Panzer20000

Keep in mind that, as said earlier, the armor listed in the dev blog is the thinnest armor present on the hull, for all we know the 13mm, 16mm, and 25mm across the various tiers could simply be small portions of the bow and stern, while the rest of the hull could have, depending on the tier, 19mm, 25mm, 27mm, 30mm, or perhaps even 32mm or more armor covering the rest of the hull. I won't argue against the concern against range, as the line in general could probably use about 0.3-0.6km extra range on each ship, even if they are meant to be mid-range fighters. Until they're tested though, I'll refrain from too much critiquing.

Christmas crate questions in October? Is someone hoping a certain skeletal Pumpkin King will hijack WoWS and bring us a combination of Christmas and Halloween?

This, tier VIII-X are all designs that were made rather then complete fiction. Tier VIII: The 15,500 ton CA design from 1940 Tier IX: churchill cruiser design C (21,500 tons, 3x3 234mm) Tier X: this is the real mystery ship, as all we have is the name "Study III 1938 24,500 tons" and that it was designed to use the mark XI.

I'd say it might seem that way due to the size difference of the cruisers, assuming it is the two ships I believe they are, it'd be a 15,500 ton design vs a 21,500 ton design, those turrets may just look small because of how damn big the ship is. Besides, I would find it odd if they went from 113 mm/45 RP 41 Mk VI -> 113 mm/45 Mk IV -> back to 113 mm/45 RP 41 Mk VI. Also, if I can see right, that last ship kinda looks like it might have POM POMs on it, and I would find it VERY strange if those are present on a tier IX

Do believe you mixed up the tier VIII and IX there, the last image is the tier VIII and the Second image is the tier IX

Design Y, design X sacrificed armor for speed, which clearly isn't the case since the Surrey coming in the game has a 152mm belt. Also, we do have an image, it just isn't the best one Also a bit confused by the "design Y just doesn't look like a County is supposed to" thing. I mean, there are several changes, such as fewer funnels and altered bridge. But aside from that I'd say it still looks similar to a County, just beefed up. Mind you, Surrey and Northumberland have enough changes to be seen as a new class, so I don't think it's fair to kick them for not looking completely like the other County cruisers.

As discussed in This thread, there is arguably an existing BB design that could fulfill the idea of a large broadside with major alpha potential, assuming they do that with the ITABB. Said design is simply called 4-16/16-40, a battleship designed after the Littorio class and was intended to carry 4x4 406mm guns. Could that broadside prove to be too powerful? Perhaps, if they wanted to they could possibly do 4x4 381mm guns instead.

So basically everything I already said, but with more details.

Well, this is based on memory, but they did discuss some stuff about them on the EU stream where they were revealed: They have SAP instead of HE. SAP will have greater damage and more pen, better auto-bounce angles, and won't overpen. However they can be bounced like AP and don't cause fires Reload is going to be sluggish (guessing 14-18 second reloads average) Torpedoes will be long range but low damage and meh speed, might have fast reloads but not 100% on if I'm remembering correctly They will have above average maneuverability They will have a running smoke, basically meaning they have a smoke that conceals them at top speed but doesn't last long They will not have DFAA, Hydro, or Radar Those are the things I remember them discussing, though I imagine another aspect will be that tier II-VI will rely more on speed and maneuverability rather then their armor to protect them, whereas once you reach Zara and up you will have the addition of stronger armor to help them survive.

Thing is, at least as far as I know, the Ansaldo cruisers for Spain are really the only designs they could of had work at tier VIII and IX, as I don't don't believe they had any other CA designs made later then them. as such they would of had to come up with a fictional design at either tier if they didn't use those ships. A ship that might have worked at tier VIII was the preliminary Zara, which had a 200mm belt, 2x3 torpedo tubes, and was heavier then the built Zara. However that wouldn't work since they seem to be incorporating aspects from the preliminary into the tech tree ship based on the 2x3 torpedo tubes Zara can be seen having in it's screenshot.

Not so much out of creative ideas as it is that the tier VIII and IX are likely based on variants of a 16,000 ton "super washington" Ansaldo cruiser designed for Spain. Tier VIII being Plan III: And tier IX being Plan II (Plan II was designed to have 4x3 152mm, but the version the devs are putting in has 4x3 203mm instead): Tier X is likely the only completely fictional cruiser of the line, however, there are those that believe the ship is actually based on the Russian Ansaldo cruiser designed for 3x3 250mm guns, but instead of the 250mm they put 5x3 203mm in their place. Far as I know there is no line drawing of said cruiser, but Tzoli had made their interpretation based on the existing Ansaldo designs

One can hope, Pretty sure they said something about stats being revealed some time next week on the EU stream.

@Sparviero All jokes aside, I honestly am hoping tier VII-X will have armor to go with the smoke and maneuverability to improve their survivability and compensate for the slow reload. Do I expect them to tank BB? No, but I'm hoping they will at least be able to tank damage from CL/CA and DD if they end up in a situation where they have to.

They don't, remember them appearing on the devblog in their dark grey-blue coloring without perma camo. As for the line itself, I really like what I see, even that meme worthy 5x3 203mm tier X. Just hoping that the slow reload they talked about on stream is in the 15-18 second range and not 20+ seconds. Hopefully the tier VIII-X will have decent armor like Zara, assuming Zara actually gets decent armor that is.