invicta2012

Capitani Romani is a Tier VIII + DD, it would make GC look weak at Tier V if they called it a cruiser. I like the Italian cruisers we have but are there any candidates for Tiers IX and X?

Thank you for your constructive feedback. It's a more intense, focused version of Random battles, and very enjoyable. Tier VI should be fun, possibly the most diverse tier of "proper" ships in the game, few go-to OP ships like Kami R. I'm thinking about using Fubuki, Warspite, Normandie and Monaghan, myself.

Admiral Makarov? Where did that ship go? I hope they do change the ships in the Arsenal as - frankly - I've had them all, darling, at least at the middle Tiers. Derping my way up to a Salem or Jean Bart might take a while and be more trouble that it's worth. Any chance of that RN Arethusa ? Deutschland, maybe? I hear they make new editions of ships by painting them different colours, these days.... how hard can it be?

This sounds fun, although I wonder if cruisers will be as hopeless a case as they were at Tier V? I suspect it will be World of BBs Vs World of DDs again...

Dunkerque's AP is odd. Constant bounces and overpens, then you get to close range and it marmalises things. For more reliable damage I had to go with IFHE, which upsets the new Captain skill guide. But it does work nicely.

Dunkerque. Speedy enough to get around the map and that eight gun bow salvo is excellent for charging those irritating DDs and Kolbergs. Nothing more satisfying than blapping one of them from inside his smugscreen of HE spam.

Only one container so far, 250 doubloons, which was OK for a freebie.

Well, operations do attract players who want something more complicated than co-op but more predictable than a Random match. I also tend to use them to grind up silver ships that I suck at (hello Farragut) and to play ships that I don't play too much in Randoms (Aigle, CVs). But I am trying to win. I'm not at all sure what some people are doing.

It depends on the location of the exit zone. The one to the North East is pretty easy, the one to the West is often much less so. I say pretty easy as I did see one overconfident team who sailed on the outside of the North East island, triggering six waves of enemies. Who sank them, so that we failed the mission. It's that five star/no star mentality again....

The thing is, you can still complete the mission even if teamed with doofuses who go the wrong way. They just need to get sunk, so that you can complete via the "50% of operational ships in the base" rule.

Comforting Forum Myths, Part XI....

I suspect that giving her superb acceleration and deceleration would be the way to go, rather like the RN DDs. She needs to be a 0-60 monster, constantly changing speed to throw off enemy aim.

All part of WGs ongoing effort to make people play higher Tiers. Decent Tier VIII DD given away for free?

I am not a fan of CV divisions, multiple CV games and the like. If WG want to give a decent impression of their CV re-work they will put a one-CV-per-team and no divisions rule on the game.

Reading the news about the Even-Tiered CVs that will be available after the rework is completed, it got me thinking that this would be a nice time to add specific counters to CVs. While we have plenty of Tier IX and X ships which can provide excellent AA cover, there can be a shortage of such ships at lower Tiers, leading to CVs - entirely reasonably - focusing on ships known to have poor AA. A series of premium counter CV ships might be timely, then... a bit like this: Tier IV - HMS Carlisle. Modified C Class cruiser, and the most successful AA ship in the RN in WW2. Armament consisted of 4 x 2 4 inch / 102 mm guns, 1 x Quad 2 pdr and 8 x 20mm Oerlikons. Consumables: Def AA, Anti AA Radar - this increases the ship's ability to detect aircraft and makes main battery guns count as AA guns, to a range of 2/3rds of their surface range. Detection range is not increased. Firing main battery at surface ships during this time removes benefit from Anti AA Radar and increases detection range. Tier VI - HMS Charybdis - Dido Class AA cruiser. 8 x 4.5 inch DD guns, 10 x 20 mm Oerlikons, 6 x 2 x 20mm Oerlikons, Def AA and Anti AA radar. Tier VIII - HMS Battleaxe, Weapon Class DD - 3 or 2 x 2 x 4inch , 6 x 40 mm bofors, Def AA, Anti AA or Surface Radar These are all quite limited designs in terms of surface warfare so shouldn't disrupt the balance too much... but they would be a nice counter to CV divisions and the like. For other nations... As we have Atlanta in the game it shouldn't be too difficult to add a late-war AA build or a later Juneau class cruiser at Tier VIII, and perhaps an Allen M Sumner DD too?

Stolichnaya?

They're trying to stop CVs flooding the MM after the relaunch, if they've got any sense.

They don't, though. They punish active play because of the unbalanced nature of defence against them. If I am in a Gallant (AA rating 4) and I'm being targeted by a CV, what am I supposed to do? I can dodge but a determined high tier cruiser will damage me. The same with a Normandie (AA rating 14) - I'm going to get targeted, I have no defence other than not being spotted - i.e. camping.

I did wonder if long range flak would ineffective... however I did suggest the AA radar consumable, which should (substantially) improve long range AA accuracy. It would be a fair trade if a cruiser gave away surface fighting capability for long range AA - make it short action / short cooldown / several charges / like RN smoke, for best value. (I should also say that I'd put in Carlisle and Dido regardless of whether the CVs were re-worked, mid-tier AA defence has always been a bugbear).

I think a little ineptitude adds spice to it. It is quite a straightforward mission, having to carry some idiots is fun....

I once had a "only human in the game" experience in Co-op too. Quite amusing: early on a Sunday morning, playing a co-op mission to complete the RN directives. Just me. And yes, we lost. These aren't the bots they have in Operations with their torpedo cheat mode so all my"team" charged headfirst into torp soup.

Yup. Baltimore game was nice as I was top tier for once, Myoko game less nice as lots of Mushashi about (still, sank a Tier IX so not so bad).

The one that's moored up is quite funny, as his secondaries will kick in if you get too close. Presumably that will be a Gneisenau or Bismarck on Hard Difficulty....

Good. They still can't balance the class. There is no way of balancing the class while defence against CVs remains so patchy, and you can expect howls of protest when the rework goes live and other players find themselves being shot up/bombed/torp'd by enemies, more than they do now, according to honest CV players, by enemies they have very little defence against. It really doesn't matter whether WG removes odd-Tier CVs if they're still going to allow multiple CVs in games, CV divisions and powerful strikes by 1942 design aircraft against ships with no 1938 vintage AA defence - i.e. none whatsoever.

I wish this didn't apply to Tier VIII CVs.... and it does seem to have made life harder for Tier VI and VII players: more radars floating around, which is not welcome.