Wichita rental

[o4x4]

Opt-in required, 3 days or 5 battles only:

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/community/sea-trials-wichita-2024/

https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/community/sea-trials-wichita-2024/

https://worldofwarships.asia/en/news/community/sea-trials-wichita-2024/

[Wulf_Ace]

3 hours ago, o4x4 said:

Opt-in required, 3 days or 5 battles only:

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/community/sea-trials-wichita-2024/

https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/community/sea-trials-wichita-2024/

https://worldofwarships.asia/en/news/community/sea-trials-wichita-2024/

that is a nice find, got her a few days ago, its defnitly wortha get and play! especially for all the des moines lovers out there

[Ensign Cthulhu]

I may as well give her a go, even though I'm awash with US premium heavy cruisers. Button pushed!

[UnrepentantSinner]

Nice, for once this is not NA only.

[Wolfswetpaws]

I didn't see this topic in "Game News", so I created a topic.

Perhaps the topics can be merged (and properly categorized in our DevStrike Forum card-catalog?) @HogHammer ?  🙂 
 

 

[WES_HoundDog]

Thanks.

Took her for a spin or 5.   First 3 were a disaster.   4th was a very good game where i was the catalyst for the win. The fifth was a blow out.  Clobbered a dd and was about to rofl stomp a sub and finish off the dd but the game ended. 

     It's a shame the shells feel weaker than the pensacola at tier 6 which has better armor for it's tier.  Although at first glance, the fire chance doesn't look like anything great, the shells were money for setting fires.     And  radar did make the magic happen in the 4th game with catching 2 dd's which otherwise could have cost us the game.

     It makes me want to roll out the rochester.   But with no radar, all 5 games woulda been pretty crap.

Edited October 17 by WES_HoundDog

[SkullCowboy]

She was one of my 1st US premiums, got her in a crate of some sort. Good ship.

[Wolfswetpaws]

Sailed my rented Wichita in 5 battles, 4 Co-op and 1 random.

In Co-op, the Wichita was okay. 
~Her rudder-shift potential was fun and the hull was reasonably nimble.
~The 8-inch US Navy guns were giving typical performance, with slower-than-average muzzle velocity (compared to some other nation's 200mm guns).
On the whole, this model of gun feels underwhelming, for me, a bit too often for my taste.
But, they did provide reasonably tight shot-grouping after installing Aiming Systems Mod-1.
~ The armor is "Cruiser armor", which isn't a lot of protection and as a "heavy" cruiser, the armor is a bit less likely to be over-penetrated.
~ The lack of torpedo armarment limits her play-style options. 
So, I chose DFAA (instead of the Hydro-Acoustic-Search consumable) and Radar (instead of spotter plane).
Her AA worked decently in Co-op, versus 'Bot planes.

In my one random battle with her, I felt that I was unable to utilze the ship's full potential.
Partly, it may be due to how the battle played-out.  Partly it may be because she is unable to do a lot of damage quickly, but is more than able to take damage from battleship guns quickly (and get sunk).
For what it is worth, I wasn't playing too aggressively.  At least, I don't feel that I did.

  


Bottom line?
The Wichita is a typical US Navy H.E.-spamming Cruiser equipped with a versatile suite of consumable options.
If she's ignored by the red-team, she can contribute accurate firepower to hit Destroyers and cause damage-over-time to other ships.
If she's focused, then one can expect the hull's HP to dwindle and not have a Repair Party available to help keep her afloat.
Sailing her as a rental ship has validated my long-standing choice to not purchase the Wichita, because of my personal preferences as a player.

See you around, Wichita.

 

Edited October 18 by Wolfswetpaws

[aleksi111]

Quite a few players just got Rochester, so IDK about the decision to appetizer-rent out of Wichita being the best idea

Something else, like maybe Atago/Pyotor Bagration/Belfast '43 might been what I'd rented out as a teaser if I was WG

[Ensign Cthulhu]

Five co-op battles for the benefit of the Leyte Gulf missions. She feels like a premium Baltimore with a different secondary armament. Maybe a tiny bit more agile? 

I didn't put modules on her since it was only five co-op battles, and even so she felt pretty good. 

As a co-op player, I'm not sure I would buy her - Salem can be had for coal, and is everything Wichita is and more in that setting. If you absolutely must have a US premium heavy cruiser specifically at Tier 8 for whatever reason, I think she's OK. If she drops out of a crate for you, you have a pretty decent ship. 

Historically, she was considered as the first candidate for conversion to a guided missile ship.¹ However, there were Baltimore-class hulls which were larger and better-suited overall, and less (or not) worn out by war service, so Boston and Canberra got the gig instead (the latter being named to honour the Australian cruiser lost in early Pacific operations with the US Navy, in case you were wondering why "USS Canberra" is a thing).

@aleksi111, you have a point, but Rochester is a smoke cruiser and may not satisfy the desires of those who want or need a radar ship. The two complement each other in a fleet; and in addition, offering Wichita as try-before-you-buy is good marketing sense when pitched at players whose fleets were too small to get Rochester for free. 

 

 

1. US Naval Weapons, Norman Friedman, US Naval Institute Press 1982.

Edited October 18 by Ensign Cthulhu

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 hour ago, aleksi111 said:

Quite a few players just got Rochester, so IDK about the decision to appetizer-rent out of Wichita being the best idea

Something else, like maybe Atago/Pyotor Bagration/Belfast '43 might been what I'd rented out as a teaser if I was WG

I wonder if one or more persons at WOWs were trying to boost the Wichita's play statistics?

[WOWs] "Here!  Have a free rental ship!"
[Player(s)]  "Oooh.  Shiny!  Gee.  Thanks."  ::: smile :::
[WOWs people responsible for Wichita]  "Phew.  After this month we can say our ship with slow sales-revenues is more popular with players.  Yay!"

Or is it just me over-imagining the situation?  🤔 

 

[Wolfswetpaws]

2 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Five co-op battles for the benefit of the Leyte Gulf missions. She feels like a premium Baltimore with a different secondary armament. Maybe a tiny bit more agile? 

I didn't put modules on her since it was only five co-op battles, and even so she felt pretty good. 

As a co-op player, I'm not sure I would buy her - Salem can be had for coal, and is everything Wichita is and more in that setting. If you absolutely must have a US premium heavy cruiser specifically at Tier 8 for whatever reason, I think she's OK. If she drops out of a crate for you, you have a pretty decent ship. 

Historically, she was considered as the first candidate for conversion to a guided missile ship.¹ However, there were Baltimore-class hulls which were larger and better-suited overall, and less (or not) worn out by war service, so Boston and Canberra got the gig instead (the latter being named to honour the Australian cruiser lost in early Pacific operations with the US Navy, in case you were wondering why "USS Canberra" is a thing).

 

1. US Naval Weapons, Norman Friedman, US Naval Institute Press 1982.

While I'm not intimately familiar with high-tier US Navy Cruisers, in-game, I think the Wichita's maneuvering capability is her "trick up the sleeve".

She has a 6 second rudder-shift when "stock" and no modules have been equipped.
A player can add rudder-shift modules to improve upon that time, or they can choose a propulsion improvement (50% faster acceleration/deceleration).
With the propulsion improvement and her stock rudder, I can imagine players "just dodging" salvos from long-range fire via course & speed changes.
The trade-off would be the exclusion of a concealment improvement module.  But, choices are choices. 
One or two rudder-shift improvements, or one rudder-shift plus one propulsion improvement, or concealment improvement and the player's preference for the remaining module slot in-question.

Her hydro and radar could be a nightmare for opposing DD's.
But her armor scheme means that heavy cruisers and battleships are a nightmare for the Wichita.  
It would be a brief nightmare, though, because after a couple of BB salvos, she would wake-up to find herself back in port.  😉 
 

[Ensign Cthulhu]

1 minute ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

With the propulsion improvement and her stock rudder, I can imagine players "just dodging" salvos from long-range fire via course & speed changes.
The trade-off would be the exclusion of a concealment improvement module.

Stock rudder and propulsion mod in slot 4 would not remove the concealment option, which is in slot 5.

Double rudder or propulsion plus rudder would do so, however, and that's a choice I made when I pulled Atago from a Santa crate after already having the Atago B. One of them has the concealment module; the other is set up for full agility. I wonder if we will be offered Wichita B at some stage. 

[Wolfswetpaws]

21 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Stock rudder and propulsion mod in slot 4 would not remove the concealment option, which is in slot 5.

Double rudder or propulsion plus rudder would do so, however, and that's a choice I made when I pulled Atago from a Santa crate after already having the Atago B. One of them has the concealment module; the other is set up for full agility. I wonder if we will be offered Wichita B at some stage. 

Correct.  Thanks for providing added clarity.  I wasn't using references to help my memory.
The survival-build option would be to take the module that helps damage control to stop fires and floods 15% more quickly, I suppose.

Good question (about Wichita-B).  I think they've already announced the 2024 Black Friday event ships, though.
I don't remember Wichita-B among them?
 

[WES_HoundDog]

11 hours ago, aleksi111 said:

Quite a few players just got Rochester, so IDK about the decision to appetizer-rent out of Wichita being the best idea

Something else, like maybe Atago/Pyotor Bagration/Belfast '43 might been what I'd rented out as a teaser if I was WG

Looking at the history of sea trials, it's always been a US ship.....  here in the US market

[OldSchoolGaming_Youtube]

Seriously WG is missing out of so much business opportunities all the time. Imagine you being able to rent any Premium ship like this for doubloons! Imagine being able to rent a Benham for 4 days for some doubloons?

Seriously they dont want to make money! 

[Wolfswetpaws]

21 minutes ago, OldSchoolGaming_Youtube said:

Seriously WG is missing out of so much business opportunities all the time. Imagine you being able to rent any Premium ship like this for doubloons! Imagine being able to rent a Benham for 4 days for some doubloons?

Seriously they dont want to make money! 

 Would be nice to have a "try before you buy" option available. 🙂 

Real life already offering similar service.    🙂 
https://www.boatsetter.com/

[WES_HoundDog]

58 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

 Would be nice to have a "try before you buy" option available. 🙂 

Real life already offering similar service.    🙂 
https://www.boatsetter.com/

the problem is so many people buy a ship.  Realize it sucks and don't play it more than a couple battles.

WeeGeee makes lots of money off the people that buy to try.

Edited October 19 by WES_HoundDog

[OldSchoolGaming_Youtube]

1 hour ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

 Would be nice to have a "try before you buy" option available. 🙂 

Real life already offering similar service.    🙂 
https://www.boatsetter.com/

Or even since WG employs their BS "We create BS OP/Unbalanced ships and then hide them on a permaban BS list" tactic. Let players rent some ships, like Småland, Benham etc for dabloons. Players would like to play this game again and WG makes money. But they are really just to clueless even for that.

[aleksi111]

8 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

"try before you buy"

An feature that I really liked War Thunder for, back when I played it.

 

It should not be beyond WGs means to create an "tested ships" lists that updates -like they already track our accounts.

Pay set amount of Coal/Silver/FXP to test a ship for 5 or so games, or 3 days. After which you need to re-rent it again, at steeply higher cost.

For WG, there could be extra limitations there like fixed amount of rents an account can have every ?6? months to limit the supply but allow people to test ships.

 

They could treat this as additional method of siphoning "exess" resources from players without making it feel scummy all the while generating interest in ships people aren't sure about.

Edited October 19 by aleksi111
Addendum

[Bai7200]

1 hour ago, aleksi111 said:

without making it feel scummy

Its WG we are dealing with, they will do everything needed to make feel scummy.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

14 hours ago, WES_HoundDog said:

Looking at the history of sea trials, it's always been a US ship.....  here in the US market

I have had, and made use of, at least one opportunity (and maybe two, IIRC) to rent Kaga. So...um... no. 

12 hours ago, WES_HoundDog said:

the problem is so many people buy a ship.  Realize it sucks and don't play it more than a couple battles.

The problem is so many people fail to do their due diligence before buying. Youtube and Twitch are full of streamers and content creators, both pro- and anti-WG, to give various opinions on a ship.

1) There should be no excuse for buying a stinker, unless you're a collector and simply don't care about the performance because you're buying it just to have it. 

2) Some people do very badly in ships that others do well in (and vice versa). Sometimes that's just the way things go. There are one or two ships that I've told myself might not have been the best choice, but I had my reasons at the time and the ultimate responsibility lies with me.

[mashed68]

I wish they'd do like PQ suggested and let everyone rent a ship per month of their choosing. More then a couple premiums I would be willing to try that I otherwise will ignore as spending doubloons isn't something I take lightly. 

[WES_HoundDog]

10 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

I have had, and made use of, at least one opportunity (and maybe two, IIRC) to rent Kaga. So...um... no. 

I don't know, i looks back as far as i could through the news artical section that includes the Sea trials and every one i saw was a US ship.

   They did once upon a time give trials out of ships just to give trials out of ships that wern't sea trials.  But you know, it doesn't really matter.

Edited October 19 by WES_HoundDog

[Wolfswetpaws]

13 hours ago, WES_HoundDog said:

I don't know, i looks back as far as i could through the news artical section that includes the Sea trials and every one i saw was a US ship.

   They did once upon a time give trials out of ships just to give trials out of ships that wern't sea trials.  But you know, it doesn't really matter.

I think my first "rental" was the Yamato.  (I remember experiencing "sticker shock" at the price of her service-costs.  I had to play multiple battles with other ships to afford one battle with the Yamato.  I was a newer player with fewer ships and a smaller treasury, at that time.  She was fun to sail, though.)
Later, I had the Kaga as a rental.
If my memory serves me, they were for 24 hours, instead of 5 battles or two days (whichever comes first).
Granted, this was years ago.  

Since then, there have been a few other rentals.