The credit issue in terms of the next ship is a common problem since changes to xp a while
ago. It is incredibly easy to level up now a days compared to before (took me 6 months to
get a BB5 when I first started, now players are HoF'ing in 1500-2000 games). One of those
things you just have to deal with till later on. Credits will become much less of an
issue when you begin to get more into AA and CVs (at least until you start trying to pay
for 5 BB6's).

Speed when fighting other ships is very important, looking back I worded myself some what
misleading. It is more when you are providing a support role in AA that speed is not as
crucial (your not so much trying to dodge shells, keep in range, etc) your biggest concern
with speed in an AA boat is making sure you can keep out of other ships way lol (can even
be supplemented with just paying close attention to your ship and understanding people
don't like to drive in a straight line).

As you get high level crew the best way to have a fast DD/CL/CA is to use 1-2 high level
engies, gunners and a BO. If you can speed cap with 1-2 engineers, and have your gunners
you'll save the weight on the other supports and give yourself more speed. Similar to
what people do with 70+ knt Z99s they have maybe 3 sailors on (ghosted BO, engineer and
gunner).

I'll try to take a look at the math later for the gunner, but one way to do a quick test
would be to look at the % that shows in the recruits row on the sailor to see what a
difference pulling them off does. But the best way to explain it is really recruits do
not Add to your ability but rather remove from it. Experts increase your ability X
percent, and every vet increases your ability equivalent to 4 experts. Now iirc recruits
never provide more than 0% to ability, however as you start to remove them they add
Negative ability (or decrease your ability percent).

In case you are a math guy, the true ability formula (as adalbert provided in his forum
thread) is (4*numvets+numexperts)*(total num of crew on the sailor / total num of crew
that can be on the sailor) * the displayed ability.

*displayed ability being the number shown for ability on the sailor for that stat.

Just for simple math I'll use fictitional numbers that are easy to calculate. (ignore
displayed ability as it will be the same for either way)
0 Vets, 100 experts, 200 recruits on a sailor that can fit 400 total crew.

(4*0 + 100)*(300/400) = 75
(4*0 + 100)*(400/400) = 100

By running 3/4th you have essentially cut your sailors ability down by 25%. So running
3/4ths full crew will cause a substantial loss in ability, the real question is how it
compares to the cap and which FCS and guns you use (as they affect the spread).

@ Blazer - Agreed with everything you said in your post except the speed. I'm in the Blitz
alot and I'm using no armor at all. Also, I level fast. I've got two crews one 40s and one
30s and I've been playing less than a week. When I put the L62 gunner on the Oak, he took
1 3/4 knots! I would like to eventually have a high speed dedicated crew for a CL. Can I
do this without the overweight gunners? If my gunner has all experts but 3/4 the size,
could it be just as good as one with a pile of rookies slamming rounds the wrong way in
the breech?

@V2 - Yea! Right! Guns aren't cheap. I'm stuck now in a credit/issue. I'm leveling faster
than I can afford to buy the ships. I'll be at Cleveland level when I can afford the
Brooklyn. Not that I'm complaining, I'd rather have a better crew in a lesser ship.

Spread on guns is a tricky subject, as Spread is based on true ability, fcs, and guns.
Beyond that, Accuracy and Rld caps increase every level, with non BVE gunners, low levels
can be somewhat difficult to maintain good spread as higher level guns come around.
Beyond the obvious reason for having higher gunners than crew (better rld/spread) at BB4
level gunners need to be atleast 2 levels ahead of the BO to use the proper guns. Bear in
mind xp per level grows exponentially and 20 levels ahead at CA isn't going to be enough
at that point.

I would strongly discourage removing crew from gunners to save weight, particularly low
level. At 120 with unboosted 11/11 gunners 100 vets you can shave about 150-200 recruits
for weight while still maintaining the cap (assuming the cap is increased after patch over
a year ago). True ability relies on vets, experts and total crew on a sailor. By
removing crew you significantly reduce your true ability (which effects sailors performance).

Speed in a DD/CL even CA if its AAing is not a huge deal. As long as you have enough
speed to make sure you can give adequate space to the ships on your team fighting your
alright. Do not take this to mean speed is not important just in terms of the role of AA
its not as pressing.

and yup like v2 said, dont buy and sell guns too much. There's a penalty.

and you should class your gunners on time always. If you really want to control the
gunners weight you can reduce the amount of recruits on them. But i wouldnt advise this
since your gunners arent high level yet and they lose ability if you reduce the crew

your speed isnt that important if you're doing US AA in GBs.
i dont see how you can run out of space on the brooklyn with the 3"/70 equipped. (please
dont ruin the ship by using torps...on ANY US SHIP...unless you wanna have fun in the
pensa going torp whore @ 70 knots). I can comfortably fit those guns on the brook with my
main crew on, with maximum binds of ammo.

my advice would be just get away from blitz and practice manual fcs in GBs doing AA.

i havent played the oakland in a while so maybe someone can fill you in on this. But
again, losing a couple knots in a support ship is ok since your max speed is probably
still faster than most BBs.

I hope you're not forgetting about leveling engineers with all these focus on guns.

Take it from someone whos done it... Constantly changing guns will run you out of credits
quickly.

Good advice on the angles but I have a question about the 3" 70s. They look pretty darn
heavy.... On the Atlanta, you can't afford to lose any speed. Can I get away with that on
Brooklyn and if I can, is that secondary battery big enough to do damage? Also, I have a
problem is gunners. I am leveling so fast that I'm afraid I'm outgrowing my ships. I
purchased a L62 gunner and stuck him on the Oakland in place of the L39 that I have there.
He took a full knot off my speed! If I don't re-class them, will they not gain weight? Can
I put my gunners on weight control???

yup,
and once you feel like your gunners can reload fast enough, start AAing in GBs.
Its a good training for high angling shooting in that you have to adjust your angles a lot.
DDX, atlanta class, and the brooklyn are all great AA ships. I'd recommend using the
3"/70 N guns (or if you feel like you want to reload even faster, use the D version)

for these guns the golden angle is 37 (for shooting planes at their default/max altitude).
but remember, you'll have to drop the angle down depending on the altitude of the planes
as well as your position to the planes. (so sometimes shooting at angles up to 55+ and
sometimes in the single digit)

when your gunners turn to high 50s, i urge you to try high angling in the brooklyn (or
oakland). In my opinion brooklyn is more fun with the dual 5" guns equipped since the
guns give you more range than the trip 6s. Remember, 55 deg is max range, and you
increase the angle to shoot at ships closer to you. Raining shells woohoo

No, I'm not talking about not classing them right away, wouldn't want to miss the edge.
What I'm talking about is when a new gun becomes avaliable. If you have level 34 gunners
and a new L34 gun becomes available, if you put that team together for some reason their
group goes all to heck. I've been experimenting and found that if you have the gunners a
few levels above the gun, they get a nice type group.