With the hints being long-barreled twin guns and seaplanes De Ruyter and the Duca d'Aosta class (especially the name ship, who got renamed to Stalingrad after the war) are also possibilities. That said, like you mentioned, any of the Omahas (and Murmansk in specific) are also a very likely option.
If I'm not mistaken, the only CLs currently in-game are Japanese ones, which, for historical reasons, are rather underpowered in comparison with western ones. I doubt the devs want to upset the CL balance much, so I'd rule out Aosta. The Omahas are a possibility, but thier armament may be too heavy, despite being old. If I had to make a guess, I'd say either De Ruyter (who actually fought against the IJN) or one of the first two Condottieri series, which would work best if the devs wanted a "quirky" ship.
- The first series in particular, despite having 8 guns, had a limited rate of fire due to the cramped turrets
- Speeeeed (42 knots during trials, 37 knots full speed)
- Armor? What's that?
- Depth charge throwers (IIRC Kancolle CLs can attack Subs in-game, and it doesn't seem like Omaha or De Ruyter had ASW equipment on board)
This idea takes a lot of inspiration from Belated Battleships and the wonderful works of @theJMPer , @Old Iron, @CompassJimbo, @Skywalker_T-65, @Admiral_Corgi, and the countless others who wrote, commented, and argued about the joys of Battleships. And Pie.
Imperial Palace
Tokyo, Japan
21 April 2083
Beyond those doors, Admiral John Richardson thought, was most, if not all, of the entire Combined Fleet.
Of that he had no doubt. The two ornate doors that led to the meeting hall of the Emperor of Japan had just a pair of armored guards in traditional Yokohagi Okegawa Ni-mai do armor, but he was almost certain that a major part of the Imperial Kanmusu Corps would be present for this first meeting.
He was not to worried, however. He had his own secret weapon right beside him.
"Are you ready Jane?"
"Yes Daddy," She replied.
His credentials had been submitted to the Imperial House before he arrived, and he wore the dress whites of a Rear Admiral of the UCAS Navy, and Jane wore her finest clothes. The flight over was nerve racking, even with an escort as massive swaths of the Pacific were either completely off the grid or swimming with Dissonance. The Atlantic was no better.
The massive doors swung open.
Inside the massive hall the Emperor knelt on a raised dais, the carpeted path forward lined with young women, and behind the Emperor was a literal fleet of women. John felt his eyebrow twitch as he mentally checked the Kido Butai off his shipgirl bingo. The young women lining the path could only be destroyer girls. With an air of command he walked forward, followed by Jane closely. As he came to the appointed spot he stopped and stood at attention, snapping off a smart salute for a moment before Emperor Yasuhito acknowledged and responded. Jane, however, knelt and executed a perfect saikeirei, to the muttered approval of the Kanmusu present.
"Admiral Richardson, welcome to Japan." The Emperor spoke.
"Thank you, your majesty," John replied. "I bring greetings from President Martin."
"And this is your daughter?" Empress Hitomi asked from her seat behind her husband.
"Yes your majesty. Jane?"
"こんにちは、私の名前はジェーンです。 あなたに会えて光栄です。" Jane spoke in halting Japanese.
Both the Emperor and Empress smiled at the young girl before Yasuhito raised his hand.
"If you do not mind, I would have one of my daughters escort Jane to a waiting room while we discuss the ramifications of current events."
"Of course your majesty," John replied as one of the Kanmusu stepped forward. Her brown hair was cut short, with a pair of antennae rising from her locks. Her uniform was clean and tight, with the armored anchor points strategically placed for her rigging. "Be a good girl Jane."
"Yes father," Jane replied, accepting the Kanmusu's outstretched hand. The two left the audience chamber and John turned back to the rulers of the nation.
"Although I am loathe to separate a father from his child, but the matters at hand are at best not for young ears," Yasuhito spoke.
"I understand your majesty," John replied. "Although I have tried to shield her the best I could, she is a rather bright and curious child.
"As your majesties are aware, we have pinpointed the first emergence of the Abyssal threat shortly after the appearance of Halley's Comet in 2061. It wasn't until 2063 that the first recorded attacks took place on shipping."
"Yes," The Empress replied. "Our initial reports indicated that it was some form of awakened sealife."
"A lot of people thought that your majesty," John nodded. "And it wasn't until the Corporations began to seriously arm their ships did more people take notice as more ships began to disappear. Four years later we had several smaller islands in the South Pacific go silent as well as unexplained weather phenomena and Matrix fluctuations."
"A few of our priests began speaking of threats from the sea at the time," Yasuhito spoke. "I put some discreet warnings out to our forces, but the Corporations chose not to listen."
"Our own forces were dealing with other matters at the time, and not many were willing to listen to some Shaman shouting about 'monsters from the deep'." John admitted. "We have been at the time doing our best, but the mounting corporate losses were making everything worse.
Then Midway, Guam, and Wake went silent. The Matrix was becoming unstable in the Pacific, and we were also getting reports of areas in the Atlantic that were going silent as well."
John looked over at the assembled Kanmusu. This was nothing new to them, but they all listened intently, even the massive woman that was in the background with an antenna-like parasol.
"And worse of all, Hawaii went silent right before everything went to hell."
All knew of the events that began on December 26th of 2079. The devastation wrought in one week nearly brought the world's economy to the breaking point. The coast of China was scourged to thirty kilometers inland. London burned to the ground. New York. Washington DC. Boston. San Francisco. Sydney. Los Angeles was burned, but after the devastation of the San Andreas and San Pedro earthquakes the fires were considered an improvement. The seas were lost to the 'Abyssals'.
"And we come to Kongou." John spoke, glancing over to one of the four identically dressed Kanmusu that knelt to the right of the Emperor.
"The first of my returned daughters," Yasuhito agreed. "We are fortunate she arrived when she did to fight off the Abyssals, followed soon after by her three sisters. We later learned that a Shinto Priest had performed a summoning ritual that might have opened the way for her to return."
"Professor Crowning of MIT&M came to a similar realization and helped create the summoning ritual used by our nation." John replied. "He also investigated the reports of the "White Child" that the Athabaskan Council discovered in Unalaska."
Jane stared up at the woman, and slowly accepted her outstretched hand. Together they departed the office to one of the side rooms, passing a pair of Orks that stood guard and several other young women who slowed and saluted before racing off.
"You are Mutsu," Jane declared, her eyes taking in the mass of scar tissue on her right hip that spider-webbed across her abdomen.
"You are perceptive," Mutsu replied. "Your father is quite the diplomat."
"He's just Daddy." She replied.
"And your mother?"
"Mommy has been gone a long time now," Jane replied, but she could see that the Kanmusu already knew. "Mommy was special."
The room they entered had several other women in it, all of them armed and armored appropriately, and Jane knew all of them at once. Without fear she slipped from Mutsu's hand and approached the largest of them, a white haired giantess with two hair tuff like ears atop her head, and massive amounts of scar tissue on her sides. She pointed.
"Musashi, Yamato class," She declared, then turned about the room. "Akagi, Kaga, Mogami, Takao, Kitakami, Ooi, Akatsuki, Inazuma, Izukachi, Hibiki, and Tenryuu."
The giant battleship knelt down to Jane's eye level. "I, Musashi, am impressed little one. You are very smart to be able to identify us."
Jane beamed. "Daddy wanted to make sure he did not make any mistakes in dealing with the reborn Imperial Japanese Navy."
"Oh ho," Musashi laughed. "And what about your navy?"
Jane looked serious. "Loose lips sink ships," She replied.
"The "Northern Princess"," Empress Hitomi frowned. "They made a pact with a monster. If I may ask, how bad were the UCASN losses?"
Communication disruptions were a major problem as vast areas of the Matrix were offline or inaccessible, and for the most part a lot of basic international communication fell to old fashioned radio.
"We lost four carrier groups the first day, and we've lost a lot of support ships as well trying to salvage something out of "Blood Week"," John admitted. "Civilian losses have been kept at a minimum thanks to a lot of spirited volunteers. What we learned about the Northern Princess came from Hestaby's death."
"One of the Great Dragons has fallen?" Yasuhito spoke. "Ryumyo has been active since the first attacks, but has been silent in regards to what the other Great Dragons are saying. Even Lung has not been seen since the Blood Week."
"Ghostwalker and the other Great Dragons have been silent as well. Professor Crowning has spoken to Nicholas Whitebird on several occasions, as well as Jaquline from whom we learned that several European nations have begun summoning their own fleet girls.
"Have you been able to identify any other Abyssal forces?"
"The CAS attempted to summon Texas and Alabama after Blood Week, but instead got the Crimson Rose Princess and the Bloody Tide Princess. Most of the Gulf has been laid to waste as a result." John withdrew a folded letter. "We did, however, receive news about what happened to Hawaii."
One of the Battleship shuffled forward and took the letter, then offering it to the Emperor with a bow. The pagoda was on the left side of her head.
Yasuhito opened the letter. "You know who wrote this?"
"I do your Majesty. I accepted this letter from her hand and promised that I would deliver it to you."
The assembled Kanmusu remained silent, but they all recognized the signature of the letter.
Nagato.
"She is coming home," Hitomi spoke.
"Missouri and Nagato barely escaped Hawaii and the Martyred Empress. They managed to reach California and were saved by Iowa. All three made the journey to Everett as it was the only USN base that was still broadcasting."
"What is her status?"
"She is badly damaged from the running battles, but we have managed to get all three into a makeshift drydock to begin the repairs."
"We will make sure that you get the plans for the repair baths that we have developed for our daughters," Yasuhito spoke. "We were worried when we were unable to summon her."
"Once we can establish an open shipping lane she will be returning with the first convoy. The President has already begun negotiations with the Native American States in helping support the effort, even if some of them are not directly affected."
Mutsu blinked at the little girl before her. Nagato?
"You spoke to my sister?"
"Hai," Jane nodded. "Nagato, Missouri, and Iowa were at Everett when we arrived. They made the trip north after coming back during the attack."
"How?" Kaga asked. The other Kanmusu looked oddly at each other for a moment. The Iowa class were foes to be reckoned with, even if their studies indicated that all four sisters survived the war and were considered the longest serving battleships in history. While many of the fleet girls did not survive the war's end, they all knew that many American ships did, and were worried if the fractured state of America would have proved a serious detriment to their summoning.
"I think the Professor mentioned something about 'self-summoning' if a ship was old enough and had a strong enough connection. One person cannot do it alone, even with resources. It requires a major ritual to perform a summoning." Jane frowned. "I think."
"It would match current observations," Kaga replied. "Recent summonings have required many priests and Miko to perform the ritual."
"So little one," Musashi adjusted her glasses. "Do you think your father can provide assistance to Japan?"
"So," The Emperor spoke. "As part of the combined fleet actions against the Abyssals, the former USN holdings at Sasebo have been reactivated and upgraded as well as the old holdings at Yokosuka. Admiral Goto Isamu has been placed in command of the Imperial Kanmusu Corps and you will be stationed at Sasebo."
"As you say your majesty," John replied.
"What forces will be based at Sasebo?"
"The United Canadian American States Navy will base the newly formed Eighth Fleet around the USS New Jersey and USS Saratoga, with appropriate escorts. For expediency all assigned fleet girls will be those that survived the war and understand that the second world war is over. They will not be belligerent in any way to the Imperial Japanese Kanmusu," John spoke. "For the convoy routes we are assigning the Taffies for escort duties from Everett to Yokosuka. There is a rather narrow corridor between Unalaska and Midway that we can use, but Abyssal aircraft are the primary problem along with possible submarine activity."
The Giantess gently twirling her umbrella stopped, her eyes only moving a hair, before resuming her twirling.
"The 'Taffies'?" The Emperor blinked.
"Taffy One, Taffy Two," John spoke calmly. "And Taffy Three. While I do not expect any breaks in discipline from the Fleet, for the time being Taffy Three will be assigned to the first leg of the journey and return to Everett at the handover point."
Really USN CL just don't WORK in the Meta even with something as ancient as Omaha. Since the USN just dumped the ASW job more towards the various Destroyer flavors to become more gun boaty.
I mean after Atlanta you have no more torps and St. Louis (1938) is the only one used in the war with depth charges but no torps.
Still Milwaukee/Murmansk could add to the VMF group but having Sean Connery tier Russian. Man mixing in random English and Russian all over the place. Things would get WEIRD.
But unless they decide to no longer add CL to the game (which unless you start throwing them Kai 3s or even Kai 4 to power them up more) there is one simple fact: Light Cruiser Meta is going to die. General Purpose CL work will be done by pretty much anything BUT Japanese CL.
If you're forcing with mission design that you need ASW work with CL then you have to make it so NO DESTROYERS ALLOWED which would be incredibly awkward as well you could slap ASW DD in and put Shooty CL in the rest of the slots.
If I'm not mistaken, the only CLs currently in-game are Japanese ones, which, for historical reasons, are rather underpowered in comparison with western ones. I doubt the devs want to upset the CL balance much, so I'd rule out Aosta. The Omahas are a possibility, but thier armament may be too heavy, despite being old. If I had to make a guess, I'd say either De Ruyter (who actually fought against the IJN) or one of the first two Condottieri series, which would work best if the devs wanted a "quirky" ship.
- The first series in particular, despite having 8 guns, had a limited rate of fire due to the cramped turrets
- Speeeeed (42 knots during trials, 37 knots full speed)
- Armor? What's that?
- Depth charge throwers (IIRC Kancolle CLs can attack Subs in-game, and it doesn't seem like Omaha or De Ruyter had ASW equipment on board)
But anyway, one point to distinguish the Japanese CLs from American ones would be simply to actually not retrofit torpedoes on every ships. So far every other cruiser that didn't have torpedoes historically (Ooyodo and the Zara-class) could be modernized to an at least weak torpedo stat. If you would not do this with the Americans and maybe give the Japanese CLs some torpedo focused variant of the Nelson touch for night battles (the leaders of the torpedo squadron like the Sendai-class or later Agano-class would be a good options for that) you could give them distinct niches. The Americans excel at day time combat, but fall off in night battles where the torpedo armed Japanese (due to game mechanics etc) are more useful.
From another angle, the difference in stats between a CL and CA is not too huge in the game to begin with. If you compare Jintsuu K2 and Choukai K2 (both are, as you propably know, statwise among the best of their respective classes) you will see that Choukai only has 6 HP, 13 FP and 9 Armor more than Jintsuu. Jintsuu also has a higher torpedo stat, so in night battles they basically have the same attack power.
So no, I don't think you can't include more modern American cruisers in the game. Would a Cleveland be top tier in stats? Almost certainly. Would she see lots of use? If she isn't locked out of the common mechanics (no plane etc.) then again almost certainly. But would a Cleveland destroy the CL meta? No, because you have only have one and ship locks are a thing. Furthermore, going by Zara, Pola and Ooyodo, her torp stat would be in the 40-50 bracket, if she even gets one. In other words, she would need a base firepower in excess of that of a BB or special mechanic to make up the difference in night battle power. And when it comes down to it, the Last Dance usually depends on a night battle showdown.
Anyway, I hope I managed to get my point across in a somewhat understandable manner. Also I totally understand if you were to disagree with me, after all this is mostly a game balance issue, which are fraught with people disagreeing with each other. And in the end, as long as the new girl is nice, do her stats even matter? Tenryuu is a fan favourite after all, despite being terrible in most gameplay situations.
On Akagi:
Those quivers look like somebody attached some Zeon brand fuel tanks to her back.
Her night capable mode having lighter shade eyes that almost look like they're backlit, like a cat's eyes reflecting light, is a nice touch.
On Garibaldi:
She looks sassy as hell. Appropriate, considering her namesake. I predict much tsun.
@Tonaris I wanted to write a post explaining that it wasn't that I didn't think modern CLs would be coming, but rather that they would be introduced gradually.
Then they decided to add Garibaldi
It seems they're keeping things somewhat balanced by just flat-out not giving stats as high as those cruisers deserve, instead. Garibaldi apparently has the highest stats in her category (except, obviously, for torpedoes and, confusingly, for AA) but they aren't as high as the differences in armor and armament suggest.
EDIT: Then again, the stats of ships in game are all concentrated on the high-end of the range, so a 5-point difference may be actually be really significant.
As I think I mentioned in the past, I don't actually play the game, so I'll let the experts chime in with their opinion.
@Tonaris I wanted to write a post explaining that it wasn't that I didn't think modern CLs would be coming, but rather that they would be introduced gradually.
Then they decided to add Garibaldi
It seems they're keeping things somewhat balanced by just flat-out not giving stats as high as those cruisers deserve, instead. Garibaldi apparently has the highest stats in her category (except, obviously, for torpedoes and, confusingly, for AA) but they aren't as high as the differences in armor and armament suggest.
EDIT: Then again, the stats of ships in game are all concentrated on the high-end of the range, so a 5-point difference may be actually be really significant.
As I think I mentioned in the past, I don't actually play the game, so I'll let the experts chime in with their opinion.
Well when she Kai Ni to getting Terrier and Alfa well that's when her scores go nuts.
Since being able to give an installation a how do you do with a 1 ton bomb delivered by ballistic missile and having honest to god SAMs makes things fun.
"As your majesties are aware, we have pinpointed the first emergence of the Abyssal threat shortly after the appearance of Halley's Comet in 2061. It wasn't until 2063 that the first recorded attacks took place on shipping
"The CAS attempted to summon Texas and Alabama after Blood Week, but instead got the Crimson Rose Princess and the Bloody Tide Princess. Most of the Gulf has been laid to waste as a result."
Like the views of the average American of the time was much less problematic? Even in the anti-slavery Republican party, the group pushing for things like civil rights was quite literally called radicals.
Like the views of the average American of the time was much less problematic? Even in the anti-slavery Republican party, the group pushing for things like civil rights was quite literally called radicals.
Some of my friends from the South, insist that Lee's surrender at Appomattox is more akin to the cease-fire between North and South Korea, and the Civil War (or as they call it, the War of Northern Aggression) has never truly ended.
Some of my friends from the South, insist that Lee's surrender at Appomattox is more akin to the cease-fire between North and South Korea, and the Civil War (or as they call it, the War of Northern Aggression) has never truly ended.
After comparing the maternal side of my family (which only came south in the 60's) with the paternal side of my family (which was in the south during the war)....
After comparing the maternal side of my family (which only came south in the 60's) with the paternal side of my family (which was in the south during the war)....
One of my friends from Virginia, who was my roommate at the time, would salute his portraits of Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson before breakfast each morning.
After seeing this for a month, I simply asked him, "Why are you saluting a couple of traitors and losers?"
Its times like this where I am glad that I came from a Border State, Missouri/Illinois, which was on basically both side and on neither so it got hit by both. And as such most feel that both sides are idiots and since it was over 100 hunderds years ago so fucking drop it already.
Serouisly despite Missouri being one of the many matches to start the Fuck Fire that was the Civil War was Invaded by the North and had Confederate Raiders Pillage and Burn thru its towns. Fuck even St. Louis was hit, and that was literally basically a City at the time.
So the average Missourian feeling on the Civil War can be sum up as the follow for both sides.
