invicta2012

It's also worth remembering that these directives can be done in Tier VI ships... so break out your cruisers and head for Aegis. Fires, citadels, sunk ships? E-Z to get 10-15 per game with a Perth/Huang He.

The mission to get Gorizia is to complete the first three directives from the New Year event. The missions for Gorizia appear in Combat Missions when you have her in port. Only the first phase of each has to be completed with Gorizia, the rest are all tier V and above. Worth getting, I think: very similar to Zara, a little more comfortable in a few important ways (more traditional smoke, strong AP).

And when the Lamb opened the Seventh Directive... silence covered the sky.

You have to embrace it. Somewhere in this pile up of Christmas missions is a historical camo for the Leander (based on HMS Ajax). The first phase involves hitting things 1939 times with your secondary battery. This is completely absurd, of course: but it is also an excuse to fire up the Jean Bart and create as many silly secondary firing opportunities as you can (playing ring-a-ring-a-rosy with a Yamato is funny). You can't take it seriously.

It is. So I must mean FDG, mustn't I? The point remains, though. This is a ship given the tools for close in fighting of small ships but without either torpedoes or DPM to challenge anything big and scary which comes its way. And while that sounds like an interesting idea playstyle, it's not so great in practice.

It's an interesting possibility, but at the moment the caps I'm looking at are full of (newly buffed) Tier X German battleships, not DD's .... you don't want to be hydro range of those. I have Sansonetti in it.... not much better than Zara on that score.

Now you can enjoy the immense teamkilling potential of Yudachi. I mean, WG... why?

I was supposed to be going to a party this evening but I didn't go (rain, waking up the day after a general election with a hangover) so I went out and spent my budget on crates. To paraphrase Admiral Hanson at the battle of Wolf 359, it did not go well. Sixteen containers, 160 flags, some sundry Camos and a Tier VIII ship. The f'in Kaga. Which counts as 6 million credits, I suppose. Still, enough doubloons for a permacamo, I suppose (and not the naff New Year ones, either).

Certainly did...

Sensible chap, I think. I can understand why WG are feeling a bit defensive, tbh. But they're fools if they think people got over excited about Puerto Rico. What prize did they expect people to focus on? Gorizia is not a exciting ship, is it? Zara with some different consumables. Did they not notice the lukewarm reaction to the Italian cruisers, that people aren't clamoring for more of them, and that we've already been through this whole directive stuff (including the bonus premium ship) in the last 90 days? Snowflakes and loot boxes would have been fine. The rest is just over doing it, and they're paying the price.

Better to set an achievable goal - a coal ship, doubloon ship (new coupons incoming, btw) or a straight cash purchase than to rely on RNG drops for super rarities. The name of the game here is getting to to spend more than you might do otherwise. Lots more. Be aware.

Oh, Viribus Unitis. Nice. Why do I have the feeling these boxes are going to drop assorted Tier Vs until you've got all of them, and only then go up the Tiers? I don't really want that. I think I might just spend the £££ outright on things I want, and say "blow it" to grinds and loot boxes.

Well, this is the thing. She does look a bit niche. My only interest is that - if I've read it right - she has specific missions, outside of the Puerto Rico grind which open up perma camos for Tier VIII ships (and I have need of these, at 3k doubloons a go). So it looks possible to buy the ship, get the camos (which are pretty much the same cash value) and still have a premium cruiser afterwards for the investment of a few £ (less than buying a Yahagi or Exeter). Yes, but it's a Tier VII ship. I think the Cossack mission was the last time we'll get anything above Tier V or VI without having a major grind or splashing the cash.

I think you're supposed to buy it, aren't you? That's the impression I've had from all the other recent events. It helps you complete the main grind, you can earn compensation back along the way.

HP (34500 / 29700), Torpedo Damage Reduction, (10% / 7%), Main Battery Range (16.1km / 14.0km ), Smoke Duration, (25s / 0s), AP Damage (4700 / 3200), AA, Secondary Guns (6x2 / 3x2). Duca D'Aosta has a very slim citadel for a Tier VI Cruiser. Trento's is quite normal for the Tier - certainly no worse than a French or Japanese Cruiser - and almost certainly harder to hit than the one on Abruzzi, which is just enormous.

Well... that's what the existing Italian cruisers are like. I guess that having played 200 odd Random matches in a Duca D'Aosta I'm pretty used to it! Low fire chance, slow torps, weak armour, big citadel..... This is true, but you'll still find people gaily making a mess of Aegis and Raptor and Newport, so there is some challenge. The thing about Ops and new ship line, though, is that it's a good place to take them out and try out the shell mechanics, the armour layout, etc, in a fairly comfortable setting. It's worth doing. There's quite a lot that is different about these ships. The SAP shells need a different approach, the smoke doesn't work like other smoke. It's annoying at first. But I am quite warming to Trento - although BBs seem to think she's a snack - and the only one from Tiers I - VII I don't like is Raimondo (needs a buff on the reload, I think).

Which Dunkerque are you playing? Her dispersion is not great, but it's better than Normandie and she's to fine to play . Do you have the Aiming Systems 1 Mod on the ship? You should.... The main problem she has is the combination of slightly iffy sigma and shells which have very good penetration - rather too good, as they tend to overpen - which can make her frustrating to play against cruisers. But you can hit things from anywhere, if you get used to it. The Fuso kill below was secured from 22km away (with the spotter plane up, of course).

Go back to Nino Bixio and Taranto. They wreck all other DDs and Cruisers at their Tier, because of SAP. Take Trento out in Operations. 100k damage in Raptor Rescue is easy. Hits like a battleship, turns like a cruiser. Good range, speed, manoeuvrability, smoke to cover your retreat - reposition, go again. You can get some hard hits in with this ship - it absolutely murders DDs and light cruisers. Not really... you've got a ship with a spotter plane, capable of seriously damaging opposing ships 19k away. You really don't want to be trying to close the range against battleships, they will kill you. And it's not that the ship is any more easily damaged than any other Tier VI cruiser, it's just that people don't fear you because you don't have the psychological effect of fire - two or three ticks of that and most charging BBs will fall back, even though it does less (and more easily repairable) damage than SAP.

Yes, but most players in a Trento won't see Amagi that often. Your torps are a threat to BBs of Tiers VI and VII, but they are best used in a harrassing/defensive sense. Same with your smoke - that's not a "sit and fire" weapon, it's for getting in close or going dark when kiting. Try and stay further than 10k away from BBs, and go for deck, superstructure, bow or stern with your SAP - you can get some chunky damage numbers with that. You can't be aggressive against them - save that for DDs and Cruisers.

It's all been said. Almost everyone is fed up with CVs as they are, but every option has been explored, and discussed, and nothing has been done. WG are just milking the cow - they're even dredging up Implacable, in the hope that someone will be daft enough to drop £30 on a carrier which appears to be completely rubbish.

Dunkerque is fine, I think. You just need to expect her dispersion to be a bit of a diamond and correct your aim accordingly.

Thats all good. Enjoy. With regard to the event, though, WG isn't planning on giving away any more ships / big prizes than last year, so presumably the chance or value of a reward from a single Tier X is being diluted by the larger numbers of Tier Xs in circulation... So people need to keep playing (or spending) in order to keep up.

We can't all have one. It's a little OP, so the supply has to be limited. Otherwise the Christmas WoWs menu will be Torpedo Soup followed by BB Chicken, and no-one really wants that again.

Yup. Red team BBs would need to get closer and rely on their belt armour, which SAP won't touch. Like... actual Battleships. An Impero at Tier IX with the improved bounce angles the cruisers get on SAP might be quite fun, with a 16 inch/406mm equivalent at Tier X.

Why not? SAP is probably the ideal BB shell. Especially given that Italian BB guns were known for long range and (relatively) high velocity - they'd be fearsome adversaries at range, especially if WG can find some plans for 406mm Ansaldo guns, as that calibre would go through the deck armour of almost every other BB in the game.