Verblonde

Er, what?!

Since it got buffed Z-44 isn't nearly as dreadful as her reputation suggests; that said, Yugumo is a better T9 'sneaky torp truck'. I don't have Tulsa (I don't think - I rather lose track of these various made-up US cruisers) so, can't comment on her. Besides that, @albin322's advice about not spending money on things you can get for coal is good.

I'm not completely sure, but probably along the following lines for my main account: Coal: probably one or two a year, but a lot of my coal goes into mods for premiums, and keeper silver ships (especially if they have radar, or a consumable that is a key part of their play style). Steel: two a year, which tends to be dictated by how many 25% off coupons we get; my steel earning tends to be towards the lower end. RB: one a year, depending on how motivated I am to do regrinds. My next one will be a while, as I just wasted some RP on turning Keleber into her torp boat incarnation, just to see if I get on any better with her in that configuration.

Black is still worth having, and she is very different to Kidd (Kidd is tougher thanks to the heal, but has far weaker torps - only one launcher. Kidd's AA is better, but we all know that's largely irrelevant against a decent CV player. Of course, Black gets the radar, which is still powerful, if you can use it right - make sure you mount a coal mod, if possible) so they do play differently if you're making use of their respective strengths. For broadly similar reasons, I'd still Keep Chung Mu; although she's yet another Feltcher, she still plays differently to Black and Kidd (and Feltcher herself) - so worth keeping for some extra variety. Besides that, from a pragmatic point of view, you lose a lot of silver when you sell a T9, and you don't have to re-buy her for snowflakes. Besides that, I'd echo what others have said: don't spend real money on Black, but she is definitely worth the coal (if you can DD, and enjoy it).

I'd say Neustra, without hesitation, but then I'm all kinds of rubbish with gunboats that lack stealth. I should say that I never played Khaba in her glory days (I only bothered to get her fairly recently, possibly when her change to 'special' was being first mooted); I gather she was - in bygone years - pretty fearsome. These days, she's rather outclassed in most regards by the French, if you fancy the whole 'drive it like you stole it' playstyle. Neustra is - IMO - a bit of a hybrid: her torps are decent, and her guns aren't worthless, although you have to pick your spots. She's very sneaky for her tier, which is very useful (if you know how to make use of it), but her party-piece is the zombie heal - that makes her pretty much unsurpassed in the crucial DD mission of "don't die!". Of course, she's a T9 premium, so makes a lot of silver (upcoming changes to aesthetics/bonuses pending); she also has the merit of uptiering pretty well, which - with the advent of superships - is going to be useful quite often. Her only real downside is that you pay over the odds for her in terms of coal (as a former steel ship). As mentioned earlier, it's worth having Black under consideration: despite the radar nerf, she's very worthwhile as well. If I had to pick only one of Neustra and Black, I'm not sure which I'd pick; I probably get more use from Neustra...

For RP, it depends on whether you feel the urge for a BB or DD: if BB, then Ohio, whereas Vampire II is almost certainly the more useful DD - she's an excellent general-purpose DD hunter (think Haida at T10, with better hydro), and her single-fire torps can knock meaningful chunks off fatties, although you only have the one launcher. For coal, I can really only give an informed (semi-informed?) opinion about Bourgogne and Ragnar. For the former, mine lives in Coop, but is one of the better picks for that mode, mainly due to speed (engine boost) and volume of fire; the secondaries make an entertaining firework display too (no idea if they can be made effective - you want a manly BB meister for that information). Ragnar can be pretty effective, although I find her to be mediocre at actually being a DD - lousy stealth, and no torps. Those guns, combined with outrageous speed boost and radar, can make her pretty monstrous against other DDs. In my (admittedly limited) experience, to do well with Ragnar requires that the opponents give you time to do your thing (or that you have the skill to force them to, which I don't - alas) as you're about doing damage over time, rather than big alpha strikes (apart from the disproportionate impact that killing DDs has).

There is something to be said for this approach, if you're good with Cossack: she's one of the better T8 DDs (and uptiers well - 5.5 km surface detection), and there is a solid chance - because of mirrored MM - that you'll face a less effective opponent. Mind you, Black is pretty good in Ranked, thanks to the radar.

Average (at best) player perspective: Black is certainly worth having, although - unless you find yourself in a 'more money than God' situation - not worth paying significantly over the odds for in real money. The radar is still a very effective tool (despite aforementioned duration nerf), provided you know how to maximise its usefulness; use a coal mod if at all possible. The torps take some getting used to; they're spectacularly slow, but quite hard to spot, and they make quite a mess if/when they connect. They're useful tools for making areas of the map undesirable to be in. They also reload reasonably quickly; by the time your last launch reaches maximum range, you're about ready to launch again! In other respects, she's essentially a Feltcher - one of the better T9 DDs. So, better or worse than Groningen/Friesland? IMO, it depends a bit on your skill-set in each, but I find I do a lot better in Black - mainly due to the radar, and having torps (albeit weird ones). Were I to pick one of the two, it would be Black, without hesitation.

Of course I voted yes - I'm on Eastern time after all...!

In theory, she ought to be pretty imminent: https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/311 So, in theory, things should start tomorrow...

I'm hoping this one stays in test for as long as possible; I don't want to (assuming the game is still playable by then) open a Satan Box at Christmas and have a bloody submarine fall out... Aye, I filed that one under 'meh'. I wonder if the whole 'extricating WG from Russia/Belarus' exercise has reduced the number of folk available to work on this sort of thing? Mind you, we were getting dubious ctrl-c/v ships long before that whole business started...

There are worse things - depending on how she turns out, she'll probably be fun (assuming you already like Halland, which I do...). This might be sufficient to persuade me to pick up a second supership, although I doubt I'll play her much (for the same economic reasons that I don't play my existing one much either).

Dev Blog (new ships, including Ikea super DD, and I-56 premium bloody submarine): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/331

Here's the vanishing Dev Blog: https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/331

Our distressed submarine player appears to be labouring under a misapprehension: submarine players are not on the same side as everyone else..! On the whole, removing team damage was - arguably - a positive thing (although I still maintain it was a dumbing down) that said, I really wish I could drop depth charges on any submarines on my team. Yes, I'm a bad person.

This. Assuming submarines don't drive me away in the meantime, I'd probably open my wallet for quite a few new dresses for a bunch of my ships where the existing permaflage look is unappealing...

If this is accurate, I really don't understand why WG is doing this - when have they ever done anything significant like this that leaves the players better off? If it's accurate, then big yay, but it's rather unlike WG... Sorry to be cynical, but several years of observing WG (across both WOT and WOWS) tends to lead me in this direction. The most rational explanation I can come up with is that - in future - economic bonuses will be rarer for free, and more plentiful for money. I suppose it does potentially open up a new 'aesthetics only' sales channel i.e. if you like one of the disposable cammo designs, you'll be able to buy a permaflage version of just the look?

Not excessively, but that's because I already have most of the ships I'm interested in. For doubloons, I'm vaguely tempted by Dalian - she might be fun, but I think I'll wait a bit and see how much damage the final introduction of submarines does first. I'm a little low on steel; I think I'm a couple of thousand (+/-) away from the post-discount price for Plymouth, Austin, and Stalingrad. Since, time isn't really pressing, I think I'll wait a bit and see if we get any interesting steel DDs (*and* see previous point about bloody submarines).

Both - the ship has been nerfed for all owners (shorter radar duration, as I recall)...

Dev Blog (early access RN Battlecruisers, plus economy/visuals rework): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/330

Ah, ! I keep forgetting that - with submarines - the addition of something new and shiny isn't necessarily a cause for good cheer any more...

Don't know detail (for reasons that'll be apparent), but a new Dev Blog related post briefly appeared earlier on facebook earlier, that mentioned new ships. The only thing I registered was something about - possibly - a new EU Supership. When I clicked the link, I got a blank page, and when I went back to facebook, the post was gone. Presumably, someone clicked 'publish' prematurely. Anyway, keep an eye on the Dev Blog - it looks like something is incoming, although I have no idea what...

My feeling is: remove homing, and have only 'dumb' torps - same general behaviour as RN torps (so, single fire). Everything else can be sorted out as is necessary for gameplay/balance reasons...

That's pretty much what I've been doing, plus it's worth selecting if you expect to fire off a short burst then immediately hide behind smoke/islands etc.

I bagged Yamagiri, although mine appears to be Cursed so far (definitely Cursed; nothing whatsoever to do with my being incompetent), mainly to nab the supercontainers that were available early on. Besides that, I'm pretty sure that WG will introduce more missions etc. to 'force' us to play the things if/when their popularity drops (due to the economics) and whoever's idea they were's bonus is in the balance... Yamagiri seems to be one of the less egregious ones in that she doesn't have any hideously silly gimmicks (that I can see anyway); she's vaguely fun to play too, although I doubt I will with regularity - the economy is too pants. So far, I've only played her when there is a mission that requires her services... As to the captain, I had a 21 point Suzuki brother available (I was using him for my various IJN torp-focused premiums), so he got assigned as I'd not plonked him on a silver ship yet.