Verblonde

If you mean reasons for having multiples of essentially the same ship, I was being general rather than specifically referring to only Cossack (Atlanta and Sims, for example, help avoid the Narai cooldown if you have both versions).

If you mean in the premium shop, I would think they're okay there - it's a BOGO (no reduction marked on the single crates).

(I also have both versions of all the previous years' ships as well; this is the first year I've called it a day early, due to the - apparent - nerfed drop chance and duplicate issue) Why have both? Double first win bonus each day. Double snowflake etc. Option for multiple builds (although I didn't in this case). For T7 (and T6 if they ever do any), you avoid the 'cooldown' issue in Ops.

It wouldn't surprise me, especially after the same problem has arisen - multiple times - every year that they've done this. I'm a little hazy on UK consumer law these days (I ran screaming for The Colonies about nine years ago now), but I vaguely recall something about promotions needing to be clearly understood by an average punter making a typical amount of effort to read whatever the blurb is; by that measure (especially the third year in a row), if I were a Trading Standards person, I might fancy my chances with WG's BF comms.

Nope, it's incompetent communications. Whilst not detracting from WG being more toss than an entire highland games in this matter, whenever they refer to the black versions, they always say '<ship name> B' and it's just '<ship name>' for the vanilla versions. The missions are a (small) bribe to persuade people who already have the vanilla ships to get the black version as well. The trouble is that - every year - people don't read the obtuse blurb carefully enough, and WG clearly can't be bothered to improve the communications (as I said somewhere else, I'm pretty confident I could eliminate the bulk of the problems with about thirty seconds' thought, and I'm very rusty at writing copy at the moment)...

I've been saying exactly this since the original black ships were launched - it's incompetence of the highest order to have the same thing happen *every* year... I've not had to write much 'selling stuff' copy for a while now, and I can think of several effective ways to prevent this happening with about thirty seconds' thought!

Lots, until WG either change the mechanic, or make their comms a lot clearer...

For the same reason they've done exactly the same thing (with the same 'small print') in every Black Friday event so far - it's a small bribe to encourage owners of the vanilla version of a ship to spend money on the Black one. We've all been whinging about this - the wording and its obscurity - since they started doing it, but nothing much changes. It's just one of those things that experienced players know, and that bites newbies on the bum every year (like switching off 'replenish using doubloons' for signals, and suchlike).

I'm certain it is nothing to do with this: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Belgium

If it is possible to roll a duplicate before you've got all the other ships from the list, then the rewards are undoubtedly worse than previous years (as all the ship options equate to a lot more than 2,500 doubloons). I don't envy you the job of trying to persuade people that the rewards aren't worse this year - you'll always struggle when something is taken away from people, which is - de facto - what this change represents, regardless of whether or not the new offer is any good. That assumes I've not misunderstood. (This goes double if the - apparent - reduction in ship drop chances is not an artifact of a relatively small data-set.)

To add to the data pot: 21 2020 BF crates and zero ships.

If you aren't being rhetorical, keep saving - it really does look like the ship drop chance with this year's BF crates has been lowered... I've called it a day on the crates, and just bought the single ship I wanted (Cossack) - job done. If WG had been less stingy, they would have probably extracted more money from me. Because I'm an idiot (but even my idiocy has limits...).

You needn't - many people every year get caught by this.

In previous years, the BF containers have been pretty generous; I'm not surprised that WG has - apparently - nerfed the ship drop chance. FWIW I've opened 21 2020 containers, and got zero ships (to add to the data pot), although I did get a couple of thousand doubloons, and a lot of free xp (enough to unlock Yamato, so yay!)...

Are you based in Belgium? I gather that it's illegal to sell lootboxes there...

This is the relevant bit of the wiki: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Commander#List_of_Endurance_Skills

When (over-optimistic) gamers make sacrifices to appease the gods of the dark fir-trees, in the hope of improving their RNG. True theological scholars will - of course - realise this is superstitious nonsense; we all know that the only effective way to improve one's RNG is by sacrificing virgins to the volcano gods, not these phytological upstarts...!

True, but I'll take that any day over the thirty-something percenter who torped me (his own side, obviously) in his ARP Atago clone the other evening! Besides which, there's far fewer people who reply to threads in Newcomers.

Is this some Catholicism-related euphemism?

Without being able to see your stats, it's impossible to comment intelligently, but some general pointers: If you're going to play against real people, generally only buy things of up to about the same tier as you've reached in silver ships. Pick something that works well with one of your existing silver ships' captains. You want something that you can reliably do lots of damage (relative damage, ideally) in, as that's the key reward driver. Try and find something that will be fun for you; to get the most use/value out of premium ships, you need to play them repeatedly. A small note: from your list, MA is going to be removed from the game (in a couple of months+); she's a good choice, if she ticks the bulk of the above list for you (assuming you use a tank captain in her, rather than a manly one).

Very much so; as with all ship types, you need to know what everything (ideally) you will face can/can't do. For example, in a BB, the threat posed to you (and by what means) by Asashio, Cossack, and Harekaze - say - varies dramatically across those three ships, and that's just T8 DDs with 5.4-5.5 km surface detection; the variation increases even more across nations and tier spread; you need to know that, so why shouldn't you need to know about variations in AA as well? One of WOWS' strengths is the variety that the game offers, but that does require some learning. I suggest you think a bit about your aims in game: Do you care about winning? Do you care about rewards (xp and silver earned)? Do you care about kills and raw damage (as opposed to relative damage)? It rather sounds like your primary aim is damage farming BBs (that's the only class you've complained about); whilst you absolutely can strike BBs effectively, with a bit of skill/knowledge, if that's your primary focus, you are much more likely to lose (with the associated reduced rewards) - as a DD driver, I love it when I meet CVs that focus my side's BBs, as it means they have minimised their influence on the game, giving me free rein to wreak havoc (unmolested DDs can be incredibly influential). BTW you need to be spotting in a CV, or you aren't doing it right. You also need to be striking small ships too, especially DDs; remove the enemy DDs first and your side has a much better chance of winning (which is what - fundamentally - the point of it all is).

Be nice - it's splendid that at least some people find their way here in search of spiritual guidance; it's a shame it's not more...

Many thanks again for the tips - that approach worked pretty well with the next two goes at the Op too!

BBs? Also known to DD drivers (such as me) as 'prey'. If you think that only kills and damage really matter, I strongly suggest you read up on the bit of the wiki concerned with the economy and rewards: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Economy#Earning_Credits_and_Experience Nope - a competently played CV is the most influential thing in the game; technically-speaking, an incompetent one is also very influential, just in entirely the wrong direction.

It's application is the only Right and Proper way of building and playing the KM BBs (plus a couple of other noble ships); scientific studies have shown that this approach to WOWS is the equivalent of eating at least 1 kg of raw steak, and increases one's manliness by 100%.