Armored Raider

I mainly use this on any Germany playthrough; it really shines in the Kaiserreich branch due to the amount of dockyard outputs you can stack. The idea is simple: you pair this ship with either a Battlecruiser or Heavy Cruiser and let it decimate convoys. The Kriegsmarine spirit gives you a 10% screening bonus when only using capital ships, so this is all you need to raid. I like pairing Rolf Carls as the Chief of Navy with another speed-bonus Admiral to pick these up to around 35kn; make sure your BC or CA stays the same speed stat-wise. The same philosophy applies to Super Heavy Battleships, which I do prefer in a Kaiser playthrough due to the fact that you can refit those to be extremely fast, heavily armed, and stacked with AA to become an insanely OP battleline, with or without carriers.