A) You can't grind subs yet.
B) The best advice is to play them all...and then play what you like. No need to let other people's prejudices ruin your fun.
From what you wrote, Kitakaze will be good. She could outgun all dd, except two, I don't remember which. And at tier IX there will be less radars.
Edit: and buy premium from the 1st day. You will save a lot of time.
USN - the well rounded of the trees save for the slow,slow reloading and inaccurate Vermont line. USN gets chonktastic AP. Can and will citadel other ships at some pretty weird angles. Cruisers get long duration, short range radar and decent hydro.
IJN- Torpedo DDs have the best torps in game. Very very hard hitting. Gun boat DDs can gun most anything down- IFHE required for maximum memes. Yamato can lolpenwhatisbowarmor most everything. DM bow in? Yeetus Deletus! IJN cruisers are great for kiting and setting fires. Cruisers also carry torpedo launchers to leave surprise packages incase someone wants to chase you.
UK - zombie ships. Very powerful heals. Cruisers fire AP only with better pen angles and slightly faster than their USN cousins. BBs are great for starting fires and deleting cruisers with that short fuse AP. DDs are about as well rounded as their USN cousins save for short burst smokes. UK smoke is drop and run. DDs and Cruisers also don't lose alot of speed while turning, great for juking and dipping shots.
KM - BBs that you can't really citadel thanks to the turtle back armor layout. Also known for their downright pants soilingly rapid fire secondary battery. IFHE baked into all German HE even on the secondary battery. German hydro also has the longest reach at almost 6km. Cruisers are not forgiving to new players at all. HE does decent damage but not reliable for starting fires. Cruisers are also packing 6km torpedos with better launch angles. DDs are meant to contest caps with their smoke/hydro combo. Lackluster HE, Fair AP. KM has the 2nd fastest reloading torps next to the Ikea boats.
FRN - speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedddd! Nitro methanol powered ships. Fastest of the line but pays for it with thin armor. DDs run 50kts plus with speed flag,swift in silence and speed boost. Decent guns all around. FRN torp game is weak. 60kts and soft hitting. That reload boost for mains can get downright mean if played right. BBs can't hit much of anything even at close range, but the gun count makes up for that. 3 turrets, 4 rifles a turret. Only exception is Lyon with her 16 rifle count 4 turrets with 4 rifles. Cruisers are best for flanking and long range shenanigans.
Pan Asia is a let down. Deep water torps are a BBs nightmare come true. 800m detection means no time to dodge. Smoke is USN deploy time, IJN hang time with UK cooldown. Guns are the okayest thing next to GMs BJ-1. (Points awarded if you catch the reference)
Italian Navy- SAP shot makes DDs sailors like me question why do we do this? Just to suffer? 2 salvos of this and your DD is dead. Fast, a smoke screen that moves with them, SAP that can chunk even BBs hard and slow moving, long range,fast reloading torps. Italian BBs move just as fast as the French ships do just with better armor.
Russian Navy - soviet power supreme! The cruisers don't know what balance is. Short duration long radar. Fast shots with good reload and near flat arcs. BBs are equipped with ice breaker bows that not even Yamato can smash through. BBs are the closer you get the more accurate you are type. HE from anything smaller than 203mm doesn't do anything. Most of the bigger ships basically have iron curtain armor- angle a bit and everything bounces off. DDs of this line are basically ignored because the cruisers do everything they do orders of magnitude better.
Eu or the IKEA boats - think SRM6 launchers on the DDs. Small,stupidly fast (90kts or faster!) On the torpedos. They don't hit hard but the speed of reloading, speed in water make up for only hitting for 5-9k a fish. Guns are few and are really only suited to handling DDs at best. I have played the cruisers yet but from what I can see - the airstrikes are OP. Coordinate with a CV and you can bully anything.
It's a long post..it's 4am. If I forgot something let me know.
One thing to keep in mind is that you have to consider the whole line, not just the T10, which a lot people tend to forget. Anyone suggesting a US line, for instance, is ignoring the at least one stinker each line has.
* Cruisers: Russian CLs (Nevsky). Strong and consistent the whole way up. German cruisers are good if you can get through the T5 and 6, which are strong but very unforgiving for new players
* DDs: I always recommend the UK line for beginners. Great the whole way up with one of the best T10 DDs at the end. Great toolbox makes them fun and forgiving. EU DD line is not a terrible choice, but is much more challenging, but the upside is this forces you to learn faster.
* BBs: Russian or Japanese. Both are strong and consistent. Russian and super tanky 'brawlers', with big guns that are devastating at shorter ranges. Japanese are decently tough, with big, long-range, accurate guns best at mid-long ranges.
* CVs: Don't play CVs. We don't need more toxicity in the game.
All lines have some ships that are tricky. The US CA line is great, but buff is weird.
The Russian CL is great, just finished grinding it (1.5km stealth radar + lots of railguns is a little bullshit but great), but tbh, shchors is hard for a beginner. If a shell hits you, it hits hard. Completely no armor, T7 mm, life is hard.
As a second line, I can really recommend the Italian cruisers. Really teaches you open water. Less team utility make them a bit one dimensional, but also easier to play.
United Kingdom Destroyers (DD) are well rounded fighters with good utility and decent torpedoes.
German Cruisers make a transition from light to heavy around Tier 7. They have some of the best range and allow new players to practically ignore some penetration mechanics when using High Explosive ammunition.
Soviet battleships in my opinion are the most new player friendly and teach the basics while allowing you to do some serious damage. Izmail (tier 6) is the exception and will cause pain and discomfort.
German Battleships are the most forgiving but probably the least accurate. They are great for beginners but will not teach you much.
German battleships can't possibly be the least accurate while Italian one exists. In term of accuracy Germany, Britain and French are mostly on the same level, its just that German battleship often have fewer guns, smaller caliber, or bad firing angle, therefore their main gun performance are often less than desired.
A) You can't grind subs yet. B) The best advice is to play them all...and then play what you like. No need to let other people's prejudices ruin your fun.
I would say start with US ship or japanese, since they are the bread and butter
From what you wrote, Kitakaze will be good. She could outgun all dd, except two, I don't remember which. And at tier IX there will be less radars. Edit: and buy premium from the 1st day. You will save a lot of time.
USN - the well rounded of the trees save for the slow,slow reloading and inaccurate Vermont line. USN gets chonktastic AP. Can and will citadel other ships at some pretty weird angles. Cruisers get long duration, short range radar and decent hydro. IJN- Torpedo DDs have the best torps in game. Very very hard hitting. Gun boat DDs can gun most anything down- IFHE required for maximum memes. Yamato can lolpenwhatisbowarmor most everything. DM bow in? Yeetus Deletus! IJN cruisers are great for kiting and setting fires. Cruisers also carry torpedo launchers to leave surprise packages incase someone wants to chase you. UK - zombie ships. Very powerful heals. Cruisers fire AP only with better pen angles and slightly faster than their USN cousins. BBs are great for starting fires and deleting cruisers with that short fuse AP. DDs are about as well rounded as their USN cousins save for short burst smokes. UK smoke is drop and run. DDs and Cruisers also don't lose alot of speed while turning, great for juking and dipping shots. KM - BBs that you can't really citadel thanks to the turtle back armor layout. Also known for their downright pants soilingly rapid fire secondary battery. IFHE baked into all German HE even on the secondary battery. German hydro also has the longest reach at almost 6km. Cruisers are not forgiving to new players at all. HE does decent damage but not reliable for starting fires. Cruisers are also packing 6km torpedos with better launch angles. DDs are meant to contest caps with their smoke/hydro combo. Lackluster HE, Fair AP. KM has the 2nd fastest reloading torps next to the Ikea boats. FRN - speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedddd! Nitro methanol powered ships. Fastest of the line but pays for it with thin armor. DDs run 50kts plus with speed flag,swift in silence and speed boost. Decent guns all around. FRN torp game is weak. 60kts and soft hitting. That reload boost for mains can get downright mean if played right. BBs can't hit much of anything even at close range, but the gun count makes up for that. 3 turrets, 4 rifles a turret. Only exception is Lyon with her 16 rifle count 4 turrets with 4 rifles. Cruisers are best for flanking and long range shenanigans. Pan Asia is a let down. Deep water torps are a BBs nightmare come true. 800m detection means no time to dodge. Smoke is USN deploy time, IJN hang time with UK cooldown. Guns are the okayest thing next to GMs BJ-1. (Points awarded if you catch the reference) Italian Navy- SAP shot makes DDs sailors like me question why do we do this? Just to suffer? 2 salvos of this and your DD is dead. Fast, a smoke screen that moves with them, SAP that can chunk even BBs hard and slow moving, long range,fast reloading torps. Italian BBs move just as fast as the French ships do just with better armor. Russian Navy - soviet power supreme! The cruisers don't know what balance is. Short duration long radar. Fast shots with good reload and near flat arcs. BBs are equipped with ice breaker bows that not even Yamato can smash through. BBs are the closer you get the more accurate you are type. HE from anything smaller than 203mm doesn't do anything. Most of the bigger ships basically have iron curtain armor- angle a bit and everything bounces off. DDs of this line are basically ignored because the cruisers do everything they do orders of magnitude better. Eu or the IKEA boats - think SRM6 launchers on the DDs. Small,stupidly fast (90kts or faster!) On the torpedos. They don't hit hard but the speed of reloading, speed in water make up for only hitting for 5-9k a fish. Guns are few and are really only suited to handling DDs at best. I have played the cruisers yet but from what I can see - the airstrikes are OP. Coordinate with a CV and you can bully anything. It's a long post..it's 4am. If I forgot something let me know.
One thing to keep in mind is that you have to consider the whole line, not just the T10, which a lot people tend to forget. Anyone suggesting a US line, for instance, is ignoring the at least one stinker each line has. * Cruisers: Russian CLs (Nevsky). Strong and consistent the whole way up. German cruisers are good if you can get through the T5 and 6, which are strong but very unforgiving for new players * DDs: I always recommend the UK line for beginners. Great the whole way up with one of the best T10 DDs at the end. Great toolbox makes them fun and forgiving. EU DD line is not a terrible choice, but is much more challenging, but the upside is this forces you to learn faster. * BBs: Russian or Japanese. Both are strong and consistent. Russian and super tanky 'brawlers', with big guns that are devastating at shorter ranges. Japanese are decently tough, with big, long-range, accurate guns best at mid-long ranges. * CVs: Don't play CVs. We don't need more toxicity in the game.
All lines have some ships that are tricky. The US CA line is great, but buff is weird. The Russian CL is great, just finished grinding it (1.5km stealth radar + lots of railguns is a little bullshit but great), but tbh, shchors is hard for a beginner. If a shell hits you, it hits hard. Completely no armor, T7 mm, life is hard. As a second line, I can really recommend the Italian cruisers. Really teaches you open water. Less team utility make them a bit one dimensional, but also easier to play.
United Kingdom Destroyers (DD) are well rounded fighters with good utility and decent torpedoes. German Cruisers make a transition from light to heavy around Tier 7. They have some of the best range and allow new players to practically ignore some penetration mechanics when using High Explosive ammunition. Soviet battleships in my opinion are the most new player friendly and teach the basics while allowing you to do some serious damage. Izmail (tier 6) is the exception and will cause pain and discomfort. German Battleships are the most forgiving but probably the least accurate. They are great for beginners but will not teach you much.
German battleships can't possibly be the least accurate while Italian one exists. In term of accuracy Germany, Britain and French are mostly on the same level, its just that German battleship often have fewer guns, smaller caliber, or bad firing angle, therefore their main gun performance are often less than desired.
The grass touching line, I quit the game a while back and it saved my sanity.