Scarlet's Captains Log: Log 3, July 2021
End of CBs and the other things means that I'm finally able to work on tech trees again. Meanwhile, I've finally bit the bullet and used a coupon for a new T8 premium: Mainz, as a sort of 'b-day' gift to myself.
Mainz
As usual, my plan to get Kaga gets derailed by another interesting premium, who happens to be the local white-haired black coffee-lover. If you not so aware of her, a quick refresher - T8 CL, based on the light cruiser 'variant' of the Admiral Hipper class that was meant to be Seyditz and Lutzow (Tallinn). Getting her was rather interesting as because I did already had Irian, who has almost the same characteristics, to the point that one could reasonably say that Mainz is merely a 'better' version of Irian, by virtue of having better fire rate and AP shell performance, better manueverability, better torp angles, not needing IFHE and the 6-klick hydro. (Of course, this is offset by the fact that both ships already have the same HE DPM, while Irian has the incredibly dangerous 5/10 DW Torpedo broadside, which I have used to great effect thanks to their long ranges look stop laughing trust me bro it works)
Overall, I can't disagree with the sheer number of people who've sold me on her. While argubly more 'vanilla' then, say, Munchen or Weimar, which I have also considered getting, you can't really disagree with Mainz's great gun performance, and all her attributes makes her a surprisingly decent knife fighter (wouldn't actually recommend actively trying to get into that range with a BB, though I did survive a fight with an FDG and put her down in the process, but if you are under cover and need to dispatch stuff of lighter tonnage that's fair), especially good for giving DDs and other cruisers hell.
OG German DD Branch
I promised myself that I would actually start getting a tech tree DD a while back, partly because people on the SNGNS server were telling me to play them to learn how to counter them, and partly because I wanted to fully diversify my playstyle and learn some valuable lessons from playing the smallest class in game. My time in Harekaze reminded me that I wasn't so bad in them to avoid them completely, so I've went and bitten the bullet.
So far, I'm up to Gaede, and at least I've been performing decently, though I can't say much about my future performance up the tree. I think one issue for the future might be how much I'm relying on hydro as a crutch, by using it to watch out for enemy torpedoes or to aggressively stalk other DDs, which a benefit you won't get on other DDs. We will have to see. At least I'm getting better at smoke usage, as compared to previous times where I was dying pathetically within them.
Anchorage
I actually got her a long time ago, but I've not played with her extensively because at the time, I simply sucked with positionals. Now though, armed with knowledge, she's a surprisingly great ambusher, although she does, sadly, lack the speed I need for accomplishing aggressive flanks as I would do in my Venezia. Which is a shame, because 12 of those american 203mm AP is vicious on cruiser and battleship broadsides, but even then she's still great in a defending role. The main problem is that I open water gunboat in her too much, which means that I keep exposing myself to BB broadsides or DD torpedoes when I shouldn't.
In any case, stationary smoke carrying CAs is an interesting niche that I hope gets explored in the future, because if as Anchorage's performance shows, it's certainly an idea worth looking into.
