- Ships at Nats -
Using
data from Nats 2015-2020, I compiled a list of the
most popular capital ship classes, Class 4 and higher. They are organized by
lead ship of the classification. The source data was filtered to include ships
that participated in each fleet battle at Nats as a
single data point. Campaign, night battle, one-on-ones, challenge battles, and
ships that withdrew from combat were excluded. There were 755 data points.
Percentage wise, QE was 14% of all instances of battled ships at Nats, NC was 8.8%, Nagato 7.4%. Seydlitz
6.9%, Kongo 5.7%, VDT 5.6%, Helgoland 5%. There were 37 different ship types in
the 6 years included. 16 classes each had 1% or less (this division is between
the Revenge and Jean Bart). The most popular 7 classes account for 53.5% of the
ships battled.
Commentary:
In
my opinion, it looks like the best ships are being built and battled more than
less competitive ships. I think the QE (Queen Elizabeth) is the best allied
boat and the Nagato is the best axis boat. These are both relatively large
powerful ships with a high degree of effective fire power and will turn well.
The NC (North Carolina) certainly holds a position of power, as does the Kongo,
but for different reasons. The NC is best thought of as a large cruiser that
can score devastating triple hits without much return fire and the Kongo has
all kids of sidemount firepower but doesn’t turn
well. The Seydlitz is the shortest 24 second boat and
has minimal free board, it is a sneaky good ship and a handful of people have
battled them at Nats consistently over the past few
years very effectively. The VDT (Von Der Tann) is the best axis small sized 26
second ship. The ID (Iron Duke) is like a QE with a little bit different gun
placement and fewer trigger pulls. The Invincible is the best small sized 26
second allied boat.
The
numbers can be a little misleading. Consistency vs trend is difficult to see in
the graph alone. For instance, the apparent relative popularity of the
Helgoland is due mostly to the same captain battling it at 6 consecutive Nats. It is very common to captain the same ship for
multiple years. Conversely, in 2017 there were 5 QEs and 0 Nagatos.
Though
the better ships are more popular, people are also not afraid to battle
whichever ship they desire.
My
opinion of which ships are “better” is debatable but I think my reasoning is
overall sound and roughly consensus. I have 13 years of battling experience and
have personally built/battled various cruisers, Derfflinger,
Invincible, Kongo, Nagato, Queen Elizabeth.
Tyler
8/24/2020