Verblonde

I'll probably end up eating these words, but how hard can it be? It's Tier V, and only facing other T5s - unless one is *really* new to the game, it should be relatively straightforward to rank out without too much aggravation. <prepares to be monumentally wrong>

Well, I'm a shiny new Canadian (since May), rather than born-and-bred; my present state of hockey development mainly consists of trying to discern if the sport actually has rules of any kind...? I have to say, as a rugby man, it does look rather a promising thing to watch though - definitely not a sport for great big blouses!

True. I'm viewing it as an extra few thousand coal that I may get for mucking about at T5 for a bit (if there is nothing better to be doing) though - i.e. a freebie. I'm also assuming that T5 Ranked will be much less of a ball-ache than T10; this may be a mistake, of course. Personally, I'm also trying to work out how to play BBs at lower tiers, so if I can do that, and get some extra coal in the process, then yay (but that isn't relevant for most, I imagine).

Speaking as a DD enthusiast, I'd go with Gearing - she's enormous fun, and still holds her own against the newer introductions...

This is my reaction too; that said, coal is always useful (Daddy needs a new Salem, eventually), and I might even be able to get near it with T5 - he says, with (probably) delusional optimism...

Others have covered the key differences off admirably. For me, the 'problem' with the two lines is that both have fun ships in them, so I would suggest following both lines, at least far enough to get the 'keepers'. The torp line T6 and T8 are both pretty good; Kagero has excellent stealth, and decent torps (although be mindful of the lousy detection range, as mentioned already) - she's a keeper for me (and I have both T8 premiums), although I run TRB instead of smoke, for fun (plus, radar makes T8 smoke redundant a lot of the time). T9 and T10, are both pretty meh (and the Shima LU is pretty useless), so I wouldn't bother going above T8 for this line, until/unless WG fix them. The 'gunboat' line at T7 (Shiratsuyu) is glorious - it's one of the best torp boats (!) tier-for-tier in the game, mainly because it gets the absurd TRB, which enables you to chuck out an indecent number of torps (at the expense of smoke). After that, the line goes full dakka, and seems to perform very well at the moment, although they're a bit too visible for my taste (I prefer the US DDs in the T8-T10 range)... Edit: try and ensure you have a decent captain (at least ten points) for all 'keeper' DDs - things like CE make a huge difference.

Oh, you can also sell any spare cammo you have kicking around too - that'll generate a few thousand too. (On the subject of cammo, it's also worth putting permoflage on T6+ ships that are keepers, although they mostly cost doubloons)

Also: find a tier at which you can consistently do well in, and play several games (PvP) at that tier in a ship that you like - that should generate a fair bit of silver, especially if you can manage without premium consumables (more likely at lower tiers). Premium account does make a huge positive difference to silver earnings though, if you don't mind giving WG money. If you've been doing the RN DD missions, you should be able to get Cossack for cheap at the end - she's a good silver earner too, once you've got the hang of her (assuming you're comfortable with T8 MM - you may need a few hundred more battles though). Also, on the subject of those missions, try and bag either Gallant or Warspite - premium ships are one of the most effective ways of earning silver, provided you perform okay with them.

Extra captains are always useful, especially when you have an unfortunate ship collecting habit - not grumbling here. I suppose if the hockey aesthetic gets annoying, we can always switch it off...

If you'll forgive my saying, you were magnificent! <hat-tip>

@El2aZeR just witnessed my virtuoso demonstration of why a) one shouldn't play high tiers whilst jetlagged, and b) Shima is not really a first-choice ship...! Apologies for being useless...

I'm fairly rubbish with mine, so far, but I don't think it's the ship's fault. You've a slightly unusual combination of good stealth, good guns, but few torps. Normally, stealth would suggest that heavy torp use would be in order, but you don't have enough for that, so you have to use the guns, which obviously negate your stealth. so, she isn't idiot-proof by any means; you may see better stats, but it'll take a while, whilst people learn to play her. BTW LWM also says that Cossack suffers disproportionately when uptiered - if true, this could also be a factor?

This. There have been several tales of woe from people who forgot, or didn't notice the top modules aren't mounted!

Not sure who got me in the end either - I think it was the RN cruiser, rather than the Galant (?). I was stupid, and should have run away...

Finally:

No, but then I'm still trying to not suck in things that aren't Sims - hitting the SBs reliably is still giving me trouble. I haven't played the last couple of days though, because (I think) the Op doesn't contribute to the latest round of RN missions...

Aye, sorry - I was briefly overcome by naive optimism. I do apologise...!

My guess is that WG are hoping that newer players will try (and like) division play, so increasing the likelihood that they'll stick around in the game and/or old lags will division up with some newbies, as part of introducing them to the game...?

It's a bit academic for me, as I'll probably die of old age before getting enough steel for either, but I would prefer to get my hands on Alaska, for the same reason as several others - it was real, and sailed, and everything.

I ran into one in my Asashio this morning (traitorous body-clock woke me up early, so had a pre-work blast) - tore me a new one in no uncertain terms, although I did a surprising amount of damage with my guns before getting sunk... Suspect that Lightning (or *maybe* Jervis, if you can live with the torp range) may be where the line starts to get worthwhile.

If anyone hasn't seen, there is compensation available for the glitch with the clan patches (which it seems everyone is eligible for): https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/game-updates/update-079-royal-navy/ You need to click on the 'claim compensation' button. BTW let your browser catch up, and make sure you're logged in - it only worked for me the second time I tried. Fair play to WG - a RN container and a day of premium is always useful to have...

<trudges off to the nearest volcano with half a dozen virgins in tow>

I really wanted to love the RN DDs; so far (I have T5-7), I'm tending to agree too - T5 will almost certainly get sold, and probably T6 too - I have far, far better things at both tiers. Not sure about T7 yet - I think it needs more of a thrashing before I decide. It's just as well they act like premiums at the moment, so I can bounce one captain between all of them...

I was idly wondering about buying this back - I need to learn to suck less in RN cruisers, and a bit of lower tier practice might do me good...

Because I'm a bad person, I'm now rather looking forward to Halloween, and Christmas, and any other time when loot boxes go on sale...