New steel ships

[Prva_paroplavebná]

Hi all,

we have several new steel ships in the Armory. I accumulated 32k steel so I can pick one with coupon or one from Steel Fleet event, but which one? 

Have you someone bought one already? Do you have any recommendations? My favorites are Hoffman, Shinano, Prins van Orange and Svea.

Thanks.

[Itwastuesday]

Svea is excellent. Prins seems ok, Shinano maybe, Hoffman I'd skip as you can just play Z-52.

[OldSchoolGaming_Youtube]

Without knowing you're preference and not tested any of the ships I would say Svea. Svea seems pants on head strong, lika a Super-Ragnar with smoke and long distance ASW, pretty much stealth radar so you can crap on both DDs and Subs. DPM that will chase away most cruisers and BBs.

Also Swedish!

[Kynami]

Svea and Shinano both will be available later when you get more steel. Additionally Shinano will be cheaper in the future when you can apply the standard 25% off resource coupon to the purchase price. Svea is a squishy utility cruiser with some neat tricks. Its effectively a Ragnar with a citadel and has to be played conservatively in the early game. Good second string support to an allied DD, but absolutely has problems if 12km radars are around to allow the enemy team to punish it.

Prins van Oranje on the other hand is limited time to acquire before it goes back into Weegee's lockbox for a time. While having smaller guns that require slightly longer to reload than the Gouden Leeuw it is considerably more accurate with its main battery fire. Partly because its dispersion is better, and also because it has twelve gun barrels versus nine. Additionally it goes back to only having normal duration cruiser fires compared to how the Gouden Leeuw is stuck with 60 second fires. That the air strike is slightly trickier to use properly is one of the few cons of this side-grade of the Gouden Leeuw. So honestly, if you like the Dutch cruisers I'd highly suggest getting it while you can.

As for the Hoffman, unfortunately the several clan members that actually have gotten it only bothered playing it a few times. So I can't really give you a solid opinion on it. Just not enough games played against or with it. Probably because it has a lot of overlap with already available ships and is not notably stronger compared to them.

[Admiral_Karasu]

@Prva_paroplavebná Welcome aboard!

Nice to see you making the crossing from the official World of Warships EU forum over to DevStrike!

[OldSchoolGaming_Youtube]

A video about the Hoffman from a very capable player who first thought it was a pretty shitty Z-52 clone but then drastically re-valuated it.

 

• Easier to hit torps
• Elbing dispersion
• Increased HE Alpha, while retaining the penetration and fire chance
• AP pen of Shultz and Elbing except the improved pen angles.
• Can chase smoke cruisers like Jinan and Smolly out of there smokes and kill them.

Edited December 9, 2024 by OldSchoolGaming_Youtube

[mashed68]

They are all high tier ships so I won't be wasting steel on them, but of the choices I'd go with Prins van Orange. 

[tocqueville8]

7 minutes ago, mashed68 said:

They are all high tier ships so I won't be wasting steel on them, but of the choices I'd go with Prins van Orange. 

What else do you spend your steel on?

[tocqueville8]

1. Chikuma is historical, nice enough ('meh' guns and okay planes, but the smoke, torps and concealment are useful) and pretty cheap with the coupon. I got her from the crates, otherwise I would've seriously considered her.
2. Svea is a solid choice for mid-range gameplay. Very versatile, but also tricky to use.
3. G. Hoffmann and PvO have good reviews and are time-limited. If I were you though, I'd probably wait until after opening all my Santa crates, since there's always the chance of dropping either of them through one of those.
4. Personally I think I'll go for Shinano with the 15% coupon. She would be cheaper if I waited for the normal release and used the 25% discount, but that's going to be months from now: by then I'll probably be able to earn enough steel for a different purchase (Z-42, maybe?), so as not to let the 25% coupon go to waste on a coal ship.

Just my two cents.

Edited December 11, 2024 by tocqueville8

[Wulf_Ace]

14 hours ago, Itwastuesday said:

Svea is excellent. Prins seems ok, Shinano maybe, Hoffman I'd skip as you can just play Z-52.

How in the world is Hoffman similar to Z 52, if anything its copy paste Elbing

[mashed68]

2 hours ago, tocqueville8 said:

What else do you spend your steel on?

Coal stuff usually. 

[Itwastuesday]

8 hours ago, Wulf_Ace said:

How in the world is Hoffman similar to Z 52, if anything its copy paste Elbing

It's a bit of both looks like, just worse than either. 

It gets the smoke hydro thing of Z-52 and the bloaty hull of Schulz, but not the improved pen angles and not much of the goodness legmod Elbing gets. Now I don't have or plan to have Hoffmann, but I don't believe it should play like Elbing, because it's a worse at being Elbing. More like Z-52 then but... Z-52 should be much better at being Z-52.

Edited December 10, 2024 by Itwastuesday

[Rhamses05]

I got both Hoffman and Oranje from crates, and I personally think Oranje is fantastic. Probably my favorite boat right now. The guns are super consistent and when you land an airstrike volley it feels so satisfying. 
 

I haven’t played too many games in my Hoffman yet (I mostly play cruisers and BBs), but so far I cant seem to figure it out. Maybe I need to grind the Elbing line to learn the playstyle. 
 

As for Svea, I just picked that up for steel a couple days ago and have three games in her. She’s probably the best of your choices, she’s got insane utility and area denial capability. Maybe even a touch busted. But, Svea isnt going anywhere while Oranje and Hoffman will both be unavailable once the steel will event is over. I’d personally hold off and see if you get lucky and one of them drops in santa crates for you and then make your decision

[desmo_2]

13 hours ago, mashed68 said:

Coal stuff usually. 

*cringe*

Converting steel to coal causes misery in puppies and baby seals.  Humanitarian organizations around the world disapprove.

[mashed68]

1 hour ago, desmo_2 said:

*cringe*

Converting steel to coal causes misery in puppies and baby seals.  Humanitarian organizations around the world disapprove.

I used 10k once for the tier 10 bonus package and steel camo too! mwhahahahah

I'm not a high tier kinda guy, so steel ships aren't attractive to me. Unique captains and lower tier coal ships are things I do want, so here we are. 

[Prva_paroplavebná]

And how strong is Sveas radar? Is it 15 duration and 9km range? Little bit short.

Nobody fills wiki pages in these days... 🙁

 

[Nevermore135]

3 hours ago, Prva_paroplavebná said:

And how strong is Sveas radar? Is it 15 duration and 9km range? Little bit short.

Nobody fills wiki pages in these days... 🙁

 

https://app.wowssb.com/ship?shipIndexes=PWSC710

WOWs ShipBuilder has all of that information, and more.

Edited December 11, 2024 by Nevermore135

[22 cm]

On 12/10/2024 at 12:23 AM, tocqueville8 said:

1. G. Hoffmann and PvO have good reviews and are time-limited.

This info comes from?

[tocqueville8]

3 hours ago, 22 cm said:

This info comes from?

https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/sales-and-events/steel-fleet-update-in-13-11/:

Quote

*X Archerfish and X Shinano will become permanently available in the Armory after the event ends.

meaning the others won't. You have 47 days to get them, then WG only knows when they'll come back.