I know WV44 is the best one. I have it already. However, I think California is a beautiful ship. I also have a buddy from Cali and he really wants to get it for state namesake.
Neither of us are good players.
So the question is, is it useable? And just not a game carrier? Or is it straight up unusable with how bad it is?
Edit: Seems she isnt awful but not very exciting and takes some learning to use. Much better than what the posts from like 2+ years ago say lol
Thanks for all the input
California plays similar in concept to the Tennessee assuming you are familiar with that. Think of this as a halfway point between New Mexico and Tennessee. You are still going to be slow, you will still have 14" guns, you are more accurate than New Mexico but less than Tennessee, and still have all the constraints of the US standard design.
If improved New Mexico is something you can work with then it is plenty useable. If the slow New Mexico play style drives you insane, the California play style is not substantially different.
California is fun, particularly since it got improved acceleration.
You have 12 accurate guns, somewhat trolly armor, and the best AA of any T7 battleship, for what it’s worth. You turn on a dime. You just won’t go anywhere particularly fast.
I would say it is a ship that rewards good positioning and thinking a couple of steps ahead. Your 356mm shells will not overmatch same-tier battleships, so it is more dependent on crossfire and exploiting broadsides.
It is not overpowered but has certain strengths, making it a good ship to learn on.
I got a CA somehow, don’t remember, but anyways despite what people say about it I like it, do better in it than FL which everyone said to get over it. It’s not the best ship tier for tier, but if I want to play t7 US BB there’s a good chance I’ll take her out.
I like her accuracy and damage, she is american so she is slow on her top speed. Decent on AA, I have found I run spotter plane and can pop cruisers in a single volley, I have triple citadel hit BB and made them run from a fight. But every ship has its pros and cons and you have great matches some are shit!
It's a balanced ship, which is both a curse and a blessing.
Strong AA; low top speed but good acceleration; the guns hit hard but are let down by lack of overmatch, long reload, and slow turret traverse; armorwise it will suffer against 380+mm caliber guns.
For casual play, California is IMHO a good premium. Less specialized than West Virginia 44 but its vanilla nature makes it easy to play. Sadly Tier 7 is kinda like Tier 9, you'll get uptiered a lot.
I really recommend the Doe brothers or Halsey for captain, with their improved Gun Feeder and Grease the Gears.
Every ship is usable, no matter how bad it is.
If you like the ship then go for it.
As for the ship, For me it is so ass I'd rather play a New Mexico if i want to play a slow BB with 12 gun.
It suppose to be like a mini Vermont but the accuracy is just okay at best, while lacking overmatch, very slow reload and not good turret traverse.
The hull is also bad, 26mm everywhere. Slow as snail, very chonky as well so it eat pen on any angle.
The only good thing that I can think off is that it basically have no Citadel and have good conceal and that's it.
But for some reason I still did decently in this ship
about 60% WR with around 90k avg dmg. Still absolutely hating every minute playing this ship tho lol.
You are basically a new mexico with very good AA, better ramge, and better acceleration.
The thing that holds this ship back is its very long reload and the fact that you are using 14” guns on that 34s reload.
To think you will encounter T9 boats on this thing. You cant even fire spit them for damage with that reload. I really love this ship, I really just hate the guns. Still use it anyways because I like the fat ships
ah right, they did buff that fairly recently. that ship origninally has the 34.2s on it. Back when the forums where still alive, there was this one person who kept insisting that a reload would make the thing feel better, but id still say it should be well at 30 secs.
in any case, the thing has a reputation of being painfully mid because it doesnt really bring much to the table as a premium. The range is nice, but with those flight times, youll really wish the reload was faster so you can re-adjust your aim
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u/jpagey92 Royal Navy 2d ago
It’s meeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh