Pensacola - Bad by Design

[Aragathor]

After the cruiser split I had some horrible experience in the Pensacola and sold it, even though I had bought the perma camo for the T7 (it was a darling of a ship then). Decided to give the ship another chance today and holy hell it's as bad as I remembered.

 

Deciding to take another more objective look, so I pulled up the 2 month stats:

 

Spoiler

 

Pensacola has the worst WR, worst damage, kills, and K/D. It has the best AA, but that was always a USN trait. The accuracy is also ok, so why does it perform so badly? Time for ship values, starting with main guns:

 

Spoiler

 

Now that's a pickle if I'd seen one. Pensacola is a total lemon when it comes to guns. It has battleship level turret traverse on guns that have the second worst DPM at tier. Those aren't bad guns per se, they have American AP angles, the alpha is great, both AP and HE, you get 10 of them. But it doesn't help when you can't react to enemy maneuvers.

 

So maybe Pensacola can compensate with torps? She doesn't have any compared to other T6 cruisers. So she has to rely on her main battery, which is under-performing.

 

The AA as stated above is really good, for a T6 cruiser. Nothing to complain here:

Spoiler

 

On the defense front Pensacola has some additional issues:

Spoiler

 

While she has the top HP pool, the advantage is completely nullified by other issues, the main of which are the concealment and armor protection.

She has the worst possible concealment at tier. The next worst ship still has a 820m advantage. To add injury to the insult the Bayern with the B hull is stealthier, and the New Mex and Queen E are only slightly worse. That's right, this cruiser not only has battleship level turret traverse, it also has BB level concealment.

When it comes to armor, she can't be compared to BBs. Even the other cruisers are better. First, her citadel is huge and above water. Second, she doesn't get a continuous belt, instead her extremities are 105mm, while center is only 76mm. Cit pen galore.

To make it worse, she doesn't get torpedo bulges like Aoba or Nürnberg. No sir, she has her citadel in the open. None of those non-pen hits for her.

 

So in the end the combination of guns that take forever to aim, high visibility, and low armor, can be blamed on the weak performance.

@Crysantos@MrConwaycould you ring up the Leningrad office and ask them why they haven't buffed Pensacola yet? Both the potential numbers and stats show that she is bad.

 

Anyone else has an opinion about the ship? Beyond the "I'm a super-unicum and the ship is fine".

 

Here's an image of a Pensacola trying to aim the guns in battle:

Spoiler

 

[ColonelPete]

The combination of traits make her very difficult to play.

I think WG should improve her turret traverse and then maybe, if necessary, her reload a bit.

[Yedwy]

Pepsi definately needs love, I guess they took a look at the only real counterpart she had at the time of split - Aoba and said ok here we have 6 guns vs 10 guns we need to nerf this hard for balance and it sort of stuck like that...

[Jethro_Grey]

It's difficult to play well in this ship due to her squishyness, there's a reason why she's known as the floating citadel.

 

The guns hit hard, but if you get spotted every BB is aiming for you and then you die. 

I'd give her a faster turret traverse, 1-2 sec faster reload or a bit more concealment without any gun related buffs. 

[Shungite_Merchant]

Errrr penscola is a really really good T6 cruiser, like very strong for her tier, u will find she is also one the strongest ships to take into the operations

[Jethro_Grey]

2 minutes ago, Yedwy said:

Pepsi definately needs love, I guess they took a look at the only real counterpart she had at the time of split - Aoba and said ok here we have 6 guns vs 10 guns we need to nerf this hard for balance and it sort of stuck like that…

Funnily enough, she got a Major buff before the split. 

IIRC, her concealment was buffed by 1-2km and her reload as well. 

 

When the line split was announced, WG promised to adjust her so she's not too weak at TVI. 

I guess that didn't work out so well.

[Yedwy]

1 minute ago, evergroy_lows said:

Errrr penscola is a really really good T6 cruiser, like very strong for her tier, u will find she is also one the strongest ships to take into the operations

IMHO - No she is not, she is usable yes but not good and she is not good for a specific reason called turret traverse, you are a squishy floating citadel with a bad concealment, making you turm the entire ship to follow a target is really not fun...

[Jethro_Grey]

1 minute ago, evergroy_lows said:

Errrr penscola is a really really good T6 cruiser, like very strong for her tier, u will find she is also one the strongest ships to take into the operations

Being good in operations is not a good selling point, cause any ship is good in operations. 

I'm grinding a lot of OPS for ECXP, and Pensacolas are rarely if ever top scorer. 

 

The one occasion where a Pensa beat my Leander in Aegis, it was played a super unicum player from a well known competitive clan.

 

The ship itself is not bad per se, it's just diufficult to do consistently well in randoms.

 

[fumtu]

I love my Pepsi. I liked it at T7 and once WG dropped her to T6 I love it even more. I never had much problems to make her work. Yes she is squishy and visible from the moon but those guns ... man those guns are amazing. Would I like some buffs? Sure I wouldn't mind faster turret rotation. Does she need any buffs? IMO no, she doesn't. I think she is good as she is now. Maybe after more lines were added but not now.

 

[Allied_Winter]

Haven't played her since the split happened.

 

Did like her quite a bit back when she was T7 (although even that was ... 3 years ago, so a completely different meta). Maybe I should buy her back and give her a try.

 

So far I have to agree to the notion: Difficult to make use of her. Or there are other T6 cruisers that are easier to play.

[Shungite_Merchant]

7 minutes ago, Jethro_Grey said:

Being good in operations is not a good selling point, cause any ship is good in operations. 

I'm grinding a lot of OPS for ECXP, and Pensacolas are rarely if ever top scorer. 

 

The one occasion where a Pensa beat my Leander in Aegis, it was played a super unicum player from a well known competitive clan.

 

The ship itself is not bad per se, it's just diufficult to do consistently well in randoms.

 

 

9 minutes ago, Yedwy said:

IMHO - No she is not, she is usable yes but not good and she is not good for a specific reason called turret traverse, you are a squishy floating citadel with a bad concealment, making you turm the entire ship to follow a target is really not fun...

She is really good boat for an t6 cruiser, might be squishy.... but most other cruisers at that tier explode when u look at them,,, and the guns, I'm just going to say penscola AP is no joke

[Aragathor]

1 minute ago, fumtu said:

I think she is good as she is now.

Says the unicum player. Sorry but both the EU 2 month stats and the ships actual values say a different story. But thanks for stopping by and posting your stats.

For everyone else, outliers like @fumtuare always cut out when calculating statistics. I can't do it with the global stats, even though I'd love to.

 

21 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

The combination of traits make her very difficult to play.

I think WG should improve her turret traverse and then maybe, if necessary, her reload a bit.

I wouldn't buff the reload, instead the traverse and concealment could be brought to a more sane level.

 

15 minutes ago, evergroy_lows said:

Errrr penscola is a really really good T6 cruiser, like very strong for her tier, u will find she is also one the strongest ships to take into the operations

How many battles have you played in randoms in the t6 pepsi?

 

 

[CastorTolagi]

Vor 23 Minuten, evergroy_lows sagte:

Errrr penscola is a really really good T6 cruiser, like very strong for her tier, u will find she is also one the strongest ships to take into the operations

 

Pensacola is good:

 

Leander is GODTIER:

[Shungite_Merchant]

9 minutes ago, Aragathor said:

How many battles have you played in randoms in the t6 pepsi?

just enough to grind though to the new orleans on the north american sever???? 

[hgbn_dk]

 

 

Pensacola is a great cruiser. But you got to play her right and use the fact that the citadel is much smaller in the rear as in the front. So essentially kite away when in open water. And you need one of the Doe brothers with the enhanced expert marksman skill.

[lossi_2018]

My first target when playing BB is always the Pepsi if its around or spotted. I don't know why but usually I never get to shoot them again as they are ded by the time I reload

[Allied_Winter]

10 minutes ago, hgbn_dk said:

So essentially kite away when in open water. And you need one of the Doe brothers with the enhanced expert marksman skill.

Which begs the question:

 

A) Is the former (kiting) already known enough for a new player that grinds up the USN CA line? Imho not which contributes to her overall numbers.

B) If a special commander is needed to make her easier to play, one could say that's another point on the 'Pensacola isn't newbie friendly' list.

[BlackYeti]

I think the turret traverse and reload rates are fair exchange for the devastating broadside potential, the concealment however is criminal.

[DFens_666]

6 minutes ago, Allied_Winter said:

B) If a special commander is needed to make her easier to play, one could say that's another point on the 'Pensacola isn't newbie friendly' list. 

 

For this id like to add:

Omaha is probably even less noob friendly So if you manage Omaha, you should manage Pepsicola too?

[Aragathor]

24 minutes ago, evergroy_lows said:

just enough to grind though to the new orleans on the north american sever???? 

Good for you. But since you played only to grind through, what was the reason you haven't kept playing the ship afterwards?

 

18 minutes ago, hgbn_dk said:

Pensacola is a great cruiser. But you got to play her right and use the fact that the citadel is much smaller in the rear as in the front. So essentially kite away when in open water. And you need one of the Doe brothers with the enhanced expert marksman skill.

We are talking about a T6 silver cruiser. The moment such a ship requires a special captain it means that something is not right.

T6 for most lines is the tier where the expectations and play style are established. Most people can grind to T6 in a day or two of serious gaming. Don't you think that having a ship requiring so much to perform at such a low tier is a bit counter productive?

 

[Uglesett]

Hm.

 

I only ever played her in her T6 iteration, and I thought she was... alright. Yeah, the turret traverse is painfully slow, so often I found it easier to just aim the ship. She's got decent firing angles, so you can usually angle her pretty well while still getting a lot of guns on target. And the guns are great, she earned me a fair few devastating strikes against other cruisers.

 

I'm not going to say she's amazing, but I did alright in her. Might help that by the time i got around to playing her I'd already gotten pretty adept at kiting with the IJN CAs, so it didn't take me long to figure out how to do the same in the Pensa.

[hgbn_dk]

2 minutes ago, Allied_Winter said:

Which begs the question:

 

A) Is the former (kiting) already known enough for a new player that grinds up the USN CA line? Imho not which contributes to her overall numbers.

B) If a special commander is needed to make her easier to play, one could say that's another point on the 'Pensacola isn't newbie friendly' list.

US heavy cruisers are among the harder cruisers to play. You don't have no smoke, torpedoes and are very squishy. So no they are not newbie friendly at all. When Pensacola was T-VII the turret traverse was better, actually think that's the only change they made when they moved it down a tier. Then you could use any commander with the expert marksman skill to make her shine.

[Shungite_Merchant]

1 minute ago, Aragathor said:

Good for you. But since you played only to grind through, what was the reason you haven't kept playing the ship afterwards?

i have the ship still in port with prem camo, i take her out for the operations, but my point of view is she is one the better T6 cruisers, i think one the main draw backs for me is having alot of ships i want to play but with all these time limited missions its like meh and since a bunch of people are asking about me about how i play the game, i have an NA so i can just forget about missions and have an open ended no time limit grind, re do all the campaign missions as i have completed them on EU, its what keeps the game fun for me

[Sargento_YO]

I love the Pensacola for operations.

[xRSxrs]

I am not brave enough to play it in randoms.

but

I played it in Aegis to get those 2 free camos. Boy was i surrprised. Those guns, AP hits hard as hell. A lot of citadel ribbons make you smile. I am playing all T6 cruisers in AEgis and i must say Pensa has the best guns.

 

Leander is still best for the mission bcs of torps and smoke or may i say safer to play.