invicta2012

I want to be 2k further away from the target, so AFT it is. I would probably go for IFHE next, above CE. What's the point in trying to hide? We need more dakka.

She works just fine. PT/AR/BFT/AFT makes for a good fun surface ship (acceleration module helps too). AA is the icing on the cake.

Oh, so she's a kinda proto-Iowa? Not sure how keen I am on made up ships in the US line, though.

This also extends the spotting range of ships and can be used to embarrass enemy destroyers who are sitting in smoke. Hydro varies depending on the ship that carries it. Royal Navy DDs have hydro which spots ships and torpedoes 3k away, but it lasts for a long time. German DDs spot ships around 4k away, as do most cruisers. German cruisers can find ships 5.5k away. People often slot anti AA measures like DFAA instead of hydro but bear it in mind, because if you get caught 5k away from a German cruiser in a DD you are probably going to die!

I notice that your Asashio was at 1/3rd health when that picture was taken and that the Montana appeared to have Detonated. So clearly you'd had to work to get into that position and had been the beneficiary of some massive RNG damage. How would you propose to make CVs work in that way?

True, but they have the least trouble with CVs.

Why did they not do a per-class reduction? A flat reduction of 20% benefits bigger, more detectable ships more than smaller ones, and I don't think anyone was complaining about BBs being harassed?

That's either a Japanese BB I've not heard of or a character from Mario Kart....

It's OK if it is the Coal replacement for Musashi, though. There has to be a reason to grind a proper Tier IX or X....

Fast Battleship, then. But you know what they're doing. Musashi had big guns and rubbish AA, this will have big guns and not that much armour. That, to me, is a Battlecruiser.

It's a 33 knot battlecruiser with 18 inch guns. It's as if WG have been possessed by the ghost of Jackie Fisher.

Doesn't look like an Iowa, though. Much more North Carolina, judging by the superstructure design. Tier VIII BB hull with 18" guns? Not sure about the name, either. Surely she should be Kansas to go with Wichita?

Infrequent bouts of hectic, challenging action with the risk of being sent back to port abruptly if you mess things up. All the things not present in the CV rework. But it's where they need to be going. The attempts to make a "constant action/chip damage" class of ship can't be balanced properly as it always results in the bullying of the smallest and weakest opponents who are most vulnerable to that playstyle. Because no-one wants to play the role of the prey in a game of "World of easily sunk Warships" circa 1942. CVs were always unpopular because they could strike anywhere on the map, could strike unavoidably with things like torp boxes, and because opposing players had few tools to counter them. Nothing has changed in the rework. It's almost as if WG never gave it a minute's thought, just assumed that the playerbase would enjoy being farmed by CV players in their new E-Z all action CVs,

They just need to slow the CV play down to the level of the rest of the game....

Quite. I would hope they'd take the sensible view and park the British CVs somewhere quiet and out of the way until they've got the gameplay in order, too. As it stands, I don't want them in the game and I can't see how they would make WGs current balancing act any easier.

I hope somewhere in their roadmap are Classes of Carrier. They should really end up with two sorts: fast playing "light carriers" like Bogue, Hermes and Zuiho, which would have more fighter/light bombers and a few torp planes and be dedicated to spotting and sniping, like Destroyers, and large fleet carriers, which would have a slower gameplay, be more reliant on other ships for spotting, but be capable of harrassing battleships and large cruisers with large, slow, but powerful squadrons of TB and DB planes. I'm hopeful that they will get it right. I think they have to nerf CVs pretty hard to begin with in order to get any semblance of balance, but the recent announcements show that they're moving in (almost) the right direction. If they can get rid of the Sixth Sense/Auto Detect thing that the planes have, make Fighters work, and sort the AA out, that will be a start.

Can they not just make the bombs work like they used to? Aircraft carriers used to come after Destroyers with bombs, and sometimes they used to sink the DDs and sometimes the DDs dodged them. There was interaction, and skill, and the end result wasn't hugely annoying. It was only ever torpedoes and cross-drops which annoyed people. Why have WG made the rework so all-or-nothing?

It's the GC which is stinking up the game. Go look at the stats for the Tier V ranked sprint and tell me it isn't pure p2win.

Ahem. Some suggestions. HMNZS Achilles. Leander class cruiser, Tier VI. Why? Collectable - Famous for her participation in the Battle of River Plate along with Graf Spee, Exeter and Ajax. Also: Commonwealth Cruiser specialisation: AA. Also: Already modelled. Builds: 1) 8 x 6", 4 x 4", 2 x 4 torps. RN DD (short duration) smoke. No AA to speak of. "River Plate" build. Spotter plane (did you know the Achilles carried one of the first drones?) 2) 6 x 6" (X Turret removed), 4 x 2 4" DP mounts, 4 x 4 QF2 Pom Poms, 4 x20 mm Oerlikons, 2 x 4 torps, DFAA. ("1944 Pacific Build") HMS Arethusa. Arethusa class Cruiser, Tier V. Why? A half decent Tier V light cruiser without a citadel the size of Devon. She's not Emerald. You already have the model. And, AA cruiser. Builds: 1) 6 x 6", 4 x 4", 2 x 3 torpedoes, RN DD smoke ("original" build) 2) 6 x 6", 2 x 4 QF2 Pom Poms, 6 x 20mm Oerlikons, 2 x UP mountings, DFAA ("mini Hood" AA build)., -5 knots speed (max approx 28kt) Other thoughts: RN AP shells only for main battery, but HE secondaries with Huang He range. UP are 25% more effective v Rocket Planes (higher speed, therefore have more problems evading parachute projectiles) Economic imperative: charge 33% more compared to regular Tier V/VI cruisers due to "dual state" configs, similar to Monaghan.

The data from the Ranked Sprints would tell them otherwise. I suspect it's that data which has finally persuaded them to change the GC, Gremy, Kami, etc. Those ships were far superior at their Tiers in the Sprints.

Yup. (Agreeing with ColonelPete? There should be a commemorative flag issued...). But the problem with adapting the playstyle is that the game has few active tools to let players do so. You can change Captain Skills, Consumables, Modules before the game starts.... and still end up on the wrong side of a CV paddling. Even worse, you can set yourself up in an anti-CV build and then get into a Random match and find there are no CVs, and you're at a disadvantage in a standard game. It's not going to get any better until WG make defender/CV interaction as rich an experience as the main game, and they seem a long way away from being able to do so.

El2azer talks about killing DDs in their spawn point. Regardless of player skill, the tactics are the same in every CV game - they load up their rocket planes (which happen to be the fastest ones) and go and scout for a DD. And usually they find one, because the spawn locations are predictable. A bad player might take a 1/3rd of the DD's health... a good one will sink it. Fun and engaging. IMHO they are still a long way from getting this system balanced, and further still from making it satisfactory for the players of CVs and defending ships. It's as if it has been designed by technicians who don't understand player psychology at all. I am hoping that they... 1) shrink the target reticle on rocket planes and reduce their alpha damage at lower Tiers. Rockets were mostly used for shooting at slow targets: surfaced submarines and transport ships, not ships doing 30 kt + and actively evading. 2) give ships a manually controlled AA boost (30 second duration, slow recharge) which doesn't shoot down attacking planes, but causes their attack to be scattered / dispersion to be made larger. This would only be of limited value to larger cruisers and BBs - who are a bigger target and already have a much greater AA defence than smaller ships - but much more useful to destroyers and small cruisers. Having an active response will also make the defending player feel less like they are being farmed. 3) Give CV players back their old F key function but with a limited number of uses. Call it an Evasion consumable. Good players won't really need it - ones who are new or learning will be given a limited number of extra chances to stay in the game. 4) Sort out the AA sector system. It doesn't really feel like part of the game at the moment.

Turn off Situational Awareness for CVs, that would be a start. It's not that their planes can permaspot, it's that the poor old destroyer can't choose to not see the planes. So when the DD detects the planes, the CV player gets a Detected message and knows that there is an enemy ship within 6-7k.

I'm trying to, to be honest. Bit of a shame, really; long awaited line of British ships, no doubt to include some iconic names and planes, but the CV gameplay is currently so rubbish that I'd be more excited by the launch of a line of Pan-Oceanic trawlers. Their gameplay looks compelling, btw - they have napalm, by the looks of it:

Work closely with cruisers and battleships. Consider using premium consumables or taking the Superintendent skill for more smokes. Alternatively consider a light cruiser like Leader or Huang He: with DD numbers down they can be very strong around caps and have decent AA (very good in the latter case).