Cruisers
Rather than a category of vessel, the designation "cruiser" originally meant the purpose or mission for the ship; to "cruise" long distances in escort, scouting, and raiding duties, or simply to provide an intermediate military presence where the deployment of larger, more expensive battleships were deemed strategically and financially unwise. The advent of steam power and steel accelerated the growth of the cruiser's development, discarding unwieldy, unreliable sails and wooden hulls for powerful engines and stronger hulls and components. Up to the opening stages of World War II, the various naval treaties — or their evasion thereof — created classes of cruisers such as "heavy cruiser", "battlecruiser", or "pocket battleship", reflecting their disproportionate firepower and performance in contrast to what the treaties were supposed to limit. In the present day, advances in technology meant that the destroyer could perform the duties that once required a cruiser's services more cheaply, efficiently and effectively, leading to its declining use in most navies today.
While the various nations had different mindsets when it came to the duties expected of cruisers, and outfitted them accordingly, cruisers can be considered the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none class of warship. Almost all of them are able to adequately respond to changes in the battlefield and project considerable influence in the sector, outgunning anything they cannot outrun, and outrunning anything they cannot outgun; they are most commonly expected to act as destroyer and AA screens. A good cruiser captain watches the flow of battle and adapts to the circumstances as they unfold.
Each nation's cruiser line is unique in characteristics. United States cruisers tend to have the best anti-aircraft defense as well as the best protection, with some exceptions. Japanese cruisers have powerful torpedo armament and the best high-explosive shells to set fires, but lack sufficient anti-aircraft defense and armor compared to other cruisers. Kriegsmarine cruisers have good range, high rate of fire, and good armor-piercing shells that inflict large amounts of damage and have good penetration for their size, but are weak in their high-explosive shell potential and often their armor is lacking. French cruisers are sleek and fast, with excellent firing ranges but virtually no armor protection and fairly weak anti-aircraft defenses. Russian cruisers have the longest range and usually are good in both high-explosive and armor-piercing shells due to their high muzzle velocity, but have poor side armor, insufficient anti-aircraft defense, largest detection range, and worst ship handling attributes compared to other nations. British cruisers consist of light cruisers with quick-firing, mid-caliber guns only being able to fire AP rounds, and heavy cruisers whith large calibre guns that have great HE rounds but poor AP round. Both lines have generous compliments of torpedoes that can be launched one by one, and access to consumables that the other nations don't, but are hindered by exceptionally poor armor protection and mediocre anti-aircraft batteries. Italian cruisers have access to SAP shells that do high damage to lightly armored opponents and unique consumables, but have mediocre armor and detection range, slow torpedoes, and no HE shells for their main battery limiting their ability to set fires. Dutch cruisers have excellent anti-aircraft defenses and starting from tier VI have the ability to call in carpet-bomb airstrikes. The line starts off as light cruisers but starting from tier VIII ships have large calibre guns and the heaviest armor, but the have the longest fire duration and none of the ships are armed with torpedoes. Pan-Asian cruisers are stealth extremely light cruisers armed with a large number of powerful and stealthly deep-water torpedoes, and heavy anti-aircraft defense contending witk U.S. cruisers for the best, but they have the weakest main battery with only destroy calibre guns that struggle to do damage to larger vessels at higher tiers. Pan-American cruisers are the newest cruisers in the game with players able to research them in update 0.12.4. These ships have armament similar to the United States and British light cruisers, good anti-aircraft defenses and combat instructions previously only found on superships but their main guns only fire AP rounds, and have weak armor.
Cruisers come with a wide array of tools to help them adapt to many situations and can have up to four (4) slots for consumables, the most of any ship class. As with all other ships, the first slot will be filled with Damage Control Party
; after that, options abound depending on which nation is being played. Hydroacoustic Search 
increases the range at which your ship can detect enemy ships and torpedoes, even through smoke screens; Defensive AA Fire 
increases the intensity (but not necessarily effectiveness) of a cruiser's anti-aircraft batteries, greatly reducing the performance of enemy aircraft unfortunate enough to be caught on the receiving end; Catapult Fighter 
launches fighter aircraft from the cruiser's catapults that escorts the cruiser and engages enemy aircraft that wander too close; Spotting Aircraft 
allows a cruiser to extend the range of its main battery guns for a period of time; Surveillance Radar 
detects enemy ships outside of their visibility range for a short duration; Engine Boost 
increases the top speed of a ship for the duration of the consumable; Smoke Generator 
provides cover where needed on the battlefield and obscures enemy vision; and at Tiers IX and X (Tier II for Pan-American, tier III for British, and Tier VIII Dutch and Pan-Asian cruisers), they receive access to the same Repair Party 
ability that battleships have, enabling them to regenerate some of the damage taken during battle.
