Verblonde

Trouble with that - were one to do such a wicked thing - is that one would then have fewer reports to use on the deserving i.e. submarines. Purely hypothetically, you understand.

Absolutely. Your mod said so. Which is why under no circumstances would I do such a terrible thing, and furthermore I would also most certainly not stop playing Randoms when I ran out of reports having used them all up on submarines. Absolutely not.

That's the one I go with, or would if I ever reported people for playing submarines on general principles, which - of course - I don't as that would be a breach of the rules, regardless of how much said submarine player clearly deserved it... You can make a case for 'misbehaviour in chat' too: were I playing a submarine, I would feel obliged to apologise to everyone in game; not to do so is clearly misbehaviour - self-evidently warranting a non rule-breaking report. Edit: need I also remind people of the "underhand, unfair and damned un-English" quote (Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson, apparently)? That sounds like a slam-dunk 'unsportsmanlike behaviour' to me!

My recollection (which may be hazy) is that if you already have them, you'll keep whatever economic bonuses apply; however, it won't be possible to get new examples of said permaflages after the rework. I assume that's still subject to the various messing that means - on average - we're supposed to be no worse off after the changes. The bonuses won't be 100% identical, because none will be that.

We are aware that Okhotnik (as she is in the game) is entirely fictitious? The real Okhotnik was a very different thing...

This. I presume that - at some point - WG will decide they need to extract more from the player base, so we'll get another captain skill rework (bets on 25 points?) - IFHE might have its cost/value proposition improved then? Personally, I don't think I run it on anything these days - the costs (both in points and lost fire damage) don't come close to being justified by the benefits.

The only issue I've had lately is being unable to get at the Armory [sic] or news from within the game (for maybe the last couple of days)...

That'll be a nope, then. In fairness, the 30 and 10 token ones were a ship container (so, several million silver in my case), and coal, respectively; I picked those up for 1,000 doubloons. That's me done - perhaps the most inexpensive event for me since I started taking the game seriously... I'm assuming the reason this event is so weak is twofold: the previously mentioned 'testing what WG customers will swallow', plus it's probably easy to implement whilst the bulk of your people are busy relocating to somewhere less sanctioned.

Okhotnik (which is Famous + Historical) doesn't get depth charges either, but WG assure us that omitting any ASW capability isn't a nerf of a premium, so that's okay...

I fear you're right, although it's cheaper to buy the damn things directly (unless it's the first bundle, and you get lucky with the tokens)...

Not quite sure how, but I seem to have got a Kraken in Ranked. Playing Yugumo, of all things...!

On the theme of testing the boundaries, have people seen this from WOT: https://worldoftanks.eu/en/news/general-news/assembly-shop-2022/ Bets that a similar mechanic might make it to WOWS as well?

I think it ultimately comes down to which bundles you get first in line (and how lucky you are with the ones that award the tokens - yay, more gambling!); for most people with a basic grasp of maths, it'll probably be a hard pass. I wonder if this is the latest 'testing the boundaries' exercise from WG - this year we've seen several offers like this that push against the limits of what's gone before in terms of return on spend. You'll recall there's a famous graph plotting taxation levels against tax income that basically increases linearly early on, before flattening out as the desire to evade/avoid tax becomes stronger? Perhaps WG are looking for the equivalent point, just before the flattening, on their graph...?

I suspect there might be a case for some light whaling if (and only if) the first available bundle is a ship container; but you would have to not care which ship you got from the container... Edit: and not care that you can't play whatever ship you get in Randoms without getting periodically 'subbed'.

Okay, I'm having a swift tea break (well, fizzy water break - I've already blown through my caffeine allowance for the day); second visit: No missions for these new tokens, at least not at the moment. Each bundle to earn tokens costs 250 gold (doubloons - you know what I mean); the bulk of the bundles get you 1 (one token), whilst there are 60 available that get you 10, plus another 18 that get you 30. The 'other stuff' in the bundles is mostly of use (xp, silver, premium time), although of varying degrees. You need 100 tokens to get each of the top level bundles, of which only one is the T9 premium container: So, worst case, you need a hundred token earning bundles to open *one* of these top level things; that's 25,000 doubloons. To provide some context, 360 days of premium currently costs 24,000 doubloons, and a T9 premium ship costs 19,300 doubloons (assuming no coupon). I'm really not seeing how this is a remotely sensible use of doubloons, even if you get the ship container as your first available bundle; what am I missing, if anything? BTW if you want to whale mightily, there are discounts: Only 75 bundles for a mighty 8% off?! The urine extraction is strong with this one...?! I have to be missing something, surely?

I was having a quick look at this stuff on my NA account at lunchtime; whilst I may need to revise my view with further reading, the costs for each 'possibly a T9 crate' bundle look entirely ludicrous. I'm a monumental whale, but even I think they're taking the pi$$ this time. It's possible I've missed something though.

Depends a bit on what you want; if I was going to pick one, it would be either Black or Neustra: Black has the smoke/radar combination; the latter, especially, is very powerful when used correctly (even with the nerfed run-time; you do want the coal mod though). Good dakka, and the torps can be very nasty once you've got used to them. AA is tolerable, but nothing special. Of course, you lack a heal, which makes you comparatively vulnerable, if the opposition have their act together. I'm guessing there will be a big spike in numbers when she makes it to the Armory [sic]; whether that's a good or bad thing remains to be seen - more familiarity, but if lots of potatoes get her, she might become viewed as less of a threat? Neustra is mainly about the zombie heal; good enough dakka and torps combined with excellent sneakiness is a decent combination (AA isn't wholly disastrous either, with DefAA), but if the enemy fails to finish you off when they see you, your healing potion is as good as it gets for DDs (I think). She can be quite exciting to play, if you like a bit of a risk now and again - the first screw-up won't necessarily get you killed, unlike more fragile alternatives. I suspect Black may be more fierce for a skilled player, whereas Neustra might be the pick if you fancy something more forgiving; they're both very good though. As to Z-44, she's okay (especially since the buff meant you can get her sneakiness down to semi-decent levels; less than 6 km anyway), but nothing spectacular. If you have spare coal, pick her up, but only if you don't have both Black and Neustra already (and any other coal ships you need); if you want a sneaky torp truck, Yugumo is better - IMO - mainly due to being sneakier.

"Do no harm..."

Depends on your personal situation, in terms of available ships etc. and on which ships you do well in. I tend to think that - if possible - it's easier to build up an elite xp stash with your 21 pointer(s), then use that to boost a 10 pointer to a suitable level (how many points will depend on the ship the latter is for). After that, use a mixture of playing the 'new' captain, and boosting him with elite xp generated by your 21 pointer. Your 21 pointer is as good as it's going to get in terms of capability, so you're - probably - more likely to do well (and so generate rewards) with him, assuming he can be played in a suitable ship. Conversely, presumably you want to play the new captain in whatever exciting new thing he's assigned to (unless you're boosting a captain for a ship that already has a captain), so that argues towards playing the new captain, if only for the fun of it. So, getting the new captain to a level where he isn't too much of a handicap (depending on ship, that'll probably be in the 13-15 point range? YMMV of course) is probably best done with elite xp, if available, and then switch to a mix after that. BTW if you have a lot of premiums, hopping between them for mission grinding in Coop generates a surprising amount of captain xp (without signals etc.). So, if you're focusing on missions in Coop, it's still worth trying to use diverse ships to maximise the (albeit modest) 'spare' captain xp gains. For example, I have several variations on the theme of Atago; if a mission calls for a cruiser, then hopping between them (and Maya/Tone) increases the captain xp gain, even though my primary focus is whatever the mission requirements are.

This is rather a 'how long is a piece of string' type of question, as the answer will be dependent on a fairly diverse set of variables. I tend to think that getting at least one 21 pointer is a pretty important endeavour, and more is better - depending on what your aims are, and how you tend to play. I play a pretty diverse range of ships (due to spectacularly low boredom threshold); besides not being ideal from a WR perspective, it does rather call for a lot of captains. If you do something like this, having a reliable source of elite xp is very helpful for getting - say - ten pointers to a more useful level fairly quickly. If you tend to play the same ships over and over again (and already have a decent captain for them), perhaps the need for elite xp reduces? IMO a key consideration is finding a ship (or - better - several ships that use the same captain, so premiums) that you really enjoy playing, and prioritise getting the 21 pointer on that/them; to get the most value from such a captain (that takes a *lot* of time and resources to get - thanks for that, WG!), you need to be able to play him an awful lot without getting bored. As an example, I recently blitzed my Suzuki brothers to 21 and 20 points; the 21 pointer is assigned to Yamagiri (torp build), but the majority of his work is done in premiums: there are a lot of IJN premiums, and you can have an acceptable build for most of them with just one captain - depending on how many you have, that can be an awful lot of daily first win bonuses. The US, Russians, and Germans are also similarly replete with premium options. My approach is rather cetacean, but you can do something similar with a f2p approach as well if you target the freebie premiums/specials in the Armory [sic] from one particular nation.

Average player perspective, although there isn't much that's secret: Make as much use of your 21 pointer as possible; obviously, all the captain xp he generates goes in the pot that can be applied to anything. In an ideal world, you'll have one or more premiums that he works in well, besides whichever silver ship he belongs to. You're after as many daily 'first win' bonuses as possible. Keep your best flags/cammo for modes and ships where you have a reasonable probability of doing well, so maximising the return on said flags/cammo. I assume similar principles will apply after the economic bonuses are split away from the aesthetics. Concentrate all of your elite captain xp on one captain; from a gameplay perspective, 19 points is usually enough, but only a 21 pointer is generating elite xp that can be used to boost other captains. You'll get your second 21 pointer a bit sooner, and that'll speed up the third and so on. You have to be patient though: the change from 19 to 21 points was unnecessary; the only reason WG did it (as opposed to just reworking the skills based around 19 points) was as an elite xp sink.

Z-46 apparently, which seems even more improbable (than me getting one in the first place); I really don't recall getting that at all...

Surprisingly, I seem to have one (just one) - no idea how that happened. I was almost certainly spectacularly lucky...!

Many thanks; sounds like she'll be filed under 'stuff I'll get from Satan Crates if I've not been driven away by submarines by then'. Mind you, I was all kinds of wrong about Maya being worthless...

As a matter of interest, what's the current state of this thing? Has it been irretrievably neutered, or merely brought down to a sensible performance level (whilst obviously being mindful that the thing is still covered by NDAs for most who'll actually know)...? I've rather lost track lately.