User blog comment:FlammeumDraco333/Tales From the Not so Blocky Seas/@comment-25373667-20150826182951

I have good news, and bad news. I'll start with the bad news.

Bad news is there is a hard limit to how long you can grind a ship. So for instance, if you buy a level 10 ship, you can only farm it 10-20 levels higher, to level 20-30, which is why my Montecuccoli stopped producing at level 33. Now, it isn't exactly a hard limit, but it makes grinding take ten times as long, as the amount of XP you earn for a battle is slashed by exactly 90%. So a level that formerly got you a significant 30k XP will only give you 3k XP. Fortunately, gold income stays the same.

Now for the good news: I figured out NFL Matchmaking. So essentially, ships are divided into two categories: levels 1-29, and levels 30+. Now, if you have any ship that when first constructed is less than level 30, you can face off against ANY OTHER SHIP that is less than level 30 in any given battle with reasonable odds. The same applies to levels 30+. Of course, sometimes matchmaking derps and throws you into a different tier match, but those are relatively rare. So basically, your level 27 Renown can face a level 28 New York, but will rarely, if ever, fight a Kongo, while your Kongo will always be thrown into matches against Yamatos, Cavours, and Littorios. Keep this in mind when buying a ship.