HaachamaShipping

Isn't it nice to get a ship that is solid and not OP, a ship that has its niche in performance and doesn't just replace the Buffalo or powercreep the Kronshtadt? I mean, yes, it's 1 million free exp, but frankly, you get a decent ship for it and I take that over Azuma or skipping an entire line worth of ships. Basically, Alaska is... Island humping is for ships that lack survivability but need to stay close. Alaska is the most survivable cruiser and can fall back to its 19 km range if it really has to. If you think this is another island humping design, then you are mistaken, Alaska can roam and should switch between mid-range against manageable threats and long-range HE for when you first need to clear out some. Though, Alaska can hump islands if you find a right-sized island. Nelson is a good ship. The guns and heal are great. Tbf though, I find myself play the Hood more, because it feels more comfortable. Nelson is worth her free exp, but frankly, it's not really the competition to Alaska. My Alaska is quite consistent. The only reason Musashi could be better is if its true that Alaska has worse credit earning multiplier. But I don't run tests on that and purely from gameplay perspective, Alaska is neither inconsistent in the results it brings, nor is it just a gimped Yamato. It is hard to rate subjective impressions like excitement (e.g. my own for Musashi is rather limited, even if it is a good ship, while others might find it more interesting), but performance-wise, even your own performance in Alaska does not suggest a "meh" rating and doesn't paint the impression of only overpens (#20 in your number of ships on average damage) or misses (41% main battery hit ratio).

I met the legendary @Boris_MNE in their Midway, playing sky cancer. Was a nice game, he was persistent, but thankfully mid-match his DDs died and we could turn the tables.

Alaska is a solid ship. Not OP, but certainly not weak. Is it worth 1 million free exp? Up to the individual. I bought her for free exp (and one credit) when she came out and I regret it not one bit. Alaska lacks the dpm of proper cruisers, but gets the alpha to punish enemy mistakes. In a way, if you ever played Graf Spee, Alaska is a lot like that. Unlike the Russian supercruisers, Alaska lacks some pen, which doesn't mean she has terrible pen. It's just not good enough to reliably get through BBs at range (it still craps on most normal cruisers), but you can get good results in a brawl. Unlike the Kronshtadt (and unlike BBs with bad pen like PEF), the Alaska gets USN CA ricochet angles though, so you can get pretty reliable results at close to mid range with your American super-heavy AP. Also, as you don't suffer from Kronshtadt's dispersion that is all over the place, Alaska at least hits often enough to start nice fires on BBs. The ship rewards proper ammo choice, which is a good thing, but both ammunition types are useful and overall, despite the sometimes lacking pen, I consider the guns solid all-round. What Alaska brings to the table aside from somewhat different gunnery is survivability though. Frankly, Alaska is the tankiest cruiser aside from a dug in Stalingrad/Moskva. The submerged citadel is not fool-proof, but for a cruiser, it's absolutely incredible. BBs will hit the citadel at times, but typically cruisers won't. Supercruisers can, but any cruiser below that has a very hard time. at mid to long-range, the armour belt is too thick for CAs and as soon as they have enough pen, the citadel is too low in the water and any attempt to aim for it will either go above the citadel, into the water or ricochet off the citadel deck. American CAs can get unreliable citadels (in training room it was like 3 in 60+ hits) due to improved ricochet angles, but anything else has a hard time (Mino also has improved angles, but needs to get way too close to even get through the belt). So, against cruisers, if Alaska doesn't get torped, it can be insane. additionally, the ship backs up this citadel strength with 27 mm extremities plating, meaning 38 cm gun ships won't get any significant AP damage in on angled alaska (in contrast to Kronshtadt) and the deck is a solid 36 mm, akin to USN BBs, so most HE spam actually becomes a bit of a joke (not dissimilar to Stalingrad when HE spammed from range). Fires last longer, but not taking the pen damage certainly is a better deal, imo. That is not to say alaska can just pick fights nilly-willy and expect to get away with it. While the survivability is certainly making the ship quite comfortable to play (not getting oneshot like some Nep, Seattle or Donskoi), properly angled DPM cruisers that don't present you a flank to shoot at will get you down and BBs can dish out hurt if they know how to play around you. Just like good old Spee. Thus, it isn't some power pick, imo. But I certainly don't feel like I'm playing a weak ship and I have a ton of fun. And in that sense, I kind of deem it more worthwhile than something almost blatantly OP like Musashi, which is powerful, but which I find much more stale.

You can also overmatch T7 BBs. If you are against T8/9, use AP vs broadside, HE vs bo-on. But that basically applies to most of these BBs. Not like you will get much more done with Nagato AP against a bow-on Tirpitz, compared to Nelson AP. You can also overmatch same and lower tier BBs.

Nelson AP still can overmatch and even at long range devastates cruisers. At mid range it wrecks BBs. The ships main strength is to not give a f**k about fires and get unnerfed Conq heal at T7.

You serious? Belfast certainly is right next to Helena when it comes to pumping out useful HE shells at T7. Certainly a step above the oversized DD Atlanta is (with vastly worse range, HE pen and shell velocity to the point that you can lose kiting matches against DDs that know how to dodge) and the Myoko that fires barely above 4 shells a minute. But I had a good laugh. Well, duh. That's how British cruisers work. If Fiji had none of her consumables she'd be a goddamn piece of trash. But these cruisers have their consumables and arguing that it's only their consumables that make them strong is kind of just silly, as these are fundamental aspects of their gameplay. Arguing a Belfast is weak without its consumables is like arguing Stalingrad is bad if you take its guns away. Well, most often if you run into a Stalingrad it will have those guns and the thought that the rest of the ship might not be that good has no value, as it's just not a valid perspective on balance.

Well, guess why I said "questionable"...

Apart from one questionable Kurfürst today, I mostly saw BBs firing AP. So...

Gneisenau's guns are less consistent than most others, due to lack of barrels and lackluster German base dispersion. It is more consistent than most people give it credit for though, if you know how to properly aim with German 38 cm guns. And it certainly manages to remain a threat factor to enemies, as people need to take you into account, even if you don't hit everytime, you might. Role-wise, Gneisenau is a fast sturdy battleship that cannot fight very effectively at range, but is quite good up close, thus depending on MM top tier, you should pick a flank and play mid-range there, close range if you think the torps are accounted for and you aren't going to get flanked by BB in the process. Against lower tiers, which are slower, Gneisenau is brutal. While you wait for your opportunity, just weave around a bit just behind your screen of friendly DDs, so as to draw some fire without getting wrecked by that fire. When bottom tier, play like an Alaska with 38 cm guns and torps instead of radar. Your armour holds up vs Musashi even, as long as you are angled and not getting shot in the upper bow. You can rush isolated BBs and such that think T7 BBs aren't a threat.

Only with Cleveland for me.

Given you can't buy account level, the person should have had some games in coop before that, as random battle is not immediatly available.

In this context we were debating T9 freemiums. Exeter is a T5 premium.

You just got a patch that gives you 6s to get away before everyone shoots at you, which is a big nerf to radars like Chapayev. But let's [edited] about Alaska, a cruiser with guns that are not very suited for anti-DD duty, with 12.2 km concealment and 10 km radar, which you thus should be able to see coming far before you get radared unless you get properly outplayed, in which case... such is the nature of the game.

Join today! Let's be daijobu together.

I must admit, the only USN CAs I played are Pensacola, Indianapolis and (actually a CB) Alaska, but from what I saw with Indianapolis, DDs aren't really an issue. Not more than they'd be for a Yorck or Algerie. And Indy is a CA that has both bad dpm for its tier and armour that DDs can pen without IFHE. Against non-DDs, USN CAs lack torps, but those shells do hit hard, even on angled boats.

There is no tough French BB. They are basically the baseline of how squishy a BB can be without having an insane citadel. If you want sturdy BBs, go play German, if you want a compromise of offense and defense, go play USN or IJN. And CV wreck most BBs equally since rework. At least at high tiers.

Alsace is basically 4 more guns of the same type, slightly less accurate, same armour with Yamato and Musashi crapping all over you and T9, so you see them more often, as well as more ships that bounce your shells. So, not sure whether you want to free exp for that.

Tbf, this isn't a real Alaska issue. There is no deck plating strong enough to hold off Conqueror HE and vs Harugumo, Alaska actually is the best T9 cruiser in survivability, due to 36 mm deck. So, not exactly anything special here. What you are doing isn't exactly anything that is special or couldn't be done before to other ships. Also, I'd like to point out, Harugumo is a ship you can actually overmatch and AP full pen. Real annoyance is Kitakaze and Tashkent or cruisers that understand the value of angling. Des Moines properly angled will give you hell, Zao/Ibuki properly dodging will be a massive pain, Henri too, as it can overcome your deck plate. Would still recommend this ship though, because when you get the right position and target, you can get splendid results. Alaska is kind of comfortable and forgiving, without being neither OP, nor a ship that is situational like Asashio, nor low skill floor, low skill ceiling like a max range Mongqueror. It reminds me a lot of the Graf Spee, which I also like a lot for similar reasons.

So far, 100% of premium cruisers got radar. One could similarly be unsurprised about an IJN cruiser not carrying radar.

Also Neustrashimy has many consumables, but radar is not one of them.

And then there's Mikasa.

There is no premium ammo. For optimal credit earnings, pick a ship you perform well in (as in, you win games AND do decent amount of damage consistently). Play that, slap credit camo and flags on. Premium pays better than normal ship, but messing up in a premium does not earn you more than doing well in a normal ship of same tier. For consumables, premium damage control, smoke screen and premium repair party are always worth it if you are halfway decent at the game. Rest you equip as premium based on how well you can make use of the consumable. Make sure to restock with credits, not doubloons. If your Musashi has 30 km range, go replace range mod with reload mod and grow a pair. Musashi (like Yamato) is best played at distances around 15 km or so, getting closer if there are no threats of getting flanked and moving away if there are such threats. You try to avoid having people shoot you in the side by learning proper positioning (and islands help by limiting the directions from which people can shoot you), but as long as they don't derp you through your side right into the citadel, Yamato is one of the tankiest ships there is and can soak up massive amounts of damage and throw out devastating salvos... well, devastating, if you hit something, which you do from 15 km, not from 30 km. If you don't understand what I am talking about, please go play with ships you actually understand till you properly got the hang of the basics of the game.

Ishizuchi ftw! Honestly, T8 would be nice, though I also accept T7.

Don't buy T8 premium ships unless you played the corresponding tech line ship and felt it suits you. Because, let's face it, you are new, you have little experience in T8-10 matches and all you are doing is handing WG money so you can derp around ineffectively. You got your Massachusetts, yet, do you know how that ship plays? Are you already familiar with game mechanics? No, I'm not trying to roast you over being a noob, we all were beginners once upon a time. But there really is no point in getting high tier ships with no high tier experience. Especially ships like Massachusetts that actually need specialised skills on your captain and certain skills from you to be useful and not just some free damage for the next battleship or light cruiser given its armour, frankly, sucks. Obviously, nothing prevents you from throwing money at WG to derp around with abysmal performance. Some people seem more interested in watching the scenery WG provided (you can watch those little villages. They have animated cars!) than in winning battles, that's not something I can help or which per se is illegal. If you rather actually win though, go polish your skills, learn the mechanics, maybe join a halfway decent clan to get people who have a clue to help you and you'll eventually get there. On your main question, we do not know, nor do we know whether it'll be T8. For all its worth, it could be T6-10, Sprint or not, Arms Race or Domination or whatever else they come up with. Also, while it's possible to reach Rank 1 even by being an idiot if you play often enough, if you cannot either win or secure first spot on your team consistently, you'll likely be stuck even if you play hundreds of Ranked games. If you really want to play Ranked properly, I'd advise the abovementioned steps to get better at playing the game.

No, it's not, imo. 19 km is typically sufficient and at 19 km, the combination of AP performance drop and shell flight time tells me that having 21 km range is not going to make the ship more useful. Much better to just go reload mod and cut that reload down. As for modules, in general I run MAM1, Radar Mod, ASM1, SGM2, CSM1, MBM3 and it works fine. Captain skills I only got 11 points so far on John Doe and got basic PT, EM, SI, CE on it, as well as EL (because at -75%, this one pointer seems far too useful to postpone it on a ship that really wants correct ammunition choice). Likely will continue on with AR, BoS, JoAT and PM. I'm not too convinced on FP, as the ship has BB burn time, but with a cruiser repair party, it might be possible to get that CD down to make it manageable. If not, might try replace EM for HA and if that's not comfortable could try FP.