Verblonde

Whilst my usual advice is to avoid getting premium ships that are much above whatever tier you've got to with silver ships, it's because it's not much fun getting your donkey handed to you in something you've spent a lot of money/resources on, and that assumes PvP mode - do whatever you like in PvE! As mentioned earlier (by @Butterdoll), perhaps make exceptions for 'soon to be removed' ships though - you can always learn to play them later, and if you don't gel 100% then they'll be useful for missions in Coop at the very least. As to Neustrashimy, I (mediocre player) think she's excellent, and well worth picking up if you can (and assuming you like DD play). I would expect her to be a pretty decent 'first' T9 DD too, if you have a good enough captain to put in her - she's a really nice balance between dakka, torps, and stealth, and the powerful healing potion can often make up for at least one coq-eurpe (as the French might say). The AA isn't entirely useless too (DefAA), which doesn't do any harm, although you seem to meet fewer CVs in T9 ships at the moment anyway. Overall, she's not amazing at anything (although her stealth is pretty close to class-leading for the tier), but 'good enough' in almost everything. I've only played a few battles in mine so far, but she's looking like she'll be a favourite, at least until the next time the meta changes significantly.

Your spiritual advisor is here to help...

Not even close! I suspect I may have around 50 or so 'regulars', maybe a bit more - I tend to cycle through premiums a lot (daily 'first wins') if I'm not grinding anything in particular... (332 at time of writing)

I fear you are mis-remembering: this year, I think, is the third year of snowflakes. For year one, T10s got steel; for last year, the rewards were the same as this year (I still have records of what I got from the various crates). The original snowflakes had more generous rewards than the two seasons that followed; besides the T10s getting steel, the other rewards were - I think - larger, plus all premiums got something, regardless of tier. WG have used the mechanic at other times though; for example, T10s do get SCs for the anniversary event...

The 300 doubloons difference will be the port slot.

Same rewards as last year; the very first year of snowflakes - as I recall - saw T10s getting a steel reward, but there've never been SCs for this event.

Is this stream-of-consciousness stuff? Punctuation is your friend...

I suppose a slow clap is better than a swift herpes...?

Many thanks for doing this again!

This right here is the humongous pachyderm in the room when considering buying anything from WOWS at the moment; I guess there are a couple of options: Buy the thing right away, and hope you get enough value from the purchase before WG potentially bugger everything up with the captain rework (and/or submarines). Leave it as long as you can and make the yes/no decision the day before the patch that removes it, in the hope that exactly how bad the captain changes are going to be will have become clearer. For any actual newcomers to the game, I would be actively advising them to avoid spending anything at all until the rework is resolved...

My first prediction is that I'll be using as few captains as possible for the first few weeks of the rework, precisely to avoid spending as much as possible on rebuilding captains after the inevitable nerfs/buffs.

This is pretty much me too (although compensatory silver would be handy - I burned through an awful lot recently, getting several new T8-10 ships); not sure how much time/effort I'll devote to it though - my enthusiasm to play has been somewhat dented by the captain rework business. T5 permaflage occasionally comes in handy (T22 will be especially useful, as I actually like her, which isn't hugely common for T5s that aren't Kami sisters)...

Good work, sir! Thank you! This. Presumably, WG have realised that Hizen isn't as much of a draw as they might have hoped...

You too!

I believe I just saw @Cyclops_ out in my Neustrashimy; his side were victorious, at least in part due to some spectacularly poor target selection on my team's part (why would you want to shoot opposing radars/DDs anyway?!)... Oh well, at least I didn't blow up in the first thirty seconds, so there's that.

It worked - many thanks! I don't know what it does yet, but will be disappointed if it doesn't give a flag or something relating to equestrian pursuits...

Well, WG have been uncharacteristic lately, with the release of several reasonably good German ships; I imagine they are concerned that unless they do something horrible to them, people might get the idea that German naval technology could - horror of horrors - be almost on a par with Glorious Famous + Historical Soviet Naval Triumphs. That would explain the Germans getting a kicking; I wouldn't be surprised to find something aimed at making those unspeakable Japanese chaps regret having the audacity to make Russia look bloody silly in 1905 too...

But, in a properly manly way - none of this whimpering at the back as you burn to a cinder! It's not quite 'strapped with explosives, and riding a shark into the mouth of an active volcano' manly, but sufficiently close to be acceptable...

FTFY

Not worth the aggravation (or spend), at least IMO. I'll bag as many freebie rewards from the event with normal play as I can, although my urge to play has been rather dented by the business with the captain rework; at the very least, the doubloons for the intermediate reward ship (is it Yahagi? I can't recall) might come in handy for something.

I doubt we can. Unless I've misread (which is a distinct possibility), the bottom rank of the middle and top leagues are irrevocable; so, in theory, you can't drop into a lower league. This ought to mean that - with enough persistence - anyone can get into the top (gold) league and stay there? Personally, I actively want to avoid the top league, so I need to avoid accidentally going up too high, even by mistake; I just need to work out if I want to stay in bronze or silver, to get a suitable amount of reward for a tolerable level of frustration...

I have her; I feel she mainly exists in the game to remind people that they should have read the reviews first and bought Loyang instead. She's a kind of public service really... (Mine fell out of a box, as I recall.)

I do - pre-nerf, the most sensible advice to give a new player was to get past the T4 CVs as quickly as possible, which was a recipe for people going to too high a tier too fast, which isn't good for anyone. *If* these nerfs reduce the lethality of the T4 CVs then it might be more tolerable advancing up the tiers at a more considered rate, which might improve gameplay in the longer term. Yeah, I know - delusional optimism, thy name is Verblonde...

I'm rather impressed with anyone who can even hit anything smaller than a BB at that distance in the first place...

For some unaccountable reason, I am reminded of this site: http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html - for when your usual selection of swear-words just don't cut it...