Verblonde

I just learned a new word...! I initially read it as 'homopteran' (a group of bugs, using correct non-American usage of 'bugs')...

@palachinka86 as a post-script, it rather looks like Z-46 may be your first T9 DD, and you have two T8s? I also infer that you've taken a break at some point (1.5K and change random battles, but you're showing history for ships pre-dating the Russian DD split in early 2017). Am I guessing along the right lines? If so, don't forget that the game gets a lot harder in higher tiers, and mistakes tend to be punished harder; depending on how many of your games are recent, some of your experience may well date from earlier meta states (when DDs arguably had fewer effective predators) too. That's not to say you're Doomed, but rather to suggest that some modification/revision of technique/methodologies may be called for.

Same way we always have, only with a modicum of extra caution at the moment, due to the current spike in radars due to interest in the new Russians. @invicta2012 covers off a lot of the key points very well; besides that: 'Backing into' doesn't necessarily have to mean going in reverse; coming into a cap from an oblique angle can work, so you can get out quickly (if lit up) with much less turning and whilst still maintaining speed. Don't worry excessively about caps (regardless of people in chat); as a DD, your key aim is to stay alive - your influence increases as the enemy radar gets sunk. Generally, the team that finishes the enemy DDs first wins, so try not to let that happen. Make a lot of use of the mini-map and never lose track of the enemy radars, if possible. Minimise the number of enemy ships that have LoS (or rather line-of-ballistics, I suppose) to you; you are going to get lit up by something, and when you do, it's easier to dodge the fire from fewer ships. Try and keep islands between you and particular threats, or within a short distance. Think about uses of smoke beyond simply blocking LoS: you can use it as bait with care e.g. if a radar sees a cloud of smoke near the edge of its range there is a good chance it'll use a charge to find out what caused it/is hiding in/behind it. Assuming you can get away before the inevitable shells arrive, you've just reduced the enemy's radar capacity by one (not to mention put the ship in question on cooldown, which time can be made use of, although beware multiple ships cycling their radars). BTW much of this also applies to dealing with carriers, which are a much greater threat to DDs, mainly because of the much longer spotting time (radar maxes out at rather less than a minute, and the nasty Russian ones are rather less e.g. 36 secs on Moskva with a coal mod)...

Not really a 'greatest' (especially since it's only Coop - I clicked the wrong button; complete waste of flags etc.), but rather a reminder to not forget about the guns on IJN torp boats: Those eight citadels are all from a Chapy whose AI was daft enough to give me broadside at close range...!

It's very slow to load for me for some reason (I have a solid PC and a fast connection, so it isn't that)... The aesthetics don't upset me, but I would like an option to zoom out a bit, so as to be able to get more stuff on the screen at once.

FWIW when you complete the second stage of the thing, the golden emphasis on the dockyard vanishes, making it less obtrusive. Personally, I don't mind the current iteration of the dockyard as - as far as I can see - WG have fixed most/all of what annoyed me/us so much last time...

I still don't in general...!

Krispy Kreme gets my vote, as she's an essential reminder of the bleakness/futility of existence and that we all must die...

I was introduced to WOWS by an old friend from the UK, probably in early-mid 2017 (I don't remember exactly when); we'd been playing WOT for a while, and he'd been bugging me for ages to give WOWS a lash and I finally relented. After more than three years: I'm still rubbish. I still enjoy the gameplay and visuals. I'm still spending money on the game. I'm still finding out interesting new historical stuff as a direct result of the game and especially the community. WOT and WOWS are the only MMOs I play regularly. I'm not really a very good barometer for things like the WOWS learning curve, support for new players etc. as I went through the crucial elements of that with Tanks first, so knew at least some of the classic pitfalls in advance; I remember being very happy to see that WOWS had Coop mode - in WOT you can easily be a menace when you inevitably rush up the tiers/buy excessively high tier premiums etc. whereas in Coop mode, the same attacks of the sillies matter a lot less. For as long as I've been playing WG titles, the company has been regularly shooting itself in the foot (although it does feel more frequent these last twelve months or so) in terms of rookie unforced errors that unnecessarily annoy its customers; I more or less came to terms with this some time ago, so it doesn't impact my enjoyment of the game (although it does sometimes reduce my spending). WG give the impression of having quite a few people, especially in marketing, who could really use a few years more seasoning, as they make mistakes that anyone with a reasonable comprehension of the markets they're working in could avoid in their sleep! In terms of the future, I believe the game has at least a few more years in it yet; everything ends, but (some unforeseen catastrophe apart) I don't see that happening to WOWS just yet. I'm mindful of the need to take breaks now and again; I recently returned to WOT after - effectively - a couple of years off, and the enjoyment was very substantially increased compared to when I last played. I fully expect the same for WOWS at some point too; it may well be the introduction of subs to randoms etc. that pushes me away (the initial balls-up that was the CV reework reduced my playing time dramatically) based on the current test iteration, but who knows. It's inevitable that we're going to get more and more paper/fantasy ships (*especially* Russians) in the future, especially higher tier ones, as that's where the money seems to be; I would prefer more 'real' ships, but am aware that this is a finite 'resource' and that a lot of the remaining ones are from less 'insecure' nations, so the pressure to introduce them is lower. I would like to see a return to work on Ops, and greater effort being made to introduce new content that isn't yet more premium ships, but I'm not holding my breath. I don't think the future is unremittingly rosy, and WG will continue to be WG, but I think I'll be having ship-shaped fun for quite a while longer yet....

Possibly unpopular in some quarters, but doesn't make the words any less wise!

Still getting used to it. My initial reaction was a string of uninterrupted swearing, of which mater wouldn't approve, because I couldn't find anything (and the 'end battle' doesn't tell you how the things you just did relate to other missions, although this stuff can be found in the main mission tab). Having spent a bit more time with the thing, I'm starting to be very slightly less hostile, but it did require a certain amount of looking around carefully to see how it all works. It might turn out to be okay; I already dislike it less than the 'new' WOT equivalent (however many years old that is by now)...

I get the impression that quite a lot of forum folk take the view "hells, no!"... I have done several times, mainly because I wanted Colbert, but: I would only do it when you can get at least x2 on the points earned, even if that means having to be patient. Pick a line where you enjoy most (if not all) the ships in it, and repeat that line rather than doing several different ones. Have a stash of free xp and silver, so you can skip/buy everything you need/want to without having to muck about with stock ships etc. Have a stash of xp-boosting flags/cammo, to speed things up. Keep a captain trained for every ship you won't be free xping (for me that means T4 or 5 and up); besides saving retraining, it means you tend to have better captains than you did the first time, which makes the regrind less arduous. Optionally, pick a line that requires less xp to complete (I think the cheapest is the IJN dakka DD line, and number two is the same nation's torp DDs, which is the line I picked); I feel that 'fun' is more important than 'cheap' though. Even with all that though, I would only do it if you're really very keen on something from the RB; so far, I don't believe there is anything in there that is 'essential' (especially for competitive modes, which was a lot of people's original fear)...

Incidentally, something I hadn't considered that's mentioned earlier: RB. For me, the Moskva switch doesn't make any difference to whether I have enough lines to T10 to qualify for resets (if you're into such things); if one had exactly the number needed for resets, presumably the Moskva switch returns you to having one line fewer than the number required. Does anyone know what actually happened in such cases? Just curious.

That's a perfect summary of the alternative point of view, and is entirely accurate. It all comes down to one's view of silver versus semi-premium ships (and their permaflage) and if/how/why they're different... You can make a good case that which view is 'right' (if something subjective ever can be) is almost irrelevant now; enough people hold the 'WG robbed us/them' view that the PR damage is very much done. My view is that the bad feeling generated - whatever the rights/wrongs of the matter - is almost certainly more harmful to WG than handing out replacement silver T10 permaflage to existing owners would have been...

All kinds of this!

If I'm being entirely accurate, that's where something like 80-90% of the xp for mine came from...!

I have to say, I care a lot less about the Kirov aspect of all this: No-one lost anything of note (no permaflage for T5s and, if there were, they'd be a *lot* less expensive than the T10 equivalents). Sure, you might have to regrind the new T5, but that's hardly a massive chore. Anyone who'd ever researched the thing got an honest-to-goodness full premium ship in return. The only down-side is having to train a captain for the new T5 (assuming you need to grind the T6, or - as I am - are regrinding the whole line for RB); I did it the most expensive way - doubloons - and even that's a much smaller expenditure than a T5 premium would cost (even with the silver etc. spent on the new silver T5). I have to say, I entirely agree with those who say that being jealous of someone getting a freebie that you didn't is not a worthy reaction; I also take the view that the existing permaflage owners did lose something they paid for, so their reaction is reasonable and shouldn't be written off as petty jealousy. (Edited for a silly)

Yesterday, you had x permaflages for T10 silver ships; today you have x - 1 permaflages for T10 silver ships. This is incontrovertible fact. Equally true is that yesterday, you had y permaflages for T10 semi-premiums, and today you have y + 1. Those who feel that some sort of replacement is called for (for the new silver T10, say) are, I suggest, those for whom the distinction between a silver ship and a semi-premium matters; this is clearly not everyone.

FWIW when I was transferring my old Kirov captain to whatever the new T5 is, it was showing as being specialised for something like 'Kirov (old)'. (Never bothered with a captain for Moskva as I knew the switch to semi-premium was coming.)

The coal price is ridiculous, of course, but the rest isn't actually that bad if you have at least one 19 pointer (preferably several). For instance, the Ovenchicken on my Gearing replaced a 19 pointer, but almost never got played with 'only' 10 points: First, as I recall, I blew enough elite/free xp to get him to 13 points (which added BFT to the DD standard build). After that, I mainly played him in premiums and/or game modes where not being a 19 pointer didn't matter (the original 19 pointer being wheeled out when I need the best available captain). It didn't take an unreasonable amount of time/resource to get him to 19 points, through a mixture of playing and using elite xp. Bear in mind that for a US DD, all Ovenchicken gets you over the original is a better SE (EM is a waste of points for the US DDs)... Depends a bit on the ship (and if you run premium account): I've been mucking about in Coop today (knocking off some of the new shipyard directives) in all tiers from 4 to 10, and haven't lost silver yet. But, I do run premium account, and play very aggressively with a view to maximising damage. It's got a lot easier though with the shift to free premium consumables, but that's also true of other modes too. If you want reliable silver (and xp) returns, you'll do a lot better in PvP...

Does anyone have any strong views on the optimum upgrades for Moskva, before I just sling whatever I had on her before back on? Ditto Kirov, although I can't imagine there is much variation there...

If we assume that we'd get a couple of months' notice then my answer is 'maybe'. I buy T10 permaflage for silver ships (emphasis) purely for the economic bonuses - with one, T10 silver ships become reliable profit-makers which they aren't normally for a player of my standard. Previously, the understanding (because WG never gave any indication to the contrary) was that permanent camouflage was just that i.e. it would last as long as the game did; in my case, that meant that where I had a silver T10 it would have a permaflage available for the lifespan of the game. All that has really changed now, via-a-vis future purchases is that there is now a risk that you will lose your silver permaflage at some point and probably get about two months' notice if it does happen; realistically though, we should acknowledge that this scenario is probably fairly unlikely (more so, given the weeks of poor PR that the current case has generated). A regular T10 permaflage costs, what, 5,000 doubloons? That's about fourteen quid (13.86 UKP to be precise). So, previously, the thought process was along the lines of "will I get 14 quid's worth of fun/use out of the permaflage before either the game ends, or I get bored, or the ship gets intolerably nerfed?"; now it's the same thought process only with a time period of at least two months (probably more, realistically). For me, the number of ships that get a resounding 'yes' is now significantly smaller than it was before (and I have most of them already), but it probably isn't zero...

The insatiable desire for new content! It could be worse: at least the Germans (mostly) built a real carrier, and - I think - started work on at least one other conversion. The KM CVs will eventually appear to be a blissful historical utopia compared to when the inevitable (over-compensating) Russian CVs turn up...

Full disclosure: I'm rubbish in CVs and mainly play them in Ops or Coop, but I do have - I think - almost everything up to T8 (no Indomitable though). I would suggest playing both IJN and US; there are a couple of reasons for this: More practice at T4; although this sucks for your targets, it's a good way to get the hang of the basics of how the things play - both lines. Ops at T6; this is the point where you (IMO) start to get a sense of the 'character' of the various lines. Play both T6 options and you'll be able to learn them both thoroughly, and make a more informed decision regarding which line to push on with. CVs at higher tiers have a very significant impact on the game; you'll probably get flamed a lot if you are not - in people's view - sufficiently practiced. Whilst this shouldn't be a factor, you'll probably have a nicer time if you get plenty of practice at the lower tiers first; the 'which CVs' decision making being easier is then just a bonus. (Edited for stupid double-negative.)

You're not the only one, although I do have the Russian Dasha somewhere (the others seem rather incongruous to me with the language mis-match, and I have a much less pressing need for lots of 10 pointers these days). What I was getting at is more if you *need* ten pointers right now, and you've bagged all the standard ones, she might be an option if you do set the relevant tick boxes to "don't show me Dasha, dammit!" (or whatever the actual settings are). FWIW what I used to do - when I was in a similar situation - was focus on making really sure I got every 10 pointer that came along, even if I wasn't going to need him/her/it for months; mind you, I also have a slightly relaxed approach to 'funnies' so I have several anime captains running around, plus space dolphins and Mad Max wannabes... What I would suggest though is making a concerted effort to get your first 19 pointer; although it's a pain in the patookus and takes ages, it will make your life a lot easier (and the whole 'snowballing' thing is true too)...