HaachamaShipping

I do less damage in Scharnhorst than I do in Gneisenau, which is comparable to my Hood. I pin it down to personal playstyle. Dispersion isn't really bad, as can be seen in the plotting graphs of LWM in her review of the ship. The lack of pen can help with cruisers and DDs (as do the improved ricochet angles)You can citpen cruisers from lulzy angles, even those that would otherwise tank you. As for why to go fast... repositioning and chasing down targets. The nice thing with 32 knots max speed is, you don't have to do 32 knots, if you don't want to. You can also sit at 16 knots half speed angled towards a target to keep a certain distance, able to power up and run off if it gets too problematic. Also it allows you to get to key objectives at the same time as cruisers, while a Colorado or Nagato is still making its way there and you can run down cruisers that are often too slow to get away.

Don't notice much either. But I also didn't look much at data and don't want to go by "feels". I did have games being top tier T8. I did have games playing T6 vs T8. Also, I feel like it depends a bit on tier, class and ship. T8 DD and BB kind of can handle T10, T8 cruisers have to be incredibly careful. And for example ships like some DDs or BBs lose more when uptiered than others. Harekaze for example manages T10 ok, given it has great concealment with good torps and basically can carry T10 games still. I doubt something like Cossack is as nice. Similarly for example at T7, something like Gneisenau/Scharnhorst or Hood get by still vs T9, playing like a better armoured Kronshtadt without radar, while Nelson is just suffering.

You also need AFT and AA range mod to make the range worth a damn on the rockets. I'm actually using my 14 pt Fiji captain on the Hood, though I can say it's likely a more valid approach to forget you have defAA and spec into more tankiness. Thankfully it's a premium, so I can as well just use a RN BB captain.

So, after grinding out the remaining necessary blueprints and the last level, my first retrofit. That headband really adds to her refined look. And it has a nice purple colour. Next will be working on Ajax.

I'd say, both are great ships indeed and worth it. I'd say though that for those with a tighter budget and more patience, it might be well worth waiting for special offers. Both together cost like 70 Euro, I personally got them for I think 50ish, due to sales and coupons.

It's a great ship, though a bit underrated. I'm still sad many people think so poorly of her. I played Gneisenau first for the grind, but later when I realised that it had more of those lulzy 12.8 cm secondaries per side than Kurfürst, I rebought it just to see if I could get an 18 pt IFHE secondary spec going. Achieved 14 pts a few days ago, so now I have secondaries that are reasonably accurate out to 8 km and can pen 31 mm and fire every 4 seconds base. It makes it so cute when you run up to support the DDs and some spotted RN DD tries to go for the torp rush with its 7 km torps. Or when some cruiser tries the same. Or when you brawl something like a KGV or Nagato and they bleed hp before you even have time to unload torps. With IFHE, I can only imagine the fun of being able to secondary melt something like a Richelieu or kite a Tirpitz (bow is 32 mm after all and where most secondaries would land on a chasing ship). Gneisenau isn't really that mid-range, just because it has bigger guns. It plays the mid range game like Scharnhorst, but really comes into its own when it gets to brawl and the 38 cm guns give it a nice pen that really hurts when you can derp them in point blank.

I mean, with secondary Gneisenau, the dumbest thing to do would be to go for a close range pass, as you basically trade your ships to torps. Best would be to just try stay angled within 8 km of Scharnhorst and work the ship over with secondaries and main battery. Overmatch is not exactly minor. It's one of the reasons why for example my Dunkerque is much more happy with Scharnhorsts than Gneisenaus, one of them being unable to overmatch and having 10.5 cm guns that don't do much, while the Gneisenau has main guns that overmatch and base pen on the 12.8 cm guns that tear into your ship.

LOL If you ever saw the average top tier player, yeah, no, they aren't better than what you find at T4. I find it quite nice when I top the scoreboard in my T6 in a T8 game or T7 in T9. The only reason it can get frustrating is when you are in T5 and basically see most of your matches vs T7, but as long as tiers have a reasonable chance of also being top tier, it's not too terrible.

Are we talking about the same Hood here? Anyway... Both of them tick most of these boxes. Both are accurate, fast and tanky T7 BBs that can at times lack a bit in gunpower. I own both, I like both. Scharnhorst has the edge over Hood in dpm on paper. The fast reload allows Scharnhorst to slap cruisers around like few others and broadside BBs will feel the hurt. The flipside is, the low caliber guns don't overmatch any BBs except T5 ones and you can struggle to do decent damage as soon as an opponent angles. From a pure gameplay balance perspective, Scharnhorst is nice, because it offers a strong alternative gameplay style to Gneisenau, while at the same time a properly played Gneisenau can dominate a Scharnhorst easily. Apart from the low caliber though, the gun handling is great. Note that it is fairly accurate as the sole German BB to still have 2.0 sigma (though with German base dispersion, so don't expect this to be Nagato) Hood is somewhat similar in role, but due to the lack of close-range assets, excels more at mid-range. Hood's guns similarly lack in penetration, being RN short fuze AP. In return however, they get improved ricochet angles and short fuze allows you to cripple and kill cruisers and DDs quite efficiently. Whereas Scharnhorst has lower pen due to lower caliber, Hood's larger caliber at least still allows overmatching of T7 BB armour and you can reliable get penetrating his, as long as you don't shoot at the belt at long range or when angled (aim hhigher for upper belt in such cases, or just the bow. Hood's gun handling apart from that is great too. The guns also have excellent traverse speed and angles which allow you to fire salvos with giving the most minimal broadside. Hood showcases that sigma isn't everything, as the ship has 1.8 sigma, but with the RN base dispersion, the shells still fly where you aimed at, with somewhat standard deviation you should be used to if you played any RN ship that isn't Warspite. In terms of tankiness, both are ridiculously tanky, if you know how to handle the ship. Scharnhorst has the better armour of the two. Like Gneisenau, the ship has 50 mm deck, a very thick 350 mm belt good upper belt and 70 mm lower bow (25 mm upper bow), so you might still shrug off hits to the waterline, instead of getting overmatched and citpenned (though if a ship can shoot over this at close range, they could still citpen you. I already experienced this once. But only once). If you know how tanky Gneisenau is, well, this ship is just the same. Hood meanwhile has a slightly different tankiness. Hood has less belt, a vulnerable citadel when showing broadside and no funny lower bow armour. It still gets 51 mm of deck though, its belt is sufficient to shrug off shells when angled and it has 67k hp. This is the highest hp pool of all T7 BBs (edging out Nagato which sits at 65k) Add a repair party that repairs 60% pen damage (normal British repairs) and gun angles that don't necessitate you ever giving too much broadside to a target and you can basically be one of the hardest to kill T7s in the game, if not the hardest at range. Lastly, speed-wise, Scharnhorst does 30 knots, which is great, Hood does 32 knots, which is the joint best with Gneisenau. Hood has slower acceleration than Gneisenau, but once it gets going, it handles decently well, with just your standard large turning circle for large ship.but just for turning in and out and wiggling a bit at range, there's no real issues. Personally, for novel experience, Scharnhorst is likely better, though if you aren't into small guns, Hood is solid too. It's basically the T7 equivalent of Kongo. Gneisenau has better secondaries, main guns that can overmatch and 2 knots better speed. Scharnhorst has the better knockout punch into flat broadside, but I'd say tier for tier, for brawling the crown goes to IFHE Gneisenau.

Harugumo is a cruiser only in dpm. and maybe speed. She is not a cruiser in consumable loadout or survivability really. Graf Spee also has battleship guns, but you wouldn't call it a battleship, even if it arguably at least has repair party and a larger hp pool than most T6 cruisers. Similarly, Harugumo is a long ways away from Worcester or Minotaur.

Repair party? hp pool?

The reload booster kind of gives them some dpm spike, which might allow the necessary kick. I preferred other lines that felt more impactful. Overall though, the cruisers are solid, just don't forget you have AP. Also, for the ship girls, Kagerou isn't Ayanami, but decent torp girl and gives torp buff to frontline.

Yes. Yes and yes. If you didn't get bored before T7, you'd likely not get bored afterwards. Personally I found the MN cruisers not very interesting and dropped them at T8, after grinding that far for Operation Cherry Blossom (before I learned I can do the op with Chapayev).

But giving up concealment?

Look, Harugumo is ridiculous with 5x2 10 cm gun turrets, having insane dpm. So clearly, Hakuryuu with 12x2 must be outright bonkers. How can you not see the potential?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap

Had a match today with @_Teob_ on the enemy team. He did his best trying to delay our push, but kind of was overwhelmed. Still kept us occupied for a good bit. Hope to maybe one day see you also on my team. Also had @MrBogi and some division mates on the team. Not that he seems to be on the forums, but I saw them on Discord at times and they do have a YT channel. So, just going to give a shoutout here regardless (also greeted them ingame).

Once upon a time, it had better HE pen. Then IFHE came around.

Looks like a heavy broadside. also, 50 mm pen with IFHE.

What gun caliber is this?

Yeah, but only consistent on hard to crack targets. Still, in randoms you shouldn't play Hinden as a HE-focused ship. It is helpful burning down a Yamato or a Kufürst in your Hindenburg, but given how long it takes, it is often a way better idea getting where you can use AP for better impact. And Hindenburg AP dpm is pretty much top notch.

Last I checked, 4-5k HE damage on a Yamato was still less than 17-20k AP damage into its upper belt. The only reason to not shoot AP is when you cannot shoot AP. Yes, the HE damage is more than none if you shoot ships with good deck, but for example against British or French, the HE damage output basically is on levels of Moskva, below Zao and everyone else except Henri (which also can pen 50 mm deck with IFHE and has actually decent fire chance). So, even when you get HE spammed by a Hindenburg in your Yamato or Kurfürst, it hurts, but it's nowhere near what a Republique or Conqueror have to endure against real HE spammers. This is why I don't see them as all day HE spammers. Because you basically throw out all your dpm and dpm is one of the reasons to play Hindenburg over other cruisers. If you cannot use AP, try to find a situation where you can use it.

I know, but you could get all that in without two consumables and single ammo choice. Also, German cruisers rely less on turtleback and more on armour angling. That turtleback is all but foolproof and you're in a world of hurt if you count on it. Similarly, spamming HE all day still doesn't get you damage, because while, yes, you can pen 50 mm deck, the alpha and fire chance are still in the dumps. HE works better now, but you still use HE basically when you used it before: When you cannot use AP.

Soviet cruisers are by all means conventional sans radar, yet you see a lot of them. German cruisers have some special ammo mechanics and a longer range hydro, but by most means play conventional and are plenty. The issue with the French line to me always was not that they lacked some quirky consumable, but they lacked impact. To be fair, reload booster might give them some impact. I like this game. Still there are many things I find questionable about it. And I like Leander, still I think that overall, it would've worked with fewer special mechanics. Perth pretty much shows, you don't need AP only and a repair party to do the job. A ship like Perth with normal smoke (which isn't really a disadvantage, given Leander's smoke is way easier to handle than Perth's) would work for the purpose it was designed too. Just back in the day, I guess they were still concerned about what kind of HE spam this would generate, not that it is an issue for WG now.

No. I don't know what kind of T9s you are playing, but most are basically better than T8 and not as good as T10. Kinda what you'd expect. Those that stand out mostly stand out because tier for tier they are weaker. e.g. Izumo, FdG, Ibuki... but even with those, the T9 has no issues beating up the T8. But for many, it's a straight upgrade. DDs all get better at T9, battleships gain slightly, cruisers get their repair party, which is big.