HaachamaShipping

Didn't say that. But whatever view you have on this, it just isn't true that a non-overmatch main battery like this makes you more potent at short range. You just are not. Same as Odin. Odin can beat BBs in brawls, thanks to torps, but against cruisers, it just is crap compared to other BBs, because it just has the poorest effective damage output and most cruisers have torps too.

As people can already listen to captain voices, the data is already in the 0.9.6 client. Naturally, it would then also be in the 0.9.7 one. And datamining the client data would bring it up. But nothing says it's only coming out with 0.9.7.

It may look scary until you think for a few seconds and realise that a Yorck, Mainz, Albemarle, Atago or any other cruiser with 25 mm plating and good torp angles not just can kite your ship to death, even at close range it will crap on your ship harder than on other T8 BBs.

30 mm was only extented for DesMo and would bounce also 406s. What changed is that way more ships from T8 and T9 get 27 mm plating. Literally the most terrible way to play the ship. Get a Lenin and you are better off. Richelieu has crap HE resistance, can easily be angled against, has a mediocre hp pool, has good speed with speed boost, good range and pen and ok citadel protection. Effectively, Richelieu plays the same way it should play in the past, as a ship that can get into crossfire positions fast and thus overcome overmatch issues when ships angle against others and can't angle fast enough when you open up with your high shell velocity. Similarly, Richelieu, while not outright deleting ships reliably, can take opportunistic shots at range. Hug an island and you are basically predictable, easy to hit and farm and angle against. Mobile playstyle allows you to better react to threats, but also to actually try to do something proactively and being proactive is the only way this ship gets the job done, it's what it has its speed for and its armour that punishes staying around too long, but is forgiving regarding cits and thus allows easier turning and exit, which something like an NC, Vladi or Monarch would be unable to do.

Just cut off another 10k hp.

One thing I forgot: I do recommend spotter plane mod. Yes, you might lose your main gun more often at times and torp tubes might die, but the spotter plane is of such insane value.

Flolo did it, so one can watch that. Save yourself 3 million and the pain to play this meme.

It's useful on ships where you get more out of it than AA. Like gunboat DDs. But otherwise, no.

Up to T7, both lines are pretty decent, T8-9 the Akizuki and Kitakaze are incredibly strong, Kagero and Yuugumo are ok. T10 Shimakaze continues the okish performance of the tiers before, while Harugumo is basically a light cruiser.

GZ too...

CV player complaining about DDs being fun police that slow games down. Now that was a good joke.

Actually you can't, as "being in the circle" is based on centre of the ship, not whether some part just sticks into it. Given vision works similar though, pretty sure you can put a good part of your ship out behind an island and not get spotted though, even when your secs start opening up.

Most cruisers have 25 mm bow and stern, a few get 27 mm. None get 30 mm. 30 mm is midsection only. Even Russian cruisers at T10 only get half their bow in 50 mm, rest is 25 mm and if a bow-in stationary Moskva thinks it has to tank your shells, you can actually try aim for upper bow and get surprise cits, thanks to American ballistics.

T4 planes are perfectly serviceable vs T8. Especially when you get insane amounts of them.

Yamato at 20 km has too much belt for most shells to go through. Far too long an engagement range. HE has ok fire chance, but not worth it unless your life depends on killing that one angled target you cannot overmatch. You can citadel broadsiding cruisers at any range, not just 6 km. You also can overmatch bow and stern of T10 cruisers and most of any T9 cruiser. In general, Iowa and Montana would play best punishing anything that broadsides at mid range, where people don't have all the time to react, yet the concealment might help allow for surprise. But even if you don't get surprise shots, enough idiots are around and if not, then go to a position where the enemy has to broadside either you or some other BB.

I played Devonshire and London when they came out and then dropped the grind, cause I found more interesting things. Only recently picked the line up again (Azur Lane getting Drake might have something to do with that ). But I found some solid, albeit rather actionless cruisers. I felt like writing something about them for a while now, but held off, so might as well do it here when asked. British CAs are as a line are not bad. Some ships are kind of questionable, but overall, the line cannot be called weak. The main issue with the line is that it seems a rather boring playstyle and it also is a bit off-meta at times (just like British CLs and BBs are not really the most meta ships, yet can be very strong). Their gimmick is the main issue of why they kind of are boring - they get repair party. Repair party is one of the best consumables a ship can have. On a heavy cruiser though, it very much restricts what else the cruiser still gets. With the British, I have to say, WG released a balanced line, that very much manages to have such a powerful consumable without trashing the meta (looking at you, French DDs that needed nerfs). Aside from the consumable, British CAs generally have several characteristics: low detection. Most stay at 9-11 km. low range. This is a real drawback and means you can't just long range HE spam. A spotter plane. T10 doesn't get it, but instead gets some base range increase. Spotter plane still helps out with the range woes temporarily. low speed. Most are pretty damn slow, with Surrey being at 30 knots the third slowest cruiser in the entire T5-9 bracket (only beaten by Krasny Krim's 29 knots and (HSF) Graf Spee's 28 knots). Good turret traverse. Might seem minor, but it really is just a very great QoL feature on a line that at times seems almost purposefully painful. And anyone with a bit of experience in cruisers will now tell you that this can end very badly. No range, no speed, average armour and damage means that if you mess up your position, you are stuck next to some enemy BB and get deleted, no chance to run away. You kill something, stuck on your flank, spend 5 minutes repositioning, being absolutely useless. These are all issues these ships struggle with and which you have to get used to if you want to do well in this line. Sadly, as BBs are popular as always, matches with lots of them continue to exist. Because British cruisers (including lights, tbh) thrive not in BB heavy meta, but in cruiser meta. Where your armour holds up and your repair gives sustain, while concealment allows you to ambush people. And before you think "Hey, anti-cruiser cruiser should do well in CB", no. Not with CVs, not with ranged meta. These ships are too inflexible. The only time I can see these ships legit being a valid choice might be T7 or T9. But hey, I'm not an expert and maybe they still fall flat. And we don't get CB with those tiers. As to individual ships: Hawkins: Entry to the line. First victim of her own strengths. Great armour, heal. Obviously utterly trash when it comes to dealing significant damage, because otherwise it'd be OP. But this thing has insane armour. But who wants to just tank damage and not kill crap? In the end, they just outtrade you anyway... Devonshire: Absolutely solid. Average in most areas and gets a repair party. Does T6 cruiser things and even if BB might oneshot you, it also does that to other T6s. But if you fight cruisers or DDs, as said before, repair gives great sustain. Also, note that as the line is a CA line, you now get 203s, which overmatch the RN CLs, T5 cruisers and Atlanta/Flint. AP also is not special, but 203 mm is 203 mm. If someone insists in broadsiding, you can punish it. Surrey: This ship to me is where the line seems to get mature enough for its gimmick, where the cost for the repair party is no longer punishing. Surrey is a typical T7 cruiser except for two drawbacks: aforementioned speed and a low range. But if you aren't trying to race around or get farmed by a cruiser from beyond your range (which requires spotting your very stealthy ship though), Surrey can very much do a number on other cruiser. For stuff like T7 ranked or CB, I could see this ship played just because it gets repair and so many meta T7s get overmatched by 203s. Surrey also is a legit threat to T8 cruisers if you don't get shot out of the water by a BB. Albemarle: Now, this is Hawkins 2.0 almost. With superheal at T8, you obviously gotta pay in some way. And your citadel is that way. It's huge, a Neptune hull with Neptune cit. The armour against most BBs is crap. Sometimes 15 inch (380/381 mm) guns bounce off, but if they go through bow/stern, they likely are cit pens. This ship can be fragile to the point that you wonder how this is in any way a good ship. Then you get into one situation against ships that cannot overmatch you and suddenly you might realise why this ship needs the drawbacks it has. If you face an Edinburgh, Edin only has half its guns forward and shoots AP only. You angle, shrug it off. Albemarle has 2/3 of its guns forward and shoots HE. 1v1, Albemarle can very much demolish other cruisers, as the ability to regen half your hp pool with one repair charge changes encounters. Overall though, most often you just remember the times you got trashed by BBs. Drake: Surrey 2.0. The citadel is better protected, the guns are more potent, Drake cannot be underestimated. Maybe it is because I got a good few games in Yoshino, so I learned how to use a heavy cruiser with mediocre mobility, giant citadel but meme level side armour and large, slow reload, high HE alpha guns. If you don't get caught out of position, but always appear on your terms, angled and ready to react to shell fire, Drake can amass incredibly potential damage, as the ship is just very well armoured and with repair is hard to kill. The belt armour is supercruiser level. This ship has more armour ontop of its citadel than some Stalingrad and comparable to some Venezia or Yoshino, with comparable spaced armour shenanigans to just be a giant middlefinger to whatever hits amidships. If it hits at steep angle, auto-ricochet, if it hits at an angle where it might ricochet, it needs two checks on two plates to actually do anything and aghainst cruisers, angled Drake side plating is often too thick anyway at any appreciable distance. But as most think you are free citadel (admittedly you are to BBs if you broadside), expect to be shot at extensively and enjoy the all new and improved (?) ricochet sounds we got since last patch. 234 mm guns also are a notable step up from 203s. These guns pen 59 mm of armour, they pen anything but belt of most cruisers and Kremlin/Soyuz deck. Other than that, everything is a valid target and you get 28% fire chance with full fire build to help with your poor dpm. Just for context, you basically have similar fire setting as a Yoshino, the best HE supercruiser in the game, just that you get cruiser dispersion and less range. 234 mm AP is pretty poor for what it is (WWI gun does WWI performance), but it's 234 mm, it overmatches superlight cruisers still and gets an epic (lol) 5° of improved ricochet angle. Load when you catch Neptune, Smolensk or other such ships. They'll appreciate getting absolutely crapped on from any angle. Sadly, Drake has much poorer torp angles though, so no more kiting torps. Goliath: Don't have, but should be ok. Exeter: Furutaka with no armour, but concealment and heal. Solid. London: If you got it for free, cool. If not, don't bother. London is just as bad as it gets for British CAs in terms of getting balanced for consumables. You know how I said they got to be mediocre for having repair? Now imagine a ship balanced for having repair and smoke. London, when you use the consumables to its max is solid. But it just feels so underwhelming. Cheshire: The real kicker when going up to Drake was the armour, not so much the guns. Getting crap dpm on this crap hull basically is just terrible. Just no. Finishing, this line is good performance-wise. It is very questionable fun-wise. I'm going to straight up admit, I overall found the line ok and Drake is very fun (would play more if I could get my connection sorted to not derp out and find myself half dead). But like ships like Yoshino/Azuma or the French CA line before they added MBRB, these ships are absolutely great at giving you achievements like Arsonist or Witherer (and Dreadnought, which the French were less likely to give), but I'd argue that you shouldn't expect to do insane carries. Drake and Goliath can do some nice work, as killing other high tier cruisers has impact, but the speed at which you kill things typically is just beaten by the speed with which your allies die these days. Maybe I should just play in div.

Should cover the game till it dies. "Here, players, is new French cruiser. It is a great long range kiter like rest of line with gimmick consumable x" "Huh, never saw that design. What is it based on?" "We found a sketch of a wine cooler in the French archives. If you look very closely, we hid it onboard as an easter egg."

Reminder that Hindenburg is made up design based on nothing but the design of a triple turret. Roon too. You can design a lot if you are this liberal in your approach.

Yeah, Hindenburg is far less tanky than it used to be. Its 30 mm plating gets overmatched much more and the turtleback is your typical German cruiser. In practice, you'll eat cits, just less consistently than any other T10 cruiser except Puerto Rico (others might eat less if they find themselves at ranges where thicker plating just outright denies cits, but yeah). It'll let you survive more bad positions than some other cruisers, but not for long, as you still eat a ton of pen damage you cannot just sustain. Obviously in a turn, you might just screw yourself by negating it through listing, so don't trust the turtleback to let you turn without getting deleted. For brawls, Hindenburg is mediocre and like with many things is best when it keeps in mind what enemy weaknesses are. Hindenmburg CAN brawl, but has several restrictions that need to be overcome, most of all the closing of the gap. As the ship isn't fast, not very small, HE penned everywhere, if you aren't confronted with tons of dpm, you can go brawl people who don't kite you to death, but if not, mind your distance. Hindenburg is jack of all trades, master of none, it's fundamentally a long to mid range cruiser that goes close when it hurts the enemy more than it hurts itself. But most of the time, you just dpm stuff down from a range where you can dodge.

GZ is good ship in absolute terms by virtue of being a CV that has at least the basics down. Comparatively, it is a very underwhelming ship, as most T8 CVs just do a better job than GZ. But for randoms, when most CV players are questionable, GZ still works (as does Implacable, though GZ often seems more fun, because fast planes). Also, GZ really needs skills in plane conservation to shine, as the ship cannot sustain losses in planes. The attack aircraft and torp bombers otherwise are pretty solid though, torp bombers having good cycle rate and decent enough damage, while rocket planes may be slow, but as a result are also incredibly maneuverable, making it easier to hunt DDs. Also, for GZ-related inquiries, I think the main person to mention would be @Sunleader.

Yes. Rarely and certainly not GZ. Expect this ship to stay a bag of underwhelming mediocrity. Frankly, learn to not spend money on high tier ships that you do not understand even the most basic core gameplay of. I mean, what kind of thought process went on that you had no idea of how to dodge flak, so you go buy a T8 CV so you can go and fight the ships that have the best AA defenses in the game? Do you just hate your money? As for tutorials, dunno. Very small CV community though. Indomitable is on a tier of its own. GZ shares its place with Implacable. But both Implac and GZ at least never run into the fundamental problem of having absolutely nothing that can do big damage numbers to a ship in question, unless they wasted that particular plane type on something else. Indom has this issue as soon as it runs into cruisers with more than 32 mm of deck plating. Moskva/Petro/Nevsky with 50 mm? GZ at least can torpedo them, Indomitable can try farm fires on cruisers. Goliath with 40 mm? GZ can use rockets and torps, Indom has to farm fires on a ship with superheal. And while the GZ bombs are pretty trash, even they look more usable for these targets (pretty large cruisers with correspondingly large cit) than the Indomitable bombers.

Honestly, T7 CAs seemed pretty solid in the past and due to IFHE changes are naturally even better now. Also, if you measure tankiness on Algerie, yeah, it's like the second most fragile T7 heavy cruiser (after Indy), but Myoko with is decent hp pool and 32 mm deck, Zara with much of its side being 30-150 mm and Surrey that can at least repair back damage if it doesn't get citpenned are pretty ok. Yorck and New Orleans are manageable. MM is not very nice, but even then, T7s perform ok, as T8s won't hold up well against the masses of 406-460 mm guns at T9 either. And sometimes you get to fight T5s. Also, as Odin event nears conclusion, having a T8 BB that cannot overmatch 25 mm flood the pool is going to make for some interesting weeks for any T7+ CA.

Can we get these defAA buffs on Ognevoi/Udaloi/Grozovoi too please?

If I wanted to play Shchors these days, I'd just play Chapa though, given T7 MM and Chapa just being more useful. Not to mention I got Lazo. Personally, I also don't like how Shchors plays though and to me it is the most boring T7 cruiser likely.

If so, then on Loewenhardt. Yes, it'd be Pay2Stuka.