Verblonde

You are suggesting that this wasn't WG's original intention with this mode? Presumably, whoever designed the mode had recently had an unhappy love affair, and didn't see why anyone else should have any fun either...? (I'm a little less tense than sometimes, having - finally - made it to R10 earlier, when I got lucky with three or four teams in a row; I now don't have to play any more!)

Excellent show - I'll be busy viewing! Many thanks!

Oooo, shiny - didn't realise that (this is what happens when I don't read articles thoroughly)...

Many thanks @Bear_Necessities - those will be my next views. Much appreciated!

Ah yes, the ones you had to buy (for one silver piece!) did take up a slot didn't they - apologies: I'd forgotten about that... It was the starting set that behaved as per normal event ships.

@DFens_666 - thanks again; that was exactly what I was after!

Yay - thanks again! I shall don my Viewing Trousers...

You needn't worry about port slots - 'special event' ships like this get their own slots, that also get removed when the ships are removed. I assume the remaining Halloween ships will be gone with the next patch (probably Thursday next week).

Ow - that's gonna hurt in the morning!! Thank you everyone for the help - it's very much appreciated! An experimental assay with Neptune earlier wasn't an utter disaster; probably beginner's luck or simply credit to everyone's wise words.

Many thanks!

I noticed mine had started downloading earlier - I assume patch day is Thursday next week?

BTW Dragon flags, especially, are rare/expensive (as are the mightiest cammos, like the Chinese ones) - pick your spots when using them. Ideally, use them when you still have a 'first win' bonus active, and you're in a mode where you're confident of getting good results.

Operations - yes, if you can consistently do well with them (and I would avoid Defence of Naval Station Newport, when it comes around, unless you're in a large division with plenty of experienced players - it's the Op that's - by far - the hardest to do well with). Your Scharn is great for Narai, and Warspite is pretty worthwhile for the rest. Don't discount silver ships for Ops though; most things with a heal, and BBs especially, tend to be pretty decent. As always though, whatever you do best in is the thing to take. Take the time the 'learn' each Op though; besides avoiding annoying your team-mates, you'll maximise your returns if you can generally place yourself where you need to be to do maximum damage in advance of whatever it is actually arriving. This is another area where being in a division (voice comms are nice too) pays dividends. Re: flag stacking. You'll note, when you look at your signals, that you have several sections. The ones at the top (two rows) are combat boosters (improved chances of fire/flood, extra healing, go faster etc.); those don't directly give you improved earnings, apart from helping you do the stuff that generates rewards. Below them there is a row of fives, starting with Zulu; these are the 'standard' economic boosters - they either improve your silver economy (+income, -expenses), or boost your various xp earnings (standard xp, commander xp, and free xp). Finally, there is the 'special' section; this generally includes the dragon flags, which give better/multiple economic boosts. (The flags in the 'flags', as opposed to 'signals', section usually don't give any kind of bonuses - they just look pretty. The commonest exceptions are the ranked flags, which reduce your ships' servicing costs - you get the first one at R10) As to the actual stacking, if you look at your signals section, you'll note that you can mount up to eight signals per ship; which ones you pick will depend on your goals and needs for the given battles. Mounting multiple flags with the same type of bonus (extra xp, say) is referred to as stacking; in theory, you could mount eight different economic bonus flags to max out your earnings (especially if you're running a suitable cammo too - they basically work the same way, and stack with signals; they're in the tab to the left of signals, as you know), although this isn't necessarily wise - for example, if you forgo the 'anti-det' signal on a DD and get exploded early, your earnings will probably be worse than if you'd taken the combat booster. Competitive modes generally call for quite a high balance of combat boosters, compared to economic ones; easier modes less so (but don't generally waste signals on Coop mode - you should be able to prod buttock without them). It's worth reviewing how the various types of xp work before you start stacking: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Economy#Experience This matters as there is sometimes more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. For example, if you aim to boost captain xp, boosting standard xp will work on its own (captain xp earned is basically equal to your standard xp earned, before you start messing with extra modifiers); standard xp boosting will also impact free xp, as that's just a proportion of the xp your earned in the battle. I'm explaining this badly; it's easier just to have a look at the formulae that describe how xp is calculated: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Economics So, in the specific case of free xp, if you mount normal xp-boosters they will have a positive effect on your free xp earnings; specific free xp boosters on top of that will stack, so boosting earnings still further, and so on. As to the optimum configuration, that'll require someone with a calculator and quite a bit of patience; it's probably going to produce an answer like 'a shed-load of dragon flags' though...

Dev Blog (on facebook): ST, matchmaker changes. With the current matchmaker settings, sometimes you might encounter a situation where six aircraft carriers are present in one battle at Tiers IV and V battles. It's difficult for Tier III-V ships to put up a fight against a large number of aircraft carriers, which affects their overall efficiency in battle. We've prepared changes to the matchmaker that will reduce the number of aircraft carriers in this scenario: - For Tier V battles, a soft limit of two aircraft carriers per team will be set. A battle with three aircraft carriers in the team will be possible only after a long wait in the queue. - All other Tiers of battle, including IV, will have a hard limit of 2 aircraft carriers per team. Thank you for highlighting this problem, we will make all the necessary changes required. However, due to technical limitations, these changes will only take effect in one of the next updates in early 2020. The new algorithms will reduce the number of battles with three aircraft carriers for Tier IV-V ships, and Tier III ships will not encounter more than two aircraft carriers in a team after these changes. At the moment, the popularity of Tier IV aircraft carriers is very high, so stricter restrictions than those described could have a significant impact on waiting times in the queue and also lead to the assembling of a large amount of incomplete teams. We will continue to monitor the situation and make additional changes if necessary. Please note that the information in the Development Blog is preliminary.

Whilst I cheated and essentially bought most of my Nelson with doubloons (during a conversation cheapness), I use a lot of free xp on upgrading stock ships etc. - it is possible to generate a lot in quite a short space of time. Previous posts have covered off the key stuff apropos stacking signals/cammo etc. The other thing to focus on is the sorts of game modes, and the sorts of things in game that reap the largest rewards i.e. Coop is noticeably worse than Randoms for rewards, partly because it's usually laughably easy, and partly because there are simply fewer ships so less potential damage to do. Damage is the key reward driver most of the time, so focus on ship/mode combinations where you are most likely to do lots of damage (you'll make the most of your signals/cammo that way - 300% of bugger all is still bugger all). Also, don't forget that what really matters is the % of a ship's hp that you remove, not the absolute number i.e. you'll be rewarded more for taking 10K hp off a DD than for taking the same 10K off a BB, say. So, to generate maximum rewards, you want to be getting as many Dev Strikes as possible, and it's easier to get those on weedier ships (DDs and CLs for example) - as a DD main, it is a source of great joy to me though that the bulk of the player base seems not to understand this (hence all the BBs you see taking pot-shots at each other, rather than doing something useful)...

Ah, you Young People, with your baggy music and proper scientific method - bless! No, there are far darker forces at work here, specifically the all-powerful Law of the Sod - if the CV population has increased, I'm afraid it's all my fault; I've been re-grinding the IJN torp DD line (for the RB)...

My approach, like many others, is to always go for more resources containers; besides the coal ships, the 'magic' coal upgrades can be very helpful. I normally groan when I get a supercontainer; they most often contain cammo/signals, and I'd rather have the coal. That said, I did get Kami in a supercontainer a year or so ago, and that probably used up all my luck (until I got Alaska B in my 250 doubloons BF container!)...

The Indie isn't bad on the subject either: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ww1-shipwreck-scharnhorst-german-battle-falklands-video-a9234561.html

Dev Blog again - snippets via-a-vis the RN heavy cruiser arc, and the lunar new year: https://medium.com/@devblogwows/st-british-event-arc-and-lunar-new-year-3d3f8c519d36

European (mostly Swedish) DDs Dev Blog: https://medium.com/@devblogwows/st-european-destroyers-6375735d7bee

Dev Blog entry: https://medium.com/@devblogwows/st-european-destroyers-6375735d7bee

Presumably, to give them plenty of options for future trees, given that they've already 'done' most of the major nations, by and large...

Long range, fast torps, with lower damage sounds quite impudent. No smoke, but T8+ get radar...

Latest test for 'new' IFHE: https://medium.com/@devblogwows/proof-of-concept-test-cruiser-plating-and-inertia-fuse-high-explosive-ifhe-for-tiers-viii-x-3ce5e889b795

I'd like to participate too, please, and many thanks for doing this - good form!