As said it isnt like the tank playground.

CL/CA are used to level toward the end classes that are SS/CV/BB.

Thats the choice you really gotta make. You want a BB, a CV, or an SS crew? And that choice gotta be made at the start, the sailors you'll need created and leveled right then.

After that, you do not stop at BC or anything, but keep leveling toward the end of the line, and the lvl 120 ship. Each new tier of ship is superior to its predecessor in its capabilities. If you think you can have a crew that "maximise" a BB1 to make it superior to a BB2-3, it won't work.

The BBs at the end of the line, the CVs at the end of the lines are all better ships that you unlock with an higher level BO. Not different, in the matter they have different function, they just get better at their job.

BBs get more range, better support slots, damage, durability.

CVs see an increase in the amount of planes they carry, the amount that can be readying for take off at once, and the numbers of active pilots they have on deck.

SSs have normally harder hitting salvo, more air, more durability, and decreased crit dive time (they move to crit dive faster)


Your choice is first CV, BB or SS? (I'd take one of the first two, as I find SS works better as a 2nd go once you have an high level crew of either of the 2 first, since SS doesnt give a lot of cred and points, and they aren't ship that are good at leveling sailors for other crews. Their crew tend to be highly specialized too, so there isnt any effect at using high level sonarman on a BB after for example. However, I know some players are dedicated sub players.)

Once its made, you make your crew planning for the END LINE SHIP. That means all your sailors will be really used at once with that one, and rotated before that.

So for a BB6 (lvl 120 BB) it would be 2 gunners, 2 AA gunners, 8 supports, a scout (+ the BO of course).

Setup can vary, some prefers additionnal supports and ditch the AA for them, some run more than 1 scout, etc. For the exact nature of the crew, you'll can refer to national sub-forum at the bottom of the forum index page.

That means you now also gotta choose a nation. I know nf-guides list the pros and cons, but I dont feel it is entirely correct all the time. Here is mine, concerning BBs of the 4 original nation. I'll come back to what I mean by Difficulty after.


-=USN=-

Difficulty : NORMAL


-Pros-

Decent speed to really fast ships
Decent to great firepower
Most BBs have usable T slot for AA, safe 3 BB1s. AA guns are also decent.

-Cons-

Spread is an issue on many at level BBs
Range tend to be on the lower part of the balance
Being decent at everything means it is rarely the BEST at something

-Summary-

USN is a bit of a jack-of-all-trade nation. Their ships are never quite at a disadvantage anywhere, but they dont have a strong niche either. You can expect any USN ship to have a decent punch, and good speeds on them, not many are under 42 knot, some go way above that.

That means versus a USN ship, one MUST play to its strenght to beat it, since USN sure beats it in its weakness.

It means USN contrary to other nation playing to their strenght will often play to its OPPONENT'S weakness. Its a bit of a double edged blade, as some player are quite good at staying in their nation's comfort zone.

Nonetheless, USN ships are a great school, with fun lower level ships, a different BBs that makes you experience different playstyle, and is my personnal suggestion to a new player that wants to go BB.


-=UK (RN)=-

Difficulty: Easy


-Pros-

Best supports and support slot on ships
Best armor
Great per shell damage
Best ship durability

-Cons-

Range is often inferior to other nation (exception being their BB5)
If armored, ships are slow
If armored, some firepower must be sacrified in order to mount enough armor
Poor AA
low scout plane space
Gunners sacrifice either rld or acc for the other (in a way, worse gunners)


-Summary-

UK tends to be more forgiving than any other nation. The ships are durable, and have powerful salvos that forgive accuracy mishap, or can take a beating from a bad move, evade that situation, and get back in the action better and faster than any other nation. Many UK BB also offer the option of running lots of armor, at the cost of speed and firepower sometimes.

The range however is often lower than other nations, about on par with USN. Their AA is quite limited, being either heavy or close ranged. Lower level ships aren't awesome to play for a new player, as some require a special firing technique to truly show their potential.

I find many UK players that go UK first tend to fail to developp some skill that other nations would force them to learn. They sometimes do not avoid damage as best as they could, do not have the accuracy they should, and count too much on the ship and not enough on themselves to get out of a bad spot, or avoid it altogether.


-=IJN=-

Difficulty: Hard

-Pros-
Good range
good damage
Great long range AA
fast ships
Good scout plane space
Good spread
Good gunners
Good armor penetration


-Cons-
Longest hangtime
AA isn't usable till BB4 (lvl89) due to special classing and ships T slots
Worse support
Fragile ships


-Summary-

IJN Is a nation that specialize in sneaking in range, either of a distracted or blind enemy. The upper average firepower, good reload, decent spread (safe of the BB3) gives any at level IJN ships a good punishing salvo for its tier.

Lower level BBs however typically dont have the AA available to them, and must be battle smart in their game.

High hangtime, I've put in the cons, but is actually a double edged blade. It comes with the high angle guns, and it is somewhat easier to dodge, reduce your rushing capacities, but also increase your defensive one, and armor penetration, which is in your pros.

However IJN ships doesnt forgive a misjudgement of a situation on the player part, and are quite fragile, with a limited ability to repair the damage as fast as other nations do at similar levels.

The higher tiers are master at creating opportunities to attack and taking them.

IJN requires some skill in analysing the battle and AAing. For this, I do not suggest it as first nation.



-=KM=-

Difficulty : Very Hard


-Pros-
Best range
Best gunners
Best engineers (note it doesnt mean best ships speed, but best OH time)
Low hangtimes
Great all around AA


-Cons-
Weakest salvo
Most fragile ships
Wo

You still need to redo your crew.

You cannot "reset" a nation. Lvl 30 is just reached quickly enough.

And I actually really advise you to go USN or UK at first, as they are much more new player friendly, one being a great school and the other an easy mode.

Should you go IJN, its crucial you go and read about the AA gunners and the way you class them.

Yeah, sorry if that was unclear. I was being a little sarcastic about switching nations a bunch. I just made some crew mistakes.

I went SN first when I started, and gave that up after some pressure to go USN or RN. My SN crew was done totally wrong anyways, and they were all the yellow-named sailors you can't sell so I just dismissed most of them. AA gunners in particular are easy to screw up without realizing it.

It's true that going battleship in the USN or RN is one of the easiest paths to the high levels. I didn't really like the USN thing though, and now I've got a KM sub crew about halfway through the sub line, and a baby SN CV crew I'm leveling up on CLs (and I use a second BO and a pair of gunners for each nation, who will just stay on the gunships so I can use that for leveling up crew).

The best thing you can do is make an informed decision, but pick something you think you'll like. Then you can ask more specific questions, like "is this the right amount and types of sailors for nation X's shipline Y?"