granted I had BVE gunners above my atlanta when I got it, (lvl 45 due to dual BO leveling
and some extra ride with a skeleton UK crew I used to have fun at server start DD wars :P)
but the 5" HAW were pretty great.

In case of a rushing DD, I kept a backbind of HHE to have them think over the decision of
rushing me.

While the 5" firepower is not very impressing in direct fire with HE, at least far from
the HAW result, its still more than enough combined with the good reload and the ammount
of barrel the atlanta-class and remod ships have to tear any DD that comes too close to
shreds, and quite fast at that. Even if you only use APC direct fire, its still works fine
enough (if you ran out of backbind or decided to go all APC as I did with atlanta. Only
kept HHE on the oakland)

HAW isn't easy to learn, but you'll find it most rewarding and also incredible fun. What
other CL1 can boast about twoshotting or threeshotting CAs?

Keep working on it, practice your angles in test mission.

While you do have less room to move around hobbit map, you can still enjoy the first 1-2
minute relatively easily without being rushed and still well in range if you avoid rushing
middle at start.

I don't see much difference in how many people come to blitz rooms. Maybe it's a bit
slower to fill if it's not hobbit, but once the hobbit rooms fill a non-hobbit room will
fill just as fast. If you mention that it's not hobbit, about half the people leave. Rooms
with more than about 40 players max seem to fill a lot slower.

I have no problem starting non hobbit war blitz games. Just wait for a hobbit war game to
fill or get close to full before opening yours.

The problem with the current blitz-gen is they avoid room that are not hobbit war >.<

"which also means I will be targeting you if you're against me. "

Dont fear denara, if it wasnt for his blockshot he would be frigate food like the rest of
the blitz noobs. :P

Sjakal, as a fellow USN player that just went though the Atlanta phase let me offer some
thoughts to consider as boiled down versions of what everyone else has said:

Just stick to the 5" guns. Even though they do not have great stopping power their refire
rate is so good that they are really the only gun that should be seriously considered for
the Atlanta. The 6" guns could be considered shortly before you level out to help ease the
shock of longer reloads.

Do not EVER be the front line rusher in an Atlanta. That being said I found that being in
the back also ended in me being alone with several enemies chasing me down. Find a happy
medium where you can shoot over the rushers and be far enough back to not be a first target.

Make sure to work on getting full range usage out of your guns. Learn where every angle
will land most of the time. Really knowing that is going to make you a much much more
lethal CL. The problem with most CL drivers is that they still have not really locked in
their ranges, so they spend too much time with their shots landing all around an enemy
with only one or two actually hitting. When you get them locked in you start to rake in
damage. The prime example is the Brooklyn with the triples on it because you have to try
hard not to get at least 26k attack barring a sudden torp wall.

And lastly, get out of blitz and into GB2. You will not really accomplish a whole lot in
either in MOST games. However while blitz will give you a lot of money, you can make
comparable amounts as well as great XP in GB2.

Like V2 said if you can learn to use the single 7" you can farm the room. However, the
biggest problem when playing Blitz is the Hobbit War map. Use Ledans advice and change
the room. After awhile you will be farming ships all day long like Picaso and Woodwork
using the 7" which also means I will be targeting you if you're against me.

6" Ds have no point, I killed DDs as fast as I could possibly want at low angle with
machinegun 5"/54 Ls.

"6" Dual Ds "

Are terrible guns for atlanta....

6" Dual Ds