NicramDuel

Quick question, just for the sake of it, while we're at it... There's this one coming up... @MrConway, @Tuccy, @Crysantos

I might be totally blind...Where exactly IS the arsenal? I guess it's here, but whenever I click on it, it's just an infinite loading screen, NEVER moving on to anything else... Edit: reinstalling the test client worked for me, too.

Lol...in that case, this isn't even a typo...that seems to have actually been their intentions then to actually award 250% exp. Either their mission implementer was drunk, or they changed their mind... Let's hope they'll change it. And perhaps add an extra day to it, now that some of us may have used at least one set of special flags for this mission (although for some poor reason, I chose not to apply them for this specific round, only a previous one where I didn't make the top 3 count).

It is obvious that either deliberately or by accident, neither of us seems to get anything across to the other. So on my behalf I will put no more effort into this pointless arguement between us - at least, not here and not now. One last thought: "Well. not that people like you haven't claimed the very same thing for nearly 3 years, without it ever becoming true anyways." May you, for both of our, and for everyone else's sake, be correct regarding the next few years. I sincerely beg for an opportunity to apologize in 3 years time. And may it never have to happen the other way around. No offence meant, and none taken.

Personal experience =/= personal bias A brutal excess of players quitting for one particular reason over any other reason from any focus group (e.g. the people I know that quit) =/= opinion. It's a fact. That "tick box" is indeed checked out, even if we did not agree upon it, since you decided to one-sidedly tick it out. As I could also simply tick out the box, without any regard or even reading your lines that you're just trying to defend yourself as a hurricane league player. Even if I would perhaps be wrong, I could still do the same thing. Not that I will. Similarly to not wanting/being able to change your opinion, or even focus. Another fact, consider if you will, a history lesson. The exact same conversation, with the exact same arguments, although by different phrasing has gone down a few years ago, in WoWp. Yes, you can say that this is all I can reach out to: wowp-wowp-wowp. Well, thing is, it's also a WG title. With a possibly very similar mistake being made right now, here. The same disregard for MM back in the day could now safely be assumed to be a disastrous decision. With a lot of invested cash of a lot of players...players who wanted to enjoy the game. The main investment, of course, was not for a particular gudplane, but for the sake of being able to enjoy that game at future dates for years to come. These arguments started when there were 5k+ online players at daytime. The voices were very strong from both sides, votes happened and representative data was available by the plenty. WG didn't care, player base plummeted, the effect of the remaining veteran players in sealclubbing/statpaddling squads amplified (due to a declining player base)...yada yada... finally, a few years later WG even removed the online player count when the game fell under 100 (one hundred) online players during peak times. Oh, the game is still running, all right! You can even enter games right now. Of course, you might have to wait a bit at tiers 7+ for a single opponent to have a 1+9 bots vs 1+9 bots game (perhaps even a little longer, god forbid, than the then-possible-increase-in-waiting-time-for-opuniqumsuperstarproace-squads-in-the-queue), but hey! It's still playable. ;) History lesson's over. Right now, this is not even a semi-iminent threat for WoWS, I would safely assume this game has at least two years of a relatively stable future. Perhaps three. But the effects will be visible even in a year's time if things go on like this with MM frustrating the -CENSORED- out of so many average players. Most games eventually wither away anyways, but the pace at which it happens...well, developers do have some say in it. And I would like to play this game for a long time. Years. And not end up like I did in that other game of WG. As for the modes you suggested...sorry, but no. I want the random mode to be fun. CW's require 7 players online at the same time...and in any given clan, 7 players does NOT mean they're evenly skilled, even if you can get 7 players together from a non-progress clan. CW's, especially the one coming up will truly try to pit similar teams against each other...but that will, again, happen perhaps 4 times a week, and not necessarily on the days that all of us can afford to play. And as for ranked...well, lol. Again, I want to PLAY. Support the team. Work together to take out the enemy. Perform well...and be rewarded adequately for doing so. This season was NOT about beating the enemy team, for all the experience I gained. It was about beating the 6 other players on YOUR team by any means necessary. That is not my definition of playing a fun, entertaining, yet challenging game. [EDIT: as long as the official "ranked" mode of the game is mostly about how to screw over and then outperform your teammates at the first sign of a possible loss, instead of rewarding beneficial personal skills and true teamplay, I don't even want to hear the words "WoWS ranked", let alone participate in it any further] The closest thing in this game to what I would enjoy is the random mode. A mode where players would, to some (and not any!) extent be randomly selected - but with some factors being considered very seriously to keep the game fun. And not practically decided in a very significant amount of cases already just by the paper format of taking a swift glance at the team rosters. Although making a biased assumption on your quote "In the end, random battles are random", and yet another biased assumption on your Hurricane status, I'd conclude that you couldn't care less for any changes whatsoever in the current MM system. However, against all odds, I'd actually ask you... would you? And if so, how would you consider them to be effective?

Nice opener. Hello to you too. I did not do scientific research on the matter, indeed. Indeed I speak, although just partially, of self experience: I've quit the game for shorter-longer periods due to this sole cause of frustration, nothing else. For the other part, 6 of my clan's former/currently inactive members have ended their wows career due to this same reason, and three other close friends quitted for similar causes. In my surroundings, this is the primary cause of hiatus/quitting the game. by far. Games that simply cannot be influenced by a single player in such cases, and games where you, being on a casual squad will earn you a super-uniqum squad on the enemy. Agreed. In the form I've stated it, it is far from perfect. There was a later suggestion of only regarding WR and PR for MM - that is perhaps a better measure. As for differently-ranked divs, you missed this point: "- Other squads, who are not from the same clan could either be weighed on their averaged clan league rating, or simply on player rating." I still feel, at this point though, that the suggestion of Aragathor (WR+PR) is better. I didn't say I know what exactly has to be done. But I will state, right here and right now that unless the WoWP fiasco is to be repeated, SOMETHING has to be done, because in the current form, MM is a total disaster. Which disaster contributes to a huge amount of stress generated by the game (and which could be avoided). And if a game develops too much stress, people will eventually decide for the better. Any change in MM will favour some, and penalize some. The key to a good change, in my opinion (in which however, I may be wrong), is to benefit a vast majority, in a way that doesn't necessarily overpenalize those that do not deserve it. As long as you cannot reach the developers themselves, and CS is the only link to them, you assume that they are the medium between you and the devs - especially if they STATE that they WILL help. This is off-topic, and I would perhaps be moderated if I share the 6-7-round communication I had with CS before I quit WoWP. The story is, that they said they will help me fix a very serious issue in-game. One day I logged in, only to find that 2/3's of my achievements were completely erased from existence. They said they will fix this, if I can provide evidence about it. Thing is... I did. Only then did they pull back, in a fashion of "errr...ehm...uh...hang on a sec", and they still can't contact anyone to make that 2-minute adjustment in my database profile to add back the fraction of achievements that I could prove (some I didn't have replays/screenshots of, so I let those go). The thing is, what really bothered me was not the fact of losing some petty achievements - but the fact that they couldn't be straight: "Dude, no one is available to do this for you, no one is developing wowp any more. Sorry about your medals, here's a cookie, and perhaps a little extra, now scram." However, for the exact answer: No, customer support's job isn't to know how to fix it. Their job is to know who to contact, and generally, how to link devs and players together... WITH SOME ability to intervene into the physical aspects of the game, such as account-specific goods and services, account retrieval, etc. Maybe I'm wrong in this sense, but this is my (positive) experience, with another big gaming company, Blizzard.

Yes, that is indeed what I sometimes feel, too. It baffles my mind to even start to assume that such insane incompetence even exists. To show such traits in connection to something that could directly transfer into pure profits, as a developer... I too feel that this is actually intentional. To be honest, I'm not sure either on how the exact details should look like, but I do know that the main toxicity of the MM is the issue with the common occurence of opposing teams with totally unequal skill levels - and thus, a practically decided game from the moment the loading screen appears. Perhaps WR and PR would indeed be better. Although I still uphold the notion that at the high-end, uniqum performances deserve special attention (to be paired with a similar adversary) to keep things competitive, fun, and not blatantly one-sided. On the other hand, lining up same amounts of 2-man, 3-man squads would be so easy, and provide at least some form of relief when checking the initial roster. "Yay, we got a 2-man-squad, they have a 2-man and a 3-man squad...". In all honesty, and without any intentions of sounding like it's something personal... yes, this would indeed be aimed towards any two or three of you guys deciding to create a team which has the potential to single-handedly erase a complete, 12-man-opposition. Why I don't want to sound personal is because I acknowledge that you worked hard to reach what you have in the game (be it ranked, CB, KOTS). Apart from ranked though (hopefully!), all other such feats require knowledge and skills that are not common, at the very least. Besides live communication, you also have a variety of skills, collectively referred to the "Git gud factor". While you already are at tops in this sense, and bring this knowledge to the games, your opposing team is still at a level where not one of the 12 players (DD's included sometimes!) even dares to enter one of the caps, let alone contest/deny it. Such battles are not even a game, let alone fun. They're a one-sided statpaddling massacre. And while I know you are having a blast while 3-manning, please believe me...many others are not enjoying this. Especially not when one such player spends 11(!) hours playing, does 30 games... and has neither of the three-win-plus-5000 base exp-daily-challenges completed. Due to the lack of wins. I would like to share three pictures from yesterday. By that time my mind was already melted from the previous MM's. If the new "afk-penalty" mechanism wouldn't be in effect, this would have been the game where I would have bailed at the very start. At this point, please allow me to express my respect for those who won the game for the enemy team - all did awesomely! The fact is, however, that, when you check your roster, and not only see no "big names/clans" on your side, but not even a single player that sports a skill-based emblem - while the other team has a Hurricane squad of three known uniqum players, at least three others with Elite Forces emblems, and quite a few more with more common skillblems...well, you might not even care about the enemy having twice as much squads. Sadly, I wasn't online to take screenshots of the battle results (due to a finally all-consuming nerdrage in alt f4'ing from this "game"), but the outcome is obvious, and was from the start. Notable points of the game are the good composition of such a squad, designed for a (later successful) push. The rare knowledge of when to vanish from enemy view (a rare and nearly unknown skill for the regular player - this skill can commonly be observed at all three uniqums being hurt, but somehow, hardly ever killed). Well-organized crossfiring. And constantly focusing correctly-chosen priority targets. As the opposing team, some of us at least had a vague idea of where to make a stand, and how to make it, but the majority did not push (again, self-sacrifice, or trusting your allies to sieze the opportunity of making something from your push), only to be pickled down one after the other. This is just one instance out of many where one team's superiority is easily applied to the end result. I have stopped playing squads for quite some time now with good friends, sadly. Because this way I at least have some chance to get a statpaddler squad on my side...but if I myself am on a squad, as a non-uniqum, I am bound to face off against one, and ultimately, only dooming my mates and self to another forgettable slaughter. tl;dr: Yes, at the expense of a somewhat extended wait-time for the super-uniqum players (provided they wish to join as a three-man stat-squad), I would like to see more even-sided and competitive games where the majority of players (including myself) can feel a little more like being in an actually mutually entertaining game, and not spending 10-15 minutes of my life being a target dummy. And no, hurricane squads, by all means, are not at all rare.

- As long as WG developers are not directly connected to, and adequatly process player feedback; - And as long as MM is unchanged and allows for totally unbalanced, one-sided annihilations... ...This will be the second game after World of Warplanes that WG can flush down the drain. For years, we have consistently made suggestions, provided feedback, tried to solve problems there...to no avail. It was the same stuff there too: the issue of super-squads in unevenly mm'd games, for instance...and now look where the game is. Dead. Even official customer support has no clear idea exactly who to rally wowp issues. It would provide for much less mm-based tension and stress if the following would be implemented: - Each team will have exactly the same amount of 2-man, and exactly the same amount of 3-man squads during MM (new squads may be formed during play). - 2-man and 3-man clan-squads should have no more than one league's difference between the opposing squad of the same number. Except for Hurricane League clan-squads: these players could only join if another Hurricane squad with an equal amount of members joins. - Other squads, who are not from the same clan could either be weighed on their averaged clan league rating, or simply on player rating. - Each team would recieve the same amount of rank 1 players, rank 2-9 players, rank 10 and + players. - Other, current implementations, such as equal ship-type layouts could stay. Also, the hard barrier of +2 battles at t5 is indeed too extreme. Instead, corresponding percentages should be introduced at each specific tier as to exactly what chances a player would have to be thrown into a higher-tier game (and likewise, how often could (s)he get lucky to be top tiers). The chances at t5 to be thrown into t7 for instance should be much more rare than they are now.

At first I thought it was an accident. After all, all of us have that odd disconnect during games, even CV and DD players (who are critical to the success of a game, provided there are any of them in the first place). However, the second time I saw him today, I had a bad feeling about what was coming...and indeed. All squads were sent to the righthandmost column of the map, where they were intercepted by the enemy cv, and totally erased. No more squads took off, and somehow, although it baffled my mind...he was the second to go down in the game (probably spotted by enemy CV, and nuked by pushing enemy BB's). Even if due to an accidental, coincidental disconnect/IRL emergency afk/etc, the carrierless team is nearly certainly doomed... ...But when there's such a player who INTENTIONALLY loses and MAKES the team lose...that's a whole different level of lameness and toxicity. Although, in this case, maximum respect+kudos to our team for keeping high heads, and an actually very happy atmosphere in chat (we actually had good laughs with some guys while having the snot kicked out of us :D ). Usually, this would result in an instant flame-war. How is it even possible, under the current sanctions, for such a *edit human to even be allowed to log on, let alone continuously ruin the chances (and perhaps flag/camo/time investments) of other players? I thought there's an ever-increasing volume of punishment towards truly afk, malicious "players". Or no?

...And what a beast she is! I tried to do a relatively average test run on her. Checked how well or unwell she can damage BB's and DD's with her nukes AP shells, and generally goofed around a bit. I intentionally tried not to add economic flags to this run, except for the commander exp one, but in my giddiness I accidentally added Zulu to the mix, thus an extra 120k came in. She looks like a decent earner, perhaps on par with the t9 BB premiums... But utility,-and funwise... This Lady wins it in my eyes! All she has to offer can now be yours, for a mere 750.000 free exp! Welcome to the fray, Kronshtadt!

They're actually awesome, but I still had 200+ before this opened... I'd gladly trade 'em for a radar modification then! :D Now, let's just hope our transport ships do not have to pass through an epicenter game, with dd's camping on both sides... :D

Nope, but I'm breaking a sweat, trying my best! I can feel it, just a little more to go!

Back on track with the original post. Firstly, I think it was a mistake not to include a vote/poll in this thread (if there was any intention whatsoever to get a somewhat representative idea on what people actually think about credits or no credits in SC's). Perhaps it's not too late. Secondly, regardless of the outcome, there will always be two groups: 1. Those who have either one or a combination of the following: owning and commonly using a mid/hightier premium ship, having a premium account, owning premium camo on a t10 ship of choice, or the pleasure of constantly playing with any mid/lowtier ships up to lvl 8. These players will probably never require credits from containers. 2. Those who lack the ownership and incentive of all the above. (E.g: players who enjoy the simultaneous grinding of multiple branches, or those prefering tier 9-10 battles without premium backup and very good/unicum skill to make those rounds profitable). They would be happy to see credits in-game. Both groups have a valid argument. An overall "make us happy" solution would be to implement a preference setting, where you can disable one single type of reward from appearing in SC's: -disable credits -disable consumable modifications -disable doubloons -disable reward ships -disable whatever I left out, except for flags and camos (even if frustrating at times, these are still a means for reducing too many special handouts via this reward system. I ended up with 100 juliet charlie's two days ago, wasn't too happy, but could have been much worse, lol). I am one of those who personally would detonate in a rage-fit if I got credits out of a SC (usually above 100M+ on my account), but I would be all for having credits available from SC's again - as long as there would be a way to opt-out from recieving them, and only get rewards I'd actually use. The same would probably be true for those who would love to have credits from SC's...and would be more than happy to exclude, for instance, the consumable modifications (which I would however, love to recieve more of!).

I play the Russian Cruisers as my main, and generally enjoy them. As others have mentioned, with the exception of the Kirov (there's a necessary difficult one in every branch - luckily here this case happens early), all are exceptional and actually fun to play (generally). The main hardship is that you need at least a 10-point captain to get any of these ships to start working well, and 14 to make you feel comfortable with them (the order you choose CE or IFHE is up to your playstyle - except for the Chapayev where CE is actually what I'd strongly suggest). Budyonny: A breath of fresh air after the Kirov: You'll have good range, decent fires with influential damage - while finally being able to have actual range between you and your foes. Shchors: Even more firepower: You get an extra turret of 3 shots/7.5 seconds, and with an even higher fire chance than Bud, you can take the Budyonny's experience to a new level. Use AP only on rare occasions, this is the typical he-spammer. Chapayev: Perhaps the true "top of the branch". She can handle well, and you'll have approximately the same experience in her as with the last two boats - the real new thing about her, is that not only does she get the radar (at hull B), but if Concealment Expert is already learned by your captain, you can actually sneak up (!) on prey without being detected! Your radar's range is 11.7 km, while if fully stealthed, your detectability will be 10.2 km. What this translates into is that you're basically a DD-killer whenever the time comes - and as soon as you are detected by anything in the open while in stealth mode, well...they're dead. Pop radar, aim, win.:) And if no such thing is occuring at the moment, you have a whopping 7 km safety zone to hide back into whenever you're in trouble: your guns can reach 17.3 km's range. Donskoi: To be honest, this is an AMAZING ship - and even though it is with her that I've produced - by FAR - my worst win and damage ratios in high tiers, this is due to the single reason of a truly cancerous early-2018 meta. And the main problem is the BB epidemic. Not that battleships mean too much of a problem to handle in general: By this time you've already learned to kite, fiddle with your propulsion, and perhaps even adapted a non-potato aim. And not even the fact that there's many of them. You can still choose your own engagements as a Donskoi, and you can do so from a range of over 20km (!) with the right module. The main issue, in fact... is not even the enemy. It's the typical reta...potato BB's of your own team that generally lead to your early demise. Without exaggerating, in over half of my games with this boat, I was being the primary (and only possible!) target of the enemies whenever I opened fire from maximum range. The average BB player strongly believes that a scratch on his paint is equal to a 9/9 citadel salvo against him, that he can do 300k damage and carry the team from 22-25-27 km's range, and the mere mention of bow-tanking is a sin in their eyes. And let me tell you, as a t9, you'll regularly be sent into t10 battles, in general, approximately 70% of the time. With 80-90% of the playerbase prefering safety over fun and performance, you'll have a hard time while being the only potential target for the enemy. But if you adapt to the general cowardice, and very carefully choose your locations and engagements (a lesson I've learned too late, only in the last approx. 100k exp's in the boat), or if you're just lucky to have a single BB who has balls, you'll have amazing performances! Your armour scheme will finally feel a bit more safe, and you'll also have torpedoes with 8 km range to finally be a viable form of countermeasures. And the radar is still a thing. Generally, do the same thing as you did in t6-t7 (and what you usually do with a non-hyperagressive Chapa): for the first half of the battle, stay at long range, and make sure you aim well (low rates of fire and rounds compared to earlier ships) - and move in as the battle gradually progresses. Moskva: Actually a very strong ship, with a brutal 22.6 km range - you can practically shoot throughout the game. You actually have a lot of options to play her: either camp or be on a move at max range. If you're focused, ALWAYS turn into your attacker from long range, and never show broadside. If well angled (25-30° compared to your enemy), you'll shrug off very large amounts of incoming fire. Once you're locked in battle, don't really rely on your otherwise amazing speed - acting like a BB is what worked for me the most: nose angled (perfect bowtanking will get you citadelled like a broadside minotaur), slowly back-and-forth-movement, and start fires on whatever you can. Also, keep an eye out for vulnerable cruisers - HE-spamming is not all this beauty has to offer. Use AP, score some citadels, then keep burning the BB's. When stationary, use hydro, and you'll generally be fine, as long as, again... as long as you're not the only one in range of the 7-8 enemy ships that have clustered up in front of you, while your own BB's are enjoying their safety at your expense from 2-3 km's behind you (with most of them not shooting anyways, lol). From my experience the Moskva is actually very good at shutting down advancing pushes and flanks in all areas apart from actually contested caps. By the time you get there, a DM or a Mino will already be in a better position, so only attempt to flush out enemy DD's early at your own risk - you won't be able to disengage the cap once you're committed: turning out/broadsiding nearly anything will mean instant death, and your backpeddling speed won't save you either with your 13.8 km detection radius. However, you'll be surprised at how many 1-on-1 fights you can handle, given the average players you'll be facing. The greatest shock will come from 1v1'ing full-hp-Yamato's...while you're out in the open, many miles from any concealing island. If the Yamato doesn't know where to aim, and keeps trying to hit your side, she's dead. And most players don't know where to aim.;) Three personal suggestions I'd like to add. 1. RU cruisers work best as support ships, so even if it's a pain, stick within the proximity of the bulk of your BB fleet. This way exposing yourself to their generally clumsy, lazy, cowardly playstyle, but with extra focusable targets around you, who the enemy will start focusing once you've dodged a few enemy salvos and thus proved to be too difficult of a target to hit to be worth any further efforts. Be it a good spread or a simple lemming train, this is your best chance to maximize your influence on the game: hydro-spotting torps for your BB's, denying easy kills for enemy DD's, and eventually, you can take part in one or more of the main shootouts in the given game. 2. Most RU cruisers have a decent, if not great AA defence, and can carry defensive AA fire to vastly boost this when the need comes. However, in the majority of games, there's no CV, but a lot of occasions when torps need to be spotted, or enemies will end up so close to you that hydro comes in handy in every single battle. I would strongly suggest hydro over defensive AA in any RU cruiser - I've even switched my Kutuzov to this setup recently. It really pays off - makes gameplay a lot safer, you can save much more allies than with def AA, and in some cases, you can even flush out proxy DD's and RN cruisers when your radar is already on cooldown. 3. Light up as many things as you can. If something's burning, switch to light up something else. Unless the previous target extinguished the first flames - in this case provide him with all the love you have to offer: 3-4 new kindlings should keep'em nice and warm, and serve as a great lesson to them in not to instantly reduce your damage on them...or else! tl;dr: Ru cruisers are among the best support vessels in the game - you excel at dealing damage and situational anti-DD manoeuvres while protecting the bulk of your fleet. If you play them well, and are always on the move, you will rarely get hit, and collective enemy focus will subside after you dodge a few salvo's (or simply shrug them off when in Moskva). Don't over-extend, don't be that single target for the enemy (unless in Moskva, Moskva actually fares well in most cases), and definitely...NEVER go alone (unless in Moskva- there you can sometimes get that to work if you're on the right map to do a safe solo-flank, like on tears of the desert or sleeping giant). 10 or 14 skills into the captain with CE and IFHE (unless in...you guessed it! Moskva! She doesn't need IFHE unless you really hate the Montana's)... and you'll be fine!:)

No wonder, according to LWM's review: https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/157327-premium-ship-review-duca-degli-abruzzi/ Apparently, in her current, final-release-form, she has been calibrated in such a fashion that WG simply decided to not mention her to any ill-fated potential buyers... The Italian ships are in general awesome, but this one... proceed with caution, and act at your own risk...

Madness... Insanity... :D

(Ashahio's) efficiency, effectivity, or chance to win in battle (regarding setup of enemies). Perhaps (WG's) concept of Ashahio. ...Or the level of frustration/anxiety of a team (when they see Ashahio)... :D

At first I felt like defending the player. Just very recently, while playing Kutuzov, I ran out of one of the commander-xp-camos (resupplied automatically), and realised I'm "naked" in the next battle. On some rare occasions, even premium ships might ditch their originally free camos for specific grinding, and even more rarely, you might catch such a ship off-guard, who just ran out, with no more camo on. They will realize their errors fast, and resupply something for the next game(s). However, just before you I posted a game where the braindead-factor was pretty high...after being in multiple battles where the braindead factor was...well...again, high. So, I am currently tending to assume that the more common case of yet another Lost One has appeared (since they seem to have multiplied over the past weekend). Therefore, taking a sneaky advantage of your not-perfect image editing, I checked the names of the two possible delegates (only 1 result came for both searches - woohoo!), and quickly found that only one of them has the Atago. Sadly, you are spot-on... I would like to show the results of combining this player and this ship (with primary focus to the damage dealt and the PR)...and...I too...feel the need...well...not for what Maverick felt in Top Gun. Luckily, he only attempted 1 RB in it. Along with the Prinz Eugen. Wasn't too successful in either, he'll probably stick with the BB's from now on. He might have camos on them, though - enemies beware!

...When you see a Montana, a Kurfürst, and a Yamato, you're happy that FINALLY, SOMEONE will know how to tank in a BB. You start the game with a smile. Then it fades. - Not a single(!!!) DD went to cap, but after seeing they'd have no support, I can understand that. I also kicked on the brakes after seeing what was about to transpire. - ALL T10 BB's max-ranging. Respect to the Republique, who got some damage in, though. - ALL ships, of ALL SQUADS joined the lemmingtrain, with minimal contribution. - For a brief period, I beared the brunt of _9_ focusings, got 1.6M potential damage (nothing new here in itself, the interesting issue was the speed in which this accumulated.). I'm not sure how I got out of D8 alive - luckily I did, and even then I turned back toward the ingressing fleet as a last-ditch effort. Following my instincts, I felt a DD closeby, finally got to use the radar, and got a few shots (10k damage) into the Z. Apart from me, not a single shot was fired / fork given to the suddenly appearing DD. Seriously, I would be happy to see potential damage being more rewarded xp and creditwise. Thus, perhaps, we would have a little less total wastes of BB's piloted by braindead people in the game.

Two more versions: 1a: Following an exceedingly successful torpedo salvo, 1 CV and 2 BB's were annihilated, with a cruiser and 5 dd's surviving it (probably launched by a Ashahio, as the torps went under them). 1b: Following an exceedingly successful torpedo salvo, 1 CV and 2 BB's survived it (with or without sustaining hits), while a cruiser and 5 dd's were struck and sunk simultaneously in a show that I'd like to see, too. 2a: Team killer bonanza: a CV and 2 BB's (probably in a squad) somehow managed to take out 1 cruiser and 5 dd's either before they succumbed to team-killer demise, or before the game ended without their destruction. 2b: Team killer bonanza: a CV and 2 BB's (probably in a squad) somehow managed to survive 6 teamkiller attacks (1 CL and 5 DD's), with all 6 attackers exploding during the game. ... And the bonus: A team of 9 players saw only 3 active: Apart from the CV and the 2 BB's, the cl and the 5 dd's were afk or didn't load the map. Or, as in a case that happened to me: The server went dodgy, all players were ejected, and only the CV and 2 BB's could reload the map. Eventually.

A CV and 2 BB's as a division took out 2 cruisers and 5 dd's :D EDIT: math wrong, 1 cruiser, 5 dd's.

This. 65 hp left (and no repair party consumables).

Motivational video: The good thing about this video is that it shows how to hide, what happens when these beasts of guns hit their mark, and what those few torpedoes can do. :D As for buying a user-friendly, relatively easy premium ship...I don't know. There aren't too many options nowadays. A good idea might be to start the normal tech trees after some research on them (and to judge preliminary which one would suit you the most) - all the while not giving up on the GS. :)

Graf's actually a pretty amazing ship in well-accustomed hands, and can pack a tremendous punch to anyone taking this beast lightly (I've learned the hard way: 'Yay, lower-tier cruiser, let's just open up a bit, aim with all guns, shoot, wooot, this'll work, aim again, and...WTF JUST HAPPENED?!?!). Just give it time, and a lot of games - you'll get to know her inside-out! Getting started is always the hard part. Not just because of learning something new - but because the captain still lacks skills. Once you get that concealment upgrade, you'll really be able to decide when and where to attack - and by that time you'll already "feel" what to do and what not to in her. Some suggestions: 1. Use premium consumables, if you didn't so far (buy them for credits, of course) - these will give you much more resilience and chances to recuperate after mistakes. 2. In the early stages of the game, especially when you're lower-tier, start off defensively, and NEVER rush into battles. On the other hand, if you are lucky enough to have smoke-bearing british cruisers around you, tag along for a spot in that smoke (however, you might want to wait until you have the Concealment expert skill)! 3. Take advantage of the weekly operation! It's for T6's - and a great place to test what this boat can do. In just 4-5 games, you'll see how the enemy spawns, and how this operation goes. Due to the enemy being bots, you can easily deal damage by letting other allies get closer. Or just exploit the terrain. Lots of things work there. Not exactly a free-win-operation like Hermes was, but you still have a good chance to win - lots of credits, exp, and practice!:) The first battle I ever had in WoWS was in a Kutuzov. I was thinking about downloading the game for a very long time, about a year. I learned from another Wargaming game, WoWPlanes, that a T8 premium can solve any and all exp/credit problems, and they can really provide for a fun game. I wanted something that was relatively easy to handle, and generally plays support. On paper, the Kutuzov seemed like the best choice for what I wanted (help shoot down planes - even though I had no idea whatsoever of how planes even participate in battles lol), so I bought it after entering a friend's invite-code, and Voila! I failed miserably. Not even sure if we won or not, but I remember doing about 10k damage. For the next 300-400 battles I averaged 40-50k damage, trying to somehow copy Flamu's corresponding video, to very little avail. The instant I was detected, I smoked. After overrunning, I backpaddled, usually (but not always) surviving this error. Then, I would wait so joyfully in there, firing salvo after salvo after salvo after torpe...torpedo? Oh god, no, not again...Boom. Or just sit in the smoke, with everything disappearing from sight (no one to spot...), but too afraid to move. At 16-17 km's range. Oh, and did I mention torpedoes on their way? It took until only recently, about two months ago, that my stats suddenly started to rise drastically, compared to myself. This was approximately around the time that I got the IFHE skill on my captain. Now I can often manage 100k damage, sometimes 140-150's. I'm starting to use fakesmoking, fiddling with the throttle while avoiding enemy attacks, sometimes even baiting enemy fire from others, and just doing random stuff that I didn't dare to before - and sometimes get away with it (alive or dead lol), only to realize that "whoa, this seems to work - let's use it again!". I have a very flat learning curve, apparently needing hundred(s!) of battles before I feel comfortable in a ship - and I still have a long way to go, too - but I can definitely feel the effort paying off! The Grad Spee will be the same, or even better, if you give her the chance to eventually prove herself! I can guarantee that in just a few battles after your commander gets to level 10, at the latest, you'll really feel different! She's a great ship! Not your typical cruiser - playing the GS is indeed a bit more difficult - but as you get accustomed to her - you'll really start returning all that pain! :D

Woot, first time to hit 20k free exp in one go! :D