invicta2012

I can see how Mutsu would work. The point about Newport now is that it's become quite one dimensional - a DPS race ending in a brawl. Many of the previous stategies (which favoured lighter ships and DDs especially) no longer work. So a BB with big guns and torpedoes is probably going to have an advantage!

It's certainly gone over the line from "possible one star even with a rubbish team" to "ten defeats in a row". The waves spawn faster, the second wave now has a Furutaka as cover for the BBs, the Izumo has been buffed - the resulting DPM increase needed is beyond all the random teams I've played with today. Especially if they brought a CV.

I think Scharnhorst and Hood are also worthy of a shout, if you've got £30 to spend. Oh, and one other thing. You do have a Premium account, don't you? Do that first, rather than buying ships.

Northfleet? Do you have fond memories of the place?

It's probably an internal ricochet off the turret barbettes, which then goes straight into the raised centre section of the citadel. RN Cruiser armour schemes often seem to be shell traps of one kind or another...

1) Heavy cruiser is a designation to do with main gun calibre. Not armour. Not HP. Check out the stats of the original RN 1924 Kent type County Class. No belt armour at all. Albemarle's armour is pretty decent, mind. 2) That's a Sinop he's facing. Bad news for any cruiser in its MM spread. 16 inch guns are owchy at 3k range, definite overmatch, and the Albemarle player makes the classic torp delivery mistake and gives the Sinop a clear sight of his minimal athwartship armour when he's got AP loaded. 3) The Albemarle's strength is that it can heal 50% of that citadel damage. If the torp run hadn't been a suicidal lunge into a crossfire it could have stuck four torps into the Sinop's nose, taken the kill and sailed away with 15k health.

Thank you, Mister Stats. You just reminded me of the need for a yawn emoji. 2 random games in Albemarle is one more than I remember, to be honest. I never get into them intentionally and they're always . But I don't see that the ship is in any way bad. People seem to be grumbling because neither the British or Italian cruisers offer meta changing e-z win mode. What were you expecting?

If you are looking for quick credits in co-op then Jean Bart is the way to go. Her speed enables you to keep up with (or even outpace) DDs so that they dont snaffle all the early kills. Front facing main armament gives you the advantage over red team ships that will be rushing bow in, her AA means you laugh at planes and her secondaries allow you to engage three targets simultaneously. Not to mention making those Potential Damage and Secondary hit directives a doddle. For economy purposes, its the best ship I own. It's also a lot of fun.

Frankly whoever named British cruisers was a bit confused and unable to discern that Monmouth was a town (and a Duke), not a county (Monmouthshire), and that Devonshire and Dorsetshire terms applied to things from Devon and Dorset, not the counties themselves. Bedford, btw, is a bit wrong on all counts even as a made up name because that's the town, not the county (Bedfordshire) and unlike York and Exeter, the town doesn't have a cathedral. Oh, and the Tier VIII ship is named after George Monck, the Duke of Albemarle, who was quite the dude: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Monck,_1st_Duke_of_Albemarle

Ah, I still live in hope. I'd love an Electra. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Electra_(H27) Ships she was in company with during her career: Warspite, Hood, Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth, Icarus, Vampire, Exeter and Perth. A perfectly standard RN interwar destroyer, but quite a career. I think either Hereford or Benbow would have been better for the Tier VIII, but it is what it is, and it works.

That's not a town, and the Victorians made the name up to be a tourist attraction. Anyway... HMS Spanker? Its a real ship...

I think they changed the timing of the first BB enemy wave and the following wave. It used to be possible to take a DD to the outer islands, spot and defeat the Isokaze,/T22, torp the Kaiser and Itchysuzi and have time for tea and medals afterwards. Now lots of Konigbergs seem to spawn immediately the Kaiser gets to the island and it's constantly killing unwary team mates. Re: Narai. I was quite sad about that. I saw the Gallant firing torpedoes the other week. Poor old thing just worked out how to use them and then gets canned. Sad.

*Cries in Konig Albert* The only sealclubbing which is problematic is Tier IV CVs, and Hosho in particular. WG should balance the darn thing properly rather than removing most of the WW1 era ships from Random gameplay. If low tier non-CV sealclubbing does offend then perhaps WG could give experienced players things to do with these fun - and valuable - ship assets such as Events and Scenarios. Is a mass Clemson vs Derzki death match any less enjoyable than Savage Battles? I suspect not.

I think we know what the answer to that one is..... but it's also worth thinking about ways in which CVs could have a role without annoying everyone else (any more than any other class, at least).

Back to larger attack squads, with a larger area of effect, fewer attack runs and more AA interaction with individual planes. CV efficacy should be based around spaced strikes delivering DoTs and module damage, not alpha strikes, perma spotting and constant aggro. Small strike squads favour the constant aggroing of Destroyers with all the negative effects that has on the game..... in reality Destroyers were only secondary targets for CVs, they were attacked if they were discovered; but CV warfare was really about destroying capital ships, BBs and CVs themselves. This CV meta has none of that, really.

It's rather like a combination of Boise, Wichita and King George V. But with torpedoes (don't forget those).

It's not a good ship. If you can find a game where you can pick on DDs, great, it's good at that. Or if you can HE spam on enemies from cover, that's also good. But it's a flat track bully, at best.

USS Long Beach confirmed!

Fire HE from the edge of your range. Support your BBs, weaken your opponents, make them use their Dam Con and then set them on fire again. At the end of the game, get in close and brawl. Trust in your torpedoes and your superheal, not your AP. RN CA AP goes from the insane (4 citadels, 18000 damage) to the ludicrous (3 hits on a broadside Zara, 450 damage) in the space of two salvos. (and if it has stopped people grumbling about Italian cruisers, I'm all for it).

Hawkins is very well armoured for a Tier V cruiser, really. And her manoeuvrability is just fine. It's not Omaha, ffs, getting one-shotted implies bad positioning. Heavy cruisers have quite a bad time of it in this game, tbh. They're hard to make work (that's why we don't have a whole French line...)

I find all of the ships to have wonky AP performance. That's another one of the problems with Hawkins... Broadside Kirov, 6k away, 2 salvos, no citadels. And that ship needs to make every salvo count. (I am wondering if the new aiming reticle has something to do with it, though....)

I don't see much wrong with Devonshire and Albemarle, to be honest. Eight 8 inch guns is normally quite enough - although range is short* and AP performance is questionable. Hawkins, though..... it's a poor ship. Find me a worse Tier V cruiser if you can (I've tried - A-hull Furutaka, with six guns and 20 second reload, slays it, as does Emerald, Genova, Raimondo, Krasny Krym...) *Aussie County, Canberra maybe, at Tier VI with lighter armour and spotter would be nice.

It's perfectly appropriate. Cheshire is the home of Britain's largest salt mine. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35322992

Yes, but you can blame WG for putting the godawful Hawkins at Tier V. This is a ship designed in 1915, ffs, going up against Exeter (1928), Emile Bertin (1931), Konigsberg (1927).... you can lose gun fights to Tier VI and VII Destroyers. And yes, I have just been pinged into a Random game (again) and spent 15 minutes ineffectually pinging single 7.5 inch shells off the superstructure of a Nelson. Come back Genova, all is forgiven.

Hawkins is something of a straight line ship. The lack of mobility in a cruiser is quite unusual, it's going to take people a while to get used to it. I am not sure I like Hawkins, though. Five gun broadside (Y turret's angles are appalling and it is constantly firing by itself), three guns if you're angling nose in, slow reload all-round, weak torpedoes. All the historic faults of the ship, of course, but it feels like a Tier IV that's been given tweaked shells by way of compensation. Being uptiered is appalling... what can you do against a Scharnhorst in this? I still think the line should have gone Warrior (III) / Hawkins (IV) / York (V) / Devonshire (VI)....