Dutchy_2019

I think not all Hizen's sailing around now are by definition captained whales: quite a few people saved up doubloons, and bought Hizen so they could earn extra steel and RB points. Of course there are whales out there (who by whaling actually pay for the Free players).

IIRC you could do the whole thing without Gorizia, but the early stages (which needed to completed quickly to get PR done in time) were a whole lot easier (almost a cakewalk compared to the other demands) if you had Gorizia in port.

My first impression as well. Notable differences between this and PR idiocy: - EVERYTHING can be done with T5 ships (or T6 CV's) - You can get stages done using Co-op - NO specific ship or nation requirements - NO major advantage gained by buying a specific ship from the Premium Store. For the final stage, you have 14 days or so to complete. In total you have ALMOST 2 months to complete (57 days).

Pretty much. And I was idiot enough to actually be able to grind her before she went out of the Tech Tree. You can also add the fact that Moskva is hardly talked about compared to Stalingrad and Petropavlovsk. She almost seems a bit 'forgotten',

I have used my coupon on Thunderer, and will use my NA coupon on her as well. I have Georgia on both.

Some would say, that is the luck of the devil. That said, I cannot complain (I think Missour was the first premium for me that dropped from a Super Container, less than a week after I started playing) since it seems I have overall made a 'profit' with the boxes, from a monetary POV so far. Latest round of boxes might have me playing CV's though (Kaga anyway for the 2500 doubloons from the Kaga B mission), as they dropped Loewenhardt, Ark Royal and Kaga.

New ranked battles are on the live server. They have already been on PTS.

If you effectively use camos and flags (assuming you have them available, that is easier than you might think. Over the weekend, I think (fully decked out, not the best Commander camos) around 30k commander XP per game in Narai. Might check back later how much net Elite Commander XP I think I earned.

But even WITH that reward, they did not get enough players there for reliable test data for things like the Commander Rework, or Sub testing (and possibly even the new set up for Ranked) for game balancing purposed. I doubt they would even get them if they were to throw in T7s and T8s, or loads of Super Containers (and that would lead to complaints from those who do NOT land (rare) ships). The things I mentioned, I encountered when the T6 Premium reward mechanism was used.

There are some tricks to work around that, AFAIK: - Every time there is the possibility to earn a captain with a free RESERVE slot, you can. - Choose to groom captains for single ships in the Tech Tree; - Make sure your reserve is full, and then reset a line. IIRC the captains dismissed (because of their ships being sold) will get you free Reserve slots.

Last year they had the T6 Premium if you complete the test missions on 3 consecutive (per season) PTS sessions. These missions were not too hard to do - even for me as a decidedly average player. My observations: - The amount of times I had FULL games during that period I can count on a single hand (the biggest hindrance to getting these missions done quickly). One vs one games were not uncommon. Even PTS Co-op I had non-full teams on occasion. - The missions and stuff to be tested on PTS are so easy that GOOD players are very quickly done with the required missions. - PTS for the 'weekend' and 'limited time' player does compete with regular mission requirements on the normal server. - Quite a few players play ships (and styles) on PTS (in Randoms) that they do NOT play on the regular server in Randoms. I for one do so; for one, I rarely play T8 in Randoms, and currently would never think to play T10 (and only few T9 ships) in Randoms, because of the limited amount of T10 silver ships I have, and I do not consider myself a good enough player to consistently make a contribution to my team's effort in those tiers. On PTS I have no problem playing T10 ships at all. I frankly do not take it seriously - and so do a number of CC's and Super Testers. - Even when a test was held on the regular server (the submarine test in a separate mode) within a very short time the test was - from a worthwhile data gathering POV - completely useless. You will never get PTS to the numbers required unless you up the rewards to such a level that the whole thing becomes detrimental to the 'primary' game on the regular servers.

What was the situation, and what BB? - There can be legitimate reasons for the BB going for the CV (enough BB's for entry into the port, cruisers being all over the place etc), also depending on when the BB turns north. - Same for the cruiser / DD combo going for the transports, depending on cruiser and DD.

Playing a few Randoms games at the end of the evening to get my French ships all to T4. The final game was nice, had to compliment the DD who ended up 2nd on the team. Ended up surviving with something like 800 HP, the final kill making the mistake to attack from the wrong side, and I pulled the trigger first (and had the bigger shells). Set my record for kills on EU (8 kills), and damage record for T3. Happy that not all kills were kill secures.

I have not tried Nelson yet. I am improving my Danae / Emile Bertin / Missouri hunting skills in Scharnhorst though.

Yeah, I have come across some truly speshul team mates. On occasion it was really frustrating, but there were also some really good games with good teams. Admittedly I messed up twice myself when trying to get the CV. Things I noticed: - Record for SPESHUL player of the month goes to a Lyon, who pretty much singlehandedly managed to waste a 345k Scharnhorst game of mine. BTW, at the point I died in port (also having tanked for almost 1.8 million), the Bretagne (10%), Colorado, Queen Elizabeth (50% health), Schchors AND Atlanta were still alive (so yeah, the rest of the team sucked, but if that Lyon had only had three functioning brain cells that still would have been a (low star) win. Other things - The amount of BB players who manage to put themselves in a position to NOT shoot the Missouri is astounding. - Seeing one cruiser player move off to kill the transports seems to lead to ALL cruisers moving in that direction. - On occasion players do NOT pay attention to what is going on at all. Yes, I have had to go transport hunting in Scharnhorst on a few occasions (only when we were with 3 BB's) because NOBODY moved out. Despite pointing out the issue at the very start of the match. - Sailing your Scharnhorst in a straight line at the start leads to many cruiser and DD players running into you. - A shitload of players truly playing their own game, not communicating or even reading chat (or simply not caring), only to hunt their own glory (get CV or transports) and more often than not messing up big time. - Players from the start hiding 'so they can hunt the CV' usually end up being completely useless and NOT killing the CV.

I am not sure how many games I needed over these three days. What I can say for my set up: "Spring Sky" camo (+ 777 %), all special signals, roughly 25k-30k Free XP each game. "This is your day" camo (+ 250 %), all special signals, roughly 19k - 21k Free XP each game. "Black, White, Red" camo (+ 200 %), all special signals, roughly 9-10k Free XP each game Mostly played in a Scharnhorst / Scharnhorst B combo, occasional Nagato and single California game thrown in. I played it in all Random teams, which did hurt me some (quite a few 4-star wins, and even a few losses thanks to some truly players - winner being a truly speshul Lyon managing to f-up a 345k damage game - ,and a single bugged game). In total, I think it took me between 40 and 50 or so games.

Over 3 days, ground about 780k Free XP in Narai. The final result:

FINALLY someone in WG realizing and accepting the fact that the near guaranteed Double CV in T4 games (often T3 as well) with an 80% chance of one of the CV's being Hosho and 50% chance of the CV's being a Hosho and Langley combo have become all but unplayable. Unfortunately they will never hard cap CV's to 1 per game (which they should across the board) so this is probably the next best thing we are going to get.

True - and when that happens, the DD's can make a difference. Telling that on my team the top 2 players were DD's (I was one of them), and on the enemy team a DD ended up 2nd).

So far: Not touched (except for a single Training Room idiocy): CV's Currently trying to work through all lines, though that comes slowly. Also, the campaigns and missions often push me towards using certain ships.

Well, trying to level up, I had a game in T3 Fusilier (French DD's) in a CV game. Of the about 15 minutes that I lived, I spent about 10 minutes being spotted by the CV and being fired at by anywhere between 2 and 5 enemy ships at the same time. As it was German CV, and not too good a CV player as well as enemy aim being not too good, I lived for as long as I did. Saving grace is that me being hunted by the CV and getting regularly shot at by the enemy gave the team a chance. At the same time, one of the enemy DD's being bad helped as well. Occasionally, in a game DD's make the difference:

For me: NA: 18400 coal - with the coal earned while ridding myself of the snowflakes enough to get Thunderer (with coupon). 450 steel 0 crates - to be 1 crate when Thunderer sails in. EU: 43400 coal 2625 steel 2 crates - to be 3, maybe 4 when Thunderer sails when the coupon arrives and if I can get enough free XP to get myself Smaland

Thank you!

I will get Thunderer as soon as the coupon comes through. I so have Georgia I would probably opt for Georgia, even if Thunderer is easier to play (and probably currently better suited to my play level).

Same here today: Error 403