My 1st T8 Cruiser in WOWS = HMS Edinburgh

[AdmiralThunder]

When I started WOWs in Dec 2016 I was a Cruiser main, although I played a little BB too, and really I focused on the BRN line as I really wanted Minotaur and that crazy 3 second reload. Once I hit Fiji though I sort of was burnt out on Cruisers and got more into BB's where I advanced to T10 in USN and IJN. Recently though it has been hard to get matches at high tier in Co-op (I am a PVE main) so I have been playing more Cruisers. I finished the Fiji to Edinburgh grind this morning (grind is not a good way to describe it as Fiji is a joy to play). So I am one step closer to Minotaur and I got my 1st T8 Cruiser.

Being a Co-op player, where experimenting is not as big a deal as it is in Random, I have decided to try an AA build to start with Edinburgh. I am going AA spec as it's AA is really good. Just want to see what it is like. Can always respect the ship and Capt later. Usually I go guns/smoke and survivability with my BRN CL's but figured what the heck, let's try an AA build. LOL  So AAGM2 + a Capt with BFt/AFT has the AA up to 85 which is pretty good. A side benefit that made me chuckle is the secondary guns got boosted to a 6km range. That is better than a lot of USN BB's. LOL

So looking forward to playing the new ship. Absolutely LOVE Fiji. Hope this is as enjoyable to play.

I do have a question. With the recent smoke nerf is it worth taking Radar over smoke on the BRN CL's that have that option now? I have never had a ship with radar (just HAS) and am not sure if it is worth losing smoke even with the changes.

Thanks and happy sailing. LOL

[Chaos_EN2]

Congratz AdmiralThunder

[alexf24]

Edinburgh is a good ship. I like and kept all RN CLs from T5 to T10 in port, though I play Fiji and Edinburgh more than I play Neptune and Minotaur.

Edinburgh is very similar to Fiji, just finding tougher opponents. The line changes with Neptune and Minotaur.

[pewpewpew42]

Radar can be good if you are divisioned with someone with smoke. It's a radar well suited to the close ranges you fight at, but without someone to cover you, you lose a lot of survivability.

[GrandAdmiral_2016]

A good ship. Radar or smoke is a coin toss. Depends on your play style, especially in division play. Smoke is a DD torpedo magnet. With Edinburgh smoke is useful only if you have another spotter, pop hydro while inside and limit the use of guns to three broadsides before bugging out. Slow down to quarter speed before popping and hit the stop engines just as you pop it to spread the smoke cloud out a bit in size. That will give you some room to move around inside the smoke cloud. If you don't use the guns and torp instead, use single fire at medium range. Always have a bug-out route planned before you pop smoke. Most folks don't, and pay the price. Every time I forget I get hammered! On cruisers without smoke (New Orleans in my case) that give me the option between fighter/spotter aircraft and radar, I go with radar. If you go radar you will need a captain with the 4-point CE skill. Fast Eddie with radar, hydro and stealth is a pretty potent combo if you use the map correctly. I rigged my Minotaur with radar for clan battles instead of smoke because clan battles are medium to close range knife fights where speed, situational awareness, reflexes and use of islands for cover are the keys to success. DDs that use smoke too soon get radared and deleted by focus fire. It works, at least for me.

[The_first_harbinger]

A solid ship serving as a milestone for your dedication to this game! Congratz for you.

Personally, the smoke nerf shouldn't affect your gameplay too much, especially with tactical usage of your hydroacoustic search. But more and more people have proven that radar can certainly be a viable option too. 

Hope you enjoy your lasting career and relationship with her!

 

[AJTP89]

2 hours ago, AdmiralThunder said:

A side benefit that made me chuckle is the secondary guns got boosted to a 6km range. That is better than a lot of USN BB's. LOL

The lower tier ones, The equivalent T8 secondaries (AL and NC) are 6.3km with AFT, but not the secondary mod. The MO and IA go up to 7.2km. Still, kind of sad that they can be compared with a CL.

 

Congrats on the T8. I just finished the NO (meh) and moved on to the Baltimore. That ship looks to be good.

[StrykerNC]

Congrats... Edinburgh is a keeper.. I just got Minotaur in time for clan battles.

[vonKaiser]

Even though the smoke nerf happened...  Well to be perfectly honest, in my mind, if you're smoking that close to the enemy where it becomes a factor you're too close anyway.  Smoke, for me, is an anti-targeting tool.  I use stealth to get into position, islands first and foremost.  However, if I find myself on a flank that is being pushed by the enemy, have 3 or more targets of opportunity all in range and I can fire on them all?  That's when I'll pop the smoke and hold down the trigger button.  Recent;y got myself to the Edinburgh and I'm loving her even more then the Fiji.

[NoCoGaming3645]

I run the AA module on my Edinburgh, and it's definitely nice to have to do two things:

1. discourage CVs from parking a spotter over me when I'm smoke camping
2. get rid of those pesky float planes coming over islands and spotting me and giving me away to the BB or CA on the other side.

It's NOT enough to discourage a torp or bomber run; with AFT or BFT to enhance the AA DPM, you do get noticeably more plane kills, but stuff still gets through fairly easily.

Honestly, I can't see mounting both AFT and BFT, as that's a huge amount of points you have to give up for something that can't really protect you well - your secondary fire against DDs even with both is pretty anemic, and you should be using your main guns instead.

Personally, I'd trade BFT for SE instead, or AFT for SE + PM.  That is, I'd only ever suggest running EITHER BFT or AFT, not both, and even then, I'm kind Meh on them, as I consider other skills far more usable.  I'd consider AFT if you're the kind who likes to run Radar instead of smoke (because then you don't go for Smoke Screen Expert), but even there, I'd probably go for Vigilance instead of AFT.  

 

But hey, have fun!

[AdmiralThunder]

Thanks all. Only a few games so far and for some reason not having the same success I did with Fiji??? Very low damage numbers. Probably just the awful MM I have seen so far. I am sure in more games it will come around.

[NoCoGaming3645]

It's MM - T8 is brutal on cruisers.

Your damage will shrink a bit until you manage to figure out how to live longer, and the other issue is that your AP isn't as effective against other CAs and BBs as it was down at T7 - you get a lot more shatters and bounces on T8+ CAs/BBs than you did in a Fiji.   The other thing that kinda hurts is the loss of 1 torp from each side - that lowers the number of torps you manage to land, and the +2km range doesn't seem to help that much as an offset.

The other thing you might notice is the Edin is a bit beefier than the Fiji, and it doesn't wiggle as well. Which does affect your survivability.

 

[AdmiralThunder]

13 hours ago, EAnybody said:

It's MM - T8 is brutal on cruisers.

Your damage will shrink a bit until you manage to figure out how to live longer, and the other issue is that your AP isn't as effective against other CAs and BBs as it was down at T7 - you get a lot more shatters and bounces on T8+ CAs/BBs than you did in a Fiji.   The other thing that kinda hurts is the loss of 1 torp from each side - that lowers the number of torps you manage to land, and the +2km range doesn't seem to help that much as an offset.

The other thing you might notice is the Edin is a bit beefier than the Fiji, and it doesn't wiggle as well. Which does affect your survivability.

 

Haven't seen beyond T8 ships with it yet (I am a Co-op player as said ^^^ and lately the T9-T10 ships have been absent - like a ghost town when I try and bring out my T10 BB's???). So seeing the same ships I did in Fiji (lots of T8 CL/CA and BB). Might just be ME playing more conservative as it is a new ship? I definitely do notice it is not as maneuverable as Fiji for sure. Big difference in the rudder and turn radius. Another aspect making me play more conservative.

I used to go super aggressive in Fiji as it can dance almost like a DD. I would push right up with the DD's and duke it out for caps and such and never hesitated to charge BB's and torp them. Edinburgh dances more like a 30 something slightly overweight guy who has lost a step or two so I have been less aggressive. LOL 

[AdmiralThunder]

Starting to get a handle on the ship. Liking it a lot just as I did Fiji. Looking forward to Neptune and Minotaur.

[NoCoGaming3645]

Neptune and Mino have noticeably different playstyles than the Leander/Fiji/Edin.

Much worse maneuverability, and far worse armor (for their tier).  They sorta compensate by having a ridiculous ROF on the main guns, but again, it's 152mm AP, so there's only so much damage you can do to even cruisers.  Neptune in particular has pretty darned crappy visibility (and awful in-smoke visibility).

So don't get comfortable in the Edin and think that's just what the Neptune/Mino are like.  Frankly, the peak fun of the RN CL line is the Fiji, with the Edin in a close second, IMHO.