Verblonde

I don't disagree, but fwiw (as I remarked on another thread) the price for ARP Yamato alone is - ballpark - similar to what you would pay to free xp the entire silver line with the normal 1:25 conversion rate. Oh well, that's the precedent set; I imagine we'll start to see more direct purchase T10s now (I'm not seeing the sort of dumpster fire - so far - over this that might make WG not repeat the exercise).

The usual reasons given (besides just liking the look of them etc.): Multiple first win bonuses speed up captain training etc. for the time-poor. Avoiding cool-down periods for Ops (where tier appropriate). Obsessive Collecting Disorder. Extra snowflakes etc. Multiple simultaneous ship builds a possibility.

Presumably, it isn't coincidental that the price for the basic ARP Yamato is roughly similar (actually slightly cheaper) to what you would pay to free xp the entire silver Yamato line: 35K gold equates to 875K free xp, and (according to Fitting Tool) the Yamato line comes in at 896.5K. Perhaps we should start a competition: bragging rights for whoever manages to return from the hunt with the most ARP Yamato pelts (pelt equalling screen-shot)? I imagine rather a lot of those we'll see in game will be people with no business in a T10 BB. Although I do get the apparent logic behind the pricing, it still strikes me as a ludicrous amount to spend on the game, and I'm very uneasy about the new ability to buy your way straight to T10, even if you've never played a single battle (free xp and coal ships are a different proposition as you generally have to play enough to at least get the xp to convert in the first place, and ditto the coal). I would have *much* preferred it if WG had gated ARP Yamato behind some sort of 'must have at least one other T10 in port first'...

MA is great fun, and I don't even particularly like BBs - she's hilarious in Coop and other PvE modes, if only as a floating firework display whenever anything gets within around 10 km range. Bear in mind we don't know definitively what impact the captain skill rework is going to have and/or how much (if at all) her secondary range will get boosted, assuming that comes to pass. To echo others, the Whips & Leather edition should be available again for Black Friday, and that may well be less expensive than the vanilla one.

FWIW I voted 'no', although I suppose I *might* get Maya - Atago is one of the few T8 cruisers I actually like. The Yamato price is absurd, so that's a hells, no!

I think we will, but it'll start tomorrow - the 13th. I can see the missions on my NA account; presumably, as with patches etc., the EU server will kick off a day later...

You got him broadside, and demonstrated why BBs (and anybody else with one) want to keep their citadels hidden. If you look at Nelson's armour layout, you get this: That's a lot of citadel, and it projects a long way above the waterline - it's something that Nelson is notorious for.

I think someone at WG may have got confused:

It's quite small, in the top right:

Many thanks, OP! (Works on NA too, if that's relevant to anyone.)

It wasn't me, by any chance? That's the sort of idiot thing I'm prone to at times...

This is incorrect, I'm afraid: no ship can do this, even with smoke and islands in the way - proximity spotting: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Detection#Proximity_spotting Without something breaking line of sight, the closest that any DD can get to you before being spotted is 5.4 km. Which CV were you facing? Most of the T6 CVs' torp bombers have a detectability distance of 10 km (without CE); Ryujo gets 7.5 km (ditto). If you were facing a CE captain with a high level of skill, that wouldn't be an enormous window between detection and drop, but there should still be one. There weren't smoke and/or islands involved in the equation too, by any chance?

It might be worth seeing what the captain skill rework (and/or proposed secondaries range increase) does to her before definitively deciding....?

FWIW I probably count as 'mediocre' and I generally fancy my chances against a typical Haru, mainly because Smaland can heal and Haru can't. The radar also helps if you find one smoke camping, as it'll take him a few seconds to pull himself together after the radar warning goes off... Of course, I'm deader than plaid if the Haru driver is unsporting i.e. uses actual skill!

(Bearing in mind I'm not very good) I would like to have it on more ships, I just tend to find I get more consistent value for four points from other things; with all the CVs and radars around, it's value appears somewhat moot. Besides which, I'm very aware that when you tag someone with it, they get a ping too, so telling them that they are the nearest ship to whoever has the skill and - assuming you have reasonable map awareness and looked at the opposing team line-up - that can give valuable information away. I could very well be being foolish with this approach though (I'm mindful that my original approach was to always take PM over PT early on in my WOWS career, before eventually twigging that information was usually more useful in that particular case), although I have tried RDF builds in the past (when WG were being less stingy with free respecs)...

Bear in mind that you're a good player, so you'll probably hand most people that you encounter their posteriors. Speed boost and guns are the main pluses (although for the latter, Halland can be as good, with the right build, it's probably not optimal), although knowing about the radar won't reduce its utility hugely - you'll just catch fewer people napping. My feeling FWIW is that Halland is the better generalist, and Smaland is the better DD hunter.

If they follow the same pattern as previous years, you'll be able to get all the Black ships for cold hard currency...

At lower tiers, there is often a certain predictability vis-a-vis how things unfold (once you're past the 'mostly bots' stage); much of this is probably due to a larger proportion of the players not really knowing what they're doing (like WOT, you need quite a large number of battles under your belt before you gain a decent understanding of the game and its mechanics), plus in the low tiers, several key elements are either missing (radar) or not very significant (hydro). Low tier games can be a hoot, but - IMO - it helps to be in a DD (at least until the CVs come calling), and one needs the skill-set to be able to play around/take advantage of everyone else doing the predictable things. Things do start to get a lot more interesting once you get into the middle tiers, but there will always be elements who can't play the game (and the T10 meta, in randoms at least, does tend to get campy). I agree with you on the first part (and they are capped to one at higher tiers, unless something very odd is happening in the queue - I think I've had two high tier games with more than one CV, that I can recall), but not the second. For a start, WG will never seriously cap the most popular class in the game; more importantly though, BBs are hilarious to play against in a DD (with the possible exception of MO) - if you want to rack up some serious rewards, torping hapless BBs is the way to go! I note that 80% of your games have been in cruisers; it's not surprising that you aren't keen on BBs, as they're your hard counter. As a cruiser, the approach seems to be to focus on killing opposing DDs, and cruisers, whilst staying out of the BB's firing line (which is helped by the fact that lower tier BBs struggle to hit the side of a barn from the inside; the long-range spammers just haven't realised that yet). Whilst I wouldn't presume to tell you to stay, I would observe that you do have to spend quite a lot of time fully learning the game before it starts to make sense; it's like WOT in that regard (I'm another convert), *but* most of the skills/knowledge that you'll have from Tanks don't directly transfer over. Most crucially, the vision system isn't the same; without mastery of that, most people struggle. BTW if you do stick around or come back on some future occasion, join a clan: the game is more fun played with others, plus you know that at least 1-2 others on your side are on the same page as you are (you also get economic bonuses, but that's more of a 'nice to have')...

So far (if memory serves), no T10s have returned in any form, and all the discontinued T9s have been added to the Xmas lootbox lists. As far as I recall, none have returned in the same form as they were originally available.

In no particular order: Although smokeless (eek!), the healing potion makes up for a lot. Marginally worse concealment than Halland (6.1 versus 6.0), but the practical difference isn't really noticeable; you're out-spotted by quite a lot in your tier spread, but your radar mitigates that a lot. The +30% engine boost (even though it only runs for a minute by default) is really nice for getting out of trouble (and early caps in CW etc.). The squeaky toys torps are okayish (they're essentially Oland's top ones), but she's really about the dakka, which is excellent. AA is very good, by DD standards, but you don't get Halland's DefAA; assuming a BFT captain, you have more than enough AA to deter the bulk of CV players (as ever, a good one will still hand you a weapons-grade tonking). Similarly to Orkan, your view of Smaland will ultimately come down to how much use you can make of the radar - that's the crucial difference compared to Halland, and you give up quite a lot of torp power (using the term loosely - this is the Ikea torps we're talking about) to get that radar. I've played mine in CW (low league) and Randoms, and in those environments, I've found it extremely useful - it's amazing how many opposing DDs will blind themselves (and their team) with smoke when they see you coming, leaving them wide open to your radar. FWIW, this is my Smaland equipment build, and the captain I run on her: (I'm still not 100% convinced I shouldn't have rudder shift, as I rarely slow down, and you do get shot at a lot; I run zoomy torps as most gun engagements are fairly close range and having torps that do 80 kts is very helpful, but slot 6 is about the dakka where on Halland I run torp reload; my general approach to the Ikea captains and ships has been to put the dakka boost on the captain, as it helps AA too, and put any torp boosters on the ships.)

She's clearly over-priced, but I haven't regretted spending that much on mine for a moment - she's perhaps my favourite DD currently (and she's sufficiently different from Halland that it's not just a about the economy)...

Despite the ludicrous price, I would absolutely suggest getting hold of her (assuming you like your existing Ikeas) - she's excellent, and sufficiently different to Halland to be interesting. If you enjoy making opposition DDs regret their life choices, she's amongst the best options available (IMO); you're also pretty CV-resistant, although not to Halland levels. Since I picked mine up, she's rapidly become perhaps my favourite T10 DD...

When in the hands of a competent player i.e. not me...!

Whilst it's pretty obvious that MA is very popular (and is widely viewed as perhaps the best premium BB), I'm still surprised that she's being removed - I would imagine that ship alone funds a not insignificant amount of vodka/dancing girls... Presumably, she (and the T9s) will become another part of the 'please buy Xmas loot boxes' collection.

Precisely! I've been playing Smaland a fair bit since I got her, and it's very apparent that a lot of players I encounter simply don't realise that she has radar; in all fairness, I see the same thing in Orkan too, but the latter isn't always top tier, which mitigates her somewhat.