Massachusetts, Alabama, North Carolina

[Max_Battle]

I have only played the tech tree US T8 BB.

What are the similarities/differences in playstyles/builds between the three?

They are all T8 US BBs, can't be that different right?

[Paladinum]

NC: kiter, as much as you can expect from a US BB.

Alabama: less accurate guns but 50% torp damage reduction and cruiser agility.

Massachusetts: secondary gun US BB.

 

USS Sweet Home/Obama and USS Massachuchu are of SoDak-class (South Dakota) while NC is of course NoCar-class.

Useless fact: SoDak-class is only 200 m long, making them the shortest high-tier BBs in the game. Shorter than some WW1 dreadnoughts (like Kongou) and some high-tier cruisers. Moskva is like 250 m long.

[icy_phoenix]

Just to add, Massachusetts has even worse accuracy than Alabama, but has 40 seconds repair party cooldown. American version of Bismarck.

[Max_Battle]

Hmmm. OK.

They don't really sound like hoping for Black Friday sales for then.

[Thyaliad]

Massachusetts is for Secondary-build enthusiasts. As someone who loves Secondary-builds, I can confidently say the Massachusetts has been my best purchase in this game.

It also makes for a very good CL captain trainer too, so you don't really need a specialised captain for it. I am actually runnning my CL captain in mine. IFHE, CE and AFT are all good skills for the Massachusetts. The Massachusetts has greatly improved accuracy on the Secondaries guns, so you don't have to run Manual Secondaries if you don't want to.

But if you are not into Secondary builds, then you are better off looking elsewhere.

 

[Max_Battle]

4 minutes ago, Thyaliad said:

Massachusetts is for Secondary-build enthusiasts. As someone who loves Secondary-builds, I can confidently say the Massachusetts has been my best purchase in this game.

It also makes for a very good CL captain trainer too, so you don't really need a specialised captain for it. I am actually runnning my CL captain in mine. IFHE, CE and AFT are all good skills for the Massachusetts. The Massachusetts has greatly improved accuracy on the Secondaries guns, so you don't have to run Manual Secondaries if you don't want to.

But if you are not into Secondary builds, then you are better off looking elsewhere.

 

I love secondary ships....

And that sound like my Cleveland captain would be right at home there....

[icy_phoenix]

1 hour ago, Thyaliad said:

The Massachusetts has greatly improved accuracy on the Secondaries guns, so you don't have to run Manual Secondaries if you don't want to.

I don't remember that she had improved accuracy for secondaries... What did I miss? IIRC just the same as any other secondaries, with longer base range.

[Max_Battle]

1 hour ago, icy_phoenix said:

I don't remember that she had improved accuracy for secondaries... What did I miss? IIRC just the same as any other secondaries, with longer base range.

Takes less secondary fire to kill a Mahan?

https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/162316-premium-ship-review-104-massachusetts/

[Max_Battle]

Hmmm.

 

[Rina_Pon]

Competitively NC is the best bet, but the other two are potentially more fun. I don't have Massachusetts but between NC and Alabama in Randoms I usually choose the latter. The ability to absorb half a dozen torps and keep on truckin' is the needed insurance to push in closer than you'd want to do in an NC - and the accuracy nerf is more than offset by the shorter average engagement ranges. NC remains the "thinking man's battleship" however, a true ship-of-the-line.

[icy_phoenix]

Anyway, normally her secondaries can only pen up to 20mm armor. That does not work at all when you are in T10 mms 😛 All just fireworks if you don't have IFHE. With IFHE, it goes up to 27mm.

Compare that to Tirpitz/Bismarck. Normal pen (low/high) 17/36 mm while with IFHE it goes up to 23/48 mm (which is actually scary for cruisers).

From how I think about ships, yah you can use your Cruiser captains to retrain or even DD captains on a BB, but then you will never be using your BB potentials to the fullest, which also means while you can retrain, many of those games, you wont be doing as much as you would love to do. Just some things to consider cause T8 BB aint cheap.