Verblonde

That also has the merit of gifting you a Boise once you've ground enough xp in her - the latter is a useful trainer for US captains...

I was. By mosquitos - the little ...! The moose were fine, because I know the key backwoodsman's trick of resisting the urge to carve your initials in them. Moose bites can be pretty nasty...

During possibly my worst battle of the evening (distractions both inside and outside the game), I ran into one of our merry band, who was kind enough to say hello, although I've forgotten who it was - very poor of me; apologies. I'm starting to see a trend though: I fear that the Mockers Gods are messing with me - almost all of my most appallingly bad games tend to happen when I'm in game with someone on here. I obviously need to sacrifice more goats and chickens etc.

I might be Sunday - I missed a day being at one with nature (saw a couple of moose though, so worth it)...

BTW sensible answer: with only 18 battles, get someone to send you an invite code (if you didn't do so for your initial account) and start again - it'll bag you some worthwhile freebies. I think I got Texas (premium BB) when I got my first T6 silver ship, and a bunch of stuff before that.

Definitely alive! (now with added crab emoji)

Oh yes, @TerryDachtyl: keep asking questions on here - there are usually plenty of folk around who'll happily answer questions. I've found on several occasions that something which frustrated me about the game had a fairly simple fix, when I asked...

As mentioned above, one can't really answer your core question with a definitive yes/no answer, but some factors to consider (as well as @Ace_Rimmer01's good answer above): At time of writing, you're showing four battles at T5, and everything else is below that; it also looks a bit like you may have either free-xped one or two ships, or played them exclusively in coop - whilst there is nothing wrong with this approach, it does mean you miss out a bit on some experience, plus coop has some eccentricities that one has to adjust for. At the low tiers, apart from a few seal-clubbers, most people don't really have a fully developed understanding of the game yet, so idiotic behaviour won't be that uncommon (that's not to say it vanishes at higher tiers altogether though!); try not to let it get to you too much, and just focus on what you can control i.e. your own play. I find the 'idiot index' generally to be lower at higher tiers, but you'll still encounter the odd blithering idiot (me, probably). Try not to play 'stock' ships (i.e. those without at least the key modules unlocked and installed); I find that the 'fun' increases significantly with a fully upgraded ship; the same is true of captains, although it matters less at lower tiers (the premium HMS Gallant changes massively when you get a CE captain in her, as she suddenly gains a stealth torp firing window, for example) than it does higher up. This is where coop mode comes in: if you have the patience, research your modules in coop mode for a given ship, and then venture out against real people when it's been upgraded (sources like the wiki are good places to look for an indication of module priorities for research); if you lack patience, use free xp (generally don't research new ships with free xp though - that's rather inefficient/expensive). Play a wide range of nations and classes (although probably avoid CVs for now - they're going to be significantly changed SoonTM); each nation and class tends to have a distinct character, and you may gel better with some than others - for example, I tended to get on better with torp boats initially, so the IJN DDs/cruisers were a better initial choice than the Russians, and so on. Once you isolate the ships you get on with, the levels of fun should improve. I would suggest developing a small fleet at T4, and get really proficient with them before venturing higher: T5 and above get +2 MM, so you'll start to face much scarier opponents (you've probably seen this already with your T5). Speaking of, I note your lone T5 is a British cruiser: although this line is great fun, it isn't the most forgiving, so it's often worth making that one's third or fourth line (says he, who didn't, but is still rubbish in them). Overall, there are a lot of frustrations early on in the game, but there clearly is fun to be had for a lot of folk. Suggest finding a few folk to platoon with (actually, I think 'division' is the relevant expression for WOWS) as well - you'll learn stuff, and probably have more fun to boot. Suggest joining a clan too, for similar reasons.

It's unfortunate: hideous brain-eating endo-parasites are a terrible thing to witness... Being (slightly) sensible, @leopard_77 - suggest you read this: https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/common/go-navy-rules/ - it outlines how the whole thing works. The key bit is that it was sensible to stick with one, or other, team consistently (if you want the winning team, that was obviously sharks from about day two or three, at the most), until maxing out the loyalty points; after that, switch. As others have said, in a few days, the vast majority will switch sides to eagles, after which sharks should basically never win again.

I might have a look at Giulio Cesare; it's rather good (I've seen it suggested that it's a bit OP even): http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Giulio_Cesare I don't like BBs that much (brawlers excepted), but this one is quite fun - somewhat less ponderous than many of the others.

Who cares if there are kids playing 'our' game? In fact, we should be encouraging them - the more players, the better! It's not like we aren't overrun with a plethora of hopeless players most of the time anyway (me, for one); the only difference between a kid, and an older fart who hasn't learned how the game works either, is that the former has better reflexes. It may be a little unkind to point this out to the more stats-obsessed, but I feel it's worth remembering that WOWS is a computer *game* - don't take it all so seriously!

Fair play to WG for fixing the OP's coq-urp (as the French might say). Presumably, the ideal end-state would be to fettle these upgrades so they can't be sold (at least); they might need a free dismount option too - I imagine the whinging would be extensive if you could *only* get the thing off your ship by spending doubloons (sort-of equals real money)...

I've got into the habit of checking each game, just to make sure I didn't miss anything (press and hold tab, from memory; left most tab)...

Probably some combination of Loyang, Kidd, Benson, and Harekaze; I'm probably still far too rubbish to get to the point of needing T10s, but if I do, it'll be Grozo...

I'll probably buy it, because a) I like DDs a lot, b) I like T6, and c) I'm a perverted immoral kinky piece of trash, with no limits to my depravity. I'm another one who could have been persuaded by a 'buy 25K doubloons' offer, as opposed to a 'spend' one. I'll just have to wait a few days before slaking my base, animal instincts then...

Realistically, if we ever get anything that isn't T10, it'll be T8 - as others have said, that's where the expensive premiums live (coke and hookers don't buy themselves y'know). I'd like to see T6, like everyone else though...

If WG wanted to be kind, they could give us the opportunity to complete last year's collection somehow as well (I started playing towards the end of if and didn't have time/ships/awareness to get it done - I think I have around a third to a half completed); I'm fully aware that the chances of this are realistically zero, but a chap can hope...

Do you not get similar earning potential to a regular T10 with perma? I must admit, I usually play the pair I do have against real people, but they're very profitable with a premium account - in coop, wouldn't it be more or less break-even? I'm not thinking of lots of games, but as an occasional muck-about...

The reasons I'd rather like Salem are entirely non-functional though: e.g. she's Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Plate... (I would end up playing her in coop mostly, for several months, at least - I don't have the first idea what to do with a high tier cruiser against real people)

Funny you should mention this: there's a big red button at the top of my screen - every time I press that, something ghastly happens - clearly cursed! What, you wanted more specific? It's Atlanta (dammit, not that one) Indianapolis for me (being rubbish at cruisers doesn't help, but the gods definitely vomit on my eiderdown particularly with that one)...

If you can stick a speed boost special upgrade on her, that would be produce some quite naughty speed - three minutes of it, specifically (I think)?

Many thanks - that was what I guessed. I was thinking it might be sensible to focus on using the current event to get coal, then, rather than permacammo (or at least, permacammo for premiums)...

Does anyone happen to know if Salem comes with permacammo (like regular premiums do, and MO did), or if you have to get it separately? Possibly a stupid question. I'm trying to decide which permacammo to get with Shark tokens, and how many to use to get containers (and so, coal)...

Eeep!

When I first started playing WOWS, I was mildly surprised not to find Vanguard in the game already - I would have thought a lot of Brits would bite your hand off (once they'd got Warspite, Hood etc out of their systems)...?