invicta2012

What, no reason to own Exeter, Murmansk, Krasny Krym, Marblehead or the new IJN Agano?

Certainly was, the Koln, but it would need to be very strong to get me to buy it. My Konigsberg was a total citadel magnet. Why not keep your Konigsberg and use one of the German captains from the Armoury? That would be as good as a premium if you like the ship....

Bow in. Fire HE. Set enemy on fire. Fire HE. Wait to see 2nd fire. Wait for enemy to use DCP. Turn away. Set permafire with tail turret. Set something else on fire with front turrets.

Somers? They haven't said how she'll be attainable but I can't see it being steel.

It would be nice if we could have a Tier II Russian BB. Retvizan, Tsesarevich or Slava would be fun... the latter especially as it took on some in-game ships (Konig)

Only after the formation of the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. Before that it was HMS (it says HMS New Zealand on my grandfather's navy service record).

Depends on the tier you want, but I find Monaghan, Sims, Jervis, Gadjah Madha to work well still.... Lightning should be fine, Kidd (obviously), Yorck can be spec'd for AA and still work very well as an open water CA ; she has DefAA and Fighters. I rented a Boise (that's great vs planes), NdJ should be as good, Helena is fine....I think it gets more tricky when there are Tier X CVs involved, as they are rather unstoppable unless you're in a Minotaur, Des Moines, etc.

It depends on the level of depreciation in the skill of the planes. That can be balanced. Whatever form it takes, it can't be as bad as the total exhaustion of AA from consumables such as Fighters and DFAA, which is always decisive at the end of the match. I don't see CVs being rendered helpless at the end of games, so I think that's a complete red herring: it's the other ships which suffer, especially in twin CV games.

It should be possible for planes to decline in efficacy as the game progresses, especially as squadrons are lost to AA. It's one of the few ways of balancing the end game.

The Soviet BBs I've seen in game so far don't look that impressive, tbh. Far too much broadside being shown.

First day of a new set of missions is always a catastrophe. Especially if it brings Co-op players into randoms. High Tier Co-op games are a bit odd, being a mix of super camp strategies and wolf pack squabbling. Bring that into randoms and weird things happen.

WV has the best guns at her Tier, Texas has the best AA, Arizona has great accuracy... all the US Silver BBs under perform in comparison and needed a buff.

Renown? Circa 1943 she's a ready made Tier VII: Warspite guns but with much better range, decent DP secondaries, good short range AA. Give her BC reload time and she'd be great fun.

Caledon - Emerald in a more comfy MM. Most people zoom past this ship, which is a shame, she's good fun. Krasny Krym - much underrated. A good mix of HE spam, decent armour, useful tools (AA, hydro) and torps which are brilliant for giving dozy BBs a wake up call. Icarus: Edge of the seat brawling DD. Ludicrously responsive, and who could argue with a 10 torp broadside? Duca D'Aosta - great all round cruiser. Good guns, absurd torps, such a handsome ship, too. North Carolina: why don't all battleships work like this? Honourable mentions for Monaghan, Aigle (for the best fun in ops) and KGV.

Nah. And if you want an example... Have a look at the increasingly aggressive gameplay used by CV drivers in many endgame situations. They used to be found behind the biggest rock at the back of the map. Now they're often in the caps. And why not? They often go undamaged until the end of the game, which means they're driving 30+ knot ships with decent secondaries and a big HP pool: that, let alone their primary weapons, can be a decisive advantage.

It's all good. You have other games with Authentic modes if you want - but they're not much fun. This one may have moments of unrealistic combat but it is the best naval combat MMO out there by a country mile.

Well, it is quite disappointing considering the number of things you give up in an Atlanta for its AA power. You may as well take out New Orleans - which has Def AA and Fighters. Postscript: It is worth saying, though, that even if I have an NO with a captain with BFT, the AA module specc'd, the right sector turned on and both Fighters and DFAA up, I still can't prevent a Ryujio launching its torps at me. That's not great.

It is a little iffy but I think they are paying a tribute to the ship and the crew rather than the dreadful ideology they served. Quite a fun video all in all, although it does show that WG haven't modelled the County class cruisers yet... no sign of Suffolk, Norfolk or Dorsetshire.

Yes, but we know that planes in Wows have considerably more freedom in their course than real ones did... which means that the AA gunners are following a set and incorrect pattern. This needs to be changed, so that defending players can vary the distribution of flak bursts.

Here's a hint. If you have two machine guns firing across an open field, do you A) try and fire directly in front of you at individual targets or B) fire both at an angle across the whole sector and create a zone where targets will inevitably be hit if they enter that area? The answer is B) btw, and that's the key to AA. It's not about careful aiming, it's about having enough ordnance in the air in a particular area (the ones planes will fly through to attack your ship). The current flak system fails because it still works on A), and so the flak patterns are eminently predictable. Surface ships don't necessarily need more guns or manual trick shots, they do need a choice of defensive dispersion patterns.

Well, it's still disappointing to have the current situation. 2 x CV and 2 x DD games are not much fun - back to the bad old days of permaspotting and cross-dropping - and AA remains one-dimensional, based on shooting down planes (which generally happens after they've dropped one load of munitions). Clearly WG sees a role for AA specialist ships (hello Colbert) but they would have to be as good as equivalent ships of their class, not the DE/Sloop/Frigate ships being suggested here.

I was scrolling through the Premium Shop and there was a distinct sense of having very few options left to try in my price point (which is £30 and Tier VII, if you must ask). I have the Premium ships I like, I have sold the ones I don't like. I know that we have Russian BBs and French DDs to come, as well as Yudachi, Benham, Yoshino, Slava and Audacious at high tiers but the mid-Tier schedule looks a little light, and premiums for use in Operations and the like are always fun. Leone and Agano are in the works somewhere but in the meantime, I was wondering what everyone's top 5 mid-Tier Premiums of choice would be. Mine are... HMS Tiger - Tier V RN Battlecruiser (could be pushed up to Tier VI at a pinch). Best looking Battleship ever built, and we don't have a Tier V RN Premium. Conte Di Cavour - RM Tier VI BB. The ship the Guilio Cesare could have been. Admiral Scheer - KM Tier VI Cruiser. Remove her torpedoes, give her enhanced secondaries, AA and Main Gun boost(?). A ship that was so renowned and feared should be in the game somewhere. Should be capable of giving an RN Crown Colony/Town Class Cruiser a thorough paddling, but quite vulnerable to destroyers. HMNLS Tromp - Tier VI DD/CL Hybrid Because she's ready balanced - powerful cruiser guns, torps and decent AA, low health pool for a Cruiser. Caldwell Class USN Destroyer / HMS Lewes Because a Tier IV Destroyer with Mahan's 12 torpedo tubes would be hilarious. I am also havering over Ark Royal - Tier VI RN CV - because Swordfishes / Radar / Bismarck But she's coming eventually anyway, surely? All thoughts appreciated!

Well, if they can't count as secondary surface weapons then that's that - and for most of the RN post 1945 cruiser designs, given that almost all of them used the 3in/70 as their secondary weapon (ditto USN post war DD design, too). Bit of a shame as WG have clearly decided that small calibre AA cruisers are viable at higher tiers (Colbert and Smolensk having been announced since we started this discussion). I think there is an "export cruiser" Vickers design based on Belfast which might work... will have to dig it out.

I like the sound of Hill. You can still be effective against low tier CVs in a DD like that (Nicholas certainly is). Isn't Colbert going to be a little small and short of HP for Tier X? Finally - any chance of a Somers class at Tier VIII? Mid-war they had 6 x 5inch surface only guns and a choice of strong 40mm AA or Torpedoes, they'd fit quite nicely between Kidd and Benson, rather like an American Tribal class DD.

Molotov is very real: she's Project 26bis, Maxim Gorky type cruiser. WG played around with the shell dynamics to give her more gun power. It's Budyonny which is the paper ship, IIRC.