to find them less willing to come after me when I'm sailing in a ship that is actually capable of biting back. I didn't use to think too much about this, since the composition of ship classes at different tiers can have a lot of various explanations. But then I recently read a post by a CV player - let's call him "Dave" - who called for the destroyer Halland to be nerfed, since it made carriers "completely unplayable". According to Dave, he found it impossible to achieve anything on a flank where a Halland was present, since his planes kept getting shot down. Evidently, getting planes shot down to the point of being unable to mount an effective attack run, was a new a totally unacceptable experience for Dave. His outrage and sense of hurt was clearly genuine and heartfelt. This reaction amazed me. World of Warships is a PvP game of play and counter-play, where there possibility of outplaying or getting outplayed by your opponent is a vital part of the gameplay. There is supposed to be some form of equality of arms. If that is absent, one might as well play a single player game instead. In what kind of environment has Dave been nurtured and brought up, for him to expect to be able to ignore and just barge through the AA defenses of the strongest AA-dedicated destroyer currently in the game? ** Let me be clear that this is not an anti-Dave or anti-CV player statement. In the thread where he put up his post, I tried to address his concerns and reply to his questions to the best of my ability. It is the origin of his reaction that I find myself questioning. Have CV players been so coddled and pampered through tiers IV and VI, that a number of them find themselves unable or unwilling to deal with the experience of actual (semi)effective counterplay at tiers VIII and X? And is this the reason why there are comparatively fewer carriers around in battles at tiers IX and X than at lower tiers? I don't know if I'm kicking in open doors here, or what. It may of course also be that there is no actual disparity of CV numbers in top tier games, and that this thing is only in my mind. Be that as it may, I have - for now, at least - discontinued the turkey shoot mission, and started going for the free xp-collecting mission instead. Cheers! * A parameter which, by the way, begs the question whether WG is planning to release some Pan-European ships that are not destroyers. But that would be the subject of another post. ** Before Captain @El2aZeR arrives to kindly smack me over the head with the latest spreadsheet: Yes, I know that it is actually possible for an experienced enough CV player to evade and thus barge through the AA defenses of the strongest AA-dedicated destroyer currently in the game.