The reviews: USS Alabama

[Verence196]

USS Alabama

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Other collected reviews: Duca d'Aosta - Mutsu - Okhotnik

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I'm continuing trying to gather all the reviews of new premium ships from the main community contributors in one easy-to-view post. The next ship up is the Alabama!

 

The by now (in)famous American premium tier VII battleship Alabama is now available!

Alabama is not a paper ship. In fact you can still go and visit her, as she's docked permanently as a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama. She's a South Dakota-class battleship, being an intermediate design between the North Carolina and the Iowa classes. As such she is shorter than the NC, and armed with nine 406mm(16")/45 cal guns. Her top speed is 28.9 kn.

 

 

The reviews

• *Aerroon
• Armada (Wargaming)
• Flamu
• *iChase
• *LittleWhiteMouse
• Naval Legends (Wargaming)
• *Notser
• *NoZoupForYou
• *NoZoupForYou, Lert & LittleWhiteMouse
• *PointyHairedJedi
• Qckslvrslash
• *Yuzral

 

I'll keep updating the overhead as new reviews are released. If you find one which I haven't posted yet, please put it in a comment and I'll update the list.

A star * indicates that the review predates the lowering of the Alabama citadel. The review is thus somewhat out of date. 

 

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Aerroon

 

 

Armada (Wargaming)

 

 

Flamu

 

 

iChase

 

 

LittleWhiteMouse

Premium ship review: Alabama

 

 

Naval Legends (Wargaming)

 

 

Notser


 

NoZoupForYou

 

 

NoZoupForYou, Lert & LittleWhiteMouse

 

 

PointyHairedJedi

 

 

Qckslvrslash

 

 

Yuzral

 

 

Note: All credit for content goes to the relevant community contributors. They certainly have my personal thanks for all their hard work.

[Haleos]

The high citadel and an amazingly bad dispersion makes this ship an impressively bad premium compared to any other t8 BB's.

[Allied_Winter]

Here's Flamu's review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg0Oe8yrMlk

 

Greetings

[Verence196]

Here's Flamu's review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg0Oe8yrMlk

 

Greetings

 

Thanks! Added.

[Allied_Winter]

 

Thanks! Added.

 

You're welcome! Is it intentional, that the "N" of Notser has a different link (named 'Little White Mouse') while the "otser" is actually named 'Notser' and scrolls down to Notser's review.

 

 

Greetings

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Looks like this ship is the poor relation to the NC and Iowa/Missouri...

 

Only reason you'd buy is if you don't already have high tier USN BBs which will push even more unsuitable kids into high tier battles...

[Gojuadorai]

i guess if its a good ship will depend on weather it wil get the citadel lowered as the iowa will or if it stays like it is now.

[Verence196]

 

You're welcome! Is it intentional, that the "N" of Notser has a different link (named 'Little White Mouse') while the "otser" is actually named 'Notser' and scrolls down to Notser's review.

 

 

Greetings

 

Heh. Good find. Just me trying out too fancy layout stuff. =p

Fixed. 

[xXx_Blogis_xXx]

its a meh ,not even worth

[RUSSIANBlAS]

its a meh ,not even worth

 

T8 Prem ships aren't cheap either. Prinz Eugen is still £30 on discount and it's a clone of a fairly meh ship.

 

Doubt WG will drop their prices for this one.

[Verence196]

 

T8 Prem ships aren't cheap either. Prinz Eugen is still £30 on discount and it's a clone of a fairly meh ship.

 

Doubt WG will drop their prices for this one.

 

Yeah. This one is going to sell well in the US no matter what.

To be fair, Flamu is way harsher than Notser and Zoup's assessments. And I'm not really a fan of the sentiment that premiums should always be fantastic ships. They shoulld offer something unique in terms of playstyle or feel, but not be overpowered. That's just saying that the game should be ptw. The Prinz Eugen is a poor premium simply because she is a copy of a tech tree ship. Not because everyone can't carry games in her.

[Origin47]

Here's one of strangers123's games:

[RUSSIANBlAS]

 

Yeah. This one is going to sell well in the US no matter what.

To be fair, Flamu is way harsher than Notser and Zoup's assessments. And I'm not really a fan of the sentiment that premiums should always be fantastic ships. They shoulld offer something unique in terms of playstyle or feel, but not be overpowered. That's just saying that the game should be ptw. The Prinz Eugen is a poor premium simply because she is a copy of a tech tree ship. Not because everyone can't carry games in her.

 

Flamu is the Op Ship King. He doesn't rubber stamp Prem Ships unless they can hard carry to his tastes.

 

I at least like a Prem ship to be special or unique to play. Poor Alabama doesn't seem to offer a single thing another high tier USN BB brings.

 

I consider this WG's punishment to us for whining that Alabama was going to be ST only 

[Pekoe_Darjeeling]

It's battleship and tier 7(#always best MM) so she will do fine as most battles you will be top tier.

[Verence196]

 

I at least like a Prem ship to be special or unique to play. Poor Alabama doesn't seem to offer a single thing another high tier USN BB brings.

 

 

We agree on this. A premium ship should preferably offer something special in the way of playstyle. It doesn't need to be overpowered. The exp bonus and captain training perks are already plenty enough reason to get one.

[LilJumpa]

It's battleship and tier 7(#always best MM) so she will do fine as most battles you will be top tier.

 

Tier 8

[Pekoe_Darjeeling]

 

Tier 8

 

???

 

The by now (in)famous American premium tier VII battleship Alabama is nearing her release.

[LilJumpa]

 

???

 

 

[Admiral_H_Nelson]

 

???

 

 

Sorry to disappoint, but all three videos confirm it, the USS Alabama is tier 8.

[Pekoe_Darjeeling]

 

 

 

Sorry to disappoint, but all three videos confirm it, the USS Alabama is tier 8.

 

I see. I didn't watch the video so I assumed a BB at tier 7 with those guns would be quite good. Then at tier 8 I would mostly land with tier 10 ships with my luck :/

[ShinGetsu]

We had some training match against the UFR clan yesterday in my clan, and they have a supertester that came with his Alabama.

The ship itself isn't bad but... at one point, I found myself in a brawling duel against him, I was in NC. I was coming out of a smoke so he did a good -35k on my broadside, but when I had my guns on his broadside... I killed him with one salvo, and only the two bow turret : 5 citadel hits out of 6 shells, -50.000 HP. Even against broadside Iowas I rarely do that much damage. 

The citadel is clearly very, very high... I don't think the ship is worth buying it at the moment. It can probably replace a NC for a good player, but I'm pretty sure getting a Missouri is way more interesting.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

 

The citadel is clearly very, very high... I don't think the ship is worth buying it at the moment. It can probably replace a NC for a good player, but I'm pretty sure getting a Missouri is way more interesting.

 

I already had an NC and grinded Iowa to Monty. A long the way I earnt enough free XP for Missouri.

 

All the USN BB you could want by doing it my way 

 

NC got it's sigma buffed fairly recently too so she's better than ever. Some argue one of the best USN BBs for their tier. Has no real weaknesses other than a slightly bad long range dispersion and slow shell arcs but the latter can be worked with.

[_General_Grievous]

I for one am glad it isn't an OP killing machine. From what I'm seeing it appears to be a slightly worse North Carolina which I guess is similar to the Tirpitz, which is generally agreed to be weaker than its tech tree equivalent. It's still usable and great for collectors, I definitely won't be purchasing her though.

Also don't take Flamu's word as gospel, he absolutely savaged the Dunkerque which is a fantastic premium.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

I for one am glad it isn't an OP killing machine. From what I'm seeing it appears to be a slightly worse North Carolina which I guess is similar to the Tirpitz, which is generally agreed to be weaker than its tech tree equivalent. It's still usable and great for collectors, I definitely won't be purchasing her though.

Also don't take Flamu's word as gospel, he absolutely savaged the Dunkerque which is a fantastic premium.

 

Tirp isn't arguably any weaker than Bismarck. 

 

It's more situational sure but a Bismarck can't rush any BB beneath a Yam going full bow in, turn at the last minute then shove quad torps up the enemy 

 

Flamu is an OP ship  merchant yes as I like Dunker very much and I feel its no weaker than any of the other T6 BBs, Prem or otherwise.

[ScratxNeko]

I for one am glad it isn't an OP killing machine. From what I'm seeing it appears to be a slightly worse North Carolina which I guess is similar to the Tirpitz, which is generally agreed to be weaker than its tech tree equivalent. It's still usable and great for collectors, I definitely won't be purchasing her though.

Also don't take Flamu's word as gospel, he absolutely savaged the Dunkerque which is a fantastic premium.

 

Slightly doesn't seem to be half of it. The exposed citadel makes nuking it far easier than a North Carolina. It's like the Iowa, in fact. The reality seems to be that the Alabama is a much more fragile battleship than any other tier 8 battleship and it doesn't even get anything for it other than a better torpedo belt as compared to the North Carolina. Which is useless unless you lack a brain to use WASD Hax or are going in for the brawl, at which point your biggest problem actually is the citadel, not the cheeky DDs that might be around to nuke you with torps. Doing Bow-on combat to avoid exposing the sides also means any cheeky metal fishes tossed at you are likely to hit the bow. Guess which area doesn't have a torpedo belt protecting it...

 

Stack on top of those problems the fact you also get downgraded gun accuracy and one has to wonder if they shouldn't just go get a North Carolina and be done with it. It just doesn't seem to have much of a prayer to hold its own against the other tier 8 BBs. Nobody's asking it to be OP, but between worse AA, worse main battery accuracy and abysmal citadel... all we get is about Amagi level of torpedo belt? Really? That's balanced?

 

I am hoping they lower the citadel before release, just like they're lowering the Iowa's and Montana's. The ship's kind of DOA otherwise. Sure, many people will still buy it regardless but it's largely going to be crap.

 

By the way, I strongly disagree the Tirpitz is weaker than the Bismarck. In fact, they're about even. Bismarck is a bit more consistent when secondary specced, but the Tirpitz's torps are a stinger tail that's extremely useful with some regularity if you aren't base camping. Hell, I'm far more afraid of the charging Tirpitz than I am of the charging Bismarck. The Bismarck's secondaries can't nuke me for 30+k damage like the Tirpitz's torps can.

 

 

Everyone should make up their own minds about the ships as presented by the reviewers, anyway. Nobody should take their opinions as gospel.