wowcoop

Not very impressed either is most other people.  Now truthfully I only have Tier V and VI but tier VI is usually indicative of what the future holds for you.
The 203mm guns don't seem as impressive as the Aoba or Pensacola
I'm fine with the torpedoes, I just use them as a fire and forget weapon, if they hit, cool, if not, oh well.
The armor is tricky, at certain angles I can bounce shells off me but most of the time I get citadeled

I ended up with the Duca d' Aosta and the Trento. U got the Duca first, and I liked it. A bit thin skinned, but most cruisers are. gun fire rate was acceptable. Then I got the Trento and was disappointed in the slower rate of fire. Until I realized it had bigger guns than the Duca and hit harder. I like both of these cruisers. I've had some good battles in them both.

But when I tried some of the others on the low end of the tech tree, I wasn't that impressed or interested. Seeing that the high end ships still have a slow rate of fire turned me off from pursuing the line.

I sold the Trento to help get money to buy the Republique. Since it's a tech tree cruiser, I can buy it back later if I want. I kept the Duca since it's a premium.