Premium Ship Recommendations for Current T6~8 Operations.

[xamdam]

Being one of those players that supported WG's awesome development time put into Operations and Scenario battles (tongue firmly wedged in cheek), I picked up practically every premium ship I thought would be useful there over the years.

Some mistakes were made... I'll go into those later. But some gems were found. Most recently, Brandenburg.

Since I already have a Bismarck spec'd Lujens (secondaries) that I play on Bis, Tirpitz, Scharn(s) and Odin to decent effect I thought I might like the extra 4 guns of smaller caliber along with the same great secondaries at T8. This seems to have been a good pickup.

With only two battles played so far, one Newport with 1.8k BXP and one in Asym with 1.4, the majority coming from the main guns with only AP I can feel it's going to be a fun ship to play.

The main guns feel good. If not great at blapping CL / CAs and landing more shots on DDs. They do a decent job on BBs of the ones you'll run into in these modes as well. Can't speak for PVP.

Having seen other players do well in it, I always thought it was probably a good ship.

The secondaries, typical Lutjens secondary stuff.

What Premium ships have you found that work well? I'd like to keep this thread for premium recommendations simply because these modes are decent credit makers for the most part and people can move captains to them without respeccing. Baltimore is one of my favorite TT ships, but that's for a different thread.

I'll post some of my other favorites laters. As well as the ones I think should be avoided...

[I_cant_Swim_]

I haven’t got the Brandenburg, but it seems like fun. For me, Massachusetts, Tirpitz, Mainz offer the most consistent results if I’m after credits, FXP or commander training. In TT, the Zieten is pretty nice.

[xamdam]

My other premiums played / not recommended for Operations
(Some are dockyard / event ships and some are no longer available for purchase)
(* is for my personal favorite of the class)

Tier 8 Premiums:
T8 Cruisers:
Mainz (ofc)
Prinz Eugen
Bayard
Atago
Wichita* (I pretend it's my Baltimore, without the armor)
San Diego
Anchorage
Irian

Do not recommend:
Congress

Sometimes Okay:
De 7 Provincien
Demitri Pozharsky 
Tone - Planes are weak, but the spotting can help

T8 Battleships:
Tirpitz
Odin
Brandenburg*
Massachusetts
Kii (Have the old Kobayashi camo...)

Sometimes Okay:
Roma (also has old Kobayashi camo)
Alabama (but... not a Massachusetts...)
Lenin

T8 Destroyers: (I don't play them often in Ops)
Cossack* 

Sometimes Okay:
Asashio (B) - Depends on the Op though due to deep water torps.
Kidd - Lack of the second torpedo launcher and long reload limits it a lot. 

Tier 7 Premiums:
T7 Cruisers:
Belfast
Boise*
Flint
Atlanta
Weimar (pre rework Narai King...)
Munchen
Lazo
Maya 

All of those work fine

T7 Battleships:
Scharnhorst
Scharnhorst '43*
Hyuga

Sometimes Okay:
Ashitaka
Hood
Nelson
Strasbourg
Florida

Do Not Recommend:
Duke Of York (the guns feel broken to me...)

T7 Destroyers:
Sims*
Blyskawica

(I have Huron, FR25 and Stord '43 from this season's event but haven't played them much yet)

Tier 6:
T6 Cruisers:

De Grasse*
Duca D'Aosta
London
Molotov
Graf Spee

Sometimes Okay:
Perth
Huanghe

Do Not Recommend:
Mysore

T6 Battleships:
Arizona*
Warspite
Dunkerque
P.E. Friedrich
Mutsu
Ise
Repulse
Novorossiysk (although I haven't played it much)

Do Not Recommend:
West Virginia '41 - Just use Arizona...

T6 Destroyers:
T-61* (Smoke and Hydro with fast loading torps can be fun. Until the smoke runs out...)
Shinonome
Aigle
Anshan
Gallant (just a few games, but it feels solid)

Do not recommend:
Monaghan (sadly... it used to be useful in Dynamo with its AA but having only 2 guns makes for pain now)



That's all I have in my inventory. Most work well (with the few exceptions) for me. Of course there are better tech tree ships available in several categories and I often play them as well but if anyone is looking to spend resources, this is what I can offer advice on.

Edited December 28, 2023 by xamdam

[Frostbow]

1 hour ago, xamdam said:

Do not recommend:
Congress

Sometimes Okay:

In my experience, Congress is 'sometimes okay' for Operations. Not because she cannot deliver, but only because if the team has decently played Mainz, Cleveland, Fiji, or any high DPM ship, Congress can really struggle to get high numbers.

[Kruzenstern]

Brandenburg is right there among the top 5 strongest ships for Operations. Massachusetts is right alongside it, same same but different. Both are the best BBs for Ops by a bit of a margin.

The overall strongest ship for Operations imho is not a prem, but Tallinn, in all ops where the bots show much broadside (which is most of them) I outperform Mainz/Bayard in it. In Hermes and Killer Whale, Mainz/Bayard is better.

Imho slightly weaker than Tallinn but also very strong against broadside is its premium cousin P.Bagration. Also prefer that one over Mainz/Bayard.

Then of course the abovementioned Mainz/Bayard and also Cleveland/Montpellier. HE-Spam to your heart's content, best ships for Ops with few broadsides like Hermes and Killer Whale. Everyones favorite, but imho not the best cruisers, just the easiest.

Hampshire is also very strong against broadsides, but useless against bows. Nottingham does better against bows but worse against broadsides. And US and German heavy cruisers also work pretty well.

Kutuzov and Irian are pretty strong too.

Congress is the only cruiser I would also qualify as downright bad for ops. All other cruisers will work well and can yield great results, just not as reliable as the ones mentioned.

As for BBs, all of them with decent secondaries are good. Most fast ones are workable. The only really bad ones in my port are the slowass US BBs (except WV44, it might work due to its secondaries) and the KGV-clones Duke of York and Yukon.

And then there are also DDs. What seems to work well is those with fast and long torps. And the pseudo-cruiser that is the Akizuki. I am not much of a DD-player, the only one of my premium-DDs I take into ops is the Akizuki-Wannabe that is the Harekaze. All others I would feel like weakening my team.

Honorable mention of CVs, generally a bad idea to bring CVs into Ops, the bots concentrate too much AA and the impact of the CV is very limited. The only ones that I can good results in are the russians, so Chkalov. And if you have a friendly DD with smoke, bring a Graf Zeppelin and let your secondaries do their wondrous thing. That is quite amazing but requires a friend to more or less sacrifice his own play to provide you smoke.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Kruzenstern

[Wolfswetpaws]

In the Submarine-only Wolfpack Scenario Operation, the I-56 has torpedoes with potent warheads and a manually controlled deck-gun.
The small dive-capacity, large detection radius and the lack of a submarine-surveilance capability seem to be the most obvious trade-offs.
That said, she can do well.

Tier-6
~ Mutsu (a versatile contender, in my opinion, equipped with long-range main-guns, a decent secondary battery suite and 4 torpedo tubes with a 20 second reload time)
~ Dunkerque (simple play style, and decent performance, but not over-powered).  
~ Ise (as a Hybrid-BB, the Ise brings planes which can deliver torpedoes and provide some scouting/spotting [as of this writing, because an update may soon change that] and a set of long-range main-guns.  The 24.5 knot speed can be augmented with a Sierra-Mike flag to 25.7 knots.  While the Ise may not be everyone's cup of tea, I do like her.)
~ London (another versatile contender, with a Repair Party and other consumables to supplement her decent speed and armament for a Tier-6 Cruiser)

Tier-7
~ Scharnhorst and her sister-ships have been "go to" ships for Scenario Operations for a number of years.  They remain a solid choice, I feel.  They're not nimble, though, with a slow rudder-shift and a somewhat large turning radius.  
~ West Virginia '44 (while not the fastest, she does okay when she gets close enough)
~ Azur Lane P. Heinrich / P. Heinrich (Main-guns, secondary-battery, torpedoes, decent speed, what's not to like?)
~ Hood (an often overlooked contender, I feel the ship has useful speed and can do okay)
~ Nelson ("Zombie Heal", enough said)
~ Renown '44 (another versatile "recipe for success" 'Bote)
~ Strasbourg (smilar to the Dunkerque, but may face opponents that are able to take advantage of armor weaknesses)
~ The Arpeggio of Blue Steel Ashigara, Haguro, Myoko, Nachi sisters are fun in operations, I feel.  As clones of the tech-tree Myoko, they share the virtues, vices & quirks, but they offer more interesting Commander's voices.
~ Premium Tier-7 Maya, is a solid contender, in my experience.
~ Atlanta and Flint, "pew, pew, pew" with torpedoes for close-range work.  Fun ships for setting fires with.

Tier-8
~ Kii, Constellation, Brandenburg, Odin, Tirpitz, all share the recipe of guns/sec-bat/torpedoes in varying ratios of ingredients.  
They're all fun to play, in my opinion.
~ Massachusetts = still fun, even without torpedoes
~ Azur Lane Littorio, because sometimes one might want a little something different for the sake of variety
~ ARP Maya, ARP Takao, Atago & Atago-B = Fun
~ Anchorage has a great paint scheme available and a decent suite of guns, torpedoes and consumables, but she's not what I'd call "nimble"
~ Azur Lane Cheshire is a fun 'Bote, in my experience
~ Belfast '43 may not be the orgininal gangster Belfast, but is still capable of being a "Cheeky Warship", especially when paired with Commander Azur Lane Belfast.
~ Bayard a 'Bote that delivers some solid, if not over-powered, performances when a player does their part.

CV's
While not all of these are readily available, they all bring something special to the figurative table, in my opinion.

~ Erich Loewenhardt = mini Graf Zeppelin
~ Ark Royal = best "trainer" CV and a capable performer as long as you don't mind the comparatively slow planes
~ Bearn = Shines more in random battles, and has a slow hull, but when a CV player is looking for "something different" this French CV delivers.
~ Kaga & Kaga-B = a "can't go wrong" choice here, with the understanding that Tier-6 planes in a Tier-8 AA environment will need to keep exposure to flak at a minimum.
~ Saipan and Pan-Asian clone Sanzang offer some potent offensive capabilities for the player who can aim well and decently manage their plane's health.  
Without a secondary-battery suite, brawling is for the crazy (like me).  
~ Graf Zeppelin = the "meme-'Bote" among meme-'Botes, her planes are fast and fragile and can deliver some damage.  
But the secondary-battery shenannigans are why people play this CV.  So, have fun.  

Be advised that recently published changes for CV's (scheduled for a soon-to-happen future game update) are likely to affect all the capabilties of CV's in general.
I suggest doing some due diligence and playing some tech-tree CV's before spending your money.

[xamdam]

12 hours ago, Kruzenstern said:

The overall strongest ship for Operations imho is not a prem, but Tallinn, in all ops where the bots show much broadside (which is most of them) I outperform Mainz/Bayard in it. In Hermes and Killer Whale, Mainz/Bayard is better.

Yes, but the idea for this thread was to highlight premium ships only. There are lots of tech tree ships that I would rate higher than many of these premiums performance wise but they require dedicated captains and do not earn as many credits.

This is why I spec'd Lutjens for Bismarck as I enjoy playing it. And I can use him on sooo many premiums / special ships from GK (Asym) down to P.E. Friedrich.

[AdmiralMcintosh]

I have a blast playing Hood in the Operations so that's my recommendation, large health pool, fast speed and Improved auto bounce angles on AP shells make this a good combo.

Edited December 28, 2023 by AdmiralMcintosh

[AdmiralMcintosh]

4 hours ago, xamdam said:

There are lots of tech tree ships that I would rate higher than many of these premiums performance wise but they require dedicated captains and do not earn as many credits.

What tech tree ship could be better than Massachusetts? and tech tree ships don't earn nearly as much as premiums.

Edited December 28, 2023 by AdmiralMcintosh

[xamdam]

2 minutes ago, AdmiralMcintosh said:

What tech tree ship could be better than Massachusetts? and tech tree ships don't earn nearly as much as premiums.

Umm... you must be sleepy. How about posting my entire quote where I mention the part about credits. Or give me another yawn... 

Massachusetts is one of those that doesn't have (that I can think of) a better or equal TT peer.

[AdmiralMcintosh]

I'm not tired, it could be the afternoon for me.

[xamdam]

9 minutes ago, AdmiralMcintosh said:

I'm not tired, it could be the afternoon for me.

Then why the yawn? It seems you misread what I said. Or are you one of those that spams the "boring" emoji for no reason?

[xamdam]

Right, so now you edited it to "confused" instead. I guess that's more accurate. But you didn't pass up the chance to tag another one below... lol

At least this forum lets us see the names of who's posting each reaction. Tells you a lot about them. 😉

 

[BOBTHEBALL]

Tirpitz, Brandenburg and Massa are the top 3 BBs
Mainz and Bayard are top 2 cruisers
For DDs it's tough
CVs I just spam Chkalov

[xamdam]

Speaking of Massachusetts though. While I have a soft spot for her (first museum ship I visited, several times as a kid) mine seems to have come with bent barrels on both my mains and secondaries. I get way too many wild dispersion / short shots with it than I do with... KM ships. I thought they now share the same dispersion (main battery)? Alabama, I hardly ever play anymore for similar reasons even though I thought it was supposed to be slightly more accurate.

Maybe I need to try a different build? I don't have manual secondaries, just long range secondary battery and secondary battery mod 1. This is with Halsey.

[Kruzenstern]

2 hours ago, xamdam said:

Speaking of Massachusetts though. While I have a soft spot for her (first museum ship I visited, several times as a kid) mine seems to have come with bent barrels on both my mains and secondaries. I get way too many wild dispersion / short shots with it than I do with... KM ships. I thought they now share the same dispersion (main battery)? Alabama, I hardly ever play anymore for similar reasons even though I thought it was supposed to be slightly more accurate.

Maybe I need to try a different build? I don't have manual secondaries, just long range secondary battery and secondary battery mod 1. This is with Halsey.

Massas main battery has always been wonky, gets a lot of terrible spreads interspersed with perfect shots. (And more often than not a terrible spread on a badly aimed shot yields a citadel hit)

As far as the secondaries go, manual secondaries is a must have, as is, for operations, IFHE, as that lets you pen the 25/26 mm armor very very common on typical operation opponents, and direct damage is a lot more important in ops than fire (because the bots don't live that long to burn so much). You don't need IFHE on the german boats as they already pen 26mm without it.

[tfcas119]

Among the premiums I have:

Best:
Mainz- I probably don't need to explain why.
Bayard- above
Dimitri Pozarsky (calling it D Poz or Deposit from now on) that AP slaps cruisers. Can't do squat against angled targets, DDs, German BBs, or transports though (translation- RIP if MM gives you Hermes or Killer Whale.)
Atlantico: Not fast, but good secondaries and decent armor. slow speed and lack of HE can cause issues. Is a dockyard ship though so I have no idea if she will ever be available again.

Really Good:
Pyotr Bragation (P-Bag): literally on the line between best/really good. Baltimore guns with Soviet ballistics, torps, and a heal, plus hard to find citadel. DPM is why she's on the line, as she lacks it.
Prinz Eugen: If Mainz didn't exist, she'd be best.
Atago: needs a faster reload or a smoke to move up.
Anchorage: NOLA guns, Fletcher torps with smoke. Baltimore guns, a 13sec reload, or a 1km better smoke penalty and she'd be best. Slaps in Aegis though.
Champagne/Gascogne: squishy, secondaries need IFHE to do anything, dispersion is interesting (Gascan) and overpen city (Champagne yes and Gascan to an extent) that's the drawback of high velocity shells fired at narrow-hulled thin-skinned cruisers.

Hard Mode:
D7P: her heal and speed boost basically glue this thing together to make it work properly. I'd had good games in it, but I will also say those games would of been easier in a Bayard or Mainz.
Constellation: limited armor, no secondaries, radar is not that useful in ops. Yeah never really liked this one.
San Diego: Had her as a rental during the anniversary. Performs not as her on paper stats suggest. It just felt like a struggle to do any damage in the way many of the others I mentioned above.

Among ships I don't have:

Best:
Hampshire- Imagine Deposit, Baltimore, and Minotaur found each other in a London alley.
Rochester: Oh look, everything I mentioned about Anchorage needing to be promoted to best is here.
Brandenburg/Tirpitz: Except Anhalt, going German is the way to easy money.
Massachusetts: Sad face for not having one.

Really Good:
Kii: Secondaries are decent, just need range or better dispersion on the 100mms.
Flandre: tankier than Champagne/Gascan and better secondaries, but they still need IFHE to be useful.
Wichita: Baltimore is better.
Irian: YY torps with TRB, solid DPM and range. Could move this to best thinking about it.
STAR Edinburgh: no idea if/when it will be available again, but Edinburgh is good in ops, so a copy-pasta one is also good.
Cheshire: Could be hard mode because she explodes, but her 234s have punch to them.
 

Hard Mode:
Tiger'59: Aegis and Cherry Blossom you may be able to look like a God, every other op you're not going to be having a fun time.
Anhalt:  Take everything that makes German BBs good in ops, remove them, and make it go 25knts.
Vanguard: Not sure I'd bring a BB with no armor, secondaries, or torps to ops but at least the guns are consistent.
Borodino: Not sure I'd bring a BB with no armor, secondaries, or torps to ops but at least the guns are consistent.
Alabama: Not sure I'd bring a BB with no secondaries or torps to ops but at least the guns are consistent.
Ochakov: poor DPM for a light cruiser, but having Soviet 152s almost makes up for it.
Belfast'43: HE wise, she's not bad. But my God her AP power is lackluster in both DPM and pen. Her smoke could put her into good, if she had Russia's 8.5sec reload.

Just No:
Roma: Looks amazing, but zero secondaries and your guns miss often, and overpen when they do.
Picardie: So you have 16 guns that do little damage, don't pen anything, miss what they can, and your secondaries/MBRB aren't good enough to compensate. Lyon would probably be better than this thing.

I have no idea where to place these:
Congress: Could be best if you get snipers for gunners, or hard mode if they're Stormtroopers. Either way its an Alaska hull so it doesn't die.
Tone: Atago reload with one less turret, but torpedo planes. Relying on one would feel like suffering, using both effectively could make her really good.

Edited December 28, 2023 by tfcas119

[xamdam]

Got this in a post progress Santa crate today.

Borodino. T8 Soviet "BB"

Can not recommend for Ops. It's a Stalingrad hull with two 406mm triple turrets on the front (6 guns) and radar. Big "Hit Me Here" signs on the citadel and while the guns are okay-ish, the vertical dispersion is frustrating. 

Struggles in Asym also. Bow tanking is the only way and even though it has little for superstructure, it gets set on fire constantly.

Port queen, I guess.

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by xamdam

[Justin_Simpleton]

9 minutes ago, xamdam said:

Borodino. T8 Soviet "BB"

Can not recommend for Ops. It's a Stalingrad hull with two 406mm triple turrets on the front (6 guns) and radar. Big "Hit Me Here" signs on the citadel and while the guns are okay-ish, the vertical dispersion is frustrating. 

Struggles in Asym also. Bow tanking is the only way and even though it has little for superstructure, it gets set on fire constantly.

Port queen, I guess.

You got my attention.  I still have to check out the armor and radar specs but this might be the ship for me.  A Lenin with radar and normal DCP, could be my new flank monster.

[xamdam]

8 minutes ago, Justin_Simpleton said:

You got my attention.  I still have to check out the armor and radar specs but this might be the ship for me.  A Lenin with radar and normal DCP, could be my new flank monster.

Maybe in certain modes, but I wouldn't bother for Ops / Asym. Maybe clanwars or some other competitive mode might be able to use it.

[Justin_Simpleton]

1 hour ago, xamdam said:

Maybe in certain modes, but I wouldn't bother for Ops / Asym. Maybe clanwars or some other competitive mode might be able to use it.

Yeah, after further investigation this ship is looking more uniquely situational from the Random game point of view which I like.  Made the same assessment of Annault after testing and buying it.  That ship could use some radar.  Borodino is just not measuring up to using the radar effectively and maneuverability looks pretty bad. 

[xamdam]

10 minutes ago, Justin_Simpleton said:

Yeah, after further investigation this ship is looking more uniquely situational from the Random game point of view which I like.  Made the same assessment of Annault after testing and buying it.  That ship could use some radar.  Borodino is just not measuring up to using the radar effectively and maneuverability looks pretty bad. 

It handles like... a slow Moskva. "Small Battleship" they say. It's about 4 miles long. And the radar, while practically useless in Ops is short duration. I really can't think of any use other than as a roadblock in some competitive mode. And if a CV gets to farm it, forget it.

[Asym]

I'll cut to the chase and many of the lists above contain sound ship and provide a good amount of "why' to use them.

Tier 8 ( that I play "first" and most at each tier....)

Odin        Irian       Akizuki

Tier 7

Scharnhorst(s)        Weimar        Akatzuki

Tier 6

Mutsu        Nurnberg        Fabuki

[tfcas119]

Well since my post here I've gotten Tone and Anhalt so after playing them I'll rank them and see how my brief thoughts line up.

Tone: What'd I say about Tone? Other than not being sure where to put it.

On 12/28/2023 at 1:33 PM, tfcas119 said:

Tone: Atago reload with one less turret, but torpedo planes. Relying on one would feel like suffering, using both effectively could make her really good.

I'd put it straddling between really good and Hard Mode. Her guns are decent in accuracy and punch, but 8 with 16sec reload, you're not killing anything fast. Torps are two triples per side (IJN cruisers are normally 2 quads at this tier) with Japanese firing angles. Useable, but not as good. As for the planes, 3 minutes is quite a while to wait, but you drop 8 torps. The downside to these torps is they only hit for around 3k and they drop fanning outwards, making it near impossible to land all 8 (best I've done was 5, and that was cheesing a drop to hit two transports in Killer Whale.) Its not the worst premium to bring, but I probably won't be playing it much.

Anhalt: I don't think I was holding back a lot talking about her.

On 12/28/2023 at 1:33 PM, tfcas119 said:

Anhalt:  Take everything that makes German BBs good in ops, remove them, and make it go 25knts.

No I was not.

Honestly, I kind of stand by this, but she's still better than I thought. AP is workable, HE is fine, torps can do something and the secondaries are just good enough to work (but still look bad compared to Atlantico) I'm not sure if this because having main guns and secondaries that are barely a step above complete garbage can still work in ops or if Anhalt's gunnery is far better than it appears (thinking the former.) I'm moving her to Really Good, at least until I end up with either Tirpitz or Brandenburg.

[Kruzenstern]

18 hours ago, tfcas119 said:

I'd put it straddling between really good and Hard Mode. Her guns are decent in accuracy and punch, but 8 with 16sec reload, you're not killing anything fast. Torps are two triples per side (IJN cruisers are normally 2 quads at this tier) with Japanese firing angles. Useable, but not as good. As for the planes, 3 minutes is quite a while to wait, but you drop 8 torps. The downside to these torps is they only hit for around 3k and they drop fanning outwards, making it near impossible to land all 8 (best I've done was 5, and that was cheesing a drop to hit two transports in Killer Whale.) Its not the worst premium to bring, but I probably won't be playing it much.

I kinda enyjoy playing Tone, and for me its main selling points besides it being historical are:

The main gun dispersion, which seems almost Tallinnesque, despite having no different values than Atago, which might be due to the turrets being so close together. Makes it very powerful in the hands of players with good aim. Hurts it in the hands of Spaceball 1 gunners.

And the torpedo reload. 68 secs (with skills) for 12 torps @ almost 20K damage each is a really nice number . Regrettably with the Mogami angles, but it is still quite potent. Paired with 8.8km concealment stealth dropping is reasonably convenient.

Edited February 5 by Kruzenstern