Castilla

[Frostbow]

The first Tier X Spanish cruiser in the game, Castilla, has been a fun-to-play ship so far. It can reach high speeds, has decent concealment, flat ballistics, and has a funny button that allows a quick 2-salvo burst fire from her 254mm main battery guns. 

And it also has this funny armor—one that can be easily overmatched, that is. Unlike other heavy cruisers at Tier X, I find Castilla's armor to be particularly soft. The value, or the threat, depending on which team this latest tech tree Tier X cruiser belongs to, is reasonably balanced by its main battery firing range, the puny range of its Depth Charge Airstrike, and most crucially, its armor.

In the right moment, with RNG's blessing of course, this ship can put the fear of God in destroyers brave enough to come within detection range, or cruisers courageous enough to show their slender sides. 

These were two Random Battles I had with the ship. It was such a nice experience having competent destroyers in one's team, particularly in my case where I play 99.99% of the time solo. I try to support our destroyers as much as possible, but the presence of battleship guns gives me a bit of pause. You can see in the video how that transpired—Castilla is so unlike the Napoli that can tank relatively well for a cruiser.

I do not have enough PVP experience yet with the Castilla to make a more firm opinion, due to the need to finish getting all the Anniversary Rewards done first. However, I can say the burst fire gimmick has been 'gimmicky' enough for me that when I saw what was being sold in the Armory (Karl XIV, ARP Yamato, and now Scarlet Thunder), literally none of them got my attention. (Thanks WG, your decision to put the burst fire mechanic in Castilla saved me from making purchases. LOL)

I played one Random Battle yesterday; it went well, although it was not enough to bring my Castilla to 1st place on the team scoreboard. I have to do more to come out first.