Belfast > Nikolai

[AirshipCanon]

On terms of "Power at Tier".

Imperator Nikolai, aka the Inquisitor Nikolai [Nobody expects the Russian Inquisition!] isn't much, a cheeky Battleship with good armor and profile. It still eats crapand dies whenever a Torpedo attack is around since it can't torpbeats. It also loses to Arkansas.

Belfast is some kind of supergod with Smoke, Hydro and Radar on one vessel that also can HE Spam with said smoke. It's meta-centric and way more powerful than the "Inquisitor" ever was.

Yet the Inquisitor can only be gotten out of boxes and the Belfast is still up. ...hmm.

 

Potatoes? Yeah, that does [edited] with the Belfast. Potatoes can fail in the Inquisitor just as easily.

[RipNuN2]

The Nikolai is much more user friendly than the Belfast and destroys all before it including the Ark Beta. She still has my most kills per battle record of 9.

[Ace_04]

I always feel dirty when I take Belfast out for a spin.  It's about as close to "Pay to Win" as you'll ever get in this game.

 

Got Flint for ranking out last season, and it feels just as dirty.

[UltimateNewbie]

6 minutes ago, AirshipCanon said:

On terms of "Power at Tier".

Imperator Nikolai, aka the Inquisitor Nikolai [Nobody expects the Russian Inquisition!] isn't much, a cheeky Battleship with good armor and profile. It still eats crapand dies whenever a Torpedo attack is around since it can't torpbeats. It also loses to Arkansas.

Belfast is some kind of supergod with Smoke, Hydro and Radar on one vessel that also can HE Spam with said smoke. It's meta-centric and way more powerful than the "Inquisitor" ever was.

Yet the Inquisitor can only be gotten out of boxes and the Belfast is still up. ...hmm.

 

Potatoes? Yeah, that does [edited] with the Belfast. Potatoes can fail in the Inquisitor just as easily.

 

I dunno.  I think the Nikolai has a much bigger carry potential than the Belfast, even if the Belfast does more raw damage numbers per battle.  Ultimately, the Belfast is still a squishy UK cruiser that can get deleted from afar given the BB meta and/or nailed by torps fired into its staionary smoke.  The Nikolai, otoh, can push hard through an enemy's main body and rip it apart, and requires enemy DDs to know what they are doing to kill you - not as common at low tier as BBs who can cit a UK cruiser at higher tier. 

 

Still, they are both strong ships, rather have them on my team than against them.  

[Kapitan_Wuff]

Belfast is more OP but it's also more difficult to use.

[Camo68]

Just now, Kapitan_Wuff said:

Belfast is more OP but it's also more difficult to use.

Agree with this, Belfast has far more potential to carry a game but it requires much more skill to do so. Played well it is immune from every class, radar extends to detection range so once spotted pop radar, pop smoke to avoid incoming fire and hydro to spot torps (unless BBs are good at aiming into smoke). 

The Nikolai is a sledgehammer and can shrug off pretty much any incoming fire however it can't get around the map quickly (which diminishes its carry potential) and is very vulnerable to DDs and torpedo bombers.

[Komrade_Rylo]

PNikolai is good, but I've come to prefer ark beta more bc 3km extra range. Nothing feels more dirty than when I play Belfast though. It shows how stupid cruisers are when you give them smoke and HE

[_Luna]

While the Belfast may be more annoying to deal with, the numbers don't lie.

Over the last 2 weeks:

The Imperator beats out the Belfast in every major performance category (Avg/ XP not included as Tier 4 & Tier 7 XP earnings are not the same)

As for which is "stronger" in its own Tier, while the Belfast is very good, I don't think it compares to the Imperator.

 

*edit*

Hmm, seems the little chart I made didnt post.

[Komrade_Rylo]

6 minutes ago, _Luna said:

While the Belfast may be more annoying to deal with, the numbers don't lie.

Over the last 2 weeks:

 

The Imperator beats out the Belfast in every major performance category (Avg/ XP not included as Tier 4 & Tier 7 XP earnings are not the same)

As for which is "stronger" in its own Tier, while the Belfast is very good, I don't think it compares to the Imperator.

 

The Belfast is also played by a lot more people and doesn't have pref matchmaking 

[LittleWhiteMouse]

[Wulfgarn]

2 minutes ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

[Warhawk_1130]

57 minutes ago, AirshipCanon said:

 It also loses to Arkansas.

 

Not true.  While I can kill a nikolai, most nik drivers angle bow like they should and makes it very difficult to pound it down.  Those that sail broadsides, well...yes...I can dispatch in short order.  The biggest threat to arks, BB wise in punching power is nikolai, new York, kongo (and their variants) and wyoming...and only threats if you sail broadside to them.

I lose more health to properly driven nikolais than anything else the game offers, except CV's and most of the high tier CV drivers are now playing 4 and 5, so games get pretty rough sometimes.

 

[IronWolfV]

59 minutes ago, AirshipCanon said:

On terms of "Power at Tier".

Imperator Nikolai, aka the Inquisitor Nikolai [Nobody expects the Russian Inquisition!] isn't much, a cheeky Battleship with good armor and profile. It still eats crapand dies whenever a Torpedo attack is around since it can't torpbeats. It also loses to Arkansas.

Belfast is some kind of supergod with Smoke, Hydro and Radar on one vessel that also can HE Spam with said smoke. It's meta-centric and way more powerful than the "Inquisitor" ever was.

Yet the Inquisitor can only be gotten out of boxes and the Belfast is still up. ...hmm.

 

Potatoes? Yeah, that does [edited] with the Belfast. Potatoes can fail in the Inquisitor just as easily.

Loses to Arkansas?  Only I'd he's stupid.  Angle and laugh as the Ark bounces all shots while firing 9 guns in return.

[Psicopro]

The Belfast is the ship I play to warm up for a night of cruiser play.

 

The Nikolai is what I play when I want to taste the tears of my enemies and crush them.

 

Both are OP, but only one is a true bully.  The Belfast is a rogue of a ship.

[Jnobsire]

26 minutes ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

 

[Aivris]

The Nikolai is like a big bully in junior school. They rule the play-ground and all the other kids stay away or get beat hard.

 

The Belfast is like a bully in junior high school. There's someone bigger out there, but it's got plenty of tricks up its sleeve. Play it right, and things can get stirred up real good.

 

Or something like that.

[LittleWhiteMouse]

6 minutes ago, Panbun said:

The Nikolai is like a big bully in junior school. They rule the play-ground and all the other kids stay away or get beat hard.

Keep in mind, the Nikolai was still a bully when uptiered to tier VI back in the day.  All of the other tier IV Battleships saw a maximum of tier V opponents.  Nikolai would go up to VI and still rule the roost.

[vak_]

1 hour ago, Camo68 said:

Belfast has far more potential to carry a game but it requires much more skill to do so. Played well it is immune from every class

 

Not from carriers. Much like Nikolai, tbh. 

[Hurlbut]

14 minutes ago, vak_ said:

 

Not from carriers. Much like Nikolai, tbh. 

Smoke. It reduces the danger of the carrier to the level of anyone able to fire a torpedo into the smoke. And with the smoke, you don't know how far the Belfast is before the planes start taking heavy fire, so generally, you want to manual drop torps a bit further out. 

[vak_]

2 minutes ago, Hurlbut said:

Smoke. It reduces the danger of the carrier to the level of anyone able to fire a torpedo into the smoke.

 

1) If the Belfast is on the go when the enemy strike airplanes appear, there often isn't enough time to properly hide in smoke.

2) Torpedoing Belfast in smoke is often trivial. And no, it's not the same level of threat as with ship-bourne torpedoes, because your hydro will warn you way in advance when latter are incoming, giving you ample time to leave. 

[Hurlbut]

Just now, vak_ said:

 

1) If the Belfast is on the go when the enemy strike airplanes appear, there often isn't enough time to properly hide in smoke.

2) Torpedoing Belfast in smoke is often trivial. And no, it's not the same level of threat as with ship-bourne torpedoes, because your hydro will warn you way in advance when latter are incoming, giving you ample time to leave. 

You can see the torpedo bombers coming though, so it also gives you ample time to leave. Unless you have a CV Captain who know how to play mind games with you on where he is going to drop the torps.

[FayFay731]

2 hours ago, AirshipCanon said:

Belfast is some kind of supergod with Smoke, Hydro and Radar on one vessel that also can HE Spam with said smoke

It can get smoke fired upon easily. That amazing ROF gives its position happily away. I've citadeled Belfast through smokes with my Bismarck or Tirpitz dozens of times because it eats citadels everywhere. It's bow can even be over matched by 203mm shells, which I would happily take advantage of.

[AJTP89]

3 minutes ago, Hurlbut said:

You can see the torpedo bombers coming though, so it also gives you ample time to leave. Unless you have a CV Captain who know how to play mind games with you on where he is going to drop the torps.

Well, to be a good CV captain, you have to play mind games with the enemy ships. Then again, I'd argue that a good CV captain is probably the most OP thing out there. You can spec for AA all you want, but with the exception of a few cruisers, if a good CV captain decides he wants you dead, you're going to be dead sooner or later. And for those AA cruisers, all he has to do is keep you spotted so his team can finish you off.

 

I think the Nikolai is the harder one to play against. If a BB decides to charge down a Belfast smoke, unless the BB is on very low HP, the Belfast is toast. I've done it many times. You might be able to see me, but your 6" HE ain't doing squat, you don't have torps, and when I autodetect you, you are really going to remember my 16" shells. Also, a spotted Belfast is the priority target for every BB and CA on the team. I've seen Belfasts get spotted, and have half their HP knocked off before they can smoke up, and they don't have a heal. Nikolai just chugs down a side of the map, destroying everything it its path, and laughing at 12in shells. Belfast might be more OP if played well, but overall, the Nikolai's idiot certification makes it more OP overall.

[LittleWhiteMouse]

19 minutes ago, Hurlbut said:

You can see the torpedo bombers coming though, so it also gives you ample time to leave. Unless you have a CV Captain who know how to play mind games with you on where he is going to drop the torps.

You can only see them if someone else spots them.  You can't spot aircraft from within smoke.

[vak_]

27 minutes ago, Hurlbut said:

You can see the torpedo bombers coming though, so it also gives you ample time to leave.

 

1) If you stop and smoke up every time CV bombers seem to be coming in your general direction, you'll have a very bad time.

2) Ample time to leave smoke? Then you're in the open again, ready to be torped. You can try and juke the drop at the last moment by accelerating forward, but that's a very dangerous game to play. Not to mention that often you won't even have vision on the bombers.

 

I can repeat: Belfast is extremely vulnerable to air attack. I have plenty of Belfast games and even more tier seven carrier games to know that this truth. In fact, I've one-shotted quite a number of Belfasts in my Saipan games; they're always very satisfying to kill -- I help my team to deal with an OP bote, and lose almost no TBs, it's a win-win!