HaachamaShipping

Yes, they are, especially retrofit ships like Leander. Once more, quality of a good waifu.

Unless you punch above your weight, no. So far, most bosses weren't much of a match, but with my Leander powergrind I doubt I'm representative.

Ok, bought Helena. Don't need to exchange for enterprise as i already got one. But now I can put Helena with Cleve and Phoenix instead of Juneau.

I'm sadly still at Portland missions. Also, is Helena worth 30 medals?

Dunno, but the US T1 and T2 BBs were pretty quick and pleasent grinds. T3 took a bit, but SC was okish and got buffed, T4 wyoming is a hilarious shotgun. T5 is kinda meh.

Just wait for T10 RU SS with nuclear torps.

At the very least, there are worse threads on these boards.

USN AP bombs do not citadel Kurfürst. Yes, they pen the upper deck, but not the citadel deck. HE bombers would do similar damage AND set fires. Torpedoes are a threat to all BBs, so situational awareness is key. If you wait till the torps show up, all T10 BBs basically eat most if not all the torps. Kurfürst at least has the hydro as an additional layer of defense. And while it may have the worst torp protection, the sheer amount of hp guarantees that full health Kurfürst needs exactly as many torps on the broadside to die as Montana and Republique, 7. Only Yamato needs more and only Conqueror dies with fewer. The superstructure is large, but so is pretty much all BB superstructure. It's easy to hit, but it's beyond the point of where it's really an issue, because other BBs aren't hard to hit either. But at some point superstructure gets saturated and then damage on Kurfürst drops, while for example on Republique or Conkek, people don't even bother sniping the superstructure, as they can pen you anywhere regardless. And while 2 centre sections are huge, they still are only 2 fires, or one with FP. And from the point on how easy it is to put a BB on fire in two superstructure spots, Kurfürst also isn't harder to put on fire. Rather, the large superstructure means that only those who actually adjust aim to start a second fire get a second fire, because otherwise all the shells just keep landing on the section already on fire, while on smaller BBs stray shots can put multiple sections on fire much more readily. And if you are up against someone who knows how to target multiple sections, well, setting two fires on the superstructure is easy (unless FP) and setting the other two on Kurfürst typically means shooting at parts where you get a good few shatters, while on Republique or Conqueror you get full damage still. Long range HE spam can be an issue to any BB. Those with 50 mm deck armour got the best protection though and frankly, apart from Conqueror, T10 BB HE isn't exactly the great HE threat. Not compared to T10 BB AP and T10 CL/CA HE. German 15 cm secondaries have 1/4 pen. They pen other ships without issue. German 12.8 cm secondaries have 1/4 pen. German 10.5 cm secondaries have 1/6 pen (reason why FdG is trash with no pen and no fire chance, vs Alsace which at least has fire chance. Only thing FdG has is its armour). The 12.8 cm of which Kurfürst has plenty (10 per side) can pen 31 mm stock, so they need IFHE to kill BBs. Without IFHE, they "only" crap on anything not a BB or Moskva/Stalingrad, given Hindenburg, Zao, Des Moines, Worcester, Henri all at most have 30 mm apart from the belt. Hindenburg can try rush a Montana or Conqueror and win, due to tanking their main battery and then torping or out-dpming them with HE/AP, Kurfürst meanwhile just Ctrl+LMB on that Hindenburg, turns away and watches it die. Even without secondary build though, the secondaries would open up at over 7 km, hurting any Hindenburg trying to torp. With secondary build, you sacrifice some survivability for basically getting an 11.6 km aura of cruiser death. With IFHE you even straight up melt Conqueror/Republique. And nothing prevents you from speccing into survivability instead and only getting better base secondaries than any other similarly specced T10 BB. Worcester has 25 mm side armour. That's Mogami levels of crap. What helps Worcester is the 30 mm deck. Kurfürst at range is not utterly terrible, just not in its element, imo. It still fires 12 shells every 25.5 seconds (with smaller caliber and reload mod) and waits for its opportunity. If you don't yolo into half the enemy fleet, you can actually get a lot done by picking your battles carefully, but that's true since T7 Gneisenau, which basically starts the real brawling strength (Bayern imo lacks the turret traverse and is better at mid-range). Most cruisers don't have their citadel pennable from the front and HE Conqueror is like the most retarded thing vs cruisers. If you try to win a fight at range against a Hindenburg, Zao, Des Moines, they all can just kite and gun you down and if you do it at close range, the HE lacks the stopping power. It's because there are people who think that Conkek HE is the ultimate ammo type, that it's the one BB I fear the least as a cruiser, although it should be feared with its good concealment. But most make no use of the concealment and short fuze AP and then fire some 8-10k salvo at my Hindenburg, just to get 2-3 salvos in return before they reloaded, which can deal from 4-5k of HE to 17-20k for AP (given if the Conqueror isn't at autobounce, that 32 mm plating doesn't hold off much). And as said, Kurfürst has secondaries that do the job (and have a theoretical dpm higher than a Harugumo, just not as accurate), while its main guns can be used for whatever. Des Moines will get mostly shatters and has only fire chance. And killing BBs with fire chance alone, given fires are percentage based, a Des Moines with only shatters would kill any other T10 BB just as fast. In practice, it kills most BBs faster, because Des Moines can deal raw damage to Republique and Conqueror reliably, can deal ok damage on the Montana and is only gimped by Kurfürst and Yamato. And these two ships can tank HE all day long, if they are smart around repair party and damecon. It's when you survive getting HE spammed by a Worcester from behind its island for most of the game and survive that you appreciate inpenetrable deck armour, because for one, thanks for the fireproof, second, that is one Worcester that wasn't using that dpm to shoot up ships that cannot tank it and lastly... it didn't even prevent me from doing my job, so it's basically a ton of damage with nothing to show for it, when I didn't die nor got hampered in my efficiency. Imo, Kurfürst isn't the greatest of T10 BBs, but it certainly is not the BB most hurt by the latest changes. Kurfürst fell out of meta when high tier BBs stopped being easily citable and Montana could bring its 12 guns to bear easier. And no DD can do that. At best Khaba can by dodging, but Harugumo in a straight up gunfight is toast, plain and simple. Only way Harugumo wins is by making it an unfair fight where it doesn't get wrecked by return fire and allies spot the target. Harugumo wouldn't even win in a straight up gunfight vs a T10 cruiser. Nor would I trust any of the preceeding DDs with being able to do that. The closest I came to gunning down larger ships in a DD without abuse of cover is Harekaze vs Dallas, Harekaze vs Atlanta and Harekaze vs Nagato, but in the last one that Nagato was a really bad shot and ate a torp that helped. In the other two cases... USN ballistics vs DD maneuverability at 9 km. But none of the tech tree ships have anywhere close to this maneuverability. I'd be cautious about that. Daring brings 302.4k unimproved AP dpm vs 240k unimproved HE dpm of Harugumo (given the ricochet angles on their respective AP, Harugumo is likely going to stick to HE, unless daring is retarded enough to give broadside. Daring will however always get to have pennable side of harugumo, as long as harugumo doesn't want to rely on only two gun turrets). Daring has less hp, but a repair party too and daring basically dictates whether the engagement happens or not. That's not a case of being "the only one that can try dueling Daring". You may hurt Daring as you die, but even then, with repair party, that's a trade Daring likely would happily take.

Fubuki has what? 3.8 or 4 km (has been a while, but either way pretty solid). 9 torps payload, way better reload. Also has the best launcher configuration apart from single-file spread, which requires skill to use effectively (but can get lulzy results). The standard narrow spready of 2x5 is nowhere as good as flexible 3x3.

Any class of surface combattant is an area denial class if properly used that way. DDs can deny areas by flooding it with torpedoes, delaying action and denying key positions by flanking it and sending in torps (one of the few things Shima is good for). Cruisers can radar and even ships without radar and only a lot of firepower can play that role by sitting in an easy to defend position and discouraging others to enter into its gun range. BBs basically are the most obvious area control tools, given they are hard to dislodge, easy to spot (and thus can make enemies turn tail), easy to murder other ships with. I mean, German BBs basically can be 11.3-11.6 km of area denial at high tiers. No ship can do the job solo though, because they just die if the enemy isn't utterly incompetent.

I mean, you can play Yamato that way, but you also can play Yamato pretty ok close up. It only is surpassed by Kurfürst in ability to soak up HE (though it actually can shatter some Hindenburg HE too on the 57 mm section) and unlike Kurfürst, the range and accuracy at range means that if needed, you can give support beyond the cap you sit at with relative ease. Republique meanwhile has the dpm advantage and speed, but is the least tanky of all BBs (except a broadside Yamato). I still feel like a properly played Yamato is a valuable and competitive asset, given that you do have highly effective guns and are hard to kill if you don't give easy access to your citadel. Even with 6 guns, the accuracy and overmatch make it not too hard to crap on cruisers a Montana or Kurfürst wouldn't be able to harm as much with 12. That is not to discount that a Yamato cannot effectively farm damage. I personally played Yamato, because I felt like it at once can be an effective BB, while also being able to rack up damage totals, if things go South and your DDs at the start of match suicide or your lineup is just a bunch of terrible picks. But a properly angled Yamato can hold positions where a Republique would need to bail. Only went back to Hindenburg, because cruisers have more influence, but for a BB, Yamato imo is solid enough as a statline (player being able to realise the potential is an issue with any ship). Republique can ignore the 30 mm CA plating too. Neither can ignore 50 mm of Russian bias though.

Last Stand means not having to use damage control on engine or rudder and you should have it ready for fires and floods. Also, if you flood in a DD, you got serious issues.

But 50 mm deck and secondaries that can kill cruisers. I just acquired Großer Kurfürst a few days ago and while the meta hurts, I feel like if I can keep myself from yoloing, it could be a valid pick for randoms to counter HE meta.

Played GK once in Ranked. Regretted it. The only thing it really brings to the table is being able to tank a lot of HE. But neither do you get rewards from it, nor is it alone in that. Yamato is the better pick for this. My HSF Graf Spee is ready. What's wrong with Yamato over Montana or Rep? It has accurate and hard hitting guns, it has that 50 mm to 57 mm deck that can tank a lot of HE shells and if you keep it properly angled, it can take a ton of punishment before going down. I don't see how it is any worse than the other two BBs. If Republique wasn't a thing, it would be a very good pick against the T10 cruisers with their 30 mm armour, but unlike Repu, it can also hit hard on BBs (like Repu and Conqueror). Also, I'm pretty sure Khaba would be a ship that should fall under damage farmers, while I'm not sure where you'd list Hindenburg. It lacks a radar, but it otherwise is not bad, can deal with Moskva/Stalingrad/BBs not named Republique or Conqueror and it does get German hydro, which can at least help somewhat.

Or you get Last Stand and don't need to waste a smoke.

Policies can change. The very idea we are getting T9 and 10 premiums is proof of that. As is submarines... I would not talk in absolutes.

Get off the juice? That thing is 19 mm all over. What troll armour? It has no armour. Gearing has better armour at 21 mm. This thing is bog standard armoured for a DD. Get your facts right.

The issue is, despite you accepting you messed up, you somehow think the thing is OP. That's like steaming broadside to a Graf Spee and then claiming it is OP for removing your cruiser from the match with a triple cit. Yet few if any call that ship OP, because when you don't make yourself an easy kill, it actually can struggle killing shps.

Icarus is the same gun armament. Kamikaze is IJN. In a straight up fight, half the ships at its own tier can kill it. And if you include circumstances, what's the point? Mutsuki can gun down all other ships, if the circumstances are right...

I prefer being tanky without just relying on a very large pile of hp, so I play the Hood. But really, Nelson has two ammo types for a reason.

This. Frankly, if cyclones mean we get less useless T10 players, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

What Acasta hydro? and no, it's not going to take on any T4-6 DD. On equal skill, you are throwing your ship away.

Fubuki still throws out 9 torps to Icarus' 10, with better range and damage. Fubuki with a 9 torp salvo is hardly less able to create a large wall of skill that devastates a ship, just she can do it more often. Fubuki and Shinonome also are faster than the Icarus (thanks to actually having a speed boost, while base speed is the same) and while the guns fire slow, Shinonome is very much capable of gunning down an Icarus, thanks to havng 50% more guns and way better ballistics. And aesthetics don't make up for bad ingame stats.

BB backline with good secondaries, frontline that either is tanky or evasive enough to ram the buggers it cannot kill. Also, in exercises it really goes both ways. What AA equipment do you run? I sadly cannot chime in on ship level, as I run lvl 70+ max LMB Leander that would wipe the floor solo, but AA equipment makes a large difference on whether those planes actually die or not. I'd recommend getting some good AA gun and, if you have one, air search radar on Sandy and watch the planes just die. Hangar +1. Dive/Torpedo bomber +1 indicates one more plane being launched in an air strike. And yes, Main Gun base +1.

Will try that then, though I must say, my interest in general is not really great. I like the Kancolle characters, but the game itself... about as enjoyable as Ranked. Thanks though.