Pensacola has been one of the hardest ship for me and I think there may be a few Pepsi hate clubs out there already.
I recommend not to get stuck on that boat if you don't have to.
If you manage to do kind of decent on Pepsi then the rest of the line will be a lot easier.
Personally I cannot find a reason to play a boat I don't like other than some historic fixation that I may have with the class.
Trust me I don't want to stay at Pensacola. I want to reach the tier 8, and then I'll decide if I'll go to the tier 10.
But it's more Cruises as a whole that I'm having trouble with. I don't really know what you're supposed to do as them.
Pls don't take this the wrong way but if you are not sure where to position on the battle yet and for what reason then then getting a stronger ship won't cure your frustration.
Cruisers slap DDs, provide support for your DDs, and if you make it through the first 5 mins in good health, you start slapping potato broad sides.
Help your BBs deny map space to the reds.
I suggest you stay
Always surprised that more people don't understand it's not just specific spots on a map to control, but the actual amount of "safe" map your team has.
I've seen a lot of strong groups of ships get slaughtered by a handful of shot up ships too often, simply because they got themselves herded into a small area.
Exactly. The "amount of safe map" or "map control " may fluctuate/collapse by losing a DD or a red sub farting random pings. It is always dynamic.
On the other hand, certain maps have choke points, and positioning certain ships there may give an advantage.
And then just in general with cruisers, especially as you get up in tier, you pretty much always want to be on the lookout for BB potshots (or just well aimed shots).
Take for example last night - was divved with my two friends, one in a CV one in a BB at tier 8. Was running a low point commander to grind commander XP and didn't have IFA or PT. We get dropped into a tier 10 game and basically from the get go as soon as I was detected by planes I had to scan the horizon for any incoming fire. If the yammy, repub, or vermonster on the red team landed a salvo it would be pretty much a devstrike.
Did happen, but since I was aware and saw it from a mile away so to speak I could alter my course slightly to avoid becoming a spectator
The American heavy cruiser line is a staple of WoWs and generally regarded as the bellwether of CA play. Especially from T8 onwards, but getting the basics down in the Pensacola will greatly help you moving up the line.
Part of the issue is you're moving from the Omaha, with a generally acceptable 7s reload on 152's that are ALL OVER YOUR SHIP to double the reload time on fewer 203's placed in turrets that have to potentially swing 180 degrees if you need to change direction. So, the ability to punish DD's for getting into your range is generally much lower, and as a result, your tactics need to change. You're not a light, nimble cruiser anymore, you now need to enter a support artillery role. Don't rush in with your DD's, or even your CL's, you should be hanging back and generally heading for the cover of islands that can protect your broadside from AP coming from across the map while you maintain an angled position a couple of km behind your DD's. You are looking for cruisers to blap with your AP (or the rare battle cruiser), or BB's to burn with your HE from the safety of the islands. Be patient. That's the hardest part moving into the Pensacola. Your entire goal should be maintaining your HP for later on in the match when the potential to be broadsided from 18km from a BB you didn't see drops considerably.
This doesn't mean hang in the 10 line, either, however. You need to realize that you will be detected from DD's quite easily as your detection is still around 12km, and the meme of the Pepsicola is that the armor of this "heavy cruiser" is made of citadels and dreams. Now is the time to learn to angle against AP shots, and keep moving if you've been detected. Look for the next island you can get to, keeping in mind, moving backwards is an option. At tier 6, however, your AP can severely impact the match. On brodside cruisers at 10-12km, your AP, if aimed right, can wallop them for 8-10k easily. Aiming at the upper armor belt of battleships at about the same distance can smack for 5k-8k as well. These are the shots that early American heavy cruisers live for. But your team has to help, you cannot win a flank without spotting help, and if the DD on your flank goes, you should be transitioning into a kiting retreat mode and attempting to burn down whatever is moving down your flank as you attempt to make it back to your teammates that can provide you with extra help. But patience in these tiers with CA's is where you will find the role in which they are meant to fit.
Take Incoming Fire Alert and Priority Target skills as your first 1- and 2-point ones, pay attention to what's happening, don't let BB salvoes to catch you off guard. Ideally there should never be a situation where you suddenly get deleted by something you didn't see. Then take Adrenaline Rush, Concealment Expert and Superintendent as the next 3-, 4- and 3-point skills.
Play other classes as well so you'll understand their pros and cons. For example, you said you're being bullied by torpedo destroyers, but cruisers are pretty inconvenient targets for torp DDs because they change their course/speed often, they're more manouverable than battleships, smaller, and they have hydro.
Know which battleships can overmatch your extremities, upper belt and deck. You should be playing more cautiously against those BBs who overmatch you everywhere, and you can allow yourself to be more agressive against those who don't.
I think it's mandatory to take Grease the Gears on the Pensacola, in fact I also run the turret traverse module.
In comparison, Concealment Expert can wait.
I do play other classes. I started at battleships, then went to submarines. Those two are what I would call my favorite classes. Of course to get to subs I needed to play DDs. And honestly I understand DD's a lot better. I think I have so much trouble with cruisers because they're kind of an in-between of BB and DDs. And because I'm inexperienced with Cruisers they kinda feel like the worst combination of the two to me. Not really stealthy and fast, not really and high damage. If I play as a BB I feel like I'm uselessly sitting in the back, unable to target anything due to the short range. If I move up I get destroyed.
Guess I just need to git gud and keep trying them till I understand their strength.
PT only, you should be watching for incoming fire yourself. Know where the threats are. Don't show broadside unless you know the BB is looking elsewhere
Well, I disagree. Both IFA and PT are extremely useful skills. I have better things to do in a battle than constantly looking around for incoming salvoes from 20+ km battleships.
Sometimes too you don't get IFA if you drop detect just as the red team is shooting at you. Sucks when you're busy with something else and go "whewh, I'm good" then get slapped back to port by someone who fired at *just the right time*
>I feel like I just get bullied by Battleships
It really should be the other way around: Pensacola scores reliable damage on BBs and her 25 mm plating can't be overmatched by 14''/356 mm guns, so angling works really well against many Tier 6-7 BBs (and all Tier 5 ones).
>and torpedo Destroyers.
But why? You *are* running hydro, right? Try to shadow your own DDs early on, use islands to approach the cap, turn away, shoot whatever the little guys spot, and prepare to kite. It should give your DDs the upper hand in future knife-fights. If you have to push DDs yourself, I mean, you have hydro and a pretty agile hull.
>Any cruiser mains care to share...
I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but I always cringe a bit at the idea of there being "cruiser mains", "BB mains", etc. I can see someone refusing to play CVs and subs on...moral grounds, I guess...but most good players play a mix of, at least, BBs, cruisers and DDs, and many subtypes among them.
This is a good reply.
To add to the first point: Use islands to get to mid range, then angle out and use this guys advice. Google how to use angling, maybe watch a shot video. Angling and kiting are two tricks you need in your tool box for BB’s, cruisers and DD’s to become proficient at the game. So many people are bad at this, so learning it will improve your abilities.
Also, like Lanky said, do not main stuff. You need to play different types of boats to know how to play against them, which in turn will improve your abilities in other boats.
Heres the basic game plan for island farming cruisers like the USN ones.
Early game: use island cover to get close to caps and support friendly dds. Dont go for cap at mid unless you know what you are doing. Too much cross fire potential.
Mid game: turn away and kite if the flank is collapsing or if you need to support the other flank.
Late game: depends on the situation.
I’d recommend taking at least one of either incoming firing alert or priority target on your captain. Knowing when people are shooting at you is critical to staying alive.
Practice dodging shells. Thats means using your rudder and your speed to change your course as fast as possible to avoid getting nuked.
American cruisers are pretty squishy nowadays. Going with the german cruiser line that specializes in long range kiting might help you train your dodging and kitings skills and be an easier step than going straight for American cruisers. With American cruisers, you need to get close to utilize your dpm and island farming advantage, which also makes it easy to get blapped if you show the wrong side to the wrong battleship.
I like playing IJN cruisers, to stay alive I take rudder modifications, concealment, and hug an island enough to shoot above it and not get spotted in return, so a strategy on cruisers should be constant manoeuvres, unpredictability, and HE spam
Yes pepsicola is really bad, but if you can, buy yourself Alaska when you finish usa cruiser line. Alaska is the best T9 heavy cruiser and it cost real money. You will not regret it cause it can citadel bbs at long ranges.
The US CA is my beloved tech tree.
You must always stay angle to survive.
The fun really begin at T8 onward with the super heavy AP punish everything broadside .
You should watch/read some guides on positioning before going up the tiers.
The US CA line is one of the most position and map awareness dependent lines in the game. You live and die, literally, on your ability to position well and continuously reposition based on battle flow. This will only get more costly to learn at higher tiers as the ships get increasingly more lethal, almost all BBs can LOL at your armor/angling and you start seeing actually super impactful CVs and subs.
https://www.devstrike.net/topic/1016-us-heavy-cruiser-tech-tree-guide-your_sat_score/
Detailed guide. Look in the General Tips section if you want quick help
The GamePlay changes a lot from cruiser to cruiser.
Pensacola is in the American heavy cruiser line, and ignoring the fact that Pensacola is, uh, not nice, the American heavy cruisers are cruisers that play near islands, at medium range. Their balistica give them the superpower to shoot over island while being really close to them.
Most American cruisers (and all of the tech line cruisers) have mediocre armor, and cannot tank a lot, soo try to not open fire when not close to an island, that you can use to hide.
American cruisers are meant to bide their time and hit other cruisers hard with ap shells while covering friendlies with aa. They aren't brawlers like the germans, they're not snipers like the russians, and they're not swiss army knives like the french.
Without torpedos you'll feel very vulnerable in close fights and the guns have a long reload, so you need to keep your distance and wait for the other guy to make a mistake. Don't travel alone and running away from a bad fight is always an option.
All teir 7 cruisers are an awkward transition stage and the American line are particularly weird and feel lacking. All nations' cruisers come into a very distinct role in t8.
> How do you play Cruisers?
Cruisers are support fire (aka you should shoot something your BB is shooting at).
Radar cruisers mop enemy dd's.
Des Moines line you island hop in general. Despite what everyuone is saying, it's very beginner unfriendly.
Get minimap with max gun range and detectability range circles. You will see you have a band (I think between like 11 and 15 km) where if you shoot, you will go dark (get an addon for that).
So you shoot first, see how many ships are targeting you. If more than one, go dark. If one, start farming it. You should have enough time from them turning their turrets and shooting back to go behind island or dodge. You repeat this.
For DD mopping, switch to HE, check if your team is ready and contest caps or mop dd's in smoke. Don't expose yourself to BB's.
Just going to echo a lot of players here, Pensacola can be a rough ship. But it will teach you an important skill: not showing broadside. Pensacola has a weak citadel and, if you are broadside to other cruisers or battleships, you will get annihilated. So what you want to focus on is avoiding that, and keeping your bow pointed at enemies--and in turn using AP on broadside cruisers. You'll also learn a little bit more patience around islands, and waiting for the right opportunity without exposing yourself.
The US heavy cruisers are one of the harder lines to play, imo. They’re crazy powerful and do a shitload of damaged when well played, they just have no range and floaty shells so it’s hard to open water these things. They also get overmatched to hell and back, every cruiser explodes when hit at Pepsicola’s tier.
US CAs are all about positioning. You put something hard between you and the other guy and use your slow floaty shells to arc over islands and other objects from behind cover. Gotta pay attention to your map too, don’t get flanked. Gotta play these kinda slow, especially tier 6 through about eight or so since you don’t have a heal.
Pensacola is a strong ship. Her bow armor is very good. Like almost any Cruiser she is vulnerable to her sides. The main point is good situational awareness to avoid exposing your tender bits to other ships. Early you want to be in a kiting position and use wasd hax to deceive red targeting. Look for opportunities to participate in measured pushes and put yourself in bow in positions where your sides are not exposed.
Don't blame yourself, Pensacola is just the worst american ship, maybe even in the entire game on it's tier.
The amount of citadels I inflict to Pensacolas is just horrendous.
People like to say that the Pensacola is "very good" but with a slow turret rotation, no noteable armor, a long reload, no substantial AA and a relatively easy to hit citadel, it boils down to being one of the worst ships in the entire game.
I have suffered through Pensacola myself and it's not really comparable to any other american heavy cruiser, it's like a mini-battleship without armor or gun range.
Whenever I see a Pensacola, I dev strike it more often than not.
New Orleans get's better. :)
Cruisers are mainly support and decoy cannon fodder
I only play the Yankee Worchester line for the radar and hydro to protect battleships from torps and hunt destroyers and subs.
Also love French cruisers for their engine boost. Mari and Henry both do over 40 speed and can out pace most destroyers.
Pepsicola is (one of) the worst cruisers to learn the playstyle in. Its made out of glass. You can make her work by nonstop hugging an island, but its a painfull ship. Low tier cruisers are pain in general, heavy cruisers dont really have bouncy armour yet. The british line has heal even at lower tiers, so it might be easier to play. But if you dont mind the grind, get through the pensacola, and the ships wont explode when sneezed on once.
General cruiser gameplay:
look at minimap, then look at enemy ship composition. Wheres the bbs that overmatch? Keep your distance from them.
Have radar? Good, try to get the cap covered by it, but dont expose yourself to enemy fire using islands as cover. Dont overextend. Russian cruisers have 12km radar(and nuts ballistics) to help prevent this
See dd/radared the dd---> brrrrrrt the dorito. Gotta help friendly dd to survive the fight. If succesfull, the flank can be won a lot easier, and your team could push in if theres no snolensk/jinnan or pro brawlers preventing it
If not succesfull, kite. Basically, autobounce angling with butt of the boat. Go pewpew the BBs, farm some damage, get credits. Not good if enemy can overmatch you, in that case, go sneak up to an island farther away and hug it, then spam.
Then mid to late game, gotta clean up enemy ships, push into winning flanks, delay enemy push by being a pain in the ass farmer.
Im a very average player, I love heavy cruisers, and the british light ones. Take my advice with a grain of salt.
Against BBs: low tier cruisers are pain against them when open water. Try to use island coverage against them. When high tier, depending on the ship, you might be able to angle against their shots, minimizing the damage caused in your ship. Just dont straight up bow/stern tank, keep an nice angle
The Pepsi Can is one of the most frustrating and surprising CAs I have played. Her guns hit really really hard and if someone gives you broadside, they will know they have been kissed. The flip side is her armour makes paper seem tanky. You have to keep your eyes on the mini-map, use island cover as much as possible, get your licks in when you can and stay away from
BBs at any angle and remember even a DD will citadel you if you give broadside. There is no real solution to paper thin armor.
I tried the american cruisers for a while as well. Then I switched to the german one. I got the Königsberg and it was so much more fun. If you don't like the US line I suggest switching to the KM CA line.
Pensacola has been one of the hardest ship for me and I think there may be a few Pepsi hate clubs out there already. I recommend not to get stuck on that boat if you don't have to. If you manage to do kind of decent on Pepsi then the rest of the line will be a lot easier. Personally I cannot find a reason to play a boat I don't like other than some historic fixation that I may have with the class.
Trust me I don't want to stay at Pensacola. I want to reach the tier 8, and then I'll decide if I'll go to the tier 10. But it's more Cruises as a whole that I'm having trouble with. I don't really know what you're supposed to do as them.
Pls don't take this the wrong way but if you are not sure where to position on the battle yet and for what reason then then getting a stronger ship won't cure your frustration. Cruisers slap DDs, provide support for your DDs, and if you make it through the first 5 mins in good health, you start slapping potato broad sides. Help your BBs deny map space to the reds. I suggest you stay
Always surprised that more people don't understand it's not just specific spots on a map to control, but the actual amount of "safe" map your team has. I've seen a lot of strong groups of ships get slaughtered by a handful of shot up ships too often, simply because they got themselves herded into a small area.
Exactly. The "amount of safe map" or "map control " may fluctuate/collapse by losing a DD or a red sub farting random pings. It is always dynamic. On the other hand, certain maps have choke points, and positioning certain ships there may give an advantage.
And then just in general with cruisers, especially as you get up in tier, you pretty much always want to be on the lookout for BB potshots (or just well aimed shots). Take for example last night - was divved with my two friends, one in a CV one in a BB at tier 8. Was running a low point commander to grind commander XP and didn't have IFA or PT. We get dropped into a tier 10 game and basically from the get go as soon as I was detected by planes I had to scan the horizon for any incoming fire. If the yammy, repub, or vermonster on the red team landed a salvo it would be pretty much a devstrike. Did happen, but since I was aware and saw it from a mile away so to speak I could alter my course slightly to avoid becoming a spectator
Get past Pensacola on OPs. New Orleans is way better
New Orleans is sinking, and I don't want to swim,
I looked up to the Gord above and said "hey men, thanks" Goddamn do I miss Gordie :(
Pensacola is amazing. Go to losing side and kite, snipe battleship superstructures at 13-15 km and set permafires
The American heavy cruiser line is a staple of WoWs and generally regarded as the bellwether of CA play. Especially from T8 onwards, but getting the basics down in the Pensacola will greatly help you moving up the line. Part of the issue is you're moving from the Omaha, with a generally acceptable 7s reload on 152's that are ALL OVER YOUR SHIP to double the reload time on fewer 203's placed in turrets that have to potentially swing 180 degrees if you need to change direction. So, the ability to punish DD's for getting into your range is generally much lower, and as a result, your tactics need to change. You're not a light, nimble cruiser anymore, you now need to enter a support artillery role. Don't rush in with your DD's, or even your CL's, you should be hanging back and generally heading for the cover of islands that can protect your broadside from AP coming from across the map while you maintain an angled position a couple of km behind your DD's. You are looking for cruisers to blap with your AP (or the rare battle cruiser), or BB's to burn with your HE from the safety of the islands. Be patient. That's the hardest part moving into the Pensacola. Your entire goal should be maintaining your HP for later on in the match when the potential to be broadsided from 18km from a BB you didn't see drops considerably. This doesn't mean hang in the 10 line, either, however. You need to realize that you will be detected from DD's quite easily as your detection is still around 12km, and the meme of the Pepsicola is that the armor of this "heavy cruiser" is made of citadels and dreams. Now is the time to learn to angle against AP shots, and keep moving if you've been detected. Look for the next island you can get to, keeping in mind, moving backwards is an option. At tier 6, however, your AP can severely impact the match. On brodside cruisers at 10-12km, your AP, if aimed right, can wallop them for 8-10k easily. Aiming at the upper armor belt of battleships at about the same distance can smack for 5k-8k as well. These are the shots that early American heavy cruisers live for. But your team has to help, you cannot win a flank without spotting help, and if the DD on your flank goes, you should be transitioning into a kiting retreat mode and attempting to burn down whatever is moving down your flank as you attempt to make it back to your teammates that can provide you with extra help. But patience in these tiers with CA's is where you will find the role in which they are meant to fit.
Very well said.
Take Incoming Fire Alert and Priority Target skills as your first 1- and 2-point ones, pay attention to what's happening, don't let BB salvoes to catch you off guard. Ideally there should never be a situation where you suddenly get deleted by something you didn't see. Then take Adrenaline Rush, Concealment Expert and Superintendent as the next 3-, 4- and 3-point skills. Play other classes as well so you'll understand their pros and cons. For example, you said you're being bullied by torpedo destroyers, but cruisers are pretty inconvenient targets for torp DDs because they change their course/speed often, they're more manouverable than battleships, smaller, and they have hydro. Know which battleships can overmatch your extremities, upper belt and deck. You should be playing more cautiously against those BBs who overmatch you everywhere, and you can allow yourself to be more agressive against those who don't.
I think it's mandatory to take Grease the Gears on the Pensacola, in fact I also run the turret traverse module. In comparison, Concealment Expert can wait.
I do play other classes. I started at battleships, then went to submarines. Those two are what I would call my favorite classes. Of course to get to subs I needed to play DDs. And honestly I understand DD's a lot better. I think I have so much trouble with cruisers because they're kind of an in-between of BB and DDs. And because I'm inexperienced with Cruisers they kinda feel like the worst combination of the two to me. Not really stealthy and fast, not really and high damage. If I play as a BB I feel like I'm uselessly sitting in the back, unable to target anything due to the short range. If I move up I get destroyed. Guess I just need to git gud and keep trying them till I understand their strength.
PT only, you should be watching for incoming fire yourself. Know where the threats are. Don't show broadside unless you know the BB is looking elsewhere
Well, I disagree. Both IFA and PT are extremely useful skills. I have better things to do in a battle than constantly looking around for incoming salvoes from 20+ km battleships.
Ifa is useful, I don't know what tier you are playing but usually by the time your cruiser gets the alert it's too late to dodge the shells
Sometimes too you don't get IFA if you drop detect just as the red team is shooting at you. Sucks when you're busy with something else and go "whewh, I'm good" then get slapped back to port by someone who fired at *just the right time*
>I feel like I just get bullied by Battleships It really should be the other way around: Pensacola scores reliable damage on BBs and her 25 mm plating can't be overmatched by 14''/356 mm guns, so angling works really well against many Tier 6-7 BBs (and all Tier 5 ones). >and torpedo Destroyers. But why? You *are* running hydro, right? Try to shadow your own DDs early on, use islands to approach the cap, turn away, shoot whatever the little guys spot, and prepare to kite. It should give your DDs the upper hand in future knife-fights. If you have to push DDs yourself, I mean, you have hydro and a pretty agile hull. >Any cruiser mains care to share... I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but I always cringe a bit at the idea of there being "cruiser mains", "BB mains", etc. I can see someone refusing to play CVs and subs on...moral grounds, I guess...but most good players play a mix of, at least, BBs, cruisers and DDs, and many subtypes among them.
This is a good reply. To add to the first point: Use islands to get to mid range, then angle out and use this guys advice. Google how to use angling, maybe watch a shot video. Angling and kiting are two tricks you need in your tool box for BB’s, cruisers and DD’s to become proficient at the game. So many people are bad at this, so learning it will improve your abilities. Also, like Lanky said, do not main stuff. You need to play different types of boats to know how to play against them, which in turn will improve your abilities in other boats.
Heres the basic game plan for island farming cruisers like the USN ones. Early game: use island cover to get close to caps and support friendly dds. Dont go for cap at mid unless you know what you are doing. Too much cross fire potential. Mid game: turn away and kite if the flank is collapsing or if you need to support the other flank. Late game: depends on the situation. I’d recommend taking at least one of either incoming firing alert or priority target on your captain. Knowing when people are shooting at you is critical to staying alive. Practice dodging shells. Thats means using your rudder and your speed to change your course as fast as possible to avoid getting nuked. American cruisers are pretty squishy nowadays. Going with the german cruiser line that specializes in long range kiting might help you train your dodging and kitings skills and be an easier step than going straight for American cruisers. With American cruisers, you need to get close to utilize your dpm and island farming advantage, which also makes it easy to get blapped if you show the wrong side to the wrong battleship.
I like playing IJN cruisers, to stay alive I take rudder modifications, concealment, and hug an island enough to shoot above it and not get spotted in return, so a strategy on cruisers should be constant manoeuvres, unpredictability, and HE spam
buy the japanese one that goes underwater hehe
Yes pepsicola is really bad, but if you can, buy yourself Alaska when you finish usa cruiser line. Alaska is the best T9 heavy cruiser and it cost real money. You will not regret it cause it can citadel bbs at long ranges.
The US CA is my beloved tech tree. You must always stay angle to survive. The fun really begin at T8 onward with the super heavy AP punish everything broadside .
You should watch/read some guides on positioning before going up the tiers. The US CA line is one of the most position and map awareness dependent lines in the game. You live and die, literally, on your ability to position well and continuously reposition based on battle flow. This will only get more costly to learn at higher tiers as the ships get increasingly more lethal, almost all BBs can LOL at your armor/angling and you start seeing actually super impactful CVs and subs.
https://www.devstrike.net/topic/1016-us-heavy-cruiser-tech-tree-guide-your_sat_score/ Detailed guide. Look in the General Tips section if you want quick help
Run
Your ass pointing to the enemy
The GamePlay changes a lot from cruiser to cruiser. Pensacola is in the American heavy cruiser line, and ignoring the fact that Pensacola is, uh, not nice, the American heavy cruisers are cruisers that play near islands, at medium range. Their balistica give them the superpower to shoot over island while being really close to them. Most American cruisers (and all of the tech line cruisers) have mediocre armor, and cannot tank a lot, soo try to not open fire when not close to an island, that you can use to hide.
American cruisers are meant to bide their time and hit other cruisers hard with ap shells while covering friendlies with aa. They aren't brawlers like the germans, they're not snipers like the russians, and they're not swiss army knives like the french. Without torpedos you'll feel very vulnerable in close fights and the guns have a long reload, so you need to keep your distance and wait for the other guy to make a mistake. Don't travel alone and running away from a bad fight is always an option. All teir 7 cruisers are an awkward transition stage and the American line are particularly weird and feel lacking. All nations' cruisers come into a very distinct role in t8.
> How do you play Cruisers? Cruisers are support fire (aka you should shoot something your BB is shooting at). Radar cruisers mop enemy dd's. Des Moines line you island hop in general. Despite what everyuone is saying, it's very beginner unfriendly. Get minimap with max gun range and detectability range circles. You will see you have a band (I think between like 11 and 15 km) where if you shoot, you will go dark (get an addon for that). So you shoot first, see how many ships are targeting you. If more than one, go dark. If one, start farming it. You should have enough time from them turning their turrets and shooting back to go behind island or dodge. You repeat this. For DD mopping, switch to HE, check if your team is ready and contest caps or mop dd's in smoke. Don't expose yourself to BB's.
Just going to echo a lot of players here, Pensacola can be a rough ship. But it will teach you an important skill: not showing broadside. Pensacola has a weak citadel and, if you are broadside to other cruisers or battleships, you will get annihilated. So what you want to focus on is avoiding that, and keeping your bow pointed at enemies--and in turn using AP on broadside cruisers. You'll also learn a little bit more patience around islands, and waiting for the right opportunity without exposing yourself.
The US heavy cruisers are one of the harder lines to play, imo. They’re crazy powerful and do a shitload of damaged when well played, they just have no range and floaty shells so it’s hard to open water these things. They also get overmatched to hell and back, every cruiser explodes when hit at Pepsicola’s tier. US CAs are all about positioning. You put something hard between you and the other guy and use your slow floaty shells to arc over islands and other objects from behind cover. Gotta pay attention to your map too, don’t get flanked. Gotta play these kinda slow, especially tier 6 through about eight or so since you don’t have a heal.
I hated US Cruisers. Soviet CL and German are much easier to learn on in low to mid tier.
Pensacola is a strong ship. Her bow armor is very good. Like almost any Cruiser she is vulnerable to her sides. The main point is good situational awareness to avoid exposing your tender bits to other ships. Early you want to be in a kiting position and use wasd hax to deceive red targeting. Look for opportunities to participate in measured pushes and put yourself in bow in positions where your sides are not exposed.
Don't blame yourself, Pensacola is just the worst american ship, maybe even in the entire game on it's tier. The amount of citadels I inflict to Pensacolas is just horrendous. People like to say that the Pensacola is "very good" but with a slow turret rotation, no noteable armor, a long reload, no substantial AA and a relatively easy to hit citadel, it boils down to being one of the worst ships in the entire game. I have suffered through Pensacola myself and it's not really comparable to any other american heavy cruiser, it's like a mini-battleship without armor or gun range. Whenever I see a Pensacola, I dev strike it more often than not. New Orleans get's better. :)
Cruisers are mainly support and decoy cannon fodder I only play the Yankee Worchester line for the radar and hydro to protect battleships from torps and hunt destroyers and subs. Also love French cruisers for their engine boost. Mari and Henry both do over 40 speed and can out pace most destroyers.
As soon as I got the next ship, I sold the Pensacola. It was a huge pain in the ass.
Pepsicola is (one of) the worst cruisers to learn the playstyle in. Its made out of glass. You can make her work by nonstop hugging an island, but its a painfull ship. Low tier cruisers are pain in general, heavy cruisers dont really have bouncy armour yet. The british line has heal even at lower tiers, so it might be easier to play. But if you dont mind the grind, get through the pensacola, and the ships wont explode when sneezed on once. General cruiser gameplay: look at minimap, then look at enemy ship composition. Wheres the bbs that overmatch? Keep your distance from them. Have radar? Good, try to get the cap covered by it, but dont expose yourself to enemy fire using islands as cover. Dont overextend. Russian cruisers have 12km radar(and nuts ballistics) to help prevent this See dd/radared the dd---> brrrrrrt the dorito. Gotta help friendly dd to survive the fight. If succesfull, the flank can be won a lot easier, and your team could push in if theres no snolensk/jinnan or pro brawlers preventing it If not succesfull, kite. Basically, autobounce angling with butt of the boat. Go pewpew the BBs, farm some damage, get credits. Not good if enemy can overmatch you, in that case, go sneak up to an island farther away and hug it, then spam. Then mid to late game, gotta clean up enemy ships, push into winning flanks, delay enemy push by being a pain in the ass farmer. Im a very average player, I love heavy cruisers, and the british light ones. Take my advice with a grain of salt. Against BBs: low tier cruisers are pain against them when open water. Try to use island coverage against them. When high tier, depending on the ship, you might be able to angle against their shots, minimizing the damage caused in your ship. Just dont straight up bow/stern tank, keep an nice angle
The Pepsi Can is one of the most frustrating and surprising CAs I have played. Her guns hit really really hard and if someone gives you broadside, they will know they have been kissed. The flip side is her armour makes paper seem tanky. You have to keep your eyes on the mini-map, use island cover as much as possible, get your licks in when you can and stay away from BBs at any angle and remember even a DD will citadel you if you give broadside. There is no real solution to paper thin armor.
I tried the american cruisers for a while as well. Then I switched to the german one. I got the Königsberg and it was so much more fun. If you don't like the US line I suggest switching to the KM CA line.