VC381

I tried this out (never played Bismarck) and felt so dirty... I was playing pretty badly but still managed 100k damage of which 25k was secondaries (12k direct 13k fires). So stupid...

Des Moines would have ripped the guy a new one

So by your logic Budyonny and New Orleans are the same ship because they share 3x3 turret arrangement, when really they probably couldn't be more different and still both be cruisers

Just saw one and she looked good I can't wait!

I agree with you but all your examples belong to a different time period. If we're talking T10 BBs then that's a "what-if" 1945 or later, the last BBs designed that never got built, with all the lessons from all BB design ever. They got over the experimenting with turret positions by that point, everyone had zeroed in on the optimum design. It makes not sense to do something else just for it to be "different", it just makes it less believable. There are plenty of other ways the can make the ships unique, or different in playstyle.

You mean like all those cruisers that do that as well? And erm... yeah actually, because it makes sense from a design point of view. A lot of ships were like that for a reason. As I said earlier I don't mind my ships being fictional but I want the fiction to make sense...

You mean how the ship actually looked in real life, and how most people know her and think of her? If you want to cover it in some ridiculous modern art monstrosity I'm sure WG will give you the opportunity to do that as well, but I'll have mine in Admiralty Grey thank you very much!

Must have missed it but I'll take your word for it and not waste my time. Thanks

The reaction times mean very little, the basic problem is that more or less everybody at that tier will have performed 3 turns before the torps get anywhere near them, even if they have no idea they're coming. Do you run TA?

AR hands down.

I don't mean shotgun as inaccurate, just as volume of fire. Monty is deadly because she has both, I'm just saying Yamato is a bit lonely in the big gun brigade and we need another like her as opposed to another 12-gun or in some other way spammy one that we have two of. GK is loosely based on the later H designs but none ever feature triple turrets. See the thing is, I'm a big fan of "what if" and I like seeing things like Amagi, Moskva and other genuine project ships in game, even if obscure. What I can't stand is WG inventing things that just don't make sense in the context of a nations design lineage or even at all in some cases.

Well, the smoke was improved a lot now with a guaranteed puff at the end of the active time but you're probably right. I won't rush to try it but if I have spare coins at the end I might.

Well, I don't remember the last time I actually hit anything with Benson's snail torps. Even if I had 20 of them they would be mostly useless, so going down to 5 can't hurt that much. I think they needed to make the ship a bit mediocre to avoid screams of "look that class premium is a tier lower". But I don't think it will be outright bad. I don't really want/need it (just gonna unlock actual Fletcher and keep that) either though.

18" guns I don't mind and actually having bigger guns fits with general RN concepts and would be more interesting for the game since 2/3 of the T10 BBs are already shotguns. But why 4x2?! To my knowledge this layout was not part of the Lion class projects and in any case was out-dated. I find it hard to believe the RN in WGs fantasy land WW2, with all time and resources they needed, would design/build a BB that wasn't 3x3.

Yup, the performance baseline does seem a bit lower, possibly WG overcompensating for fear the speed boost would be too strong (lol?). However, they also seem to have long range as a strength, and T5/6 have blisteringly fast turret traverse and look pretty nice overall.

But if you're spotted anyway, wouldn't you prefer to be able to dodge than have to retreat? All I'm saying is even with better detectability there is always opportunity cost to just staying hidden. And anyway staying hidden isn't always possible or even desirable, so there are a lot of situations at all stages of the game where I prefer an ability that just works all the time rather than one I have to choose (or am forced) to give up to do anything else. But as I said, just my personal experience and preference. In some ways I actually think full stealth builds make more sense on BBs. You have very high alpha potential so it's logical to want to position for the best shot and waiting a bit longer than your reload for the best opportunity to get max damage can increase your total damage per game more than just firing all the time. A lot of cruisers are opposite, small but reliable damage, so the only way to increase output is to not stop shooting, then you need another trick to stay alive.

Well, Graf Spee was both, people who really wanted it or didn't have time for the missions could but it, those who wanted it for free could do that too. So even if Hood is a campaign reward, I assume this will be in addition to regular sale, not instead of, as WG would not miss the huge money opportunity. If the campaign chain is going to have a Bismarck hunt theme we may actually see her and/or some high tier captains as the campaign rewards as well as (or instead of) Hood. Just as long as the missions aren't something stupid like "while playing Hood sink 20 Bismarcks" or vice-versa.

Yup, in the end it's a playstyle choice. As for the distraction mind games, I find enemies generally unwilling to repeatedly switch target to something that fades away but more likely to be baited by someone who's shooting back and making no effort to hide. It feels like they're thinking "just one more salvo and I'll get him" and that makes them tunnel vision more and make other mistakes. I do think concealment is important but being invisible reduces your game impact. You can lose a game in the process of trying to find those ideal engagements. I find agility to be a more versatile survival tool overall because it allows more aggressive plays and makes you less team reliant especially on the defensive. You can't do much if you're relying on not being seen and only shooting when enemy guns point elsewhere, but your team is falling while you sneak, and then you can't sneak/flank when you're the only one left and the enemy is concentrating on finding you. But with more agility you can push and shoot first, make an impact earlier at lower risk to yourself, get more mileage from sub-optimal positions and kite all day, even outnumbered. But as you say, each to their own

I like the idea of national flavours in principle but I don't think we should be expecting every new thing to out-do the RN in terms of uniqueness and complexity. I get the French feel like a let-down after that but I'm happy for a more toned down flavour than a race to get the next weirdest thing in, as things could get really silly on that path.

I love my Eugen, probably tier for tier the best guns on any cruiser in game. Great reload, sublime turret traverse, fantastic velocity, great punch (yes, even with HE). Just so well-rounded and comfortable to play overall. Thing is, it's hard to recommend the line based on that because it's all over the place up to that point and fantasy after (and not the good, genuine "what-if" kind either). Plus the OP said he's not expecting to get to the top tiers. That's why I bought Eugen instead of grinding a whole line to play a single ship class I care about.

All T8+ cruisers have reloads way shorter than the detectability bloom time. If you're waiting to fade to stealth and fire again you're cutting your damage output by half or more in some ships. Moving undetected can be helpful but you have islands to help with that. Drawing fire deliberately and wasting enemy BB time and shells as they try (and fail) to tag your wiggly tush while you're still doing return damage is arguably far more useful to the whole team.

There are some close-ups between 4:02 and 4:06 in the patch video.

This is great. And they apparently improved the appearance but still didn't fix the bridge windows... oh well. Also: Oh yes... oh very yes!

I couldn't have put it better myself, either happy coincidence or Saxon has been reading too many of my pro-cruiser posts and started thinking like me welcome to the exclusive Pensacola fan club BTW!

@22cm that's just how I cruiser, nail biting seat of your pants stuff. @lycea ugh, I hate ranked, so frustrating and stressful. I want to enjoy playing the game not grind ranked rewards, plus the Flint doesn't even look as cool without that camo.