Hampshire (and the other T8 UK cruisers)

[Dee-Jay]

Seeing as Hampshire has appeared in an event for a reduced fee (once you've probably spent 15k doubloons), I thought now would be a good time to talk about WG's questionable array of UK tier 8 CL's and CA's.

A pretty sorry bunch which seem to peak with the niche/cult appeal of Tiger '59. A bit of a disservice done to the Royal Navy really.

- Belfast '43 - A shadow of it's T7 self, having been smashed with the balancehammer. I actually like the short burst smoke, but the reload is just too aggressively set. And of course without a heal with that weak hull you have to be very careful..

- Cheshire - A side grade to the tech tree (at best). It says something when the AA is the biggest selling point, despite the fact that a committed CV will still take you down.

- Hampshire - Not got it but, frankly it doesn't appeal. A load of guns, but AP only, no heal and no smoke. Nah.

- Nottingham - Was met by universal lack of interest when it appeared recently. Says it all really (although the cost was most off-putting of all).

- Tiger '59 - box of tricks and zombie heal with the smoke radar trick makes it fun, even if I can't hit **** with those AP mortar guns and end up with low damage.

Am i wrong on any of these??

[R[e]venge®-uk*]

OK lets run over these from clan feedback....

Belfast '43
Short Burst Smoke, Radar and Hydro all at once .... 8km Torps
This ship is regarded as a "Last resort" as the short burst smokes let it down - Ignore her

Cheshire
Great Guns when you can get one of the six to hit, 8km Torps, Super Heal.
This ship is regarded as a "at least I wont get her at Christmas in a container" ship ... citadel is to big, short range guns and as you put it .... Sold on having good AA ... lol what AA ??

Hampshire
Short fuse AP so does actually do damage, 10km Torps
Terrible consumables, AA is meh, no repair party!! BB's eat this for fun ... so again avoid!

Nottingham
Only 2 players have used her, feedback has been ..... shocking!! in order to get all 3 front turrets in play you open enough for BB's to Citadel that huge british one!! AA is apparently garbage and she has low HP! Looks like another avoid!!

Tiger '59
Now this one splits people in 2, you either love her or hate her, she moves well, super heal, smoke and radar but as you put she struggles at range.... That said we have one player who regularly gets over 100k per game in her farming BB's! This is one that if you like the "farming" play style I would look at!!

Overall your more or less on point!! Premium Christmas crate fillers!!

[Dee-Jay]

Ha ha horrendous!

Of course outside of the cruisers, Cossack is good and now we have Somme at T9 (forgetting the T10’s of course) so more positive.
For the anniversary I’ll have more than enough tokens to claim the T8 100% voucher. I’m considering Vanguard - even though I don’t think she’s held in high regard in the same way as the cruisers! Call it blind loyalty to the RN…

I’m in the Tiger “like” camp, but like I say my damage figures are awful.
She can impact the match tho as he smoke/radar can scare the bejesus out of DD’s - even if you can’t hit the damn things your pals can. Plus radar and depth charge air strikes on surfaced subs!
As well as that even ineffective spam from her guns can have a suppression type effect on less composed/skilled players and make them panic into making a stupid mistake.

[Banzai]

You are forgetting that Nottingham gets smoke, is very stealthy and has excellent and numerous torps. I repeatedly said when it was in test that it needed a heal, but honestly it would go from mediocre to stupidly good if it had one. You still get pretty much heavy cruiser level guns on a light cruiser hull and you can farm some impressive damage using hit and run tactics with the short lasting smoke.

Hampshire is another one that really could do with a heal but it again would arguably become very good indeed if it had one. Its still not nearly as fragile as its peers so that makes up for it somewhat.

[Dee-Jay]

Originally posted by Banzai:

You are forgetting that Nottingham gets smoke, is very stealthy and has excellent and numerous torps. I repeatedly said when it was in test that it needed a heal, but honestly it would go from mediocre to stupidly good if it had one. You still get pretty much heavy cruiser level guns on a light cruiser hull and you can farm some impressive damage using hit and run tactics with the short lasting smoke.

Hampshire is another one that really could do with a heal but it again would arguably become very good indeed if it had one. Its still not nearly as fragile as its peers so that makes up for it somewhat.

The big thing for Nottingham during the event for me was the cost - as it was substantially higher than a usual T8 cost in the armory (even the top end cost for the likes of Zeppelin), it put me off. As well as the generally mixed reception.

[R[e]venge®-uk*]

Yeah the problem with the Nottingham and Hampshire again was both missed out on consumable "Heal" meaning getting up tiered you cannot make any mistakes making the skill level quite high, I know I saw one Nottingham smoke up then get 100% deleted by a Columbo at 18-19km ... Brutal! OK that's a misplay and it uses SAP as example but it showed the ship can be squishy and you cannot heal any of that back!

[Jackson]

It seems to me most T8 cruisers do not have a heal. Just saying that against the expectations they should. In fact it's one of the things that makes Cheshire stand out.

I have to agree most of the UK premium cruisers listed are pretty mediocre but for some reason I do kinda like Cheshire. I did very much like Hampshire OR Nottingham in test. Now I've gone and got them confused so couldn't tell you which I liked. I want to say Hampshire, but... They all kinda run together :)

Tiger '59 is useless to me. I played a couple battles in it when it was in test and gave up. I reported something fairly negative about it I'm sure. It CAN be ok, as Yuro proved in his video, but it's tortuous to play and doing well in it is much more a dice throw than skill.

I do think Belfast '43 is pretty ok. But I have the old Belfast so I would I play it? vOv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ye2gRgohY

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

From what I've heard about World of Tanks, the British being padded with a bunch of useless crap seems to be a recurring theme for Wargaming titles.

Originally posted by Jackson:

It seems to me most T8 cruisers do not have a heal. Just saying that against the expectations they should. In fact it's one of the things that makes Cheshire stand out.

Most TECH TREE Tier 8 cruisers don't have a heal. While not universal, it does sure seem to be a lot more common for Premiums.

[Jackson]

Well it's still a lot less than half I think. I just double checked the ones I have. Of 23 premium T8 cruisers only 8 have a heal. I admit that's more than I thought though.

I kinda remember that about WoT actually. One of my favorite tanks was British (some Centurion varient), but the trees were so mediocre I only finished one of them I think.

[Banzai]

Yeah fair enough that most dont have it, but its a feature of Brit ships in general so its surprising that prems like Nottingham and Hampshire miss out. Edinburgh for example is one of those ships that can be citadeled very easily if you mess up but the heal makes it competitive despite that.

[christof]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Originally posted by Jackson:

It seems to me most T8 cruisers do not have a heal. Just saying that against the expectations they should. In fact it's one of the things that makes Cheshire stand out.

Most TECH TREE Tier 8 cruisers don't have a heal. While not universal, it does sure seem to be a lot more common for Premiums.

True, but the British do in both lines. So the premium ships also having one is not an unreasonable expectation.


That being said, I actually like the Cheshire. If it wasn't for that citadel, it would be a very good ship in my opinion. As it is, it's still at least okay.