Looking for a new Cruiser line...

[LegioCI]

I've gotten to the New Orleans in the USN Cruisers, however I've noticed a downward trend- the USN Cruiser line reached a high-point with the Omaha, but each ship since has seemed like a backwards step, being less powerful and harder to use, tier for tier, than the last. Higher-tier USN Cruisers also seem to be crippled by an over-specialization in AA protection, trading effectiveness in their anti-ship role to counter a class that is present maybe once in every five or six games. And every review I've read of the Baltimore and Des Moines has them as continuing that trend.

 

With this mind I'm looking to jump ship, so to speak, to another cruiser line. What initially attracted me to the US Cruisers back in the CBT was that they were gunfighters- they didn't have torpedoes so they lived or died by their ability to put effective fire onto targets. Unfortunately several nerfs later and the USN Cruisers are notorious for being only being accurate at suicidally close range, while IJN and KM cruisers seem to dominate them at the usual fighting ranges. So which of the existing Cruiser lines would probably be considered the best "gunfighters"?

 

I have been looking at the new Soviet cruisers- they seem to have an emphasis on excellent gunnery and the 9" guns on the Moskva seem to point towards this idea. On the other hand, I've had plenty of fun playing the Kuma as well as the ARP Myoko, though I've heard that while the Zao is considered an excellent ship, the rest of the line either runs hot or cold- ships are either murderboats or target practice. I'm not quite as enamored with the German cruisers, as their 1A2 turret placement seems like it would be awkward, forcing you to turn broadside to get the majority of your guns onto the enemy.

[mofton]

I'm up to T7 in both the IJN and KM cruiser lines. Both were a lot of fun up to T6, though I've barely tried the much-maligned Yorck and I don't like the Myoko - though it's a fine ship.

 

The IJN I think were fairly similar to the USN in some ways to T4, step-change at the Furutaka and then fairly similar from then on up. It's quite a transition.

 

KM has a couple of duds to start - inc. Karlsruhe, though it's been buffed since I played. The Konigsberg and Nurnburg are vicious but not for everyone. Two of my best performers. Yorck looks like a big change to those two, then not sure on the Hipper and up - generally well regarded though.

 

I'm on NOLA too, I don't mind it so long as I don't get a T10 game and find some dumb Atago's to shell, but knowing that the Baltimore is next is disheartening. Plus I'm only a good enough player to earn decent credits at T8 if I use premium.

[Walclt]

I just started playing the Russian line of cruisers.  I'm impressed.  The Bogatyr level III cruiser is as far as I've gotten.  It seems pretty accurate and has a lot of firepower and reloads are pretty quick.  Speed and maneuverability seems to suit my style.  Just my opinion.

[Crucis]

 

 

With this mind I'm looking to jump ship, so to speak, to another cruiser line. What initially attracted me to the US Cruisers back in the CBT was that they were gunfighters- they didn't have torpedoes so they lived or died by their ability to put effective fire onto targets. Unfortunately several nerfs later and the USN Cruisers are notorious for being only being accurate at suicidally close range, while IJN and KM cruisers seem to dominate them at the usual fighting ranges. So which of the existing Cruiser lines would probably be considered the best "gunfighters"?

 

I have been looking at the new Soviet cruisers- they seem to have an emphasis on excellent gunnery and the 9" guns on the Moskva seem to point towards this idea. On the other hand, I've had plenty of fun playing the Kuma as well as the ARP Myoko, though I've heard that while the Zao is considered an excellent ship, the rest of the line either runs hot or cold- ships are either murderboats or target practice. I'm not quite as enamored with the German cruisers, as their 1A2 turret placement seems like it would be awkward, forcing you to turn broadside to get the majority of your guns onto the enemy.

 

The turret placement for the tier 5 and tier 6 German cruisers isn't that big a deal.  It just means that they tend to fight their best when trying to hold the range open and you're generally running (sort of) away from your target, rather than generally moving towards them.  Indeed, I found the Konigsberg to be an utter beast at tier 5.  A bit soft, but if you can keep the range as open as possible and use your guns' excellent accuracy, its AP rounds will shred a lot of stuff.

 

As for "gun fighters", honestly, even cruisers that have torpedoes should be looked at as gun fighters, first and foremost.  Far too often, I've seen players of cruisers mounting torps get all suicidal just so that they could fire their torpedoes, when there was no real reason to do so.  For example, the K-berg's torpedoes have a max range of 6 km, IIRC.  But its guns have a max range somewhere around 15 km.  There's no good reason to close to 6 km across open water on an enemy just for the sake of firing those torpedoes.  OTOH, if you happen to catch an enemy ship in a situation where you can close into torpedo range without being spotted or fired upon, like rounding the corner of an island, that's a different story.  But honestly, when I was playing my K-berg, my preferred strategy was to keep the range a open as possible to pummel my targets while doing my best to dodge incoming shots.

 

 

[Phoenix_jz]

Russia seems to be a sniper nation.

The ships have less armor than a wet paper bag.

The guns are good, but the ships will just melt under AP fire. And these are tier V+ I'm talking about.

Speed seems to be fine, maneuverability I have no idea.

The firepower is good, but don't expect to shrug off any hits in them.

[Herr_Reitz]

imho the bogey with the small guns has amazing accuracy for it's tier.. seems most shots will land... the groupings appear very tight. I do want to move up and out of her tho because she gets put into combat against carriers ... and she has no AA.

 

I get enuff of that in the Ark B :-) 

[supersix15]

So far I'm to tier 8 on all cruiser lines except the Soviets the hipper is my favorite ship in the game so far so I'd suggest the German line

[inktomi19d]

 

 

 

As for "gun fighters", honestly, even cruisers that have torpedoes should be looked at as gun fighters, first and foremost.  Far too often, I've seen players of cruisers mounting torps get all suicidal just so that they could fire their torpedoes, when there was no real reason to do so.  For example, the K-berg's torpedoes have a max range of 6 km, IIRC.  But its guns have a max range somewhere around 15 km.  There's no good reason to close to 6 km across open water on an enemy just for the sake of firing those torpedoes.  OTOH, if you happen to catch an enemy ship in a situation where you can close into torpedo range without being spotted or fired upon, like rounding the corner of an island, that's a different story.  But honestly, when I was playing my K-berg, my preferred strategy was to keep the range a open as possible to pummel my targets while doing my best to dodge incoming shots.

 

 

This.

 

The thing I actually look for most in cruisers is the detection range. There's a big difference between starting your fight at 15 km, and starting it at 9 km, and those cruisers with better stealth tend to work best if you open up at 10 km or so with a full broadside.

 

I find the New Orleans to be a pretty great gunfighter too though. It can get in close safely, can vanish if it stops shooting (since it's generally very accurate from well outside it's detection range) and it has 6 guns forward so it can angle well against other cruisers. I'm not sure anything really gets 'better' than that. It's just that at higher tiers you need to be really careful about where the BBs are, no matter what cruiser you use.

 

[Ditos]

the New Orleans has very good AP performance from my experience