Guide: British Cruisers

[SeaMonsterUK]

I rly dont understand hate. Iam at tier 3 and absolutely love this line . when i heard about smoke,excelent stealth, good torpedoes etc... All my wet dreams come into reality. 

 

Yeah noobs will complain ,but noobs will always complain cause they will always suck unless they play nuclear submarine.

 

On that note when are we getting HMS Conquoror?

[GoldenHornet]

And I can just reiterate what someone else here said - if we see that the ships are under performing, we will buff them. So far all that we can say is that they are different, so go play and give us actual feedback based on experience playing the ships!

 

After playing for an evening through the first three tiers, my feedback based on experience is that the most anticipated line released in the game is a bag of shite.  A thoroughly frustrating and disheartening experience. 

 

I can't believe I've waited since closed beta for the RN to make an appearance and we get this.  I'm so disappointed.

 

 

[DreadArchangel]

The trajectory, is the killer. The shells are in the air far to long, dd's can easily dodge them, kinda shoots down them as dd killers have to say.

[Deckeru_Maiku]

The only really frustrating thing about the RN cruisers was for me, that for the first three tiers the battles were mostly britbongs only. Special AP shooting at weak armour ensured a lot of interesting battles.

 

Whenever I got in one of the few battles which didn't consist nearly entirely of britbongs, the fight got rather interesting and taxing. Yes, you have to invest a lot more concentration into these cruisers. More than even for the german or russian ones. But if you are ready to at least try to learn the new mechanics, you probably will be rewarded.

 

Probably I'm better suited to these cruisers than most "normal" players, as I play a lot of DDs and I viciously LOVE my Yuubari, which I use for hunting DDs mostly.

 

Strangely it's mostly the british ships that will lead to the hardest whining. Just think about all the stuff written when the Warspite hit the shelf. So many oh so salty posts... and now, after some few changes, the Warspite does in fact quite well, as the statistics seem to show.

 

I expect the Britbongs to be quite alright in a couple months, when statistics have been looked at and maybe some small changes have been implemented. For the lower tiers a bit more gun range / less visibility would be nice.

 

---

 

The guide itself is quite helpfull, imho, though some people here seem to think otherwise. It might help new players to at least know before that these ships need a bit more brain at the wheel to be effective.

[Admiral_noodle]

The trajectory, is the killer. The shells are in the air far to long, dd's can easily dodge them, kinda shoots down them as dd killers have to say.

 

Yes... and no. Depends where you and the dd are. If a lone ijn dd has decided to do that flanking thing you can go chase him down. He's unlikely to be able to torp you. The RN ships have good rudder. And close up it doesn't take long for most of the line to melt a dd. 

 

At longer ranges I tend to pick my targets. Russian cruisers if you can lead make excellent targets. They don't turn so much. German bbs are poor targets as you don't do much damage. German cruisers take a lot of damage but ijn Ines I can't hit with anything let alone RNCLs. 

 

The most ridiculous thing I've seen is a Gearing who decided to try to gun my Minotaur down. He melted in seconds to the point where I was still shooting ha wreck because I hadn't realised he'd died. On the other hand a Khaba at range is not to be messed with. 

[von_Boeg]

The thing is, the smpke does not help that much. As soon as you stop for smoking BBs start spamming  into the smoke, and since you are made up from cits you get delieted in no time. No matter the angle you are in.

[bignewy]

I think I'm done.

 

Enjoyed my warspite, was looking forward to the british line.

 

 trained some captains up, saved my free xp for the british cruisers, and have been left disappointed.

 

One of the greatest navy's in the world, no HE, paper thin, and a shell arc like throwing a banana.  

 

I will take a break.

 

 

[Admiral_H_Nelson]

While this is probably a very unpopular point of view right now, this is exactly one of the points here. However, the question is rather: can we integrate both of these "philosophies" (i think the word is too big in this context) into the same framework, but with different content.

 

From our point of view the answer is yes. There is no strict rule that says content has to be equally easy to play - the only requirement is that its balanced in terms of effectiveness. Of course at first it may seem unfair that an average Joe Potato can just show up and be effective on average with other ships of a similar type while you have to endure to get good and harvest the potential. However, i believe this is acceptable, as those players who do put in that effort and skill will eventually start getting above average results in the long run.

 

"However, i believe this is acceptable, as those players who do put in that effort and skill will eventually start getting above average results in the long run."

Bollocks. You have no proof other than mere conjecture that this will happen. (As well as spinning to do your job as Wargaming rep) Some of us have tried very, very hard to improve and still get stuck at a mediocre level. No matter how much effort you put into something, ultimately success is down to aptitude and inherent skills. For example, I could hire the best tennis coaches and practice intensively, and whilst I might improve I would never get to World Championship level.

 

I've been playing the RN cruisers tonight. Completed the grind through tiers 1,2 and 3.  In terms of average damage, this is how the RN compares (for me) at tier 2

Dresden	24706
Emden	22249
Novik	21772
Weymouth	13794

 

and tier 3

Katori	44145
Bogatyr	43036
Caledon	26088

I think of myself as reasonably patriotic - look at my IGN for example - but so far I find them completely unappealing and frustrating. You need a high skill level to make use of them and I don't have it, and feel excluded from my own countries ships! 

 

TBH right now I despise these ships and I despise Wargaming for what they have done.

 

If they wanted an experimental gimmick line they should have used the Russian Navy. Whilst the Red Army was magnificent in World War 2, their fleet had a minor support role, unlike in WoWs where it has many of the best ships in the game.  Bias? Much?

[Azuremare]

I used free xp to skip up to t6 and il glad I did.

My CA play is not great but I'm improving and find the demands of RN to be a challenge.

You really can not yolo and need to work as a team to get the best out of them I feel.

Enjoying the challenge but do feel HE is needed when facing well armoured ships

This reminds me very much of my time on WOT playing whatever tank vs a tank 2 tiers higher. Just can't do squat to its front armour with normal rounds.

Difference on WOWS is no matter the tier difference you feel you can cause damage with HE.

[LetsRockAndRoll]

I seem to remember the German cruisers being pretty sub par when first released. However, over time they have received some WG love and now they are mostly quite good.

I'm sure given time and suitably poor performance data our beloved RN cruisers will also get some much needed WG love.

In the meantime may I suggest we all show some of the famous British 'stiff upper lip' instead of running around waving our pitch forks in the air like a bunch of colonials .

 

[Djansolo]

I only got to tier 3 so far.

Not impressed so far. Had a really crap game in t2 when I got too close to a Nassau and got deleted in one salvo, but which t2 cruiser can survive that?

The most annoying thing is the high arc. I understand the reasoning but could it be just a little lower?

I dont mind using some lead and having go guess at opponents intensions, but this is overdoing it.

 

But cant use my games to compare other lines, since 90% of my opponents have been other RN CL

Leander have been my goal ever since the lines was announced, so 1-5 are just something to grind past.

 

[Mike_Chaffin]

"On the whole, the ships in the new branch are excellent for hunting destroyers."

 

 Bollocks.

 

I posed a question on another thread asking whether the lower tiers were some form of Russian joke or a calculated insult. Clearly, given that they appear to have employed several Comical Ali's to half heartedly defend them they are an insult and a deliberate one at that.

 

 I mean really? The Emerald has a challenging playstyle does it? Good against DDs is it? High DPM is it?

 

 I'm sorry to say that any professional respect that I would feel for a fellow dev has been rescinded by the piss taking tone and utter contempt for those who indirectly pay your salaries.

 

 You won't get another penny out of me.

 

 Enjoy your cabbage.

[Charger76]

I can accept and to a degree applaud the rationale expressed by the OP, except for one thing: the appaling flight time / round velocity.

 

Increase it to be on a par with the German T5 / T6 cruiser guns & fine, get on with it.

[Ze_Reckless]

I'm at Danae. I don't hate the RN cruisers, but I haven't seen a keeper yet. It's too soon for a definitive opinion because the MM isn't exactly normal right now.

I'm grinding all lines except for CVs, so I'm used to adapting my play style to a ship and not the other way around. I like this combination of CL/DD play style, I think the higher tiers will be interesting to play. The 12 point captain you gave us along with Campbeltown will surely come in handy.

 

I have only two gripes about the addition of the first RN line:

 

1. It would have been wiser to add the supposedly easier to play RN BBs first, see this thread.

2. I tried one battle with South Carolina and one with Nikolai. Oh boy, it was fun.  When one turret is enough for a devastating strike ...

Edit: Apparently, Clemson HE citadels a Caledon at mid range. 

 

So I'm not sure how this will go for people/newbs who will start this line in a couple of weeks when the MM gets back to normal BB levels.

[Takru]

Something that surprised me was one particular game yesterday.

 

Managed to get two citadel hits on a Caledon.

While she was angled away from me. (so I hit the aft section)

While sailing a Campbeltown (102mm guns).

With HE.

 

 

[Gudgeon]

The thing is, the smpke does not help that much. As soon as you stop for smoking BBs start spamming  into the smoke, and since you are made up from cits you get delieted in no time. No matter the angle you are in.

 

This is it. Once the line has been around a bit and people know the tricks, every time an RN ship parks in his little puff of smoke, a hail of steel and torps will be on its way. The RN ship will have to move and then it gets snapped in two by all-comers.

[Gudgeon]

I'm at Danae. I don't hate the RN cruisers, but I haven't seen a keeper yet. It's too soon for a definitive opinion because the MM isn't exactly normal right now.

I'm grinding all lines except for CVs, so I'm used to adapting my play style to a ship and not the other way around. I like this combination of CL/DD play style, I think the higher tiers will be interesting to play. The 12 point captain you gave us along with Campbeltown will surely come in handy.

 

I have only two gripes about the addition of the first RN line:

 

1. It would have been wiser to add the supposedly easier to play RN BBs first, see this thread.

2. I tried one battle with South Carolina and one with Nikolai. Oh boy, it was fun.  When one turret is enough for a devastating strike ...

Edit: Apparently, Clemson HE citadels a Caledon at mid range. 

 

So I'm not sure how this will go for people/newbs who will start this line in a couple of weeks when the MM gets back to normal BB levels.

 

I'm at tier 5 and there are no keepers so far. That is a damming indictment of the line. Is there any other line this can be said about? All lines have fun ships dotted throughout the low tiers.......

 

At tier 6 I suspect the Cleveland and Buddy would be better ships. Above tier 7 you really begin to meet ships that will tear you a new ar......

 

 

[TycBrum]

 

I was able to do just fine against DD's when I was testing the ships. The RN AP shells have a special 2 setting fuse mechanism that allows them to arm and detonate even when striking lightly armored targets, thereby reducing the chance of overpenetrations.

 

 

We will, we just received the guide quite late and need it translated before posting it, it will probably appear there on Monday.

 

 

If you pay attention to the map and use your excellent concealment to your advantage, you can easily avoid close encounters with most battleships, I am much more scared of CA's.

 

 

First of all let me thank you for your well balanced, constructive and helpful criticism. [sarcasm Alert!]

 

Kandly of course did not write an in-depth guide on how to play RN cruisers in her third week at Wargaming, although I would like to point out that she has probably played them more than you have.

 

The guide was put together by the development team, foremost among them Sub_Octavian.

 

If everyone could put their pitchforks down and actually go play the cruisers, you might end up liking them, I certainly did. 

 

 

 

Your posting high tier Screenies ! post low tier ones, you CANNOT BECAUSE THEY SUCK AND NO ONE WANTS TO PROGRESS THROUGH THEM - it is really that hard to understand.  Upto tier 7 they are borked and need FIXING !!!! Jesus ......

[300ConfirmedKills]

Why is this Guide to RN cruisers pinned to the top of the general 'Gameplay' board instead of the 'Game guides' > 'Ships' > 'Cruisers' board? There are more than enough pinned threads on this board already.
Why was the user-created thread on RN cruisers generally (i.e.: not a guide) moved from the 'Gameplay' board to the 'Game guides' > 'Ships' > 'Cruisers' board?

[Admiral_noodle]

I think the mixed emotions going round exactly mirror my experiences with these ships. Now I've done it once I'll be interested to see if my thoughts and feelings change now I'm grinding then for real.

 

So far yes. What I'm seeing is some players really struggling with how to play the ships. Others seem to naturally take to them.

 

Hilariously the boot camp mission is "sink 25 cruisers in a BB".

Serious lul

 

But playing a battleship this morning I had the choice of three British cruisers to delete on strait with my imperator. (Don't blame me. Boot camp mission!) Two of said cruisers sailed predictably. So I deleted them. The third never stopped randomly turning. That was deeply annoying and I didn't manage to kill him in open water. The low tier RNCL are very agile and this method of sailing - basically sail drunk - does pay off.

 

So I deleted a Kuma instead.

 

Moral of story: to have any hope of avoiding being deleted at low tier, sail drunk.

[aquiles7389]

Well, it looks that WG waited for the loved RN to make experiments, so it's harder to reject the ships (I am at Emerald and hate them so far, except when I'm sailing a battleship), they even gave the long-bow ballistic for the history lovers. I waited for RN so much, but not like this...

And if you shield yourselves with "Only good players can play them right", let me tell you good players can play any ship right and even some of them are complaining.

As I can see this, only players that love the RN and don't care too much about anything else can play this line.

[tajj7]

Still don't get the logic of the arcs and shell velocities. 

 

AP only Cruiser line should have the best damn AP shells in the game, ok they are 6 inch so you can't give them that high damage but you can give them very high penetration and very high shell velocities, thus fast flat arcs. 

 

Cos currently it makes no sense for the role they are supposed to play and their fragility, I was watching vids of the tier 10 and even at like 12km the majority of shells just do not hit, then 50% of those that do hit break or bounce. 

 

So you have these giant floating citadels that can get deleted from any angle, which means they can't risk really getting to even medium ranges of their targets, but then at those longer ranges they can barely hit anything.

 

So you are left with sit in smoke, hope someone is within about 10km of you so you can actually reliably hit them, and they sail broadside onto to you.

 

Makes no sense, stupidly fragile ships that shouldn't ever get close to anything, but potato launchers for guns that can't hit anything at longer ranges, and can't do damage to anything that angles.

 

Leaving you with ships that can do gimmicky smoke trick and rely on the badness of enemies to enable them to do damage.

 

What are these ships supposed to fight? Not DDs, they can't hit them unless they get really close, not BB's because all they need to do is angle and everything will bounce, plus the the BB can easily delete them from any angle and not other CAs either because again multiple bounces and easily citadelled, and not CVs because though their AA is ok they have no defensive fire.

 

In Rock, Paper, Scissors mechanic, they seem to be wet toilet paper. 

[Trigger_Happy_Dad]

Ships without HE in a game where ALL other ships have HE?

 

just lol

 

At the same time there is the Belfast, AP + HE + smoke + hydro + radar - most obvious cash grab ever?

 

But hey, there are other great games out there, so who cares how you wreck your game. ;)

 

P.S. Thread reported - 'cos you guys don't care for your own forum rules.

[Charger76]

Still don't get the logic of the arcs and shell velocities. 

 

AP only Cruiser line should have the best damn AP shells in the game, ok they are 6 inch so you can't give them that high damage but you can give them very high penetration and very high shell velocities, thus fast flat arcs. 

 

 

THIS WG.

 

SIMPLE.

 

SHORT RANGE AP ONLY, THEN MAKE IT FAST & DIRECT. NO MORE ARC FIRING.

[damo74]

 

The RN cruisers have a very high skill-cap and we would absolutely not recommend them for new or very casual players. 

 

So basically, this entire line of ships is for elite players, and screw everyone else?

 

Pathetic!