Looking for german cruiser tips

[eMercody]

I’m on the Yorck, but I’m still playing it like a Nürnberg by kiting everywhere. It’s netting me some success especially against the bigger fish. It’s constantly described as a radical change so I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not being as efficient as I could be and it could become bad news as I advance up the line.

[Howard Roark]

I'm no expert on the German line, but I did finish the Yorck grind a few weeks ago. It is a radical change as you go from a light cruiser to a heavy(ish) cruiser. I too struggled with it and looked up some tips. What I constantly saw repeated was that the Yorck doesn't play like normal German cruisers (before or after), it has good AP (like all higher tier German cruisers), but terrible AP arcs. People recomened that you play the Yorck as a mid-long range (about 12-15 km) HE spammer. If you get below 8 km your AP arcs are good enough to destroy cruisers and even hurt BBs. Plus you have decent torps with good angles. However, from 8-12 km the Yorck really suffers. So it's best to play the Yorck as a second line support ship raining HE down on BBs and some CAs. It can in some instances make a decent ambush ship, but it's turret rotation is bad enough it make it dangerous to go where DDs may be lurking.

Also, the Yorck has quite good turret armor and it can front tank suprisingly well. That said, it's a cruiser so don't expect too much out of it.

I found the ship meh and ground through most of it in the tier 7 Op, where I found it did quite well (much better than the Myoko). Of course, once you get through the Yorck you have to contend with the Hipper, which so far gets my vote as the worst ship in the German cruiser line (the ship itself is okay, the problem is the MM).

[Banzai]

Pretty mobile and some armour. I find its really hard for enemy to kill you if you mostly keep your ass pointed at them (with some wiggling). Is possible to get BB levels of potential dmg taken as long as you NEVER show your side :)