Verblonde

You can't get the shiny cammo through the ship cammo tab? You could with the Snaky Magnificence for that recent Pan-Am DD (the name of which temporarily escapes me)... I see from the bundle that WG are returning to the irritating 'stuff it with silver and pretend that has value' approach as well...

You probably should regrind those lines, to get the RP, but do so judiciously, and possibly make use of some free xp here and there. You'll have probably worked out much of this already, but the following might be of slight help (and all IMO, of course): A bit late, but you don't have to do regrinds; at the moment, there is nothing 'must have' gated behind RP. Generally speaking, the only things worth spending RP on are ships; for everything else, the reward doesn't justify the effort. If you aren't impatient, ideally only reset a line when you get the x2 bonus; again, the effort-reward calculus is poor most of the time. The x2 resets periodically; you can see when the next one is via your tech tree (I think the next one is of the order of a couple of weeks away). Generally, you want to reset the same line over and over, rather than lots of different ones; the main reason for this is that it allows you to keep a decent captain available for every ship that you'll actually play more easily (I think I have at least a 19 pointer for everything from T6-9 on my main regrind line for instance); this avoids wasting resources on retraining captains etc. Pick your lines to regrind carefully: you're after a balance between efficiency and fun (assuming you aren't just going to free xp everything; if you do that, just pick the IJN dakka DD line, as it's the cheapest); if you're going to play at least some of the ships, you want them to be ones you enjoy, whilst still being mindful of the effort (some lines require substantially more xp to finish than others). This site can be helpful for working out xp costs: https://wowsft.com/research Use free xp, but be smart: my approach is to save my free xp for modules, and try to unlock the next ship in the line by playing as much as possible (sometimes patience fails me). Save your signals (dragons especially), and top-end cammo for when you really need them; personally, I tend to use Type 59 cammo lower down the tree, and switch to Asian (if I have them) around T8. A *potential* exception to the 'only one line at once' rule can be where a line splits (the IJN DDs, for example); if you reset both branches at the same time, you can save some resources with the lowest tiers before the split. Personally, I don't usually do this, as the resources saved don't make up for the 'loss' of the double bonus for one of the two branches (you only get the x2 on the first branch reset). Be mindful that you'll be without the ships in the line(s) that you reset for as long as it takes you to regrind them; this is most pertinent when there are snowflakes in the offing, but can sometimes be relevant for more prosaic missions. Keep an eye on your silver reserves; when you reset a line, you only get half the silver cost back (although upgrades etc. are demounted for free), so you'll need extra to rebuy things as you progress back up the line, and not everyone earns enough as they go (especially if f2p and/or making heavy use of free xp). So, messing with regrinds and the RB can be worthwhile, but it's worth taking a bit of time to maximise the return on your efforts/resources. To repeat though, while it can be worthwhile (and, for me, it has very much been so), you don't *have* to regrind if you don't want to.

That was kind of the point I was making - I was being mischievous. Note for WG: if you're going to change stuff like this, you want to make *really* sure that the message gets to all departments...! Since this is clearly what the French might conceivably refer to as 'le coq eurpe', I think I'll pass on this one - as I have quite a lot of other Narai-fodder already, it is uncertain whether I'll get my money's worth from this before she might be messed with. Pity, as she's actually real and everything...

@TheWarJaC - since you're here, I'm curious: at time of writing, there is no 'may be nerfed label' in the premium shop entry for Hyuga (https://eu.wargaming.net/shop/wows/main/20061/); it's not there for the Admiral Pack either (https://eu.wargaming.net/shop/wows/main/20062/). Does this mean that if you buy this ship through this route, the version you'll get will be immune to nerfs as per the old policy...?

@DFens_666 covered the main answer. If you want to read a bit more, this bit of the Wiki is helpful (Neustra is right at the bottom of the relevant section): https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Consumables#Repair_Party

Rational answer is absolutely not; I shall seek out popcorn in advance of some hopefully entertaining posts to the contrary from the irrational...! (Oh, yay WG for the freebie premium time BTW!)

This, most likely - open your wallet and say "help yourself!"...

Quality!

Is that not a bit disingenuous? On my NA account, I got compensated in the form of crates each of which contained a day of premium account - I could have easily delayed opening them if I wanted to save the premium time for some future occasion. I know you don't make these decisions, so I'm not picking on you personally; you must understand though that these sorts of comparisons really don't make EU look good from a customer service perspective and stitching you up with having to defend said decisions only makes things worse.

I was just thinking exactly the same thing (having got an email from WG NA telling me about this)...

Are the planes not visible all the time, or just some of the time?

There are a couple of monsters out there, although the only one that seems to be 'idiot proof' (or close) OP is GC. The more thorny issue is perhaps the ships with a high effectiveness ceiling that's gated (for want of a better word) behind some sort of skill barrier. For instance, the original Belfast is notorious, but if you looked at me playing her, you might well conclude she needs a buff. Gremy is another one that has a fearsome reputation, but I struggle to make her work; conversely, I can sometimes do horrible things with a Kami, and so on... Personally, I think the real concern comes from WG's recent decision to start tagging premium ships with 'may be nerfed' labels; although they haven't so far, there is nothing to stop them releasing flat-out OP premiums, selling the hell out of them, and then nerfing them when they 'discover' that they're OP. And repeat.

That's a fair point. I have a slightly unfair advantage here in that the IJN DDs (the torp line especially) are my 'regrind' ships for the RB; as a consequence of that, I have a decent captain for everything from T5 and up (so, CE on everything). That said, if possible, it's wise to have at least a ten pointer on everything from T5 and up; when you get into the +2 MM bracket, CE becomes increasingly important...

I (reluctantly, and not entirely voluntarily) used the lower tier Americans to learn to use guns (and *when* to use them); once you get the hang of them, they are pretty decent, and the dakka-related skills come in very handy elsewhere. Of course, if you need stealth torping at T5, the IJN is at your service - 5.4 km surface detection, with full stealth build...

My current working hypothesis is that the new German DDs (ZF-6 excepted) are all a massive wind-up - WG are trying to make the KM enthusiasts' heads explode...

Yup - I imagine most of the old lags who have her will think it rude not to. I'm not going to go there; partly because I'm rubbish in Belfast (if I played her more, people would eventually start thinking she needs buffs), but mainly because I want to give Haida a run-out...

Noble effort by yourself earlier, BTW - I was too busy trying not to die horribly to say hello mid-battle when I realised who I was facing...

Easily done. BTW you can get your mini-map to show more range circles around your ship, if you find it helpful (such as air detection distance, hydro range and so on): press and hold ctrl, and click on the cogwheel icon top right of your mini-map; it'll give you a bunch of additional display options.

I feel the new arrangement is a dramatic improvement; I may be in a minority, but it doesn't change whether I try and win or not (I always do FWIW), it just means that the mode is infinitely less frustrating as it doesn't really matter who I get on my teams - I don't need the strings of victories to get the rewards any more. I call that a result (and my cardiologist would no doubt agree - less chance of elevated blood pressure)!

Not sure how she compares to others against real people (I have all the T6 CVs, I think, but mostly play them PvE), but she's excellent for Ops. It took me a little while to get used to her though, as the torps are so dreadful. Once you have the hang of the bombers, she's really rather splendid though. The rocket planes being essentially T8 is nice too. The reason I got her was the Stukas though, and since I'm not generally going to ruin anyone's PvP fun, she was a very worthwhile addition to my (excessive) collection. Dunno if that counts as potato proved, but this potato certainly approves...

Not yet - I still have to finish my current regrind (at Kagero at the moment), and possibly do a chunk of another - depending on whether I play enough in the meantime to get sufficient monthly RB points from the various dailies...

This is one area of small doubloon expenditure that WG hope you won't notice; it's useful to know about, simply so you can avoid it happening. Whenever you go from no economic signals mounted to one or more mounted, the game will default to replacing them for doubloons (if you have them); a good habit to get into is to make sure the check box (at the bottom of the signals interface) is not ticked every time you mess with your signals in any way. The same behaviour is also true in the cammo panel, with Type 59 (from memory) being the primary problem. Again, always check that the tick box is not selected here too. Personally, I think that having the default behaviour being 'spend doubloons' is a Richard move on WG's part (there are plenty of easy ways to make money that don't irritate the customers), but all we can do is get into the habit of making sure that we don't give WG the satisfaction. Of course, you will sometimes forget, and it will pi$$ you off, and you will curse WG (who clearly struggle with some basic customer service concepts, but that shouldn't be news to anyone)...

I voted the less vehement 'no', on the basis that I don't rule it out entirely ever ever ever; that said, with the current LUs it's a "hells, no!" - I don't think any of them are even close to worth the aggravation.

I *think* you do; I'll let people know what happens if I have time to finish them both...

BTW it looks like there are two distinct missions: The 'Kidd' series gets you a 10 point version of the captain. The 'any old US ship' gets you a 6 point version. So, if you have Kidd, you can make a lot of progress on the second set by doing the first.