[2022] ATTENTION WG, CALIFORNIA STILL NEEDS A RELOAD BUFF

Hi there!
So I lifted this image from ShipTool - https://shiptool.st/

These are almost all of the T78 BB's and how their main batteries stack up. You can see that yes, California does have the worst reload by about 0.7s over Florida and 1.2 seconds over the Sinop. Sinop has 406mm guns compared to the 356's of the Cali, so comparisons should be made elsewhere.

You can see that the dispersion at 16km (seems pretty standard engagement range to me) is actually pretty consistent within 199-220m vertical. That's not a walloping difference. The AP salvo weight is also tied for second best with Ash*taka behind only Lyon. The Sigma is a respectable 1.9.
And yet the Cali FEELS inaccurate, doesn't it? Part of this is because the AP shells don't overmatch much and the penetration wains at long range - meaning lots of bounces. Sinop may have atrocious accuracy, but 406's at T7 means you can afford to be inaccurate. The HE is American and doesn't benefit from the extra pen of UK/GER or the higher damage values of UK/IJN. It's just sorta... bleh.

On top of that, she's SLOW. She's a big fat target asking to get HE spammed so people tend to player her far out where her AP shells are less likely to penn.

It's not a widely valued asset, but the California also has nearly top tier AA defense with the highest combined continuous damage of all T7 BB's once planes are within short range.

You know - I realized that the gun-stats of the California and New Mexico are almost identical, except that the Cali has 1.9 Sigma over the New Mex's 1.5. That's a BIG difference. The armor layout, AA, and torp protection on the Cali are vastly improved over NM as well. Shell-wise, reload-wise, ballistics-wise, they are exactly the same. Accuracy is significantly better on California though.