Anchorage impressions

[Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart]

I'll start with first impressions (5 random battles into it). Plenty of time right now as its long wait sessions for it to return to port, it just gets heavily dominated.

I'll do impression updates as hopefully I improve and I actually start to see some damage returns from these main guns...and as I spend more battles in it.

Armour: poor. as the sales advert says, best found sitting behind an island. Current build is for run and gun, acceleration boost and 40% rudder shift boost. Even with acceleration boost its slow to stop, I find there's no dodging enemy guns from your 15km firing range.

Main guns: poor. as the sales advert says, no need for ifhe build as over 30mm HE pen, yet i'm finding HE hits yielding very little damage returns, fair numbers of fires (have DE boost), but these also returning very little damage. Shots are accurate, but don't do any damage, AP or HE. Has Baltimore guns but they feel more worthy of tier 6 or 7 at most. Penetration angles are poor, and just returned from Georgia showing me broadside at 11kms, AP did nothing, and the HE pens were good for an average 500 damage per pen. In one salvo of HE I got 4 pens for 2k dmg, next salvo 8 pens!!!! for 4k dmg.....so the average of 500 dmg per HE pen is pretty reliable. Reload speed of main guns is slow enough to be extremely inconvenient. You will see.

Torpedoes: good. Haven't hit anything with them yet, but good 10kms range and decent 65+ knot speed makes them useful 1/10 battles I guess?. Pretty situational, perhaps for when fleeing from an enemy dd whose main guns are superior (all of them), or when using an island for ambushing a camper, provided your not radared, hydro, spotter plane, dd spotted or cv plane spotted first. 4 torps launch from each side.

AA suite: poor. I'm gonna go with poor, because of your optional mounts of spotter plane, fighter or hydro, you're kinda forced to take the fighter. I'm running AA boosts such as AFT, signal etc but I'm definitely eating damage from planes first attack runs and from a ze german rocket planes, that means 10k damage. Some more armoured planes such as the RN will be able to attack twice. Taking fighter isn't too much of a problem, as the other optionals are quite useless anyway, more on that later. As the sales advert says, "Anchorage doesn't have your typical AA suite of USN". 

Secondaries: good. I've been using them every battle, yes that's how close dds are getting in all battles so far. Not good as in ship saving good, but good because they are always being used. Which is bad.

Maneuverability: good, when you have the 40% rudder shift boost.

Concealment: poor, when you substitute concealment boost for 40% rudder shift boost. AYE CARUMBA!.

Speed: poor. running acceleration boost, but still sluggish to speed up and slow down. would be excruciating without. Note to self, maybe demount, and spend games parked behind islands camping. Fun....not. average 24 knots or so when attempting run and gun gameplay.

Consumables:

Smoke, you can't sit in your own smoke and use the main guns, you get spotted, it's not like playing the Kutusov. Smoke duration is good, but it's pretty much purely for fleeing enemy focus fire. Last game I was radared 4 times, the game before I was radared no less than 8 times!!! smoke AND an island cover won't save you. Then there is huge torp spam coming your way in smoke. The smoke dispersion skill might help??.

Spotter plane, handy because you can fire from further back, close to limits of tier 7-8 BB ranges, but you pretty much need fighter plane in this slot.

Hydro, I call it poor, because in all games with dd and torps so far, the dds can safely hunt me from +5kms away, and spotter plane doesn't see them either. I'm finding I'm staying perma spotted by a dd, while unable to react pro-actively for team or self.

And oh boy have a lot of torps been getting flung, especially at your smoke screens, if you pop it.

Summary, I'm about to permanently mount signals, AA boost +5%, speed boost and whatever else I need as I think these small boosts are sorely needed.

After first 5 games 22k avg dmg per battle, 0 ships sunk, 30% main gun accuracy (WITH 7% accuracy boost, and main guns range of 15kms), zero wins.

Now for the disclaimer: 

I'm only 5 games into it, so I'll post changes to impressions as I gain experience in it, right now Anchorage feels like an island camper specialist, which is disappointing as the 15km gun range doesn't really contribute to the team so much, with all the planes radar and dd meta. I can't see this ship ever fitting into a meta and becoming good. I can see many players working hard to get this ship then it will become extremely rare to see in battles after the event. It's more a reward for a free to player who will appreciate the value for the fact it was free to earn, if your time is of no consequence.

This review seems quite bad and negative, but I'm trying to be as honest as possible for those who are currently working on it, or considering getting it.

And if I start getting better results in it, I promise, I will report the facts for as far as what I perceive to be honest and with integrity.

If there is anything I've missed that you want to ask, fire away, just not at my Anchorage, coz she be frail.

I'm going to rebuild it as an island camper (hello long boring games) and maximise the AA suite, moving away from a run and gun build, after 5 more battles.

Remember: this is first 5 games, and merely a below average players honest opinion.

 

Current build: 14 point ice hockey Captain- PT, EM (boosted by Captain), SE (boosted by Captain), AFT, CE. conceal at 11kms. Will definitely have to change these. Can get conceal down to 9kms if use conceal from upgrades, and lose the SGM2.

Upgrades- MAM1, ERP, ASM1, PM1, SGM2. run and gun build.

 

 

 

 

[Tagnbag]

All the games I have seen have been similar to what you report ..  (extremely sluggish, takes a ton of damage and struggles to do damage).

Do keep updating, hopefully there is a way to make it shine ... 

[Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart]

End of day 1, 15 battles in it.

Been doing research on youtube fanboi reviews, and the smoke does indeed suffer s detectability penalty, fire while in your own smoke, and anything within 8kms will see you, which of course (due to the 15km firing range, means all enemy dds).

Now I've lived with 15km firing ranges on tier 8 cruisers before, but the combination of slug turning, sloth speed make this ship particularly vulnerable to taking huge damage. 

In the first morning session I played 7 games and lost 7.

In the evening session a further 8 games, 6 won being completely and utterly carried by poor long suffering teammates.

Average damage per battle sits at 26k, with total 4 ships sunk (all were killed from below 1k HP remaining, 2x of those were less than 100 HP remaining, 1x was on 4 HP)....and thanks to the carries, a grand 40% win rate.

Have not made over 50k damage in a battle yet.

I reset my Captains skills, taking PT, EM, DE and CE. detection still down at 11kms at this stage, I don't want to relinquish my 40% rudder shift or my acceleration boost just yet, as it doesn't sit very well behind islands either, and that game style is boring to me. I do try to use islands when I can but I'm finding that opportunity is rare.

dds are not afraid to go me with their main guns.

I'm going to switch out my fighter support for hydro, seeing as I'm always spotted by dds, and see how it runs. At least I'll have more warning for the wall of torps.

Oh, Anchorage sees tier 10 a lot, far too much for how bad it is, more than any of my other tier 8 premium ships at this stage.

Anchorage has NO BUSINESS being in tier 10.

 

When comparing it to other new ships that "take a bit of getting used to", 15 random battles is quite a few, and I'm still a long way off from getting used to playing Anchorage.

I think the only other ship I had so much trouble with was Atlanta, pre IFHE days, firing range builds.

[S4pp3R]

I'll get her at some point, I'll put my thoughts in here then if you don't mind @Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart?

Won't be for at least a few weeks, gotta earn her first, lol

[rookieFTW]

Seems like she gave up too many stuffs for the smoke and Fletcher torps.

The maneuverability is one of the worst among peers, couple with the long hull. Firepower looks like a bit uninspiring now thanks to the usage of New Orleans' guns, although the alpha damage is still great. Range is nearly the same as Baltimore but Balti has better maneuverability and way better AA, so Balti can either shoot in open waters or anchor at a spot; while Anchorage is ill-suited for open water gunboating thanks to the sluggish rudder and anchoring thanks to the poor AA (Chicago pianos at T8🤣) and slow reload. Spotter planes might help her a lot but using spotter means 0 protection while smoking up, if she has an additional slot for hydro it will be great. 

Looks really meh on paper

[Max_Battle]

This isn't making me happy.

All I'm hearing is "play Baltimore or Buffalo"...

 

[dejiko_nyo]

13 hours ago, Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart said:

Anchorage has NO BUSINESS being in tier 10.

Good luck since MM is not +/- 1.

[Project45_Opytny]

5 hours ago, rookieFTW said:

Seems like she gave up too many stuffs for the smoke and Fletcher torps.

The maneuverability is one of the worst among peers, couple with the long hull. Firepower looks like a bit uninspiring now thanks to the usage of New Orleans' guns, although the alpha damage is still great. Range is nearly the same as Baltimore but Balti has better maneuverability and way better AA, so Balti can either shoot in open waters or anchor at a spot; while Anchorage is ill-suited for open water gunboating thanks to the sluggish rudder and anchoring thanks to the poor AA (Chicago pianos at T8🤣) and slow reload. Spotter planes might help her a lot but using spotter means 0 protection while smoking up, if she has an additional slot for hydro it will be great. 

Looks really meh on paper

So does her worth this marathon grinding event? I admit I have already paid 3000 doubloons (the smaller starter pack) for her and then fallen into the "sunk costs" fallacy (I didn't expect it would be very, and it is likely that I would have not very much time to grind for her (I haven't completed the Directive 1 yet, around 80% at the farm BB main battery hits and cruiser spotting, citadelling and setting fire tasks) due to real life constraints even though the event would last two monthes (the last directives look rather grindy like the Odin event, and in this case I would have to spend quite a little time on collecting the "snowflake" rewards).

Judging from your feedback the ship should absolutely use PM1-SGM2 to address her manouverity problem as well as making her less vulnerable when hiding in smokescreens?

[Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart]

The RN cruisers are far superior in my humble opinion, Albermarle etc.

I cant build the AA further as its still too weak anyway, so that's a waste of skill points.

I'm keeping the rudder shift and acceleration boost as it would just be impossible without it.

18 battles now, and highest xp is 68k, when I got to ambush a BB coming around an island and put 3 torps into it at 3kms and then was instantly vapourised...

 

[HobartAWD]

23 hours ago, Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart said:

Has Baltimore guns but they feel more worthy of tier 6 or 7 at most

That would be because it does not have Baltimore guns. Or AP shells

It has Pensacola/New Orleans guns and AP shells. These are not super heavy Mk.21 US AP either, these are the older standard weight  Mk.19 shells also.

Baltimore has 10 sec reload on AP that has 5000 alpha at 762 m/s velocity with great pen. Anchorage has 15.5 sec reload with 4600 aplha but higher 853 m/s velocity but ok pen.

Pensacola / New Orleans / Wichita and Anchorage all share these underwhelming AP shells. Plus she has much older and worse secondary and AA suite. Anchorage really gives up too much just to have good torps and smoke.

So guns and AP shells you first get at T6, put on a T8 and put into T10 battles.........

23 hours ago, Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart said:

Penetration angles are poor, and just returned from Georgia showing me broadside at 11kms, AP did nothing

I think you mean penetration power is poor? Penetration angles are great as they still get the improved pen angles like all these US cruisers do.

The penetration power is ok, certainly on par compared to other nations 8". However it is worse than the US heavyweight AP that Balti gets at T8.

Yes hitting main belt and well armoured parts of BBs at that range, the AP will struggle to deal damage due to the poor pen power. 

[dejiko_nyo]

So, it is more like a deadweight ANCHOR while the players RAGE. Hahahaha

Whack. bad pun. BAAAAD. whack. whack.

[Gummiheng]

The day they change from buffalo gun system to new orleans gun is evident this ship gonna be an inferior in pumping out damage 

Smoke firing penalty is 8km~9km(i forgot the exact value), for a 15km range ship 

 

This ship kinda plays like those typical ijn cruiser  but in addition of smoke and a not so slow and fast fat shell 

[HobartAWD]

Also the agility and overall maneuverability is quite poor. Rudder mod is a must have.

Balti gets 730m turning circle and 7.8 sec on the rudder.

Anchorage gets a BB like 800m turning circle and an almost BB like 11.2 sec rudder shift time.

Plus lots of players in reviews saying that it really feels very sluggish like a BB when trying to slow down to stop in smoke or stop next to an island for cover.

[Reinhard_of_Avercland]

This ship is basically the Amalfi-wannabe, in a bad way of course.

Amalfi also gets 9km bloom when firing in smoke. But because Amalfi stays moving throughout the smoke duration, it's not difficult to stay hidden. And of course Amalfi has decent gun range to support the stealth-firing playstyle.

[Dano07]

deleted

[Drakon233]

1 hour ago, Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart said:

The RN cruisers are far superior in my humble opinion, Albermarle etc.

excuse me?

[Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart]

20 random battles playing solo it's done.

I doubt I would change anything from first impressions.

Overall a very hard to play ship suited to the mentally deranged. Or those looking to lose their minds.

Avg dmg over 20 battles is 28k, at 30% win rate.

Sank total of 7 ships, however most of them were a hair from death, this ship CANNOT inflict large swathes of xp on enemies most of the time.

And as soon as you do, the enemy runs or repositions, so you have to do the same, exposing yourself to attack, while moving like a slug.

Bear in mind I am a 45% player approx, so it will be interesting to see other players impressions.

One, if not the MOST UNFUN to play ship I've had the experience of.

I stand by my statement that I enjoy the Albemarle moreso, sure the RN cruisers take a lot of battles to start enjoying, but eventually they did become enjoyable.

I recommend a run and gun build, beyond that anything else you build it for (AA or smoke attacks etc) is meaningless and ineffectual in battles.

 

I also stand by my statement that in its current state, anyone who pays for this ship will instantly regret it, play a few games and then send it to port to wait forever for the buff bat to touch it up.

And it needs touching up HARD.

Oh, by the way, a whole lot of the 20 battles were versus tier 10, approx 50%, then another 25% tier 9, the last 25% were equal tier 8 and a couple lower tier games.

To make this ship ACTUALLY PLAYABLE AND FUN:

the 8km detected once firing in own smoke penalty....smoke need buff

the snail pace and poor rudder need buff

the main guns need buff

the AA needs buff

the armour needs buff.

BUT IT HAS TORPEDOES.

Anchorage now goes into port to rust until maybe one day, it gets re-evaluated when global stats are returned showing its the worst in class, after being played by wows patrons.

If I keep playing it I simply wouldn't ever finish the directives for the research points.

 

[Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart]

2 hours ago, Project45_Opytny said:

So does her worth this marathon grinding event? I admit I have already paid 3000 doubloons (the smaller starter pack) for her and then fallen into the "sunk costs" fallacy (I didn't expect it would be very, and it is likely that I would have not very much time to grind for her (I haven't completed the Directive 1 yet, around 80% at the farm BB main battery hits and cruiser spotting, citadelling and setting fire tasks) due to real life constraints even though the event would last two monthes (the last directives look rather grindy like the Odin event, and in this case I would have to spend quite a little time on collecting the "snowflake" rewards).

Judging from your feedback the ship should absolutely use PM1-SGM2 to address her manouverity problem as well as making her less vulnerable when hiding in smokescreens?

Yes, it definitely needs the mobility upgrades.

[rookieFTW]

4 hours ago, Project45_Opytny said:

So does her worth this marathon grinding event? I admit I have already paid 3000 doubloons (the smaller starter pack) for her and then fallen into the "sunk costs" fallacy (I didn't expect it would be very, and it is likely that I would have not very much time to grind for her (I haven't completed the Directive 1 yet, around 80% at the farm BB main battery hits and cruiser spotting, citadelling and setting fire tasks) due to real life constraints even though the event would last two monthes (the last directives look rather grindy like the Odin event, and in this case I would have to spend quite a little time on collecting the "snowflake" rewards).

Judging from your feedback the ship should absolutely use PM1-SGM2 to address her manouverity problem as well as making her less vulnerable when hiding in smokescreens?

If doubloons has been invested I will suggest complete it to not waste them, or at least get the coals in 19th stage. But still, real life stuffs are more important than grinding a pixel cruiser out. What I said are only based on guides/videos/datas available online, I do not have her or plan to grind her at the moment, although it looks mediocre during solo randoms, in reality she might be solid when against lower tiers (clubbing people in asymmetrical battles), having a buddy DD to spot, or in modes with lesser people and faster paced such as ranks.

On the collectivism view she looks worthy to be collected, as she is one of the rare smoke oriented high tier heavy cruisers, and according to sources she is the older model of Buffalo, now being recycled and branded a new name.

The 2 upgrades you mentioned will amend her poor agility and improve her open water capabilities, but then again she now has 11+ km of detection, so makes getting into position really tricky.

Anchorage is like a fancy bucket with some big holes, and players only has a few flextape available on hand to filled some of the holes, it will always be flawed no matter how the player tries to patch it up. The only thing I am looking forward is the 12th stage with 100k free xp, as I am sitting on 870k free xp now it's literally a few steps to a free xp ship, and I can get a good cruiser like Alaska with it.

4 hours ago, Gummiheng said:

Smoke firing penalty is 8km~9km(i forgot the exact value), for a 15km range ship

8km, really easy for the enemy DD to spot it out unless there is a friendly DD scouting ahead all the time

[Drakon233]

2 hours ago, Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart said:

20 random battles playing solo it's done.

I doubt I would change anything from first impressions.

Overall a very hard to play ship suited to the mentally deranged. Or those looking to lose their minds.

Avg dmg over 20 battles is 28k, at 30% win rate.

Sank total of 7 ships, however most of them were a hair from death, this ship CANNOT inflict large swathes of xp on enemies most of the time.

And as soon as you do, the enemy runs or repositions, so you have to do the same, exposing yourself to attack, while moving like a slug.

Bear in mind I am a 45% player approx, so it will be interesting to see other players impressions.

One, if not the MOST UNFUN to play ship I've had the experience of.

I stand by my statement that I enjoy the Albemarle moreso, sure the RN cruisers take a lot of battles to start enjoying, but eventually they did become enjoyable.

I recommend a run and gun build, beyond that anything else you build it for (AA or smoke attacks etc) is meaningless and ineffectual in battles.

 

I also stand by my statement that in its current state, anyone who pays for this ship will instantly regret it, play a few games and then send it to port to wait forever for the buff bat to touch it up.

And it needs touching up HARD.

Oh, by the way, a whole lot of the 20 battles were versus tier 10, approx 50%, then another 25% tier 9, the last 25% were equal tier 8 and a couple lower tier games.

To make this ship ACTUALLY PLAYABLE AND FUN:

the 8km detected once firing in own smoke penalty....smoke need buff

the snail pace and poor rudder need buff

the main guns need buff

the AA needs buff

the armour needs buff.

BUT IT HAS TORPEDOES.

Anchorage now goes into port to rust until maybe one day, it gets re-evaluated when global stats are returned showing its the worst in class, after being played by wows patrons.

If I keep playing it I simply wouldn't ever finish the directives for the research points.

 

2 hours ago, Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart said:

Anchorage now goes into port to rust until maybe one day, it gets re-evaluated when global stats are returned showing its the worst in class, after being played by wows patrons.

ah yes, about that....

anchorage atm is the highest-scoring ship at T8 at the moment in XP, WR and 2nd highest in damage behind the OP AF mainz 

ofc part of it is new ship syndrome but the skill floor for a ship with smoke, fletcher torps and USN guns the skill floor is almost laughably low, even if they dont buff the ship people are still going to do fine with it, even as a HE spammer it's not that much behind a buffalo and you are still more than capable of ambushing ships with worse concealment. not to mention the free damage from spamming in smoke and torping at choke points

[Dread_Pirate_BlackHeart]

Do not forget the 8km detection penalty when firing from in your own smoke though.

Yes I have watched the cc youtube reviews and I'm not sure where they find their human opponents, who consistently line up to get shot at, but my human opponents are far more cunning.

SeaRaptors review is pretty much on par with my own experiences, bearing in mind im bottom feeder 45% win rate kind of casual but takes it serious and spends a lot player.

I look forward to others trying Anchorage and posting their own honest reviews.

I just played Mainz, and I love it, but Bayard would be my favourite at the moment, her bags of tricks, are just so many. I love to play both of these cruisers.

I have an MK47, and Pyotyr but I'm totally hanging for a Chappy type russian cruiser, I'm keeping coal, free xp, and wallet ready for one.

Thinking to get Ochakov but I never see it in battles which is an obvious sign, I do like being slightly challenged in games, but not to the impossibility of Anchorage extent!.

Once you get Anchorage you will find you're almost permanently spotted, by planes, by dds and pop smoke, still spotted!.

Its very hard to launch attacks, unless you are extremely patient and like to camp for long periods.

[dejiko_nyo]

On Asia you can see the "top performance". However, she is consistently average. The Top 5% do 68k average damage, the top 50% does 58k. The spread is quite narrow. 

On EU/NA, the performance is even more damning: very average. Averages about 48-50k damage but wider spread (top 5% is 71k/78k).

Some other ships like (?Bayard iirc) have a bigger performance spread on Asia. 

Maybe you need to be more island campy-smokey-snipey-fiery-starty?

[Davey77]

I think I just flushed 3k dubs down the poop hole 😕

[Project45_Opytny]

2 hours ago, Davey77 said:

I think I just flushed 3k dubs down the poop hole 😕

The same as you... I have been struck at Directive 1 by now.

Maybe I should change my mindset a bit and make some purchases in this game. At least to ease the grind for various in-game items and try something new.

[Project45_Opytny]

9 hours ago, rookieFTW said:

If doubloons has been invested I will suggest complete it to not waste them, or at least get the coals in 19th stage. But still, real life stuffs are more important than grinding a pixel cruiser out. What I said are only based on guides/videos/datas available online, I do not have her or plan to grind her at the moment, although it looks mediocre during solo randoms, in reality she might be solid when against lower tiers (clubbing people in asymmetrical battles), having a buddy DD to spot, or in modes with lesser people and faster paced such as ranks.

As of the end of this gaming day I only need one more spotted/set fire/citadel ribbon for cruisers and a few dozens of BB main battery hits and would unlock the Directive 2 tomorrow (though may only unlock it without enough gaming time to grind the next directive).

I will try my best to grind her remaining stages (may taking the National Day holiday in October?) and make up my mind about whether or not to buy the other starter pack soon.