That was some great information. Although I understood most of the principles, it never
occurred to me that the engineers were still providing rep/rest. Now I got it... my
question is what exactly are the caps for restore, SD, and repair? I think that would be
helpful for future crew planning.

"5. You run 3 reps / 2 engys.. I assume your third engineer is dramatically worse than
your two and in turn you run this setup because adding your 3rd engineer lowers your
speed, rep and sd."

From what I know, adding an underlevelled engineer only lowers overall true engine true
ability, but not repair and SD.

@OP: Alaska is a tough grind, no doubt about that. I actually remember going back to
Balti to ease the grind a little. Regardless, Guam is a good BB1, and I actually wish
all other BB1 can have the speed capabilities it has. Though it is good to have another
pair of AA gunners, I honestly think that anything above Guam shouldn't use AA - it'll
just make you more sluggish, and speed is life.

@jvco

1. Norcal and Sodak are both notoriously inconsistent spread ships. Even when run with
120 gunners.

2. I have done 5 BB6 crews, only 2-3 have boosted gunners. The remainder were very
usable, even when using bb1-3. Gunners will benefit dramatically from levels and
experts/vets. At full experts and 100 vets (very very easy to achieve through AA with no
cash) just keeping them ahead of BO reasonably makes low tier BBs play much better. For
someone that does not want to spend money on this game, or wants to use it in a better
way, boost your supports. They are more important and will see the benefits. Do not be
short sighted in this game, you will regret it.

3. Please do not use Restorers and Skills in the same post. Only people I have seen make
a decent claim about restorers are subs and CVs. My opinon of subs is pretty well noted,
and for a CV I could see it. In a BB you are a fool. AA is a much more important skill,
ESPECIALLY in a BB1-3 that provides a good platform. You think SD is more important in a
BB1-3 than finding the other teams blind spot, or creating one... talk to me about skill
later.

4. Engineers are more important than reps. Simply look at the restrictions of the game.
Reps provide SD/Repair do NOT contribute to engineer stat. Engineers provide engineer
stat (OH speed and endurance)/SD/Repair. An engineer will not provide the same amount of
SD as a restorer, but similar to that of a Rep (if you roll a good base), and it will
provide quite a bit less repair value, but 5/3 or 4/4 is works proven.

5. You run 3 reps / 2 engys.. I assume your third engineer is dramatically worse than
your two and in turn you run this setup because adding your 3rd engineer lowers your
speed, rep and sd.

I recommend people looking for advice look to someone that as planned out further than
this person has. Listed above, he is using a crew setup that is proven a bad idea, and is
short of sailors. The Alaska is a BB1, like any other BB1 at level it is difficult, put
up against higher tier BBs it is a BB1. The Alaska is a solid BB1, with Good/Great AA,
and great speed. Run engineers for the speed and oh time, run AA to blind, combine and
succeed.

Don't ever recommend anyone to ever use a restorer on a BB.
They're a waste of space and xp , its xp should be used on an engineer or repairer.

Gunners will cap? Sure, the case is when you get a BB with at level gunners your
spread will suck.

Im on Nevada line, with a North Carolina right now (and its a ok ship), and all i can
say, both lines sucks at level, no matter what. Alaska line gets better when you get
Colorado and the Nevada line when you get Tenesse 45. My only advice is: keep
leveling, and boost and vet the gunners if you can (and only them), this helped me a
LOT since my spread was a nightmare even with 11/11 gunners. If you dont want to
spend money, wait for the next conversion rate veteran event and at least vet your
gunners to 100.

Since your are on Alaska line, the ships have a decent AA, in my opinion its optional,
you can use the AA slots for more suport sailors like restorers and get more SD or for
actual AAing to make the enemy blind. But you have to know, sometimes you have to
not AA since you have a enemy in range, so in a non dedicated AA ship you have do
choices and multitask about staying in the fog or not.

Also, i dont recommend boosting the support sailors right now, why? Skills. You will
have low SD wich make you try to not to get caught in the battlefield. Repairers
even not boosted are very good, engineer not as good but mines is not high level
right now so i cant say.

For Crew setup: I use 3x 11+ Reps, 2x 11+ Engys (waiting for 1 more support slot to
put one more 11+ engy), 1x Restorer, 1x Scout. Also, if you want more support slots,
you can not use a scout and put a engy, but i dont recommend it, in battlefield you
will miss your scout, but keep leveling your support sailors, even if you dont use
them, you will get more slots later.

As for AA ship, i recommend the DDX. Why? Better turrets angles than Atlanta, but if
you crew is high level already that a DD gives you low xp, get then the CL Omaha or
Atlanta as well.

"Everyone say use 5 engys but after reading Adalbert's post on ability
( http://www.navyfield.com/board/view.asp?Num=84358&Sort=D07 ) more specifically the
engy part, I dont see the reason to use 5 because of the stack factor. I would use another
rep to get closer to the repair cap.

The more engys you use, the lower ability each one uses...
1:100%
2:71%(each)
3:57%(each)
4:50%(each)
5:44%(each)"



The reason for multiple engineers is not to hit the speed cap, but for the OH endurance.
Think many of the ships on the US line can be speed capped with 3 Engineers. Running
about 2 minutes of OH instead of 4-5 minutes can be very detrimental though. And because
of the way they stack (as you have shown), you can actually lose the speed cap by putting
a junk or low level engineer on with 4 good ones as it hurts the averaged ability.

"Also numerous people, including the main guide writers (LK , etc) & MODs have said there is
no reason to boost gunners (unless you just want to cap a few levels sooner) "

I completely agree with NOT boosting gunners. I did it on the first 2-3 crews the others
I just ran 11/11s or 12/11s unboosted and about 100 vets. Gunners will cap (save for very
very low based ones and even then they may) you may have to struggle through a few levels
but unless you are just die hard determined to have the best gunners for blitz, gunners
just need levels. Personally for crews outside of my first, I tended to level up my next
crews gunners while re-experting or fininshing levels on supports before starting the next
crew. The last crew I did before quitting my gunners were 80+ before I started the
BO/Supports.

As for the guy saying never level using AA or a CA to AA with, the only time I agree with
this is for the first crew, or if someone is playing purely for levels. AA = experts and
exp. Your crew will be better the more experts and vets you have, while struggling with
at level ships, use AA to better your crew and even out your supports and get your gunners
above your BO. AA is a very very valuable skill. Take your bettered crew and go through
the BB1 stage with your BO that should now be lower than your gunners and supports and
learn to play BB same as you would had you not AA'd just with a better crew and playing
the ship closer to the caps. And by the way, the Alaska has a very solid AA platform for
lower level AA gunners. The turrets are spread in a way that you do not have that block
shot AA like the pensa, iowa or monty.

Everyone say use 5 engys but after reading Adalbert's post on ability
( http://www.navyfield.com/board/view.asp?Num=84358&Sort=D07 ) more specifically the
engy part, I dont see the reason to use 5 because of the stack factor. I would use another
rep to get closer to the repair cap.

The more engys you use, the lower ability each one uses...
1:100%
2:71%(each)
3:57%(each)
4:50%(each)
5:44%(each)

Also numerous people, including the main guide writers (LK , etc) & MODs have said there is
no reason to boost gunners (unless you just want to cap a few levels sooner)

I admit. Alaska is a horrible ship to drive in for an at level crew. Its still horrible even for
a high level crew (70ish and above). But my advice is dont give up on it. Dont go back to
a CA or use any ship to AA and level.

To answer ur post, +10 levels higher then ur ship level is the optimum crew level which
also highly depends on ur crew true ability. In other words, ur ships will always suck in
the beginning but will get better as you level up.

Use the Alaska as much as possible until you can remodel it to Guam. You will learn a lot
about BB play style in the long run.

LK has very good tips about BB play for lower tier BBs in his forums. One hint - *Ninja
style FTW".

first off always b/v/e ur gunners asap. i.e i have level 118 gunners
they have been boosted vetted experted when i
hit acc gunner.gunners should be classed acc/reload/acc to reach cap
faster .supports should always be +11 or +12.
supports should be b/v/e by bb3 always.recommend set up is 4 reps 4
engis 2 gunners 1 scout 2 gunners or 3 reps 5.engis should have 100-
120 vets
reps if ypu feel like it at low level put on 100-160 vets.
engis 1 restore (helps burn really fast).
oh btw usn t2 bombers at really high level can destroy t2,t1 fighter i.e
i bombed a monty for 37k attack with my tico some yorktown with t2
fighters cone after my bombers. 11 Level 120 T2 dbs 11 F /12
bomber vs 8 US t2 fighter obviously who will win?

OMG Meno, youve seen me around the server & I think we were in the same fleet for awhile,
why didnt you tell me you were having these problems. Ive been playing for about 4-5months
I made the EXACT same mistakes in my BB1 AND 2 [gunners below BO, half my support were
in the 30s (thats 40 lvls below what they shouldve been), and sadly yes, even did torp2rel
<<< I did that twice lol XD] but after finding every creditable forum post I could, Im back on
track now with an almost at-level crew

Once you get the crew above-level or even at-level, it will be ALOT better.....still TERRIBLE
but better than before, plus help you as you move ahead.

LOL @Lionel I saw some Tbs eating fighter last wekend, Idk if it was you tho...