invicta2012

All of which is fair enough, if the ship is called San Antonio or Galveston and is a sort of cut down Austin, the US version of Ochakov. But don't call it a famous real ship if it doesn't do the thing,

Well, there's always room for personal development. :)

Well, here's some advice for you. 1) Stick to torpedo bombers to begin with. Rocket planes are a pest, and bombers are erratic. 2) Read your ship's specs. CV torpedoes are often considerably slower than ship borne ones. They have more realistic speeds. 3) An attack run starts once you have a squadron in the air and left click. There will be a delay before you can fire (aiming reticle is yellow) Once the reticle is green, you can fire but you only have a short window (about 10s depending on ship weapon) to get to the right position and fire (left click again). During this time If you are turning or change direction (either through WASD or using your mouse), the reticle will widen, so try and avoid this - unless you've got the hang of using that and are going for a 2-fer. 4) Try and use your squadron speed to avoid flak (which normally spawns between 5.8 and 3.5km but you won't see much of it at Tier IV). NB Don't use all your plane speed boost to get to the attack location, keep it *for* the attack. 5) CV torpedoes have different ranges to ship torpedoes, so with many CVs you can't drop them from long range. They also have an arming distance, so you can't drop them from too close, or they won't explode. The aiming reticle shows the arming distance - if your target is in the green zone, the torpedoes will be armed when they arrive. If not, they won't explode. If you're having trouble, look the ship's stats up in port. 6) Different CVs have different attack properties. Usually the easier it is to land, the less damage it does. With torpedo bombers, attack the enemy broadside. With regular bombers, it's usually best to go from bow to stern. 7) if there's a lot of flak about - unlikely at Tier IV but possible at other levels - then preserve your squadrons by detaching one flight after launch (start an attack run and fire), and make sure you press "F" after you've attacked an enemy to recall the remaining planes. Here's a training room video (or two) to show you the above in action. Ah, the CV that got spotted. The OP will want to avoid that. :)

I'm enjoying Zieten at the moment. Although I am wondering whether a 30 knot BC with 16 inch guns, 10km+ secondaries, torpedoes and hydro is just a little bit OP for Tier VIII. She's probably better for PVE than something like Carnot...

Thanks. I knew I had the bonus from somewhere, couldn't remember where....

Acheloi.... you do get an initial bonus for your very first reset. I think it's 10,000 RP - and you get that when you reset the line, not when you re-grind to Tier X. You also get RP for the first winning battle in each ship as you regrind the line, and through regular combat missions.

I was thinking more about DD calibre guns with limited HE pen. Probably needs Heavy HE, IFHE and CE? That would be the "old" Atlanta, pretty much.

Sounds like a German/Japanese hybrid, based on the loadout. Pleased to see San Diego in the game but they're going to have to go some to make it fun to play. All the characteristics look very similar to the Atlanta, so it's going to need a 14pt Captain to work. That reload, too..... and it's doesn't even Atlanta or Flint's ability to farm XP in Narai. Can't see them selling too many of these, it's not very innovative and feels rather like they're selling me back my pre 0.8.0 Atlanta.

Possibly. The PVE bots have shown a tendency to concentrate themselves (moving horizontally rather than vertically only) and to gang up on low-health ships in the last week. It's quite fun.

They were intended to contribute towards Fleet AA defence. But the Admiralty thought that Destroyers (armed with main guns which wouldn't elevate about 40 degrees and a couple of machine guns too) could do that as well. Quoting Norman Friedman... "Given their ancestry, these were hardly single-purpose anti-aircraft cruisers. Low-angle fire was far too important in their conception. The 5.25in calibre was chosen not because it made for good anti-aircraft fire, but because it was good for stopping destroyers and lightly-armoured cruisers. The Royal Navy considered the 4.5in gun, with its lighter and handier shell, a more ideal heavy anti-aircraft weapon – which is why it armed British aircraft carriers." It's also worth bearing in mind that the Didos stuck around longer than most small wartime cruisers because of their ability to run the flagship / DL role - until the Didos came along this was having to be done by elderly D class cruisers, with all other types (the Towns, Hawkins, Emerald) being regarded as too big and vulnerable for a DD melee (probably right too, as shown by what happened to HMS Manchester).

Dido has fewer frustrating situations where you can't do much damage. Canarias is an interesting ship but not especially versatile. The Dido class were meant to be Destroyer Leaders (they're descended from the "Super Tribal" V Leader design) with room for a Rear Admiral's staff to co-ordinate Destroyer Flotillas. AA was always a secondary role and it was assumed that the 5.25 mount would be considerably better at the AA role than it was. They weren't cheap, and for the same tonnage, they could have built more Arethusa's - ships which turned out to be considerably more useful (and didn't have the tendency to sink as a result of a single torpedo hit). They didn't do so, though, because the Arethusa's main guns weren't DP. Ironic, from a WoWS point of view, as the standard AA on every other RN cruiser (and especially on Huang He and Chung King) is better than Dido.

When do original post-war designs begin for Italy, Germany, Japan? Most of their navies were initially restocked with surplus American destroyers and while it's interesting to see how these evolve from the Fletcher type it's probably not interesting enough to sustain three or four ships.

Happy Birthday! The coupon should be in the Premium Shop window under "My Coupons".

Genova is an over-sized DD. Her armour in an exercise in futility, and all she has going for her is SAP to whack the occasional DD and the ability to put lots of torps in the water. Best described as a Hardcore mode Emerald. And that is rather the point, I think. Exeter is a great Tier V but she's not in great company, most Tier V Premiums are old and outdated. The good ones have all been withdrawn. There are, however, lots of fun Tech Tree ships. Kongo, Omaha, Konigsberg, Emerald, Jaguar, T-22, are all worth your time and effort.

The Pan-Asian Alsace (Wujing) is also fun. You'll need to spend money to get her, of course, which might not appeal, but she's a solid quick, secondary focused BB which will bring the credits.

I don't have either of those... I think @Verblonde has the Hayate, though, and may be able to give a reliable opinion....

Oh gosh yes. Lion doesn't have it for PVE. Conqueror *does*, so using Free XP to skip the IX is worthwhile I am unconvinced by the Italians - Marco Polo is good fun but I'm suspicious of anything below 406mm at Tiers IX and X, regardless of SAP gimmicks, and didn't enjoy Vittorio Veneto at all. I do have an FdG, though, as well as a Pommern, and I like them both. If the Co-op economy was kinder to Tech Tree ships I'd play FDG more than I have, it's really quite fun. Armour is OK, but... she's like a Tier VI version of Hipper that's been overpromoted (and let's not joke, those are Hipper's guns, but her range is poor and her shells have none of the traditional "German" advantages (HE pen, AP damage). Add to it the lack of torpedoes, and the dubious AirStrike gimmick, and you've got a recipe for frustration.

It's a decent Tier VIII CL hull with weaker guns than most Tier VI CAs. For PVE it's a total waste of time - you won't land many airstrikes, and you won't get many big hits with those guns. Compared to something like Hipper it's an absolute joke. I suspect Tone would be a better investment for anyone looking for a Cruiser/Carrier hybrid. (and yes, I have given it up.... there are only so many times you can bang your head against a wall before you have to concede the wall has won).

They've dialled down her AP but she's still very strong for a Tier V cruiser. 50k average damage for a Tier V isn't at all bad....

Bearn's ability to whack DDs has it's uses... (a good team helps a lot, too)

So she does... I'm thinking of Strasbourg. I guess it depends on whether people are happy to trade pen for accuracy. Strasbourg's 330mm guns have much better armour pen than Carnot's 305s but the latter are much more accurate. I wouldn't mind a lazer accurate BB/super cruiser....

It is a quirky beast. But super-secondary BBs? It's interesting but we probably don't need too many of them floating about.

I doubt it. The only one I've really liked was Odin, and the grinds seem to get more and more insane and boring every time. It also doesn't help that WG does Richard moves like hiding desirable ships (Repulse) in the midst of this sort of nonsense. The other problem is that I'm just not sure what they could put on the table which would be fun, next time around. Can't think of anything French or German they could do. RN stuff would be the usual glass cannons. Italian lines are a bit meh, IJN ones probably aren't going to be as good as what we've got, we've had the USN twice, so odds are it's some Soviet piffle and to hell with that, frankly.

You're a bit shafted then, mate. Best reinstall your mods, play 6 co-op battles (about 25 minutes) and enjoy.

Can you not play the game without mods?