Midway67

I fully agree, yet to be honest, when I play a totally different unique ship for the first time, in this game, I find that even more enjoyable. To me, that is then almost like discovering new land or territory, where you've never been before. And that can be totally thrilling! (or shocking, in some cases haha! Remember your first run on Derzki? Belfast?! Worcester!!!) Cloned, or "sister" ships if you will, are less of a surprise, unless indeed their gameplay differs strongly.

Garrus! I've seen you in game already several times (and read some of your engaging posts), already a while ago with you in a Stalingrad division (wow nasty, 2 of them working together, woohoo!). Speaking of Stalingrad, to which extent would you see her and Moskva also as, shall we say, "related" or "somewhat, distantly or less distanly related" ships? Cousins, maybe? (to think along the lines of our friend ColonelPete, above)...

How would you name these ships then? "Related"? "Similar ships"? "Stepsisters"? Or plainly, different breed altogether?

Thank you for your response, fumtu. Regarding Boise & Nueve, I stand corrected The others, good to know as well, I did not want to add comments to each of them as my original text was already quite long, but yes, absolutely correct! As for Wichita, I did not know this, thanks for the info! (scratch 2, we're back to "only" 69 pairs) :-) Ditto regarding Yahagi... delighted to learn about this, perhaps the start of a new IJN cruiser split, similar to what we've seen with the USN cruisers? Cool!! Rgds. Midway67

Yessir I certainly have realized that. And I can go along with this for a very large part. Yet my stance here is merely to indicate, "everything in moderation". In many cases, I can see good valid reasons to create a clone. Yet we are now at well over a hundred of these, how many more will follow? To me, the sheer numbers of these we have right now is just... overkill! That's all I am trying to state. And that is purely to my taste. Feel free to disagree :-)

Fully agree. It's different. It's refreshing. And it can certainly be a real rush!!! I will definitely be playing CV's more. All of them in port, and for sure will add Graf Zeppelin the very moment she becomes available again! 😁

Really? WG provides us well over 250 ships here and all you do is wail and howl about one new one being delayed? A totally free ship, on top of that? Come on man! Have you actually already mastered all those other hundreds of ships?! For my part, if no new ships are released in all of 2019 I will still have tons of fun sailing those many that are already available!!! Typical 2019 mindset. More, more, moooooore. Pffff.

Irian seems pretty close to Kutuzov (also Sverdlov-class) but then without smoke (and a hilarious alternative permanent camo), must be far less time-consuming to accomplish than an entirely new ship...

Just a simple observation, from a player who is fond of cruisers (amongst others). If I counted right, there are now 26 American cruisers in the game. Twenty-six!!! How many more do we really need?!! Erie, Chester, St. Louis, Phoenix, Omaha, Murmansk (Russian Omaha), Marblehead, Marblehead Lima, Charleston, Albany, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Dallas, Flint, Pensacola, New Orleans, Baltimore, Buffalo, Salem, Des Moines, Helena, Cleveland, Seattle, Boise, Worcester, Nueve de Julio (Argentinian Helena) ... 26 of them! (Or did I miss one?). That would make Alaska US cruiser number 27. And Wichita 28. Any other tree / sub-tree even marginally close to that number?!! None, by far..... Personally, I'd much rather see focus going towards the new Pan European tree than... yet another US cruiser!! (as diverse and fun as many of these are)

I like that quote, Scipio_Africanus1829 ! "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way." John Paul Jones 1778

I want to join the lottery. Many thanks for this cool initiative!

Aber vielleicht gibt es in Zukunft ja auch mal Sonderaufgaben für T3/4! Das wär' doch auch mal was...

Spektakulär, das ist die absolute Nummer 1 auf meiner Wunschliste!!! Echt toll um dieses Schiff hier jetzt zu sehen! (und nicht eines der 3 Schwestern der V.U., sondern das Flaggschiff selbst!) Wargaming you absolutely made my day by showing this here, I am soooo happy! Cannot wait to get her into my port already :-) ... and to see the red-white-red (or black-and-gold, old Austrian Imperial) pennants flying on her masts!

Good post! Hopefully these suggestions / ideas can also be of help to you: Even if you are, as you write, a big destroyer fan, one of the keys to becoming better with DD's could also be to try out other ship classes. In the world of battleships, the action seems to go slower, which gives you more time to plan ahead and observe what is going on around you. In this case, also -- and in particular -- it allows you to see how other players are handling their destroyers. You can learn from that, by simply seeing what happens and then using or applying that in your own DD-battles. The natural adversary of the destroyer is -- besides other destroyers -- of course also the cruiser. By learning to play cruisers well, you can learn to see the world from your enemy's vantage point. Learn how to hunt and kill destroyers in a cruiser, then that will help you to survive when you are in your own destroyer again. It is of course purely a matter of play-style, but in my case at low- and mid-tiers I can warmly recommend good sturdy battleships like Bellerophon, Kaiser, and Kongo. As for cruisers, if you're not too keen on hiding / sitting behind islands, you could try good flexible cruisers like St. Louis, Friant, Yubari (excellent guns!), Svietlana (good fire-setter), or Königsberg (good all-rounder). As our friends Ze_Reckless and Exocet6951 already mention above, try other trees for good destroyers. In this category, I have had a lot of fun with Vampire & Valkyrie, Clemson (one of the strongest DD's in the game, if you ask me), and ships like Podvoisky & Okhotnik (even though the latter does require, shall we say, "special handling" -- a real fun-boat though!). Also, dare to make mistakes. You learn a lot from those (and maybe not so much from the things you do right). So there is your biggest growth opportunity! Whichever way, I wish you luck and above all, tons of fun in this great game! Don't forget, it shouldn't always be about the numbers, but perhaps more so about purely enjoyment. That's what I'm here for, at least... Hope our advice here is of support & CU on future waves :o)

Yes, I can attest to that. I don't know what the devil was going on this weekend, but it was radical. I've seen weekends before where things were, shall I say, challenging, more so than normal. But this past weekend really took the wind out of me. So many strange players doing weird things, at all mid- and high tiers. Battleships shooting way ahead straight into half the enemy team's arms, alone. Cruisers totally failing to support destroyers. Radar cruisers following DD's, yet then not using their radar when needed. CV's sending all of their planes only to one specific, close-by ship and then lying motionless as enemy ships close in on them at 8km and less and begin to fire on them, yet still they do not move. Totally ununderstandable how so many of these curious performances can suddenly come together into one single weekend. I'll try to forget this one as soon as I can! (and hope for better)

Still looking forward to the next time when we can try this. Were all ready for this weekend. A pity that they are not going through, yet at ZEN we understand the complexity & wish the developers luck! Make the best of it.

Yes but you need to activate those colored tracers in the Captains folder first (just put a checkmark there). Now have my American Ovechkin on Seattle, doing well there. The Russian one I've put on my Gremyashchy. If you look at the Captain's skills, then these align best with his special abilities. I like the Russian voice. Trying to learn to understand it :o) And indeed, for the French Captains, a ship like Richelieu, Alsace or such would be very suitable.

As I understand it, Spain will be a part of the future Pan-European tree. Together with Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and probably several more to come. Just to get the picture: does this mean we will be able to assign our Polish Blyskawica-Captain to a Spanish ship? Or an Austrian Captain to a Swedish ship? et cetera.... Kind of funny to think of Almirante José driving my Viribus Unitis in future, or Komandor Wladyslaw at the helm of my Sverige battleship!! United Europe hits the waves

It's cool to now also have blue tracers in battle! Plus, a special captain with Survivability Expert as (one of) his specific skills. Can come in very handy!! Appointed my American Ovechkin to Nicholas and put him to good use in the two Ranked Sprints. Now moved him to my Seattle, as his skills seem to fit in well with that ship.

Sounds like a ton of fun already :-) I hope they keep the secondaries the way they were back at the time of this years' Gamescom. That was so good to see!

Fantastic! Whichever way, I am looking forward to Prinz Eitel Friedrich. Had the pleasure to be able to try her out at Gamescom and still remember that as a good battle. Just the way she felt and handled, made me think: this could well become the best BB ever at Tier 6! Just out of curiosity, any idea when this will be formally announced, what you state up there above the picture? Maybe somewhere early December?

Almost overlooked it. But on the page https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/game-updates/halloween-scary-battles/ there is a small line of blue text. A closer look reveals that these are GPS coordinates. The first one appears at the top of the page, just below the picture linking to the YouTube vid. On the left-hand side, in small letters, you will see this: 43°25'22.4"N 2°43'22.4"W If you enter these coordinates in Google Maps, it will take you to a Tapas-bar right next to a football field in the town of Bermeo in Northern Spain (Northeast of Bilbao): https://www.google.com/maps/place/43°25'22.4"N+2°43'22.4"W/@43.4227682,-2.7227235,18.58z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d43.4228889!4d-2.7228889 To see the second one, scroll down all the way to the bottom of the page. There, just above the button "DISCUSS ON THE FORUM", you will find this one: 43°36'54.1"N 116°12'08.3"W If you enter these coordinates in Google Maps, it will take you to a crossroads in the middle of Boise, Idaho: https://www.google.com/maps/place/43°36'54.1"N+116°12'08.3"W/@43.61503,-116.2023096,19.25z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d43.6150278!4d-116.2023056 Yesterday, I also saw another such set of location coordinates on the same page, this was at 51°09'29.8"N 0°10'06.1"W That one takes you to London's Gatwick airport, to the outer circle of the satellite terminal there: https://www.google.com/maps/place/51°09'29.8"N+0°10'06.1"W/@51.1582778,-0.1705498,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d51.1582778!4d-0.1683611 What's the story with these links, why are they there, does anyone know? Given the US cruiser Boise, I can well imagine the second link ;-) yet what about the others?!!

Interesting @Klopirat, Danke!

@ColonelPete indeed, the numbers can never be as important as the pure enjoyment and fun in the game, I could not agree more Izumo, for me, is one of those unique ships that somehow manages to make me smile almost every time I take her into battle! The way she handles, feels, looks and sounds... an impressive all-round powerhouse which, when handled right, can really help tip the balance between two sides.

Depends on your play-style. Personally, I am a big fan of Izumo. I know a lot of people are not, and have difficulties with her, but this is one of my favourite ships because she just feels comfortable and powerful. I have Yamato, which is in a league of its own, but will never part with my Izumo :-) Use her as a forward-facing sledgehammer and you'll be surprised of the huge impact she can have on a battle's progress! Just be very aware of DD's sneaking up to you and make sure you don't show too much broadside towards other strong BB's. Amagi is, in my experience, also a good BB. What I particularly like about her is the raw firepower and the sheer amount of guns. Either way, you can't go wrong with one or both of these BB's in your fleet, they are both really good ships. Enjoy!