Verblonde

But this is emphatically not the forum to get into this on...

I agree with the OP: might as well include 'formal' female commanders (the corporate whore in me suspects it might have a marginally positive effect on the overall popularity of the game with a wider range of demographics, which benefits all of us). If a significant subset of the player-base is frightened of women, WG could always include a filter so such folk don't see anything that might alarm them.

This is a wind-up, right?

IMO No; it just changed it (with a couple of 'stupids' - most notably Deadeye - to be taken into consideration). Which, of course, doesn't make the dramatically increased costs of the additional points any less of a Richard move ("if WG were an ice-cream flavour, they'd be Pralines & Richard"...etc.).

I suspect we may be partly thinking about the 'Smol Syndrome' here a bit too i.e. you'll recall there was much discussion - when she was initially released - about how lethal Smol actually was; specifically, would a team with three Smols be dramatically more likely to win than a team with just one? As I recall, the conclusion was that - all things being equal - *too many* Smols was counter-productive, as you started to miss the things that alternative picks would have brought, most notably radar. In small team modes (so, most competitive ones), for every DD, you're having to give up something else, so perhaps making too many DDs counter-productive...?

May I add my voice to that of @invicta2012 in saying that EL is very worthwhile for Ops (which is not to detract from AR being similarly splendid in the same role; I have both - it makes it easier to work around the cooldown); if you're used to 'normal' CVs, it's worth taking a bit of time to get used to her Stukas though - the torps are pretty hopeless, so the bulk of your damage comes from a) citadelling cruisers with AP rockets, and b) dropping the ludicrously effective HE bombs on things. Not being a CV player, my previous focus had been mostly on torps, but that mindset doesn't work with EL; once I made the effort to maximise the use I got from the bombers (they're absurdly fast too), she became a much more effective ship for me. (As mentioned earlier, bonus points for any manliness you can do too!)

You can have a lot of influence still, but it isn't easy (I really struggle to play BBs well), and it does require putting yourself in harm's way: Anything that - in the early stages at least - that's focusing on BBs (unless they're a Dev Strike waiting to happen due to broadsiding, or something like that) is wasting their fire; a BB is most influential by blasting things that can tip the balance of the game - this usually means radars and DDs. Most opposing players won't know this, so give them something to shoot at; everyone that is shooting at you isn't shooting a more valuable target. You want to be tanking. Pick your spots though, you aren't much use if you get blown to bits right away and/or burned alive; arrange yourself such that you can break contact and heal (fire damage, in particular is 100% healable, of course). You're after a balance; push too hard and you'll get scragged, but play 'Deadeye' and the opposition can largely ignore you. With the addition of Deadeye, I've found that the difference between a decent (or better) BB player, and a poorer one is even more pronounced; playing full 'Deadeye' removes the BB's direct influence from the game, whereas being a direct threat from roughly surface detection distance forces the opposition to react to you, and that helps take some of the initiative away from those opponents. This is the perspective of a DD main though; when I see 'Deadeye' BBs, I usually chuckle to myself, as that's usually an effective mission kill right there, and I didn't even have to do anything to get it. A BB that closes to a more intelligent range is clearly a threat and requires some attention, which might easily mean I'll miss something sneaker that's stalking me...

Play DDs yourself. The best way to ensure DD competence is to bring it yourself. Besides that, when playing fatties, ignore the opposing BBs (unless there is nothing else to shoot at), particularly if they're 'Deadeyes', and focus your fire on opposing radars and DDs. Your DDs have the best chance of being of being of use to you if they can can survive more than half a minute past first contact, and that's a lot more likely if all available friendlies are trying to kill their key predators.

This. Ops are about the only time that I can play CVs with a clear conscience, and get reliable rewards for doing so (Coop tends to be flaky in this latter regard). Loewenhardt is especially good when you need to cover large areas of the map quickly - her bombers are ludicrously fast (I still can't believe that isn't a mistake - they're Stukas, for goodness' sake, not that I'm complaining for a moment!). It kind of touches on something else to consider when talking about ships for Ops i.e. what are you trying to achieve? Is it all about pure rewards (silver/xp), grinding a ship, or just trying to do as well as possible - performance-wise - in the scenario (although there can be overlap). For example, Leander performs very well in T6 Ops, but isn't a premium, so (even with permaflage) you aren't going to rake in silver in the same way as a premium; on the other hand, Leander has the sterling quality of being free (and very good). Besides which, if you want to maximise silver, you generally want more than one choice (three plus, depending a bit on how quickly/often you get sunk), to avoid having to pay 75K (?) to go into battle again before the post-battle cooldown period has ended.

Premium time, IMO, is the slightly dull answer: that dramatically improves your economy (both xp and silver), and it works on every ship/mode that you play.

Of course, the 'Correct' answer is to get the following (as the game is now): Leander (with River Plate optional cammo). Exeter. Graf Spee. Salem (cosplay Graf Spee).

If you ever want to check stuff like this; this site is quite helpful (you want the 'research xp' section): https://wowsft.com/ According to them, getting to Shima costs 685,140 xp, versus 676,640 for Harugumo; there isn't much in it, but the dakka line is cheaper. FWIW, my 'regrind' line is the Shima one, for the reasons that I find Yugumo to be rather more fun to grind than Kitakaze, plus I happen to have better captains available for the torp line (the lower tiers - to me - feel much of a muchness; they both have the odd 'meh' ship, and both have significant highlights), and that more than makes up for the minor cost difference.

Perth is very much worth having, although other things do get that smoke: Haida, Huanghe, and Mysore (off the top of my head). The recently released Mysore is looking distinctly promising as an 'Ops only' ship; although she doesn't get torps (which is a nuisance), she does get a heal *and* creeping smoke. You'll struggle against fatties, but she's good against more or less everything else (no HE though). With a suitable player skill-set, I suspect Perth is more effective though, due to torps and having HE.

IMO it depends on skill level somewhat: A good player will get excellent value from creeping smoke (which means Perth from your short-list), whilst a less skilled player may struggle. If you do get Perth, a coal mod will add value. Personally, if I had to pick just one, it would be Graf Spee though; I tend to find that she has excellent scope for covering when other members of your team potate! The heal makes her pretty survivable, her guns are almost BB (albeit a bit flaky, but who cares - you can easily get close), and the torps come in handy too. There's also a better chance that you'll have a good captain for her (especially more so than Perth, although the old 'no silver line' captain problem has - at last - been eliminated with the captain rework, if you don't mind spending doubloons). Speaking of captains though, you have - sadly - just lost the ability to run a BB captain in her, which sucks (GS is arguably a small BB in a cruiser slot). GS also gets the option of a 'National' permaflage (for doubloons), which dramatically boosts her silver earnings. It's also worth emphasising that the above is assuming PvE only; Graf Spee is generally felt to be much harder work against real people (probably more so with the rework), but I believe you don't play Randoms much (at all?).

I actually do agree with you entirely - Loyang is *much* better, as an all-rounder; where Orkan shines - IMO - is as a highly effective DD hunter, especially in competitive/small team modes. Orkan can be a major nuisance to fatties, given time, but the lack of alpha undoubtedly gives Loyang a significant edge in this regard. I also forgot to mention: it's easier for a competent CV to shut down an Orkan than a Loyang (smoke, and US AA, albeit sans DefAA), although - luckily - most of the CVs I meet are not really terribly competent. FWIW to provide a bit of context, according to WOWS numbers, I'm showing 57.14% WR for Orkan on my EU account, and 68% on NA; that's against an overall Random WR of 48% (plus change). I haven't played Loyang in Ranked this time for a couple of reasons: mainly, it's because she lacks a heal (and I've found a heal to be crucial on too many occasions in Ranked, although my WR in Cossacks is higher, albeit with a smaller data set), but also because she's one of my older premiums, and I've played her quite a lot in Randoms, Clans and whatnot, and fancied a change (with a slight subtext that more people know how to deal with smoke/hydro than can deal with DD radar, it seems).

I have both, and think they're both excellent, but if I had to pick just one, it would probably be be Loyang, but only very marginally (and there are good reasons why I've been playing almost exclusively Orkan in recent T8 Ranked etc.): Loyang is a very good all-round DD; in terms of dakka, torps, and sneakiness, she's 'good enough' at everything, while not being exceptional at anything. Of course, her party piece is having excellent smoke combined with cruiser hydro; this is still very powerful when used correctly, although it's usefulness has been eroded somewhat by the plethora of radars in the game. A coal hydro mod is an excellent idea, too. I personally run the YOLO torp option, as I find the standard ones too slow (and they only reliably hit at YOLO ranges anyway). Orkan is - more or less - a less sneaky Lightning that loses smoke and a torp launcher, but gains a heal and radar. How good she is for you will largely depend on how effectively you can make full use of the radar; I find her to be a monstrously effective DD hunter, and the heal often allows you at least one mistake. Having only the one torp launcher makes you a lot less effective against fatties, although - with a Liquidator captain especially - you can still make a major nuisance of yourself with your torps. A coal radar mod is a very helpful addition. I find the lack of smoke to be less of an issue than you might expect, as it's quite rare that you'll be operating with zero radar around, although it helps to have practiced extensively with the Ikea DDs to get used to the gameplay. In a lot of respects though, she's not unlike a T8 Smaland. As I said, if I was forced to pick one, it would probably be Loyang, but only very marginally (and Cossack is probably better than both at that tier).

They're very much worth it (they're also the least expensive line to regrind for the RB, if that sort of thing interests you)...

Both, but don't free xp (except modules - go crazy there), as both T9s are excellent. Yugumo is - IMO - a strong candidate for the best 'sneaky' silver DD in the game: 5.5 km spotting distance, but with 12 km torps (doing 74 kts with a Swift Fish captain), and much less dreadful AA than Kagero. Definitely a keeper; I have rather more games in mine than I do in Shima. Fletcher meanwhile is still a strong candidate for the best dakka T9 DD in the game (IMO): excellent balance between torps and dakka, reasonable AA, and you get the US smoke into the bargain. Another keeper, although mine would get played more if things like Black/Neustra/Benham didn't exist. Of the two, I prefer Gearing, although I've run mine exclusively in Unique Upgrade configuration for ages (you lose dpm, but gain Shima levels of sneakiness)...

That sounds pretty much spot-on. My intention: Try and play with as few captains as possible, at least initially. Try and avoid using 'magic' captains i.e. those with any talents or boosted skills; the reason for this is that if I mess up (or WG does something stupid), they're the ones I'll resent least having to leave in mothballs, whilst I wait for a free respec that may never arrive. This isn't a universal rule though, particularly if/where I need one for something more competitive; also, my lone 21 pointer (at the moment) is US Ovenchicken, so I *have* to use him if I want to generate meaningful amounts of ecxp (so, somewhat competing pressures). Avoid silver ships initially; every silver ship requires a unique captain, whilst you can run all your premiums of a given nation with one captain (assuming a 'good enough' build). Play Fallout 3; I recently found (on GOG) a version of this that actually works on Win10, so I can wait for the dust to settle a bit whilst getting reacquainted with an old friend!

Hopefully, I'll be able to drop back to Bronze (unless the rewards are dramatically improved higher up); I've had a lot more fun there than in Silver...

BBs are not my thing really, so I'm actually quite glad they added the extra heal skill (for 4 points): it makes it a lot easier to spec my captains when I do need to play BBs - it's a simple "waste of points" that I can cheerfully ignore the bulk of the time. As stated in the OP, FP works all the time (and is better than it 'ought' to be, because it combines the middle part of the ship into one fire zone, and that middle part is what the majority of players shoot at, so making the practical number of fires you get even lower), and - unlike an extra heal - doesn't lose efficacy depending on the sort of damage you take (less healing for citadel damage, for instance).

Normal state of affairs - early release ships are not able to be sold until they get their full release.

I'd more or less come to the same conclusion before I looked at LWM's piece; after testing, the number of builds where I felt I was getting value (for 4 points) from Dazzle had been steadily dropping, to the point where I'm not certain I have it anything any more. Still, I'd better double-check...

Not really a secret, but Orkan on the NA server; I suspect her inclusion on the notorious Satan Box short list has made a lot of people assume she's rubbish (either that, or a lot of people *still* don't realise she has radar)... Mind you, we are talking about Bronze here.