Meatshield_No13

If you enjoyed Henri then Yoshino will probably deliver somewhat similar enjoyment. However Yoshino doesn't have that spaced armour that can somewhat troll AP. She also has those 20km torps that can do some work but require great care in use. Thunderer, if you have played either Vanguard or Warspite they will give you an idea of what Thunderer is like. Vanguard is the closest comparison, similar squishy hull but a nice rudder that makes evasion tactics viable at sufficient ranges. Where Thunderer differs is that her guns do not feel lacking in individual power, lacking in barrels yes, but not individual punch. She is very accurate, so accurate at times that if you misjudge your aim the accuracy means you can't even hope for that fluke scatter shell. By the stats Thunderer is extremely squishy, however she has 12.3km conceal at full stealth build with a 10 odd second rudder shift. Using both of those she can persist for quite a while, I haven't found her staying power to be a massive detriment, it is a detriment but not one that I have ever cursed over. That said absolutely setup and designed to be fighting at range, not the frontmost BB, very much a second line support style. So if you don't like that then she may grate on you. As for Smolensk, well I don't have it, but Smolensk is Smolensk, she seems very easy to get a reasonable baseline performance out of but can plateau early unless you can really work her.

For a number of RN BBs the AP is more consistent when aimed higher, at the upper belt rather than the waterline, in a lot of cases the upper belt is thinner on the target. The RN BBs are in this spot where certain ships have significantly differing AP performance. RN BBs are a bit of a roulette for AP characteristics so habits from one ship may not transfer over well to another ship. Warspite for example you generally will aim waterline for most targets. But less so for Hood.

Lenin is a bow in play style. She doesn't like it if she has to turn away from a collapsing flank and kite, that runs counter to her strengths. She prefers to be on the offensive flank slow pushing angle nose in and utilizing the all forward turrets. Raised citadel means she will fold if the enemy starts surrounding her, she gets too deep or is forced to turn. Her sweet spot is when things start to get close, 13km and under the guns start to get mean with their accuracy so it's a fine line between that and being too forward so that an enemy gets a side shot at her. Hence why she likes to be on the strong flank, to reduce to odds of that. Typically islands are attractive for protecting one side while angling against the exposed side, by using islands puts you into a static position so torps are a threat. Her armor means she can take HE better than a number of other ships but no special resistance to fires, and 1 less heal means she doesn't necessarily have greater endurance.

On the subject of the HE and damage output. Are you targeting areas you can pen with the HE? Superstructure, bow, stern and deck (BB dependent, as some BBs are much more resistant than others)? HE has good initial returns on the first few salvos but then it drops off due to damage saturation. Cruisers have the rate of fire to target sections. Target the superstructure, fire until a fire is set. Then examine the BB, if you can see two visual fires in the superstructure but you only ignited one, the BB has a skill that prevents a 2nd superstructure fire. Switch to bow or stern depending on the aspect profile of the BB, aim for setting another fire. If at any point the BB damacons, wait a bit and try to re-ignite as those fires will stick. Damacons run from 10 to 20 seconds depending on nationality. Another option if you have multiple targets is too just light one fire on a ship then switch to another, most BBs (most, not all) will simply allow 1 fire to burn out as 1 isn't enough to warrant damacon and they're waiting for more to be set.

There is a simple solution to this dilemma of yours, one that I resolved ages ago. ......... Simply field two Royal Navy fleets.

Formidable seems to be the big one for this event in terms of power.

I usually throw out 3 or more 10 build runs on the first day (depends exactly on my resources and event size), then throttle back to 3 builds daily until the last day or two, then go all out. Though I have never reached that last day or two point, usually acquiring the last straggler(s) during the 3 build dailies. I usually try to leave myself 80 odd cubes for that last gasp stretch, hence the variation in how much I spam build at the start. Limiting to 3 builds during the interim allows for a restocking of coin and pretty much neutral on the cubes.

Currently voting Warspite.

I don't know whether to rant about players locking in to the HE centric play way too much and try to keep increase awareness of the AP. Or just stay silent and continue to profit from a general player base assumption that the red Conq will just spam HE all the time. <-Generalization, not all players assume Conqs spam HE, but a lot do in actual matches in my experience.

As someone who plays Conq a lot it is better news. I am speaking for me personally only and no other Conq owners but the 419s are the go to gun for me. I can accept losing access to the 457s on Conq based on current knowledge that the 457s will still exist on another that ship that at present seems accessible and not locked behind strange currency. Losing access to the 419s however with no indication of them appearing in another form means losing access to that option entirely, and therefore an overall loss of options.

Wouldn't it make more sense to remove the 457's from Conq to create more of a difference between her and Thunderer? It seems like it would a much more logical approach to make the ships have different gun armaments to encourage players trying both rather than similar armaments with altered stats? Or more likely they want to later shove a 419 Conq on us for Steel/Coal/Whatever. So they're pulling it to artificially create that desire/demand.

Yeah looked it up on the wiki, the unique skill is fixed but the other skills draw from a pool. https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/Meowfficer#Cat_House