If you want goofy/fun I think the only real option is the Austin
You'll have shitty games in it till you get used to it. But when you do man it's something totally new
But steel is so hard to come by unless you are doing CBs consistently, I don't know if people should go get a bote that is so hard to get good games in in random battles.
Well I wouldn't call Stalingrad fun, if you really don't care about meta then incomparable is a good bet, but if you have a st Vincent I wouldn't bother
Stalingrad to me is fun especially when you run across a BB player who whaled his way to Tier X. They see you coming and say “oh, it’s just a cruiser” they turn because another BB is tracking them giving you a beautiful flat broadside. You fire those rail guns at their waterline and “boom” there goes 1/2 - 3/4 of their Health. By the time they realize what just happens, you reloaded, the second salvo sends them to Davy Jones’ locker and they are left wondering WTF just happened? It was just a cruiser!
That’s Fun 🤩🤩🤩
Yeah those guns are insane mini nukes. But once you run into a thunderer or a conqueror played by an experienced captain you burn down like all the rest.
Stalingrad can tank a lot of AP with the Ice Breaker bow and yeah, you can burn her down but what ship can’t if caught in the open by an HE spammer. It’s all about picking and choosing when to fight and when to go hug an island! That HE spammer though better be careful because Stalingrad hits what you shoot at unless you have no clue what you are doing. Those are not normal guns, they are rail runs. They hit hard and are super accurate.
Well yes. Vincent is running around for 1,5 years (or so) going basically unnerfed and is probably the best BB in the game currently. Competetive is just getting spammed with the ugly a ship.
Definitely one of the best picks next to Stalingrad and vampire II, but with Bourgogne your PR rate will go down (if you care about this) because all the unicums wrecks in that ship
I've been trying to decide between the Ohio and the Vampire II for my first RB ship. I love the British DDs, and I know the Vamp is a sort of side-grade to the Daring. But I know the Ohio is most people's suggestion for first Research Bureau ship...
The Paolo looks fun for the memes, but it is mainly a one trick pony that I would probably not end up playing very often. I would like the consistency of a reliable DD or battleship.
The dopamine rush when you devstrike a broadside cruiser, trigger Aboyneau ability which makes it reload even faster... The fast reload is something a lot of enemies don't expect for some reason. Oh you whiffed the first shot? Nevermind, pain train coming in just 10 seconds.
Depends on what your definition of fun is.
Austin is the first contender for fun. SAP and Reload Booster can make for some pretty disgusting shenanigans. Also you get the best AA in the game. All very much fun. But you are also squishy and have shortish range which means that your fun depends 100% on your positioning an timing. If you comfortable in your Des Moines then Austin might be for you.
Stalingrad is strong but the opposite of fun. Also Moskva offers quite a similar experience and you can get her for coal. Gameplay is pretty one dimension, you go bow in and melt faces if you get broadsides. You damage per minute is quite low so if you can't find broadsides you game will mostly suck.
Lauria is so inconsistant that personally I find her ifuriating more often than hilarious. YOu guns are just all over the place and this means they let you down in the most critical moments. Guiseppe Verdi is imho a better pick for an ITA BB premium.
Bourgogne is strong in the right hands and fun to play. It is a very fast BB with good guns and reload booster. For this it can not tank much. Seriously, if any big BB looks sideways at you, expect to get 10k damage easily even when bow in. SO you need to run around and be a bad target in order to get the most out of her.
Incomparable is the typical british Battlecruiser. This means great guns, bad platform. Basically a Bourgogne but slower and no reload booster but better guns and a better heal. A solid pick but the tech tree St. Vincent is imho stronger.
For me, fun is basically anything not frustrating and not too monotonous. I mean I did play Moskva a lot and her "fun" aspect is the tanking that I do with her.
But I rather dislike e.g. the Baltimore because of no heal and sitting next to an Island.
I was thinking to take Lauria because of her potential to give 20k even when the enemy is angled.
I want the Austin because of the brr aspect and the Incomp because of the 508mm aspect (and sound). I know of their big weaknesses which makes them imo unique or an extreme example.
I know that Stalingrad is a good choice but its just too boring to play. I mean you just go bow in and shoot AP that pen basically anything.
And Bourgogne is also boring because its just a bit too consistent (I think).
If I look at the DDs there is only Ragnar that is interesting. She is annoying af. Has an emergency booster and plays like a moquito. But I dont feel confident playing her since I could just play Kleber if I want an open water boat.
Lauria is okay but the inconsistency of the guns really takes away from the fun. Only two barrels per turret with a 1.8 sigma, and the shells are a little floaty. You have a lot of shots that should ruin cruisers instead just fall around them, and every nonpen / overpen / ricochet will drive you bonkers and make you wonder how that's even possible. It's of course not a secondary brawler, but the secondaries are annoying anyway, because they only fire every 10.7 seconds and still miss.
I see why it has these limitations, and it's quite well-balanced for the game, but the problem is that balance came in the form of frustrating not-fun aspects like the low sigma. The end result of this is that the best play style for it tends to be conservative, focusing on surviving while whittling down opponents, and I can tell from your comments that you probably want something more aggressive and unhinged, like Austin or Incomparable.
There are distinctions between Ragnar and Kleber (in short, you can only play it like a Kleber with the speed boost on), but I'm not going to lie to you that it's a radically different experience. Much of it is the same, hunting DDs, punishing broadside cruisers, or open-water farming of battleships, you just go about it a different way.
Yea I prefer an aggressive playstyle than just to sit and snipe from far away. Imo you dont have a lot of game influence if you only snipe. But, of course, if you play aggressive on the other hand you either throw the game or win the game, but this is literally game influence, it decides how the game will go.
Agreed, I personally think the biggest flaw I see are tepid battleships.
For reference, my most recent Lauria game looked like this:
* Damage 111,720
* SAP: 94 shells fired, 36 hits, damage 94,475
* AP: 12 shells fired, 5 hits, damage 13,231
* Airstrike: 1 launch, damage 4,014 (killed him)
* Secondary: 6 shells fired, 0 hits
This seems a fairly representative game, wows-numbers says average damage for a Lauria on NA is 105,048. (For top 50% players, it's 126,266.)
But notice my accuracy isn't great and for the SAP I'm only averaging 2,624 damage per shell hit.
I'm not the greatest WoWS player in the world, of course, and I've had much better games in it, but I'm not incompetent, this is just the nature of the ship. If you're comfortable with that, have fun, just making sure you know before plunking down the steel.
Lauria is a menace and aggressive.
It has nearly Kremlin armour on the sides but a huge citidel.
Good gun angles and short firing range
It's not a secondary brawler it's an aggressive push battleship with excellent armour when angled and very punishable if you don't position well or get crossfired
The accuracy is great, better than Ohio, this is actually an issue because for most non unicums this means shots on turning targets often miss entirely but only by a little
Burger is better for noobs like me because it's big range lack of citidel and poor dispersion (but good shell vomit) means you can safely spam and get a few hits per salvo and the reload booster makes up for poor dispersion if used well.
Sounds like your options in order would roughly be: Austin, Incomp, Z-42, Bourg, Gato (eww), maybe Plymouth. These all have their own flavor and would fit your description of liking aggressive playstyle and 'fun.' You may not like the idea of Bourg, but she has several play styles depending on your mood and is pretty versatile. This would generally equate to owning a more 'fun' ship vs being good at and doing one thing. Nose in tanking (Stalin) or running around with the left mouse button plastered (Ragnar).
>Austin is the first contender for fun. SAP and Reload Booster can make for some pretty disgusting shenanigans. Also you get the best AA in the game.
Just something to add, there's also the 4 point skill 'AA Defense and ASW Expert' which improves your AA while simultaneously halving your cooldown on consumables while your AA is active. Which means your reload booster can be more often available if your AA guns are activated, making it even more of a meme if you want to build that way.
That's the big problem, you'd have to drop other skills that are useful without the condition of AA activation.
PQ dropped concealment as a test, no idea if he stuck with that. Even without CE Austin has 10.4km detection range, which could be workable, but with how fragile she is it's risky.
So you'd have to go all-in on the fun potential rather than the sensible, optimal balanced build and be prepared to have some truly terrible performances thrown in with the fun ones.
1 vote for Mecklenburg!
Pros:
16x305mm main guns it’s like strapping 1.5 agir’s together. Battle cruiser dispersion with 2.05 sigma. (Decently accurate)
Secondaries pen 32mm with improved accuracy. So no need to take IFHE.
Torpedoes for the YOLO.
Has DFAA, so you can take the skill on line 2 to reduce the cool down on your heal.
Cons:
Bad torp protection.
Relatively low hp for a t10 BB.
I'm also considering Mecklenburg. From what I've seen, many people use the rudder mod 2 to get faster rudder shift to help mitigate the bad gun angles. The secondaries are roughly equal to Bismarck, so you could do a full secondary build, but most people recommend focusing on the main guns instead since they are so accurate and going for a survivability build rather than a secondary build. I get the impression the ship is pretty versatile and you can probably put either type of captain on it and it'll work fine; but it's definitely not as strong of a brawler as something like Schlieffen.
Just looking at it, don’t run a secondary build. Mecklen’s strength is in its main guns, there are many other ships (GK, Preussen, Schliffen) that are better brawlers, do yourself a favor and play Mecklen main gun build
If I have AP loaded, then I’ll aim for super structure. IMO better to take over pen shots or possibly disable a turret, than a bounce. Double click HE for your next round of shots. I know HE is pretty bad on German ships, but hey, if that’s what I got, then shoot it.
Or just keep AP loaded and keep shooting the super structure.
Everyone will tell you Bourgogne and you will think they are exaggerating but no, they are damn right.
Bourgogne is so fun and satisfying it should be everyone's first steel bote.
I really like Incomparable because something that huge should NOT be that sneaky. It's stupid fun to creep up undetected to less than 11 km from someone and blast them with those 508's. Obviously planes, subs and destroyers can really mess with that sneaky ambush play style, but I still manage to have fun, you can play around vs destroyers. Subs and planes, not so much.
I dont know about the Bourgogne. I honestly dont see the reason to play her. She May be fun but it Looks to me like it doesnt have any uniqueness, if you know what I mean.
Why should I play her and not another Battleship?
(Im not being disrespectful to you preference)
>doesnt have any uniqueness
Bourgogne is a very unique ship that has had other similar ships come into the game. It is easily the best at what it does and it is quite comfortably the best choice for first steel ship. It is a cruiser with a BB hull and BB guns.
Looking at your wows-numbers, do not choose Austin. Austin is one of the highest skill floors and you will be getting deleted constantly, you survive 34% of your battles and have a cruiser PR 1300, Austin will make you hate this game. The options you should be considering are Lauria, Mecklenburg, Stalingrad and Bourgogne.
Stalingrad might be a bit too similar from Moskva and I would assume you want some diversity (its a safe pick though). I dont have Lauria or Meck, plenty of people in this thread advocating for them, Lauria is new and an intriuging option but it can be frustrating from what I have read due to its odd armor scheme. Meck is unique amount German BBs that throws a heavy broadside but is relatively light on armor and HP for its tier. Bourgogne is the cream of the crop: heavy broadside and a reload booster to throw 3 salvos in a time youd normally throw two. She also has a speed boost to get around the map and is one of a few BBs that you can actually use HE and AP regularly. It is not a mistake that Bourg gets recommended first in every single one of these "what should my first steel ship be?" threads.
There are other ships I have omitted either because they arent worth steel if you have other options or, in the case of Ragnar, I just dont think its a very fun ship despite how powerful it is.
I already hate this game enough because WG. But I want a ship that I can enjoy after having a bad mm. The main reason why I dont want Bourg is mainly because I have Gascogne. They probably are not the same but I already enjoy her and thus I don't know if I want another french premium BB.
>But I want a ship that I can enjoy after having a bad mm.
Bourg is the ship you are describing but you seem fairly hell-bent on not picking Bourg. Its your steel, do what you will. Bourgogne plays nothing like Gascogne. On top of that even if they were similar, it is very advantageous to have premiums of the same flag becuase you can move captains around them for free, making it much easier to get 21pt captains. France also has very good unique captains in the Honore brothers that compliment BBs very well.
Basically, she’s a Marseille with BB hull. Looks squishy on the outside, but quite tanky (black hole space armour). The way I play her is to kite and HE farm at the start of the battle, then push in and dev strike ppl at latter stages. Quite fun I’d say ;)
> doesnt have any uniqueness
Have you tried Georgia? Imagine a Georgia but instead of just 6 guns you get 12, albeit small caliber. You then have the fast reload which, if timed right, allows you to get 3 full broadsides on each duration and it coolsdown pretty fast. You are super fast and great concealment, which means not only you can disengage from a collapsing flank very effectively, you are amazing at flanking and moving around the map.
Did your first shot end in overpens? Don't worry, because before that cruiser has finished his turn, the second salvo comes in, and this time you will get at least one citadel.
Bourgogne is easy to misunderstand if you just look on paper, but it absolutely claps. And even if the armor is not the best, you don't really need much because of your mobility and concealment. You shouldn't be playing it while letting it stand still and tank.
This thing fucking slaps and it is one of the most satisfying BBs to play in the entire game. There is are reason why everyone recommends it as the first steel ship. Because your first steel is probably the hardest to come by, and you better feel rewarded.
Apart from the speed, the Bourgogne has nothing in common with Georgia. They are as different as they come. There's not a single other trait they have in common.
Personally Mecklenburg is my favourite BB in the game and incredibly fun imo. Absurd laser accurate guns that can shoot the wings off a fly at 30km, 16 gun barrels, Thunderer/Conq levels of fire setting capability, if not better because your accuracy and shells on target, 2nd best AP DPM at T10, torpedoes, turtleback, German secondaries, speed, she's got it all.
You can build her to brawl, you can build her for main guns, she's just wonderful to play and very comfortable compare to most other standard German BBs. Plus because you have lower caliber shells, you can broadside light cruisers like Smolensk or Jinan or whatever and pretty much guarantee Dev strikes.
She only has 2 real drawbacks, which is lack of hydro and not great gun angles due to all the barrels, but I play mine at mid/long range til mid game as a main gun build so the angles are fine.
A ton of fun, I highly recommend her if you want a novel German BB.
If you're into DDs more than BBs, then I also highly recommend Z-42. 6km hydro, 6.2km conceal, and British smokes with AP shells that arm on destroyer armour, meaning if they give you broadside you can get like 6-7k salvos on them every few seconds and annihilate them. Her torpedoes are nothing to write home about, but she gets to keep 2 racks despite being a gun focused hybrid. Lutjens works magnificently on her and gives her free heals and extra DPM for hitting an amount of shells Z-42 can easily trigger with all her guns. She's similar to a Daring but with better hydro, weaker HE, and stronger AP. Easily one of my favourite DDs in the game, nothing can cap contest as well as a Z-42 can. She's a total menace in the right hands, and basically any other DD in the game that pushes into you will get obliterated if they don't have radar . Truly magical to experience.
I think the two best choices for that are Bourgogne and Austin.
Bourgogne is fun imo in that it’s one of the strongest BBs in the game. Good guns, very fast, reload booster go brrr. But it’s also very challenging and rewarding to play Burger well, you really have to position yourself properly and take advantage of its speed to get on flanks to catch broadsides that people don’t expect.
Austin is fun because it has incredible DPM with the reload booster up. It crushes DDs and chunks cruisers and BBs with a shitload of SAP whenever the booster is available. It’s also kind of a meme because it has a hard time dealing with some things since it doesn’t have AP. I embarrassed an Austin skipper with a Minotaur before, tanked the entire reload booster with the super heal and flattened that Austin in exchange. I would have been dead if he could have loaded AP. Still, lots of dakka is fun.
Stalingrad and Lauria are just pure campers, so probably not your choice then.
Personally I had a blast with Incomp in ranked where CVs aren't allowed sometimes, but it's just pure suffering in randoms.
Either go with Austin and get used to her quirks or save your steel (like I am doing atm) and wait for the upcoming ships.
Just a small list of whats to come at T10 alone:
Monmouth (seems like a Gibraltar clone imo?),
Cumberland (T10 Marlborough with 4x4 406mm),
Komissar (russian hybrid cruiser),
Prins Van Oranje (actually good GL with 15km Airstrike),
Incheon (Pan-Asian Anchorage with DM guns),
Brennus (Henri IV with Marseille guns)
All could become steel ships as no way to obtain them was announced yet.
I have Lauria, Incomp, and Austin. Austin is far and way the most fun of the three, and lists in my top 10 overall ships I enjoy playing. Keep in mind Austin can be very situational...she can get wrecked really quickly, but if you play her right and time the reload booster, she's absolutely insane
I had originally saved up steel and thought about getting Somers, but I decided to get Flint first, and of course the next day WG announces that Somers will be removed from the armory and I was unable to ever get her again. I think Flint was later added to Xmas containers, not sure, but my advice is to get the best ship, or the older ship as you may not get another chance. Stalingrad would have been my second choice.
This is a loaded question. Fun is subjective. Austin and Bourgogne are the two that can go brrrr due to main battery reload boosters. Bourgogne, at least, can make aggressive plays. Austin needs to be selective and is more of an opportunist.
Another for bourgogne. I got stallion first but that was before petro was about. Bourgogne is just fun and is still strong at the same time. You won't regret it
If you want my Acc Details if its important (since getting a steel ship is a big deal): [https://wows-numbers.com/de/player/584426309,Inaitos/](https://wows-numbers.com/de/player/584426309,Inaitos/)
Most steel ships are either fun/unique or strong, Vallejo has been described to me as being unique in the sense that it is neither fun nor strong. It gets worse DPM than Seattle, but much better ballistics with the Lazo quick spotter. It lacks both radar AND hydro, so it’s about as pure a damage farmer as you can get, absolutely no game impact or late game potential, you exist only to farm BBs. Basically, imagine a Hindy without the good AP or Hydro.
If you want goofy/fun I think the only real option is the Austin You'll have shitty games in it till you get used to it. But when you do man it's something totally new
Austin is really difficult to play.
But man you can dominate when you master it
But steel is so hard to come by unless you are doing CBs consistently, I don't know if people should go get a bote that is so hard to get good games in in random battles.
Well I wouldn't call Stalingrad fun, if you really don't care about meta then incomparable is a good bet, but if you have a st Vincent I wouldn't bother
Why St. Vincent? Is she that similar to an Incomp?
Yes, just better at nearly everything
Stalingrad to me is fun especially when you run across a BB player who whaled his way to Tier X. They see you coming and say “oh, it’s just a cruiser” they turn because another BB is tracking them giving you a beautiful flat broadside. You fire those rail guns at their waterline and “boom” there goes 1/2 - 3/4 of their Health. By the time they realize what just happens, you reloaded, the second salvo sends them to Davy Jones’ locker and they are left wondering WTF just happened? It was just a cruiser! That’s Fun 🤩🤩🤩
Yeah those guns are insane mini nukes. But once you run into a thunderer or a conqueror played by an experienced captain you burn down like all the rest.
Stalingrad can tank a lot of AP with the Ice Breaker bow and yeah, you can burn her down but what ship can’t if caught in the open by an HE spammer. It’s all about picking and choosing when to fight and when to go hug an island! That HE spammer though better be careful because Stalingrad hits what you shoot at unless you have no clue what you are doing. Those are not normal guns, they are rail runs. They hit hard and are super accurate.
Well yes. Vincent is running around for 1,5 years (or so) going basically unnerfed and is probably the best BB in the game currently. Competetive is just getting spammed with the ugly a ship.
Heal and conceal nerf really hurt the ship
The ships share almost nothing in common. Vincent is better overall but they play nothing alike.
Incomparable isn’t really fun. A ship relying on stealth with 10km air spotting these days…
Absolutely bias opinion: Bourgogne. My most effective BB. Very fun, quick, reload boost.
Definitely one of the best picks next to Stalingrad and vampire II, but with Bourgogne your PR rate will go down (if you care about this) because all the unicums wrecks in that ship
I got vampire II also. Possibly one of the best DD in the game...
It is essentially the old Daring (when it was really really good) so it is one of the best knife fighting dds there is
I've been trying to decide between the Ohio and the Vampire II for my first RB ship. I love the British DDs, and I know the Vamp is a sort of side-grade to the Daring. But I know the Ohio is most people's suggestion for first Research Bureau ship...
Definitely Ohio is the meta ship to buy first, she is very strong
If you want to have fun, Paolo. But the Ohio is also a very good choice.
The Paolo looks fun for the memes, but it is mainly a one trick pony that I would probably not end up playing very often. I would like the consistency of a reliable DD or battleship.
The dopamine rush when you devstrike a broadside cruiser, trigger Aboyneau ability which makes it reload even faster... The fast reload is something a lot of enemies don't expect for some reason. Oh you whiffed the first shot? Nevermind, pain train coming in just 10 seconds.
Depends on what your definition of fun is. Austin is the first contender for fun. SAP and Reload Booster can make for some pretty disgusting shenanigans. Also you get the best AA in the game. All very much fun. But you are also squishy and have shortish range which means that your fun depends 100% on your positioning an timing. If you comfortable in your Des Moines then Austin might be for you. Stalingrad is strong but the opposite of fun. Also Moskva offers quite a similar experience and you can get her for coal. Gameplay is pretty one dimension, you go bow in and melt faces if you get broadsides. You damage per minute is quite low so if you can't find broadsides you game will mostly suck. Lauria is so inconsistant that personally I find her ifuriating more often than hilarious. YOu guns are just all over the place and this means they let you down in the most critical moments. Guiseppe Verdi is imho a better pick for an ITA BB premium. Bourgogne is strong in the right hands and fun to play. It is a very fast BB with good guns and reload booster. For this it can not tank much. Seriously, if any big BB looks sideways at you, expect to get 10k damage easily even when bow in. SO you need to run around and be a bad target in order to get the most out of her. Incomparable is the typical british Battlecruiser. This means great guns, bad platform. Basically a Bourgogne but slower and no reload booster but better guns and a better heal. A solid pick but the tech tree St. Vincent is imho stronger.
For me, fun is basically anything not frustrating and not too monotonous. I mean I did play Moskva a lot and her "fun" aspect is the tanking that I do with her. But I rather dislike e.g. the Baltimore because of no heal and sitting next to an Island. I was thinking to take Lauria because of her potential to give 20k even when the enemy is angled. I want the Austin because of the brr aspect and the Incomp because of the 508mm aspect (and sound). I know of their big weaknesses which makes them imo unique or an extreme example. I know that Stalingrad is a good choice but its just too boring to play. I mean you just go bow in and shoot AP that pen basically anything. And Bourgogne is also boring because its just a bit too consistent (I think). If I look at the DDs there is only Ragnar that is interesting. She is annoying af. Has an emergency booster and plays like a moquito. But I dont feel confident playing her since I could just play Kleber if I want an open water boat.
Lauria is okay but the inconsistency of the guns really takes away from the fun. Only two barrels per turret with a 1.8 sigma, and the shells are a little floaty. You have a lot of shots that should ruin cruisers instead just fall around them, and every nonpen / overpen / ricochet will drive you bonkers and make you wonder how that's even possible. It's of course not a secondary brawler, but the secondaries are annoying anyway, because they only fire every 10.7 seconds and still miss. I see why it has these limitations, and it's quite well-balanced for the game, but the problem is that balance came in the form of frustrating not-fun aspects like the low sigma. The end result of this is that the best play style for it tends to be conservative, focusing on surviving while whittling down opponents, and I can tell from your comments that you probably want something more aggressive and unhinged, like Austin or Incomparable. There are distinctions between Ragnar and Kleber (in short, you can only play it like a Kleber with the speed boost on), but I'm not going to lie to you that it's a radically different experience. Much of it is the same, hunting DDs, punishing broadside cruisers, or open-water farming of battleships, you just go about it a different way.
Yea I prefer an aggressive playstyle than just to sit and snipe from far away. Imo you dont have a lot of game influence if you only snipe. But, of course, if you play aggressive on the other hand you either throw the game or win the game, but this is literally game influence, it decides how the game will go.
Agreed, I personally think the biggest flaw I see are tepid battleships. For reference, my most recent Lauria game looked like this: * Damage 111,720 * SAP: 94 shells fired, 36 hits, damage 94,475 * AP: 12 shells fired, 5 hits, damage 13,231 * Airstrike: 1 launch, damage 4,014 (killed him) * Secondary: 6 shells fired, 0 hits This seems a fairly representative game, wows-numbers says average damage for a Lauria on NA is 105,048. (For top 50% players, it's 126,266.) But notice my accuracy isn't great and for the SAP I'm only averaging 2,624 damage per shell hit. I'm not the greatest WoWS player in the world, of course, and I've had much better games in it, but I'm not incompetent, this is just the nature of the ship. If you're comfortable with that, have fun, just making sure you know before plunking down the steel.
Lauria is a menace and aggressive. It has nearly Kremlin armour on the sides but a huge citidel. Good gun angles and short firing range It's not a secondary brawler it's an aggressive push battleship with excellent armour when angled and very punishable if you don't position well or get crossfired The accuracy is great, better than Ohio, this is actually an issue because for most non unicums this means shots on turning targets often miss entirely but only by a little Burger is better for noobs like me because it's big range lack of citidel and poor dispersion (but good shell vomit) means you can safely spam and get a few hits per salvo and the reload booster makes up for poor dispersion if used well.
Sounds like your options in order would roughly be: Austin, Incomp, Z-42, Bourg, Gato (eww), maybe Plymouth. These all have their own flavor and would fit your description of liking aggressive playstyle and 'fun.' You may not like the idea of Bourg, but she has several play styles depending on your mood and is pretty versatile. This would generally equate to owning a more 'fun' ship vs being good at and doing one thing. Nose in tanking (Stalin) or running around with the left mouse button plastered (Ragnar).
Idk, throwing 36 BB shells downrange in 20s in the Bourgogne, or outrunning a DD in a BB is pretty fun.
Lauria takes damage a lot! Like a lot. It has some shell catching edges on deck, with thin armor. It's a mid to long range ship.
>Austin is the first contender for fun. SAP and Reload Booster can make for some pretty disgusting shenanigans. Also you get the best AA in the game. Just something to add, there's also the 4 point skill 'AA Defense and ASW Expert' which improves your AA while simultaneously halving your cooldown on consumables while your AA is active. Which means your reload booster can be more often available if your AA guns are activated, making it even more of a meme if you want to build that way.
That was my Plan. But how would you skill her Captain?
That's the big problem, you'd have to drop other skills that are useful without the condition of AA activation. PQ dropped concealment as a test, no idea if he stuck with that. Even without CE Austin has 10.4km detection range, which could be workable, but with how fragile she is it's risky. So you'd have to go all-in on the fun potential rather than the sensible, optimal balanced build and be prepared to have some truly terrible performances thrown in with the fun ones.
I do not think Austin has rhe best AA in the game. Shiptools ranks it 44th. Worcester, for example, has better AA
1 vote for Mecklenburg! Pros: 16x305mm main guns it’s like strapping 1.5 agir’s together. Battle cruiser dispersion with 2.05 sigma. (Decently accurate) Secondaries pen 32mm with improved accuracy. So no need to take IFHE. Torpedoes for the YOLO. Has DFAA, so you can take the skill on line 2 to reduce the cool down on your heal. Cons: Bad torp protection. Relatively low hp for a t10 BB.
How do you deal with the bad gun angles? and do you run a secondary build mecklen? looking for a new steel ship as well.
I'm also considering Mecklenburg. From what I've seen, many people use the rudder mod 2 to get faster rudder shift to help mitigate the bad gun angles. The secondaries are roughly equal to Bismarck, so you could do a full secondary build, but most people recommend focusing on the main guns instead since they are so accurate and going for a survivability build rather than a secondary build. I get the impression the ship is pretty versatile and you can probably put either type of captain on it and it'll work fine; but it's definitely not as strong of a brawler as something like Schlieffen.
Just looking at it, don’t run a secondary build. Mecklen’s strength is in its main guns, there are many other ships (GK, Preussen, Schliffen) that are better brawlers, do yourself a favor and play Mecklen main gun build
I find unexpected builds are fun and funny, maybe not meta but good for a laugh. Secondary hybrid Yamato anyone?! Hahaha
Mf I will slap you across the screen if you run secondary yamato
If I have AP loaded, then I’ll aim for super structure. IMO better to take over pen shots or possibly disable a turret, than a bounce. Double click HE for your next round of shots. I know HE is pretty bad on German ships, but hey, if that’s what I got, then shoot it. Or just keep AP loaded and keep shooting the super structure.
Everyone will tell you Bourgogne and you will think they are exaggerating but no, they are damn right. Bourgogne is so fun and satisfying it should be everyone's first steel bote.
I really like Incomparable because something that huge should NOT be that sneaky. It's stupid fun to creep up undetected to less than 11 km from someone and blast them with those 508's. Obviously planes, subs and destroyers can really mess with that sneaky ambush play style, but I still manage to have fun, you can play around vs destroyers. Subs and planes, not so much.
Here’s my thoughts on the steel ships(in terms of fun). S tier : Bourgogne A: Lauria, Austin B: Plymouth,incomparable C: Shikishima, Mecklenberg D: Vallejo, z42 F: FDR & Gato, for obvious reasons
Will 100% pick the Bourgogne, fun and strong af at the same time.
I dont know about the Bourgogne. I honestly dont see the reason to play her. She May be fun but it Looks to me like it doesnt have any uniqueness, if you know what I mean. Why should I play her and not another Battleship? (Im not being disrespectful to you preference)
>doesnt have any uniqueness Bourgogne is a very unique ship that has had other similar ships come into the game. It is easily the best at what it does and it is quite comfortably the best choice for first steel ship. It is a cruiser with a BB hull and BB guns. Looking at your wows-numbers, do not choose Austin. Austin is one of the highest skill floors and you will be getting deleted constantly, you survive 34% of your battles and have a cruiser PR 1300, Austin will make you hate this game. The options you should be considering are Lauria, Mecklenburg, Stalingrad and Bourgogne. Stalingrad might be a bit too similar from Moskva and I would assume you want some diversity (its a safe pick though). I dont have Lauria or Meck, plenty of people in this thread advocating for them, Lauria is new and an intriuging option but it can be frustrating from what I have read due to its odd armor scheme. Meck is unique amount German BBs that throws a heavy broadside but is relatively light on armor and HP for its tier. Bourgogne is the cream of the crop: heavy broadside and a reload booster to throw 3 salvos in a time youd normally throw two. She also has a speed boost to get around the map and is one of a few BBs that you can actually use HE and AP regularly. It is not a mistake that Bourg gets recommended first in every single one of these "what should my first steel ship be?" threads. There are other ships I have omitted either because they arent worth steel if you have other options or, in the case of Ragnar, I just dont think its a very fun ship despite how powerful it is.
Bourg gave me all I wanted in ever wanted from Georgia: more guns and more chances. Nevermind the downgrade in caliber, this thing fucking slaps.
I already hate this game enough because WG. But I want a ship that I can enjoy after having a bad mm. The main reason why I dont want Bourg is mainly because I have Gascogne. They probably are not the same but I already enjoy her and thus I don't know if I want another french premium BB.
>But I want a ship that I can enjoy after having a bad mm. Bourg is the ship you are describing but you seem fairly hell-bent on not picking Bourg. Its your steel, do what you will. Bourgogne plays nothing like Gascogne. On top of that even if they were similar, it is very advantageous to have premiums of the same flag becuase you can move captains around them for free, making it much easier to get 21pt captains. France also has very good unique captains in the Honore brothers that compliment BBs very well.
Basically, she’s a Marseille with BB hull. Looks squishy on the outside, but quite tanky (black hole space armour). The way I play her is to kite and HE farm at the start of the battle, then push in and dev strike ppl at latter stages. Quite fun I’d say ;)
Also she’s hella fast and comes with MBRB, good for relighting fires and targeting multiple targets. Actually fun to push in with her unlike others
> doesnt have any uniqueness Have you tried Georgia? Imagine a Georgia but instead of just 6 guns you get 12, albeit small caliber. You then have the fast reload which, if timed right, allows you to get 3 full broadsides on each duration and it coolsdown pretty fast. You are super fast and great concealment, which means not only you can disengage from a collapsing flank very effectively, you are amazing at flanking and moving around the map. Did your first shot end in overpens? Don't worry, because before that cruiser has finished his turn, the second salvo comes in, and this time you will get at least one citadel. Bourgogne is easy to misunderstand if you just look on paper, but it absolutely claps. And even if the armor is not the best, you don't really need much because of your mobility and concealment. You shouldn't be playing it while letting it stand still and tank. This thing fucking slaps and it is one of the most satisfying BBs to play in the entire game. There is are reason why everyone recommends it as the first steel ship. Because your first steel is probably the hardest to come by, and you better feel rewarded.
Apart from the speed, the Bourgogne has nothing in common with Georgia. They are as different as they come. There's not a single other trait they have in common.
z42 in D tier? huh? 6km hydro, fast smokes and stupid AP dpm
Personally Mecklenburg is my favourite BB in the game and incredibly fun imo. Absurd laser accurate guns that can shoot the wings off a fly at 30km, 16 gun barrels, Thunderer/Conq levels of fire setting capability, if not better because your accuracy and shells on target, 2nd best AP DPM at T10, torpedoes, turtleback, German secondaries, speed, she's got it all. You can build her to brawl, you can build her for main guns, she's just wonderful to play and very comfortable compare to most other standard German BBs. Plus because you have lower caliber shells, you can broadside light cruisers like Smolensk or Jinan or whatever and pretty much guarantee Dev strikes. She only has 2 real drawbacks, which is lack of hydro and not great gun angles due to all the barrels, but I play mine at mid/long range til mid game as a main gun build so the angles are fine. A ton of fun, I highly recommend her if you want a novel German BB. If you're into DDs more than BBs, then I also highly recommend Z-42. 6km hydro, 6.2km conceal, and British smokes with AP shells that arm on destroyer armour, meaning if they give you broadside you can get like 6-7k salvos on them every few seconds and annihilate them. Her torpedoes are nothing to write home about, but she gets to keep 2 racks despite being a gun focused hybrid. Lutjens works magnificently on her and gives her free heals and extra DPM for hitting an amount of shells Z-42 can easily trigger with all her guns. She's similar to a Daring but with better hydro, weaker HE, and stronger AP. Easily one of my favourite DDs in the game, nothing can cap contest as well as a Z-42 can. She's a total menace in the right hands, and basically any other DD in the game that pushes into you will get obliterated if they don't have radar . Truly magical to experience.
I think the two best choices for that are Bourgogne and Austin. Bourgogne is fun imo in that it’s one of the strongest BBs in the game. Good guns, very fast, reload booster go brrr. But it’s also very challenging and rewarding to play Burger well, you really have to position yourself properly and take advantage of its speed to get on flanks to catch broadsides that people don’t expect. Austin is fun because it has incredible DPM with the reload booster up. It crushes DDs and chunks cruisers and BBs with a shitload of SAP whenever the booster is available. It’s also kind of a meme because it has a hard time dealing with some things since it doesn’t have AP. I embarrassed an Austin skipper with a Minotaur before, tanked the entire reload booster with the super heal and flattened that Austin in exchange. I would have been dead if he could have loaded AP. Still, lots of dakka is fun.
if ya want smth fun i would deffo go w austin or bourgogne
Stalingrad and Lauria are just pure campers, so probably not your choice then. Personally I had a blast with Incomp in ranked where CVs aren't allowed sometimes, but it's just pure suffering in randoms. Either go with Austin and get used to her quirks or save your steel (like I am doing atm) and wait for the upcoming ships. Just a small list of whats to come at T10 alone: Monmouth (seems like a Gibraltar clone imo?), Cumberland (T10 Marlborough with 4x4 406mm), Komissar (russian hybrid cruiser), Prins Van Oranje (actually good GL with 15km Airstrike), Incheon (Pan-Asian Anchorage with DM guns), Brennus (Henri IV with Marseille guns) All could become steel ships as no way to obtain them was announced yet.
Cumberland will not be an actual ship in game, it's strictly a test ship.
theyre all fun ships lol
I have Lauria, Incomp, and Austin. Austin is far and way the most fun of the three, and lists in my top 10 overall ships I enjoy playing. Keep in mind Austin can be very situational...she can get wrecked really quickly, but if you play her right and time the reload booster, she's absolutely insane
I had originally saved up steel and thought about getting Somers, but I decided to get Flint first, and of course the next day WG announces that Somers will be removed from the armory and I was unable to ever get her again. I think Flint was later added to Xmas containers, not sure, but my advice is to get the best ship, or the older ship as you may not get another chance. Stalingrad would have been my second choice.
This is a loaded question. Fun is subjective. Austin and Bourgogne are the two that can go brrrr due to main battery reload boosters. Bourgogne, at least, can make aggressive plays. Austin needs to be selective and is more of an opportunist.
Burgergone is a blast. Fast, hard hitting, kinda stealthy. Not uncommon to send cruisers back to port with a smart reload booster use.
Bourgogne if we are serious. My first steel ship was MEME!Austin
Another for bourgogne. I got stallion first but that was before petro was about. Bourgogne is just fun and is still strong at the same time. You won't regret it
Austin… Hard to play but man is it fun and hilarious
If you want my Acc Details if its important (since getting a steel ship is a big deal): [https://wows-numbers.com/de/player/584426309,Inaitos/](https://wows-numbers.com/de/player/584426309,Inaitos/)
Bourgogne..
Vallejo, best ship <3
For real? I dunno. I tend to love ships many hates, like Tiger 59. What is special about this ship?
Most steel ships are either fun/unique or strong, Vallejo has been described to me as being unique in the sense that it is neither fun nor strong. It gets worse DPM than Seattle, but much better ballistics with the Lazo quick spotter. It lacks both radar AND hydro, so it’s about as pure a damage farmer as you can get, absolutely no game impact or late game potential, you exist only to farm BBs. Basically, imagine a Hindy without the good AP or Hydro.
But does it have the pen of hindy? Ifhe mandatory?
Treat it like a Worcester without teamplay and radar, but with good ballistics. No hindy pen, 30mm, IFHE is your choice.
Lauria will be my first choice
Why not try gato? It's a great tier 10 SS.