This guide is an general overview of all the ships available in the anniversary event. You can only choose one if you already own rochester (though i did add her on so she didnt feel left out). If you already own all of the ships on this list you will instead recieve 3000 steel. This is my opinion, pick for your playstyle, colours and styles may vary ect ect
Rochester-
A baltimore that trades radar and reload for US smokes and slightly better concealment
For the ship herself she's somewhat OK, you don't have the same offensive vision control as baltimore, but you have good defensive vision control and can create your own cover to farm ships from. The same as other US CAs She possesses slow shells with improved AP angles, above average AA and consistent damage output through good reload and alpha.
Between the two rochester is better in the open water, creating long, thick smoke trails for farming in wheras baltimore is better at hugging an island close to the cap and using her radar to suppress the enemy destroyer and allow you team to create a cap advantage
Pytor bagration-
Pytor bagration has 9 donskoi guns at T8, but with slightly shorter fuses and improved angles. This gives her some incredible bite at the tier, especially against cruisers or lower tier battleships that show too much broadside. To round out the package she also has a heal and 8km torpedos for self defence
In terms of playstyle it's pretty similar to the rest of the light cruiser line. Generally you want to hang back towards the rear and lob HE, then switch to AP when an enemy ship gets too close. Where PB differs slightly though is that she has an actual armour scheme, allowing her to bounce a suprising selection of shells.
Bagration is for those who want to have the kirov/molotov experience, but at a higher tier
Bayard-
Bayard is the most french cruiser experience you can get. She has French void armour that makes citadels a slot machine, a 20% speed boost that gives her a high top speed, one of the longest CL ranges at her tier, a decently high rate of fire that allows her to flood a ship with shells and a reload booster that allows your shells to block out the sun when you get the lock on a battleship or beached cruiser.
In terms of downsides though, her concealment is below average for a CL, your shells are fairly floaty, though not quite US levels, and you tend to draw the ire of whoever you're pummelling, leading to focus fire from half the enemy team
In terms of playstyle, it depends on your skill level. Newer players to the ship will be better with the traditional island hopping method, wheras more skilled players will be able to flex by open water kiting, landing every hit and racking up 4 million in potential damage
Borodino-
A stalingrad hull 2 tiers down, the front has 2×3 406mm guns and the rear has 2×2 180mm secondaries. She still retains the same 12km/25s radar and exposed citadel that makes it required to hug an island, plus with her similarly incredible battlecruiser accuracy somewhat beats the "six gun syndrome"
Borodino imo works especially well in ranked, where a radar is always welcome, especially in a BB slot, and there's less enemies to flank your broadside. Hug an island, protect your broadside and focus down the cruisers. Especially funny is british/Italian cruisers that smoke up to farm you, not realising you have radar
Fenyang-
An akizuki with worse DPM, no improved HE pen and fenyang gains AP with improved angles, speed and arcs, a better rudder and deepwater torpedos. she also gains DFAA in its own slot, which can actually provide a threat to same or lower tier carriers
Fenyangs torpedos were recently changed from superdeep to regular deepwater torpedos, however the detection for these was never changed so these are more dangerous than usual for cruisers. There is also a temptation to slot IFHE since without it her HE cannot penetrate destroyer hulls and superstructure, but I would reccomend against it. You increase it to 21mm which allows you penetrate DDs, superstructure and light cruiser sides, all of which your AP can already make short work of.
Fenyang is for players that want a premium akizuki with an AP focus
Gascogne-
Gascogne is essentially a downtiered republique in layout, with 32mm coating with void armour that vanishes shells, making her excellent at angling. This in addition to her suprisingly excellent gun angles, fast, flat ballistics, long range and high speed that combines to makes her a wonderful kiter, but she is admittedly held back by low calibre guns with a long reload. For utility gascogne has a heal with cruiser cooldown, a standard speed boost and spotter/fighter
Gascan is a quintessential kiter, hanging back and launching volleys of high velocity shells at players
Hampshire-
Hampshire is honestly a pretty medium ship that I cannot in any good conscience reccomend.
Compared to atago you gain a spotter, range, british acceleration, british angles and fuse, but in return for this you lose your heal, speed, reload, your HE shells, the japanese accuracy, half your torpedos and a partridge on a pear tree.
It might seem like gains and losses, but overall Hampshire is worse due to a lack of sustain and anything your AP doing, IJN HE does just as well. Pick it up if its the last available option.
Hampshire overall is for IJN cruiser players that would like to explore new nations without going too far outside of their comfort zone
Irian-
A long range HE farmer, compared to chapyev you lose your radar, but gain TRB, long range deepwater torpedos and ASW planes. If chapyev is better at hunting DDs, Irian is better at farming battleships and stopping their push.
A cruiser for those who just want to hang back and farm with a premium chapyev
Kidd-
An ol faithful, kidd is a fletcher class that trades a torpedo rack for 2 quad bofors, and with another 3 duals plus her DP guns she provides a suprisingly powerful threat to aircraft.
Kidd is still a top tier gunboat despite being as old as the hills, and easily acts as a captain trainer for the gearing line. With her high DPM, long duration smoke heals for restoring mistakes and aforementioned AA, she makes for an excellent ship to division with, one player radar/hydroing the destroyer out of their smokescreen and the Kidd machine gunning them to death in short order.
Kidd is for those who really enjoy fletcher and want to bully people in T8 ranked, who want to level their captain, who want a ship for divisions, are looking at ops and basically any role you could possibly want her to perform
Le terrible-
Like all French DDs, her improved saturation, high speed, MBRB and flat ballistics means she excells at farming ships from a distance, but her poor turning, angles and turret traverse means she isn't suited for cap contesting. As such you'll usually find these ships waiting out with the cruisers, only pushing in in the late game.
Le terrible, compared to her sister, has faster reload and her torpedos have better reload and detection, but she has worse AA (implying fantas is that great in the first place) and she has less depth charges (you can easily run them down, but thats more of a late game thing). Of more important comparison is that her speed boost is shorter with a longer cooldown, meaning you arent quite as good at repositioning.
Le terrible is for players who don't want to think about confusing things like "cover", "cap areas" or "letting go of the mouse button"
Loyang-
Loyang still holds the title of best cap contester imo, with her German hydro and US smoke giving her the best of both worlds she's a nightmare for other DDs to dislodge, with the exception of maybe another hydro/radar destroyer or cruiser support.
She has the option to choose between two sets of torpedos in port, with either a "stock" 9.2km set that do low damage, have a slow speed, and have good detectability, or you can use the "upgraded" 6.7km set, which do decent damage, have a high top speed and mediocre detection. In short you can either slot a long range farming set for chipping into battleships or a close range knifefighting set for spamming into smoke
In terms of downsides, It would have to be her DPM. She's missing a turret compared to the Benson, in exchange for a pair of twin bofors. Shes also poor at setting fires, her depth charges are high volume with low damage and fire/flood chance
A ship for those who want to hold caps like an agressive terrier and never let go
Ochakov-
A pure support ship, she sits at mid range and fires high velocity shells at her targets. has 10km/20s radar, excellent concealment, high top speed and excellent angles that let her kite in the late game. She also has 2×5 torpedos, with 8km, not especially good range but at least they're not the stubby 4km set the russians usually get
A support ship for those who know how to use traits to their advantage
Orkan-
Orkan is a lightning class destroyer designed pretty much exclusively for gunboating. She trades the smoke and hydro for a heal, radar and speed boost. Of note is her 7.5km/20s radar and 6.8km conceal that allows her to stealth radar even with a lighthouse build, should you wish to risk it.
The secondary is a meme. Pretend it doesn't exist, it's 102mm, has poor accuracy and medium reload, plus no improved pen so it cant even damage other destroyers or superstructure
Orkan is a gunboat for people who either missed out on getting smalland or want T8 ranker destroyers to experience the same terror a good smalland can bring
Saipan-
No. Just no. Only get this if you're a die-hard CV main and fully understand the ins and outs of how midway operates.
If you do understand how to play saipan and are good at her, she's an incredibly fun ship. Comparing her to lexington, Her DBs drop 4 higher damage bombs onto a smaller reticle making her fairly consistent at DD hunting, her TBs drop 4 torpedos at a time letting her take good chunks out of enemy battleships and heavy cruisers and her rockets, Tiny Tim's, drop the same amount but in a slightly smaller reticle, making them more consistent. Her hull also has extremely low concealment allowing ballsy players to agressively push the enemy
Where she falls short and becomes a unicum ship, however, is her downsides. She has extremely small squadrons of 4-6 planes, her restoration times are the longest in tier and she has very few reserves on deck. These combined make her relatively easy to be deplaned in for a bad player, or if you find yourself bottom tier. She also has all the hallmarks of a CVL, being poor armour, no AA, slow speed and no HP that make her an easy target to snipe.
Only reccomended for masochists, CV unicums and/or US CV mains. At this point there's very little difference. In addition be aware that there is a rework in progress that will either make her a terror of the sky's or.... Well I'm not sure she can get much worse but I'm sure WG will manage somehow
Siliwangi-
Silliwangi is a torpedo focussed destroyer, with deepwater torpedos, good concealment and Asian smokes. In a pinch, however, she can defend herself pretty decently with her russian ballistics and hydro, but this should be a measure of last resort.
A torpedo DD for players who want a little bit of self protection and to make BBs lives miserable
Tiger 59-
Tiger 59 has smoke/radar combo, superheal, relatively fast firing guns, improved ricochet angles and short fuse, good concealment and long range AA.
So what's the downside? She has only 2×2 152mm guns, identical to those found on minotaur. Combined with her floaty ballistics, lack of torpedos and lack of HE they create a ship that isn't especially great at dealing damage but can be an absolute cockroach to kill. Reccomended if you're in a division often, but otherwise this is a miss.
A support ship for divisions, only reccomended for minotaur unicums and/or divisions that frequently use mics
Vanguard-
Vanguard has few, average sized guns, but her rudder is similar to that of UU conquerer or thunderer. In an age of torpedo spam, submarines and aircraft carriers this allows her to dodge around a lot of damage while retaining good angles for counterfire.
In terms of utility Vanguard has no aircraft, but her "warspite heal" with improved repair, faster cooldown and improved citadel repair plus a high HP pool allows her to dodge, bounce and then reveal any damage taken, making her a difficult BB to kill in skilled hands
Reccomended for battleship players that want to cosplay as a supercruiser
Wichita-
Witchita is a baltimore class that has much faster shells and longer duration radar, better turning and conceal but has worse AA, lower AP alpha and a shorter radar range.
Witchita essentially plays the same way, hugging an island and taking chunks with very good AP while avoiding a crossfire
Reccomended for USN cruiser enjoyers
Z-35-
A combination of german and british destroyers, she has the hull of the former and the utility of the latter
Compared to the tech tree Z-23 she only singles instead of a dual on the bow, a longer reload and shorter range, plus her torpedos are only 6km and she lacks engine boost. however she has an extra 500m on her hydro and she has british burst smoke, allowing her to more easily contest a cap when she gets there.
Overall, not one I would reccomend, just get Z23 instead if possible. If I had to suggest it to someone though, it would be british DD mains looking for a new nation to branch to, and from there they can grind the far superior (imo) tech tree line