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OP, can not agree more, it is as strange as on high tiers. I would say that it should be impossible for a BB to have better CE than a cruiser at least if both have CE +on higher tiers module. I can tolerate that a BB have better on higher tiers if they have both CE and module vs nothing. I play a lot of cruisers and the CE module is mandatory. I think it is said to have a fine skill tree but you have no choice for alternative build when you are in a cruiser. As a BB you can make the choice not to take CE,as the Maps in lower tiers are so small that you will be watched anyway. As a cruiser player the survivability is poor - yes git gud and all that, but you must be able to do something. Playing as a cruiser is harder the higher up you get in the tiers. Despite that I like it and will continue. But with MegaZao? Is it only we really hardcore cruiser players that will continue, who plays them regardless of odds?

Excellent post Namolis and really something to think about

True with a OK prize, you could f.e. have a few standard schemes on T3/4/5 ship. Dazzle paint f.e. that was common i WW1 I would like to put on some ships.

Met Creamgravy in his KGV on New Dawn, domination, he parked and controlled the B area and he ended first in a solid win. Played myself Iron Duke and ended midtable (5th) which is OK in a T5 in a T7 fight. At least this map is bearable w Iron Dukes speed. Had to be careful against the Gneisenau on enemy team, so I had to play a little cautious, while I took care of an enemy Algerie which was illusive. In the end clear win but that was because we grabbed two of the three caps and defended. In the end all but one of the enemy team was sunk after quite even standing shipwise for a while. Rather solid team, but I was a little disappointed of some of my teammembers rather evasive manouvers when they could have been closer. but I do not whine after a victory.

I am soon reaching my 10 pt captain in Iron Duke, and have goals to at least have 10 pt in Orion too. For the higher tiers CE is the 4th skill but in the lower tiers and smaller maps I deem it a waste. I have so far PM EM SI, I know that it may have been wiser to take Expert loader as 1 skill, but I simply fire what I have, just aiming higher if I have AP and swith to HE normally if I deem it necessary. Now as a collector I do not move captains, I have several premiums and already captains of at least 10 p for the rest of the RN ships, grinded through my premiums and missions (Jack Dunkirk). Now I am in the case of Iron Duke, which I have played 22 games so far, both seeing the value for AFT as the sec arnament is rather good and FP. If you have 4,7 km as base it willl reach out to 5,5-5,6 and that is against at least many lower tier DDs a quite good range when in kiting position.I see also the value of Fire prevention, but it is a rather expensive skill, naturally I play with premium repair/dcp so I often use heals when set on fire instead of DCP. The RN ships now are plentiful and it might be easier further ahead when many have grinded through the ships and therefor the HE spam = fires might ease, so I try to speculate not only what is best now but in the future. Orion might be more tempted there with FP as the sec battery are worse and she is as all T4s less fire resistant. Have anyone tried with different builds with a higher specced captain, How are your thoughts. Finally again - I do not move captains I train 1 per ship, so that part which you might use in your training and choosing skills from is out of the thought process.

Problem with Iron Duke is that she is slow, but she is perfectly fine, has also a fine top game 111 K, Granted her speed does not help you go over the map to the other side, I have lost some games due to the fact that the other side have been overwhelmed and I have not have time to move to other side after my half was won, but I am thinking she is capable, every ship can not be fantastic, T3 and 4 seems even more capable vs tier, but admittely you face each other a lot so the meta might change, but why play a Kawachi or South Carolina when you have Bellerophon, König Albert on the way to be withdrawn..... in with Bellerophon with greater range... It will be interesting to see if they need nerfs after a month or so play when the situation have been stabilized. It is not only question vs other BBs as a cruiser player in lower tiers you feel more and more the powercreep of the BBs, the range advantage was f.e. not that huge before.

The P2w vs P4A or P4C (convenience) is always interesting most pronounced in the form of premium ships but we can not forget that a game needs money in different forms. it is a thin line to balance a ship that feels acceptable overpowered statwise. It is as other posts already stated difficult in many cases to measure ships that are slightly better statwise like Alabama f.e.. Then you should measure games after the ships have been equipped and have same captain level. Skill level for the player are very important, I can see that in nearly all silver ships I play. But I will not argue against the Belfast , Grem etc. But it is also other things. You pay (or play if you are good enough) for flags which gives advantages, you pay with silver (or gold) for premium consumables, and you pay for premium time which makes you afford the premium consumables. I wonder what the difference would be in Avg WR between North Carolina with nothing, basic level of consumables and the optimum flag combination and prem consumables, over say 100 games with 10 different players. Which are given same level of captain. As Alabama have better income it automatically covers more premium consumables etc. The discussion is endless and the playerbase will never reach a conclusion.

Well the game can crash , but it is very rare , I think I have it 1 in say 800 games or so, most of the times I may restart but if it is critical one may often be sunk. It is less worse if you have trouble in the start as 2 min you survive.

One thing also is that you want random matches i.e. different players and ships if it were to skillbased divided into small groups ships etc it would mean meeting same players and their favourite ships more often and this will probably for the general player sooner lead to boredom. I can not quantify it but it is a thought. Also the MM should be logical- If you have the shipbased MM and random among players the general player when he sees the lineup understands better (this is important). If you have various programs and say you have matches /team based on some equivalent to ELO rating in various ships - it maybe can be understood by the extremely nerdish player but it will be too complex for most players. Consider my example in my earlier post with an OMNI division how can the players understand easily when they see the lineup how thse unicum division should be balanced, you must program it but there are too many variables and who will determine the correct ones. The MM of today may have its flaws , I am with the posts that they need to balance radars and such stuff if possible but you should not overcomplicate things. It is not chess where you have one game or golf with the handicap systems. You are driving one of say 200 different ships and your performance differs among them, you have even different maps modes etc. which suits different playstyles and ships and these gamemodes /maps are random. I like cruisers , all know that certain maps are illsuited for them like Tears of the cruisers in a certain gamemode. So while I may agree that there are issues I do not see it viable to implement, simply too many variables and difficult to comprehend. It is a niche game and we must have numbers , a small number of dedicated players can not support a game, even if the playing experience would be better for that small number of players.

Problem is also not only the stratas, above and below certain WR but on what grounds WR should serve and what is most important, WR overall - the majority distribution wise hovers around 50% +/5%. It is very few that have over 60%, a few percent. What should you measure? WR overall /tier /ship _ how much influence should lower tier games take vs high, division, solo play, categories etc it is almost infinite and I fear that it makes things rather complicated and given it is 20 minutes games at max and limited playerbase not so sure what to gain in random (which by definition gives random teams). How would you balance a unicum division to take extremes Flamu and 2 other OMNI players. Well as there are no other unicum divisions on line lets give them three low performing noobs with 10000 dmg average in Tirpitz. How to balance a unicum CVplayer? Also many have quite few games, for players like me with 13000 games that has grinded through all non CV lines except RN BBs to T10 I have a decent sample for most ships but how many hav e that , how much should performance in the lines which I grinded first count know etc? I think that the way to go is keeping Random "random" matching ships/tiers as now if possible with +1/-1MM on in peak hours but evolve other tournaments, clan wars etc various ranked etc and spend energy there. I think balancing new ships/lines etc is the thing in random. I respect your view but I think that developing other game modes than random is needed for those players who can not stand the random MM.

You simply add Borodino class 12x14 28 kts, in WW1 there were several designs with 16 inch (406 mm guns) large ships that would be suitable, Sovetsky Soyus and variants yes, Kronstadt certainly possible but maybe at T7.9x305 mm (as the original) are not that strong.

Well the eliteXP training (which you could have dreamt of after seeing this) are not affected but the new recruiting training credits or doubloons (cost 12 instead of 25) for a new captain have the offer working

For the cruisers the early Zara proposals with thicker armour say 200 mm belt could be used in T9/10

Naturally , I have done them, and I played with T6 cruisers. LaGal=La Galissonaire, De Grasse the French prem is even better. RPM and good fire chance.

Lagal or cleveland you miss Budyonny in your collection T5 ships are worse why play with them and lower your teams chances

No different when the German BBs were released, It could be 12 nassau vs 12

T10 Yamma, Zao, HenriIV, Minotaur, Hindenburg, Gearing T9 Yugumo T8 Kagero, Bismarck T7 Algerie, Akatsuki T6 Fubuki,Hatsuharu, LaGalissonnaire With Gold + a few more from missions

Yes fine looking at least

Yamato I bought very early. After that I decided that as my results in ships like Roon and the French cruisers were decent and I liked Fletcher I bought for the T10 cruisers except Moskva (clumsy) and Gearing. So 5 Permacamos after summer sales. I have a few on lower tier ships f.e. several IJN DDs when I took advantage from the split. Algerie and La Galissonaire also. So I have chosen camos mostly on ships that I enjoy playing or as in the French cruisers cases as they are mediocre but decent enough to warrant further play, this was before DeGrasse. Then I thought if I wste victory camos in the grind flags etc the perma camos was not so expensive, I play a lot of midtier ships. The IJN DDs I like the most, but I must admit that now after stealth removal and other changes I have started to enjoy German DDs a lot T8-9. But I do not need perma camos on everything, I have so many premiums so itis also a XP thing more than money also. I seldom move captains so it is great to have perma camos on the T10 ships I play most. You can not have too many Zulu Hotels and Dragon Flags and those perma camos are a way of economizing, have only 2 19 p captains yet.

Answered just before you posted

Thx for the advice but I am one of those cruiser fanatics, have the perma on Zao, Hindenburg, Minotaur and Henri IV + Yamato and Gearing. GK, Montana, Moskva, Shima, Grozo, Z52, Khaba will have to make do without sofar. I might buy more if a new summer sales with doubloon refund at 100% will show up. I have a vast number of restless fire to use also so I use them a lot. It is a calculation on how many games you play in the ships also. It is after all some investment doubloonwise. I bought Kaga and Leningrad instead for most of my remaining doubloons during last weekends sale together with 10 new portslots. I can not get the T10 Battleships to work really so I fear it is wasted. I want to play those ships without more before I decide at least if you pay full doubloon value, (cheaper indirectly is what I want the perma camos have never been on sale, little strange I might add).

Check before game which DDs are on enemy team and learn their detection range with CE, and their torps (they might not have CE or maybe stock torps so you can learn that too if you are numbers freak) but as a worst case scenario, Then you know which enemys you must be extra afraid of. Also set your minimap for last known location. And be aware if DDs show up there. They might be unspotted but say your own CV flies over them you can judge how soon they might be a threat or their likely heading. I must say that this thing I added myself far too late in my gaming career, it is of great help. Also when the games goes longer and you might hunting unseen (Battle)ships this is very useful. The other side around if you are DD. Learn enemy radar ships (f.e. New Orleans , baltimore DM, Chapayev, Belfast etc there are more and their range ,ships that have hydro (German BBs and cruisers can you at least count on+ several others, Be aware that enemy spotters from ships and CVs may spot your torps so if it is dangerous for you to be known and the game does not need a strike immediately it can make you hold your fire a little. With long torp reloads on some ships this is important. Might be targets elsewhere. Try to follow the advice above from earlier posts. Also accept that in a Battleship if worse comes to worst it it is sometimes worth to take a torp if the alternative might be to show broadside to a Yamato and Montana, it is a sort of damage minimization sometimes. When you are experienced you seldom get completrly devstriked in a Battleship at higher tiers and do not expect to get any either, 1-2 hits is good. At lower tiers there are solo DDs that rush you and they can be tricky to avoid as you are so slow with long reload and slow turrets.

Every hit you make fire sinking ships etc detailed in the result screen after match , you can choose settings so you follow them during match also when they stack up 500 is easy dakka dakka ship

voted 5 for the game, the fine ship models and now the tech tree is taking place, but that is because I am a warship enthusiast and therefor overlook the failures/bad things in gameplay and so on. It is difficult to balance also when now a large number of players are veterans and it takes a lot of play to learn, that is nothing unique to these kind of games. I think many premiums are too expensive but somewhere the money have to come from with over 1000 EUR spent and 13000 games played I am pleased with value for money on a time/cost basis. It is the same budget as footboll matches concerts pub etc. True it is pixels, but as I have to throw away/sell things if I want more tangible goods the value in pixels are no downside. My flat is full.

Yes Neptune, Minotaur, Algerie, Martel, Saint Louis, Henri IV, Maass, Z23, Z46, Fletcher, Gearing, Udoloi, Grozovoi, Roon, Hindenburg, Montana, GK, Moskva, Zao =384 million, today probably z52. Some of them with 50% of the upgrades, when the sale for 50% was on late July I equipped 9 ships with 50%. Each T9/10 is around 20-26 Mkr depending on upgrades, some of these T8-9 may include Bhulls etc that I freexped. Being a Nerd I started to write the new ships and prizes from late april and my silver account along with freexp and cpt freexp progression. Before Roon was bought on 29th of April I had 171 Million and now today before Z52 around 32 Million. I will grind the rest of z46 and buy a few premiums and z52 and equip them today. I thought I was rich before this last months but many of my lines reached the upper tiers almost at the same time and while the credits go up the high tiers ships cost (not running cost that is prem account etc) is nothing to sneeze at. After I bought these ships I am in line with the new ship lines and will have no problem in the future. I grabbed a 5u prem camos with indiretlyy 50% cost (2500 doubloons practically instead of 5000) by buying duplicate ships in the summer sales. My goal is to have 50% of my T10s with Prem camos, that should suffice. Will buy a few port slots as well for the RN and Panasian lines 150 Gold is good. And I never sell ships as a collector so it is a drainage on funds naturally. Even bought back my only sold ship the Eire recently!