experts and vets.

Its a good CA. Of course, if your crew sux, its going to be meh like any other ship with non-BVE crew.

some ships are forgiving with weak crew. NH is not one of them. BVE, gunners should be higher level than BO

run another BO down Baltimore line till your crew is Baltimore level, then jump back into Northampton with the second set 8" guns. That's what I'm doing I'm about 6 lvls away from the NH itself but my gunners are lvl 48 V/E so I look forward to it. I always thought it was too good to be true to get a CA at lvl 38, so I figured it must suck at level =P

North Hampton is a CA1

Portland and New Orleans are CA2s

and Baltimore is a CA3



The North Hampton in general even with the port/NO guns sucks. Its not til you get the New Orleans and Portland when you get a true CA.

NH might be CA1 but based on experience, it is not hard to use the ship. Yes, the guns are not as powerful compared to Balti since you can only mount 3 x 8" 13Ls while with the latter you can use 14Ls but using the right gunners ( Expts and Vets) it can pack a power punch.

Range on the other hand is a con but to compensate it, learn how to use your scout. That being said, always have a rookies pilot at hand. It will not increase your range but will surely give you a broad view of the map and plan your moves. You do not want to be in the range of ships with higher caliber as you will find your self catching every shell they hurl without being able to send some in return.

So bottom line, your BO should be higher than the ship level and with gunners at least 10 levels ahead of the guns. Have some Expts and Vets and fill it up with rookies. That should help your spread.