invicta2012

Sort of. There certainly were Spanish ships of note in the game period (which is pretty much 1900 - 1950) and lots of paper designs due to the British Vickers company ownership of Spanish shipyards.

Smolensk. It's not what it was, is it?

Think of it like football leagues. Find your level. Promotion and relegation applies. It's not about skill based MM and elitism, it's about a competitive environment not being a random mixer which just makes nearly everyone angry and frustrated all the time. Which is what Ranked does.

Lower rewards for lower difficulty? Why not?

That's the Co-op bot thing. They can switch focus instantly. So that third turret on the Izumo - which takes forever to turn, the long way round - is an unexpected blat risk to anyone who has been following the first two turrets going in the opposite direction.

That's when you will absolutely 100% wish that someone had brought a destroyer, and was smart enough to hide it in the heal zone next to the path the Izumo takes through the map. You can smoke up a friendly cruiser for cover in the same zone and then zoom out and despatch Izumo for a win, even if all seems lost. The thing about DDs in this ops is that you need a balance. For preference I would say one French one (preferably Aigle for smokes), one American or Brit (Monaghan with the 4 gun/short range torp build, or Icarus, for 8 torps for Izumo and some left in the pipe for Bayern). German, Soviet and PA ones are on the OK list, and I wouldn't bring an IJN or Pan-Euro one. Of course if you wanted to make it more fun, then you could just unleash the Tier V Destroyers. Okhotnik and Kamikaze divisions, just imagine... (Actually, Tier V ships of all nations would do well here. GC, Exeter, Murmansk, Okhotnik, Kami, Kongo, Texas, the Krazy Krymster would all be good ships).

True. Although it is now easier to name the Premiums I don't have rather than the ones I do..... In any case, the Mickey is a mad old ship. I dread to think what the Tier VIII is like if the guns hit as hard as Mickey's.... it absolutely wrecks things.

Ah, thanks for the information. That should make a difference (14x15 = 210) so more than possible to get the Tier VIII and Avoid having to play Shchors.

It's wave three which spawns earlier than is used to, and that's the one that causes the problems - because it makes it much more difficult for Destroyers to spot and flank the second wave, as they used to be able to do. But it's still doable, providing that people are focusing the right ships (Cruisers) and that someone is prepared to disrupt the third wave before it breaches the defence line.

No money spent on the event - I have completed Directives 1 and 2 and collected all daily rewards. I now have Mikoyan and am working through the daily challenge missions, which make a real difference - seven easy missions, 15 tokens per mission. That will take me to 400 and the Permacamo for Tallinn...if I want it. However... The last two directives and the remaining missions should offer 33 containers, and that's not going to get me the Tier VIII at the current drop rate (I'd need to average 15 per container). The first doubloon bundle contains a mighty 5 (five) soviet tokens, so I'm not bothering with those. Still, a permacamo for a Tier VIII is not a bad reward.

From the ships you have, concentrate on the Kongo. She has a good mix of speed, armour and guns whose shells go where you wanted them to go. But the Russian/Soviet BB line is very strong at all Tiers, and offers a very uncomplicated gameplay, so you might enjoy those next. As for Gneisenau... I just played it. And had a very Gneis game. Four citadel hits, which was good. But they weren't on the Brindisi, giving me broadside 10k away. They were on that ship when it was 15k away and heavily angled. Ditto the Mogami. Broadside salvos completely missed, the citadel was through the nose. It's just so random, and I don't think that's a good learning experience.

Get Sinop, enjoy consistent battleship. Shells go where you want them to. Positioning mistakes are punished hard, but it's pretty easy to work out what you shouldn't do in order to survive. HE spam is not so much of a worry as it is for other lines. Bowtanking works. Gneisenau is not at all consistent - I actually think she should be in a German BC tree and there should be a more Bayern type design at Tier VIII, which is slower, more tanky and more consistent.

There is the possibility of a Tier VIII Secondary Focused BB for everyone. The French Clemenceau, for example, was a Richelieu with better AA but still carrying a good weight of 6 inch guns for defence against surface ships. But here's the thing.... we don't need secondary BBs everywhere. They should be a speciality line, the same as BBS with torpedoes.

It's a bit frustrating, and I feel that more than any other operation, certain ships are vital for success. And one of those ships isn't Furious. Those Barracuda bombers are maddening.

I just wondered if it was possible, for example if I ended up with 300 tokens at the end of the event could I sell the thing for credits and buy it again? And then sell it again, of course. I don't really like glass cannons so I don't think I'll bother keeping it....

Can you buy the Mikoyan twice with Soviet Tokens? (I mean, can you get it, sell it, get it again?)

Unintended consequences of the IFHE rework. Cruisers and DDs have specc'd out of IFHE and are focusing on fires. I know I do it... first salvo is always HE, always to get a fire burning early doors and tempt people into using their DamCon and Heals.

Someone, please save me. My sides have split. I just lost karma for smoking up a cruiser so that he could HE spam battleships. Apparently I should have been YOLOing people rather than trying to spot and provide cover. (Karma, old chap, means nothing, other than how many Divisions you play in and Clan mates you have. Forget it).

Whichever premium ship you enjoy playing and are good at. There's no ship with an economic modifier which scores higher than good performance.

Aren't they moving it so that you can have DFAA or Smoke, as opposed to DFAA or EB as it is now?

Where would they put it? She's have to tow it behind her, which could be interesting....

You still can. They've buffed the ship's torpedoes substantially (any loss of speed is fixable with modules and skills) and reverted the number of charges of Smoke and EB to the number it had with basic consumables, two weeks ago. You can always get those back by speccing into SI captain skills... maybe they're trying to make captain skills more relevant?

Either has enough torpedo power to Dev Strike two full health battleships. And that's as it should be. As someone who loves playing destroyers.... I think BB secondaries are absolutely fine. Powerful but not infallible. They will defend you, they will not save you from a misplay. Really., I've always thought that close range defence against Destroyers is a Cruiser's' job, with that combination of speed and firepower, but of course they can't do that because they can't be spotted without being obliterated by 1,000,000 BB AP shells.

I think she has 8k torpedoes, too. So yes, I think he's right.

Smoke. God, that used to be a scary ship. I recall one game - pre world of radar - where it just occupied a corner of a cap, tall island on one side, low bank in front (for blocking torps), and sat in an eternal smoke screen with his DD mate, burning down anything which came near. It took two of us to dislodge him - he didn't know about British DDs (which were new at the time) and their hydro, and somehow I managed to get my ship wedged under cover where he couldn't hit me so I could spot him. Felt like a legendary moment at the time.... that was the sort of ship you'd see on the loading screen and already be making your excuses for the defeat.