Trainspite

I know, the classic BC architype of poor armour (i.e. 10" and below) doesn't fit at high tiers, however, after HMS Hood, with it's 12" belt and armour comparable to the Queen Elizabeths, the BC effectively becomes a Fast BB, with slightly worse armour for good speed. Looking at some the high tier BC/Fast BB candidates you have: Most of these have similar specifications to the Fast Battleships like North Carolina or Iowa that succeeded them. So to top of a tree that starts with BCs, I would use these (J3 to G3, Amagi to Kii etc.) In my opinion, the Deutschland class fits as a tier 7 regular cruiser. Graf Spee as the same tier premium. Because effectively, they are fat but slow Heavy Cruisers which have traded out 8-10x 8" for 6x 11", which can make easier to slice open most cruisers. So tier 7 in a Panzerschiffe/Armoured Cruiser line for me.

Well, there are only so many museum ships that can be used I guess. IIRC, they used South Dakota class Alabama. I guess it was easier for them to use an existing ship and edit it than build a CGI model and interior set of a Portland class cruiser.

Well, Sydney did well for herself in the med beforehand. Though Perth is a nice choice, maybe we will Sydney at some point later or something.

I have my RN proposal in my signature, if you want to read for ideas. It is a little outdated, but for CAs & BCs it should still work. The last true BC is Renown for the RN, after that, it is effectively Fast BB, so getting a line to tier 10 is no problem ;)

Hmm. I had sketched this out as a second IJN DD line: I guess Kaba, Momi & Kawakaze still work at those respective tiers, but Fubuki at tier 6 does make it pretty difficult to balance things around, since I know not of the new stats that Fubuki would be assigned.

That is probably as good a bet as any for the tier 10. Something along the lines of Alsace with something bigger than 15".

I think it is safe to say I love this ship. Had about 5 or 6 100k+ damage games, and only three so far that were sub 30k damage. The guns are just awesome. Slicing open Warspites, New Mexicos, Nagatos etc. is quite fun.

Well, WG split classes and half sisters. Look at Nurnberg & Liepzig, Fubuki & Akatsuki etc. Strasbourg has an 11" armour belt (better than Amagi), compared to Dunkerque's 9" belt. She is overall, more armoured, 30mm on the turrets and a stronger deck overall. She is also slightly heavier, meaning more HP. She is a similar speed, and coupled with the best in tier 330mm guns, Strasbourg would be pretty formidable. The only thing I would say is possibly better accuracy at tier 7, and maybe a proposed AA refit along the lines of Richelieu, though Dunkerque's AA & Secondaries are not that bad, especially with the manual AA skill...

A French BB tree to me is: III - Courbet IV - Bretagne V - Normandie VI - Lyon VII - Strasbourg VIII - Richelieu IX - Alsace (380mm) X - Flandre (Fictional Alsace with 406 or 450mm) Jean Bart & Gascogne as T8 Premiums, And one of the Croiser-Bataille Studies as a T7 Premium. I placed Strasbourg at tier 7 because she should be a lot more capable than Dunkerque in terms of survivability, and with soft stat buffs, I can see her being a very good tier 7. Lyon is lower because she would be quite inflexible, and as Deamon said, the 340mm guns are not the best, especially compared to the 330mm.

Just find that French captain portrait, his stare would probably sum up your feelings right there.

It actually is. WG will mess around with it if need be, and did not see need be in this case. I do have a formula (made by Fro5sty from the NA server), which gives a fair indication of what the HP/Displacement equates to. The formula is not entirely accurate, and I think the biggest difference was Hindenberg, which is about 4k HP off. 9898 + (19'050t x 1.8525) = 45'188 That is pretty close to 45'000 if you ask me. I don't know exactly what Prinz weighs in game, but it should be similar to the quoted to that 19'050t. As for Hipper the same formula gives 44'169 for a displacement of 18'500t. Which is not too far off 43'800 which Hipper gets. Atago is inflated by 3k HP, still within limits or so and Zao/Senjo was nerfed from 46'000 or so I believe, for balance. New Orleans is roughly where she should be, since she weighs about 13.5k t in game I think. Yorck I am not so sure about, but 32'600 seems reasonable for a 10'000t treaty cruiser on full load at around 12'000t or so. So no, I wouldn't exactly say that Prinz Eugen has much room here to be that much more different. Unless WG do the Zao option of Prinz really needing a buff. Yes, it could be done, but Prinz with better HE is probably not what WG were aiming for. Plus it would undoubtedly make Prinz probably one of the best cruisers for doing damage, and reducing AA or so probably doesn't cut it that much. Maybe a little more nerfing in areas like maneuverability or so, and that could possibly work. As I said before, I doubt getting maneuverability buffs in exchange for the main source of damage for Hipper & Prinz is a good trade, since it would make the ship similar to New Orleans, which is pretty badly hated. (New Orleans has no significant advantage in firepower etc. - but best maneuverability). No, WG don't use the historical turning circles, but they use, roughly, parameters like the ships length to decide on a value. The longer ships usually have a longer turning circle for example. Of course game balance comes first, but WG don't entirely make the value up, there are a few factors to it from what I can see. Already seen, PHJ's review, and I don't exactly agree with buying another camo, it should really come as an option in my opinion, since Prinz is already likely to be quite expensive, unless WG take the Dunkerque route. Personally, I'm indifferent to Prinz having this as her specialty, since it doesn't affect me, since I rarely buy premiums. And I don't mind clone ships in the game as well, unless they are a design that only existed on paper, since I trust in WG to differentiate the ships to a certain degree. I did suggest differentiating Prinz from Hipper a little more when giving feedback on the ship, but I do feel that the options you have suggested are a little too extreme to those affects, but that is probably your preference since you like different gameplay styles. In all, I don't mind that much about ships like Prinz really, but I wouldn't exactly like the experiment to fail, since I am not that obsessive about different gameplay, and I think it would be okay for a few players who want to be that efficient to have a few ships like Eugen around.

Maybe WG EU is more concerned about the balance at tier 3 than WG NA. I'm not trying to suggest that WG EU would not release it at all, but it could be made less available. Though I am concerned about it going straight to the tech tree. Well, the equivalent is putting a stock Wyoming at tier 3, which is slightly worse in a few areas. I don't like that idea at all, from a balance perspective. Two of the T4 cruisers readily available are excellent counters to BBs, and one of them is arguably overpowered. Even Nikolai doesn't fair as well against Kuma and Phoenix. So expecting Konig Albert to is a little silly. The effect on T3 gameplay though is a bit more profound I would think. I'd buy one, since it would be pretty overpowered, and I like my history, but I don't want it to be permanently on sale.

HP is usually based on Displacement, so I would doubt WG would try and increase Eugen's HP much more. The ship has a displacement/weight, but I need to go pay gamesmodels3d for that. It should be slightly heavier than Hipper anyway. HE shells, maybe, it would definitely make her more comfortable to play, then again, there is not much reason to try and ahistorically different from Hipper in aspects like that. A better Hipper is not what is really needed, since an HE buff would be quite significant, since while testing Prinz, that was one of my gripes about the ship. Radar would be decent, but I fear that with the upcoming radar-wielding British light cruisers, radar would be too commonplace at the high tiers. I don't feel like removing good AP for very good maneuverability is a good trade. First off, it would be pretty unhistorical, and while WG are not exactly known for being historically accurate, some stats of the ships like turning circle are often based off the ships historical characteristics. Game balance comes above, but WG don't seem to like fiddling with stats like that much. And taking away the AP prowess that Eugen possesses would significantly reduce her damage capability, so I doubt she would be that successful in the sales department. 8km, 60 knot torpedoes would not be a bad idea, though it wouldn't make Eugen that much more special. The equipment slots is also a decent-ish idea, though to be balanced, she might need to be nerfed a little. Either way, WG has decided to give Eugen a credit and commander XP bonus over other premiums, so that is her unique-ness I guess.

No problems! I could go and list the differences between Indianapolis & Pensacola other than armament, but the ships play the same. I should have bought Indianapolis to be honest, since I love Pensacola, but I am a stingy person, and bought Dunkerque instead. Also of note, Northampton uses the same triple mounts, and has the same configuration as Indianapolis, but in most other respects is similar to Pensacola, being slightly lighter (hence less HP), and having 15mm more armour over the engines, at the expense of 5mm less than Pepsi over the magazines. So Northampton is a pretty decent bet for a T7 Heavy Cruiser in a second USN Heavy cruiser line. New Orleans also used the same guns (Mk.14), the only one of her class to do so.

Both Pensacola and Indianapolis use the USN 8"/55 Mk.14 in game, the difference being the gun arrangement. Aside from that, Pensacola has better dispersion, 141m to 150m which is a stat WG use as a balance, as compared to range, which is usually based on the height of the rangefinder, hence why Indianapolis gets more. But they are similar enough ships, the differences are not that significant in terms of firepower.

*braces self for World of Konig Albert at tier 3* Basically the tier 3 Nikolai, so a must have, and that is not counting the historical aspect.... (Unless EU know it is OP and don't want it available, for balance, which is reasonable enough)

Well, those two have a historical excuse for those features. Trying to differentiate Prinz Eugen from Admiral Hipper is more difficult, since you are mostly restricted to consumables. And there are limited options on that really. Radar and smoke would be a little iffy, considering how the upcoming British light cruisers have both. A repair party like Atago would make her OP in all honesty. Maybe switching the slots for Hydro & Defensive AA around or something, so both can be used at once.

Well, how would most other players have it? What annoys them most with the ship? Mostly it is being average, with basically no advantages, yet still a fair few disadvantages (HP pool etc.). I'm trying to work within limits, like range restricted by the height of the rangefinder, HP based on displacement etc. Maybe New Orleans could get instead of a fighter, a scout plane to help her out a bit, as well as a a RoF increase to help put her gun firepower noticeably better than others, like Mogami, and semi- on a par with Hipper, but with better HE etc.

It would not have been considered lazy if it had been released before the German cruiser line, but it comes out about a year afterwards. ^^

I'm starting to think that I should replace my favourites with the ships I quite like, and no one else does. - Myogi - Excellent in my opinion, does quite reliable damage, and the speed makes her very flexible. - Mutsuki - Can do pretty well in the right hands, but very situational. - Kolberg - Re-bought it. Got a confederate in the second game. Didn't stop the team from failing though. - Pensacola - Use AP and citadel other cruisers to oblivion. - Kawachi & SoCar - They are not that bad you know... I got a solo warrior with Kawachi, and I kept SoCar for ages. - Karlsruhe - At least it is better than Svietlana. It isn't Kuma or Phoenix levels of OP, but it is a solid performer. I kind of wish people would stop writing these ships off.

Don't you dare say these are bad: - New Mexico - Pensacola - Furutaka or Kuma - Decide, I cannot between those two. I'd rather not: - Hatsuharu - Novik - Sampson

Remove Pensacola? Nope. Nope. She is excellent. Go around farming inferior cruisers with that awesome AP. A potential CL line is this: VI - Proto Brooklyn - 4 Triple turrets. 6-7 RoF or so. Quite similar to Cleveland as is, only more vulnerable, with less AA. VII - Brooklyn (RoF nerfed to 6-7) VIII - Cleveland (Helena & Fargo as premiums) IX - Worcester X - Super Worcester (4 Triple 20RPM turrets - Probably 15-16 for game balance) Basically the USN equivalent of Minotaur Z4. Cleveland can be replaced at tier 6 by a proto-Pensacola - which is part Omaha, part Pensacola.

Fast firing, poor shell arc, pretty good HE spammer. In terms of playstyle, I think they are similar enough. Of course there are differences, like with a 60kg shell vs a 25kg one, so Tiger's AP has to be reckoned with. sooner than Atlanta's. And that Tiger/Blake displaces substantially more than Atlanta, meaning more HP.

I would think Blake would be a decent tier 7 premium. Similar to Atlanta in ways. Blake, so not to conflict with the BC Tiger.