World of Warships American US Navy Cleveland Class Cruiser - DPM Central Ship!

Hi and welcome back for my fortnightly World of Warships Ship review!

For this weeks review I will be taking a look a at one of the best ships for its tier in the game. This is non other than the Cleveland class cruiser. The Cleveland is one of the highlights of the US cruiser line. This ship doesn't seem to have any major weaknesses and does everything that you would expect from a cruiser very well. Having a total of 12 rapid firing guns, fast turning turrets, dangerously formidable AA defence combined with a strong mixed of all round manoeuvrability and armour, the Cleveland really something to write home about. When captained right this ships DPM put out some serious hurt to any and all ships and is able to take considerable punishment in return. Being a capable chip is not the only talent of the Cleveland, its also very charismatic, being one of the best looking ships on World of Warships. A sexy little addition of warship porn to any captains harbour.

Cleveland Class Cruiser on Patrol

The Cleveland is the first fully Second World war design in the American Cruiser Tree. The Cleveland was commissioned in 1942 and remained in service till 1979. The American Navy completed 27 Cleveland Class Cruisers from the originally planned 52. Nine of these 27 completed Cleveland cruisers were completed as Independent light aircraft carriers which is also in World of Warships. The Cleveland Served mainly in the Pacific Fleet throughout the Second World War in fast carrier task forces but some were stationed in and around Europe and Africa. Throughout the all the fighting in Second World War non of the Cleveland Class Cruisers were destroyed, some were heavily damaged in combat but were never sunk as a result of it.

Main Battery Fire

The Cleveland's cruiser were the back bone of the US Navy. They bared the brunt of Kamikaze strikes, torpedo hits and naval gunnery battles, even one (the Columbia Cleveland Class Cruiser)  played a part in the sinking of the Fuso Class Battleship at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Anti Air was so fierce that the Cleveland's could put up almost impenetrable walls of flak against incoming aerial attacks which saved many a escorted ship. One such example is the 'Cleveland' cruiser, even after suffering a direct bomb hit she was able this take down 7 attacking planes in a furious AA response in the battle of Empress Augusta Bay. The Cleveland Class Cruisers served the US Navy throughout the whole WW2 up untill most of them were scrapped between 1959 and 1961. Six of the Surviving cruisers were converted to guided missile cruisers and were reactivated during the 1950s and served into the 1970's. The last of the Cleveland Class Cruisers, Oklahoma City, was finally decommissioned on 1979 ending its 37 years of service. Its a testament to just how good these ships were in real life.

Ship Porn, The Cleveland Class Cruiser

Considering the ships history its no wonder this ship is such a formidable foe to face in World of Warships. The more service history you read from the achievements of the Cleveland's the more you begin to realise the awesome potential of this ships fire power and defensive armaments. The Cruiser was very robust being able to take large amounts of damage whilst still maintaining a effective fighting standard in the heat of battle. This seems to be modelled pretty well into the games as anyone that underestimated a Cleveland will definitely regret it when subjected to its hellish rapid firing guns.

Shells Away

Its 4 Turrets each mount triple 152 mm guns which each fire 7.5 rounds per minute. These guns have the potential to do 198000 hp damage per minute with HE alone. The damage potential of its AP rounds is a staggering 288000 hp. This is just what makes the American Cruisers so much fun to play. Destroyers will be taking detours to avoid you in this rapid firing ship as you can really ruin their day in just one well aimed salvo. The ship also has 12 dual purpose AA and anti ship 127mm secondary guns with a 4km range. Mixed with its 13x20mm, 12x40mm the combined fire power with the 12x127mm guns is truly terrifying for carrier captains. I actively screen for the rest of my fleet in this ship rather than run away from incoming air attacks. The Cleveland also has access to the defensive fire cool down, increasing its anti air power and decreasing all air attack accuracy for any air squadrons caught in its flak barrage. To top this is also has a deployable fighter aircraft for added measure... need I really say more about this ships huge anti air capabilities other than its just a power house!

More Ship Porn

Having a rudder speed of 9.4 seconds means this ship is no slouch in have to respond to dangerous situations, and is small turning circle (660m) means you will be dodging fire like a boss. The ship has a solid top speed of 34 knots meaning you will be able to effectively kite battleship's and keep them at range. I for one have been caught out whilst sailing my Warspite and chasing one of these ships and underestimating its ability to dodge incoming fire and put out some serious damage. The Cleveland also has a respectable health pool as well of 35.2  thousand hp. When the Aoba has 30k with less armour and even the proceeding Pensacola (pepsi cola... definitely a better name for this ship), you get a understanding of this ships ability to take on more than you would expect.

Cover Your Eyes Even More Porn!

I don't normally talk about my choices in upgrades that I put on my ships as this is mostly down to personal preference which I should really start to incorporate into my reviews but I think that the Cleveland is as good a ship as any to start with telling you how I set my ship up. With the Cleveland the main focus of this ship is its pure gunnery action, so with my first upgrade I went for the Main Battery Mod 1 to lower the chances of turret detonation or them being knocked out of a fight. For my second mod I went for the Main Battery Mod 2 so increase my turret traverse speed and firing speed. These first 2 mods are just to accentuate the main strengths of the Cleveland to their full potential. I may have choose the accuracy mod in the second upgrade slot  or the AA upgrade but I thought the added rounds per minute mitigated the increased accuracy and the defensive AA cool down made the need for the AA buff unnecessary. For my third upgrade I went with the Damage Control mod to prevent fires and reduce the risk of flooding. The Cleveland is still a cruiser and does still have a limited health pool, so as to avoid loosing extra health from taking fire damage, I choose this upgrade. You can still suffer from your engine being knocked out and rudder being jammed but I feel with most people firing just HE in this game rather than switching between AP and HE (dependant on situation) its better to take fire/flood prevention mod. For my Final Mod I took the rudder shift time improvement. I like my ships to be responsive as possible and this increases my rudder shift time by 10% which gives me an added edge in dodging and turning away from fire and torpedoes. I feel this ship doesn't take a long time to reach full speed so really doesn't need the added help reaching top speed as much as the added  rudder shift time.

Possibly the Most X Rated Review Ever

In conclusion for this ship, use its great DPM to bully cruisers and destroyer with high explosive and armour piercing rounds. Battleship drivers can also panic when they start to recieve the numerous hits you can put out so use this to your advantage. This ship performs best at around 10 to 12 km distance where its high firing arch can give good damage potential for your AP rounds and give you the time necessary to change course and dodge incoming fire. Learn to kite enemies toward your fleet whilst using your quick turning ship and turrets to rain down the pain on your pursuers. The health pool is good so you can withstand some punishment but try not to put your self in situations where you can be focused down. You are a AA powerhouse in this ship so recognise when you will need to play escort to save less fortunate ships on your team. Battleships will love your close support as much as your solo allied aircraft carrer when they are outnumbered by the enemy teams aircraft carriers. Use your strengths to bolster your team and support them when and where you can as this ship shines when played as part of a team. It's fast firing potential makes it a good money earner and a extremely fun ship to play. My advice is get one of these ships as fast as possible and just learn to love it, in all its sexy ship porn glory.

Quick Co-op battle screen shot. The amount of hits shot the DPM potential!

That's all for this week, I look forward to seeing you back here later week for a update on my Tiger tank progress. 

Omaha Class Cruiser, The Phoenix's Younger Brother

Hi all and welcome back for my fortnightly ship review. Following on from last week I am going to be taking a look at the Omaha Class cruiser that supersedes the Phoenix Class cruiser. I'll be giving a run down of its strengths and weaknesses and also a bit on its design and service history so you can better use this ship on the sea of World of Warships.

Following on from last weeks post, the Phoenix was the pre-cursor design that originally went into the plan and development work for the Omaha class cruiser. The Omaha's design and development was as a direct result of the introduction of the British Centaur C Class Cruisers. The American Navy felt that they had nothing that could for fill the role of light scout cruiser like this new British Cruiser and wanted a ship that could push up with other destroyers to give support to them and relay enemy position information to a larger fleet.

The Omaha Class Cruiser

When the Omaha was in its design phase it was specifically made to look like the Clemson class destroyers currently in use by the US. The Omaha was given four smoke stacks in a arrangement like the Clemson and was even painted in the same camouflage scheme to further increase the resemblance.

Clemson class destroyer

The Omaha also shows the movement away from casemate mounted gun design to the fully turreted guns design philosophy after the first world war. The Omaha was launched in the 1920's and has a displacement of 7100 long tons or just shy of 7214 metric tons. Design changes during mid production meant that on the Omaha's launch it was a badly overloaded design. Sacrifices in weight to maintain the ships initial speed specification lead to the ship compromising on crew habitability. The ship was poorly insulated meaning it was too hot in the tropic theatre of operations and too cold in the freezing climates. On top of this the overburdened design frequently lead to the ship taking on water over the bow and through the Torpedo compartments located at the aft of the ship. A serious flaw was the lack of water tight bulkheads anywhere above the main deck or aft on the main deck. The Hull had a nasty habit of leaking due to its light build, this lead to sustained high speed steaming contaminating the oil tanks with sea water. Sea water in the oil Boilers was a big risk as this could cause the boilers to explode if not properly tended.

Originally designed to serve as a scout the Omaha class cruisers served throughout the inter war periods as the lead ship in fleet flotillas (or small ship formations such as destroyers). With the introduction of air scouts and scouting roles being taken over by heavy cruisers (due to the Washington Treaty) the Omaha never really fulfilled its design function. The Omaha cruisers were relegated to fleet screening where its high fire-power output and speed were needed.

Entering into the second world war the Omaha was the oldest serving Cruiser that was still in service in the US Navy and was mostly assigned secondary and patrol roles where the least danger was. Naturally this meant that the ships didn't have a hugely exciting service history. 2 Omaha ships were present in Pearl Harbour, the Detroit and Raleigh Omaha class Cruisers. The Raleigh was torpedoed during the attack at Pearl Harbour but not sunk. The Marblehead and the Richmond Omaha class cruiser had the most interesting history. The Marblehead  in the battle of the Makassar Strait received 2 bomb hits that penetrated the decks and killed 15 crew and 1 near miss that caused a hole underneath the waterline and jammed the rudder. The marblehead survived the attack and was able to get temporary repairs before heading back to the east coast of the US.

The Richmonds engagement in the Battle of Komandorski Islands was one of the more unusual engagements of the second world war. The fleet which the Richmond was in was on its way to intercept a Japanese supply convoy on their way to the Aleutian Islands. The Japanese convoy consisted of more ships than the original intelligence lead them to believe. When the 2 fleets met it was in open ocean and neither fleet had air or submarine support. The ensuing battle was one of the last purely naval gunnery duel in naval history. The battle was inconclusive with both sides receiving heavy damage, the Japanese Admiral rather than capitalising on his number superiority and the heavy damage done to the US attackers retreated leaving the Battlefield fearing a probable air attack from the US in support of their fleet .

The Richmond Omaha class cruiser managed to badly damage the Nachi Heavy Cruiser during this battle knocking out her electrics to the ammo hoists and gun mounts with 2 hits from her 6 inch guns whilst dodging gun fire and torpedoes in return.

In World of warships the Omaha is a good cruiser. Her armament is better than the preceding Phoenix Class Cruiser and with playing through the previous tier you should be well aware of its strengths and weaknesses. Like the Phoenix the armour for a light cruiser sucks but the Omaha has a lot of guns with a decent fire rate mixed with decent speed, making you a very potent threat for other destroyers and cruisers. With a full broadside she can fire 8 guns and each gun can spit 8.6 rounds per minute. Compared with the Phoenix, Kuma and Furutaka she outclasses all her competitors on the amount of guns and DPM she can dish out. At tier 5 the Japanese cruisers get their 205mm guns but bigger is definitely not better in this instance. The rate of fire of the Omaha outclasses the Furutaka's to such a extent you should be able to win one on one fight every time.

Approaching the enemy showing as little a target as possible whilst maintaining the largest amount of guns on target

The Omaha is also very manoeuvrable having the smallest turning circle of any cruiser in a 1 tier spread (in both the american and jap tech trees). Its rudder shift speed is very good also at 7.5 seconds. The Furutaka has a 1.6 second disadvantage at 8.6 seconds whilst the Aoba has a 11 second rudder shift time. This makes the Omaha very responsive which is good for avoiding gun fire and torpedoes. With the light armour of your cruiser this will be your main defence because not taking fire is how you will survive. Due to the bad armour of the Omaha is suffers for a smaller heath pool than the Japanese Furutaka but this isn't really a ship that you should be having a lone wolf mentality in at the start. You should be choosing when to use your health to trade for a kill or strategic point capture

The Turret Rotation Speed from the Pheonix to the Omaha takes a substantial drop from 18  seconds to 24 seconds. The gun arrangement on the ship means that you will always have some guns to fire on enemies that are flanking you but you will notice this the most when you are trying to turn your turreted guns all the way around when dodging in coming fire. This requires better battlefield awareness than the Phoenix to make the most of your gun advantage in the middle of a fight. Being able to respond to threats before they happen will help you dish out the damage and get kills in this ship so pay attention to your mini map as much as possible for your team and enemies positions.

The main problem that you are going to face in the Omaha is that its no where near a match to any of the ships one tier higher than it. The Cleveland has 9 amazingly fast firing turreted guns which have a good range. The Omaha's armour just can't compete with the Cleveland overwhelming fire power. The Aoba houses 6 205mm guns that have a reasonable fire rate and long range. The Aoba's Torpedoes are deadly with a damage potential of 16.2k combined with a 10 km range. The Guns on the Omaha would let you put up a fight but the light armour of the cruiser is again the Omaha's biggest weakness. A few lucky/well aimed shots from a Aoba can ruin your day when captaining a Omaha as the Aoba's shells hurt. Between Tiers 5 and 6 their is no bigger jump in ship performance anywhere else on the tech tree than here in the cruisers line. (This reiterates my point from a previous post that their should be another ship here that replaces the Phoenix/Omaha so this jump is not so harsh in the American cruiser line)

Proof that the Omaha can be good when used effectively

This however does not mean this is a bad ship, in fact this ship is great when you use it well. This ship is a improvement on the Phoenix in almost every way. More guns more AA more health just makes this American better. Remembering your armour is bad and positioning yourself to avoid incoming fire is the key to survival in this ship. Bad positioning against Japanese cruisers higher calibre guns generally ends in citadel hits. Angle your armour to make the best of it or alternatively wolf pack and give them something else to shoot at. The same principles of the Phoenix apply but this time you have more fire power, keep those guns singing whilst supporting other cruisers and destroyers. If your out in front and feel your in a bad position its not a bad thing in this ship to fall back. The Omaha can't take sustained fire so use the ship accordingly Use your fire rate to get consistently good games with high damage output . Remember this is the last US non premium Cruiser that gets torpedoes so use them whilst you've got them as a trump card. 

Imperial Japanese Furutaka

Hi all and welcome back for another ship review.

This weeks ship of focus will be the tier 5 Japanese Furutaka. This is the first cruiser in the game to have 203 mm guns. This 'up gunning' changes how this ship should be played coming from the previous tiers Kuma and Tenryu Class Cruisers.

The Furutaka was the first generation of the Japanese navy's high speed heavy cruisers. With the development of the American Omaha (also in World of Warships) and the British Hawkins class scout cruiser the development of a cruiser capable of dealing with this new threat was needed. Following the earlier experiments from the Yubari cruiser, (See my previous ship review on the Yubari for more info) the lessons learnt from that ship were transferred into the design of the Furutaka. The Furutaka was laid down in the 5th of December 1922 and launched on the 25th of February 1925. Upon her initial commissioning in 1926 she was assigned to the 5th cruiser division until 1931 where the Furutaka was placed in reserve fleet. She underwent significant refits during the 1930's where she was fitted with more fire power and defensive armaments.The Furutaka was fitted with a plane catapult which solved the much complained about problem of having to lower planes into the water before they took off (not particularity handy in an engagement).

Her final refit in 1937 saw the Furutaka received her trademark 201 mm guns that we see in World of Warships (203mm in World of Warships but I'm not going to deliberate over 2mm... they are still big guns for a cruiser), new oil fired boilers and the extra addition of new 'Long Lance' torpedo tube mountings.

Entering WW2 the Furutaka was involved in the invasion of  Guam which happened at about the time of the Attack of Pearl Harbour.  After the successful occupation of Guam and the following attempt at capturing Wake Island which had failed, the Furutaka was assigned to cruiser division 6 where the Japanese successfully mounted a second attack and occupied Wake island on the 22nd of December 1942.

The Furutaka was involved in the Battle of the Coral Sea where she was tasked with the escort of the light carrier Shoho. Following a 2 day attack which started on the 7th of May 1942, the US Carriers USS Yorktown and Lexington succeeded in sinking the Shoho and severely damaged the Shokaku carrier. After the attack Furutaka was tasked with escorting the battered surviving Shokaku carrier to Truk for repairs.

August 1942 in the Battle of Savo Island, the Furutaka took part in an successful attack against an enemy fleet. Under the cover of darkness with flares dropped by spotter planes to silhouette the enemy ships,  the Furutaka accompanied by the cruisers Chokai, Kako, Kinugsasa, Tenryu, Yubari and Destroyer a Yunagi, attacked by firing multiple shells and torpedoes. The resulting battle ended with the Heavy Cruisers USS Astoria, Quincy, Vincennes and HMAS Canberra being sunk. Heavy Cruiser USS Chicago and destroyers Ralph Tabot and Patterson being damaged. On the Japanese side a total of only 6 shell hits were received.

The Furutaka's conflict in the Battle of Cape Esperance (also known as the second batle of savo island) was to be her last after an attacking American fleet successfully managed to cross the fleet containing the Furutaka's 'T'. In the confussion of the Attack the Japanese fleet thought they were under friendly fire and began a 180 degree turn. The Aoba was heavily damaged as the ship exposed her sides in the turn.

The Furutaka fell out of the line of battle to engage Salt Lake City only to find herself coming under fire from the destroyer USS Duncan. After numerous shell hits the Furutaka was put out of action, where she was later to be hit by a Torpedo. Combined with up to 90 shell hits her storage of Type 93 Long Lance Torpedoes seated in her mid decks finally went up from the resulting fires. The Furutaka sank stern first with the loss of 33 and 110 counted as missing. 514 survivors were rescued by 3 passing destroyers. 115 were captured by the American fleet.

In World of warships the Furutaka is a tier 5 cruiser. I have found this a ship that has some draw backs that many players (including myself) have found challenging to grasp. The Japanese get their big caliber 203mm guns on the Furutaka and upwards. Due to this up gunning the Furutaka subsequently suffers from a rate of fire loss which in turn results in a big damage per minute disadvantage against the American nations cruisers . The lack of rounds per minute and slow turning of the turrets mean this is not a brawling ship and seats more in a support ship role. Given the opportunity to put down fire on the enemy the guns can really show its superior caliber. Taking fire and manoeuvring to avoid the shells causes this ship its main problems as I will explain as go through comparing this ship to its alike tiers.

First we will start with the Furutaka's good points. For a Cruiser the Furutaka has a decent health pool and has a good Torpedo armament for a cruiser. The Guns are very punchy and have good burst potential if using cover to your advantage between shots. As the guns are of larger caliber they do more reliable damage against armoured targets so have more chance of citadel hits. As a Japanese Cruiser you have a better concealment rating than your american cruiser equivalents but at 12.2 km this is no destroyer. She has a good top speed too so will be normally up alongside the destroyers in the initial engagement. Unfortunately that's really all this ship has when looking at it on paper.

This ship was oringinally designed to specifically destroy Phoenix/Omaha Cruisers but its horrible turret rotation speed and rate of fire of the guns that really let this ship down in World of Warships. The Omaha (Tier 5 American cruiser) in a straight up gun duel can put out over double the amount of damage per minute than the Furutaka with its guns alone (assuming all shots fired are AP and hit citidels the Furutaka has a DPM of 98700 and the Omaha has a DPM of 213280). Even the Phoenix Cruiser vastly out damages the Furutaka in a one on one duel where in lies the first major weakness of this ship. It just can't dish out the damage when its needed to so leaves you in a arisen of trying to dictate the engagements.

This is the First ship I have looked at and feel it needs a decent buff to make it competitive. Being a Japanese ship with such low  rate of fire you would have thought that the turret speed may be ok to compensate... Nope, its 45 secs for 180 degrees turret rotation... like a battleship (face palm). The Omaha has a 24 second 180 degree turret rotation speed. I could carry on with this but you know where I'm going with this... Bigger in this instance definitely isn't better. The Furutaka does however have a secondary armament that can support up to a spectacular range of 4 km. This short range really isn't going to help you in any instance unless you have a destroyer trying to suicide run you.

The main guns slow rotation speed makes you have to straighten out in dangerous situations to get guns on target. where the ship doesn't really have the armour to take prolonged punishment its definitely a risk business. This makes you an easy target for enemy gunners and in my opinion is the single worst thing about this ship.

Due to turret number 4 due to being next to the plane catapult, it has a limited firing arc. In most situations won't be able to fire that turret at what ever your aiming at as you should be angling your armour against fire to maximum the ships armour potential and make yourself a smaller target.

This isn't the most manoeuvrable of cruisers, having quite a large turning circle and slower rudder shift speed for a cruiser. Its not terrible or unworkable when it comes to dodging incoming fire or torpedoes but its still not up to the American cruisers standard. The manoeuvrability mixed with the ships decent speed working fairly well when getting out of dangerous situations however but doesn't have such a superior speed advantage where you could run away from other cruisers. The speed is good enough to chase most fleeing destroyers down so that's definitely a plus for the Furutaka

This really looked to be a terrible ship to play when as I am working my way along the Japanese Cruiser line again. It has some very horribly noticeable weaknesses that are by no means hard to miss. Surprise however when I played in this ship it didn't completely suck. Knowing its blatant weaknesses and playing this ship as a burst damage support ship seems to suit the Furutaka's characteristics of play.

You will not be brawling in this ship as you won't rotate your turrets fast enough to keep up with throwing the ship about and targets circling you.  The guns are reliable in that they do decent damage consistently upon hitting their target. She does seem to be better armoured than the american tier 5 light cruiser and does benefit from angling the armour from incoming cruiser/destroyer caliber AP shells. Getting into engagements where you can work as a team and sit behind close range specialist brawlers. Keeping attention away from you whilst dishing out damage with the bigger guns is the way to use this ship. Going alone against other ship will get you focused down quickly and it can be frustrating knowing you are getting your ass handed to you by rapid firing lower tiered ships spamming HE shells.

Don't get me wrong I don't think this is a horrific ship but I don't think its great either. The Furutaka is one of the biggest missed opportunities for Wargaming World of Warship team to make a really fun ship and all it would take is a slight buff of turret rotation speed and fire rate. I can deal with the manoeuvrability being worse but giving half the amount of damage to an equal Tier is pretty bad balancing in my opinion. Its not impossible to do well if you correctly position your ship in battle but in most instances this is very situational and won't always work out in your favour. With HE being so effective against armour in the Open Beta it negates a lot of this ships big gun caliber advantages. it will be interesting to see if any changes come in to effect that may make this a more competitive ship

That's all for this weeks review I look forward to seeing you back here for my Tiger Update later in the Week.

USS St.Louis, The Keeper of Guns and Future Seal Clubbing.

Welcome back for another ship review on my Blog. Things over the last 2 weeks have been a little crazy with Berlin and also with going south to Lands End (in Cornwall, UK) on a last minute trip. Needless to say I haven't had a huge amount of time for gaming these past 2 weeks but what I have saved for this week is a ridiculously good tier 3 Cruiser that throughout the closed beta I had a fair amount of fun playing.

All the way through the closed beta, every player that I talked to loved this ship and many came to the conclusion that they would be keeping a harbour slot ready for it when the open beta went live. This ship is of course the USS St. Louis. When fully upgraded this little power house sports 14 rapid firing guns that would give butterflies to even the hardiest of American redneck's. The St. Louis is equipped with ample amount of armour so can be a real pain in the ass to kill without taking large amounts of damage in return.

To see just how typically American this ship is you only have to look down the length of its port and starboard sides to see multiple barrels poking their way out of the hull. This ship pretty much sets the standard for all American cruisers to come. Where the focus of Japanese cruisers is a mixture of guns and Torpedoes the American cruisers do away with any distractions and focus on high DPM Guns.

The St. Louis and The Cleveland are pretty much indicative of this characteristic in the lower tier game play and demand respect from all opposing players that encounter them. Needless to say that these 2 cruisers will be common place in all good captains harbours in World of Warships as they are so much fun to play.

Historically in real life the USS St. Louis (C-20) had a pretty unremarkable service history. The St. Louis was launched in 1907 after sea trials to the Pacific Fleet. During her design phase the consensus was made for improvements on the existing Columbia class cruiser design to which she would be based upon. The decision was made up the armour her hull in comparison to other Columbia class cruisers, increasing her displacement from 6000 tons to 9700 Tons. This made the St. Louis a fully fledged protected Cruiser. With all the extra armour that was fitted to the cruiser and in a bid to save weight, the St. Louis was fitted with 6 inch guns rather than the standard 8 inch. A larger power plant was also needed in the ship to counteract the extra weight from the added armour. 

Throughout the St. Louis's service life there was only one point of note but this didn't really involve the ship but more the crew that manned her. On the 4th of Feb 1917 the crew stopped the scuttling of a interned German Sloop Geier by boarding with an armed party. The Geier was captured before her planned scuttling and ended up serving the United states under the new name of the Schurz. The St. Louis was mostly consigned to transporting goods and convoy escorts other than this singular event. The St. Louis was eventually decommissioned and scrapped in 1930.

In World of Warships this is a stonkingly good tier 3 cruiser. This ship is literally crapping guns with fourteen 152 mm guns with a secondary armament of eighteen 76.2 mm guns. On a tier 3 Cruiser this ship even can hold its own against battleships of equal tiers. Having so many rapid firing guns makes this ship a real threat for destroyers and other cruisers. The St. Louis has almost 30K of hit points and is very heavily armoured for a cruiser. This means you can weather a fair old chunk of punishment before going down swinging. When compared to the Japanese T3 Cruiser you can really see this amplified when the Tenryu has a mere 17.7 K HP. 

Having 6 guns on both the port and starboard sides of the ship and one rotating turret in both the fore and aft of the ship. This means with additional 2 guns that can rotate 180 degrees on the deck you can have a maximum potential 8 guns on target when firing a full broad side. Due to the positioning of the guns facing directly outwards from the ship you won't have to wait for your turrets to turn when changing directions. You will always have some guns on target if you get surprised by the enemy or if you have to switch targets.

With all these great advantages there has to be some disadvantages that stem from its historical design choices that favoured many guns and large amounts of armour. All this extra weight ladened on a cruiser makes the St. Louis suffers most in its speed and rudder shift time. Torpedoes will be your biggest nightmare as the St. Louis drives very similar to a skip and doesn't respond well to sudden threats. The gun range isn't great either at 10km, presenting the danger that many ships can use their speed and range to keep you at a distance where by shoot you without you being able to respond in kind. Not many players will be wise enough to realise this at tier 3 and will generally close to shorter ranges where they can actually hit you. This will be playing into your hands and the strengths of your ship especially if they close into your secondary range adding to your ginormous gun array. 

One thing to note with the St. Louis is it doesn't have a great concealment range so being careful with your approach using some cover in the initial stages of the match is best advised. Most Battleship captains will always choose to shoot at a cruiser they know they can get big numbers of damage from over another opposing well armoured battleship.

In conclusion with this ship, the key to your success in this ship is to simply keep the guns singing. You have lots of them so use your main strength as much as you can. This is a strong cruiser for its tier but its still a cruiser and charging into to many enemies will normally get you focused down even if you can put up a fight. When facing off against torpedo baring ships try to predict when they will be firing their torpedoes and start your evasive turns early. The speed and rudder shift time are terrible on this ship but the turning circle is good. Reacting early in these dangerous situations will help you survive. Doing aggressive manoeuvres in other ships tends to leave you having to turn turrets around to defend yourself but with the gun arrangement in the St. Louis you can fire continuously and cause your enemy to retreat under a withering hail of fire.

The characteristics of captaining the St. Louis feels very similar to the HMS Warspite with her fairly slow speed, good armour, slow rudder shift time and good turning circle. Not to mention they both have fantastic armaments. If you find yourself getting on with the St. Louis I would highly recommend looking at the Warspite. As you can see below you can get great results from the Warspite once captained properly.

Until later in the week take care and I'll see you back here soon.

The Yubari, the Aircraft Prevention Package.

Hi all again and thanks for all your continued interest in my blog.

Just a quick heads up I am thinking of increasing my blog posts to 2 per week but obviously this will increase the amount of commitment for me to post here. I may try a couple of trial runs getting 2 posts up here and see how it goes. I would like to focus a bit more on my 3D as I seem to be posting more about games that I am playing (mainly World of Warships lately, but I will try and incorporate World of Tanks and War Thunder plus a few more when I go through my game rotation). This was originally what I set my blog up for (self reflection and interesting things 3D related). Stay posted if that's what you look here for as I will be being a bit more pro active with my modelling at home. Ironical I am doing another Premium ship review this week on the Imperial Japanese Yubari Class Cruiser but I will try and give you a update on my Tiger Tank progress. Don't be alarmed if its games that you look at my blog as I will be continuing with that too (but hey it may even give gamers a idea of how much work goes into the creation of games if you watch my 3D stuff here too =D)

So the Yubari, what can I tell you about this ship. The Yubari begain its life as a experiemental light cruiser in 1917. Its development was to counter the problem the Imperial Japanese Navy was having following the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty restricting the total fleet displacement to 300,000 tons. The Design philosophy for the Yubari was to improve on existing designs giving a light cruiser the battle potential of a 5000 ton cruiser.  In the design stages and the use of unproven designs lead to some design flaws that were later ironed out later when the Yubari was called back for repairs or refits.

Upon the Ships completion the Ship had a 4190 ton displacement, 13% over its original design specification. The ship featured a curved stem that integrated multiple smoke stacks into one. This resulted in reducing the amount of material needed saving on deck space needed other architecture and weaponry.To also save on weight of the ship the belt armour was incorporated into the hull of the ship drastically reducing the displacement whilst maintaining the overall protection of the ship.

Yet another Mighty Jingles Review of the Yubari Cruiser

The Yubari was the only ship of its kind made and was considered a successful concept, future cruiser adopted some of the ambitious design choices of the Yubari. The ship went through a few improvements to make up for the original design mistakes such as enlarging the smoke stacks  by 1.8 meters to improve the draw of exhaust fumes and providing additional ballast to aid with extra stability. 

After its final refit in 1944 its armament had been significantly upgraded with the focus of adding as many AA guns to its upper structure. This was mainly due to its previous conflicts proved their was a need for them. In March 1942 where the Yubari was attacked by 2 SBD-3 dive bombers and 4 F4F-3 Wildcats killing a few of her crew. The following morning the Yubari was again attacked by SBD-3's where this attack caused fires near to the torpedo launchers. In a serious design flaw, the length of the fire hoses were too short, leading to the crew having to manually jettison the torpedo launcher to avoid them exploding. Depite the damage taken in the attack, the Yubari evaded over 65 bombs and up to 12 torpedoes. The Yubari's plight was not quite done there as 4 B17's attacked her whilst returning to harbour. This attack left three gaping holes in her stern from near bomb misses. Strong anti air needed? I think so!

The Yubari in World of Warships this is a premium cruiser on sale for £14.41 singularly or as a pack for £36.04 as a part of a 3 ship pack. These purchases grant you access to the closed beta test so if you don't have access to WoW closed beta and are interested in the game. I would highly recommend purchasing any of the premium ship in this 3 ship pack as they are all fun and exciting to play (such is the life/play time of a destroyer captain).

In game the Yubari has a main battery of 2 turrets with double 140mm guns and one 120mm Secondary gun. The 120mm secondary is a dual purpose gun that acts as both anti air and anti ship defence. Where the Yubari really shines is in its anti air. It has the best anti air in the whole of the tier 4 and arguably tier 5 ships which makes it a real power house of a support ship for battleships (such as the myogi which has zip) and carriers. This ship would be one of the only ships that you hope that there is a massive number of carriers on the enemy team. I find myself actively powering towards incoming planes and getting at least 3 air kills with this ship before payloads are dropped, mopping up the remainder as they run away with their petty lives. The majority of the ships AA armament is self defense but intelligent play can have you seated close to priority targets for carriers to get effective fire in or in the line of travel of incoming planes.

The Yubari is a good light cruiser but like all ships it has its draw backs. The guns are effective against destroyers and cruisers but really struggle when facing thick armored targets such as battleships. Having 2 turrets with your main armament of 4 guns means having 1 turret knocked out reduces your fire power by 50%. The Kuma and the Pheonix by comparison have more turrets and armament on their decks so generally in a gunnery duel you will have the disadvantage there.  Being a light cruiser the Yubari wont withstand sustained fire for long having the lowest health pool of 18.5k hp but some of that health loss can be negated using the agility of this ship by dodging fire.

The Yubari is a decent ship to captain with its good maneuverable which help make up for the Ships terrible torpedo firing arch. Turning to fire the torp's however generally leaves you having to expose a big section of your ship to fire so I tend to use these more of a secondary engagement option. When captaining the ship regardless of how good the jap's torps are in comparison to other nations its just better in this ship to use as a surprise attack. Using the guns is far more effective in combat with a decent range of 12.8 km (over its equivalent tier Kumas 11.6 km and Phoenix's 12.5km) .

The turning circle of the Yubari is 690m considerably less than its equivalent tier cruisers.You will probably find the Yubari behaves pretty much like a heavy destroyer which enables you to get aggressive with your movements and dodging fire. When facing off against carriers when closing the distance, this maneuverability really helps evade incoming torpedoes too.

In summary for this ship you will need to really pay attention to your teams actions during a fight as you will mainly play a support role. Use your maneuverability to your advantage as dodging incoming fire and torpedoes will keep you alive. This ship doesnt like being the subject of sustained fire so be careful with your engagements and use you strong AA fire to aid in the defence of your fleet. You will have a surface detect ability range similar to a heavy destroyer so surprise attacks with torpedoes around head land and hit and gun attacks with your guns will be your friend.

Thats all for today. Till next time.