invicta2012

It's a bit like the German carriers. With no service history and famous names to draw on, the ships themselves are almost irrelevant. The planes have to be interesting. (And I bet the Soviet ones get Mig-15s).

I can't see why there wouldn't be Soviet Carriers in some form, given that instructions for "how to make a carrier" are largely: a) make/find a hull b) take all the stuff off the top c) if you have to have some stuff on the top, put it to the right hand side* d) find some planes which don't need a long takeoff e) go sink things And big gun secondaries are not too much of a problem. Didn't the Lexington start with 8 inch secondaries? Most interesting thing for me would be the planes. Naval versions of the IL-2 Sturmovik would be tough cookies... Don't believe me? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangamon-class_escort_carrier - made from Cimarron class oilers (we've all sunk a few of those in this game...)

Long enough. And from stealth, too, which WG previously removed.

Bots have epic torpedo beats, I'm afraid. They will laugh at your torpedoes fired from 50ft away, as they knew where they were going to go before you fired them. Play a DD in a co-op game for further evidence.

Tier V and VI are really well balanced - largely because of all the international treaties around at the time, which means fantasy projects didn't get built and there is a natural balance. If you like cruisers then Nurnberg is popular. Personally I prefer heavy cruisers so I would say Devonshire, which is the best of the British CAs, and Pensacola, which has now been buffed out of all recognition. She has slow turret traverse, but otherwise she's easily a Tier VII. The Japanese ones are also good - Furutaka takes a while to get going (she has lots of options for hulls and guns which can be a bit confusing) but it's a great ship. French and British DDs are the best silver lines but if you fancy spending some money, T-61 is one of the best destroyers in the game.

The bots often do quite well, but it makes playing a surface ship a horribly random experience. The lack of co-ordination means opposing Divisions have too much impact and the reduced surface ship numbers means ship v ship mismatches are more common than ever. I have enjoyed playing CVs and DDs in the Sub game mode but taking out a cruiser or BB is horrible. Any slow BB is Sub food, and you can take out a cruiser well equipped for sub/CV warfare (a Dallas, for example) and find yourself staring at a 2 x BB division with no-one to help, as the subs are all off playing their personal mini game and the reduced surface numbers can leave you alone on a flank.... it's not right, yet. Not at all.

Why is it "monetization-software"?

But it's fine. It works. What is this obsession people have with not installing launchers?

... and that's why I'll be annoying Narai teams in my Skane later this week!

(Hides large pile of XP under the mat) I've just spent the last week spamming Killer Whale and the Sub Test mode with Tier VI CVs. Chuck in some of those special signals and with the Sub test mission bonuses you can print XP.... I've unlocked Implacable and Lexington (from a standing start) and am 2 decent Killer Whale games away from Shokaku - that's normally about 5k per win + 1k Free XP.

Lose five ships in five minutes, receive a free bot Yamato for your team! That'll sort out the one-sided ROFLstomps.

I am fine with them being where they are, in a special game mode. I don't want them in Standard Randoms.

Submarines lost in WW2: Royal Navy - 79 USN - 52 Germany - 784 IJN - 177 Italy - 180 The surface ships really did get the hang of sinking those poor sods after a while. USS England - Six submarines in 12 days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_England_(DE-635) HMS Starling - RN record holder of 14 sub kills - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Starling_(U66)

I would advise some patience, here. It takes quite a few games to work out what's going on and the frustration is no different to a new BB captain getting sunk by a Destroyer he didn't see. Annoying as heck. If it's still happening after 20-30 games then it might be time to get mad.

I think it's fine, though. Realistic, certainly - no DD is going to drop half a ton of Amatol fused to go off 20 feet below its keel unless it's going at full pelt and is half a mile away when it goes *BOOM*. Perhaps DDs shouldn't be able to drop DCs at below 1/2 speed if the depth restriction is removed? (I do think that DCs should be available to all ships except CVs, but with charges and reload set to a "per class" level, so that BBs have some defence, CAs a little more, etc, with the attacking focus being on CLs/DDs).

Yahagi has the Long Lance Torpedoes but different main battery to all the IJN Light Cruisers that carry 6 inch guns - hers are actually spare secondaries taken off Fuso class battleships and remounted in twin turrets. http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNJAP_6-50_t41.php VI, VII and VIII are treaty cruisers, and they are all a much of a muchness - as many guns as could be stuffed into a lightly protected hull. So we know the playstyle there. WG generally balances IJN Cruisers by giving them slow turret traverse, big citadels and awkward torp angles, and that's absolutely fine here. Really WG could revise the IJN CAs at the same time to make them proper heavies, as has just happened with the American ones (and Mogami) - add in the floatplane Premiums and that's three lines to play... like that proposal. The Tier X with lots of 100mm guns might be unpopular, though - smells of Smolensk! Perhaps a variation on the 127mm guns found on DDs might work - a larger sized turret might fix all the issues they were having with Anti-aircraft fire. I think a twin 155mm is more likely, though - the British and Americans couldn't get that to be more than a twin mount and be properly automated and DP, so a five turret design with 10 guns is familiar (and likely to be balanced).

They were wonky because I played (and gave up) on Gneisenau before the changes to her gunnery. I've rebought her since and tried it out, seems more consistent, but obviously six guns will always provide a certain challenge. So yes, if I wanted a fast battleship I would play Hood, for her reliability - even though those 15 inch guns have their own issues when lowtier.

That is very much the way WG have balanced it, though, with that torpedo payload. I would have a Japanese CL line which takes advantage of the interchangeability of their 8 and 6 inch turrets, perhaps giving a hint towards Premiums with floatplanes? IV - Nagara (Kuma with weaker guns, better torpedoes) V - Sendai (Destroyer leader with floatplane to extend her range, Murmansk style - fragile but pesky, manoeuvrable with long range torpedoes) VI - Niyodo ( Planned second ship of the Oyodo class, a revised "full CL" build with 3x3 6 inch turrets containing Mogami guns and 2 x 3 10k IJN rearward torpedoes) VII - Original Tone class design (Japanese Helena style CL, 5 x 3 6 inch turrets, 2 x 3 torpedoes) VIII - Mogami ( 5 x 3 6 inch turrets, 4 x 4 torpedoes ) IX - CL Ibuki class ( 5 x 3 6 inch turrets, 4 x 5 10k torpedoes) X - 5 x 2 6 inch turret CL with fully DP main guns, strong AA and 4 x 5 10k torpedoes - a late war fleet cruiser, somewhere between Mogami and Minotaur. I get the feeling that a Tier X which is too close to Zao would struggle, and we have successful models as to what late war cruisers would look like from the British and American designs - much more consideration given to an anti-aircraft/fleet defence role, but with powerful torpedoes to deter attackers. Balancing would be as for a Pensacola - slow turret traverse - and for Myoko - big citadel which you have to show to get torpedoes away. Mikuma would drop into the CA line as a dedicated 203mm ship, then it might be possible to add Oyodo (VI) and Tone (VII) as floatplane premiums.

Being the owner of Yahagi, I don't see it doing too well at VI.

Sort of. The CV has one - if the captain has PT skill - but that doesn't work if you're being targeted with torpedoes, and the general plane detection indicator just tells you there is something within what, 10k, of your planes? Furious and Ark Royal are the fastest, at 31 knots. Ranger and Ryujo are about 29, I think. But you can be caught out. Smaller maps are more exciting in this mode for just this reason, everyone has to be awake and moving. Can't see those vast Tears of the Cruiser type maps being popular, the subs will never catch people.

I thought it was Bearn (IV), Joffre, (VI), Arromanches (VIII), PA28 (X)? Arromanches is an Ex-RN Colossus class carrier, commissioned in 1945 with a loadout of Corsairs and Barracudas. A sort of Implacable / Lexington hybrid. Later she carried some interesting ASW planes like the Breguet Alize - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bréguet_1050_Alizé - which is very similar to the RN Fairey Gannet, a real multi-role carrier plane. Oh, and some interesting designs for French carrier planes here: Twin engined torp bombers? Turbo prop/jet hybrids? Yes please....

I share @Sir_Sinksalot's problem with derpy German BB guns. I don't see any particular reason for these to be so wonky other than "national flavour"... which is a bit odd when you've got British BB's with eight 15 inch guns at the same Tier which are much more dependable. The same thing applies to Gneisenau, which has to be played for citadel hits as an occasional bonus, even if presented with a broadside Russian BB 10k away. That ship does have a lot of other things going for it which a same Tier BB like Hood, for example, doesn't, but it can be frustrating when a ship won't do the simple thing you want it to.

People in the real world don't know them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Curacoa_(D41)#Collision

It is World of Mikoyan out there at the moment. Total glass cannon, but good fun. I like event ships with character, so this is a good one.

That's the Ark Royal gameplay.....