Ok, please do not construe the following as me whining or complaining. I do not pretend to
be good at this game, or an expert on its mechanics. I merely seek some clarification.

I need to understand what results I should be expecting as I move through the ranks of the
KM shipline. Until now, I have been playing under the assumption that things will get
better as my sailors level up, but it is coming increasingly obvious that that may not be
the case.

I'm in a Hipper right now with the following setup.

Hipper Setup:
CV Power Plant I - Heavy
CA Aiming FCS I
-lvl 48 X2 8"/60 SK C/34*
Bulkhead armor
LVL 53 Hvy gunners (vetted well for this level).

If I operate under the assumption that a successful game in this ship entails inflicting
more damage on the enemy that he inflicts upon you, then I would consider my progress to
be mediocre at best. Here's why:

- The KM shipline around this level (and basically throughout from what I can tell) is
designed to sit back and lob shells from outside the range of the enemy. KM ships are
noted for being quick and able to run. That's all fine and dandy, but my Hipper is slow as
can be (27knts cruising or 45knts overheat). A slow ship needs to be able to deter people
from getting close to it or avoid situations in which people may get close. This leads me
to my second problem...spreads. I understand that my gunners aren't high lvl, but with
that in mind, should I avoid getting into CA's until they lvl higher? My spread is simply
not sufficiently predictable to inflict enough damage on enemy CA's and CL's before they
are within range.


When my shells land on target they do acceptable amounts of damage, but remember this ship
with that setup fires 8 shells per salvo, and I am lucky to see 2 or 3 land in a pattern
that would damage the same ship (meaning regardless of shot placement, the most shells
I'll land on target is 2-3). This means that I must fire and fire and fire to do
significant damage to an enemy ship. Unfortunately, enemy ships need not do the same. My
Hipper with no armor quickly sees its demise when it is rushed by an enemy CA.

An obvious response would be to boost the gunner sailors...but this leads me to a bit of
an issue. What that would mean is that the only way to be successful at this level in
these types of KM ships is to have boosted or elite gunners. That, in my humble opinion,
would point to a significant flaw in this game.

So here's two questions for those with more experience than me:

1) How should I evaluate my gameplay results in terms of success or failure?

2) Are my points above built on faulty assumptions?

Any response is greatly appreciated.

-Nine