Talk:List of heavy cruisers by upgraded maximum stats/@comment-24337209-20141121055420/@comment-144.132.64.235-20150118095520

In the game or in real life? The US Baltimore-class would be the most 'advanced'. The first of the class were built late in the war (1943) and were more AA-focused, used as carrier escorts. More importantly the Chicago, Columbus and Albany (an Oregon City-class, improved version of the Baltimore-class) were all rebuilt as missile cruisers in the 1950s and lasted into the late 70s/early 80s.

The biggest were the US Alaska-class, which were enormous - 34,000 tons vs the 16-18k of most contemporary Heavy Cruisers. They were basically Battlecruisers (their designation was CB, rather than CA). Basically a scaled-up Baltimore-class. They also scaled the armament up, 12"/50 guns that were roughly equivalent in penetrating power to the 14"/50 guns on the New Mexico and Tennessee-class battleships. If the Alaska-class ever makes it into the game it'll be a monster.

Talking just traditional heavy cruiser designs though, rather than splitting hairs and counting an effective Battlecruiser or a Missile Cruiser, the most advanced was probably the Des Moines-class. Basically an evolved Baltimore-class. They weren't launched until after WW2, but the Newport News lasted until 1975, remaining a proper all-guns CA the entire time. First completely air coditioned naval ship too.

Takao were the best CAs in the IJN, but they weren't that advanced. The Mogami-class was a replacement, but they were poorly made and basically crap. They were hobbled by the Washington Naval Treaty, built too light for the armament they mounted and constructed using flawed welding techniques. Had a tendency to burst their own seams when firing their guns, hulls that cracked in heavy seas, and top-heavy construction that made them unstable. Tone and Chikuma were originally designed as the 5th and 6th Mogami-class, but they ended up being redesigned into an evolution of the Mogami design which fixed some of the serious design flaws. They also made room for extra aircraft hangers, because IJN doctrine was not to waste space on their fleet carriers with recon groups and instead leave airborne recon to their escort carriers and cruisers. Tone & Chikuma were purpose-designed for operating recon floatplanes as carrier escorts (which is why they have such a high LOS in the game).

Had she been completed, Ibuki would have been the IJN's most recent CA design, basically an improved Myoukou class, but they decided to convert her to a light carrier mid-construction and she was never completed before the end of the war.