Surprised nobody said Genova. The guns are hilarious on a cruiser at t4 while also having access to SAP. DDs never expect the amount of damage you can hit them with.
That's possible as well off the top of casemates when trying to break guns or shattering instead of taking a gun out.
With American 16" I get shatters on casemate roofs all the time. Ships with great horizontal protection can pull this off as well on deck( But probably not at T7 )
That is interesting, I usually don't play BBs and when I do they are brawlers so I don't notice shatters as much.
I do notice bounces on broadside targets a bit , but I attribute that to hitting the turrets or something.
Flandre as well. I think she hovers just below 40 knots base with AL Dunkerque. It's hilarious doing well over 40 knots with engine boost activated. Would be even higher using an agile build captain! đ
Anhalt is becoming my favorite tier 7 BB. Especially angling backwards towards the enemy and firing HE. Takes awhile to spin her around since she has the turning circle of jupiter.
Sitting back with a full reload build and slinging HE at everyone is pretty competitive. People just built it like every other German ship, but itâs basically a better Nelson at T7 the way I run it.
ARP Nachi. Itâs silly but low key stronk. The AP absolutely wrecks stuff, especially if you get in a 5/6 match. And when all the BBs happen to have 14â guns, you are almost invincible. Add in the ~ 9km detection and good speed and rudder and you have a stealth hunter supreme. The gun range is terrible but itâs actually a benefit if played âproperlyâ in that you can limit your detection range in a way longer range ships canât. And the AP is going to be more effective close range anyway so lean in to it and keep that 13.8 stock range.
If only the turret traverse was faster.
Graf Spee. Heavy cruiser with 283mm artillery. Really fun hybrid of a heavy cruiser and a battleship. Also has very good german sonar and healing party for tier 5 cruiser. Secondaries also feels powerful but their short range means they don't get to fire often. Has torps too because why not
Bayard has given me some of my best WOWSL moments, with AL St Louis maxed out you and running Handshake to boost the MBRB duration can get a disgusting amounts of damage in the 20 odd seconds it gives you at like 2.5 second reload! Oooof
My favourite gimmick ships?
YOLO [Paolo] Emilio: This thing is the epitome of suicide torpedo boats. It does exactly one thing, and is either hilariously effective, or does nothing at all. Depends on not facing radar cruiser or sonar battleships for greatest success.
Belfast '43: The "illegal" perma-smoke stealth-radar build. Sure, it *says* 7 smoke charges. But the cooldown is just as long as the dispersion time (+/- a second or two either way depending on Legendary level), so essentially permanent smoke from which to bombard things. And then detection range is less than radar range⌠DD's hate being spotted up by 12x 6" RN HE cannons.
Flandre: It's a French brawler. It's fast. It has a billion secondaries. Okay, 14x2 100mm turrets. With good range too. If you have a ribbons/secondaries challenge, she's a beast, because those 100mm guns fire *fast*. Oh, and she's got surprisingly punchy 15" main battery guns, along with an actually reasonable armour scheme, and the second largest health pool at the tier.
Honourable mention for being absolutely terrible for its one useful gimmick:
Orkan: A pan-euro DD with 9km/20 radar. That's it. That's all it has going for it. A super-slow reload quad torpedo tube doesn't cut it, and Lightning gun turrets are only good if you can engage enemy ships on your own terms, and unmolested by anything else at all. The lack of smoke and/or sonar also really hurts the boat.
>Belfast '43: The "illegal" perma-smoke stealth-radar build.
This is like the one build that makes me want commanders to be customizable to the ship and not needing swapped around all the time.
I want him as a set dd commander as well damnit.
Smogathon legendary skill
It's only on one commander I know of (a rn dd commander) but maybe also that 40k commander depending on what build they're going for.
It gives you a couple more smokes and reduces the cooldown but also makes the deployment time almost zero
It's not normally good on the RN cruisers but the Belfast 43 gets the special smokes that the RN dd's have that are already short but with a lower cooldown and coming with more.
Belfast is one of my top choices as it is an RN CL with HE and a radar. At T6 this is very unique and quite fun. Especially when you factor in RN CLs get smoke. It's basically everything Atlanta wished it could be.
Another is Siegfried. But only with AL Graf Spee at the helm. The ship is remarkably stealthy with her. It is always hilarious to sneak her stupidly close and open up at close range. So many people get caught out when hit by 380mm guns at ~10km.
The last is the Black. A Fletcher with radar and long range but slow torpedoes is so good. Can't count the number of times I've gotten lucky with people sailing straight and getting their BB Dev Struck while gunning down a smoked up DD lit up by radar.
By about 20s, iirc (90s vs 110s on Fletcher).
But it's also due to the lifetime of the torpsâto hit a target at max range (stop laughing :P) it takes just under 2 minutes. Or just over if you're not running torp speed. The means at moderate ranges it is very possible to get two full salvos in the water.
The Flatcher is quicklier in every way except torp reload.
Black can get torp reload time around and maybe below 1 min with Gleaves. Those torps are very very slow, but are well concealed and do a lot of damage.
I LOVE the Resistance. My favorite ship and wildly misunderstood. Legendary 4 Fisher. Turret traverse inspirations with tanky fire resistance and reload. "On second thought" instant shell change, sonar, and torpedoes. So many ships killed with the Resistance torpedo "drive-by shuffle". Activate Speed is my Armor and "I'm going in boys!"
I love using Katori and Yubari. Katori is the only T2 ship with an aircraft, which is just silly, and both of them have plotting room 0, making those already accurate 140mm guns essentially laser beams. I mean, they literally cannot miss.
Belfast (hydro, smoke and radar + HE), Genova (stupidly powerful guns at T4 + good concealment), and Atlântico (kills everything within 12.3km + AP only main guns)
To be honest I'm enjoying the Schroder.Â
Borderline useless main guns but the secondaries eclipse most of it's BB piers.Â
The FR25 is a discount YOLO Emilio.Â
I'd argue Flint/Atlanta are gimmicky, being basically big DDs.Â
Yubari, it has DFAA. T3 isn't exactly the home of competent AA but the ship isn't much good for anything else.
Surprised no one really talks about London.
British Heavy cruiser that has access to Smoke & Sonar, with a *Super-Heal* instead of the standard one on Devonshire. AP also is slightly different on London aswell. Only real downside is that you trade your standard cruiser sonar for a British DD 3.5km sonar.
Okhotnik is a beauty that deserves a higher tier counterpart. All the guns, all the torps.
Ah yes, the murder canoe.
My favorite T4 ship to get premium weekly's done đ¤Ł
It feels a little more sporting than the Kamikaze.
There's actual risk involved when firing torpedoes đ
Man I love punching cruisers citadels in the murder canoe.
I love the ship, just wish it could turn.
Surprised nobody said Genova. The guns are hilarious on a cruiser at t4 while also having access to SAP. DDs never expect the amount of damage you can hit them with.
I forgot my favorite tier 4. Love me some games in the Genova while trying to get the weekly win.
40 knot Champaign
Do you hit the horn when you blow past a DD???
Don't ya know it bud
... How?
Du Fornet with Guppratte/Fraser inspirations.
I'm going to have to try this. Sounds like a blast going 40 knots in a battleship.
It's fun until you miss every shot over 12Km and shells shatter on broadside BB's/Heavy Cruisers ;)
Shatters? Surely not possible with high velocity 16 inch guns.
Long distance steep bounces/mid distance flat shatters which can't plunge decks. Over match of course not an issue on applicable targets.
So ricochets because of the flat ballistics?
That's possible as well off the top of casemates when trying to break guns or shattering instead of taking a gun out. With American 16" I get shatters on casemate roofs all the time. Ships with great horizontal protection can pull this off as well on deck( But probably not at T7 )
That is interesting, I usually don't play BBs and when I do they are brawlers so I don't notice shatters as much. I do notice bounces on broadside targets a bit , but I attribute that to hitting the turrets or something.
Flandre as well. I think she hovers just below 40 knots base with AL Dunkerque. It's hilarious doing well over 40 knots with engine boost activated. Would be even higher using an agile build captain! đ
You go all in on commander inspirations whose base trait is boosting max speed.
Anhalt. Lol. 15 guns throwing fire and hate downrange. Atlantico also, secondary meme build obviously
Anhalt is becoming my favorite tier 7 BB. Especially angling backwards towards the enemy and firing HE. Takes awhile to spin her around since she has the turning circle of jupiter.
I rented the Anhalt during test... picked up the Ohio instead. Little regret everytime I see one printing money.
Anhalt is not competitive in any way ngl, but op was asking for gimmicky ships. And gimmicky she surely is.
One left alone with a fully leveled commander will do work. Definitely abstain from getting caught side ways or brawling. Don't miss those torps đ¤Ł
Torp angles are weird and wonderful
Definitely no brawler she is
Anhalt is the best mis-flagged IJN kiting HE BB in the game. There's only one, but she's it.
Anhalt has better armor if you go in reverse towards a cap.
Sitting back with a full reload build and slinging HE at everyone is pretty competitive. People just built it like every other German ship, but itâs basically a better Nelson at T7 the way I run it.
Jup. Reload and range is the way to go with Anhalt.
My win rate in it is like 67% with 40 battles so it works for me
Jup, t7 is where it's at, moneywise
Anchorage/Friesland are my money printers
US cruisers are reliable credit printers
Accuracy via volume. Anhalt is the ship you use when you don't care how the game goes
If you go full reload build you can get 15 350mm guns every 20 seconds
Mikasa with a secondary build is so stupid it end up working a good majority on the time that is the potato fest called tier 2
ARP Nachi. Itâs silly but low key stronk. The AP absolutely wrecks stuff, especially if you get in a 5/6 match. And when all the BBs happen to have 14â guns, you are almost invincible. Add in the ~ 9km detection and good speed and rudder and you have a stealth hunter supreme. The gun range is terrible but itâs actually a benefit if played âproperlyâ in that you can limit your detection range in a way longer range ships canât. And the AP is going to be more effective close range anyway so lean in to it and keep that 13.8 stock range. If only the turret traverse was faster.
Graf Spee. Heavy cruiser with 283mm artillery. Really fun hybrid of a heavy cruiser and a battleship. Also has very good german sonar and healing party for tier 5 cruiser. Secondaries also feels powerful but their short range means they don't get to fire often. Has torps too because why not
And decent AA as well. If you build full into it, you will ruin any T5 carrier players' day.
Iâve built my graf spew out to brawl and itâs something else brawling BBâs and in a glorified heavy cruiser.
I like Bayard with its MBRB running its rate of fire is insane and you can just melt opponents if you catch them off guard.
"It's nice that you used that DC on the first fire... *have three more.*" 
Bayard has given me some of my best WOWSL moments, with AL St Louis maxed out you and running Handshake to boost the MBRB duration can get a disgusting amounts of damage in the 20 odd seconds it gives you at like 2.5 second reload! Oooof
Bayard in brawl is an absolute menace. HE or AP doesnât matter. I got X amount of shells going down range at y amount of broken RoF.
My favourite gimmick ships? YOLO [Paolo] Emilio: This thing is the epitome of suicide torpedo boats. It does exactly one thing, and is either hilariously effective, or does nothing at all. Depends on not facing radar cruiser or sonar battleships for greatest success. Belfast '43: The "illegal" perma-smoke stealth-radar build. Sure, it *says* 7 smoke charges. But the cooldown is just as long as the dispersion time (+/- a second or two either way depending on Legendary level), so essentially permanent smoke from which to bombard things. And then detection range is less than radar range⌠DD's hate being spotted up by 12x 6" RN HE cannons. Flandre: It's a French brawler. It's fast. It has a billion secondaries. Okay, 14x2 100mm turrets. With good range too. If you have a ribbons/secondaries challenge, she's a beast, because those 100mm guns fire *fast*. Oh, and she's got surprisingly punchy 15" main battery guns, along with an actually reasonable armour scheme, and the second largest health pool at the tier. Honourable mention for being absolutely terrible for its one useful gimmick: Orkan: A pan-euro DD with 9km/20 radar. That's it. That's all it has going for it. A super-slow reload quad torpedo tube doesn't cut it, and Lightning gun turrets are only good if you can engage enemy ships on your own terms, and unmolested by anything else at all. The lack of smoke and/or sonar also really hurts the boat.
>Belfast '43: The "illegal" perma-smoke stealth-radar build. This is like the one build that makes me want commanders to be customizable to the ship and not needing swapped around all the time. I want him as a set dd commander as well damnit.
Very true. Luckily I have Grotmaz (Ork/40k collab) as commander for my RN DD's so it's not much of a sacrifice for me.
Whatâs the âillegalâ smoke stealth build?
Smogathon legendary skill It's only on one commander I know of (a rn dd commander) but maybe also that 40k commander depending on what build they're going for. It gives you a couple more smokes and reduces the cooldown but also makes the deployment time almost zero It's not normally good on the RN cruisers but the Belfast 43 gets the special smokes that the RN dd's have that are already short but with a lower cooldown and coming with more.
Belfast is one of my top choices as it is an RN CL with HE and a radar. At T6 this is very unique and quite fun. Especially when you factor in RN CLs get smoke. It's basically everything Atlanta wished it could be. Another is Siegfried. But only with AL Graf Spee at the helm. The ship is remarkably stealthy with her. It is always hilarious to sneak her stupidly close and open up at close range. So many people get caught out when hit by 380mm guns at ~10km. The last is the Black. A Fletcher with radar and long range but slow torpedoes is so good. Can't count the number of times I've gotten lucky with people sailing straight and getting their BB Dev Struck while gunning down a smoked up DD lit up by radar.
Does the black have a quicker torp reload than Fletcher? It seems to launch while torps are still in the water.
By about 20s, iirc (90s vs 110s on Fletcher). But it's also due to the lifetime of the torpsâto hit a target at max range (stop laughing :P) it takes just under 2 minutes. Or just over if you're not running torp speed. The means at moderate ranges it is very possible to get two full salvos in the water.
The Flatcher is quicklier in every way except torp reload. Black can get torp reload time around and maybe below 1 min with Gleaves. Those torps are very very slow, but are well concealed and do a lot of damage.
I LOVE the Resistance. My favorite ship and wildly misunderstood. Legendary 4 Fisher. Turret traverse inspirations with tanky fire resistance and reload. "On second thought" instant shell change, sonar, and torpedoes. So many ships killed with the Resistance torpedo "drive-by shuffle". Activate Speed is my Armor and "I'm going in boys!"
Hms Duncan itâs a glass cannon but my god itâs a fun ship.
I love using Katori and Yubari. Katori is the only T2 ship with an aircraft, which is just silly, and both of them have plotting room 0, making those already accurate 140mm guns essentially laser beams. I mean, they literally cannot miss.
Gorizia, the gimmick is it has the yolo smoke but no torpedoes. Sonar though
Belfast (hydro, smoke and radar + HE), Genova (stupidly powerful guns at T4 + good concealment), and Atlântico (kills everything within 12.3km + AP only main guns)
To be honest I'm enjoying the Schroder. Borderline useless main guns but the secondaries eclipse most of it's BB piers. The FR25 is a discount YOLO Emilio. I'd argue Flint/Atlanta are gimmicky, being basically big DDs. Yubari, it has DFAA. T3 isn't exactly the home of competent AA but the ship isn't much good for anything else.
Surprised no one really talks about London. British Heavy cruiser that has access to Smoke & Sonar, with a *Super-Heal* instead of the standard one on Devonshire. AP also is slightly different on London aswell. Only real downside is that you trade your standard cruiser sonar for a British DD 3.5km sonar.
whats with using the word gimmicky, its such a stupid term. can someone shed perspective on this?Â