Since 8" dual isn`t a good gun for low level (and not BVE) gunners, like yours, just go back to Brooklyn.

You must have already discovered, Cleve is good when supporting BBs with AA and HH in GB, but killing small ships isn`t that good than Brook.

As far I could remember about cleveland, it is more a CA CL killer. Use distance to keep yourself from harm and if possible make use of the T slots for AA.

Also, have accuracy gunners are ur main gunners for cleveland. Have no armour but bulge

by 4x 11"Ds, im assuming you meant the dual 8" Ds.

first of all, the dual 8"s are impossible to blockshot, even with high level gunners. So thats why your spread is all over the place.

second, i hope you are using CL II AIMING FCS. If you're not, it doesnt even matter if you have good gunners. Your spread will be bad.

Here are some options:
- boost and/or vet and expert your gunners further more. Boosting them will give them the most improvement. Elite gunners are absolutely unnecessary. In the long run, almost all gunners are going to be the same.
- If you dont have boosts and really cant play with the current spread, go back to the brooklyn. The level difference isnt that much so you wont lose that much experience on your sailors.
- if you dont want to buy the brooklyn and dont want to play with your current spraed, put the brooklyn guns on your cleveland. But you will be out gunned by a brooklyn.

Remember though, with the same decent gunners, cleveland DOES have a higher advantage because of the range, speed, and AA ability.

on a sidenote, you should start planning your BB crew if thats all the crew you have . ie. more eng/more rep


EDIT: like above said. brooklyn is a better dd killer. but cleveland is a better against cl/ca. If you fight against others with proper setups, you'll realize that brooklyn has one of the worst CL ranges compared to other nations.

5,000-20,000 depending on if your team wins and how many planes you shoot down

Put the 3" 70s Ns on the Ts with max AA ammo
Put the 6" 47 Cal DPs on the Rs, with half HHE and half AA

/|\ Setup I got my first 100k attack game in lol

I wasn't a fan of Cleveland for the reasons you've already listed. The effective way to play it is to use the range of the 8" guns to hit your opponents and to use your speed to keep out of their range. In a blitz enviornment, thats going to be tough to do. Baltimore is a better option for that style of play.

On my first BO I went Fletcher - Atlanta - Brooklyn - Pensacola

The only thing that I would change out of that would be taking out Atlanta and inserting DDX. As far as using the Cleveland in GBs as an AA ship, I'd be leary of that too. The T slots/displacement aren't as good as Baltimore or Pensacola and using the AA guns in the main slots isn't as effective due to the limited arcs. I suppose you could put HH into the main slots and make it into a hybried AA/ASW ship as you get CA displacement but with a CL and sonar ability.... I don't think you'll do too hot with AA with your low level gunners. You'll need to get them leveled up before they reload fast enough.

I'd put it in mothballs and leave it in the back of the harbor. Go back to the Brooklyn and enjoy the game. Maybe when your gunners come up a few levels you can do something with it. BTW, sorry about the thing with the DDX and the reload gunners :)

You can get a lot more credits doing AA in gb
The exp/credits depend on how much personal credits you get of course. Since your gunners arent BVE, you'll have to learn to shoot a lot more accurately.

As for hybrid AA/AntiSub, I liked using the brooklyn with 3"70 Ns on the main guns and maybe HHs on the T slots (3 binds with regular HH), which, of course, will require another set of gunners. (and a sonarman on support)

But anyways, I basically AA-ed my way up to the guam and partly to the colorado since there werent blitzkriegs rooms yet. But its definitely doable. ( I did get a lot of the experts from AA missions, but thats not possible anymore)
so i pretty much stayed in brooklyn till someone got me the pensacola. I hope you dont get too bored doing AA. its quite fun once you know your angles.. (oh, and always pack some LHE/APC shells on the secondary ammo locker)