Verblonde

Not all of them, usually, no (although I occasionally get 'Pulp Fiction moments' where I'm right in the middle of a spread, and all the buggers somehow miss); the difference between being dinged by one rocket and most of them is significant though, and makes it worth making some effort to evade. I do find, that - like evading torps - a lot of the more useful stuff you can do is before they fire, and this is an area where only good players can reliably strike you. It's stuff like hard turns at random, to throw off trying to get a decent aim, turning into the planes so they over-shoot, and just making yourself hard to find, so the CV wastes time doing so. Whilst my overall WR is entirely dreadful, I do feel I tend to do less atrociously in DDs, and a lot of that is having learned counter-play that is indeed somewhat effective. I do suspect things would be different for an actively good DD driver though....

Very much so (despite having almost all the premiums in the game). IMO it wouldn't be harmful to the game, although there are a few factors to consider: However it worked, it would need to be excluded from the 'no nerfs for premiums' policy; it would also need to be made abundantly clear - and repeatedly - that it was excluded. Assuming you'd include the premium captain-swapping ability, there would probably be a risk of increased seal-clubbing, as it would be easier to drop a 19 point captain into a T4, if you really wanted to (although you could only make the feature available from - say - T6 and up). If everyone did it, there would be more silver sploshing around the game, which might encourage WG to raise prices, which might be a nuisance. No doubt I've missed something, but I would cheerfully play some money to make a few key favourite silver line ships into (essentially) nerfable premiums. Leander springs to mind, for one... To be honest though, I'd probably be happy with permaflage that equalled the performance of the T10 permaflage, regardless of tier (I can live without the 'any captain' thing, but I do have plenty of 19 pointers available to quickly advance less good captains).

I think a lot depends on how you play the game, and what your aims are: A lot of folk will be working on developing strategies and techniques that work the majority of the time. As far as I'm aware there aren't many players whose methodology can work against 100% of all players they meet 100% of the time. The majority of CV players in randoms are - at best - average (unicums are rare, pretty much by definition), in that context, why not develop counter-play? You can just give up, I suppose, at the mere sight of a CV because they *might* be competent, but a) where is the fun in that, and b) you might as well at least try, as even keeping the CV occupied will help your team (not to mention improve your rewards if you take some planes with you). Getting a weaker CV player isn't lucky coincidence; in randoms it's normal; the (un)lucky coincidence is getting a CV that actually knows what they're doing. This logic won't apply to high-end competitive play, of course, but that's a comparatively narrow set of games for the bulk of players (I vaguely recall reading that sub-10% of players play clans?). Basically, I'm not going to give up playing because a minority of CV players can strike me more or less at will; I'm focusing more on those games where I *can* do something...

Basically, what others have said; generally it works (to a greater or lesser extent - sometimes RNG just breaks wind in your general direction) on the majority of CVs you'll meet. The only additional thing I might add is to keep an eye on your AA status (if you're playing a DD which has better than laughable AA): relatively few hits from HE, especially, can seriously whittle down your AA capability - when you're at 100% 'fight' might be a semi-viable option; when you've had a bunch shot off, 'flight' becomes your only option (meaning towards friendly AA cover).

To be fair, Gneis was quite a long way along in getting the relevant refit (before allied bombers took an interest); the ship's armament in game is a lot more historical than a whole bunch of other ships (<cough>Russians</cough>) and it provides a bit of variety between the two sisters, so I actually prefer that they did it this way. As you probably know, Gneis' original guns were removed as part of the refit, and ended up as coastal defences, and one is still there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrått_Fort

You are (as others have said). Your torps, your responsibility - always. Whilst it's not really possible to tell definitively, there are some common areas to look at: Situational awareness is the biggest overarching thing: keep an eye on where everyone is on your team, and what they're doing. If it's physically possible for someone to get in the way of your torps - generally - you shouldn't fire. Most stuff falls within this broad category, and it only comes with practice/experience. Watch your mini-map like a hawk (you should be doing this anyway); you want to be paying attention to your torp range circle, and where all other ships are in relation to it (both allies and targets). Don't get tunnel-vision; it's very easy to focus too hard on your target, whilst neglecting other things that are going on; if you're using something that has a slow reload (like torps), use the time whilst your weapons are recharging to be looking around and making note of what everyone is up to. In a torp boat, you can make use of the torp indicator to get a sense of how fast a target is moving, whilst the mini-map gives you a vector (for everyone). If you have an ongoing sense of how everyone is behaving, it makes it easier to launch more judicious torp strikes. Besides the whole turning pink (and getting - justifiably - abused if you don't say sorry) thing, it's worth taking quite a lot of trouble to avoid hitting your allies: torps generally take ages to reload, so if a bunch of them hit your allies, as well as your team losing - at least - a lot of hp, you essentially have to wait an extra reload cycle before you can try and strike the enemy again. If you want to take the risk of hitting an ally, the least you should do is try and warn them before launch if possible ("ship x - I'm firing torps to your right"), or *immediately* after, if not. Know that - even then - if you hit a warned ally, it's still your fault though.

Don't worry - I'll say it: I suck, and I used to *really* suck; levels of sucking that are visible from adjacent galaxies... Still very much a work in progress too.

I vaguely recall some disagreement with my implied suggestion that a WOWS xvm would be poisonous...?

Easy - manliness! (according to WOWS numbers, my survival rate is a rather embarrassing 19.73% overall!)

Not sure what my average is, but I just opened the six crates for completing the first directive, and every single one was a 5 FWIW.

Something you'll find is that - when people aren't being uncivilised - this is a very helpful forum; most folk are just trying to be useful. The assumption is usually made that if you post on here, you want opinions and will be gracious when receiving them.

In my case, I do if there is something worthwhile to gained from doing so, some sort of nice rewards etc. and/or if the ships look especially interesting for some reason. So, I got the Ikeas early, basically for the pretty permaflage (and because I discovered after the first, that I enjoy the ships a lot); I'm unlikely to spend on the Russian cruisers as the benefits (to me personally) aren't worth it...

I'm not worrying - although I thank you for your concern - I'm merely trying to help. You don't want help, that's fine - good luck to you.

Suggest asking again when more than just a small number (I'm guessing) of whales/people with a surfeit of doubloons have her, and have played a meaningful number of battles? If the new cruisers are a bit meh, we should probably be relieved - I was assuming they'd be the usual 'small man syndrome' OP Russians; I'd be happy to be wrong - a balanced new line of Russians (even if mostly fictitious) should add some useful variety.

I'm assuming it's a deliberately limited selection for test purposes. No doubt depth charges will be added to others later. Given the survey I got to fill out earlier, WG are aware that CVs are still not right (more than a year after the reework!), and they may wish to avoid repeating that with SSs. I suppose we should be less discouraged that - so far - they appear to be being a bit more cautious this time...?

Only if you're over-sensitive. I assume nothing - at the tiers you're currently playing, you're massively better than I am (although that isn't a short list of players); the point is that the watery equivalent of xvm sniping will help you a lot less than focusing on getting even better yourself. This is a universal principle regardless of starting point skill-wise - what I do assume is that as a good player already, you'll be aiming for super-unicum; getting wound up - which always happens - at whatever potatoes, on whichever side, will not help you in this endeavour.

You probably should. With (at time of writing) fewer than 1K battles, there is a good chance that focusing on improving your own performance and skill-set will yield more useful results than worrying about who is good/bad on your team. Xvm is a poisonous influence on WOT, and I can't imagine a WOWS version being any more positive - it'll just give you an aneurysm.

This isn't entirely unadjacent to my own reaction; I suspect it would have been more interesting for folk if the cammo hadn't been mostly for things that already came with a permaflage...

Not sure - I missed the message (it had gone by the time I remembered to look). I'd estimate around 10 million +/-, depending on how accurate my recollection of what I had before is...

Depends a lot on the specific DD and CV under discussion (Halland or Groz against most T8s can be hilarious for example). I'm a very long way from being a unicum, and my feeling is that although CVs are often a major problem and they do need fixing/tweaking, they do make the game more interesting at higher tiers at least. The issue for a lot of players - I suspect - is that they are unwilling or unable to find the necessary information to make their experience better, and this is one part of WG's failure with CVs. This is probably my main objection to the T4 CVs - there are far too many of them to provide a useful learning experience for the lower tier ships that encounter them. CVs are a bit like radar for some DD players - anyone who wants to play DDs like a watery version of Borderlands, say, is going to be very disappointed; you do need to acquire some specific skills to deal with them.

Whilst I kind of agree, I'm not sure the impact of captains for these two ships specifically will be as pronounced as you might expect for a lot of players: Haida is usually people's only commonwealth DD, so unless you have a lot of spare elite/free xp, you may not have your captain at 100% (I think mine is on 17 points, from memory, although he'll get to 19 imminently). Z-39 has the big guns, of course, and most KM DD captains will probably be optimised for the smaller calibre ones found on the bulk of the line (unless you go more torp-build). Edit: this might be a good excuse to develop my Gaede captain, to get something a bit more tailored to Z-39...

I'll personally be focusing on Haida and Z-39 because - IMO - they're the most effective DDs at T7, especially with no CVs around. Sims gets an honourable mention because her xp bonus should make saving a star easier (or rather, less hard) in the event your team embraces the tuber. If you want avoid premiums, I would head straight for Jervis, as she plays a lot like Haida, only with more, shorter-ranged, torps. Stick the coal hydro mod on her, and your defensive hydro gets a distinctly naughty run-time (around 3.5 mins - 216 secs to be precise!), which is great in conjunction with the versatile RN smoke.

Vasteras is a T6, and Lexington a T8 (if memory serves); do you think you would have been any less dead against - say - a Lightning if it got within striking distance? As written elsewhere by various folk, there are plenty of mitigation measures you can take to make CVs' lives harder; you will never be entirely immune though and uptiering against CVs is as nasty as against anything else. The real danger that CVs pose, at least against a reasonable DD player, is rarely damage though, but far more about their ability to spot you. Also, an overall WR of 47% isn't that bad, in the context of the overall player-base; I suspect that most CVs you'll meet will be worse than that. Thing is, it is unrealistic to expect that a T6 will ever not have its work cut out against a T8; if you nerfed CVs to the extent that a T6 DD (of all things) had it easy then the CVs would be entirely worthless, and the game rather less interesting. Just because we DD players (75% or so of my random games are in DDs) have our work cut out against some CVs isn't a good reason to completely neuter the class, especially when we can acquire skills to reduce the majority of CVs' impact significantly. CVs aren't right yet, IMO, but they aren't as monstrous and unreasonable - in most players' hands - as many would suggest.

Emphasis added. You'd be amazed how many people do though... Kind of; the dilemma for typical DDs is that to do anything useful, you have to be at least a bit bold, but it needs to be done in a calculated way - they're the classic 'high risk - high reward' class to play. You don't have to lurk at the back and/or permanently under your allies AA umbrella, but rather your aim is to have an escape plan before the CV sees you, and also - if possible - to try and be somewhere where the CV has to waste time trying to find you; a few may not bother, and those that do aren't doing something else whilst doing so. For example, if you fancy giving a cap a poke, perhaps try and do it in such a way that your course will take you behind an island, or will with a slight course change; you see planes long before they spot you, so you usually have a bit of time to make yourself somewhat scarce. Something to have in mind is that DDs often head for predictable spots on the map, and even a not too gormless CV will know that (and the good players certainly know that) - whilst the cap circles are often a high priority, bear that in mind and try and approach from an inconvenient angle, and ignore the idiots telling you in chat to cap too early (that's a great way to suicide). Another thing you can try is to use smoke as bait; everyone knows that a lot of players camp in smoke, so sometimes dropping a smoke cloud and then motoring off elsewhere can provoke an attack/spotting run over a bit of the map where you aren't. Quickly deployed smokes (like the RN) work best for this, but you can do it with most types. Do this with care though; after dumping 'bait' smoke you'll have to wait for the consumable to cool down, which precludes its use in an emergency, and there is a limit to how far away from the cloud you'll have time to get. Another word of caution: smoke clouds attract torp attacks especially; try not to plonk smoke-screens where any attracted torps might threaten your team behind them.

Besides what others have said, make sure that things like cammo and flags that might call for gold use when you run out are set to not replenish automatically (they default to this, although at least you now get a pop-up reminding you of this). It's a good idea to wait for promos on a lot of stuff (slots especially), plus xp conversion (many folk will tell you to not convert xp using doubloons at all, but I would say don't do it except in extremis) - you don't want to use the 1:25 ratio if at all possible. If you're going to buy premium ships (as others said, premium time is generally far better value if you're going to play consistently for a time though), make sure you use your armory [sic] coupon, and buy things on special offer; premium ships are - IMO - overpriced, but you can mitigate that.