World of Warships [Wargaming.net]

[Renegade334]

I know they're Tillmans, but they look absolutely terrible for the high-tier meta.

These chonky BBs are not "merely" squishy with that 32mm plating: by dint of extreme hull obesity they're basically cheap and highly conspicuous fodder for the HE spammers AND torpedo slingers (good luck doing torpedo beats with that hull width!). The low concealment, large turning radius and slow rudder shift will most especially mark them as prime targets for any XP-hungry DD. Hopefully that girth hides some good torpedo mitigation, otherwise it's just a prescription for ulcers and high blood pressure. At least the AA looks decent enough, though...as Flamu speculated, Hakuryu drivers could just farm you by making standoff torp drops.

And don't get me started on that main battery reload time: it will put the onus on the player to ***really*** carefully aim so as to make every broadside count (which is a good thing in itself, mind you), as it the said player will be vulnerable for forty seconds (adrenalin rush and reload mod not taken into account) until the rifles are ready to fire again. You better not get drawn in a knife fight before then, otherwise you can expect an early return to port.
...
Unparalleled broadside weight, indeed, but God, what a capability tradeoff!

Last but not least, their slow speed (~24kt max), which makes them even more lead-footed than the Ohio (IIRC the slowest of all T10 BBs). I'm afraid these ships will have little choice but to be backline snipers, for three reasons: out of self-preservation, because they can't move up fast enough and because close brawling is outside of their comfort zone.

Even if wasn't enthused about it, either, WG should've gone the secondary-centric route for the alternate US BB line instead.

[Ithekro]

If they are based on the ideal lessons from the 20s, they should have very good torpedo protection and heavy belt armor and deck armor, based on the 1920 South Dakota at least. The 32mm bow plating is standard for Tier 8 - 10 battleships that aren't Russian or GKF. It can bow tank anything that isn't built on a Yamato hull.

The deck in the question. 1920 South Dakota has 6 inch plating in places. If they have 32 plating , that's under the usual 38 on USN fast BBs, but the slow BBs should have more plating (armor and guns for a lack of speed). But they were suppose to be at least partially better protected than the later fast battleships in terms of armor thickness, while not always coverage.

[Ithekro]

And to make things interesting, Japanese Torpedo Cruiser Kitakami is returning to World of Warships. As a Tier X ship.

https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/46

[Ithekro]

The Dockyard directives are all out and there is only one more for the German Carriers (only a few more chances for more free early access carriers).

In the interim, I have finished the Dockyard, Have Graf Spee and Odin. got one mission for the Tier IV German Carrier, Rhein, which I have now. Also advanced some research lines. Got my German cruiser line up to Nurnberg from the Carrier/Dockyard chain grinding. Got Queen Elizabeth after using Iron Duke as my fire starter ship in Directives. Replaced Ryuujou with Shoukaku. For my EU destroyer line up to the Tier VII Skone.

I barely managed to get the Soviet Tier VIII heavy cruiser Tallinn in the previous event (along with the easy to get Tier V Mikoyan).

A night or two ago, I got two XP containers. The first one was "try your luck" Got 750 Free XP. The second I picked "More Resources" like I usually do. I got a Super Container instead. In it was the first ship I've gotten in one of those.....Massachusetts. I am not complaining.

I also got a Tier VI container for doing missions for the Spring PTS. It was an older Italian cruiser that I've still not used.

I believe I have 42 or 43 ships now. Low on credits mostly with the recent purchases and heavy upgrading on Bismarck, since for two of the German Carrier chains I needed to use Tier VIII or better German ships...and I only had Bismarck, before getting Odin. Now I have just those two, so they've been getting a workout since I still have one chain mission left to earn 120,000 XP that I can only use them for. I am just about 50% through it. I get basically nothing from it, but it given me something to focus on and an excuse to grind Bismarck more. When finished I should be about halfway to the Tier IX German battleship....with no where near enough credits to get it.

[Renegade334]

I haven't had the chance to play much this past couple of months, though despite some big personal setbacks (my maternal grandmother, who had been crippled earlier this year due to heart attack-induced brain damage, finally passed away), my return to WOWS has been rather fruitful: I finally got the Shimakaze, the République, the Graf Spee, the Odin and, with the regenerated -25% coupon and some steel, I purchased the Thunderer.
Not really in the mood for the German carrier event due to the latest developments (not to mention that I'm still pants at CV gameplay), and I could do with a few days, if not a week off to unwind a bit rather than grind, grind and grind some more.

After that, well, I'll start working on that Conqueror and getting the Amalfi to work. Then I guess it's off to the French cruiser line (still haven't played the Charles Martel) and either the RN CAs or the new Russian cruisers (I find it galling I have to repurchase the Dmitri Donskoi - I thought I was forever done with that stupid ship).

EDIT: got the Conqueror and the Rhein, but I am shedding tears of blood trying to make the T8 Amalfi succeed. That thing is fragile AF and so short-ranged it turns into a nightmare once you're bottom tier...which occurs VERY frequently.
EDIT bis: got the Brindisi at long last. Good Lord, that ship (I mean, the Amalfi) does not fare well when bottom-tiered. It was quite a slog, but I'm finally on my way to Venezia. I don't intend to grind the Brindisi just yet...I might take a gander at the RN CAs in the meantime or reacquaint myself with my long-eschewed T8 French cruiser.

[Renegade334]

Looks like the reason why we aren't getting an RM BB line is because WG is having serious issues balancing the BB-caliber SAP ammunition. The ships were apparently also supposed to get moving smoke, but SAP is where things are hitting a brick wall. It's simply too overpowered and the reason why AL Littorio was just a Roma copy-paste.

And in the meantime, we get the Slava on the Research Bureau. A ship whose dispersion, without the accuracy mod, is much better than that of a Thunderer with AM installed. As if the game needed another backline, long-range sniper with godly AA and a citadel frontal bulkhead that literally prevents it from being citadelled from the front despite reassurances of "is fine tovarish, is balans thanks to 25mm plating".

TL;DR…

 

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Will try to get some of these German containers today, but it's so hot (34°C announced) I really don't feel like gaming. x_x

[Ithekro]

That would put a crimp on the Italian plan, since that would be a nice different flavor of battleship.

Slava's been in development hell for a while from what I remember, and several CCs were hoping it never show up.

By the end of the German carrier directives, I have Rhein and Weser. While I am about 80,000 XP from the Tier IX German battleship, I find it is probably a better run to get Montana (my first Tier X), since I only need another 6 or so million credits to afford it. After that (and selling Iowa) I can focus on finishing up with Bismarck, but keeping that ship.

There is the meantime, there is the ongoing collaboration with Azur Lane, and sometime after that, The Transformers, likely during the 5th Anniversary of World of Warships. The American BB split will likely happen right after that, followed by Christmas. The Italians were expected this year, but if they are having issues, than it should be expected that they need to do some more work.

(Looking back at the first page, we don't have a Girls und Panzer collaboration with World of Warships yet to get the School Ship skins on our carriers).

EDIT:

Update: Got Montana (cost maybe a third of my Free XP, but I now have a Tier X). Decided not to sell Iowa, since I had a spare 10 point captain from an Operation. Sold a bunch of combat flags that I don't use very often, plus the German CV tokens (not enough for the perma camos, so used them for credits instead of camo or flags)...Got more that enough for Montana, and am on the way to FDG with intent to keep Bismarck.

[Renegade334]

Holy guacamole. Here goes my allowance of luck for the next two months, at the very least.

[Ithekro]

From what I've heard, its a good ship. I got Pommern for coal. It handles well.

[Renegade334]

Pommern is my next programmed acquisition (unless other, more interesting ships show up), since I just wiped my balance buying the Thunderer. Currently at ~26K coal (IIRC), so it'll take me some time.

Oh, and it looks like WG finally decided to increase the deck thickness of the USS alt-BBs to around 51mm for T9-10. That's good news, because last week I saw a ST Vermont in the wild (my team) and he spent the entire match getting methodically barbecued to death (an inevitable outcome when there are TWO Thunderers, one Yoshino AND a Smolensk on your side of the map). That 24kt speed is going to hurt, though.

[Ithekro]

Even being able to get to its designed 25.2 knot speed with speed flags would be a marginal improvement. And they would only need to increase Vermont's speed to 24 knots up from 23 knots.

[Ithekro]

There appears to be a Commander Skill rework and level increase to 21 points in the works for patch 0.10.0.0 (2021). Not sure how good or bad that is. I don't have any 19 point captains yet. Highest I have is 16 points, maybe 17 points. But I only have one Tier X ship so far and only two one other line to Tier IX. Lots of skill changes, removals, and shifting. Some skills you would have used on a cruiser are battleship only and other such things. But it won't go into testing for a few months....so things could change or the whole thing scrapped.

Captains going forward will have mastery of skill trees for each ship type, so they can (I suppose) be useful on each ship type without needing to retain them. Useful if one has a lot of premium ships of one nation, since you can swap the some person from a destroyer to a battleship to a carrier with no issue. Your tech tree captains will still be limited since you probably won't be swapping them to other types much, if at all.

Extra captains taking up space in the reserve can be exchanged for Elite Commander XP.

And, if you really want to , you can run a ship without a Commander.

[Renegade334]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

There appears to be a Commander Skill rework and level increase to 21 points in the works for patch 0.10.0.0 (2021). Not sure how good or bad that is. I don't have any 19 point captains yet. Highest I have is 16 points, maybe 17 points. But I only have one Tier X ship so far and only two one other line to Tier IX. Lots of skill changes, removals, and shifting. Some skills you would have used on a cruiser are battleship only and other such things. But it won't go into testing for a few months....so things could change or the whole thing scrapped.
And, if you really want to , you can run a ship without a Commander.

Well, I can already tell you that without AFT, my Atlanta, which once was a beast and a terror at its tier, will be quite worthless. The IFHE rework already nerfed its HE penetration values (AND halved the chances of fire when IFHE is applied), but now they want to yank the range upgrade (AFT - allows 11.1km to turn into 13.3km) from it? Jesus H. Christ, gimme a break and buff that ship's guns already. At this point it's less of a cruiser and more of an oversized destroyer with short-ranged torps.

OTOH, I welcome the secondary improvements - Manual Secondary allowing secs to fire from BOTH sides? (though only one gets the accuracy buff) Oh hell yes~! That said, ManSec had its accuracy nerfed, so I don't know how it's going to pan out in reality. ManSec is really critical in allowing those small-caliber shells to truly hit their mark, as the other skills only affect the volume of fire and not the probability of landing a hit and dealing actual damage (even more so for the Georgia and Ohio, who deal a lot of DMG -on cruisers and battleships- through their secondaries' fire chances rather than sheer penetration).

EDIT: urgh. Thanks to the special flags from the supercontainers, I was able to blaze my way to Venezia. Now I've got to work on that dratted Donskoi, but first I need a break.

[Renegade334]

The Italians BB, partially unveiled.

Sadly, they're all affected by Roma Syndrome to maintain balance: sigma is kept at 1.60 all the way to T10, meaning that unlike the US alt-BBs, these newcomers will have little choice but to settle into the role of brawlers that will have to close the distance to land accurate hits and deal damage. Caliber will be lower (no magical 18-inch nonsense), but shall pack a punch nevertheless: T10 Cristoforo Colombo's (that ship almost looks like the secret lovechild of Roma and Montana, to be honest) sixteen 15-inch guns will have a heavier broadside weight (AP: 192,000 HP points) than even T10 Vermont's twelve 18-inchers (AP: 189,000 HP points), though the latter is far more likely (thanks to its sigma getting buffed to 1.95 lately) to hit its mark than its Italian counterpart.

Hopefully this won't translate to them being a pain to grind rather than a pleasure. WG is still tweaking the SAP values to avoid making this new BB ammo overpowered, which implies that the end product could offer a very different picture compared to what we're seeing now. I for one am awaiting the RM BBs quite eagerly - it's high time they come to WOWS.

Oh, and HIJMS Tone's coming back! Does that mean that the Shinano (which IIRC was present in the game files at one point) will be resurrected, too?

[Ithekro]

The Italian battleships also get the SAP shells like the cruisers did. Which could do some massive damage to certain ships.

Tone and Ise are coming as the first test of Hybrids. With the likelihood of the Japanse submarine line being made up of hybrid submarines (up to I-400, and likely a ARP I-401 to go with the existing commanders)

As for Shinano. I wouldn't count on it until they finally decide to return the odd tier carriers to the game, as Shinano, while armored, does not have the hanger space of a Tier X carrier.

Though I did think of something weird for a carrier. A premium Tier II carrier. Either USS Sable or USS Wolverine. The only coal powered, paddlewheel carrier in the world. They were a pair of training carriers converted for the US Navy to operate on the Great Lakes during World War II. They were effectively moving touch and go platforms to teach pilots how to land on a carrier. They have no hanger or elevator, and are not armed at all. But when has than stopped anyone. My proposal was to have them with one or two squadrons of bombers (torpedo and/or dive bomber, as they did test the Navy's drone bomber the TDN-1) not Fighters (rockets). Little to no regen...its not like they are going to get shot down much at Tier II or III. Just maybe 12 to 24 bombers total. Enough that they can cycle though flights, but not much more than that. If they happen upon a rare ship with AA of note, well they are boned. If they manage to get into a fail division that lands them in a Tier IV battle, will they will still not have too much trouble, since Tier IV AA is still bad, but they won't be able to cycle planes like Langley or Houshou. And they are unarmed. Meaning they can't defend themselves again even planes, much less a destroyer. They might have the auto-deployed defense fighters as their only defense against airplanes.

[Psyco Diver]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Though I did think of something weird for a carrier. A premium Tier II carrier. Either USS Sable or USS Wolverine. The only coal powered, paddlewheel carrier in the world. They were a pair of training carriers converted for the US Navy to operate on the Great Lakes during World War II. They were effectively moving touch and go platforms to teach pilots how to land on a carrier. They have no hanger or elevator, and are not armed at all. But when has than stopped anyone. My proposal was to have them with one or two squadrons of bombers (torpedo and/or dive bomber, as they did test the Navy's drone bomber the TDN-1) not Fighters (rockets). Little to no regen...its not like they are going to get shot down much at Tier II or III. Just maybe 12 to 24 bombers total. Enough that they can cycle though flights, but not much more than that. If they happen upon a rare ship with AA of note, well they are boned. If they manage to get into a fail division that lands them in a Tier IV battle, will they will still not have too much trouble, since Tier IV AA is still bad, but they won't be able to cycle planes like Langley or Houshou. And they are unarmed. Meaning they can't defend themselves again even planes, much less a destroyer. They might have the auto-deployed defense fighters as their only defense against airplanes.

I doubt it since T4 CVs have already turned T3 into a Free XP sink, I wouldn't be surprised if WG is experiencing new player turn over problems at T3/4.

It only takes a night or 2 to hit T3 and then your getting relentlessly attacked from a player you can't effectively defend against and if you only have a couple days into the game then your hardly invested enough to stick it out

[Renegade334]

https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldOfWars...p_and_why_you/

Well, WG is at it again. Another controversy.

Suppose you want to buy one of their Santa's Gifts - the Big or the Mega packages - from their shop because you saw on the official website that the list of potential premiums you could win through a lucky roll (which is already statistically low) is pretty darn long (more than a hundred ships at least). In the official article, it is explicitly stated that ALL those premiums can be found in the gift containers, but if you happen to roll a ship that you already have, you'll automatically receive a supercontainer containing a ship different from the one you already have. Sounds fair, doesn't it?

Kindly note the parts that I bolded.

Well, players have noticed that something is very, very wrong with this system.

When you buy a Santa's Gift (i.e. a gift container), the internal lottery list of premiums is not the big one you'll see on the website, it's actually a shortlist of something like eight premiums (redditors are still processing the data, but the evidence so far is quite damning already), among which you'll find meh ships like Makarov, Yuudachi, etc.

This means that if the stars align and RNG does bestow you with the boon of a premium ship, it'll almost always be a Makarov.

But what if you already have the Makarov? Or the Yuudachi, or the California or the Ochakov or Duca d'Aosta?

The system then will switch to the full list, which contains almost all premium ships in the game (some rare birds like Giulio Cesare have been removed from it, though) and only then will you have a chance to make a random draw from the full roster.

The gift containers will only make random draws from the shortlist.
Only duplicates will allow you to make random draws from the full list.

That means that, if you're a new player with no premiums in your port, you are guaranteed a Makarov (a mediocre ship, which is the proverbial insult after the injury) or another member of the shortlist. You have no chance to get, say, a Massachusetts, Tirpitz, Lenin or Georgia. That will only happen if you already own one or more of the shortlisted premiums.

Pretty damn deceitful, don't you think?

Demonstration by Flamu, who spent something like 100 Euros' worth of gift containers to verify the allegations:

TL;DR…

 

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On my side of things, no loss there. Not only do I not trust statistics and probabilities (I have terrible luck at raffles and other lotteries), but I also live in Belgium, a country that has banned lootboxes, so...yeah. But still...

In other news, I just FXP'ed my way to Vermont and will enjoy yet another break from the game.

[Ithekro]

Can confirm on Makarov, California, and Orkan. (got 8 Big containers via spare doubloons and 1 from completing the Shipbuilding collection). I have already got use out of Markarov...its 10 point commander is now on my Tallinn to replace its 8 point commander. They will also be useful as insulation (from short list) and snowflakes.

But, I did get two ships out of the Black Friday containers. Tirpitz B and Jean Bart B. Made the doubloons spent on those back via missions (I already had Jean Bart) and doubloon drops.

[Ithekro]

As a followup, as the Commander Skill rework is in progress, the various Santa Containers were generally kind this year, along with restocking a lot of camo and economic flags, I netted a total of nine ships.

The mentioned Markarov, California, and Orkan, but also:
Mutsu
P.E. Friedrich
Hood
Duke of York
Champagne, and
Siroco.

In addition I managed to get enough coal to purchase both Thunderer and Georgia before they will be removed, and might have enough Free XP to get Alaska before it is removed next month.

So with those and work on the Hizen (no intention of completing it, just here for the Yunagi), and finishing both holiday campaigns, I now have 80 ships. Finished the Halsey campaign, and an on the last mission of the Yamamoto campaign (both of which can now be done in Co-op...slowly)

Getting close to getting Riga, Kagero, and Mogami, and working on GK slowly to get my third tier X researchable ship. Des Moines will take longer, as will Drake.

The Italian Battleships will be coming soon, as will a German DD split. Also Agincourt and Hyuga are coming with testing on hybrids Ise and Tone still in progress. I sort of wish we get two or three flavors of Agincourt. The British one is coming, but it can also come in Pan-American (original Brazilian purchase) or I suppose Pan-European...if one counts the Ottoman Empire as Europe...if not it could be Pan-Asian joining Chinese, Thai, and Indonesian ships.

[Ithekro]

So I haven't been playing much the last month or so (not too interested in the German DD split or the dockyard associated with it. Going into Grand Battle where we get essentially a game mode with Tier XI equivalent battleships.

But coming soon! Dutch cruisers as a new nation that is not part of the Pan-European line. And....and... Soviet Aircraft Carriers (with odd mechanics that should make them easier to take out, but with heavy alpha strikes...with no follow ups)