Verblonde

Wasn't that one of the things you got for doing the recent KM DD collection (or something to do with the new DDs)?

Ah, someone knows a bit of biology. I did consider tearing holes in the suggestion earlier that there are only two configurations of sex chromosomes (which is spectacularly inaccurate), but I really can't be bothered - my life is far too short to engage with this kind of individual...

Hmmm, sounds like things have rather changed for the better since Stephen Fry's documentary on the subject...?

This is a company based in St Petersburg we're talking about...

For maximum effect, they should do a special gilt version a la the gold Type 59 in WOT, and charge through the nose for it...!

There were missions several weeks ago: (I have a six point version of him too.) He doesn't seem to be in the NA Armory [sic] yet...

Not to mention being well on their way to wherever St. Petersburg's antipodes are...

Potentially of use: If you want to quote someone, either hit the 'quote' button at the bottom (left) of their post, or highlight a bit of the text that you want (as in this case) and a 'quote' option pops up: When you quote someone in this way, they'll get pinged too...

I dunno - you historical folk just want to suck the joy out of everything...!

That would make sense: the collector emblem hangs around, even if your ship count drops again after hitting a milestone...

Given the treatment of LWM et al. not a chance.

Quite. I would have probably picked her up, even though she's rubbish - if only for mucking about in Narai - y'know, Canadian (albeit made up) and all that. The clear example of WG being Pralines & Richard (if they were an ice-cream flavour) though makes me profoundly reluctant to hand over money in this case...

This. 'Ignore' and forget he exists...

Normally, I'd be a sucker for anything Canadian (being both a whale and very fond of my adopted home), but if even half of the story of how LWM and Chobittsu were treated is accurate, then this ship goes on the "hells, no!" list. See how this works, WG: acting like utter means less money. It's probably worth including in all new ship discussions for the time being at least: we old lags all know, but the various newbies who occasionally pop in don't necessarily. I fully intend mentioning it in future 'should I buy this ship' type discussions, because it is a factor in the desirability or not of recent premiums, in comparison to older ones.

I'm afraid it's extremely unlikely to happen for a couple of reasons that I can think of: 'Impossible' to balance all the permutations (WG have enough trouble in this regard with the regular ships as it is). A lot of work for WG, for limited financial return. Crucially, I imagine demand would also be limited - the subset of players who keep on playing ships below T10 is, I suspect, quite small; in that context, how many people will put in the effort for expensive sidegrades (assuming they're as meh as most of the existing T10 ones)? Of course, WG could increase demand by making such LUs actively good, in which case, they walk into the teeth of the vociferous objections to the original RB concept (putting 'must have' upgrades behind a massive grind wall is wholly unacceptable to the bulk of the community it seems); they could sell them for money/doubloons, of course, but then you're taking a stroll into P2W, which is also unacceptable to many.

This is mostly from the perspective of a target for CVs (DD main), but I do make quite a lot of use of CVs in Ops (and the odd Coop): Think about what you want to primarily hunt: as others have mentioned, the German torps are the easiest to score hits with (due to the speed etc., excluding the T6 premium that was just removed), but they don't do a lot of damage; this lends itself to hunting DDs, and synergises well with the whole spotting thing (which is why CVs are so nasty when played properly). If you're after raw damage, the IJN are the top pick, but a DD has a better chance of evading your torps, so you'll probably do more damage against fatties; the down-side here is that spotting and pounding fatties is often (although not always) less influential on the game's outcome - as a DD, I tend to rejoice when the opposing CV starts farming the fat lads and lets me go about my business. I would say though that it's a good idea to try and vaguely get the hang of at least one other plane type too; unless you're a CV god, you'll quite often find yourself short of whatever your favoured plane type is. I would suggest practicing with bombers in the first instance; it took me a while to get to grips with them, but they can be very worthwhile (for both IJN and KM, if you follow the general advice so far, you're getting AP for the silver lines). Don't entirely forget your rocket planes though; even though it just got harder to hit DDs, they're still fearsome spotters and/or can be a nuisance to larger targets (which even I can still hit). Although a bit unrewarding, it's worth setting up a training room to get some target practice with your CVs, especially if you're struggling with one or other type...

To echo others: not even remotely. The inflated price is due to the 'ex steel ship' thing, similarly to Neustrashimy; unlike the latter though, Flint has been battered by various global changes (even more so than Atlanta), making her a shadow of her former self. She's still fun to play (although mine lives almost entirely in Coop and Narai) but not worth all that coal. IMO only pick up Flint if you have a surfeit of coal, and really have nothing else to do with it...

If there was any justice in the world, the word 'pandering' would definitely involve pandas in some way; alas that it doesn't...

I approve this message...

How on earth has self-evident trolling produced 3+ pages of discussion?! Isn't there anything more interesting happening on the other side of the Atlantic...?

I would urge running the two lines in parallel; from my perspective (and assuming there are few CVs around, which is unlikely if you're facing T4s), IJN is more fun for a newbie, but makes you lazy, whilst the US forces you to learn stuff that is absolutely necessary at higher tiers i.e. anything to do with guns. Your IJN torp DDs give you some satisfying damage games (although not necessarily influential damage), whereas the US are the equivalent of 'eating your greens' which is more useful in the long run, but more frustrating in the short-term. You know those idiots you see tooling round in Shimas (especially at the weekend), spamming torps from 20 km? That's what happens if you don't eat your greens. The terrifying (minority of) Shimas are the ones that operate much closer in, giving you very little chance to detect/evade their launches, and finish off the maimed with their guns (knowing when to fire without getting annihilated because they broke stealth at the wrong moment); that sort of skill-set is much easier to acquire at lower tiers, playing things like the Americans. A slightly different 'eating your greens' perspective is that IJN torp boats are - at lower tiers especially - almost entirely defenceless against CVs; if you want 'hard mode' learning to deal with CVs, play the IJN. The Americans have much less bad AA, and that at least gives you options against average CVs that the IJN simply don't have (and are balanced around weaker concealment, so lose less when perma-spotted).

Quite true, but what the Americans teach you (which is essential) is when/how to use guns as well. It's very easy to sit back and launch torps from range with the Japanese; the trouble with this is that it reduces the pressure you're applying to the opposition (you have more time to spot/dodge their very visible fish, and you know their guns are less threat from a distance). The Japanese are easy 'passive' mode if you aren't careful; the more active and influential plays are a lot easier to learn with the US. It's not a case of one or the other, but both - playing the IJN DDs will make you a better US DD driver, and vice versa. To reiterate, I hated the US DDs the first time around, mainly because they required skills that I didn't have yet, and the IJN DDs were simply easier to do something with; forcing myself to play the short-range torp DDs (mainly the US to start with) made me a much less bad DD player, and - more importantly - gave me the ability to influence a battle (by my standards) because I wasn't reliant on the 'torp truck' style of play, that is far too easy to counter.

I struggled with these ships too (Mahan less so, as you get a stealth launch window with the upgraded torps); the reason they're so good for learning is precisely because of the characteristics you highlight i.e. it's simply not possible to stand off and spam torps - this forces you to learn how to operate at closer quarters, which is essential in learning how to DD. Whilst I'm a long way from being a good player; I'm a lot less bad with DDs than I would be otherwise because the US DDs (and Russians, to a lesser extent) forced me to stop relying too heavily on torps. (Of course, you generally want to launch IJN torps from closer range too, to get hits, but that's a lot easier when you're sneaky)

Good point, well made. Okay, edited version: Surely, we all know that the correct theological approach in these circumstances is to chuck someone into the nearest active volcano...? Extreme heat prevents any untidy leftovers.