Shikishima or Incomparable?

[CaravellaCaravan]

I want to get my first steel ship but i couldn't decide which one to get.

 

My playstyle is mid-range with good concealment BB (like Roma, Viribus Unitis etc).

 

My heart says get Incomparable but weak armor makes me think if this ship get sunk easily when caught at wrong position. It has good concealment and mid-range ship, fits my playstyle. 

 

Shikishima is much more tankier but lacks concealment. I assume it's a long range sniping ship.

 

Mecklenburg also looks interesting.

[The_Angry_Admiral]

3 minutes ago, CaravellaCaravan said:

 

Shikishima is much more tankier but lacks concealment. I assume it's a long range sniping ship.

 

I've watched loads of Youtube videos as I am going for my first steel ship and if you have Yamato you don't need Shiki. According to what I've heard. 

[tocqueville8]

The Shiki is much better against CVs:

• excellent 55% torpedo belt, as opposed to a horrible 14%
• good turning radius of 900 m, as opposed to an astronomical 1160 m
• double the long-range DPS and a lot more flak explosions
• the main turrets are tankier, she doesn't have torpedoes she might want to protect: she can take Aux Arm Mod 1 and have more survivable AA batteries
• much better range, to stay productive even if the CV forces the teams to play at range with her early spotting
• the air detection range is only 400 m worse than the Incomparable's.

 

Incomparable has:

• much better speed, clearly
• comfortable turret traverse
• reasonably useful torps (almost the same range as her concealment)
• surprisingly useful hydro
• a superheal, so she can skip some survivability perks in favor of agility (Rudder module), damage (super-heavy AP, Furious...) and situational awareness (Priority Target, Vigilance...)

[KielYourself]

Mecklen then would be good choice for you then. Mid range bb that is quite maneuverable and has okayish guns. 

 

Shiki is a sidegrade Yamato. Just get the Yamato, its much cheaper than steel.

 

Incomp is extremely powerful but also hard to play. Terrible maneuverability. 

[________________Morrison]

6 minutes ago, tocqueville8 said:

The Shiki is much better against CVs:

• excellent 55% torpedo belt, as opposed to a horrible 14%
• good turning radius of 900 m, as opposed to an astronomical 1160 m
• double the long-range DPS and a lot more flak explosions
• the main turrets are tankier, she doesn't have torpedoes she might want to protect: she take Aux Arm Mod 1 and have more survivable AA batteries
• much better range, to stay productive even if the CV forces the teams to play at range with her early spotting
• the air detection range is only 400 m worse than the Incomparable's.

 

Incomparable has:

• much better speed, clearly
• comfortable turret traverse
• reasonably useful torps (almost the same range as her concealment)
• surprisingly useful hydro
• a superheal, so she can skip some survivability perks in favor of agility (Rudder module), damage (super-heavy AP, Furious...) and situational awareness (Priority Target, Vigilance...)

Except Torps you'll never really use, And the superheal is rendered useless due to the lack of citadel healback.

[HMS_Kilinowski]

On 6/15/2022 at 10:13 AM, CaravellaCaravan said:

I want to get my first steel ship but i couldn't decide which one to get.

 

My playstyle is mid-range with good concealment BB (like Roma, Viribus Unitis etc).

 

My heart says get Incomparable but weak armor makes me think if this ship get sunk easily when caught at wrong position. It has good concealment and mid-range ship, fits my playstyle. 

 

Shikishima is much more tankier but lacks concealment. I assume it's a long range sniping ship.

 

Mecklenburg also looks interesting.

 

Your stats say you're a coop main, so your play-style is not supposed to be "mid-range with good concealment", but close-range. Those bots keep pushing in and sooner rather than later you gotta brawl them. For brawling in coop, concealment is almost irrelevant. What counts is being able to dish out a lot of damage at close range.

I therefore agree with some others, that the Mecklenburg will probably satisfy your needs best. But since you asked about Shikishima or Incomparable, the Incomparable is a really good choice for coop. The Shikishima shares the slow turret traverse with Yamato, so it's not for brawling.
The Incomparable however has a lot of features that make it perfect for coop.

1. Fast turret traverse makes it suitable for drive-bys typical in coop.

2. Single-launch torpedoes are perfect to deliver massive damage to anything you'd overpen.

3. Hydro is perfect to dodge those torps coming from bots at distances of 4-5km

4. The imo most important: Fast speed AND a speed boost ensure that you don't arrive in the battle after the DDs have already killed 80% of the bots. Even in coop, you still want some XP and it's a race for the cold buffet.

[tocqueville8]

1 hour ago, IndomitableVindication said:

Except Torps you'll never really use

 

A bit too soon to tell for me. 24 games and I've landed them on 4 separate occasions:

• kiting position, enemy Missouri pushing me at 11 km: I torped right next to the island in front of her, and she predictably parked right there: 2 hits
• later in the same game: I flanked the enemy push (Richelieu + Lepanto), did good damage with the guns but got cross-torped by their Shima. I landed 2 more  torps on the Lepanto: Flesh Wound
• different game, got rolfstomped: I charged in and got 4 hits (Dev Strike) on a Stalingrad and narrowly denied his ram
• different game, another bow-in duel with a Stalingrad: landed 1 out of 4 at some range, before going down

Granted, none of these really turned the game around or anything, but I could see them being more useful in Ranked, for instance.

 

Quote

And the superheal is rendered useless due to the lack of citadel healback.

 

Yeah, you've got to be super-careful with that.

 

She seems to need a tailor-made build: first I tried with a "vanilla" reload + survivability setup, now I'm going with range, super-heavy AP and more awareness, to avoid citadel damage, at the expense of fire resistance. It's feels more comfortable, but it's early to say...

[Leo_Apollo11]

Hi all,

 

I have bought the Incomparable with new coupon (25% OFF) few days ago.

 

I only used her in CoOp thus far but I opted for 3M "Range" instead of "Reload".

 

I will test her more in upcoming "Convoy" from tomorrow!

 

 

Leo "Apollo11"

 

P.S.

I really don't see the Shikishima in my "Steel" buying plans for conceivable future... I have Yamato and Musashi for long long long time and there is Satsuma at Tier XI...

[Karkong_the_Impaler]

 

[The_Angry_Admiral]

You people are making it harder and harder for me to make my first steel ship purchase.

 

I feel like I just want to sit in a corner and hug my steel close. 

[Leo_Apollo11]

Hi all,

 

4 minutes ago, The_Angry_Admiral said:

You people are making it harder and harder for me to make my first steel ship purchase.

 

I feel like I just want to sit in a corner and hug my steel close. 

 

In that case there is always old golden rule - buy oldest Steel ship first (i.e. the one which will most likely be removed first)...

 

 

Leo "Apollo11"

[The_Angry_Admiral]

I had a quick look at the Mecklenburg and realised as well it has what appears to be Tier VIII Brandenburg guns. 

 

I can defo say I won't be going for that one. 

[The_Angry_Admiral]

3 minutes ago, Leo_Apollo11 said:

Hi all,

 

 

In that case there is always old golden rule - buy oldest Steel ship first (i.e. the one which will most likely be removed first)...

 

 

Leo "Apollo11"

I've always wanted the Stalingrad to be honest but I do have Petro and Moskva. 

 

I may even go against the grain and get Ragnar. 

[Karkong_the_Impaler]

The issue is, you have to like the gameplay.

If you like playing Yamato, the Shiki is probably not going to be a port queen. Incomparable is hard to recommend, because it... doesn't compare. You're a light cruiser somehow if caught broadside. But you're also a DD with a 10km spotting range and flying 510mm torps. If you can manage to sneak your way into some cruisers broadside, you can kill or at least cripple him easily. Yet you're quite tanky from the front with a hidden 120mm bulkhead, if you don't 0° nose in and fire spammers cry when you zombie heal back up again from a few k hp. The skill floor is certainly not low, the skill ceiling is.. I don't know, I can't reach it, I can't make it work with CVs.

 

So, some ships just... click. I got myself what is considered by many a poor choice for research points, the Druid while the Vampire II is generally considered to be the better choice. That thing just... works for me, I guess, and it also doesn't compare to anything. Unfortunately there is no "free to rent week", where you can take ships for a test drive before you buy, you need to try the nearest comparison and go from there. Yamato - Shiki is easy. But Ragnar? Druid? Incomparable? At some point you just need to go ahead and in the worst case, waste your precious steel.

Because, if you have the Yamato with the legendary module, why buy the same gameplay again? (I did it for the gun sound... and I seriously like the ship better)

 

Also I recommend videos, especially yuro has a few hilarious ones, but you may also want to watch a full game to get an idea about how it handles, not just an endless stream of chad moves and devstrikes.

[Chaoskraehe]

From all steel ships I have, I love Shiki the most (and I have Yamato). 

 

I got Incomparable this Monday and still don't really know how to use her correctly. Almost every hit from a BB is a citadel hit, no matter how I try to angle and so her heal doesn't really help. But it is fun how fast she can be. 

[Karkong_the_Impaler]

Sneak close so you can devstrike some cruiser who is showing broadside, then get dark again. They then usually stop the shooting, when they turn their guns away, blap the next one and go dark again. You're some kind of annoying BB version of an open water DD flanking the enemy.

 

Or simply go dark and run. Or juke them from a distance, your dragster acceleration is usually enough, not just A and D, also W and S.

[Karasu_Browarszky]

Based on what I gathered from earlier threads on this, Shikishima is easier to play, the Incomparable has a higher skill requirement. If that is something you want to take into consideration.

 

I have neither, so can't verify that.

[The_Norwood]

Shiki hits hard, and is a viable secondary ship with its harugumo guns for secondaries. It is, however, a glorified Yamato with bigger, but fewer guns, and the same weaknesses. That said, reload is better than Yama and the overmatch is nice.

in my experience it doesn't translate well to actual wins, at least in randoms. In coop that point is irrelevant and the ship will function effectively at any range.

[Karasu_Browarszky]

8 minutes ago, The_Norwood said:

Shiki hits hard, and is a viable secondary ship with its harugumo guns for secondaries. It is, however, a glorified Yamato with bigger, but fewer guns, and the same weaknesses. That said, reload is better than Yama and the overmatch is nice.

in my experience it doesn't translate well to actual wins, at least in randoms. In coop that point is irrelevant and the ship will function effectively at any range.

 

Would a coop focused ship warrant the steel price?

[ollonborre]

5 hours ago, The_Angry_Admiral said:

I had a quick look at the Mecklenburg and realised as well it has what appears to be Tier VIII Brandenburg guns. 

 

I can defo say I won't be going for that one. 

That is true, at least penetration wise. But then you need to look at the amount of guns, reload and then the biggest difference accuracy. The Mecklenburg has the same accuracy as the Yoshino, with 16 guns compared to 9 and an even higher HE penetration that means you can penetrate pretty much any non CV deck in the game, meaning the actual HE DPM can sometimes be higher than the Yoshino depending on what ship you are firing at.

 

Out of the avaliable ships in the topic though, Incomparable would probably be my pick. You can grind a Yamato and with the Satsuma avaliable even the 510 mm guns are not even exclusive to steel anymore. Incomparable is at least different enough to anything else in the British tree that it actually offer something.

[Naykz]

Why getting Shiki for steel when you can have Satsuma for credits?

[KhorneFlake]

1 hour ago, Naykz said:

Why getting Shiki for steel when you can have Satsuma for credits?

This!

[WWDragon]

On 6/15/2022 at 11:48 AM, The_Angry_Admiral said:

You people are making it harder and harder for me to make my first steel ship purchase.

 

I feel like I just want to sit in a corner and hug my steel close. 

 

Its easy, Stalingrad or Bourgogne competitive wise.

 

Shikishima and Incomparable have the same problem, their gun caliber is too high to matter in overmatch mechanics compared with their T10 tech Tree, Incomparable then have the problem of being very much a fast large cruiser with 510mm guns ... you get concealment but very weak armor, situational torpedoes, terrible secondaries and substandard firing range as Shikishima is a Yamato with less barrel count per turret with larger caliber and faster reload, much better secondaries and AA and thats it.

 

 

[Karkong_the_Impaler]

5 hours ago, KhorneFlake said:

This!

This is one of the answers on what is crap about the supershits.

 

[Ocsimano18]

I’ll pick the Mecklenburg. You can play in the long range meta, and can also brawl when needed. Also brings back the ultimate Scharnhorst experience at T10. I see Incomparable as a mediocre ship which is backed by her stats filtered for the better players. Why Shiki when you havea legendary Yamato or can get the Satsuma. I mesn Siki for coal or RP, maybe, but for unobtainiumsteel?