First of all I want to state here that,  yes im a new player, no i dont have encyclopedic knowledge of marine warfare or engeneering also english isn't my first language so please try to be considerate. I will try to explain my opinion as best i can. I hope we can have civilized discusion here and reach a conclusion that would help the game.

  In the begining i want to add that i don't think that Battleships are overpowered or underepowered. Yes historically Battleships were hulking masses of steel, wood and guns se they can't be turned into dinky ships with pea shooters but, as it stands now their role in the game is basically usseles. Now let me tell you now, i do not want to remove Battleships from the game, far from it as i love the variety of ships that Navy Field offers. However if you look at the game from desighn perspective Battleships when remove from the game completely have basically no impact on the game. What you lose is a "long range"  (not that much longer than Armoured Cruiser has) engagement vessel. The role of a battleship can be almost instantly replaced by CA (that are in my opinion more usseful to the team and more ballanced  ships). Even more Battleship completely screw up the game ballance with their mere presence. Let me ask you this. Hypotetically In a game where ship tiers ara ballanced and skill of players is equal (hopefully that will be the case when more and more people joins the game) losing 3 destroyers or even 3 Aroured Cruisers does not mean that iminent loss however if you lose 3 battleships and the enemy team retains all of their 3 battleship 9 out of 10 times the team that lost battleships loses even if thats all the casulties they suffered. Now yes i know that player skills have big impact on that statement and a good DD or a good Submarine captain can pull a victory out of the clutches of a defeat. However ( uh i need better vocabulary) that the thing, a "Good/great player" will be able to do taht in almost any class of ships. So the conclusion i've reached is that Battleships have much to great impact on a game and the fact that most of averige/weak players aim for BB class only makes the situation worse.

  Now all that is fine and dandy and sounds like a whine that needs some cheeze, but thats my second point. What can be done to counter the fact that Battleships  make or break almost every game. Now thats a tough thing to do. We can not just say that "Noobs should play better" because there will always be a majority of players that arent as skilled at the game (me included) to count on them doing everything correctly. So what can we do? Here are few ideas ( "ideas" so pls dont lynch me :)

 1. Decrease the damage increase the spread but (and thats an important "but") increase the range of main
     naval cannons. -  yeah thats a bit of a creazy idea but think about it. Battleships right now literarly get in the way of
     CA's and CL's  and vice versa. CA's and CL's from a game standpoint should be in the second line basically doing
     broadsides and hunting DD's that are trying to get eround to more juicy targets and Battleships should be their long
     range artillery. That would give BB some purpose apart from being more powerefull but slower CA.

2. Focus (or give) on some kind of skill unique to BB's - BB's are probably the most bland ships in game so far.
    They are used by players as everything. People use them to capture bases, as front line ships, as last line ships, hell i
    have seen people ussing Battleships as a U-Boat hunters and AA platforms (gues how that worked out for them). So in
    fact you would think that BB's are very versitile. No .. they are not. It's that the players try to do everything in them
    due to visible concrete penalties and lack of "real specialisation". If there was a skill unique only to BB's (and no huge
    damage and slightly longer range does not count) then that skill could sugest or even slightely enforce a certain way of
    using BB's.

3. Change the Hit Points - now this one is a hard one. You may ask (annoyed at this point) "what is wrong with the Hit
    Points now". Well  Bacically Battleships have to much of it. Now before you pick up your pitchforks and torches let me
    explain. Battleships at this point are usually third line ships (as they should be) but when it comes push to shove, the
    from the perspective of a CL or CA player  if battleships go head to head ther is very little you can do against them due
    to them having to much HP and armour. Don't misunderstand me here however. A CA, CL of the same level should not
    be equal to BB and should not go around dueling them but they should have a fighting chance. They should be able to
    adleast severely damage a battleship before going down (as i expect CA/CL should be destroyed by a BB in a equal
     fight between equally skilled players).

4. Increase Torpedo resistance - This ties up with idea number 3. With less HP comes big responsibility :).  Torpedos in
    the game as they are now deal to massive amounts of damage. A Destroyer should not take down a Battleship with one
    (even accurately placed) salvo of torpedos. This is probably one of the major points why Battlehip players instantly
    start running away abandoning everyone else when they see a Destroyer B-lining for them and thats undertandable
    (wrong and loses you games) but understandable. However if Battleships could survive a one full salvo (probably no
    more as that would just make torpedos usseles) and survive od 1/3 hp with a real chance of retaliating that would may
    result in players going so scared as to abandond their team mates just because they "might" get torpedoed.

So this is some of my ideas,  that i hope could in some way balance the Battleships. I would love to have a discusion going on and listen to some of the ideas you guys have.  Hopefully the Devs would atleast skill through this post and even if they find mine ideas completely bonkers they would use yours. As long as it actually helps the game it's a win win situation. :)