Italia captains - which ships should I grind?

[ShasoDan]

I have two italian santas in my camptains quarters and would like to start to grind an italian line.

With focus on the tier V and VI ships, which line would you recommend: battleships, cruisers or destroyers?

Thank you!

 

Edited January 9 by ShasoDan

[thornzero]

The DDs are a bit difficult. Very short gun range in the mid tier - enough for me to not even. Maybe BB; probably not croozer. But I have other line priorities so Italy is low on my list. 

If you decide not to at all, you can transform these skippers into CEXP. Sometimes I do that with extra bonus captains.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

For the nonspecialist captains without particular skills, it doesn't really matter.

It's been a long time since I played the Cavour (T5 BB) and she's had a couple of significant rate of fire buffs since then, but I always thought the Andrea Doria was a pretty good ship (I have a Kraken in her with a six point captain!!). The cruisers are also quite OK.

The destroyers can be quite difficult. They are weird, have a very different playstyle to just about everything else, and IMHO are only recommended if you're a skilled DD player. Do those last.

[Aethervox]

6 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

the Andrea Doria

It appears to like me, as well. I would recommend it, OP.

[mashed68]

Cruisers aren't bad at low tiers, and the BB's are actually decent. 

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 hour ago, ShasoDan said:

I have two italian santas in my camptains quarters and would like to start to grind an italian line.

With focus on the tier V and VI ships, which line would you recommend: battleships, cruisers or destroyers?

Thank you!

 

I'm fond of pushing Italian ships to their maneuvering limits.  I like to pretend I'm driving a rented Ferrari that was stolen from the guy who rented it.  🙂 

Many Italian ships offer speed and agility.
They may not have the strongest armaments, and often don't have detection consumables.  
But, several Italian ships do offer smokescreens.
And some of their Battleships have decent armor.

Also, part of what I enjoy is the "challenge accepted" aspects of getting Italian ships to perform at their best.
They have "Italian Flavor" and often have some vices and quirks which add to the difficulty of playing to their virtues.
A person may need to rely upon their experience and intuition to handle certain situations, in-game.

I'd suggest Italian Cruisers as a first foray into the Italian tech-tree. 
Then branch-out as you desire, later.

Remember that part of "Italian Cruiser Armor" is their ability to maneuver.  Don't forget to "just dodge" incoming ordnance.
These ships offer lively game-play, but such a play-style demands situational awareness and multi-tasking your weapons and hull maneuvering.  🙂 
 

[torino2dc]

-Italian Battleships are fairly good at mid tier provided you know how to angle and fire mostly AP. 

-Italian Cruisers are really fun at mid tiers, but some game knowledge -- especially positioning, long range aiming, and ammo choice -- helps a lot. 

- Italian DDs are great up to T5, they are little yolo boats with punchy short range guns. The T6 got obliterated in a balance patch last year. T7 and up are decent but require even more knowledge of positioning and matchups. 

[MidnightPhoenix07]

I'd recommend the cruisers first as your first entry into Italian ships and SAP shells. They have a longer reload than most other cruisers, but they're still similar enough that you're not trying to relearn everything. They also don't have the super high smoke firing penalties of the battleships so you can actually use your full speed smoke aggressively. Just remember that you can't set fires with your main guns but you rip apart any squishy ship that's not super angled. And then once they're dead or have run away, you can farm larger targets.

 

The battleships are still (imo) fairly inconsistent as a trade off for the large caliber SAP shells. They've had some buffs since release, and Colombo with the UU is pretty decent now (although you'll still get some shotgun salvos), but the lower tiers especially can still be frustrating to play. Once you get to Veneto and Lepanto they're a bit better, but they're still not ships I'd be super interested in playing again once I got to Colombo. Compared to other battleships, they're also fairly vulnerable to destroyers since both your main guns shells are capped at 10% damage and most of your secondaries can't pen destroyer plating at high tiers. You've got the same full speed smoke as other Italian tech trees, but you're a battleship with battleship smoke firing penalties. It's good to get into position undetected or to cover a retreat once your penalty's gone, but you can't use it aggressively like on the cruisers.

 

The destroyers are a lot more fun imo than many people give them credit for. They're definitely not easy to play without a lot of experience, and they're even more points hungry than most destroyer lines. But until you get to Tier IX and X they're pretty much the best in tier at their role -- killing enemy destroyers. They're not stealthy at all, so you need to be aware of where enemy destroyers are (Radio Location helps a lot here). And the short gun range is both a blessing and a curse. Once you kill the enemy destroyer, it's pretty likely you'll go dark immediately because nothing else is in your gun range to keep you spotted, but when you then have to farm larger ships you need to get a lot closer than you'd like.

The low and mid tiers are pretty oppressive against most ships if you know what you're doing, but at high tiers you're going to run into real gunboats that hard counter you plus radar and secondary ranges that exceed your gun range. Most destroyers are fine with a 10 point build, but the Italians need 14 to get the extra gun range and concealment. But don't extend it too far, because then you're a lot more likely to stay spotted after killing a destroyer. When you get to the point of farming cruisers and battleships, make sure to stay right at the edge of your gun range. That way you have some distance to dodge, and if you get focused you can just turn out and (hopefully) immediately go dark. 

[Nevermore135]

5 hours ago, ShasoDan said:

With focus on the tier V and VI ships, which line would you recommend: battleships, cruisers or destroyers?

Andrea Dorea at tier VI is, IMO, the highlight of the Italian BB line. Playing every ship after her was an exercise in managing disappointment and frustration. Someday I might spend the RP for Columbo’s UU and see if it lives up to the hype, but that entire grind gave me some low-key PTSD. 

Roma is fun though.

Edited January 9 by Nevermore135

[Arcus_Aesopi]

1 hour ago, Nevermore135 said:

Andrea Dorea at tier VI is, IMO, the highlight of the Italian BB line. Playing every ship after her was an exercise in managing disappointment and frustration. Someday I might spend the RP for Columbo’s UU and see if it lives up to the hype, but that entire grind gave me some low-key PTSD. 

Roma is fun though.

The Italian BB's are incredibly frustrating to play, unless you really enjoy rinsing off red boats... the number of perfect (all around the red) dispersion misses you'll manage on Italian BB's is unmatched in any other line.

I'm still grinding them, but it takes a lot to not just sell em...

The SAP secondary IT boats are more fun.... but one doesn't really play the secondaries...  Napoli is awesome.  DDs are something... the sap is nice but shooting rates are really really slow...

If you can't tell... the whole IT TT lines are the last I have to grind...

Good luck!  Roma, Napoli, Marco Polo (if that's the one with sap secondaries) are the premiums to grab if you want 'em.

[Wolfswetpaws]

39 minutes ago, Arcus_Aesopi said:

The Italian BB's are incredibly frustrating to play, unless you really enjoy rinsing off red boats... the number of perfect (all around the red) dispersion misses you'll manage on Italian BB's is unmatched in any other line.

Which is why I might sail closer to my targets, to improve my odds of hitting them.  🙂 



 

[Nevermore135]

13 hours ago, Arcus_Aesopi said:

Good luck!  Roma, Napoli, Marco Polo (if that's the one with sap secondaries) are the premiums to grab if you want 'em

Marco Polo (tier IX, coal) has 16” SAP and no exhaust smoke.

Giuseppe Verdi (tier IX, doubloons) and Sicilia (tier X, RP) have SAP secondaries and an improved exhaust smoke consumable.

Ruggiero di Lauria (tier X, steel) has 8 457mm guns with SAP, battlecruiser dispersion (but battleship plating), and 30s base reload. These parameters are all extreme departures from what is seen in the tech tree battleships, which naturally means her guns are actually really good. Her weird citadel shape is extremely unforgiving, though.

Roma trades Vittorio Veneto’s SAP and exhaust smoke for 4s better reload and an extra ~1.25km base concealment. The much older version without the tech tree gimmicks (and the tradeoffs) is IMO the better ship, which I’ve always found amusing. At least Veneto has gotten a few buffs so she isn’t as terrible as she was upon release.

Edited January 10 by Nevermore135

[ShasoDan]

Thank you for all the valuable contributions!

I will grind the cruisers and DD. If one of the lines is not to my liking I can sell the captains in return for XP when I reach tier V or VI.