Affeks

I agree. Normandie and Lyons utterly stupid top speeds and other design decisions really grinds my gears. Why WG went this "make this line with difficult dreadnoughts" route is beyond me.

The short answer to "tanky cruiser with good AA" is German Cruisers. The second you get to tier 8+ youll find some of the tankiest cruisers with good all round performance with arguably second best AA after USN cruisers. The other choice is Moskva if you can play it right, but the problem is that the rest of the Russian cruiser line is really squish and not really anything you can actively tank in.

AR is already the go to 2nd level captain pick on everything except Yamato, QE and maybe Warspite... maybe some very low tier BBs as well, but tbh no mid-high tier BBs really need them over the usual survivability perks. I dont use EM on GK, Alabama, Dunkek, Mutsu, Kii, Tirpitz etc. My Yamato is the only BB captain I currently use it on. controllable 5-15% increase to RoF is much more preferable to 5-15% increase in turret traverse.

Kii wasnt half bad since the base color was dark gray like all IJN ships without any camo... but this one!? That red base really doesnt do it for me. Looks like the circus camo for Oktober Revolution lmao

I agree, then again Lyon really shouldnt be there in the first place.

Yup, balancing 16 guns against tier 5-7 cruisers that get overmatched is a terrible move by WG. I have no idea why they didnt go with any of the Battlecruiser prelims as they funnel into the Battlecruiser/fast battleship earlier. If they tried they could have started with ships like that at tier 5 ffs. Tier 5: Dunkerque prelim with 305mm guns instead of 330 Tier 6: Strasbourg Tier 7: 37 000t battlecruiser/battleship design study This would help get players to get into the fast battleship playstyle a lot earlier and would fit WGs narrative on design continuity... But instead we get ww1 dreadnoughts all the way to tier 7 then a sudden change of pace on the last few tiers. I would love for WG to get their act together soon.

They couldve... You know.. Not make one of the worst AA weapons to serve in the war (UP rockets) be one of the highest damaging in the whole game? Edit: I wouldnt say they hit the Battlecruiser brief since Hood is by far the tankiest BB at tier 7. Though that is the best thing WG did to Hood imo

That has to be stock hull. 1: Richelieu's displacement should translate to closer to 67k health. 2: After US refit it didnt have the catapult 3: That shell velocity is the pre US refit. Its the shell they used before fixing the dispersion problems 4: speed is slower than 32 knots (however WG might have lowered this to be made up with the speed boost) Edit: 5: and ofc TDS should be much better than measly 19%.

Where is this info from?

Yeah I know Im just salty how badly they designed the ship. The ship performs well, it even up-tiers really well, but that doesnt excuse anything.

Yup, because Cruisers need more counters and BBs needs more enemies their safe from

https://twitter.com/Wargaming_netEN/status/927186506057428992 Some better pics. I see no catapult on either of their top hulls so I guess speed boost will replace the catapult fighter consumable slot?

Well the short fuse doesnt matter too much since you cant pen BB belts or citadel plating anyway. So on Hood its almost a straight plus. Also helps you get pens on angled DDs.

Dont forget Hood has better autobounce angles and shell detonation timer. That combo makes Hood actually do exceptionally well damage to upper plating on just about anything she can throw her shells at. Hood is a little sub par compared to many Prem ships, but damn shes fun and far from underpowered. On the other hand though WG did a pretty bad job at implementing it... I mean AA consumable?! Really!? Then add on artificial turret traverse and some AP shell characteristics no other BB has?! really?! Fix Hood pls

44* No but really though speed boost is only good for going in straight lines. If youre actively turning all the time the speed boost does nothing as you bleed speed down to whatever you do when speed bost is inactive. Like lets say you go 33 knots without speed boost and bleed speed to 28 knots when turning. When using speed boost you might go 40 knots in a straight line, but once you turn youll still bleed down to 28 knots. I dont see how it can be OP with speed boost on BBs tbh, most usefull for repositioning, kiting, chasing and maybe dodging torps as you can accelerate or stop faster.

I thought about that, but i found out that the AP alpha of 12 000 is calculated with 850 m/s not 880. If it was 880 it would be 12 100 or 12 200 instead so I concluded the 880 AP m/s has to be a typo or something.

Oh crap the AA on that Lyon though... 4x4+4x2 130mm, 83.2dps@5.2km 4x4+16 40mm, 185.2dps@3.5km 8x2+14 20mm, 99.2dps@2km I dont really get it. Still though.. does that say 27 or 24 knots? Really damn fast considering they didnt remove the midship turret... That displacement implies Colorado levels of really low HP. Anyway really disagree with WGs decision to include Lyon in the tech tree. Those 16 guns will demolish any cruiser or DD, but still bounce most BBs... Either they'll be super derpy or very damn OP. I dont like this risky move a bit. They shouldve went with some of the Battlecruiser prelims.

Everything indicates that Worcester will have radar though. I see no reason why it shouldnt have.

Ive got 17 games in Kii to this moment and in my experience I find it to be underperforming, Ive got my arguments but Ill leave that for another day. On Kii we can see that it mounts the Type 93 mod. 0.... except that it absolutely does not. The torpedoes on Kii has nothing in common with the Type 93 mod. 0 found on DDs like Akizuki. I'm sure some of you have noticed, but it seems Kii's torpedoes have everything in common with the Type 8 torpedoes found on Yubari... Yes you heard that right, tier 4 torpedoes on a tier 8 battleship.... And while YES I agree that BBs shouldnt have as strong torpedoes as DDs have, they should at least be in line with BB torpedoes of the same tier. What we have to compare at tier 8 is ofc Tirpitz. Kii "type93 mod.0" Differance Tirpitz G7a T1 Torpedoes 2x3 1 2x4 Reload 90 seconds 0 90 seconds 180 degree turn 7,2 seconds 0 7,2 seconds Damage 14 600 900 13 700 Range 6 km 0 6 km Torpedo Concealment 1.6 km 0.3 1.3 km Torpedo Speed 63 knots 1 64 knots I dont have the exact numbers, but Tirpitz also has a much better forward firing arcs on its torps. All this accumulates in torpedoes that are not very rewarding for aggresive play on a ship that is much worse suited for brawling compared to Tirpitz. Worse turret traverse, armor layout, weaker citadel, worse accuracy, worse turret traverse, worse agility etc etc etc. Also due to the limited range on these torps they are not very usefull for their intended use in kiting. Kii is weak enough that a buff to torpedoes wouldnt tip it over to anything close to OP territory. Personally I would like to suggest Shinonome's torps. They have the exact same stats as Kii's, but have 2 km better range. The extra range, but still otherwise relatively weak torpedoes would mean you at least have a worthwhile trade off compared to Tirpitz. It would also mean that a skilled player will know when to turn around when brawling a Tirpitz, as you have more range, but Tirpitz has more and faster torps that are more difficult to detect.

So are my thoughts. It takes so much more to complete a whole new BB line than it is to do a handfull cruisers.. some who are even halfway in the game already (Buffalo and Worcester, they were in the game during alpha).

What I see is that the USN CLs would be a good place to place my Atlanta captain. IFHE+DE is good on both and they dont require EM at all. Hmm still very much unsure what Seattle will look like. Will it be a 9, 10, 12 or 15 gun design? Will it use twin or triple turrets? Anyway I wanna make a note on what we know about Worcester. HP: ~43 900 We know that its 6" guns were DP guns, with some playing around I found they'll deal at LEAST 92dps most likely at 6 km. That along with an even better layout of 3"/50s we'll easily see an AA even better than Des Moines. Be prepared to see a new ship take the title as best AA ship in the game. We know the damage and pen the AP will deal, its the exact same as the current Cleveland. The HE/HC however has a bigger bursting charge (6kg for Cleveland and 6.4kg for Worcester), so firechance and/or HE alpha will be higher. We are only talking up to 1% higher firechance and 100 more HE Alpha, but it can still have an impact with the kind of rate of fire Worcester has. The historical rate of fire is 12 rpm or a 5 second reload, but Worcester will be severely outgunned by Minotaur with that. So I'm expecting a buff to 13-15 rpm or 4.6 - 4 second reload. The turret traverses at 25 degrees per second, so it will have an insane 7.2 second 180 degree turn time or 8.1 with the reload mod equipped.

Youre right, then again the different layout with 12 sec reload will put Buffalo at only 30 shells per minute when bow on compared to Bmore's current 36. I'm not a 100% sure if it may be too much despite all the trade offs. I mean Buffalo also has like 6k more HP... then again Bmore is more stealthy. ahhh well see

I also look forward to Buffalo, as you said the only ship that break the 2A1, but also its the only ship after Brooklyn that doesnt have a flush deck afaik and the only one to have torps. Except for Atlantas and stuff. I think Buffalo will be fine though compared to Hburg. With a 12 sec reload it would have 60 shells per minute while Hburg has 72. That way they dont have to articficially buff the USN 8" gun reload to 6 rpm but can instead keep it at 5 rpm on both Bmore and Buffalo. So I dont really mind that Bmore is at tier 8, currently it kinda needed the ahistorical increase to RoF to stay in the race. So having the Balti go down to tier 8 and instead nerf the RoF closer to the historical values please me greatly. Yeah a heal could work, but you have convinced me that Wichita should be tier 8. I mean it really should be as it kinda defines a new era for USN heavy cruisers.

Ive got 17 games in Kii to this moment and in my experience I find it to be underperforming, Ive got my arguments but Ill leave that for another day. On Kii we can see that it mounts the Type 93 mod. 0.... except that it absolutely does not. The torpedoes on Kii has nothing in common with the Type 93 mod. 0 found on DDs like Akizuki. I'm sure some of you have noticed, but it seems Kii's torpedoes have everything in common with the Type 8 torpedoes found on Yubari... Yes you heard that right, tier 4 torpedoes on a tier 8 battleship.... And while YES I agree that BBs shouldnt have as strong torpedoes as DDs have, they should at least be in line with BB torpedoes of the same tier. What we have to compare at tier 8 is ofc Tirpitz. Kii "type93 mod.0" Differance Tirpitz G7a T1 Torpedoes 2x3 1 2x4 Reload 90 seconds 0 90 seconds 180 degree turn 7,2 seconds 0 7,2 seconds Damage 14 600 900 13 700 Range 6 km 0 6 km Torpedo Concealment 1.6 km 0.3 1.3 km Torpedo Speed 63 knots 1 64 knots I dont have the exact numbers, but Tirpitz also has a much better forward firing arcs on its torps. All this accumulates in torpedoes that are not very rewarding for aggresive play on a ship that is much worse suited for brawling compared to Tirpitz. Worse turret traverse, armor layout, weaker citadel, worse accuracy, worse turret traverse, worse agility etc etc etc. Also due to the limited range on these torps they are not very usefull for their intended use in kiting. Kii is weak enough that a buff to torpedoes wouldnt tip it over to anything close to OP territory. Personally I would like to suggest Shinonome's torps. They have the exact same stats as Kii's, but have 2 km better range. The extra range, but still otherwise relatively weak torpedoes would mean you at least have a worthwhile trade off compared to Tirpitz. It would also mean that a skilled player will know when to turn around when brawling a Tirpitz, as you have more range, but Tirpitz has more and faster torps that are more difficult to detect.

I want Torps to be buffed as torps is kinda the national flavor of Kii, and currently tier 4 torps on tier 8 is kinda dumb. Also the torps are kinda one of the big trade offs with this ship yet they are close to useless. Increasing range will see their use increase exponentionally in BBs. Yes sure the decrease in accuracy is a terrible thing, but its worth it for the insanely much better turning circle and torpedo belt. Meanwhile Kii trades that .1 sigma for.. oh wait it trades it for even further nerfs to RoF, Range, traverse, turret armor, torpedo belt, etc etc... oh wait you do get those torps that you yourself said should not even be considered part of Kiis core playstyle.