Pensacola

[GulvkluderGuld]

 

Yes I played in in CBT. Also, BBs all the way to the Nagato. I had a blast with the Pepsicola when I elited it,capable of dodging BBs sniping and introducing them to mister 8 inch shell.

 

Hum hum, thank for your well reasoned reply and interesting thoughts. I Figured you probably played more than IJN CAs 

My experience with the Pepsi is not all that different to yours. Fully upgraded it packs a decent punch with those 8' shells. 

 

Where I find it to suffer is on the defensive side. Especially in the current BB heavy meta, Pepsi's are just so much free Xp waiting to be picked up by the BBs....and they're really, really easy to citpen with BBs fire from 15 kms away.Reducing that rediculous concealment rating would probably help a lot.

 

Also I've  had my Pensa get Citpenned when i were bows on at 10 km to a BB a couple times. That never happened in other US cruisers. 

Does that happen to IJN CAs?

 

Clevelands? Two small citadels below the water line. It's not hard to penetrate, the armor isn't anything special, but the citadels are just oddly place, and hard to hit.

Any claim that "you just have to aim at a specific spot and you'll get easy citpens on a Cleveland" is, with as much due respect as possible, a giant hunk of bull****

 

Agree you arn't going to citpen Clevelands without knowing where to shoot it. I was also pretty sure we were going to disagree. Maybe should've clarified I were talking 14'-16' BB fire, not Cruiser fire. 

 

 

 

Howeer m

[RAMJB]

 

 

 

Also I've  had my Pensa get Citpenned when i were bows on at 10 km to a BB a couple times. That never happened in other US cruisers. 

Does that happen to IJN CAs?

 

 

It happens to all ships. Shells can pierce the front bulkhead and go all the way in to the internals.

 

concealment range is bad, but the rest of the ship is very good. at 15km BBs will shoot at you but if you time your maneouvers well, they're not going to hit a lot. Key with this ship is not being hit, and that is achieved, in the first instance, by sailing alongside something people want to shoot at more (Clevelands work well as they're perceived as insane threats, but Atlantas work the best as everyone and their mother primaries them the second they become visible XD) or a threat so powerful they can't allow themselves to be distracted to fire at that highly maneouverable difficult to hit pensacola (High tier BBs).

 

And once you're being fired to, keep steep angles, never sail in a straight line, do continuous zigzags (but not in a repeated pattern the enemy can predict). Try to always engage at 12km or more, as that way you'll have more time for evasives. Given how maneouverable this ship is, it'll be hard to hit you, and given that if you time maneouvers right when you're hit you should be very angled towards the incoming shells, chances of a citadel are much lower than broadside on.

 

The problems come when you're primaried by several ships from different angles, and the only solution to that is not putting yourself in a situation where you are primaried. Never sail alone (you shouldn't anyway, your AAA is really good so you should be escorting big units anyway) and chances of that happening will be seriously lowered.

 

This thing is a very fun ship, I loved mine to bits and I really wanted to keep mine. However in the end the cost of moving to the NO forced me to sell it, but I'm more than definitely buying it again when I have the credits.

 

 

Here's a video of me doing the Pepsicola. Commentary is not about the game however, but rather about some real life issues I had to go through to get my laptop fixed (heh). But the gameplay itself showcases the Pensacola's style pretty well and what this ship can do when sailed right. It also has a pretty amusing chat log to top it off so it's got a little bit of everything XD.

 

 

[Exocet6951]

 

Hum hum, thank for your well reasoned reply and interesting thoughts. I Figured you probably played more than IJN CAs 

My experience with the Pepsi is not all that different to yours. Fully upgraded it packs a decent punch with those 8' shells. 

 

Where I find it to suffer is on the defensive side. Especially in the current BB heavy meta, Pepsi's are just so much free Xp waiting to be picked up by the BBs....and they're really, really easy to citpen with BBs fire from 15 kms away.Reducing that rediculous concealment rating would probably help a lot.

 

Also I've  had my Pensa get Citpenned when i were bows on at 10 km to a BB a couple times. That never happened in other US cruisers. 

Does that happen to IJN CAs?

Well, the BB heavy matches are a problem for cruisers in general, past tier 5. Before that, they are so thinly armored that AP isn't really a problem, and BBs have potato-thrower accuracy, so you don't get hit that much.

Citpens happen maybe a bit less on the Myoko, since it has a bit more armor. But overall, it's a a reccuring problem on IJN cruisers. If you're caught at a low angle by a battleship at low ranges, you're losing at least 20k hp.  It's the price you pay for decent guns and torpedoes. The concept of the Pepsi isn't bad, and I'm almost certain lowering the 15km concealment range to 12km would boost its global WR by an entire %

 

 

Agree you arn't going to citpen Clevelands without knowing where to shoot it. I was also pretty sure we were going to disagree. Maybe should've clarified I were talking 14'-16' BB fire, not Cruiser fire. 

Well, even when you know where to fire, you have to sacrifice goats just to try to get RNG to cooperate. The shells need to go at the right place, and if the range is too low, the penetration roll needs to be high enough to go underwater and still pen the armor.

It's much easier for large, BB shells, since they tend to fire from further away and have the plunging fire to negate the waterline problem. That said, many, many goats still need to be sacrificed to actually hit the citadel. To a point where I don't even fire only AP at Clevelands at low range any more. I oscilatte between 8" AP and HE, since at least 75% of AP shells just overpenetrate, doing minimal damage.

 

I will grant you that it's an overall less random task when using a battleship.

 

[GulvkluderGuld]

RAMJB, on 11 October 2015 - 05:49 PM, said:

 

 

It happens to all ships. Shells can pierce the front bulkhead and go all the way in to the internals.

 

concealment range is bad, but the rest of the ship is very good. at 15km BBs will shoot at you but if you time your maneouvers well, they're not going to hit a lot. Key with this ship is not being hit, and that is achieved, in the first instance, by sailing alongside something people want to shoot at more (Clevelands work well as they're perceived as insane threats, but Atlantas work the best as everyone and their mother primaries them the second they become visible XD) or a threat so powerful they can't allow themselves to be distracted to fire at that highly maneouverable difficult to hit pensacola (High tier BBs).

 

I guess you are a lot of people who like the ship out there. Thanks for providing the replay.

 

If you ever meet me in a random though...you better stay out of my range if you sail Pepsi. I heartily disagree with you assesment of that ship. True it will be incredibly dead of threatened from multiple directions, but so are almost any CA or even BB.

 

The issue I have is that everyone and their mother targets Pensacolas first, due to how insanely easy it is to kill. Then focus the rest of the CAs (cleveland etc) down after. Atlanta has to get in range to be a threat. So kite away and shoot up the other CAs first 

 

As for range, 12 km is close (almost suicide) range for a Pensacola vs any BB in my experience. The moment you show even a hint of sides, it means a possible citpen. And if you get inside 10 kms, the BB can soon reliably hit the bows and citadel that way. If no, you have to turn around = free broadside shots.

The only way I found to sail Pepsi was to always go with the side where the friendlies have a numbers advantage or to kite at max range = 14-15 kms.

 

I could go on, but there really is no point, since smart Pepsis dont 1v1 any BB, and you already pointed out the main reason they get citpenned: Due to the insane concealment rating, it gets detected at long range and citadelled by shots from something it doesn't even see (IJN BB or spot plane US BB). The second most abundant reason is captains not paying attention to multiple fronts and getting citadelled from an unexpected direction.

 

Exocet6951, on 11 October 2015 - 06:50 PM, said:

The concept of the Pepsi isn't bad, and I'm almost certain lowering the 15km concealment range to 12km would boost its global WR by an entire %

 

 

Well, even when you know where to fire, you have to sacrifice goats just to try to get RNG to cooperate......

..... To a point where I don't even fire only AP at Clevelands at low range any more. I oscilatte between 8" AP and HE, since at le

 Lowering the concealment would save a ton of pensa hp otherwise lost to long-range BB fire the pensa didnt even know was there. Agree =)

 

As for RNGesus, it's just a fact of life. Some games I had it "oneshot" multiple 20+hp clevelands at strange angles too. I dont even bother sacrificing goats any longer. RNGesus dont seem to like my goats.

 

As for 6' and 8' fire vs Clevelands, I will grant you the ship is a much, much tougher proposition. 

I did some testing back in my Pepsi, and what i found is that you can hit the citadel areas reliably from about 6 kms. If the range is larger, I tended to fire HE unless the Cleve is sailing straight lines only.

[chaplainDMK]

Pensa is horrific, I cannot understand why it has to have SO MANY negtaives. It has no armor to speak off, it's citadel is freaking huge, it has pretty meh range (a Cleveland with the 155mm gun range boost captain skill outranges you heavily), the guns don't seem to be THAT good, and stock the traverse is insanely bad (45 seconds, what the hell?). It also seems to bleed speed like crazy in turns, much more than the Cleveland. All this coupled means that I find it incredilby hard to actually kite with the Pensa, as any movement will just throw my turrets off, and i'll loose 15 knots. 

 

The best situations I've found for the Pensa is to just ambush cruisers at extremely close range, basically like a US destroyer. Pop out from behind an island, AP loaded, and just unload into the citadel of the enemy cruiser. The damage potential and DPM of the ship is pretty significant if you can do that, and it means you don't have to manouver so much, so your turrets can stay on target. 

[Nefczi]

Pensa is horrific, I cannot understand why it has to have SO MANY negtaives. It has no armor to speak off, it's citadel is freaking huge, it has pretty meh range (a Cleveland with the 155mm gun range boost captain skill outranges you heavily), the guns don't seem to be THAT good, and stock the traverse is insanely bad (45 seconds, what the hell?). It also seems to bleed speed like crazy in turns, much more than the Cleveland. All this coupled means that I find it incredilby hard to actually kite with the Pensa, as any movement will just throw my turrets off, and i'll loose 15 knots. 

 

The best situations I've found for the Pensa is to just ambush cruisers at extremely close range, basically like a US destroyer. Pop out from behind an island, AP loaded, and just unload into the citadel of the enemy cruiser. The damage potential and DPM of the ship is pretty significant if you can do that, and it means you don't have to manouver so much, so your turrets can stay on target. 

 

The DPM is pretty bad actually. Each salvo deals decent amount of damage but the reload is very long. Myoko has 22% more DPM for example. "Ambushing" enemy ships is hard to perform considering than Pensacola has by far the worst concealment among cruisers(15.7km) and worse even than some battleships...

 

Stock Pensacola is really painfull but fully upgraded is actulaly more agile than Cleveland, has smaller turning circle and better rudder shift time. The turret traverse(with upgraded guns) is also quite nice, considering the gun calliber. The upgraded gun traverse speed of Pensacola is actually slightly better than Cleveland, and much better than IJN cruisers.

 

Fully upgraded Pepsi is quite agile and can dodge long range fire fairly well. The problem is that it often doesnt matter much, as even if you are angled, every shell that hits is either a citadel or heavy damage. Even if you avoid a full salvo there is often that wild shell that had poor dispersion and hit you regardless of your good maneuver.  You can only bounce some cruiser shells from the front and as long as them aim low. 

 

Its generally an extremly squishy ship with horrible concealment so you are spotted often before battleships and therefore you are usually the primary target for everything. On top of squishiness you get pretty bad DPM(altho alpha is quite decent). Its a glass cannon without a cannon really. You really have to work very hard and be on top of your game to do well in this ship.

[Username_not_allowed]

The Pensacola is just a piece of crap. Getting volleyed by everyone and everything, no matter about the angle.

 

Just sold that useless piece of sh** and went back to drive the Cleveland.

[oosel]

this weekend i was torped by one of my own team because he said i was a coward for not capping a point with him he in his dd zipping around while 2 clevelands and a bb were happily plinking away at me as i turned to get out of there he goes nuts and launches all his torps at me for what he said was being a pussy and wimping out needless to say after taking one of his torps the bb then happily citadeled me.  sometimes i think people who have never been in a pensa just dont realise its not a brawler in any shape or form

[fgibert]

I really cannot understand what the fuss is all about.

True, a stock pensacola was the worst experience I had in any ship I played so far (I even free exp'ed the (B) hull).

But fully unlocked it is perfectly OK. For sure, like any cruiser you need decent situational awareness to know where are the enemy BBs that might citadel you if you show them your nice big paper side armor. The firepower is very good, shell arc and speed are much much better than on cleveland, shooting range is ok, AA is more than enough to defend yourself and escort some frendlies against same tier CVs. Oh, and the maneuverability is also good.

For the sake of god, just do not enter a brawl against a BB, hit it from 15km away and the BB will burn again and again while losing some 3k to 5k health per decently aimed salvo.

 

The only two points that annoy me slightly are  :

A) no torpedoes. hence, no way to ambush a BB at close range or simply deter a BB chasing you from going up close.

B) the range at which this ship is spotted is, like... seriously??? the only cruiser in the game that gets the concelament of a battleship! I serioulsy wonder whether this is a bug or not, for I cannot see why this single ship should have this disadvantage compared to all its competitors. Not that it matters in most battles, but still late game when the teams are spread thin, this can cost you the initiative.

[Vadon90]

Dude this thing gets 1 shotted even if you angle. Sure it has nice guns but for the rest it's a 1 big floating citadel which you can see from the moon. This thing should be a nice tier 6 replacement though when the cleveland gets moved to tier 7/8.

Also everytime I see a pensacola I see a xp pinata as shooting it will give you guaranteed citadel hits 

[Pokerjoker]

You do the same thing as in every other ship: click red ships and make them explode. Kill destroyers (very easy). Kill other cruisers (also sorta easy but they tend to shoot back more). Kill battleships, such as Yamatos. Demonstration:

 

 

 

No one is reacting to this CLEAVELAND video?.. wow

[conductiv]

 

 

No one is reacting to this CLEAVELAND video?.. wow

 

because its from march this year...and its October now.

[piritskenyer]

[edited] hard work...

And I didn't even manage that much damage.

 

[bug]

Pensacola is a wonderful ship. But then, I prefer good guns over good armor. Always change direction, and never ever get too close, not even to smaller tier cruisers. I like pensacola much better than cleveland and new orleans. The level 2 perk - incoming fire alert - is absolutely the best one you can have in this boat, and you soon learn to find the perfect distance when using it. If you get too far you cant do as much damage, too close and you dont have time to escape the incoming fire. I think this is the most underrated ship in the game.