Of all the UK CAs the County is easily my favorite and I find it a little more forgiving for those of us
who don't like paying real money for boosts and elite gunners.

GBs the County does pretty good as a picket vessel. Like others have said the 2x8" Ls will be your
friend. I've terrorized more than one BB1 with them and lived to tell the tale. If you have them
some AA gunners on your T mounts high enough to use the Pompoms are not as silly of an idea as
it may seem. The T slots are so small you'll have trouble fitting the really good UK flak guns
anyway and hedge hogs can only fit on the back T slots. I mention this because aside from the
kitakami everything shy of a BB1 should be geared to perform two roles and since the free hedge
hogs aren't damaging enough to bother with it is a safer bet to put on some sort of flak gun
unless you can afford the premium hedge hogs and even then I'm not sure if there is enough
damage to make it worth while. YMMV. The pompoms are attractive simply because of their ammo
endurance and there are a surprising number of players who will just leave their aircraft
unattended after putting them over your side in a GB and thus allowing you to rake in some easy
credits. Plus with such a limited broadside you'll need to spam away with the AA as much as
possible and nothing does that like pompoms.

Blitz is an interesting quandry. The 3x6" guns do become more interesting simply because when
you do get in a blitz a lot of hosts just leave the map on the defaulted Hobbit War making learning
range and high angling a lot more difficult than it used to be simply because it does force a much
closer ranged fight. That said though I do advocate the use of the 2x8" Ls anyway. 3 binds of
Heavy HE and 1 of Light HE will be plenty for blitz. This still gives plenty of range while letting you
hit like a BB1 if your gunners are good. Even works surprisingly well in GB rooms but does require
some patience. As for AA there is less of a need in blitz but I recommend carrying it anyway just
so when things are slow you can go int a GB or GBII without having to fiddle with changing your
setup.

General setup then:
Aiming FCS if you are a good judge of where your shells are landing beyond your marking range.
Finder if you are not(like I was when I first started) because I found getting a sense of where your
shells were actually landing was more useful than having a slightly tighter grouping until I got
better at judging it.

Either way your grouping is going to be pretty bad for a long while.

CLII Heavy works well enough but the CAII Heavy does give a little better performance despite
having the same hp rating.

0.2" or 0.3" belt is a must. I know it isn't much but 0.3" does seem to provide a tiny amount of
noticeable protection that 0.2" doesn't against cannon fire. Could very well be my imagination
though so it is okay to skimp a little.

10 bulkhead. You will get damaged. You will need to be able to run for it with significant damage.
Bulkhead does noticeably help with that.

20 bulge. Not optimal by many people's opinions I know but it will help you learn dodging torpedo
attacks.

Having your own scout is always very helpful. Even in blitz.

Once you get a better feel for the County you can start skimping.

If you want a surprisingly useful if somewhat insane setup you can cut you crew to 30 tons each
crewman, slap on 3" of deck and 6" of belt and terrorize blitz with the 2x8" Ls.

County is one of the most awesome CAs in the game once you got hang of it, also its the
better UK BB line.

For starters, get 0.2" belt, this will half torp dmg (dont ask why nobody knows, but there
is proof). Everything from now epends on what you play.

I strongly advice against the retard setup with much belt armour and tripple 6" guns, it
teaches you nothing except being food forever.

If you play blitz go for the dual 8" and High angle, as someone said 55 deg is most range
(one of the highest ranges CA have), and 70 is most ouch, dont use AP with the high attack
angle armour penetration comes for free. Get one bind of HHE instead to kill small DDs
that rushed you, or for massive dmg on bigger ships that let you into range. HHE + 70
degree gives you BB like shell dmg.

Also use the CL engine that has the same HP as the CA engine and get as much deck as
possible, you should be able to fit something between 2.5 and 3" that stops most CA and CL
shells. Also always keep at range so they dont start hitting your belt.

High angle takes a bit to get used to as you have to guess were you enemy will be, also
dont attack anything smaller than a MPro you wont hit it with high angle, just go for the
BBs/CA and the bigger CLs. Also turn back right at the start if the map is hobbit war.

In GB you can do good with the dual 8" but depending on you SD it might be wise tu use the
RP10Ds for AA instead, this way you are less likely toget one shotted before you got some
attack. Also dont use any armour in GB despite the 0.2 belt.

My suggestion is to put 8" belt on, some bulge and use the triple 6", with this set up,
you can be the terror of blitz. And don't bother the GB because everything below BB (BB1-2
is also meat at lvl ) is considered as meat shield, so don't be so upset

If you want to play GB, at least get to BB class or practice AA. Otherwise, just leech
till the end

also learn to High Angle. You may not get great accuracy but you will be able to cause
alot more damage than you could with low angled guns (<50 degrees). The rule with High
Angles is that 55 degrees gives you maximum range (don't know why) wile 70 degrees causes
the most amount of damage. If you are high angling try to range blinded blinded
battleships that are already distracted. When you high angle you can do a lot of damage to
evem bb3

Welcome then :)

The configuration will not change the time you stay alive.
I have three advices for you.
1) Put 3 on belt (to get the minimum belt armor, much better than zero)
2) Be patient in Great Battles and attack targets at the same or lower level, or attack
some bb's when they are fighting another ship. In time you will learn when the enemy is
blind (no scout planes, ships near you) so you can attack them and when you sink don't
leave the room, you get more xp :)
3) Read posts in the forum and use the search function, it will help you a lot

Be patient with the grinding and enjoy the game,
Nassos