HaachamaShipping

Didn't you also supply the main battery guns, given those were produced by Skoda in Plzen?

Personally, from the Ranked experience, of the tech tree BBs, Kongo, König or Iron Duke are recommended. Anything else is crap. Texas is only good in CV div. Giulio is obviously best. For ranking, my recommendation is: 1. Giulio: Fast, stealthy, accurate, has 10 guns that traverse fast for a BB. Its armour scheme is surprisingly good. Downsides of the ship are only four. No spotter plane means less scouting behind obstacles, less range and less convenient shooting over obstacles. The hp pool is slightly below the rest (45k), the citadel is more exposed than on some tech tree choices and the ship has no real AA. If you play Giulio, push up with DDs, then be mid-range, where you can provide supportive fire while fading in and out of vision. Never show broadside. Never camp. Especially not with a CV around. I saw way too many Giulios get absolutely devastated by autodrops, because they sat still. If you want to counter Giulio, CV or good scouting. If it cannot hide, it'll be unable to utilise its main strengths and might die to focus fire. 2. Kongo: Fast, not stealthy, decently accurate, lots of hp (54k). This is like Giulio if people had tried to balance it. Beware though, Kongo has a higher skill floor than most others. If you know how to use speed, this ship is great. It can push up fast, like Giulio, but cannot stay hidden. You'll need to know when to engage and when to disengage and how to not present vulnerable broadside while doing so. Angled Kongo is very hard to kill for BBs, because of the large amount of hp. It has a midsection with 38 mm deck too, so it also tanks HE better than expected. Not as well as the tankier picks, but certainly angled Kongo can withstand punishment better than New York, Texas or Bretagne. If you cannot use the speed to win though, Kongo just brings less firepower. So, the early push and the later quick flank (not some silly crap running around islands for 3 minutes) are what get you the win, not hanging back, trying to use that range (even New York is better for that). 3. Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya: I'm not sure it deserves third place, but I'll put it here. This ship is really high skill floor too. Mostly, because the ship, when angled correctly (not providing easy shots through the 19 mm bow tip into the cit but also not to the point the side can be penned), this ship is frustrating to deal with for BBs and it'll always frustrate cruisers. It is insanely armoured against HE and has far less overmatchable armour than any other T5 BB, meaning you can't just derp them at obvious weakspots (or these spots are much smaller and hard to hit at range). It will hardly ever die to DoT. It has 12 guns with decent accuracy, but low pen. So, shoot at weak parts. Or cruisers/DDs. HE is passable, because 12 shells. But to really master OR, mastery of what to shoot when and where is needed, positioning needs to be mastered. From the side, this ship is toast. It's the only T5 BB that I could easily citpen with Iron Duke short fuze AP and it has fewer hp that Giulio (43k). AA is not bad, but dead after HE spam. It also is rather stealthy and like Giulio, lacks a spotter plane. 4. Iron Duke: Sorry König, Iron Duke imo beats you. Iron Duke was my personal main choice last season and for good reason. Iron Duke is the king of T5 BB slugfest. If you are to get stuck in the action, this ship is best. It has a lower skill floor than most T5s, but imo, a decent skill ceiling. The main issues (let's get those out of the way first) are the slow speed and slow turret traverse. This ship is sluggish. It isn't the worst in speed, but 22.5 knots is barely above the 21 knots of the USN and MN ships and far from the 27 and 30 knots of Giulio and Kongo. If you team up with Iron Duke (or any slow BB), minding the pace at which they could get into range to effectively support you is worth it as DD. Iron Dukes (or any BB) can communicate their intentions in chat and point out that they are sadly slow, but willing to help. Speed signal might be worth it. Turret traverse is a pain, but just means, you gotta plan ahead. And sometimes turn the ship. Now, as for what the ship has going for it. The main battery is smaller caliber than Kongo/NY/Texas, but barely less AP damage, the dispersion pattern is British, so it is rather comfortable, the short fuze will be a bit sad against noob BBs that present broadside, will be utterly irrelevant against skilled BBs that present only angled ship and will be disgusting against all the T5 non-BBs that have no armour whatsoever. RN HE is also no joke and while AP is the better ammo choice most of the time, when you are in need of killing a DD or get to exploit a torp hit on an enemy, RN HE is extremely valuable. And unlike others, you are less punished when you have to fire the less optimal ammo before reloading. The secondary battery is the best at T5, as it has joint best range with König, but fires all HE. A dozen 152 mm guns fire HE with 12% (!) fire chance. I do not recommend full secondary build, but if you want your dedicated ID captain for sealclubbing/ranked, taking AFT, secondary range mod and secondary signal after CE is not a bad choice. Survivability-wise, hp pool is middle of the field (47k), but the armour is good. Iron Duke lacks the lower bow and stern plating of König, but apart from extremities, forward deck is 25 mm, bouncing same tier AP and shattering non-IFHE HE from cruisers. Most of the deck is 44 mm, shattering any non-BB HE. The citadel is below the waterline, only König is harder to citadel. RN repair party repairs 60% of pen damage, not 50%. AA of the ship is not great, but also not terrible. It's mediocre. Don't count on it, most is mid-range and dies to HE. 5. König: König is comparable to Iron Duke in power ranking and has a few areas where it outperforms the British T5. It has the exact same hp pool (47k), has similarly sturdy armouring, but is better armoured against BB than against cruisers, as the deck is only 30 mm, so it will get penned by IFHE 152 mm guns. König has faster reload and faster turret traverse than Iron Duke (though not faster than most of the rest) and has decent gun performance at close to medium range. König suffers at times from its German dispersion, but it's not too terrible. König is faster than Iron Duke and any of the lower listed options and thus more flexible at 24 knots. König has also one of the best AA suites worth bulding into. With AFT and Manual AA, the long range AA (which also survives more punishment) is the best at T5 and will generally keep you save from harm, better than Texas' AA. König plays mostly like a faster Iron Duke, getting stuck in there and using its good dpm to great effect. The caliber doesn't matter, all T5s overmatch each other without significant tresholds in gun caliber. What held König back for me personally is that it hasn't got the good HE to deal with DD (4 DD per team matches happen!) and should stick to AP and it has mostly AP secondaries. Situationally useful, but typically you get rushed by DDs, not by dumb Emeralds broadsiding and eating tons of cits. This ship has potential and certainly is no slouch. Just not the best. and certainly worse in early Ranked with tryhards that have IFHE, compared to randoms. 6. Texas/New York: Honestly, neither ship is "great". The good points can be summed up on one hand. For both ships. For both it's best broadside damage with AP (by a small margin over Iron Duke), good hp (49k) and for New York, good range and for Texas good AA. That's basically it. The armour is laughably crap, with no protection vs HE (19 mm deck!) easy to overmatch by anyone (19 mm barbettes!), the accuracy at range isn't all that good and there's like no reason to play either of these ships when König exists. Texas' AA mostly is mid and short range, so it doesn't even survive after two or so Iron Duke HE volleys or a bit of HE spam from cruisers (and any smart cruiser will farm you over the ships that are largely immune to them). Add that the ships are slow at 21 knots and you really understand why many consider New York to have been powercrept. If you really have to play this, play it as a second line support for other BBs and hope the enemy shoots the tankier ship first. Makes your main battery a bit more relevant. Also, people don't expect you to be the first to fight with 21 knots anyway. 7. Bretagne: Read New York and deduct a bit main battery caliber and a good chunk of hp. With T4 grade hp (41k), no real armour, no really outstanding points on the guns, joint worst spreed, this ship has no place in Ranked. Keep it in port or sell it. Bring a better ship, please. It has a lot of secondaries, which aren't very powerful though (not great RoF, bad angles and not much range/damage) and while some say the AA is good, it's not outstanding enough to justify bringing this piece of crap even in a CV div. Bring a AA build König instead. It's way better. If you have to play it, read New York section. Same applies, because you can tank even less. Just, you are even less useful.

I guess after PA DDs got to laugh at IJN torp boats, the PA cruisers get to laugh at their IJN counterparts? Glorious Irian out-torpedoing Mogami. At least Mogami has still better gun dpm, though I take the better range (on guns and torpedoes) and turret traverse anyday. Especially with a TRB.

Gokigen'yo, lads, just after Halloween and right for All Saint's Day, I return from the dead. Sorry, was busy last couple weeks with work and this week I came down with a cold and was pretty much out and unwilling to log on to these boards. But I'm feeling better now, also because of this: Only Christmas skin is missing now. And to not just brag, but also provide something nice:

Pretty much, yes. Only König has lower bow plating worth a damn, but too unreliable to bet on it.

Met @Atorpad. We lost. Sadly. Better luck next time.

T3-5 bow plating is 19 mm, offering no protection whatsoever against BB calibers as low as 28 cm. Only T6-7 is 25 mm.

I'd go with 3. Chapayev is a nice alternative to Cleveland, both are good T8 cruisers (though I absolutely hate the looks of the ship). But it's a good bit less forgiving. Having experience in Shchors helps a lot in getting good results out of the ship. Also, the other ships are decent on their own.

Get a Mikasa. There, running no modules is pretty much no issue. At T8, not running modules is basically just terrible.

It still is pretty decent if you know how to angle and I guess many people have the ship.

It still cares the least about HE spam and is the one BB that is best at dealing with any DoT, especially as with such small teams, you hardly ever burn through all damecon charges.

T6 premiums are far less OP than T5 ones. The one straight up unbalanced is T-61, but it's nowhere near Kamikaze. Warspite likely is a good T6 BB, but there are solid reasons to pick silver ships over it (unlike Giulio, where the weaknesses basically are AA in autodrop ranked and lack of a spotter plane). CVs are no longer a complete joke and cruisers are far more useful than the T5 ones. Prior to T61, this likely was the tier with the most balanced premiums and it still kind of is.

9x1.2 tons is 10.8 tons, 10x1 ton is 10 tons.It would be cancelled out if Amagi had 20% more barrels.

In weight, USN T8s got better weight, as their shells weigh 20% more. But that doesn't translate into 20% more damage.

Worchester gets radar range nerfed to be unable to, Chapayev is able to now and will be able to after CE nerf. Belfast never was truely a stealth radar and will get a bigger window (but not by much), while Minotaur will also still stealth radar.

Chapayev still can, as it gets still 10.4 km concealment on 11.7 km radar.

Don't forget the T4-grade hp pool. With 41k hp vs GC 45k, König/ID 47k, NY 49k and Kongo 54k, that's no minor difference.

And finally done with the next grind. Also bought the summer outfit for tsun loli neko maid. Only summer skin I bought. Certainly not the wisest investment I ever made, but no regrets.

I got all T5 BBs except NY and Bretagne in port (but Texas basically is a better NY anyway). König isn't that bad, Iron Duke mostly feels bad on the turret traverse. Anyway, I consider Amagi's main strength the heaviest broadside at T8. Don't think there's a better main battery at that tier. Best gun caliber, highest alpha strike potential in AP and HE (important given you might need to blap DDs with it now, Monarch only slightly edges it out in HE dpm due to reload).

Bismarck is my most played BB. I didn't know it was 1 knot faster. It really makes no difference. I replaced Amagi with Kii, which is half a knot slower. Pretty much the same still. This isn't some T5, where 30 knots vs 21 knots really is significant. Not even T7, where you get 32 knots vs 27 knots on next best non-prem.

Makes one look special and fabulous...

One person made a baseless statement and the circlejerk begins...

As German BBs are kind of my most played line, I don't feel too affected. Secondary spec does not care. Rather, I got buffed, for the competition got nerfed.

Tirpitz and Bismarck have better maneuverability and better turret angles. And a higher chance of meeting ships where secondaries matter.

Why are we counting half the Germans, but not Kii and Vanguard? Frankly, for all practical purposes, 1 knot is unimportant and half a knot is too. At 30+ knots on a BB anyway. I'd not count the speed as special, but the way it was phrased originally implied the speed somehow was lacking, when it isn't. And if you end up top tier, having 30 knots is no joke. I found it decently accurate for a BB. It's not super accurate like some Warspite or Myogi (now that it got buffed), but accurate enough, especially given the 10 guns.