A Schors to Settle

Do you remember grinding your way to the Cleveland? It was my first Tier VI Cruiser and from the moment I could see what it was capable of, I had to have one. Twelve 155mm artillery pieces raining all fiery hell upon your foes, setting fires all day, delivering close range citadels to unsuspecting Japanese cruisers and having an elusive citadel of its own, it was everything I had hoped for and more. In fact, of my lower tiered ships, it's the only non-premium that remains in my port. Then I bought a Pensacola and my love affair with US Cruisers came to an end.

My efforts then went into the Japanese and then German lines and whilst the Myoko wasn't disappointing, it wasn't particularly exciting either. Sure it gets a high chance of fire but the rate of fire is slow and the turret rotation even slower. The Yorck at Tier VII in the German line felt more like a Pensacola than its predecessor, the Nurnburg. Sure it could deal impressive damage, but the situations that allowed that to happen seldom came for me.

So recently I've started on the Russian line of cruisers and I wrote recently of my experience with the Budyonny, and whilst it has been enjoyable, I've been eager to get to the Schors and see if I could finally have a Tier VII Cruiser that really suited me. Well, today I bought a Schors and it appears my prayers have been answered.

I spent the dubloons to retrain my captain instantly and set about taking advantage of the Schors high rate of fire, range, shell velocity and accuracy. With demolition expert I have a 15% chance of starting fires on target and when you can fire 7.5 salvos a minute from twelve barrels, that's a lot of fires. Being able to reach out to 16.8 km's and stretch that to a whopping 20 km's with a spotting plane it really allows you to deliver the love and keep your enemy at arms reach all the while having plenty of time to avoid incoming fire. The upgrades are predictable enough with turret survivability, accuracy, damage control and rudder shift, all no brainers. Regarding the consumables, I always pack a Damage Control Party II and Defensive Fire Upgrade II. The AA stats are not impressive on the Schors, but your turning speed is pretty terrible so making any incoming bombers panic drop is absolutely necessary.

With the ship in order, it was time to take it out for a test run. Keep in mind I still haven't upgraded the hull or artillery fire control radar yet, so this was really just a test run. The verdict? I've finally found the Tier VII cruiser I've been looking for, I just hope they don't smack it with the nerf bat. The next few days will see me have this lovely ship fully upgraded and ready to take into Team Battles on the SEA server which is currently capped at Tier VII. It means my team will have to share the AA load without my Atlanta around, but I'm confident we can cover it. The Schors is a beast.