Kinda agree, hency why I skipped the KGV and used QE till POW :)
The KGV lacks any excellence in any ability to be better than QE imo.

With the introduction of new countries and the nerfing of many of the good UK bbs over time,the UK line is much harder to progress than the "easy mode" which is how it is sometime characterised..

The lack of range on the guns seems to be the compromise that the developers put in because otherwise if the UK ships with their ability to armour would dominate...ie the L2 is still a pretty handy ship..

Personally I dont think theres a good ship now in UK apart from arguably the Nelly,til you can get the L1..in the standard line..

In the premium  though there is the dunker..range at last

and ebb apart from the HOOD has some even better ships..



 

"KM is a bit of a chore to grind to BB, and lacks in the BB1 department too."

I lol'd.  KM is the easiest nation to grind post BB123 patch by FAR.  In fact, I'd put KM bb1's vs other BB2's .... KM BB2's vs other BB3's... and KM BB3's vs other BB4's without question. (obviously, other than the RM BB2 1915 which is virtually unstoppable vs any other ship in a 1 on 1 or even 1 on 2 situation.)

KGV is still a good ship. If you have the right crew you can still mount 10.0+ inch deck, which will bounce 80% of the shells coming to you.

QE is probably the best UK ship under BB4 and also apart from EBBs. However QE cannot go AW and is brittle as hell; it can be easily one-shot. But when was the last time you saw KGV being one-shot?

AW KGV actually strengthens your team because of its armor. Imagine yourself driving a KM BB6 Kaiser and seeing an AW KGV and a PBB rushing you. Now, which one will you make your target? Will you switch to AP or HE?

But if you see a QE and a PBB rushing you, your answer becomes much easier, isn't it?

That's the difference that KGV can make, towards your team.

Plus, if you know how to sling shot you won't have too much trouble getting high attacks in 15*2*3 KGV.

Anyways, KGV has a much higher survival rate than QE in GB. I used it until POW instead of QE or other EBB. 

Here are my 2 cents:

I have played both QE and KGV and my feeling is that KGV is the harder ship to play. Granted, if played correctly, it can be devasting. I don't use armor, and use 14''Ns on all turrets. I can go 40-41 with all turrets and AA. (removing AA　doesn't actually increase speed). Given short range of guns, you really need to be careful and pick your moments to rush and strike. If I did get in range, however, the block shotting guns are very fun to use. So in short, most games I did pretty terrible because it's hard to get in range, but once in a while I would have good game where I can do 70k+ damage. Once I even 2 shotted a L2 once who wasn't paying attention. With the QE, most of the time I can do at least 10K damage because of higher range, but I never have a "good game" like with KGV because of bad spread and longer reload. I do admit that sometimes I get frustrated with the KGV and went back to QE for a few games, but I didn't think the KGV was a bad ship. I think if they increase the range of the 14''Ns to just a bit shorter than other bb2 guns, and make them still have high accuracy, but not block, the KGV would be a much better ship.

" If you have the right crew you can still mount 10.0+ inch deck"

For crew that light you'd need to either have low level guys = no SD and no speed = dead...

OR, you are playing for fun and keeping 2-3 sailor slots on the ship open.  Neither of these prospects are pheasable in this conversation I'm afraid.  When I tried to set the ship up with a 90's crew i could not mount that much armor, and it felt that the ship did not take shells like it once did with armor (i predict there was a change to submergence in the patch also).

Also, a ship with 6 barrels will never be devastating.  Its a pick and run type of ship for the most part.  However, With more dp, more displacement, and one more sailor slot... it was at least better than QE.  :\

One on one, A QE should beat a KGV 10/10 times with equal crew.  Sad.  :\

Look at that, JZ is talking about armor.

They're both capable.



The real decision is based on whether you like zipping around at a good speed or relying on hitting your shots knowing that you're not going to get out of range once you're in.