Cruisers ???

In general;

They're good for planting on objectives

They're usually the ones that have SAs that provide synergy throughout your fleet

1 cruiser > 2 destroyers

Provide decent AA to cover capital ships.

Specifically, there are cruisers from each nation that are invaluable for various reasons. Atlanta. Chikuma. The range 4 German cruisers. Belfast Jamaica or Sheffield.

Not to mention that you can't just ignore them. But to get rid of them quickly you need to use either torpedoes or BB mains.

And both feel like a waste to your opponent

Tossing cruisers into your build because there are points available will lessen their effectiveness. You can certainly do that sort of thing with pretty much every other non carrier unit. But you need to have a specific role in mind for your cruiser selections and you have to make sure you don't stray from your strategy with them

Cruisers are definitely the "odd man out" in this game IMO. RB knew that and started to reduce their cost overall in the later sets. However, you can't compensate for everything with cost, and they start to collide with destroyer costs. As mentioned above, some cruisers have special abilities (like Scout Cruiser or AA Specialist, etc.) that make them valuable support ships. Unfortunately, the main attack for many of them is torpedoes, and you can get a better value for torpedo attacks with destroyers. The IJN cruisers are the most common cruisers I see in tournaments, and that is mainly because of the Long Lances. The USN cruisers I see the least because most of them don't have torpedoes. If you play against a heavy BB fleet your USN cruisers are all but useless. There are some good niche USN cruisers like the Atlanta/San Diego for AA support and the Clevelands with their radar abilities in Darkness rules, and Helena for countering DD swarms, but I have a very hard time finding a place for any other cruiser without torpedoes (ironically the Atlanta class had torps) in a tournament setting. It also doesn't help that it only takes one Long Lance hit to destroy them.


Good question!

 Sinking your opponents captalships...  Last weekend at a gaming convention I opened fire with the HMS Kent at range 3.  I rolled seven (1d6) dice and rolled 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 5  (13 total) against an unhurt Dunkerque....  Granted my dice were rolling hot last weekend.  I had nothing else to shoot at since all the other enemy vessels were either out of range or sunk...  Still cruisers are good for sinking destroyers before they get into torpedo range of your capital ships...

If someone says let's do a 100 pt game I will take 100 pts of cruisers to swamp an enemy with massive amounts of naval gunfire while your opponent will go for the big expensive stuff and will only be shooting at one or two of our ships while the rest of your fleet is free to engage.

Making use of the range-3 attacks is a smart way to pinch a little more value out of these.

With luck like that a couple of Lupo's could take out the Texas; Nice rolls!! I think the point is bang for the buck
   as stated its better to have a Cruiser with Escort Killer or Sustained Fire to deal with DD's.
Swarms are always tough, but even in a 100 pt. build I'd rather have my two BB's and escorts up against Cruisers than
   the more numerous Subs and DD's.
I guess all these challenges are what makes it fun.