USN BB AA Ratings/Gun Dispersion

[Retnav54]

With all the hoorah the other day over the Texas and her "god tier" AA rating, and the debate about foregoing the APR1 main gun range module to achieve that rating, I decided to do a little experimenting. I spent a little gold and credits to swap modules around, and configured my New York and New Mexico to the same setup as LWM recommended in her Texas review thread - AA Module in place of APR1, captains with AFT and BFT - my Colorado was already running this setup.

New York - ended up with a 45 AA rating. Main gun range dropped from 18.1 to 15.3, and dispersion at max range dropped from 241m to 216m.

New Mexico - ended up with a 65 AA rating. Main gun range dropped from 17.3 to 14.9, and dispersion at max range dropped to 209m.

Colorado - 79 AA rating. Stock gun range of 16.7 with 233m dispersion.

Texas - 72 AA rating, other same as New York.

Up until now, I had used my own "Warspite Rule" - the New York and New Mexico, having less stock gun range than my Warspite, got the APR1 module - the Colorado, having more stock gun range than the Warspite, got equipped with originally the Secondary Battery module (an experiment with a Warspite-like build), and then with the AA module. Like a lot of people, I was concerned that any BB with less gun range than the Warspite, even though I play mainly co-op battles, just wasn't going to be up to snuff.

I then took both the New York and New Mexico with this AA build out into co-op battles to try them out. Surprising to me, on the majority of the maps these two ships end up on, I didn't notice or feel hampered by the reduced gun range at all. After a few games, I pretty much forgot all about it. While my experience might be entirely different on the PvP side of the house, so far for me it's not a handicap.

As far as testing out their new-found AA capability, sadly, carriers tended to be few and far between in co-op battles yesterday - and then hit and miss as to whether or not the AI carrier would even have a go at me. At least once each for the New York and New Mexico, they did make a fair go of trying to put me under. With the New York on the New Dawn map, the AI Langley lost 22 planes for it's troubles. And with the New Mexico on Two Brothers, an AI Saipan lost 28 planes.

That battle with the New Mexico was humorous in a way - for part of the battle, an Omaha stayed next to me to give me AA cover - while I DID appreciate the gesture and told him the same in chat (and he was most welcome company when a "surprise" DD popped out of the middle channel), I had to break it to him that I probably had over twice the AA rating he did, and was giving HIM AA cover, lol.

The way the New Mexico performed in that battle, with it's 65 AA rating, against a Saipan with higher-tier aircraft - that seems to say that a Texas with it's 72 AA rating would have no trouble holding up against a Tier 7 carrier.