tocqueville8

1) it's been that way forever 2) I guess you're paying more to have both advantages at once 3) would you prefer if 1 bonus cost 11250 credits?

I don't normally buy new premiums for dubs, as by now they're pretty much all paper ships. So far I only got Druid, D7P and Napoli (I can't get a Hyuga or an Ise: it'd be like cheating on my Fuso ) - Druid is satisfying...after you get rid of the enemy DD. Until then...eeeh. Also, not very good during steamrolls, either way. - D7P is very micro-intensive, but also rewarding on some maps - Napoli is just crazy: I'm still learning how to play her , and I've already had games where my secondaries did 55k damage...

I agree on SI bringing diminishing returns. IMHO AP isn't as worth buffing as on the Druid: the Daring has lazy ballistics, so you'll often be farming superstructures and fire damage, not upper belts with AP. I'd take Fearless Brawler for knife-fights, frankly, along with RPF and CE, of course.

None of those, I'd go for: PM LS SE + AR CE + RPF + Fearless Brawler Imho SI isn't worth it: - British DD heals are mediocre - hydro lasts forever (esp. with the coal mod), and besides it's mostly defensive - an extra smoke would rarely be helpful: if you last that long you should be able to find hard cover, with fewer enemies around in the late game. Fearless Brawler wouldn't always help, but it can be vital. An alternative is Pyro + extra AP damage.

I like them just fine, but I generally prefer real ships: - of the 7 permacamos I bought for dubs, only 1 is for a paper ship (Minotaur, which gets more replay value because of smoke/radar) - I prioritize real ship for the Research Bureau: Emilio, Colbert, Druid (sort of) - real ships are more satisfying to play - they're less demoralizing to be sunk by, imho - I have the feeling more effort is put into their modeling - I sort of resent WG for putting so many imaginary ships in the game, especially Soviet (but German CVs were already a stretch), instead of adding Italian BBs & DDs (personal bias) or, let's say, German battlecruisers (at last!)

Ok, done: all 44 of them! ...minus the Smaland, which I'll play some other time.

1 hour, pretty please: I'm not home yet

T9-10 Because you don't get s**t on by worse players who happen to be driving some ship that completely outclassed yours. The BB overmatch mismatch between T5-6 and T7-8 doesn't repeat, unless you're facing a Yamato hull. That makes angling more rewarding. Also, cruisers get a heal on all lines, which makes playing them a bit less of a survival horror...

Sometimes, with only 1-2 DDs per team and no CV, you can cap the middle in a BB or a cruiser without getting spotted: the enemy team will often split between flanks, with no one in the middle. On large high-tiers maps, and with a concealment build, it's doable. It happened to me yesterday in the Haarlem, though I wish it hadn't, as it made us win on points before I could farm the enemy BBs a bit

I haven't inputted yet, I still have to play the Smaland

Believe it or not, I was disconnected for most of the game: the fan stopped running for some reason, the CPU overheated I started going for C with our Amalfi, who helped me with a massive salvo on the enemy Vauquelin. Our BB made short work of the Shchors and Perth, so I capped and went for B, hoping to ambush the main enemy force incoming from A. Then *poof*, the pc died. I "woke up" like this: I Dev Struck the Vladivostok, though I made the mistake of turning towards her before smoking up: I got proximity-spotted and sank to her secondaries In my defense, I didn't know she was going to push out of the island, as she could've hit our Lexi from behind it. Plus the CV was coming anyway, so I thought trading would be a good idea... As I pondered over whether I took the right decision, I realized that the torps I launched at the smoked-up Edinburgh in C5 before disconnecting had earned me a first Dev Strike My poor Shirabote a wreck, I turned into a cheerleader for our Lexington, who won the duel with the enemy Saipan and ran away with 5k, winning on points a few seconds before the enemy Bayern could finish her with a second salvo: gg and +1 to Lexi and Amalfi After the win, the last for anniversary tokens on this line, I pumped 1.4M FXP into resetting it twice, so that's going to be 40k RB points over the next few weeks

But the thing is, fires are 100% healable, so an ITA BB with the 4 points healing skill is quite resilient. Meanwhile, French and British BBs eat full pens from 8'' HE (or 6'' IFHE), which are only 50% healable. The Lepanto, for comparison, can shatter supercruiser HE (305 mm, unless it's the Agir with her 1/4 coefficient) with her 55 mm deck. That's why I don't really like the line, despite decent results: they're not fun to play (bad armament: main accuracy and reload, secondary pen and AA range) and they're even less fun to play against due to the armor scheme.

The fire resistance coefficient, at a given tier, is the same for all fully upgraded BBs (or all fully upgraded BBs), so that's probably just an anectodal feeling

Plenty of matches are lost no matter what one does, but good players win about 4 matches for every 3 you win (60% WR vs 45%). As I said, going from the middle spawn to the corner of the map in the only top tier BB is already a strategic mistake. But even then, around the 10:45 minute mark you made a double tactical error that made things much worse: you lost a ton of hp for nothing and you didn't cap, instead you pushed into the only enemy DD (who came for you and thew New Mexico, as B and C were already capped). I've apologized to my teammates (or divmates) for subtler mistakes than that. Maybe you would've lost the Cossack anyway, but with the CV much closer you would've had a better chance against the Lightning, plus you could've wrecked the larger enemies with your guns, and withstood theirs with your armor. Again, perhaps you were going to lose the match anyway, but blaming it on lack of capping seems...extravagant.

Just because it doesn't work in one match it doesn't mean it's never going to work and you should give up. That's true of chat, switching ammo, aiming at the citadel, dodging CV attacks, move erratically to fool torpedoboats, etc.

It's only "hindsight" because I couldn't watch the game before you posted the replay: if I were a spectator, I would've yelled at you to angle against the Vlad in real time Also, there is no excuse to stop trying conversing with the team. All you wrote in chat was: - the "big brain players" opening remark - "take C" (who should've?) - "stop that cap!" (ditto) - "CAP" (ditto) - "are people allergic to capping?" That's not good enough. Overall, what I noticed is the low amount of decisions you took in the game: 1) you spawned in the middle 2) headed for the corner of the map, always showing broadside 3) you shot at whatever was available (with decent aiming, I'll give you that) 4) you never made any kind of tactical or strategic turn, stopped, or anything: just sailing at full speed in one big arc and shooting, like this: For comparison, this is me in a recent game in the De Zeven Provincien (in red are my targets: I only sank 2 of them): This is so far my only game in the Napoli, same map as you in the Vlad: In light blue the places where I stopped, twice to use my secondaries against the Nevsky, then to breathe after the successful brawl with the Des Moines. The loop was to go sink the Minotaur, who smoked up in the cap in front of our radar cruiser, as well as to avoid torpedo bombers. You see how the trajectories are more complicated? Stopping in good positions (cover, angling, consumable reload, etc.) is important. Finally: 5) you didn't discuss target selection with your teammates 6) you didn't discuss where the enemy DD was with your teammates

Once again, the only friendly DD in this match did cap B (and tried to defend it), while the enemy DD capped C, which is where the OP was. No one capped A for most of the game.

The Vlad does 29 knots stock, and she has no engine upgrade to research. If you mean acceleration, not top speed, then I suggest you take the Engine Module in slot #4. I have, on all Soviet BBs from the Sinop onward, as it helps with the nose-in playstyle. It's only 1 million credits. With very few exceptions, cruisers can't cap unspotted unless they use island cover, the same island cover that anyone can use. I'm not saying you should've capped C early on: they had a DD there and your team didn't, so it was okay to leave it to the enemy. I'm saying: 1) your positioning didn't help your team at C (your fault, and the New Mexico's) until the game was almost surely lost (not necessarily around C) 2) your cruisers couldn't cap C any more than you could: you had the armor to withstand the enemy Vlad, they didn't 3) your team was far behind on points, but the game was not lost on points, because of the caps: it was lost on ships, and the caps/points situation was a byproduct of that, as is often the case 4) in the end, your team capped once and the enemy team capped twice (the third cap was at the end and didn't make any difference), which is alright for a CV match with only 1 DD per side. If you hadn't gotten greedy to use your rear turret, you could've easily wrecked the enemy Vlad (she ran aground broadside in front of you) while taking minimal damage. I'm talking about 10:35: that hp trade was about even, but it should've been 10:1 in your favor. After going nose-in against the Vlad (to avoid being citadelled), capping C would've been the natural continuation. Two birds with one stone, win-win situation. Then you could've sailed towards B (from the North) to help your Cossack against the Lightning. If you won that fight, you should've gone into B to stop it, giving no points to the enemy team (they hadn't bothered capping A). Then any enemy who pushed into you would've been at a disadvantage because of your overmatch (16'' guns vs T6-7 BBs). You might've lost anyway, depending on the interaction between the DDs, but it would've prolonged the game imho. Also, the CV would've been able to help you against the Lightning much better than when you went near the Eastern border of the map, 20 km away from her. And yes, the New Mexico was useless, but you didn't even try to coordinate with her in chat, unless I missed it...

A top-tier Vladivostok is the tankiest ship in the match...unless she shows broadside to another BB, which you did because you got greedy trying to use your rear turret. It's a common mistake, we've all done it. Still, if you're afraid of getting surrounded, you should use islands to segregate the fight, making sure that some enemies simply can't hit you, and that you're angled against the rest. The Vladivostok is especially suited for this playstyle. But leaving your performance aside, the problem in that replay is your lack of imagination: your DD capped B and hung out around it, so who was supposed to cap C? Some squishy cruiser? Capping is the result of map control, not the cause of it, and as long as you and that New Mexico were sailing near the edge of the map, you had little control over what was going on in the middle.

Guys, just watch the replay or read my post above. There was only 1 friendly DD in the match, and he did cap B, first thing, in a CV game. The OP expected some cruiser to cap C in front of the only enemy DD and the only top tier enemy BB (Lightning and Vladivostok) while he sailed his own top tier BB behind several islands and to the corner of the map. The other half of his team did a similar thing around A and didn't cap that, either. All in all, I don't see how he can complain about lack of capping: it doesn't just happen organically, like mold on a piece of bread. Even when he (costly) won the brawl and could've just sailed through the cap on his way to the main enemy force, the OP sailed around it...

That's pretty much what the OP did, taking the only top tier BB on his team to the NE corner of Shards, see post above.

22 knots on the Vladivostok? Anyway... 1) there was only 1 DD per team, so you couldn't expect much capping early on 2) there was a top tier CV, so you couldn't expect much capping early on 3) your DD did cap B, nevertheless 4) you took your Vladivostok and sailed to the corner of Shards together with a New Mexico: no crossfire from you two, and extremely poor map control. Considering he spawned closer to the flank and you're 8 knots faster than him, this situation is mostly your responsibility 5) question: who should've capped C? The friendly Eendracht? in front of the enemy Vladivostok? The Haarlem, who likewise would've gotten overmatched? 6) answer: YOU should've capped C, by staying on the center-of-the-map side instead of the corner-of-the-map side, then going in, brawling the Vlad, killing it, then capping. At 10:00 you sank her (after showing an unnecessary broadside), but then you turned left, to the edge of the map, instead of going in and through the cap. That's your mistake, right there: it was your job. 7) At the very least, and since the New Mexico wouldn't, you should've gone back in and capped (the Lexi asked you again at 9:00), instead you pushed South and into the Lightning 8) You kept showing broadside in order to use the rear turret, which not only cost you several citadel hits, but also meant you stayed closer to the edge of the map, because it made you sail "around" where you wanted to go instead of "towards" it. 9) You had a good shot on the Fiji in the corner, but other than that what I see is a consistent effort to avoid the middle of the map, despite being in the only top-tier BB, with great deck armor, the ability to overmatch 3 out of 4 enemy BBs (Doria, Nelson and Nagato), and only 1 DD to worry about. This playstyle might make sense on an mid-tier Amagi with 3 DDs in the game, not in the Vladivostok with this matchmaking. 10) You very much don't have to "keep moving" lest you become "a sitting duck". You're not a shark, that has to swim to breathe (unless that's an urban legend). The Vlad is actually very good in semi-stationary, bow-tanking, nose-in situations. She's got fast-reloading DmgCon parties, insane armor and 6 powerful guns at the front, with good dispersion at short-mid range. 11) Also, please don't write things like "I wonder what big brain players we have this time" in chat before the game has even started: so far you're a very inexperienced player, with clearly below-average performance stats, punching way above his weight in tier 8. That's alright, of course, but it makes your sarcasm even less welcome. Cheers

They are (barely) possible in a division of very strong players that probably play ships that complement one another. The thing with secondary builds is that you need a 1v1, at most 1v2 situation to use them effectively. And you need to be close for them to be effective, not just "within secondary range". So if you're on the weak flank, the one the enemy team overruns, you might find yourself in a 2v5 situation where the only thing you can do is run away and delay (the secondaries are going to do nothing), or charge in, get focused and die horribly (the secondaries might do something for a brief period of time, then they're gone). Leave those positions to something like an Amagi or a Monarch, and likewise don't go where your team is clearly going to steamroll the enemy, as again you won't get to use the secondaries. Instead, go where things seem about even, so that both sides will take the fight and you'll have more opportunities to brawl. Also, take some tankiness skills (Fire Prevention and Concealment, or the extra heal) and try to preserve your hp until the late game, as the secondaries make you very powerful in 1v1 situations. When you're brawling, until you go for a drive-by, consider shooting HE at angled targets, as together with the secondaries they'll set several permafires.

Sure, but if you play near flawlessly and your final mistake throws the game, it's fair to say the rest of your team probably did many similarly game-throwing mistakes, it's just that they're not as apparent. I admit, I often play Monday quarterback after I've been sunk, and I do see game-deciding mistakes, but I've got no right to complain because if I've been sunk several minutes before the game ends, and it's a close match, I'm often more at fault than anyone who makes a mistake after me. TL; DR: Basically, if you're going to make a mistake, it's better to make it as late as possible: it might stand out more, but it's actually less decisive, as it cuts less time you could've been productive in the match.

Imho she's barely worth spending 9k dubs, unless you're Dutch or something. Then again, I have a policy not to buy T8 premiums without a coupon, so your mileage may vary. Basically, she's a tough ship to carry games with, due to poor DPM (33% less than a Cleveland) and utility (no radar, not even hydro). She's at the bottom for me, among T8 cruisers, for average kills per match, so her impact is somewhat limited. She's still fun to play, between the speed boost and the fast-reloading airstrikes, but she struggles dealing with DDs or higher-tier BBs. I got her for 4.5k dubs and don't regret it (looks nice, built in steel, compatible captain with the tech tree line...), but for 9k I'm not sure I'd pick her over a Kidd, for instance. I vote YES, but only because you say you have 20k dubs to spare. EDIT: some observations about airstrikes The damage is generally poor, unless you catch a large target nearly stationary. However, they set fires like crazy, and in a reasonably long game you should be able to put together 15+ fires and 100k+ dmg. This was my best airstrike so far, and it "only" did 21k dmg: It's also worth pointing out that the planes WILL get shot down by ships with good AA (like this Minnesota with Def AA on), unless they can approach from behind a mountain.