I'm really sorry to say this, but who thinks the other nations BB4s have a chance against a RM BB4 in a direct one-on-one is simply out of reality.
I'm currently driving a Lion 1, unarmoured, 900 SD, crappy 41knt overheat. I love playing Linebattles against H's or Lion 2s. The spread is great - not always blockshoting but close to it.
But if I see a RM BB4 and I'm being scouted, you see me running. Its simply worthless efford to take on that ship alone.
1) it outranges me be far.
Example, we were both going from North to South like this \
I shot at max angle, missed him by an half inch 'cause shells land to short. He shot same time and hitted me by at least his half salvo.
Which leads to
2) increadible firepower
Agreed, there lots of facts play in. For example, my ship is twice as big and hard to miss so if he doesn't aim like 3 degrees too far he will hit me with at least his half salvo which kinda blow up my SD for sure.
Compared to that even with my pretty tight spread it is hard to lead more than 4 shells into his ship even when he is NOT EVADING.
Thats thrid
3) Evading time
When I see an enemy firing at me, for example Iowa, its pretty easy to at least evade in a way so he probably won't hit me with 9/9 because I have 4.5 seconds time to react (-1s because I'm from europe and my ping is beyond 800 :P)
When I fire at max range he has about 3 - 3.5 seconds to react, which is insanely much for a ship in CL size with a speed better than mine and an really impressive turning force.
For me, no chance. From shoot to impact I have 2 seconds maximum to evade which is impossible for 2 reasons:
- I cannot evade by coming closer because the low-altitude shells will hit anyway by a chance of 90% because I simply cannot get far away enough.
- I hardly can evade by getting further away because I'd have tu turn away AND turn in again to increase the distance. Otherwise my ships fat butt would been hit anyway which has pretty much the same effect like I wouldn't evade at all.
4) Close combat
Forget it. Even if I land all my salvos at right angle I need 3-4-5 good hits to take him down (See point 2). But he can set his gun angle to 5~8 and doesn't need to adjust anymore because he'd hit me anyway because of that low altitude and my huge ship.
~~~ Summary ~~~
I'd rather fight a Victoria than a RM BB4. The BB5 of the RM is - as far as I can see - better balanced compared to its tier fellows.
I don't deny the idea of the low angled guns and compact sized ships. As some people before me said, its something new, but as people have to realize, its something currently just not fitting in this games balance.
If I had to make a suggestion: Size is ok, Angle is ok but make it just a bit slower, a bit less range (like L1) and reduce its firepower way more. It twoshots anything without even hit with all shells and if it does, pretty much everything is a oneshot - which - and people be honest - is ridiculous for 12,6" shells.
Thats my opinion, thanks for listening.