A new favorite ship? Rochester

 I haven't gone far up the American cruiser or battleship line.  I feel like while they can hit hard and have excellent penetration angles for their shells, they are slow and glompy.  New word, glompy.

I cannot be without American ships though, being patriotic and what-not.  So months ago I picked up the Indianapolis (tier VII cruiser) and found it to be very hard-hitting for its tier.  The 203's (8 inch) wreak havoc, but the reload time is somewhat slow.

I had no tier VIII American ships so I decided to research and pick one.  In the end it came down to the Baltimore/New Orleans variants, but which one?  I narrowed it down to the Wichita and the Rochester.

I did some research, watched videos from Carlos Carlito and Flamu and some others, looked at the back and forth arguments in the forums.  I love that the Baltimore, Wichita, and Rochester are all slightly different in their balance and game play.  In the end I went with Rochester because I was intrigued by the smoke, and the decent concealment numbers.  The reload was nerfed from Baltimore and Wichita, but not too much, and firing from smoke, or having Adrenaline Rush sort of makes up for it in heated battle.  The hull is basically the same as Baltimore and Wichita, so if you angle a little, you can take a lot of fire without serious damage.  But, you get caught broadside and between the fore and aft main turrets, at water level, BOOM!  So there is that.

I don't know why, but the first time I played this ship I was in love with it.  And for no reason I can put my finger on.  I have been playing her only in co-op mode and I don't think I have broken 30,000 damage with her.  Meanwhile I can reap 100,000 in my Mainz or my Ochakov pretty easily.

It's not like I don't help the team!  I can sink at least 2 enemy bot ships per game and when she hits a ship she does excellent damage.  No, I am trying to figure it out... I *think* it might be the fact that I tend to find a spot and smoke up.  In co-op it is a race to clobber anything and everything.  Just run and gun.  When I smoke up and sit, all the ships around me just keep on chasing and shooting.  That's all I can figure.  The second issue with smoking up is that the Rochester's smoke lasts a long time, and becomes a comfortable haven.

So I think that is what it might be.  I am probably going to go into a few matches today and NOT smoke at all, and just sail about whomping whoever I can.

But I really do like this ship and am glad I went that way.  I had been on the fence... American cruiser or the Irian?  I already have a few tier VIII Russian cruisers (Bagration, Ochakov) and have worked my way up to the tier IX Riga... so I leaned American and have not been disappointed.  I ended up with a Baltimore with slower reload and smoke.  A nice ship indeed!

Bayard, Riga and Drake

 I picked up another premium, the French cruiser Bayard.  I really like her, she reminds me a lot of the Mainz, at least I play her like that.  She has 152, fire setting with decent penetration and pretty rapid reload.  So she is good at hanging back and spamming fire.  But if you get a decent broadside, her AP does significant damage!

I leveled my Russian cruiser line up, picking up the Riga (tier IX Russian heavy cruiser).  Riga is pretty beastly, especially with her AP.  Her armor is good for bow tanking or even kiting away.  You can get smashed by a BB if you are broadsided though.

Finally, I also leveled up my British cruiser line.  I went from the Albemarle to the Drake.  The Drake is definitely a better ship and I am looking forward to the tier X Goliath...  Drake's HE is so good that you don't even need to switch to AP for cruisers and destroyers.  It is devastating.  And the HE is good to set those pesky battleships and carriers on fire as well.

I will continue to play the Drake to get the B hull, then switch back to my premium tier VIIIs to garner XP to level up my next line.  I think I will level up the Italian line, Amalfi to Brindisi.  It isn't much of an upgrade... really just adds a 4th turret.  Everything else is pretty much the same.  After that I am not sure.  I need to level up another line so that I can win a gift from wargaming for getting 4 (or maybe it was 5) tier X ships from the main tech tree.

OH!  As an after thought, I also picked up the Cossack, a British premium destroyer.  It is a pretty nice little ship, again, helpful for farming XP.

That's all for now...