Wow, talk about flaming someone for trying to help others out...

Anyway, MeNoChinese, not a bad post really. Missing a bit of in depthness, but
maybe I can help out some? I ill first go over how each ship operates in Blitz and
then into GBs. These will be my experiences and opinions on what works best.

Alaska
The Alaska isnt a bad ship for Blitz. Its a big change from the Baltimore though, and
a bit of a change if you had the Pensacola. Coming from the Baltimore, you will have
much, much more range, but more than likely you will not be able to see where your
shells land and your spread will be aweful. Coming from the Pensacola you will
notice the same thing, though being in a Pensacola, you might have purchased b/v/e
to help with spread, so your spread might not be as miserable. The Guam is a fast
ship, best used for hit and run. Your speed on this monster will be equal to some DD
and CL. My opinion, and what has worked best for me, is to place the 12"/50 CAL
Mark 8 main guns on this with 3 binds of Light Ammo and 1 bind of AP. The light
ammo has the longest range, as by now you should know. The AP with be for the UK
BBs in Blitz, without the AP, they will more than likely make short ork of you unless
you attack when they are blind. The AP is best used on AW (Armor Whore) ships.
Ships without armor, these rounds will do much less dmg than light. You might be
tempted to put the 12"/50 CAL Mark 8L on the Alask, but do not do this. Sure, you
will have longer range, but you can only hold a total of 2 binds of ammunition and in
a Blitz as a BB, you probably will run out of ammo doing this. Now, AA guns.
Personally, I believe that US AA Gunners are useless, so I use Reload Gunners. (US
AA Gunners dont get the bonus to reload each lvl like most other nations, so by
using reload gunners, you will be able to fire much faster when these sailors lvl
higher). The 5"/38 Cal Mark 38L, in my opionion, work the best. Longest range, and
decent reload times and the 5" guns will make short work of most planes. These
guns only hold 5 binds of ammunition (if I remember right). If you find you run out of
ammo rather fast, you might try the 5"/38 Cal Mark 38 or 38Ds. These will hold more
binds of AA and fire faster, but the range will be less.

Ok, so now you have a fitted out Alaska, great! So what about sailors you ask? Well,
Obviously the BO and your 4 gunners (2 for the big 12" guns and 2 to protect you
from being scouted and bombed). This only leaves you 4 sailor slots... hmm. So what
to do? Well, my opinion again? 1 Repair, 2 Engies, and 1 scout (ALWAYS take a
scout, without them, if you are last ship remaining, how do you find the bad guys?)
Some players will tell you to drop the AA gunners in blitz and add 2 more supports.
This isnt a bad thing to do, because then you can lvl more supports faster. The
problem with this is now you are vulnerable to the air and being scouted. This is the
part you need to decide what you will do. AA Guns or 2 more sailors. You have my
opinion.

Ok, I have a fitted ship and all my sailors are on board, now what Remenents? Some
players maybe tempted to pile on as much armor as thier budgets allow. I would
reccomend NOT doing this. If anything, just add a bit of bulge, but not alot. Your
biggest ally in the Alaska (and Guam) is its speed. Too much armor = slow BB = it will
be harder to keep ships at range. This is one of the things you will also need to play
with to get it the way you like. Personally, I put maybe 50 bulge at most (to help
protect against torpedoes that exploded, but dont actually hit you. With your speed,
you can usually avoid torpedoes fairly well) Now, to play the Alaska effectively, you
will need to stay at range of ALL ships (not just other BB - with no armor and slow
guns, the enemy can swarm you fairly fast and kill you). Your main priority will be the
enemies BBs. Once you sink these, work our way down the list. BB, CV/CA, CL, DD,
FF. Use your range and firepower and your AA to stay in the fog. DONT rush in!!! Let
the smaller ships rush in and scout for you. (You should be using your scout to find
the BB/CVs) Stay back, shoot down scouts, and use your range. Your spread for at
lvl Alaska and Guam is not that great unless you have some really nice gunners that
are b/v/e. if you do not, then hitting things at range will be rather rough and will
drive you nuts. But stick to your range. A Swarm of enemy can quickly make short
work of the Alaska and Guam.

GUAM
Ah, the Guam. Memories... oh, sorry... daydreamed a sec there... Ok, so you finally
made it to the Guam! Congrats! I am going to assume your gunners are lvl 61 or
higher and so you cant play Blitz anymore. (IF not, and you still can Blitz in the
Guam, your playstyle wont change very much from the Alaska, except now you have
more speed, better spread - or should -, and more range. Just keep grinding, you
are almost to the GBs!) You are now a bit tougher, a bit faster, and a bit more of a
hitter (all compared to the Alaska). With the Guam comes new weapons. With higher
lvl gunners, you can actually fit the 14" guns, but avoid this. You wont be able to
hold many binds of ammo for one, and the range is only slightly better. You SHOULD
be using the 12"/50 Cal Mark 8L now. Use 4 binds of Light Ammo and 2 Binds of AP.
For AA Guns, I would stick with the same ones the Guam had. 5"30 Cal Mark 38 L. If
you dont have or dont use AA Gunners, then just skip to the paragraph below the
next, however, I highly suggest getting some AA Gunners for the Guam. You are a
support ship, what good are you if you cant keep planes off the bigger ships of the
line?

Ok, the Guam comes with 1 more sailor slot (thank God). So, once again, you need
to decide. AA Gunners, or no AA Gunners. As stated above, AA Gunners are your
friend. In GBs, planes will be everywhere and the lower lvl CVs will be looking for
easy targets since the DBs and Tbs they use will not be as tough the higher lvl ones,
and guess what... you are the easy prey. Without AA Guns, you will simply have to
overheat your engines and dodge and pray you dont get 1 shotted from someones
7 DBs they are hitting you with. With AA Guns, you will at least be able to shoot a
few down, and if you are good with AA Guns, then you can get more than half and
then the other half as the planes leave. Planes killed = credits. :)

The best way to use the Guam in GBs... well, there is no BEST way. It depends on
how you play. When I play my Guam, I stay back, let the main BBs do the work and I
AA for them and take out the smaller ships that try to rush them. I also do Sub duty.
If a Sub is after a BB5/6, then you need to get in there and sink him as fast as you
can, and if need be, take one for the team (absorb the torps so the bigger BB can
continue the fight - only do this if you have saw the BB5/6 take quite a few torps
already, as most BB5/6 players have a TON of bulge. Remember, your death isnt as
painfully felt and that of a BB5/6 player) Once the enemies line begins to crumble,
and they only have a BB or 2 left and you know they are not likely to be able to see
you, go on the offensive instead of the defensive. Use your speed. Get in there, fire
a shot, get out, dodge, weave, dodge, fire. NEVER sit in spot or keep going in 1
direction. Always move and zigzag to make it harder for the enemy, this can also
help if they were scouting you and you shoot the scout down. most players will just
sail along without moving and thats how you get 1 shotted.

Well, I gave soome advice ans some opinions. Take them as you will, just remember,
there are more than just my ways to play these ships. It really depends on your play
style and what base sailors you have. Good luck!

@tank, You're right, its not entirely a bad post, just unnecessary, generalized,
opinionated, and not fully comprehensive. Suppose i am a future player and im
lurking. I come across this thread and read...

1) "you're a noob so don't even bother trying GB"

2) "read this other useful post on how to play BB"

3) "try to have fun"

4) "I didn't think this post through while composing it"

Honestly, the problem isn't with the ship. This sudden shock of GB difficulty can be
entirely avoided if new players weren't so spoiled with blitz. The fact that he doesn't
know what's out there in the big world shows how naive and sheltered blitz mode
has made new players can can be solved by simply playing GB. Heck, AAing alone
gets you a plenty of experts so your spread is decent at level and your shells are
actually visible

Now if he included all the useful things about the BCs such as what you mentioned,
mentioning future SD and supports, at level speed, how to gain more experts to get
a tighter spread, then quite possibly it has a decent chance of getting stickied like he
wants, but apparently he hasn't gotten the "equation" down yet.

hey KingCong, shut up....not to be rude but really Meno is just trying to help future
players. Some may consider it spam but I did not see anything bad about this post. The
guides tell you how bad the lower tier BBs are and how to use them but until you use
one you will not truly understand how BAD they REALLY are and the true limitations
you have, and Meno was just trying to emphasize that to future BB players.

on a positve note, Meno you should have also emphasized having an at level crew
(especially support). People say SD is useless on BB1 but its better than getting to
Colorado or higher & realizing you need to go back & grind the rest of your crew up to
be competitive & reach your BB6 goal (which I have heard some people say it took them
a year)

In my opinion the Alaska/Guam class should be the US PCA and it should be replaced
with the Lexington Class CC's there are great pic's at the below link. I tried to copy
the pictures and post them here, but can't do it for some reason.

CC1 USS Lexington:

http://www.navyfield.com/board/view.asp?
Num=188735&Sort=D08&Order=re_upday&PageSize=50&Page=1&SearchPart=&Sea
rchText=&Ctg_1=&Ctg_2=&Ctg_3=&Mode=ok&Page2=1



And the remodel:

You already have one thread about this topic.

Stop posting your rants with no positive contribution. Yes, I understand you're raging
but everyone had to go through the process. If you are having a problem then you
must be doing something wrong since hundreds of people have struggled through it
without complaining.

"I just basically posted this because I was really frustrated with the Alaska/Guam and
no one really bothered to explain why it sucked, let alone actually tell me how it was
going to be like or what to expect in it."

All BB1s suck when you first get them... Same goes for any BB tier really.

Well written post.

I just basically posted this because I was really frustrated with the Alaska/Guam and
no one really bothered to explain why it sucked, let alone actually tell me how it was
going to be like or what to expect in it. And so after really getting to learn its
(limited) strengths and multiple weaknesses, I figured I would post this. Had
someone bothered to write something like this I would not have been so shocked by
its undercomings and how demanding of a ship it can be. I know I don't have the
whole 'equation' down when it comes to driving this thing, but I do have some
decent knowledge that I think newcomers to the USN (Brooklyn line) can benefit
from. I also wrote this so that there won't be 'noobs' in the future who complain
about Alaska/Guam suckage like I did. Like I said earlier, I don't know much about
the NM mini-line, but in my opinion it really seems like a ship to be skipped. I only
had good intentions when posting this. :)

all of the next few BBs after the guam will still be bb1 (except for colorado line).
there isnt much difference between all 4 of the US bb2s. they all can perform well.

like what was said above, colorado just appeals to most people due to its many possible
gun sets. NM line can only use the 14", but some players prefer to use those anyways on
the colorado

Not too bad. You basically know your role. I remember my Alaska/Grind. LoL.
Nonboosted +11 50 vet crew on the Silver Account. One thing about the NM 30/45
though. They really aren't that bad; I know a few people that can make them into
killing machines. However, the Colorado is good because of it's flexibility--Trip 14"
guns, Dual 16" guns, AA-42knts, No AA-42 knts, Best turning rate of all the BB2s, It's
super sexy.