So I've been meaning to make a post here for ... two and a half years? I think? Yeah, I know, the thread's dead, most people who play the game use the SB thread; don't care, I no longer visit that site and have basically no idea what goes on there. I've been up for closer to thirty hours than twenty at this point, so it's impossible for me to make bad decisions. That said, I do actually have a
point I'm trying to ramble around.
Mostly, it's about faction identities. This really started rolling around in my head ... I think during the Jervis event? Anyway, a bunch of people saying that the new Royal Navy were actually Iris designs because they had the same white/gold motif as some of the Iris ships instead of the more standard red/steel/brown. Kind of got me thinking that it really was kind of a design issue with some of the factions: Iron Blood, Sakura Empire, Sardegna, and Northern Parliament are pretty much instantly identifiable as being from those factions due to the shared design schemes. Royal Navy, Iris/Vichya, and Eagle Union have less standardized designs, although classes within the factions tend to be somewhat similar. That's not what I'm intending to talk about right now, though. I actually want to take a look at the
mechanical identities of the factions and how well the Update Loading Screens identify them.
Naturally, a lot of this post is going to be based on pre-powercreep ships, but when I can I will try to use more up-to-date information. Having said that, I don't plan on spending six hours writing this; it's a lot of off-the-cuff with some checking of stats on the wiki.
When it comes to proper shipbuilding, Royal Navy is often ahead of their opponents due to their long and glorious history of navigation. The faith in her majesty the queen and rich battle experience helps them build ships with perfectly balanced performance. If you wish for peace, prepare for war!
(Fair warning here: I don't like most of the RN ships and I don't use them. I do not have a firm grasp of their skills for the most part, either.
So this is ... well, it's pretty wrong, I think. Their destroyers are typically lower HP than other factions' DDs, with modest TRP and FP, and very good EVA and ASW. Their CLs are a bit better, with typically middle-low HP and some surprisingly high FP values (but also others that are much closer to average), some quite good AA values on some classes, Torpedo stats strung out all along the range, and some middle-range EVA stats. Their CAs are mostly pretty bad, with a number having Light Armor and/or 4000 HP or lower, FP across the scale, and torpedoes.
Their capital ships are, I think, better. Battleships tend toward good-but-not-great HP, decent FP, and okay AA. (They're also the only faction with Monitors; go Erebus!) Their carriers are the bright spot in the Royal Navy, however, and the first place I'll talk about Skills. Several RN carriers have Slow/Stop effects - Ark Royal, Implacable, Formidable - and even more critically, Royal Navy has the best
Healers in Perseus and Unicorn. Perseus in particular with her double-preload that can heal 14% of the Vanguard and 7% of the Main Fleet is just always going to be handy.
Queen Elizabeth herself is a ... fairly bad ship, with only the one skill - but it
is a 15% buff to FP, TRP, AVI, AA, RLD, and EVA for
all Royal Navy ships in her fleet. It's perhaps a little less focused than some of the other Flagships, but it's always going to affect the ships usefully, and she doesn't need to take the Flagship spot. She just doesn't have any other skills and has mediocre stats.
So, yeah. I disagree with the Loading Screen; early on, Royal Navy ships are fragile and a bit quirky. Newer ships are much better, and they have dangerous carriers, as well as the best healing setup.
This nation concentrated their strength on developing aircraft carriers and powerful heavy cruisers, which grants them the upper hand when it comes to aerial superiority and open naval combat. Having repair ship as their auxiliary allows to regenerate health in battle. Eagle union represents the true spirit of freedom!
Well, the first part is definitely true. Eagle Union laughs in Helldivers, and they have lots of great carriers. They also have the best AA - San Diego, Reno, Vestal, North Carolina, Hamman II, all the other Atlanta-class. Their CAs are also not exactly slouches, especially since they're Gun Cruisers instead of Torpedo Cruisers (as are some of their CLs, as well). They don't torpedo well in general, though, although that aside I think they fit the 'balanced performance' better than the RN does. As for that repair ship, though ... well, no. Vestal is terrible as a healer: she has a once-per-battle Zombie effect, she has three out-of-battle 10% fleet heals, and she can equip an item that repairs 15 HP to the most damaged ship every five seconds. Load her up with AA gear and don't use her unless you need planes to die.
Early Eagle Union does have some of the same problems early Royal Navy had: there are Heavy Cruisers with Light Armor and embarrassingly low HP values. Once you get past the rough early ships, though, they get better: some EU destroyers have impressive FP, their later CAs have solid offensive capabilities and aren't made of cardboard, and even their early carriers can (in theory) tear open any enemy thanks to chance-based damage buffs and the potential to launch airstrikes in quick succession. EU battleships are quite good as well, with solid FP and good HP.
They don't have a general-purpose Flagship, either. New Jersey buffs AA and grants slight Damage Resistance for EU ships in her fleet, as well as increasing the FP of Eagle Union Battleship and Battlecruisers(!), Yorktown II buffs Essex- and Yorktown-class carriers, and both buff each other: Yorktown II increases the FP of EU Main Fleet ships, and NJ buffs the AVI of EU CV/Ls if they're in a EU-led fleet. There's also Fletcher with her solid buff to other Fletcher-class ships and a smaller one to DDs in general, and Northampton II and Baltimore synergizing with carriers very well. That, I think, is the main plan for the Eagle Union:
designed fleet synergies, rather than a single Flagship buffing everyone.
Shrouded in mysterious fog and falling sakura petals, a beautiful island feigned sleep, silently, waiting for its turn to tremble the world. When the day came ... the sky was darkened with its fighters, the ocean was reddened with its torpedoes, and mankind's fear ... mankind's fear was defined by a new name - the Sakura Empire!
This one, I think, is the most accurate so far. The Sakura Empire is
all about Torpedoes, and it has some very powerful carriers as well that have paired effects, making them even stronger when they're sortied together. Of course, there are tradeoffs: Sakura destroyers may have the lock for the most powerful torpedoes in the game - the top 37 destroyers by TRP are all Sakura Empire, #38 is a Collaboration ship, and then #48 is an Iron Blood DD - but they have awful FP and gun efficiencies, and are about as durable as RN DDs. That is slightly less true for their CLs, but mainly because there are better CLs in other factions that have strong TRP, as they have abysmal HP and a wide spread of FP values.
Carriers, as I've mentioned, have a number of paired synergies - Akagi/Kaga, Soryuu/Hiryuu, and Zuikaku/Shoukaku being the strongest - as well as having the two other commonly-used Healer CVs, Shouhou and Ryuuhou. They don't have quite the same number of
good carriers as the Eagle Union does, but the best are still competitive. Their battleships are in much the same situation, with their better (generally newer) ships being comparable to their peers in other factions. Special mention goes to Amagi, who both debuffs enemy offensive stats and increases the Evasion Rate of the Main Fleet she's in.
Nagato has one of the Sakura Flagship buffs, and increases FP, Reload, and Accuracy for all SE ships, as well as straight increasing the damage dealt by Carriers. She also has one of the most powerful barrages, tied to an infuriatingly low on-fire 40% chance. The other Flagship is Mikasa, who buffs FP and Reload only for SE ships.
Again, generally accurate - Sakura Empire focuses on Torpedoes and Carriers. That isn't to say that it can't field dangerous battleships or that it's entirely reliant on its torpedoes, however. The Sakura Empire is also unique (as of this writing) in being the only faction able to field a full six-ship fleet of Rainbow-rarity ships (two carriers, one battleship, one large cruiser, two destroyers), with the Royal Navy trailing by one (two battleships, one carrier, one heavy cruiser, one light cruiser). The Sakura Empire also has the most Tier 10 ships with four; the only other faction with any Tier 10 ships is the Sardegna Empire.
There flows no soft blood in their veins, for they shall feel no mercy and no pain! Once a member of Azur Lane, these ruthless sharks have now allied themselves with the Sirens and decided to play with soft jellyfishes no longer, knowing that peace and love are just for weaklings. However, their betrayal is a necessity, for peace can never protect humanity from the unknown. Hail Ironblood.
... Very explain. Well, the Iron Blood faction focuses on being tough, with high HP, heavier Armor on some ships, and a lot of Shield skills. Their Destroyers also trend toward high FP and high gun efficiency, and Z1 has a particularly powerful buff to FP and EVA for the various Z-class DDs. Unfortunately, Vanguard ships also trend slow with low Evasion - the highest IB DD EVA is 208, while the lowest DD EVA is 192 (another IB), 240+ are the most common values, and the current highest is 315 on a Royal Navy DD. It only gets worse as far as speed and EVA go as the ships get bigger.
Iron Blood does benefit from having the most Research ships (seven, followed by five in both the SE and the RN), and generally powerful heavy cruisers, several of which can equip large-caliber guns if needed to get around shields. Iron Blood is also the faction with the most submarines, most of which have a self-buff that gets stronger with each other IB submarine in the fleet. IB's few full carriers are quite good; two have stop effects and a third grants damage reduction to all IB ships. The faction also focuses heavily on somewhat gimmicky battlecruisers, with seven battlecruisers and five battleships.
Bismarck has two Flagship buffs: the first requires her to be in the Flagship position and increases IB carrier damage by 20%, but the second is not position-dependent and buffs IB Crit Rate for Main Gun, Torpedoes, and Aircraft, and increases Reload of all IB ships,
and increases the damage Tirpitz does by 40% if she's in the same fleet as Bismarck.
Iron Blood has the simplest mechanical philosophy, I think: be the Tank, the hardest guy to hurt and actually bring down. I don't think the faction pulls it off well, especially not with the way the game's changed - most of the Shield skills just block X number of shots, which is of minimal use considering some enemies, and raw bulk just isn't as valuable when that bulk gets shredded so quickly because it can't dodge well and the faction has no inherent healing ability.
... So it's been over three hours since I started this, and while the 'minor' factions are probably going to go by pretty quickly due to their currently-small fleet sizes, I really do need to fall asleep at some point. After the rest of the factions, I might do something on the various ship classes and what I think about them, as well as maybe something about skill types and complaining about Shields.
