Cheers, Starslayer, thanks for the tips. I wish I'd played a bit more over the special, but I only just discovered the game during that special and didn't have Camo unlocked yet.
My time in cruisers so far has been pretty frustrating, between the slow St. Louis and the floating zippo lighter Tenryu, but I'll keep at it. I think I do prefer IJN CAs so far because of the torpedoes. They're just about the only way I can ever deal with an enemy St. Louis. Also, the Tenryu's got enough speed to competently play objectives. Just lost a game but still got 1k XP for two base captures and a couple kills. Including a snapshot single shell detonation on a Chester. God, this game can be crazy.
Playing the objective in general is much more valuable for XP gain right now, so the St. Louis is getting neglected for a little bit.