Something fun I've noticed (Chapayev)

[TacticalOni]

So you've made it through the Shchors (I really didn't like it and there's nothing about it I find I should like) 

and you now have the Chapayev. Congrats! you have 70mm more armor! Same guns, same pretty much everything else. 

But on that top hull you get the much lauded, little-praised radar. Now your job is being a support cruiser, that's obvious all the way up the line. But I figured out something really fun and interesting about the Chapayev, that I think I should tell those interested. 

With a little bit of extra credits, you can drop the concealment upgrade on her, which is nice for breaking engagements and all that, but something else is that with concealment camo, and the concealment uppgrade installed, your detection goes down to 11.7 or 11.6k. 

which, as luck would have it, is the range of your radar.. 

So, I rigged mine up with hydroacoustic, radar, concealment mod and concealent camo and lo and behold, you can easily play late-match DD hunter! 

Depending on the destroyers you are facing, with hydrophone activated and vigilance on your captain, you can spot torps far enough out to evade. I once caught a Fubuki and a Hatsuharu dangerously close to our cap and our carriers late in the match, and once I spotted them and started moving in, they both dropped smoke relatively close to each other, and disappeared. I was still lit.

In characteristic fashion, I exclaimed loudly "oh hell no" and popped Radar. Ohohohoho, pants were shat. I believe I detonated the Hatsu with a lucky shot in two salvos, and melted the Fubuki away shortly thereafter. 

American gunboats will have to be in range of it 99% of the time to pester you with hits, and if you know they are closing in to torpedo range, then Radar will light them up reliably. 

Playing these cruisers with a Japanese or German cruiser in a division, depending on your flavor, will yield good results quite a bit of the time, especially when you can coordinate with your team to get the most of Radar when you do use it. 

I'm curious to hear what other people think of this (the concealment build on Chapayev and Radar.) I know destroyers can be very dominant in high tier games, depending on the player. This finally seems to give cruisers the ability to "hit back" 

[Captain_Dorja]

Cool post. Nice idea. I will keep that filed away for the time I get a Chapayev.

[pmgaudio]

hmmmmmm

Very interesting indeed

[Xero_Snake]

WG isn't bluffing about "intelligently assess threats" and "provide fire support for destroyers" niches on Soviet cruisers. I think Vigilance captain skill is very useful when using together with sonar, especially if one chose to heighten situational awareness to avoid torps. Not sure if it works on radar or not, though.

[beliy_demon]

Can't wait to be done with Schnores...

[bad_arcade_kitty]

meantime statistically shchors is one of the best ships on any server

[TacticalOni]

meantime statistically shchors is one of the best ships on any server

 

eh. She has potential but she was an absolute dud for me, especially when the Chapayev was right there...

[beliy_demon]

meantime statistically shchors is one of the best ships on any server

 

I ended up finishing Schores with 65% win rate, I still hate the ship.   Its very unrewarding and frustrating to play.

[10T0nHammer]

Thats kind of how I play my NO. You take CE and Conceal Mod 1 and your detection drops down to 9.7km. Radar reaches out to to something like 9km. I can usually sneak up close enough to DDs to catch them with their pants down.

[pmgaudio]

meantime statistically shchors is one of the best ships on any server

 

(EDITED CONTENT)..... and then.... , IN GAME has really nothing to do with it... many people do great with the worst ships in game, and many people SUCK with the best....

So in a nutshell, not really any point to this, cause in game has really not as much to do with on paper, but go ahead, and enlighten us on this ship you play...

[Junostorm]

Viable Tactic, works with the New Orleans as well, though the NO you get a slightly lower radar range but 50% increase in duration.

[TacticalOni]

Viable Tactic, works with the New Orleans as well, though the NO you get a slightly lower radar range but 50% increase in duration.

 

I think that's because tiers 8 and 9 are 8"gun cruisers and their rate of fire is lower than thsee Soviet machine gun cruisers

I'm at the pepsi myself. Trying to decide on if I want to build up some XP and get past it to the NO more sooner than later

[10T0nHammer]

 

I think that's because tiers 8 and 9 are 8"gun cruisers and their rate of fire is lower than thsee Soviet machine gun cruisers

I'm at the pepsi myself. Trying to decide on if I want to build up some XP and get past it to the NO more sooner than later

 

I wouldn't skip the NO. She is a decent enough ship. If you are good in the Pepsi, you'll be better in the NO. I would say that you should save that XP for the Balty lol

[beliy_demon]

Loving this ship atm.   The armor is now enough to bounce 8" shells and the gun angles are much better than Schors.

 

AA is actually viable too

[Gabriel_LXIX]

Ive watched videos and the attraction is the shell travel.

 

So flat that burning down DDs seems trivial.

[TacticalOni]

 

I wouldn't skip the NO. She is a decent enough ship. If you are good in the Pepsi, you'll be better in the NO. I would say that you should save that XP for the Balty lol

 

yeah, I meant putting together enough free XP to get a handle on the NO, without skipping it entirely (I only had about 40 matches in Chapayev, but had enough free XP saved up I only had to grind it halfway to get to Donskoi, enough to know the ship, and love it, without it feeling like a grind) Other than that, I'd love to get to the Balti or DM sometime.

Ive watched videos and the attraction is the shell travel.

 

So flat that burning down DDs seems trivial.

 

At closer ranges, these cruisers excel at melting away DDs with those guns. Most times, You were always setting them on fire, knocking out their guns, engines, torpedoes. Any Japanese DD or any DD for that matter (I've just grown a fondness for beating up Japanese destroyers, for as many times as I've fallen victim to their play style and thinking I was safe travelling in a straight line for more than 30 seconds) 

But, it's always nice to lay down worlds of hurt on those little ships