If your really worried about speed on the maryland. You should just take off 2 guns or if you want more speed 3 guns. Event ships have rediculously over powered engines. If you take off 3 guns on warspite and leave one on and unarmored with nice support crews it can go around 50 knts OH. I'm pretty sure if you have all this you can go really fast. But really If Maryland has one more R slot it may be able to cripple a SoDak so i think you should get maryland. And plus not everyone can have one.

No, firepower doesn't necessarily mean better than speed.
Some ship needs speed. Because your sodak guns has a very low range.

Now, it is up to you and decide how you place yourself.

When a team is temporarily blind, you do want to get asap in range and get out as much as possible when they see you.

You're right that the Maryland beats SoDak in terms of firepower, and that SoDak can run circles around the Maryland, but thats not the whole story. 

Maryland has a truly awesome broadside, to the point that pretty much anything that comes in range dies. Even BB456's will usually die after 2-3 salvos. The problem is getting into range with that 36-39 knt OH. This makes it less of a rush ship and more of an ambush predator that preys on blind or distracted BB's. Best tactic is to wait for them to come within easy striking distance then fight to the bitter end. Running away really isn't an option with such a slow ship.

SoDak is the polar opposite. With 42-47 knt OH, getting into range is much less of a problem. But once you're in range, you have noticeably less firepower to work with. This makes SoDak a hit and run ship. Dash in, fire a few salvos, dash out. Rinse, repair, repeat. Don't try to go toe to toe with higher lvl BB's unless you have to or you have backup. Players have often described a SoDak as a stronger, faster Guam.

Really neither is "better" than the other. They are two ships with two different playstyles. In my experience, with the Maryland, you land hits a lot less often, but when you do something usually dies. With the SoDak you score hits a lot more often, but you often have to settle for a piece of your target instead of a sinking. 

I prefer Sodak by a mile...... hard to argue with 47 kts and 40k ish salvo .... spread is random lots, but when it hits its awesome. Stay alive, then rush the cvs after your bb5s help but dont have OH to get in range afterwards. 200-250k games are available.

I don't know where people are coming up with Firepower issues on the sodak..

It hits harder than the Iowa by 5k per salvo...

Heck you can oneshot 110+ lvl H44s with the sodak if you get some lucky spread. (A Seaman do wonders for the US BBs on FCS BB I)

Also a correction to someone above, Maryland has 1 more support slot (7) over the sodak (6)

Also never take guns off a ship to gain speed unless those guns block. Only the Iowa, Alaska and Guam can really by run 2 gunned at any time for USN. No other US BB should ever be run with guns missing.

Speed is the key to BBs in NF, sure firepower is great, but if you run circles around the ship firing at you, do you even need firepower?

Always follow the original line when grinding nations, they teach you some very valuable skills with playing the ships leading up the tree. (All those guys skipping the Alaska and Guam and sucking in the Sodak Up, that is why your failing) Always learn the ships in the ship tree line first, they go back and try the EBBs later (Beside the EBBs work best with crews 15+ levels above the ship ;)

You probably critical hit.
Because Sodak does way less than Iowa.

Unless you were sarcastic. 

thanks for all who answers!

btw who want to share their tactic on 1v1 BB fight?  sometimes Im the only one BB on either north or south of the map and the other of my team BB are very far away. most of the times my enemy is EBBs  I can't figure out how to win in that fights. I can do a lot of damage but I always ended up being sunk.

if your the last bb play like an ijn bb, run and rain shells. You should have more range then anything your teir when you are running and they are rushing, the trick is to pull them in and to not run to fast or to slow. alway aim for the front of the bb or if your hang time is long enough and they are going fast enough lead them a good bit. Also as far as I see it an ebb3 should always beat a bb3. So dont feel bad if you cant beat a 120 op ship all the time.

i havent got my us crew to bb yet but i have played the sodak, iowa, mony and nebby a bit and they can be a beast if played right. but if you play them wrong then youll get owned.