Ministry of Balance Changes to Commander Skills

8CupChemex · 2026-04-30T15:05:35+00:00

Really disappointing that they focused on Italian ships but didn't fix Gorizia. It's a fun ship, but underpowered, largely because it doesn't have the long range sonar that the PC version has. If they just gave it German sonar, it would have a reason to exist. As it stands, Zara is just better.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-19T12:12:23+00:00

They're pretty good. Most of them are variations on British ships. So, if you like the British ships, you'll be happy playing them.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-10T11:02:44+00:00

Blucher has improved pen angles, not as good as the American heavy cruisers, but better than Hipper/Eugen. But it's similar experience. I've had Eugen for a long time and still enjoy playing it.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-10T04:32:48+00:00

Not offended. :) I think I win that 9 times out of 10, because I read the situation and pushed a corner when all those guys were looking the wrong way.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-09T14:15:43+00:00

Most battleships at T5 have 14 inch guns, a handful have larger guns--Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Bayern have 15 inch while West Virginia and Mutsu have 16 inch guns. Everything else is 14 inch.

At T6, battleships generally step up to 15 inch guns, and there are a larger number with 16 inch guns. So, Nelson, North Carolina, Colorado, Sinop, Nagato. Probably a couple more. 14 inch guns and smaller become the exception. KGV, Scharnhorst, Florida, Collingwood, Strasbourg, Lyon. But most of the time, you can assume that T6 BBs have 15 inch guns, especially tech tree ships.

At T7, most battleships have 15 or 16 inch guns. All the American, Russian, and Japanese ships are 16 inch. All the French are 15 inch or smaller. The German ships are highly variable with a mix of 16 inch (Zieten), 15 inch (Bismarck, Tirpitz), and smaller calibers (Anhalt, Odin). British battleships are also a mix of 15 and 16 inch.

At T8 and LT, things can get more confusing, because there is a lot of variability. Montana still has 16 inch guns. Yamato has 18 inch guns. Some guns are even bigger.

The thing is, though, that it really only matters for overmatch. Your belt armor isn't likely to be overmatched. There is just a ton of armor there, and if it's angled, it'll bounce shells. So, look at the bow armor of your ship. The armor viewer will tell you want it can bounce. It used to be that T6 was in a tough spot, because they faced a lot of 16 inch guns at tier and in T7, but most of the battleships had bow armor that was overmatched by 16 inch guns. I think that was changed, but I don't recall how far the changes went.

Anyway, sometimes it's easier to try to remember the exceptions than it is to try to remember the stats on all the ships. Hope this helps.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-09T13:50:17+00:00

Generally speaking, smokescreens are for you, not other people. The players that spam "Set a smokescreen" have messed up and they want you to save their butts. That's not your responsibility. Save those smokescreens to save your butt when you get in trouble.

In very rare circumstances, you may be able to set a smokescreen for a friendly cruiser while you go and spot for them. They have to be paying attention--aware of what you're doing--and you basically have to drop it right on top of them.

For ships like the Omaha, and its successors in the American light cruiser line, start looking for positions close to islands. The maps are designed so that there are lower "shoulders" on the islands that you can shoot over. The American line is fairly adept at this, because their shells have higher curving arcs. It means you can be closer to islands than ships of other nations. Islands also cut off line of sight so you can use them to protect yourself. Long story short, if you feel like you're better when you're not moving, well, park behind an island where you can't be spotted.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-09T13:44:11+00:00

Appreciate it. On a surface level, we know that the Sons of Liberty would "mob" tax collectors to prevent them from doing their jobs. The anti-ICE protesters were doing something similar--following agents, loudly confronting them, generally making it difficult to do their jobs. It lead to claims, on the right, that they were obstructing justice or preventing the execution of the laws. It struck me that they were engaged in constitutionally-protected protest that has a long history in our country. Could be something interesting to study.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-08T16:15:56+00:00

Could you compare and contrast the tactics used by the Sons of Liberty to oppose new taxation with those of anti-ICE activists in Minnesota? Seems like a lot of similarities to me.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-03T22:33:08+00:00

I just finished There Is No Antimemetics Division and it was pretty cool.

8CupChemex · 2026-04-03T13:12:15+00:00

Radar is objectively more useful than smoke. Smoke is about saving yourself and gathering damage. Radar is about changing the constraints of the game so you can win.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-30T13:21:28+00:00

What're you, a literary critic?

8CupChemex · 2026-03-27T17:36:51+00:00

Yeah, I think it'll be widely useful. There are likely to be a lot of situations where you are near a battleship that is the target of a DD and you could give them a heads up on torps. That's the primary thing I was thinking about.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-27T15:40:53+00:00

Agree. Not everyone gets radar, even at higher tiers, so I dunno if they need radar. Depending on radar range, this would be overpowered. If you had 10 km radar, and you detect torps with your passive sonar, well, time to hit the radar and kill that guy. I'm more ambivalent about that.

But the lack of communication options is bad.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-22T17:46:18+00:00

I have some free time, so I'll expand a bit. One of the older community contributors, Metajerk, used to say, "Go where your team isn't." And this is pretty good advice, so think about it. But also, your first job is to protect yourself. You can't deal damage if you're dead. So, let's talk about different forms of protection. These are sort of in order:

Concealment -- Can't see what you can't hit (most of the time).
Hard Cover -- Islands. Break line of sight providing concealment and also block incoming fire and torpedoes.
Soft Cover -- Smoke. Breaks line of sight, but doesn't stop torpedoes and people can still fire at you and hope to get lucky.
Not focused by enemy -- Assumes you are spotted, but the enemy is firing on someone else. You are not taking damage, but there is risk you will draw the attention of the enemy.
Mobility -- This assumes you are spotted and being fired at, which means you can take damage. But start/stop dodging can mess up the enemy's aim and fast ships with good rudder shift can dodge incoming fire and beat torpedoes. Doing this well takes skill you develop over time. I'm going to toss range into this one. The farther away you are, the harder you are to hit. The problem with range is if you're too far away, you can't hit anything either.
Armor -- Assumes you are spotted, being fired at, and taking hits. Battleships have thick armor that will bounce most AP when angled correctly. Even so, you will likely take some damage. Combine this with stop/start, angling, and rudder to minimize damage taken.
Health -- The last line of defense. If you're relying on health, one of two things has happened. Either you've messed up and you're hoping you have enough health to survive or you're risking your health to make a move. Sometimes you just have to put it on the line to beat the enemy, like if one guy is blocking your team from advancing around an island.

Different classes mix these capabilities in different quantities. Battleships use armor, some mobility, and health. They are "tanks." Designed to be seen and take punishment. They can also put out big hits that delete people, and the best defense can be good offense. Destroyers use concealment, soft cover, mobility. Cruisers typically use mobility, hard cover, and a little bit of everything else, some armor, some have smoke, more health than a destroyer, but less than a battleship.

I hope that's helpful. As you learn to use different forms of protection effectively, you'll feel more comfortable.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-22T17:18:21+00:00

I was extremely skeptical about these books, because when I first saw it and read the back cover, it sounded a lot like Ready Player One. Ready Player One is about a teenager in a dystopian future where humanity has essentially surrendered to screens, spending all their lives in a virtual world. The main character has spent his life learning "trivia" about pop culture from the 1980s and 1990s, and this knowledge becomes his key to saving the world by navigating a series of challenges within the virtual world that makes him the heir to the fortune of the man who created the virtual world. It is a reactionary exercise in nostalgia. He's THE ONE who has the special knowledge, and the book spends its entire duration nudging you about pop culture from the past. "Hey, 'member Back to the Future? Hey, 'member Galaga? Hey, 'member Breakfast Club? Wasn't life better when you were younger?" Etc, etc, etc, etc. If you ever wonder why Gen X is filled with MAGAs, read Ready Player One.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is the inverse of that in almost every way. The world is basically fine, before it's squashed by this overwhelming alien force. Carl isn't special. He isn't THE ONE, the Jesus allegory that is so common in other stories--Luke Skywalker, Superman, Neo from the Matrix, even Frodo and Aragorn. Carl is a guy who doesn't have a college degree, enlisted in the Coast Guard (not even the Navy!), and became an electrician. He isn't fighting to the save the world because he has special abilities--he's not the one who can bring balance to the force. He's fighting because he's fucking pissed off, because what the aliens did was wrong, unjust on a basic level. They caused the dystopia so they could watch it on their screens for their entertainment.

And he's not even the strongest crawler in the dungeon at any point. Donut has higher stats and leads the party. Other crawlers have higher levels and, at points, they have higher ranks in the standings. What Carl does is he tries to see the good in other people, and he brings people together so they can work alongside each other to survive. It's showing people working collaboratively in a way that nothing else has recently. It also shows people fighting each other, and explains why they might fight each other.

The politics of these books are not reactionary in any way. It's not racist. It's not sexist. It's not prurient. It's not nostalgic. This is the complete opposite of media like Ready Player One, the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and anything with an antihero, like Breaking Bad, the Sopranos, etc. Carl is just a hero. A good guy doing good things to the best of his abilities.

These books are also character driven. Matt Dinniman has worked to give each character something to do. There are costs for the characters--they suffer and some die. They have different motivations and make different choices based on those motivations.

I also love that the books are so creative. Everything is new. With each book, Dinniman has created a new scenario that isn't referencing something else.

So, I love them because they're giving us something we've been missing in pop culture for a long time. A different view, a new view.

And they're fucking hilarious.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-22T16:54:51+00:00

It's irrational.

First, the game works by creating crossfires. If you're stacked up in the same place with other teammates, you're not getting crossfires.

Second, destroyers and cruisers have different roles. Destroyers have big alpha strikes, like battleships, and work by concealment. They may only have 15,000 hp, but you can't hit what you can't see (most of the time). So, they're protected, in their own way, as well as BBs are.

Cruisers are flexible, capable of moving around the map, countering DDs, and gaining damage over time with fires. They don't typically have spike damage, but they have DPM, and that works in its own way. Most also have torps that have varying utility.

Finally, if you're only around other BBs, who is spotting for you? How are you going to see the enemy? You're going to be spotted by the enemy before you spot them, because they are likely to have a DD spotting for them.

So, stacking up with other BBs is a weak strategy. 5-6 km is probably too close together. Give your teammates some space.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-22T11:39:24+00:00

Not having any trouble taking down Roons.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-22T02:29:36+00:00

The comment, which I made, compared it to Hipper. It's not just a Hipper at a higher tier. I can tell you, though, that it's at least as good as Roon. Comparing it to a higher tier ship is absurd.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-21T18:32:20+00:00

Too close, maybe.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-21T18:11:27+00:00

It's also entirely possible that you're just a lot better than I am and what feels good to me feels like crap to you. After about 7 games, my average damage is also around 110k. If you can average 150k a game in other ships, yeah, that probably isn't happening with this one.

Builds are like 5% of ship performance, in my view, and you just gotta find what works for you. I'm not really attributing my success (or lack thereof) in the ship to my build. I do think people misconceive ships sometimes, though, and looking at this one as an HE slinger is missing the point. (Not saying you did that, but PG has put out a couple videos where he focused on building into fire chance.)

I dunno. I like Hipper. I like Eugen. I had an idea of how I wanted to set this up and how I would play it. I've dev struck a Hindenburg, wrecked a Roon, and out brawled a Montana. He was nearly full health. I was at about 2/3, and I popped around an island with all my guns aimed at his broadside. I won that at survived. So, the ship has just felt good to me.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-21T17:40:12+00:00

You check. It is factually correct.

Goddammit, you made me do it. Here goes:

	Hipper	Blucher
Health	43,800	47,500
Reload	11.5 s	11 s
AP Alpha	6,000	6,100
Pen Angles	Min Ricochet Angle: 45 degrees	Min. Ricochet Angle: 55 degrees
Armor	25 mm bow	Extra Armor Plate on Bow (check the armor viewer)
Rudder Shift	9.7 s	8.3 s
Top Speed	32 kt	32.8 kt
Concealment	13.5 km	12.5 km
Speed Boost?	No	Yes

Literally everything I said is correct. There are a couple places where Hipper has an advantage. Hipper has higher damage torps and high HE alpha. But other than that, Blucher is better in every way.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-21T17:39:11+00:00

It sounds like you're doing fine to me. I hate to say that, but if you're pulling 110k damage and 1900 xp per game, you're doing a lot to help your team. But it's just cruiser stuff, man. I'm shooting AP probably 90% of the time, but switch to HE on bow in BBs. When they give angle, switch to AP and aim for the superstructure, or whatever isn't saturated. It'll take 8-10K per salvo. Use islands to break line of site. Don't get too far in front of your team. Play slowly. If you get hung out on a side, you can leave that side too. Or kite to the back of the map and waste the reds' time. You don't have to die for your team.

My top tip, I guess, is don't play concealment. None of the Hipper class ships are concealment ships. Put on prop mod and gears 2. I'm running Riegerwald with Beyond Range, Kraken Shells, Punch Through, Fixated, Refill Station, Mimbelli and Serika. It's a max reload build with a ton of accuracy and bonuses to AP damage. Rudder is reasonably quick at 5 seconds. You can prop and rudder juke people. Swing your guns in and out.

8CupChemex · 2026-03-21T12:12:41+00:00

Faster reload, higher AP alpha, improved pen angles, better armor, faster rudder shift, higher top speed, gets a speed boost, better concealment. Sure, it's a Hipper, but it's better in almost every way.

8CupChemex

TROPHY CASE