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I like this guy; mostly unbiased and great details you can't find unless you read many journals.

What does the Essex bring to the table to make up for being the only frigate not able to carry any chaser guns at all?

Hello! I was really happy to see the lovely Essex added in-game. She holds a lot of nostalgic value for me; my parents helped spark my love of the era by buying me the "Anatomy of the Ship" book for the Essex. As a kid, I spent a lot of time annotating and screwing around with the book, drawing the ship all over the place on copy paper. I now sail her around, and I do adore the model; however, I noticed something about her stern. Her stern is fairly plain, black and not exactly furnished with any gold lines or anything fancy. In contrast, the stern livery I know from the Anatomy of the Ship book, along with some models I've seen on the internet show a humble, but more attractive design. Just simply adding some gold trim and adding in her nameplate could really spruce up the stern in my opinion!

Где-то в буржуйском разделе подобное обсуждали, но т.к. я плохо владею разговорным английским и не могу с иностранцами нормально общаться, решил сделать тему в русском разделе. Вопрос у меня по материалам (типы древесины) и бонусам для кораблей. Там было обсуждение какое дерево что дает и в каких случаях стоит его использовать (в ру разделе тоже была инфа). В частности это касается фрегата Эссекс. Так вот, в чем соль и сахар этого фрегата? Какое дерево взять за основу для его крафта и какой бонус выбрать для этого корабля?Для каких аспектов игры какой крафт билд будет оптимальным (соло ганг, ганг малым составом, линейный бой большой эскадрой, банальное пве)? Есть ли смысл делать Эссекс из Тика (если я правильно понял особенности этого дерева) и получить +1 к показателю брони (и что еще Тик дает)? Взять бонус на планкинг? Или же сделать корабль из Оака и билд стрейнч? Слышал, что у индейца хорошая броня. Что имеется в виду, класс брони или количество хп этой брони? Стоит ли сделать упор на планкинг в нынешних реалиях?

I am one of the few that has received the USS Essex, and I have taken on the duty of testing her and seeing how she fits into the game. Most of her reviews, I hate to say, have been mixed. And it is not just due to her lack of bow chasers either, but that her stats do not feel appropriate for her size and role. From my inspections, the current stats of the Essex seems to be designed as a contender against the Trincomalee. Both have similar speeds (with the Trinc a bit faster), and the exact same turn rate. If the Trinc is crafted with armor with mind should be able to have more hitpoints than the Essex. The Trinc however has a lot more firepower, being able to mount more guns and 18 pounders instead of just 12 pounders. The only true advantage the Essex has over the Trinc is that she have 360 crew in comparison to the 315. Other than the crew size, and decent hull armor however, she does seem to be an odd ship to be compared to the Trincomalee Below is an image of stats of miscellaneous frigates that the Essex would most likely fight against: If by looking at the stats, (which are not truthfully accurate in representing each ship type stats, as they are different woods and qualities of ship building) the Essex seems to be a bit odd. The hitpoints of the Essex is extraordinarily high for a 12-pounder frigate, nearly twice the armor of the Surprise, and 1.2 times the armor of a Live Oak Belle Poule. The Turn rate of the Essex is as full degree slower than the Frigate and the Surprise, which would make sense because they have less armor and hit points, yet that full degree makes a massive difference in battle, which would make the Frigate be able to be able to completely out maneuver the Essex. In turn, the Essex completely out classes all of her competition in crew size. While this may be fine, as the Essex appears to be designed to fight the Trincomalee, looking at the ship in comparison to the others, the Essex’s size and hull does not appear like to be an armored beast to fight 4th-5th rate Frigates: Here, it is easily seen that the Essex is significantly smaller than the Trincomalee and Constitution, yet is the same size as a Frigate. With her hull lines being shaped like this, it does not make sense that she has so many hit points. It also does not make as much sense why her turn rate is as slow when she is shorter than Trinc. Also, after a brief search, I did not find a time where the Essex was crewed with 360 crew, instead I found mentions of her crew only being in the range of 250-300. Also, most records call her a light frigate, of course, for the United States. Her hull construction was mentioned to be made from white oak, therefore her high armor value should not be as great, if not equal to most other frigates in other navies. She was known for her speed however, which should be her key advantage. Therefore, with this, here are the stats that I suggest for a basic Essex with no improvements or penalties: Max Speed: 13.00 Turn Rate: 2.60 Side structure (L/R): 3000/3000 Bow: 800 Stern: 350 Sails: 3400 Crew: 300 Battle Rating: 190 These are up to debate, but basically, this is a nerf to most of the stats, but a boost to the turn rate. The Speed can be higher, but that can influenced by modules. The turn rate is what needs to be tuned the most, as it is just too low. It’s still the lowest of the rest of the lighter frigates but that is the tradeoff for her speed. Wood types will also greatly influence her performance, where she can be more armored or built more for more speed. My changes also are not to make her a badass frigate, but to balance her out in a role she can better play in rather than being ignored as a sub-par Trinc. Please discuss below.