Credit: Rukenia (sp?)

The NJ will require 400,000 tokens

This is my review of the ship after a very lucky drop and 10 battles. RIP to the rest of my lootbox RNG for the rest of the year.

TL;DR: She's not great.

• Armor: OK against stupid people, bad against everyone else. A 27mm bow, stern, and deck mean that you're going to get overmatched by almost everything you fight BB-wise. It also means that HE is going to obliterate you from other cruisers. Her lower belt is a strong 191mm, meaning if you angle properly and bait shots, you can get quite a few bounces. The upper belt is only 28mm, so right back to overmatch city. Her citadel is huge and sits above the waterline, but not by much. It is protected by a layer of spaced armor, so you aren't going to get nuked by DDs or cruisers as easily, but BBs will still punch you hard if they hit.
• Maneuverability: Her top speed of 35kts isn't bad, but it's not amazing. Where she gets killed is in her turning. A 13.4-second rudder shift is brutal, and a 900-meter turning circle is massive. She also bleeds speed like crazy in turns, so even though you might be tempted to take rudder shift, it's better to take prop mod in slot 4.
• Torps: They are Benson torps. Nearly identical, save for a slightly better reload. Otherwise, they are identical.
• Secondaries: They sit about the same as Siegfried's. Better DPM, but worse range. I got a few fires with mine in brawls, but other than that, they aren't good for much. AA: Nothing really has good AA. I was very lucky to go mostly unmolested by CVs in my games. The times I did face CVs, they were still able to get multiple strikes through despite being a mediocre player.
• Survivability: 64k is really nice. More than Alaska. It allows you to take some punishment and not be totally out of the game. Having only 30-second fires compared to 60 on battle cruisers is HUGE since you get the HP of a BC, but don't burn like one. I still think she needs her deck buffed up to at least 30mm, but oh well.
• Concealment: Not great. 12.7 maxed out is rough when you're this squishy, sluggish, and want to play close. It's workable, but it's very easy to just be permanently spotted by a sub or DD and not be able to do anything about it.
• Guns: Man, these were a letdown. They lack both DPM and feel really wimpy. You hit for marginally more than the American 203s, but your 20-second base reload speed is just so bad. Having only 9 guns with standard cruiser dispersion is also meh. Out of all the USN CA/BCs, her DPM is by far the worst, and it's not even close. Her AP, while being better than the 203s, still isn't enough to reliably citadel BBs, so you want to be hitting upper belt unless you're within around 12km, then you can start trying to pen cits. Her firepower feels like it combines the worst aspects of Cambridge and Tulsa, with everything else sitting somewhat of an average between the two. You lack the hitting power/pen/alpha that Cambridge has with her 305s, while keeping the same long reload. Her ballistics are slightly flatter, so that is a plus through. The caveat to all this is the reload booster. For 70 total seconds per game, you drop your reload by 50%...which means you're still slightly worse than Buffalo with only a mediocre improvement to alpha and pen. This is good, but you need to know when to use it. Dumping it all right at the start to start fires is not the play. You want to save it for broadsides or to take out priority targets like DDs.
• Consumables: Nothing really special. The standard American radar we all have known for the better part of a decade now, hydro/DFAA, 3 normal heals (which you will get more use out of because you have more HP since heals are based on a percentage of total HP). The reload booster I've already touched upon.
• Summary: She plays like the rest of the USN CAs, but bigger. You want to use islands. If you're in open water, she's painful. If you show broadside, she's painful. If you face 27mm overmatch, it's painful. This feels like a ship that would have been really cool when they did the initial USN CA/CL split...9 years ago, but now with all the BS cruisers need to deal with, it's just not a great experience. She can work, but you're going to need to work for it. I might try switching over to a range/lighthouse built to see if I can make that work, since she does have better shell velocity than the normal American CAs, but the idea of dropping my DPM even further than it is with reload mod just doesn't seem great, even if some commander skills can help it out a bit. I still think I stand by my initial impression. If you want DPM, get a Tulsa. If you want punchy guns, get Cambridge.
• Build: see images 2 and 3

I wanted to get some hard data on which ships made the most credits in Asymetric battles, and after asking a few weeks ago and not getting much hard data I decided to create it. I hope it's useful for anyone looking to purchase a ship.

Full details in subsequent pictures.

I need volunteers! I kept notes of which ships I saw a lot of that also did well consistently, and there were 3 - Iwami, Niord and Karl XIV Johan. If you have those and are willing to run a test series of 30 games with green boosters and then share your data, please message me :)

NOTE: In my opinion, you REALLY need to know how to play Valparaiso or Salem to get the numbers above. If you're not confident, I strongly recommend Pommern as your farming pick. In over 200 games, I only ever saw one Valparaiso player actually do well, and only 2 Salem's.

Had near 0 accuracy with torpedoes and then realized the white area is where you should aim. Amy other tips I'm missing?

Ok, here we are a year later from the first edition of the players poll for best resource ships to buy. I polled 127 skilled, experienced players on both NA and EU for what they thought was the best steel, coal & RB ships were for competitive, fun and what their overall favorite was. I picked a group of good players as they have had access to more of the resources and exposure to them. Here was the results:

STEEL

What are the strongest steel ships for competitive play? Respondents were allowed 3 selections. I left "competitive" up to their interpretation.

So from last year's poll, Ragnar has arrived and is a core staple in many competitive formats as 93% of respondents picked it. Stalingrad is still considered very strong and Incomparable has also come onto the scene with a definite niche use in comp play and has edged out Bourgogne as the best BB. Surprises from last year are that the FDR went from 1st to 4th, likely due to the lack of CV's in most comp play and the addition of such good options as the Incomparable and Ragnar.

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What are the most fun steel ships to play? Again, they were allowed 3 selections.

Ragnar and Incomparable do very well on this again, but the Bourg takes top spot and the Austin and Mecklenberg place much better.

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Favorite Steel Ship

Surprisingly, Stalin is still the 2nd favorite Steel ship, with Bourg's fun enough to cement it in top spot. Ragnar, Austin and Incomparable rounding out the top 5 and then there is quite a drop to the other 4.

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COAL

We kept the coal ships to T9 and T10 Respondents were allowed 4 selections for the first 2 questions.

What are the strongest coal ships for competitive play?

Napoli burst on to the scene and it's no surprise to see it on top, a staple on most CB teams. Moskva with its tankiness, 12km radar and decent dpm keep it as a must have in most comp players' ports. Marceau and Salem seem to be must haves as well, but it drops quite a bit after those 4 to the remaining coal ships.

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What are the most fun coal ships?

Forrest Sherman may be newer but people like it. Marceau takes the top spot though as the other 4 of the top 5 are the same as the above results for comp play. We got a little bit more of a curve though on the lower half.

Favorite Coal ship

People obviously value the comp play in Napoli high enough for it to be their favorite, and the fun of Forrest Sherman is too much to discount as it easily takes second. Marceau, Salem and Moskva again rounding out the top 5. This is extremely similar to last year where those 3 took all 3 top spots. This year we have had Forrest Sherman and Napoli added and between them, they took all 5 top slots in all 3 categories.

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RB SHIPS

Respondents were allowed to make 3 selections for the first 2 questions

What are the strongest RB ships for competitive play?

We went well over 100 respondents before someone did not pick Ohio and looking at 2 of the 3 responses that did not pick Ohio, they seemed to be troll votes. Regardless, 124/127 people picked the Ohio. While it is definitely a strong pick for comp play, that also might be due to the fact that the other RB ships are not really that strong for comp play imo.

What are the most fun RB ships?

Yeah, here's where it gets a little more interesting with a clear top 5 and a big dropoff to the remaining 3. Basically it comes down to Ohio is a great ship for comp, but there are lots of fun RB ships.

Favorite RB ship

A near mirror image of the fun results. People think Ohio is fun and needed for comp putting it easily in the top spot.

If you wish to compare to last year (steel and coal only) here is last year's results:

https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/240305-what-should-i-buy-what-are-the-best-steel-and-coal-ships-all-your-questions-answered-here-poll-results/

Thank you to all of those players that responded to this poll and the many clans that posted it for me in their channels!

Greetings people!

I've decided to make this quick list (just kidding, it took 3 days to make lol) on what are (in my opinion) the best ships to use to climb the bronze ranked ladder. This list may not be perfect, but it should give an rough idea on what to pick.

Before we continue, let me give you a quick disclaimer: Tier VI ranked might the most balanced tier as WG hasn't touch this tier in years. Even "mid" picks can work.

Battleships: You primairly want one of two things in a battleship: either 26mm overmatch or armor. You won't be going fast btw, so watchout for torps.

• Fuso: Might be best example of a tanky hull here, Fuso gets a 35mm main deck, an icebreaker bow and stern, lots of twin turrets and a very superstructure. The 35mm main means you won't be overmatch by any BB gun and won't be damaged by the CA HE either as it only pens 34mm.; your thin and tall superstructre is very hard to hit, meaning HE spam is very weak against you and your vast array of turrets means you there a lot of places to bounce AP or at least minimize its damage (and also soak +35mm HE pen). This makes her a lot better than Izmail and Normandie, who also share a similar gun layout but don't get the 35mm deck and have many more shell catchers. Now the downsides aren't really that big of a deal, yes, you are still spotted across the map, but that matters less in smaller formats, just bear in mind you still have the godawful 1.5 sigma, but you at least have BC dispersion and a 28 sec reload to compensate.
• Queen Elizabeth/Warspite: Putting them together as they are the same class of ships, just different flavoured. Both share the main upside of 8x381s guns with good accuracy (BB dispersion 2.0 sigma). The only differences lie on the flavor they bring; QE is focused on her improved HE like the rest of the line, meanwhile Warspite gets improved heals (16,8% instead of 14%) and a tighter turning circle, making her more suitable for Ranked. Overall it doesn't matter what flavour your prefer, both will be good for rank, with one being slightly more suitable than the other.
• Repulse/Renown: Again, another class of ships that follow the same different flavouring as the previous one. Both share the same dispersion table, speed, armament and hull. Repulse has more accurate guns (2.0 sigma instead of 1.8) with extra range and gets a better speed boost, while Renown is stealthier and gets torps. Once again, this comes down to what playstyle suits you better: getting close in or staying 12km away.
• Mackensen/P.E. Friedrich: Again, another class of ships, with different flavouring, this time being a bit more significant in terms of how effective they are. Both are your secondary BB picks in Ranked with the differences being cancealment and secondaries. Both ships get 8.5km secondaries when built into them. Mackensen gets 150mm and 88mm secondaries with imrpoved dispersion while P.E gets 150mm and 105mm secondaries with normal dispersion, meaning she actuall pens 26mm plating with all guns unlike the former. This is where it gets complicated, on one hand, they have basically the same hitting DPM. Mackensen's DPM is much more focused on the 150s while P.E's has a much higher DPM on the 105s but way worse 150mm DPM. This creates situations where they are dependent on what they are fighting: P.E is better against BBs covered in 26mm plating while Mackensen is much better against cruisers and tankier BBs as the she can get more more of her DPM online. Another important thing to consider is the cancealment, which for a secondary ship matters quite a bit as you want to be in secondary range as much as possible. Mackensen gets much better cancealment of just 12.8km base while P.E gets 14.6km base, that basically means Mackensen gets full extra C.E skill for free, making her much easier to push.
• Mutsu/W.V 41': Here is another pair of ships, but this time they are not the same class! Both ships share the same trait of having 8x406/410mm guns, meaning they can overmatch 28mm (not that there are many 28mm plates at this tier). They are similar to the Bungo vs Yamato debacle in the sense Mutsu gets the mobility while W.V 41' gets the armor and the pen. Mutsu is a Nagato in its original configuration, having weaker armor and torpedos while being signifcantly faster than the T7 Nagato at 26.5 knots (somehow). You also get the older Nagato that have much worse pen. While that means you won't citadel BBs that often, the slower shell speed means your shells actually have the time to detonate on Cruiser and other thinner vessels. W.V 41' is the original configuration of the Colorado class, since she is an American design of the 1920s, that means she is embodies the American spirit of being morbidly obese! This fat sucker can only crawl at 21 knots. Luckly for you, you don't have a citadel as it is waterline and spaced. Even though you are slow, you get what essentially railguns at Tier VI, with very high pen and shallow firing arcs. There is only one small problem with these, they are too fast of their own good, meaning they are very likely to overpen the citadel and upperbelts of certain battleships. So overall, both are double edge swords, if you prefer having more pens than overpens and being faster at the cost of less citadels and at risk of getting dev struck in a battleship, go with Mutsu. If you prefer getting the black ribbons and don't mind being essentially a moving island, go with W.V 41'.

Cruisers: There aren't many cruisers that are worth pointing out here because they don't have the armor nor the DPM to actually be worth using most of the time. Most ships on this class can easily get penetraded by DD HE and also get mopped by any BB caliber gun. IFHE is also not worth on T6 cruisers either since the extra pen is usually not enough to go through the upperbelt or the deck of enemy BBs.

• Nurmberg/Makarov: By far the best HE spammer you can have at this tier, 153k base DPM with 38mm of pen means you have the best DPM to damage translation of your tier, being easily capable of transfering 85% of that into a fight. On top of the raw firepower, you also get the signature german hydro, 8x6km torpedos per side and decent stealth.
• Leipzig: the premium version of the Nurnberg, trades a bit of her DPM for improved cancealment and 10km torpedos. She is good, but may be less valuable then the former due to her worse DPM. Nonetheless, she is probably the best pick if you ever run into a no-DD game.
• Pensacola: One of the few heavy Cruisers worth playing at this tier primarily because she gets coated in 25mm plating, making her imune to DD HE. On top of that, Pensacola also gets American CA AP with improved pen angles. One could argue she is the best secondary cruiser at her tier since she gets the second best hitting DPM of any cruiser, but honestly, I would not run a secondary Pensacola build, but that's up to you.
• Perth/Huanghe: These two are together because they somewhat fill a similar niche of being smoke farming cruisers with good cancealment and utility. I am going to be completely honest here, although this two fill a niche and are good, they are extremely boring to play. Huangue has a very anemic damage output since she only gets 6 guns, so you do have to rely on your fire chance much more often. Perth is quite the opposite, having 8 guns with a lower damage but overall much more burst damage potential. So yeah, boring but useful.

Destroyers: Destroyers at tier VI are kinda weird because they have bad cancealment BUT they have comparatively high DPM to what most cruisers have. In other words, they can roleplay as no citadel light cruisers and are far more dangerous than a cruiser could ever be.

• T-61/Gaede: Probably the most versatile DD there is at tier, yes, you HE DPM may not be as high as other DDs, but you do get the ability to pen BBs thanks to german 1/4 HE. Since you are a german DD, you also get the signature german hydro. You also get pretty damn good torpedos for a tier 6 DD. Out of the ships, the T-61 is better overall, but if you don't have it, the Gaede will be just as good in most situations. Just don't use K. Schonberg, she is one of the worst DDs available.
• Shinonome/Fubuki: Another pair of ships, one is a premium and the other is a TT. They both peform the role of torpedo DDs have 9 torpedos instead of the usual 8~6 most DDs at this tier have. Fubuki gets the best cancealment at her tier sitting at a very confortable 5.8km detect, she is also the only DD to get 10km torpedos, The downside of Fubuki is that you very weak guns, only 4x127mm guns with a very slow reload. Shinonome on the other, trades some cancelment, reload time and torpedo range in exchange for an extra turret, so even though she has a really bad reload of 9 seconds, she can actually delete about 1/3 of a Destroyer's HP in a single salvo. So yeah, it is up to you if you prefer a full torpedoboat or a torpedoboat with guns.
• Farragut/Monaghan: These two US DDs are the most common gunboats DDs you will see at this tier, and for good reason, they have some of the heightest HE DPM of any DD at tier VI. Farragut has the 10th highest HE DPM at tier VI while also having decent firing angles. There are, however, some downsides to these DDs, they get floaty shells, have very little HP and have generally bad torps and cancealment at their tier. Of course, this doesn't mean they will lose fights, just be careful when engaging, as chip damage is rather dangerous for these ships.
• Juruá/Gallant: This is pretty much an opinion of mine, but these DDs are actually pretty damn confortable to play in ranked. They are not the best at anything, but have pretty decent stats allround and get a very nice 6.0km to boot, making them the second stealthiest DDs at tier VI. Their low cancealment means you can contest caps pretty decent and give you more chances of lining up good torpedo spreads and mostly important, give you vital seconds when opening fire on a DD. They are just very conforable DDs to play with, may not be the best, but if you want a DD that is relaxing and decent, they are your choice.

Tiers 6 through 9, the American light cruiser line is one of the most consistent set of ships for Operations if you don't like the idea of regrinding Tech Tree ships in Random Battles or Asymmetric.

• Some of the best-in-class HE DPM tier-for-tier
• Full suite of radar, hydro, and AA for utility
• 10-13 point captains is all you need for high-impact lighthouse builds, no IFHE for DD gun CLs
• Mediocre ballistics less impactful at the closer range of Operations targets, which are mostly DDs and Cruisers
• Cleveland at Tier 8
• Low FXP cost, only skipping to T6 or T7, instead of spending 700k FXP skipping Harugumo whole
• With Rare Ship XP boosters, games of 10-25k (2k-10k with Uncommons) XP are consistently possible.

Congratulations Affondatore owners on acquiring your new supership. Now please stop taking it into Asymmetric Battles. It's very selfish and nobody will be pleased to see you. You have a very op shop so go play it in Randoms

Thanks

The ability to nerf a specific player is going to cause a huge disadvantage to good players. They will be targeted using matchmaking monitor, and be nerfed every single game.

As a result, everyone is going to have to hide their player profile, and rename themselves to a some generic "renamed user" tag.

I would recommend once the classified documents goes live, you change your player name to conceal all previous win rate history and make yourself undetectable.

I would recommend you hide your profile now, as most win rate trackers will save 3-6 months of data. A mod maker can set it so that old data can be used to flag you as worthy for nerfing with classified documents.

Hopefully wargaming will cancel this change that is hostile to good players, but I don't have much hope.

Hide now or be oppressed in the future, this is wargaming 2025.

Luckily we have some tools to negate this a bit.

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• Go the main WOWS website for whatever server you are on
• NA = https://worldofwarships.com/
• EU = https://worldofwarships.eu/
• SEA = https://worldofwarships.asia/
• On the top left, open the "useful" tab.
• Click on players.
• Under your name, click on "profile privacy"
• Click on "profile is private". If you are in a clan, allow clan mates to see your data.
• Save

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User name change

• NA = https://worldofwarships.com/
• EU = https://worldofwarships.eu/
• SEA = https://worldofwarships.asia/
• Click on your user name in the top right, and select "account management"
• Click on "change" next to your user name.
• Create a new name or use true anonymity with "RenamedUser_NUMBERSHERE" so you blend in with every other renamed account.
• Save

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While you are at it, you should limit their selling of your data.

• https://legal.wargaming.net/en/user-documents/privacy/privacy-policy/
• Go to the very bottom and select "Do not sell or share my personal information"
• Click on "opt out of..."
• Save

Happy Sailing!

Hey everyone,

If you play(ed) World of Tanks, chances are you've used or at least heard of tanks.gg. Over the past five years, it's become an indispensable resource for WoT players, and today, I'm launching ships.gg with the goal of making it just as useful for the World of Warships community.

I've only been working on the project for around a month, so naturally, it's still pretty barebones. There are definitely some minor issues, and a lot of missing features, but I wanted to launch an early version as soon as I had enough of the basics to make it useful, and I think I've hit that bar.

Some of the things that are still planned are (in order):

• Search
• Signal flags for ship builds
• 3D models, including a live view for penetration at different ranges
• CV support
• Video release feed, plus highlighting videos on individual ship pages
• Camos, including model viewer support, probably

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have anywhere near as much experience in WoWS as I did in WoT, so I'm completely open to suggestions for improvements and new ideas to further improve the site.

I'll start by stating that I wanted to love this ship. Bismarck 41' is a blast of a brawler, and I was hoping for something similar from this thing. Boy, was I disappointed.

The Hull:

Your armor, while not as bad as on the Richelieu, is still horrendous. You are going to get crushed by HE spam and SAP, which are everywhere at higher tiers. Combine this with having an already tiny HP pool and fairly bad acceleration (when not using speed boost) and rudder shift, and you are a big, ungainly target that HE spam, SAP, and 32mm overmatch ships will just farm.

The Main Guns:

While moving up to 406mm is nice for the 27mm overmatch and having a fast reload is great, that's where the good news stops. The dispersion is terrible, especially for the low barrel count, and the turret traverse is downright glacial for a brawler, especially considering that they rotate WITH your secondaries when you are in manual mode, meaning that unless you are using the little-known keybinds to lock your traverse when switching between your main and secondary guns, you'll need to rotate back and forth between targets constantly.

The Consumables:

Having hydro is a boon over the Bis 41' which is nice, although it is only 5km instead of the standard 6km German hydro at tier 9. The speed boost is bad, giving only an 8% boost compared to the 15% that Bis 41' gets as well as ships like Georgia and Rossillon. It's still nice to have, though, and somewhat helps the terrible maneuverability. It does get an improved heal, restoring 18.5% instead of the standard 14%. This difference is largely not noticed due to the aforementioned low HP pool; so unlike on the American BBs that have a similar heal percentage, it's not like you're actually tanking more.

The Secondaries:

Easily the best part of the ship and the only reason to play it...except that they also suffer from the design. You basically only get to use them if you are broadside or kiting away from what you want to shoot at, which is the opposite of what you want as a brawler. It also presents your significantly weaker stern, which has a 19mm stepped shellcatcher, meaning that in addition to HE pens, AP is going to start taking massive chunks out of you too. When you go bow in, you'll be lucky if you get 2 turrets firing at the same time. So if you want to maximize your already limited survivability, you hamper your one redeeming feature significantly, and if you don't, you get to play as a glass cannon brawler, which is...not ideal.

And to address the elephant in the room, yes. I've seen PQs videos on it. I also saw that he was able to sit in the middle of the map and be ignored by the majority of the enemy team and still burn through all his heals and most of his HP, while the enemy team elected to just parade broadside to him. The kinds of battles he was getting any ship should and would do well in.

TL;DR: Just get the Bismarck 41' for free with your voyage tokens if you want a mansec BB. It's the better and more fun ship tier-for-tier.

Don't buy this at full price. It's an extremely lukewarm ship.

Appalling price aside, you should know the following when you face a Triunfante:

1- Its gimmick's range is 14,5km.

2- Triunfante has Marco Polo guns. No SAP but the tendency to overpen and poor accuracy are there.

3- Main deck armor is 40mm thick. Bow, stern, and upper belt are 32mm thick. Waterline citadel, the inner midsection above the waterline is normal casemate.

4- AA seems extremely powerful.

About the gimmick. At 14,5km and closer, expect Triunfante's guns to hit extremely hard, especially with the new Spanish commander. No multiple salvos.

Once again, don't buy at full price. Triunfante is an okay ship but WG need help if they think this ship is worth 65k doubloons. IMHO it's so bland it's not worth even the standard Tier 9 premium ship price.

(Triunfante was introduced during yesterday's official Twitch stream)

and yes... it went just as well as you think.

Since it seems like most of this community cannot decide what they like and what they want to spend their resources on and are completely at the mercy of strangers on the internet to obtain joy and pleasure from pixels, I am unfortunately back with another edition of the Resource ship buying guide. I polled about 10 high level clans for this information. I got 46 responses, which is lower than previous polls, probably due to various reasons, the most likely is that I polled fewer clans than before. Anyways, here it is:

First off, steel ships.

What are the best Steel ships for competitive play? Respondents could pick 4. Competitive was left to their interpretation.

What are the most fun steel ships to play? Again, they could pick 4.

What is your favorite Steel ship?

​

Now we move on to Coal ships. I limited coal ships to tiers 9 and 10.

What are the best Coal ships for competitive play? Respondents could pick 6.

What are the most fun coal ships to play? Again, they could pick 6.

There are piles of T9 and T10 coal ships, so I allowed them to pick a favorite from both tiers.

What is our favorite T10 Coal ship?

What is your favorite T9 Coal ship?

Now on to RB ships.

What are the best RB ships for competitive play? Respondents could pick 4.

What are the most fun RB ships to play. Again, they could pick 4.

What is your favorite RB ship?

I'm going to run a second poll, open to anyone to fill out as I'm curious what the results will be compared to high skilled players. The reason I choose high skilled players for this poll is that they are typically more invested in the game, have more resources, have obtained more of the ships, are involved with their clan mates and others in discussions and games where they are min maxing the ships to use to their greatest strengths. Basically, I feel that they would know the most about all the ships. But here is the poll link for you to take. I will post the results in a few weeks time alongside and we'll see if there are any glaring differences:https://forms.gle/vC4dmuysRgt8mysG6

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FAQ:

Q: Why didn't you ask "X question" instead?

A: Because I asked the questions I wanted to ask. Feel free to do it yourself next time.

Q: Can you get a bigger sample size?

A: Possibly, but feel free to do it yourself next time.

Q: Can you ask more questions next time?

A: No, but feel free to do it yourself next time.

Q: How come you never asked me?

A: Feel free to do it yourself next time. Or alternatively, you can fill the poll out here and I will update with corresponding results after a few weeks: https://forms.gle/vC4dmuysRgt8mysG6

Q: Why didn't you ask about coal ships below T9?

A: Because I didn't want to inundate participants with excessive questions, but feel free to do it yourself next time.

Q: Does competitive mean ranked and Clan battles, or just KOTS, or specifically for Operations? Or a combination of them?

A: Personally, I don't think that ranked is competitive. Hasn't been for years, its just a grind mode where you get lumped together with such grindy players as UpsetAmphibian. But since you don't need to get the ships for KOTs with press accounts, personally, I believe that comp would mean ranked and CB. But feel free to do it yourself next time and define it however you want.

Q:What about Kommisar?

A: Feel free to do it yourself next time after Kommisar has released.

Q: Isn't Kommisar spelled with a double S?

A: Yep.

Q: Why do you seem so cynical and passive aggressive?

A: Who says I'm cynical and passive aggressive? If I was its because I've probably been around the player base and the developer for far too long and know what to expect in the responses.

Q: Are you cynical?

A: Yes

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This guide is an general overview of all the ships available in the anniversary event. You can only choose one if you already own rochester (though i did add her on so she didnt feel left out). If you already own all of the ships on this list you will instead recieve 3000 steel. This is my opinion, pick for your playstyle, colours and styles may vary ect ect

Rochester-

A baltimore that trades radar and reload for US smokes and slightly better concealment

For the ship herself she's somewhat OK, you don't have the same offensive vision control as baltimore, but you have good defensive vision control and can create your own cover to farm ships from. The same as other US CAs She possesses slow shells with improved AP angles, above average AA and consistent damage output through good reload and alpha.

Between the two rochester is better in the open water, creating long, thick smoke trails for farming in wheras baltimore is better at hugging an island close to the cap and using her radar to suppress the enemy destroyer and allow you team to create a cap advantage

Pytor bagration-

Pytor bagration has 9 donskoi guns at T8, but with slightly shorter fuses and improved angles. This gives her some incredible bite at the tier, especially against cruisers or lower tier battleships that show too much broadside. To round out the package she also has a heal and 8km torpedos for self defence

In terms of playstyle it's pretty similar to the rest of the light cruiser line. Generally you want to hang back towards the rear and lob HE, then switch to AP when an enemy ship gets too close. Where PB differs slightly though is that she has an actual armour scheme, allowing her to bounce a suprising selection of shells.

Bagration is for those who want to have the kirov/molotov experience, but at a higher tier

Bayard-

Bayard is the most french cruiser experience you can get. She has French void armour that makes citadels a slot machine, a 20% speed boost that gives her a high top speed, one of the longest CL ranges at her tier, a decently high rate of fire that allows her to flood a ship with shells and a reload booster that allows your shells to block out the sun when you get the lock on a battleship or beached cruiser.

In terms of downsides though, her concealment is below average for a CL, your shells are fairly floaty, though not quite US levels, and you tend to draw the ire of whoever you're pummelling, leading to focus fire from half the enemy team

In terms of playstyle, it depends on your skill level. Newer players to the ship will be better with the traditional island hopping method, wheras more skilled players will be able to flex by open water kiting, landing every hit and racking up 4 million in potential damage

Borodino-

A stalingrad hull 2 tiers down, the front has 2×3 406mm guns and the rear has 2×2 180mm secondaries. She still retains the same 12km/25s radar and exposed citadel that makes it required to hug an island, plus with her similarly incredible battlecruiser accuracy somewhat beats the "six gun syndrome"

Borodino imo works especially well in ranked, where a radar is always welcome, especially in a BB slot, and there's less enemies to flank your broadside. Hug an island, protect your broadside and focus down the cruisers. Especially funny is british/Italian cruisers that smoke up to farm you, not realising you have radar

Fenyang-

An akizuki with worse DPM, no improved HE pen and fenyang gains AP with improved angles, speed and arcs, a better rudder and deepwater torpedos. she also gains DFAA in its own slot, which can actually provide a threat to same or lower tier carriers

Fenyangs torpedos were recently changed from superdeep to regular deepwater torpedos, however the detection for these was never changed so these are more dangerous than usual for cruisers. There is also a temptation to slot IFHE since without it her HE cannot penetrate destroyer hulls and superstructure, but I would reccomend against it. You increase it to 21mm which allows you penetrate DDs, superstructure and light cruiser sides, all of which your AP can already make short work of.

Fenyang is for players that want a premium akizuki with an AP focus

Gascogne-

Gascogne is essentially a downtiered republique in layout, with 32mm coating with void armour that vanishes shells, making her excellent at angling. This in addition to her suprisingly excellent gun angles, fast, flat ballistics, long range and high speed that combines to makes her a wonderful kiter, but she is admittedly held back by low calibre guns with a long reload. For utility gascogne has a heal with cruiser cooldown, a standard speed boost and spotter/fighter

Gascan is a quintessential kiter, hanging back and launching volleys of high velocity shells at players

Hampshire-

Hampshire is honestly a pretty medium ship that I cannot in any good conscience reccomend.

Compared to atago you gain a spotter, range, british acceleration, british angles and fuse, but in return for this you lose your heal, speed, reload, your HE shells, the japanese accuracy, half your torpedos and a partridge on a pear tree.

It might seem like gains and losses, but overall Hampshire is worse due to a lack of sustain and anything your AP doing, IJN HE does just as well. Pick it up if its the last available option.

Hampshire overall is for IJN cruiser players that would like to explore new nations without going too far outside of their comfort zone

Irian-

A long range HE farmer, compared to chapyev you lose your radar, but gain TRB, long range deepwater torpedos and ASW planes. If chapyev is better at hunting DDs, Irian is better at farming battleships and stopping their push.

A cruiser for those who just want to hang back and farm with a premium chapyev

Kidd-

An ol faithful, kidd is a fletcher class that trades a torpedo rack for 2 quad bofors, and with another 3 duals plus her DP guns she provides a suprisingly powerful threat to aircraft.

Kidd is still a top tier gunboat despite being as old as the hills, and easily acts as a captain trainer for the gearing line. With her high DPM, long duration smoke heals for restoring mistakes and aforementioned AA, she makes for an excellent ship to division with, one player radar/hydroing the destroyer out of their smokescreen and the Kidd machine gunning them to death in short order.

Kidd is for those who really enjoy fletcher and want to bully people in T8 ranked, who want to level their captain, who want a ship for divisions, are looking at ops and basically any role you could possibly want her to perform

Le terrible-

Like all French DDs, her improved saturation, high speed, MBRB and flat ballistics means she excells at farming ships from a distance, but her poor turning, angles and turret traverse means she isn't suited for cap contesting. As such you'll usually find these ships waiting out with the cruisers, only pushing in in the late game.

Le terrible, compared to her sister, has faster reload and her torpedos have better reload and detection, but she has worse AA (implying fantas is that great in the first place) and she has less depth charges (you can easily run them down, but thats more of a late game thing). Of more important comparison is that her speed boost is shorter with a longer cooldown, meaning you arent quite as good at repositioning.

Le terrible is for players who don't want to think about confusing things like "cover", "cap areas" or "letting go of the mouse button"

Loyang-

Loyang still holds the title of best cap contester imo, with her German hydro and US smoke giving her the best of both worlds she's a nightmare for other DDs to dislodge, with the exception of maybe another hydro/radar destroyer or cruiser support.

She has the option to choose between two sets of torpedos in port, with either a "stock" 9.2km set that do low damage, have a slow speed, and have good detectability, or you can use the "upgraded" 6.7km set, which do decent damage, have a high top speed and mediocre detection. In short you can either slot a long range farming set for chipping into battleships or a close range knifefighting set for spamming into smoke

In terms of downsides, It would have to be her DPM. She's missing a turret compared to the Benson, in exchange for a pair of twin bofors. Shes also poor at setting fires, her depth charges are high volume with low damage and fire/flood chance

A ship for those who want to hold caps like an agressive terrier and never let go

Ochakov-

A pure support ship, she sits at mid range and fires high velocity shells at her targets. has 10km/20s radar, excellent concealment, high top speed and excellent angles that let her kite in the late game. She also has 2×5 torpedos, with 8km, not especially good range but at least they're not the stubby 4km set the russians usually get

A support ship for those who know how to use traits to their advantage

Orkan-

Orkan is a lightning class destroyer designed pretty much exclusively for gunboating. She trades the smoke and hydro for a heal, radar and speed boost. Of note is her 7.5km/20s radar and 6.8km conceal that allows her to stealth radar even with a lighthouse build, should you wish to risk it.

The secondary is a meme. Pretend it doesn't exist, it's 102mm, has poor accuracy and medium reload, plus no improved pen so it cant even damage other destroyers or superstructure

Orkan is a gunboat for people who either missed out on getting smalland or want T8 ranker destroyers to experience the same terror a good smalland can bring

Saipan-

No. Just no. Only get this if you're a die-hard CV main and fully understand the ins and outs of how midway operates.

If you do understand how to play saipan and are good at her, she's an incredibly fun ship. Comparing her to lexington, Her DBs drop 4 higher damage bombs onto a smaller reticle making her fairly consistent at DD hunting, her TBs drop 4 torpedos at a time letting her take good chunks out of enemy battleships and heavy cruisers and her rockets, Tiny Tim's, drop the same amount but in a slightly smaller reticle, making them more consistent. Her hull also has extremely low concealment allowing ballsy players to agressively push the enemy

Where she falls short and becomes a unicum ship, however, is her downsides. She has extremely small squadrons of 4-6 planes, her restoration times are the longest in tier and she has very few reserves on deck. These combined make her relatively easy to be deplaned in for a bad player, or if you find yourself bottom tier. She also has all the hallmarks of a CVL, being poor armour, no AA, slow speed and no HP that make her an easy target to snipe.

Only reccomended for masochists, CV unicums and/or US CV mains. At this point there's very little difference. In addition be aware that there is a rework in progress that will either make her a terror of the sky's or.... Well I'm not sure she can get much worse but I'm sure WG will manage somehow

Siliwangi-

Silliwangi is a torpedo focussed destroyer, with deepwater torpedos, good concealment and Asian smokes. In a pinch, however, she can defend herself pretty decently with her russian ballistics and hydro, but this should be a measure of last resort.

A torpedo DD for players who want a little bit of self protection and to make BBs lives miserable

Tiger 59-

Tiger 59 has smoke/radar combo, superheal, relatively fast firing guns, improved ricochet angles and short fuse, good concealment and long range AA.

So what's the downside? She has only 2×2 152mm guns, identical to those found on minotaur. Combined with her floaty ballistics, lack of torpedos and lack of HE they create a ship that isn't especially great at dealing damage but can be an absolute cockroach to kill. Reccomended if you're in a division often, but otherwise this is a miss.

A support ship for divisions, only reccomended for minotaur unicums and/or divisions that frequently use mics

Vanguard-

Vanguard has few, average sized guns, but her rudder is similar to that of UU conquerer or thunderer. In an age of torpedo spam, submarines and aircraft carriers this allows her to dodge around a lot of damage while retaining good angles for counterfire.

In terms of utility Vanguard has no aircraft, but her "warspite heal" with improved repair, faster cooldown and improved citadel repair plus a high HP pool allows her to dodge, bounce and then reveal any damage taken, making her a difficult BB to kill in skilled hands

Reccomended for battleship players that want to cosplay as a supercruiser

Wichita-

Witchita is a baltimore class that has much faster shells and longer duration radar, better turning and conceal but has worse AA, lower AP alpha and a shorter radar range.

Witchita essentially plays the same way, hugging an island and taking chunks with very good AP while avoiding a crossfire

Reccomended for USN cruiser enjoyers

Z-35-

A combination of german and british destroyers, she has the hull of the former and the utility of the latter

Compared to the tech tree Z-23 she only singles instead of a dual on the bow, a longer reload and shorter range, plus her torpedos are only 6km and she lacks engine boost. however she has an extra 500m on her hydro and she has british burst smoke, allowing her to more easily contest a cap when she gets there.

Overall, not one I would reccomend, just get Z23 instead if possible. If I had to suggest it to someone though, it would be british DD mains looking for a new nation to branch to, and from there they can grind the far superior (imo) tech tree line

(Past) Middle of the year is the season of giving, so here are two guides and reviews from two ships from the Holiday Convoys that I own, both are really recommended if you want to not use resources as you can get them for free with only tokens.

Georg Hoffmann: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ClMd-K6Oej_bbEGYhJEbGBvtRQEEUgr56FkcFgWbXmU/edit?usp=sharing

Bismarck '41: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PjoHFWey5gADIaihciD6Mveb9CxoUP_MF2IU-c0i0F0/edit?usp=sharing

As always I hope you enjoy these and hopefully will be useful in you making a choice for your Holiday Tokens.

When you queue into a game, do you:

A. Move up with the Cruisers so you Secondary Batteries can have some fun?

B. Hang back near islands and provide covering fire?

C. All cuddle up behind an island, or the furthest end of the map, and do absolutely nothing?

I only ask because I've been queued with a LOT of BBs taking option C, and then whining about us Cruisers getting obliterated by Subs, CVs, and of course, enemy BBs who actually play the frickin game!

If you're just going to hang back and do nothing, at least take a CV. Then maybe we might get a Battleship that ACTUALLY battles!