Final Review: Dutch Tier X Cruiser Gouden Leeuw

Historical background

Sooooooooooo…

This is the part where the Dutch naval history fanboys lose their marbles.

The Gouden Leeuw is… let’s say inspired by the Design 1047 of Dutch battlecruisers. These battlecruisers were intended to counter the potential threat that the Japanese Navy represented over the Dutch colonies in the West Indies.
The Dutch intelligence believed that their navy would most likely have to deal with Japanese cruisers and destroyers as the capital ships would be used to deal with American and British battleships. As such, they decided that a group of three battlecruisers would be the most suited to deal with such an opponent.

As the Dutch Royal Navy had no real experience with building modern capital ships, they decided to ask their German neighbors for assistance. While initially, the German refused, they later agreed to provide plans and drawings to help the Dutch but in exchange, all the equipment needed to build the three ships would come from Germany.

In 1939, while the Germans refused to provide detailed plans of the Scharnhorst-class to make it easier for the Naval engineers, they gave the Dutch plans of their own ideas of battlecruisers.
Works on the design continued throughout early-1940 until the Germans decided to have their little road trip through Europe and invaded the Netherlands in May 1940.
The plans for Design 1047 were never completed so the final form of the project remains unknown.

When it comes to Gouden Leeuw… it isn’t sure if she is just WG’s own take on Design 1047 or if it’s really was one of the earlier forms of the project. One thing for sure, except for the armament, she remains very different from what the most commonly known characteristics of the Design 1047.

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• Good ballistics
• 15 s reload time on 283 mm guns
• High AP penetration
• Can overmatch 16 mm platings
• Strong airstrikes with 72 hard-hitting bombs
• 2 airstrikes charges
• Strong anti-air
• Good protection against AP
• Great concealment for a ship of her size
• Repair Party with a short cooldown
• Defensive AA Fire and Hydroacoustic Search in separated slots

The Bad

• Dispersion that can be somewhat derpy at times
• Low HP pool
• Fairly vulnerable to HE shells
• Large target
• 60s fire duration
• Short firing range for a large cruiser
• Not the real Design 1047 battlecruiser

The camouflage

The permanent camouflage of the Gouden Leeuw provides the classic bonuses for tier X ships:

• -3% to surface detectability range
• +4% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy at your ship
• -50% to the cost of ship’s post-battle service
• +20% credits earned in the battle.
• +100% to experience earned in the battle

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery
Gouden Leeuw	Propulsion: 156 000 hp	SUO Mk 10 Mod. 1	283 mm/54 28cm Drh.L. C 28

General Characteristics and Playstyle

Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s	Hydroacoustic Search Number of charges: 3 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.5 km Ship spotting range: 5.0 km	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Continuous Damage: +50% Damage from shell explosions: +300%	Repair Party Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 40 s HP regeneration: 0.5%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 30%

In terms of playstyle, the Gouden Leeuw is actually not too far from your classic damage-focused large cruiser. However, outside of the standard “roam around and shoot at anything in your range”, she does come with some interesting extra perks.

Her concealment is simply amazing for a ship of her size and it allows her to get on the sides of enemy ships unnoticed and punish them hard.
This concealment is also really valuable to use her airstrikes as it allows the ship to get close to enemy capital ships without too much risk of getting spotted.

There is one thing to keep in mind though. While it is a large cruiser, tanking isn’t really her strong point. Her protection against HE is just a bit above average and she only has 51.9k HP. On top of that, you also have the fires lasting 60s.
At least, to compensate for it, she gets a special Repair Party with only a 40s cooldown which is really useful to stay in the fight.

If you want, here is a replay of one of my matches with Gouden Leeuw. Keep in mind that here, she was still with the 16s reload time on the main battery. The buff to 15s will only appear with the arrival of Update 0.10.8.

Main Battery

3 x 3 283 mm/54 28cm Drh.L. C 28
Maximum Firing Range	16.500 km
Reloading Time	15.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	25.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	34°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	31°
Sigma	2.05 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	187 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 283 mm HE Brisantgranaat
Alpha Damage	3 900 HP
Damage	2 200 HP
Penetration capacity	47 mm
Explosion size	1.4
Fire chance	20 %
Projectile Speed	890 m/s
Air Drag	0.283
Projectile Mass	315 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 283 mm AP Pantsergranaat
Alpha Damage	7 600 HP
Projectile Speed	890 m/s
Air Drag	0.283
Projectile Mass	330 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 562
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	47 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

The main battery of the Gouden Leeuw sure received a lot of love throughout her testing. Initially, her main battery was pretty much a copy-paste of the Scharnhorst with some minor differences in terms of damage per shell.
Later on, the AP penetration was greatly improved and throughout the testing, they kept buffing the reload time.

After all these changes, Gouden Leeuw’s main battery ends up being pretty good and fairly similar to the Alaska equipped Main Battery Modification 3 in terms of damage output. The AP penetration is also very similar and even superior until 11 km. Combined with the good ballistics, the AP of the Gouden Leeuw really is a force to acknowledge.

The HE is also far from bad and when you get something in the range of your airstrikes, unless it’s something really fast and agile, it will get absolutely roasted.

Airstrike

Airstrike bombers – ‎Fokker T.V.
Range	1.500 – 13.000 km
Number of charges	2
Reload time	100 s
Time to hit the target	15 s
Hitpoints per plane	2 200
Aircraft per squadron	12
Bomb type	P.u.W 160 kg
Bombs per plane	6
Maximum bomb damage	6 800
HE penetration capacity	37 mm
Explosion size	1.03
Fire chance	39 %

The airstrikes of the Gouden Leeuw, once mastered, really end up being a fearsome weapon. Compared to the airstrikes of the D7P for example, those of the Gouden Leeuw cover a much bigger area (roughly 2 ‎Großer Kurfürst side by side) which and drop 3 times more bombs. This gives you both an easier time to land hits as well as a far greater damage potential.
Also, the planes themselves are tankier, limiting the losses that they might suffer on their way to the target.

Generally speaking, while it’s easier to get hits on your target, it’s still preferable to go for battleships, large cruisers or as a whole, targets that aren’t moving too much.

Secondary Armament

6 x 2 120 mm/50 Bofors M1942
Maximum Firing Range	7.300 km
Reloading Time	3.0 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 120 mm HE Brisantgranaat
Alpha Damage	1 700
Damage	460
HE penetration	20 mm
Explosion Size	0.39
Chance to Cause Fire	7 %
Projectile Speed	850 m/s
Air Drag	0.334
Projectile Mass	23.5 kg

Well you know… 120 mm secondaries… What do you expect from these?

Anti-air Armament

The anti-air of the Gouden Leeuw is really nice with high DPS on the long-range and the mid-range as well as pretty strong flaks. It’s a bit sad that we don’t get 57 mm twin mounts but those Bofors are really nothing to sneeze at.

The Armor

The armor of the Gouden Leeuw is good and compensates for the low HP of the ship. The 40 mm extended belt and upper belt also help a lot when angling against AP shells and the HE of cruisers.

While the turtleback won’t do much against battleships, it will be very effective against cruisers, especially with the already thick main belt. Overall, she is really hard to citadel.

External armor protection:

Hidden main belt:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Hidden deck:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the bow and stern:

Final Opinion

The Gouden Leeuw has been one hell of a ride for me. Through most of the testing, I simply hated it. Then… then I received the enlightenment. I decided to use the range upgrade and MY GOD was it a good idea. The range gives her way more flexibility, especially considering her low HP pool and with the strength of the AP, you can comfortably punish cruisers at long range.

As for the airstrikes, while it takes a bit of time to get used to how these things behave, once you get the hang of it, combined with your HE shells, it gets reeeaaaally nasty.

Overall, the Gouden Leeuw ends up being a solid tier X cruiser. While most of the other Dutch cruisers are decent at best with some like Haarlem being real stinkers, Gouden is definitely worth the grind. I have a hard time deciding if it could have a spot in competitive or not but for randoms, it’s gonna be a strong ship and will be especially painful to deal with while kiting.

Recommended Build

For the Gouden Leeuw, I recommend the following commander build:

• Expert Loader
• Priority Target
• Superintendent
• Concealment Expert
• Adrenaline Rush
• Focus Fire Training
• Survivability Expert
• Heavy AP Shells

I really recommend Michiel de Ruyter as a captain as he gets the buffed Focus Fire Training. I also recommend using Gun Fire Control System Modification 2 as the extra range is really useful, offering some much-wanted flexibility and allowing you to punish cruisers giving you broadside at long range.

This concludes my review of the Gouden Leeuw. Thank you for reading this article!

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Yuzorah

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