Ulthwey

Don't hold your breath, 3 years of patching and updating ... and somehow CV gameplay has become more and more unbalanced with every patch. No shortage of OP CV premiums though, to collect all that money from players ... I wouldn't be surprised if this CV rework would involve nothing but a couple minor fixes that by themselves don't address anything.

I don't know what to tell you bud, I had 14,000 steel when I bought USS Black and I have never bothered grinding below rank 10 ... and even that I have done only 2 or 3 times. Maybe it was CW reward or something.

I had over 14k steel when Arsenal was introduced ... and picked up uss black almost immediately. If only the best players should receive OP ships, then they should only be available though Clan wars - because Ranked is not skill-dependent. I know people with WR in mid to low 40's getting to rank 1 five times in a row.

Awww that's just adorable, after 3 years people still think that CVs will actually be fixed in this game. Children say the darnest things :)

WG already compensated players for previous seasons of ranked/clans - so if you participated you should have had enough for at least one of the 2 ships offered (Flint or Black) especially if you use the coupon. I had 14k steel when Arsenal was introduced, and immediately got myself USS Black, haven't had the chance to play it though ... never really cared about Flint.

You got a free premium ship and you are asking what to do about it? ... You should marry it and let it impregnate you

I don't play the Gremy as much I probably should. I relocated and respecced the captain from it some time ago, and now that I'm trying to play the Gremy again I'm not sure how best to spec it. It's been awhile. What mods and captain skills are you guy using? Also, what original non-premium ship do you use your Gremy captain in or do you have this captain specifically assigned to the Gremy? I've been using my Ognevoi (which I never play) captain in both the Leningrad and Gremy. So far I'm using a 15pt captain with: Preventative Maintenance, Expert Marksman, Last Stand, Torp Expertise, BFT, Concealment. I have 4 points left, so I'm thinking Adrenaline Rush + Smoke Expert. *As useful as AFT may be, I think it's not the best idea to blow up the concealment radius of the ship to such a huge distance every time I fire the guns. The damage this ship can do at 14+km isnt all that great, so I decided not to bother with dumping 4 captain pts into it.

At tiers 8-X, it seems that French 100mm, 127mm and 152mm secondaries are oriented around setting fires rather than doing direct damage. Secondary spec requires a massive point investment, with the optimal build requiring speccing for Adrenaline Rush, BFT (or Demo Expert), AFT, Manual Secondaries and IFHE. This by itself totals to 17 points ... a massive investment for a ship, that has a high citadel, bad concealment and 32mm all-around armor (easy to light on fire). This investment is in addition to the modules that you would have to equip to make the secondary spec possible, as modules like +100% AA/Secondary HP boost and +20% Secondary Range would prevent you from taking Main Battery Mod 1 and Aiming System Mod 1. Lacking these modules, your main guns become easier to disable and less accurate at range. Having such significant weaknesses, its debatable whether or not its worth dumping such a massive point load into secondary armament when there are far more important skills to take such as Basics of Survivability, Fire Prevention and Concealment. Because of this, it seems to me that partial secondary builds are more viable on French BBs. ***IFHE is a very costly investment, that frankly isn't really worth considering for secondary build on anything below a tier X. However its benefit is still taken into consideration. At tier 8, the Richeleu's/Gascogne secondaries are a huge wildcard because their effectiveness is basically tied to the Matchmaker, and whether or not it screws you by throwing you against tier Xs. On both ships, 100mm guns are the main secondaries and pen 17mm (w/o IFHE) and 22mm (w/ IFHE) respectively. They have excellent range but it feels their effectiveness is more psychological rather than real. On Richeleu, secondaries also don't have good firing angles and it's difficult to justify spending many captain skills on them considering the ship itself is a static, bow-on vessel that doesn't maneuver much. It's far more effective to spec for for prevention and concealment as these skills will actually help you against the massive HE spam that this ship is bound to attract. - Tier 6-7 BB bows are 27mm and CA bows are 16-19mm. - Tier 8-X BB bows are 32mm and CA bows are 27mm. At tier 9, the 100mm guns (which constitute the majority of Alsace secondary armament) can NOT pen 32mm BB bows or 27mm CA bows with or without IFHE. However they do have a very good fire chance and average reload (slightly better than German secondaries) to compensate for it. Half of De Grobers secondaries don't benefit from IFHE either, however unlike the German secondaries the French can set fires well. At tier X, the 127mm guns (which constitute the majority of Republique secondary armament) can NOT pen 32mm BB bows with or without IFHE (they can pen the 27mm CA bows but only with IFHE). However they do have a very good fire chance and reload (much better than German secondaries) to compensate for it. Unlike German secondaries, they cant pen the enemy ship, but they can set fires. All of Kurfurst secondaries with their 1/4 HE pen and IFHE can pen the 32mm BB bows at tier X. They don't have a high fire chance, but the raw damage they do to the enemy ship is massive if the enemy doesn't run away immediately. It seems to me that there is no way to make a competitive secondary build out of French BBs, they have too many weaknesses which need to be remedied prior to dumping captain points/modules into secondary spec. I can imagine taking BFT and AFT to boost the secondary range and AA aura around the ship, but that seems to be the very max of what a player should be dumping towards the secondaries on French BBs. Spending ANYTHING more than that begins to severely compromise the endurance of the ship. Skills like Concealment, Fire Prevention, Basics of Survival and mods like Main Battery Mod 1/Aiming System Mod 1 are far too important to be sacrificed for additional secondary-oriented captain skills and modules.

All the top clans are using this hack ... ehem, sorry ... "mod" in clan battles, and according to WG this is "legal". Next time you are hit a 30-60 seconds after you became concealed or get smacked repeatedly while in smoke, well this is how your enemy is doing it. Have fun exploiting this folks. Its called "Minimap by Autospy" (or the other minimap mod, cant remember the name), and in battle enable "firing range" option on your minimap. You may need "target lines" as well. You can murder people in smoke easily, you can accurately shoot and kill people over islands, you can shoot people over 8km in a cyclone and etc. No skill required. Have fun cheating ... ehem, sorry abusing the f*ck out of the game. P.S Now you can accurately shoot at: People outside your range (8km) IN A CYCLONE. You use minimap to guide your shots onto target highlighted by a friendly. People behind islands. People in smoke. People who are NOT seen, who are positioned in predesignated defensive positions. etc, etc, and etc.

This ship is going to get murdered in any kind of uptier. It will barely hold its own against equal tier opponents, the tier 9s and Xs will absolutely murder it. Such a shame ... I really wanted to get her, but not in this form :( Hope WG will at least make Gascogne good to make up for Roma.