Boost is a better use of you money if you can't get all elite and all boost. But one thing to remember is you can boost them later, but you can't make them elite later.... so later on, if you wished you'd done both, spending all that time levelling non-elites... well you get the idea. Elites are worth more if you end up selling them too.

I'm about to get H44 (with all EBVE crew) 5 engi 3 rep. I wouldn't want to have only 4 engineers - speed is life. I can't yet speak for BB5 or 6, but if you only level 4 engineers you'll probably be short on overheat. I know I run out of OH regularly - and when the battle is won and the enemy are runing away, it's a great shame to run out of OH and miss out on the easy XP (especially in the H39 :P).

Are you a new player or are you starting the KM line as your first line?

My Suggestion: Get 5 Elite Engineers And 3 good Repairers, remember to boost them and to keep them with full Experts and AT LEAST 100 Vets. 

Your crew should be really good with that setup, and By really good I mean REALLY good. Don't expect to have the UK Repair rate, nor the endurance. In KM Speed is life, and the longer you can keep the OH, the better.

Also get an AD if you can and a good pair of gunners. The AD (Andrea Doria) Is an Awesome ship, which will make the time spent at lvls 65-80 much more bearable and short. The downside to this is that The AD doesn't play the KM way, it is closer to the UK one (Which you are probably familiar with now) 

 You mentioned you have a 12/11 gunner, get another one and boost it. 

No, don't waste those 11/11 gunners. Those will be more usefull for another BB line, for AA a pair of 10/11 gunners should be great, as you don't want to have such a tight spread with AA guns. Keep them as rapid fire gunner.

The 11/11 repairers are great. use them and boost them

Also, don't run armor on KM but 0.2 belt to halve torp damage and as much bulge you can before losing 1 knot of speed.  

The Range difference will be noticeable, but don't expect to own a BB345 with a BB12. With the BB2 using the 11" second set Ls you can outrange Most BB3s, but your damage will be miserable (They have a longer range than Bissy 14.95") 

If you have any other doubts, there is a great guide done by Split in the KM Forum section. If you still have doubts you can whisper me if you are in Kaiser or you can send me a Memo with your question through the page, I will be happy to help. 


Oh, and WELCOME TO THE KM! :D Enjoy the game.

Not agreeing at all about the Moltke.

Yes the Emden is a great AA ship as well, however it has a few drawbacks.
The Moltke allows you to lvl/expert a lot more sailors at the same time, more support slots and no need for a BO. But the main drawback of Emden is displacement, you can't fit all that much of a slightly higher lvl crew on an Emden as you can on Moltke.

As for spending cash on experts instead of a Moltke: lol wut?
Moltke AA brings in far more experts than you can buy for the same money.

1. buy Moltke
2. use it to lvl to whatever level you want.
3. lvl further on BB.
3. burn all experts at a vet conversion event.
4. Go back to Moltke and AA your hart out to bring your experts back, until you can safely run your BB again.
5.run BB again.
6. Repeat 3-4 again at the next vet conversion event for even more profit.

You don't think it's a coincidence that there are/were soo many Moltke's running around after the latest Vet conversion event?
The Moltke in a SW PHH or TW configuration is also a nice diversion for some lolz if you are bored.

There's really hardly any point in buying elites. If you can get your hands on some for in-game money, great, if not, it's not a big loss. You'll just hit your caps a few levels earlier.

Rolled engineers are usually preferred over elite engineers. The difference in OH time they provide isn't all that big, but the rolled sailors usually have better repair rate. Elite engineers have a 9 base repair, while rolled engineers should at the very least have 10 repair base stat.