Super-ships in World of Warships (Part II)
Hello all, it’s been a while since my last article about these new additions and there are some more additions than this, but it might be a while before I do another work about World of Warships. That’s been settled out of the way, lets jump into this topic.
Now that the very first two Super-ships, been explained; here are some of the newer vessels that were announced later date than Satsuma and Hannover.
One of the ships that will be looked at in this list is the Patrie, which is a French super battleship. The other two vessels I’ll be explaining more in detail about gameplay of those two vessels.
Annapolis
Annapolis is a U.S super cruiser that was announced early to mid-2021. This ship did not take part in the original legendary battle event, as this vessel was introduced later. The Annapolis stands for a follow-up design of the Des Moines class heavy cruiser. (Which the Des Moines is a cruiser that players can get in the game as it’s a tier 10 of the U.S heavy cruiser tech tree line). Des Moines class heavy cruisers was the last gun cruisers constructed by the U.S Navy, learning lessons from Solomon Islands campaign during the 2nd World War. The navy realized that the, then current, 8-inch guns had a long reload and thus didn’t perform as well in close range actions. It was decided to develop a new gun that has a higher rate of fire. The Annapolis is a follow-up design to this, drawn up in 1949, using the newest anti-aircraft armaments including the new dual purpose 5-inch Mk16 guns, found on the Forrest Sherman class destroyers. The design for Annapolis called for increased armor, main armament and anti-aircraft armaments, but utilizing the same 8-inch 55 caliber RF guns that the Des Moines uses. Annapolis has 4x3 8-inch guns and a 7-inch armor belt, armed with then state-of-art AA defenses; however. With the advent of missiles and jet planes, the days of gun cruisers were numbered, thus the U.S Navy ultimately cancelled the design. The name that Annapolis was given is a city in the U.S state of Maryland, home to the U.S Naval academy that was first established in the 1790s and is still in operation today. Wargaming’s name for the vessel is in line with U.S naval name traditions of the period, with cruisers being named after cities.
The game play of the Annapolis is similar to the tier 10 Des Moines, and with the same 5 second reload giving her and Des Moines the fastest rate of fire of any heavy cruiser in the game. Annapolis, like other U.S heavy cruisers, is armed with super-heavy shells which gives U.S heavy cruisers some of the best armor penetration capabilities of any heavy cruiser. The Annapolis also has a grand total of 12 main guns, and combine this with her high rate of fire, she can put out a very high volume of fire, something that other heavy cruisers can’t boast about.
The armor of the Annapolis is better than Des Moines, which means she can survive well under fire. However, despite this her armor scheme is the same as Des Moines which means her armored citadel is above the water line making her easy to severely damage should the armored belt be penetrated. The Annapolis also has similar problem that many U.S cruisers in the game have, which is an extremely high arching ballistics, though this allows the ships to hit the more vulnerable areas of other vessels on their decks. However, this means that the player must give a great deal of lead to the target in order for the shells to hit the target. What makes Annapolis and other super cruisers unique is the ability to have an alternate firing mode; this is a temporary boost to vessel’s reload giving them a 1 second reload that only lasts for a few shots, once the few shots are fired, the reload is increased to 40 seconds, thus this firing mode should be used sparingly. Overall, the Annapolis plays similarly to Des Moines, only except with a special mechanic and better dimensions.
Condé
Condé was announced in mid-2021, she was announced around the same time as the 2 other vessels (Annapolis and Patrie). The name Condé is a common French name for a place and is also a person’s name. Condé’s design is a hypothetical follow-up design to the cruiser C5 project (Saint-Louis Class). Condé’s armament calls for, 3x4 9.4-inch guns and 8x2 5-inch guns.
Condé’s main armament is the 9.4-inch 55 caliber Mle 1930 guns, these guns are a pure fabrication as there were no actual designs for 1930s 9-inch gun within the Marine Nationale (French navy). However, the closest historical gun to this fictional gun is the 9.4-inch 50 caliber Mle 1902, these guns were used to arm the Danton Class Semi-Dreadnoughts. This ship is unique in the fact that it has quadruple gun turrets instead of the normal triple, this gun turret design is reminiscent to gun turrets found on the Richelieu and Dunkerque Classes. The Marine Nationale never considered using a 9.4-inch gun to arm cruisers thus this design should be viewed as a fictional hypothetical vessel. Condé plays similarly to the previous French cruisers of the line, as this vessel does get a speed boast consumable which allows its maximum speed to be increased for a brief time allowing it to withdraw should it take too much damage. French cruisers are thinly armored with typically good firing ranges and good speeds; thus, they should look at as “glass cannons”. The Condé’s 9-inch guns can overmatch the front of most light cruisers, these do pack a punch, but there AP shells do suffer a little bit however they do gain increased HE shells effectiveness. Condé, like Annapolis also gains a similar alternative firing mode, allowing the ship to fire very volleys in quick succession. Condé, however, does suffer of having a longer reload times than other cruisers and by far weakest in armor terms to other super cruisers in the game.
Patrie
Patrie is the French word for “Country”. The name comes from a pre-dreadnought of the Republique class that was launched in December of 1903. The Patrie that we see in-game is based on a design proposal for the Alsace class battleships. The Alsace class was the French answer to the H-Proposals of Germany; the French (believing false intelligence reports) believed that the Germans were already building other ships of the H-Proposals thus they wanted a vessel to counter these ships. A series of armament proposals for the Alsace class were proposed, from 3x4-15-inch guns, 3x3-16-inch guns, to 3x4-17-inch guns. The Patrie represents the 17-inch gun proposal, (with some design liberties on Wargaming’s part). However, unfortunately for France, not a single vessel of the Alsace class was laid down due to the rapid fall of France during the 2nd World War.
Nevertheless, Patrie’s armament comprises of: 3x4-17-inch guns, 3x3-6-inch guns, 8x2-4-inch guns and as well as numerous AA gun batteries. Patrie has the most numerous main guns of any Super battleship currently in the game; however, they are also the smallest of the Super battleships. The Patrie enjoys access to the engine boast consumable, similar to other French battleships, which gives them high top speed of 35 knots (when active) gives this vessel similar speed to cruisers. Combine this with a strong secondary armament and with above average rate of fire for main guns, she can easily chase down cruisers and even some destroyers; however. Patrie does suffer from having weaker overall armor effectiveness making it relatively fragile (though still more durable than all the other French battleships). Thus, the Patrie plays well on the flanks where its firepower is more than enough to overwhelm most fast-moving ships and still have the speed to fall back if taking too much damage.
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