invicta2012

There is also T-61 - a very strong Tier VI DD for Ranked and Randoms, Ark Royal for carriers (she's probably the best tier VI carrier). Other than that Perth and Huang He offer something a little different in cruiser play, but the rest are all variations on a theme that you don't need until you've played the main lines. I can see you've picked up some great RN ships recently - Icarus, Devonshire, Leander and Fiji - these are all well worth playing and are long term keepers. Icarus and Devon are, IMHO, better then their Premium stable mates (Gallant and London), and Leander is one of the best CLs in the game, especially for ops and Scenarios.

You like destroyers? Then... Aigle is a good purchase. Strong guns, decent torps, French speed but with Smoke, and performs well in Operations /Scenarios so you will get good value from it. Okhotnik is an absurd ship but tons of fun (and also very cheap). Otherwise Mid-Tier Premiums are a bit cluttered up with Event ships (Hill, London, Siroco, Genova) that are fun but not essential.

If it's not Scharnhorst and Gneisenau it's Odin or Agir or Siegfried, and frequently all at once.

Brawling appears to be the German flavour. Try taking a destroyer out in a Co-op game at the moment, you can't get near anything for rampaging German BBs and super cruisers barging through to use their torpedoes.

Yes, but that was to deal with real world considerations, not WoWs mechanics. If the latter had applied in reality no-one would have moved away from Dreadnought armour. They can sell me Strasbourg as a mini Tier VII Jean Bart with MBRB. We've already got gimmicks which work and which are fun and encourage attacking BB play. Why they are going down this dispersion route is beyond me, it's just pure RNG.

Nope. Don't be mucking around with my DQ, thanks. The US one should be a gimmick ship, if we need one.

While I'm thinking about it... I never understand WG's handling of RN BB secondaries, especially the range. Warspite and Hood have the ickle twin 4 inch mounts - the sort of thing the RN put on everything as an emergency AA gun, you'll see them stuck on cruisers as well - and they perform quite well as secondary guns. They fire every 3 seconds, they go out to 5.3km, they pen quite well and they set fires. The 4.5 inch mounts on QE - which are newer, faster firing, specially designed turrets carrying the same guns as a Jutland - go out to 4k, which is almost completely useless.

The QE class BBs are slow but they are nimble, so you can keep moving away from Destroyers and position yourself so that you can dodge their torpedo salvos (or at least minimise their damage). Secondaries on a QE are for very close range brawling, which you want to avoid against any ship with torpedoes. They might start a fire and do some extra damage, they won't save you unless your enemy has low XP. If you have to use them, remember to CTRL+click on the ship you want to target. The best weapons against DDs in a QE are positioning, changes of course, and HE shells. British HE marmalises destroyers - it not only does damage, it breaks modules - several of them - and sets fires. That said, British AP is not to be sniffed at, certainly not at Tier where 15" shells can do quite a lot of overmatching. So invest in Expert Loader so that you can change ammo types with out a huge penalty, and Expert Marksman to keep the guns turning.

I missed the reference to a German Tier VIII - Brandenburg. Did we know about this one?

WV 41 should always have been Maryland and WV 44 should be the post-Pearl reconstructed Premium BB at Tier VII. I suppose WG thought that California would be sufficiently different to Colorado to be an appealing Tier VII premium and that they'd probably forgotten all about the fuss over WV 41 when it was launched (i.e. it was the version no-one wanted). But California looks an even less wise choice now that they're making Florida. <is confused>

The problem is that we already have numerous American battleships which are slow and hard hitting. This works OK at Tier VI with things like the WV 41 but almost everyone who's played the US BB line will admit to a great relief at Tier VIII when you get ship capable of 25 knots + and being able to get around those massive maps high tier maps before the game ends. There is also the problem of higher tier HE spam and not being able to escape it in anything slow. That said, If WG has decided they want to go all-in and make a ranged tank line then that might be interesting and a change from brawling, secondary / torpedo focused battlecruisers, which we've had lots of recently. A "pure battleship" line in keeping with post WW1 thinking might well be worth having.

Well, we know that that would look like. Colorado would be fine at VI (although it would remove the need for WV) but No Cal would be very strong at Tier VII. It would even threaten Sinop.

This is probably one for the warship hardcore fans - it's black and white and silent (!) - but this is a fabulous movie: It was filmed in 1928, using Royal Navy ships (you can see a number of C/D class cruisers and Queen Elizabeth class BBs in the trailer, with the actual crews performing their drills): https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/09/the-battles-of-coronel-and-falkland-islands-best-british-war-film-silent-lff-rereleased It's remarkably well shot for the 1920's, too - up there with Eisenstein and Lang's movies.

Strong opinions, we like those.

The appeal of slow-but-powerful BBs is limited. They would need HE proofing up to Soviet levels and decks capable of resisting AP bombs. I would say that US BBs should have mighty AA as their defence against those, but we know that doesn't work.

Yes, but their gun calibre was only allowed after the US invoked the escalator clause in the Second London Naval treaty (BBs were supposed to be restricted to 14 inch guns or smaller, but this restriction was lifted if Japan or Italy failed to sign). It was also rather difficult to protect against 16 inch shells on the maximum treaty displacement, which is why the ships from Treaty classes built in the late 1930s - after the treaties had started to fall apart - tended to display major variations in armour and displacement compared to the originals.

CA guns, CL nimbleness, and you can take her out in the open water, which is fun. I don't think I ever had old New Orleans, but the current one is very enjoyable to play.

They should make sure it's a treaty compliant ship, then. If the British couldn't get 12 guns on a suitable hull, neither should the Americans. There is also very little reason for it to have quad turrets - we know that most nations looked at the idea but that very few went down that route because they were darn hard to build and get right.

Enjoy. Wichita's a great ship, very different to the other US cruisers. You must be pleased!

No. The only ships in that list (that I want) and which I don't already have are Massachusetts, Alaska and Georgia. I have enough resources for the latter two anyway and Massachusetts (with the coupon) is the same price as opening seven random boxes. So if I wanted it, I would just buy it. I can see that the random bundles might be an interesting gamble for people without many US premiums, but it doesn't appeal to me - especially since I've had no luck with other recent random boxes.

Florida should be Louisiana (it's definitely something they bought off the French.)

They are slow, yes. Looks as if the VIII and IX have 16"/56 guns (mentioned here: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_18-48_mk1.php), Florida is probably 14".

Kansas (VIII), Minnesota (IX), with 3 x3 16" guns (long calibre?), USS Vermont (X) with 3x3 18 inch guns.

And a Premium US BB (Florida) with 3 x 4 turrets.

It's a Tier IX Kiev, old chap. That could be fun, if the guns were worthwhile.This sounds like a waste of sapce.