Welp ... I did it.

You wont get deleted. Her armour is too thin to cause BB AP rounds to arm. You'll get a LOT of overpens. Just be careful of cruisers like Moskva and Stalingrad. If you are targeted, go dark and wait for your smoke to recharge

So now I'm considering just exchanging my steel for coal and getting it.

Sure I want a Flint but I'm questioning how bad I want it now. I already have Atlanta, and I have a Belfast so I don't think I really need a tier 7 smokey dakka dakka.

Whats the exchange rate on steel to coal?

Also what captain skills do I need? I have 2 captains that night work for it.

Hold the trigger down, kill every BB in the game. Out damage Conq's heal. Burn down Kremlin. Erase a Yamato. Montana? No.

Smolensk is a hard counter to all BB's, 90% of the DD's and probably more than 60% of the cruisers in the game.

So long as she has someone spotting while she sits in her smoke, there isn't a ship in the game who can survive long enough to get close enough to Radar her. The only real DD threat is Shima because those 20km torpedos might tag you in your smoke, and they are difficult to dodge due to the sheer number of them. Any other DD that runs into you, or is targeted by you is dead well before they have any sort of chance.

BB's dont have a chance to escape or even retaliate. By the time they get up to speed, and complete a full turn to start moving out of range, they will already have lost 3/4 of their health, and probably are on cooldown on their heal and DCP. Just hit them with 30-40 more salvos before they can get half way out of range and you will kill them with multiple fires from full health.

That ship is prossibly the most broken that wargaming has ever produced, across any game they have made. Its lack of armour assists it in most cases, as a BB like Yamato, Kremlin or Republique will probably only score overpens for minor damage, if they even hit you at all.

Guess I gotta wait til the 26th for the coupon. Then maybe it will let me convert my steel.

I've actually heard you should skip IFHE.  Smolensk starts somewhere like 10 fires per minute.  You are Trogdor the Burninator.  You can actually rely on fire damage.

Little White Mouse did a reveiw, I've always found those pretty helpful.

forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/202337-premium-ship-review-132-smolensk/

Welp, I did it too....

She's a good lookin ship too! Not trying to derail the thread but I wanted to show off Shima also. I now have five T10s!

It's worth saving up for, even if it's the only coal ship you can afford. It came down to about 183k coal with my discount. Also I think it was worth trading in my steel too. No buyer's remorse at all here.