Verblonde

Mediocre player view: If you can get enough Free XP before she gets removed, get Smaland; although egregiously over-priced, she is very good (and great fun). If you dig DDs. Otherwise, it's probably sensible to wait and see what the captain rework ends up doing/causing; that assumes you have the patience - it'll probably take several patches before things fully settle down, although I don't expect this to be a coq-eurpe on the scale of the CVs (as it doesn't fundamentally change the game mechanics like the reework did). Speaking of the captain rework, that 1 million Free XP is most of what's needed to get a 19 point captain to 21 points (assuming WG don't remove their heads from their nether regions, and set the xp costs for the extra two points in line with the existing curve), if you can't do it by other means - basically, Captain XP - although that does seem rather a waste. As to the RB, you could use it to reset a line, but doing that entirely with Free XP is a bit wasteful - IMO - (and it can be fun mucking about with some of the mid-high tier ships again); the compromise I tend to go with is to Free XP everything that doesn't award you RP, and start playing from T5, whilst also using Free XP to unlock modules, so avoiding having to play things stock. I should mention that I have good captains for all the ships I intend to play this way, so avoiding having to retrain anything, and making playing these ships more fun (as I don't ever have to play with a sub-par captain). I probably wouldn't actually buy anything from the RB yet though - again, until we see the exact damage that the captain rework will wreak.

I believe that's correct i.e. 'special' T10s don't count towards your T10 total, as far as the RB is concerned. You keep your cammo (and captains) for ships that get sold as part of a reset - they get put in storage; equipment also gets demounted for free at the same time. Note: if you plan on resetting a line, it's a good idea to keep a 'good enough' captain for every ship in the line that you plan on playing; it will save resources and make your life easier during the regrind. For instance, I have 19 point captains for almost every IJN torp DD from T6 and up, as that's the line I commonly regrind. We don't know definitively what the dates are, but hovering over the relevant icon in the tech tree will show a pop-up that indicates when the next one is. I think you have to get a win in each ship to actually get the RPs, but if you aren't Free XPing, you'll get that through playing to unlock the next ship, or you can just play Coop (assuming you aren't online at really antisocial hours).

That's a bit harsh - she was in the process of being fitted with the big guns when she got clobbered towards the end of the war (the original, smaller, guns can still be seen in Norway - I think - where the Germans put them, for use a shore battery).

Don't worry - I wasn't the least offended. When someone misplays as spectacularly as I did there, how could you not open fire? That was indeed great work by your div mate!

Bought Strasbourg (another premium for Narai - yay!), and did the Ships & Fates things over a couple of days, mainly to get the permaflages and a bunch of silver (plus, in a couple of cases, the captains I had on the ships in question were 3-4 pointers, so the Santas came in handy there). I'm now just plodding through the Strasbourg campaign whilst snowflaking, to get the doubloons at the end...

Smaland is the other one that springs to mind (although she's Free XP - a lot of it!), but there might be something else that I've forgotten...

IMO yes to both, with an honourable mention to Zed, provided your allies shoot at things you light up with hydro...

Dido, of course!

I might suggest getting one of the 'about to be removed' ships, but don't use your steel to get it; get a bit more coal, as steel is too valuable to waste (perhaps unless you don't have enough coal on the very last day before one of the discontinued ships is removed). As mentioned elsewhere, T9s are 'full' premiums and are better earners, whilst the T10s give you access to certain events etc. (such as Gold Ranked, if you care about that), while still being pretty decent earners.

@HMS_Kilinowski (and rather majestic division-mate in a very well played Krispy Kreme); noble effort against the background of a somewhat unfortunate team of - presumably - weekenders. Naturally, I blew up in the first minute or so - according to solemn tradition - due to, in part, failing to notice the opposing Okhotnik right in front of me while I was typing 'hello' into chat...!

Godsdammit - it happened again this evening...!!

My feeling is that some paper ships are inevitable, if we want a good game, *but* I strongly believe that real stuff that was actually built should be prioritised...

I ended up using the 25% one to get Belfast '43; I had a few thousand doubloons from Satan boxes, and - hell - it's the Belfast, although I imagine I'll use her a lot less than my T7 version...! If WG ever accidentally bring back the T8 Ops, she'd probably be quite good fun for them, but I won't be holding my breath.

As @meuhbat says, it's the UU - it gives you Shima-level concealment, but at the cost of reduced dpm.

On the *slightly* positive side, I suppose there is one group of people who'll be happy when the Historically Inevitable Russian CVs turn up (besides anyone who has been studying the Tao of @El2aZeR, although I'm sure having - essentially - a T4 Enterprise will amuse them greatly)... Across the covid-striken world there must be thousands of medical students stuck in their rooms with nothing to do but study (the horror!); at least when the Russian CVs happen they'll be able to get 100% when they get given essay titles to the effect of 'Describe what happens when a patient is over-conscious of unfortunate insufficiency in the trouser department, and tries to over-compensate - give examples.' It won't make up for the lack of traditional university activities such as drinking, partying, and politely persuading other young persons that they too would be much happier wearing fewer items of clothing, but it might help...

My (mediocre player) tips/pointers: Go for at least T5 (assuming you have 'good enough' captains available i.e. 10 points+); below that you'll face the T4 CV plague, which'll mean wasting a lot of time being plane fodder, and most missions start at T5. If you haven't already, clear out your high tier snowflakes (at least) in Coop; whilst starting again is laudable, you don't want to waste these annual rewards. Try and do at least the new Strasbourg time-limited campaign too - a freebie T7 premium BB is not to be sniffed at. Play all the classes (yes, even CVs a bit); it'll remind you what everything can/can't do, and what they're trying to do. It'll make life easier in whatever favourite class you settle on. Play Ops (well, maybe not Newport); they're an efficient way to remind yourself about aiming, angling, and other stuff like that. Plus, you're doing it in an environment that requires a bit more thought than Coop. As to specific ship suggestions: the US and IJN (all classes) are a good place to start, as they are the 'standard' nations that are the freest from weird gimmicks and whatnot (perhaps avoid the new US fatties, unless you want to 'better contemplate the infinite' as it were). After that, it depends a bit on which class(es) you like; the KM DDs are worthwhile for the smoke/hydro combination, and the RN DDs are good too. Russian cruisers are a worthwhile pick, with their railguns and radar (T8+). KM BBs are fun if you like brawling, and the French are quite interesting too. Everyone has their favourite though, so maybe muck about with as many as you can (everything up to T6 is pretty cheap to research/buy, if you don't have them already). Most usefully, try and division with some experienced players, and ideally use voice comms - they'll be able to point out errors and make suggestions that should speed up your re-acquisition of skills etc.

FWIW all the UUs that I have came from the old method; I haven't bothered with any from the RB - my regrind points have all been spent on ships, either directly or indirectly (my Smaland was partly funded by Free XP from the RB). Absolutely, although I personally suck at those that call for a 'glue down the left mouse button' style of play (mainly the French and the Russian gunboats)...

You may have missed the 'UU' in my previous post. A vanilla Gearing has pretty meh concealment, but when you stick the Unique Upgrade on her, he concealment drops to roughly the same as Shima; you do lose some dpm for the privilege though. (It's about the only UU that I consistently run, although I'm giving Groz's one another try in Ranked at the moment.)

It's probably worth noting a couple of 'close but no cigar' ships, that are close enough that it's very easy to get spotted at about the same time: RN T8 DDs (Cossacks and Lightning) with 5.5 km, versus Kageros' 5.4 km. UU Gearing which is almost the same as Shima (can't remember the numbers exactly). I only just got Somers, but isn't she about 5.8, which is close to Shima's 5.6 too... The Brits' defensive sonar can be nasty if the IJN DD tries to escape by means of its weed generator...

Not really, at least not where it really matters: T8-10, the IJN line come in at 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6 km surface detection, respectively. From memory, Halland and Smaland, for instance, are 6.0, and 6.1 km. The lack of smoke on the Ikeas doesn't help when thinking about sneakiness, but they do get the healing potion to mitigate that...

Assuming we're talking about the IJN torp line, this has always been the case when faced with something with better dakka than you (the RN line, for example); the IJN torp boats are all about being sneaky, rather than heroic use of dakka. If your IJN DD has a fatty in its sights, you'll probably do a lot better than the Ikea DD will in the same situation...

My point being that it's easier to provide good advice if we can see your stats; when I typed my original reply, your stats weren't visible, but they subsequently appeared. If you were majestic in T5s, we would point you at other T5-6 premiums; if you're good at T8, the advice would focus on that sort of tier... I try not to be a Richard about stats (mine are hardly impressive), but rather use them to try and make appropriate suggestions vis-a-vis ship choices.

As others have said, most T5 BBs are not really worth spending money on; better to hold on until you can get a freebie (such as OR from the Armory [sic], or things like the ARP clones, if they come around again. Did you use an invite code when you started playing? If not, use one now (if you still can), or start a new account making use of one - that will get you some useful freebies, including a free Warspite. Edit: it's generally sensible not to spend any real money on premium ships (although premium time isn't a bad idea), until you know you're going to be playing for a decent period of time, and you've got more of a handle on which types of ships you like best, and tend to do well with. In the meantime, pick up any freebies that you can (there are a couple in the current dockyard event, excluding the final T9 one, and Strasbourg can be earned from a campaign that's running now), including ones available for resources like coal and Free XP. T6 premiums can be useful for Operations, as can T7s, although the latter only have one scenario available (Narai), whereas there isn't anything like that for T5s.

That's another thing - mine seem to vanish every time I leave port! Chiz!

Incidentally, I fear my Smaland may be broken: I just had a quick lunchtime game in Ranked, and there was a Salem who requested that I set smoke. Twice. My Smaland lacks smoke; how about everyone else - was I the only one to miss out?