Verblonde

BTW this was drawn to my attention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF3x0aeoPhc Not sure how useful it is, but it is rather fun...

I have Atlanta, although being a newbie, it mainly gets used for PvE for the moment; it's great fun, but it isn't easy to play. From my limited experience, it seems to play a bit like a fat, demented destroyer (without smoke); this isn't a bad thing, but it doesn't play like anything with sensible ranged guns. That said, competent players did advise me that a Cleveland captain works pretty well in Atlanta, despite the play style differences...

The Germans had a couple in WW2, at least, although they were dropped from land-based aircraft IIRC. There was a sort of powered glide-bomb sort of thing (can't remember what it was called), and the un-powered Fritz X; the latter put a serious hole in Warspite, as I recall. I think the Americans developed something vaguely similar to Fritz X too.

I'm pretty sure I suck even worse during the week than I do at weekends, mainly due to being tired after work...

A number of reasons: As a newbie, the ability to train captains faster is *really* useful, as is the ability to accumulate silver faster. I don't generally play higher tier premiums outside of PvE (not good enough yet), but it is useful to get a bit of advanced warning of what is waiting round the next corner, as it were, in a training wheels sort of way. i.e. I'm on T6 on a couple of silver lines now; T7-8 premiums allow me to dip my toe in the water in the upcoming tiers in a relatively easy environment.

The missions even look doable for a hopeless newbie like me - yay!

I've only played mine against bots, so far (I'm too bad to be playing a weak ship against real people), but the maneuverability is glorious, for what that's worth...

Premium ships are P2W? Mine don't seem to be working properly then - is there a toggle somewhere that I don't know about? ;)

After this weekend, I feel there aren't enough carriers in the game! I was doing the USA BB mission (prompted in part by people's forum answers apropos the point of BBs), and every game in the Texas - you guessed it - not a CV in sight...!

I re-bought Black Swan at random over the weekend (needed a T1 of some sort to play with a friend who was starting the PA line). It is rather good when you aren't a shiny new player - the AP rounds, and resulting citadels, are glorious. That said, I imagine the stats overall will show if doesn't need a nerf, as the vast majority of players who use it won't know about aiming at citadels etc yet...? Plus, it is hampered a bit by not being able to start fires.

Unless WG are going to get hold of an actual honest-to-gods AI from somewhere, I can't see how accidental TKs could be distinguished from deliberate ones. Basically, pink status is *always* your fault (says he, who spent almost all of yesterday pink, after accidentally setting a bot on fire which burned to the waterline after not activating repairs - do they even get them?).

That sounds distinctly promising - always keen to see new ships/variety...

I would suggest that learning from others is essential (it's one of the benchmarks of higher intelligence, after all - did you know that some octopus can do that? Remarkable creatures, octopus...). Speaking as a newbie, when something goes horribly pear-shaped, you often don't know what happened; by observing, and talking to, better players you might work out rather faster whatever it was that you did wrong (hopefully, with a view to doing it less in future)

That would be a good way of doing it; there are plenty of interesting oddballs across the whole region (especially if you take 'Europe' to include Turkey and the bits of the Mid East that border the Med), although the higher tiers might present a challenge?

This noob bought Cambeltown; I love it, even if I do suck in it. It's great fun and, even with a mediocre captain, you're elusive enough to not get vapourised in the first minute of the game... More noobs should buy low tier premiums - with the protected MM, they're a good learning tool for getting your head round PvP.

'Many victories'? Outside of the Pacific theatre, *nobody* got many victories really, for the simple reason that there were very few significant naval engagements. Things like the Bismark and Battle of the River Plate being about as notable as it got for most people. There's nothing wrong with being proud of your country, but a bit of realism might result in fewer ulcers...? Greece is probably good for one or two interesting premiums (see my previous post for one), but there is still an awful lot of stuff to do from the proper naval powers e.g. France and Italy, and even the UK (destroyer tree, for one).

LWM has some slightly unkind things to say about the thing. Involving moose. That said, I bought it, as it looks like it'll be fun (realistically, I'll only be using it in PvE for the moment), not to mention a useful learning tool...

Erm, perhaps I should have phrased that differently...?! We have moose here: one is periodically warned not to get too close, as they can be dangerous if startled.

I had time for maybe three PvP battles before everyone in Europe went to bed last night; second battle was 100% destroyers on both sides, with at least 70% being PA...! It was very marginally less insane when forced to move to PvE; I only got to T2, but the DWT are death on a stick to cruisers at that level...!

I'm still new, and hopeless in everything, so how much fun I have whilst being made to look stupid by proper players matters a lot. Assuming LWM is right, this boat isn't much fun, so pass. I have bought the Huanghe, despite the fact that (again, according to LWM) it apparently sucks parts of moose that didn't ought to be sucked, for the simple reason that it should be fun...

I hope everyone in Europe hasn't gone to bed by the time I get back from work; PvP sounds like it's a hoot this evening...

I would buy Perth like a shot if/when it gets re-released (IIRC it was mooted to be re-released some time after the current patch); that goes *double* if there are koalas...!

I smell an invaluable opportunity to practice dodging torps in low tier cruisers... Or, more likely, to just get sunk a lot if you're the only thing the DWTs can hit!

Apropos value of different review sources: I tend to look at as many as possible; it's rare that any one will provide 100% overlap with your own views and preferences, whilst several (even if you disagree with them) should provide a more complete picture. Quite apart from that, I read reviews from more than one perspective: a) Me as I am now i.e. complete tomato b) Me as I hope to become i.e. at least 'average'. So, does the thing do anything useful for me now (most likely, as a learning aid, and often in PvE only), and what might it do in the future, when I'm marginally less incompetent (ideally in PvP)?

Sorry, not radar: *hydro* and smoke at the same time. That makes more sense... My Bad.