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Final Review: German Premium Tier VIII Battleship Brandenburg

6 min read

Ladies and Gentlemen, arriving with the German battlecruisers event, here is the new tier VIII Premium battleship Brandenburg. Is she worth it? Is she doing anything better than Tirpitz and Odin? Here is my opinion on it.

Historical background

Not much to talk about here. In essence, it’s just a Tirpitz with the turrets being swapped with the triple turrets found on Odin or Aegir armed with 305 mm guns. Essentially, it’s a tier VIII Pommern. Sadly, the ship gets shafted hard when it comes to the HP/tonnage formula as she gets, just like Odin, a much lower HP pool than she should have.

As a side note, surprisingly, it’s a unique model.

The Good and the Bad

The Good

  • 12 gun broadside
  • Shorter main battery reload time than other tier VIII battleships
  • Decent dispersion
  • Strong secondaries with improved penetration, dispersion and high firing range
  • 4 torpedoes per side
  • High top speed for a tier VIII battleship
  • Good concealment
  • Well protected against HE and German turtleback that protects the citadel

The Bad

  • Very low HP pool
  • Terrible firing angles
  • Only 305 mm guns which means weak AP penetration
  • Secondaries are mostly composed of 105 mm guns so they can only penetrate 26 mm of armor
  • Fragile torpedo launchers
  • Bad anti-air
  • No Hydroacoustic Search
  • Vulnerable to AP bombs

The camouflage

The permanent camouflage of the Brandenburg provides the classic bonuses for tier VIII ships:

  • -3% to surface detectability range
  • +4% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy at your ship
  • -10% to the cost of ship’s post-battle service
  • +50% to experience earned in the battle

Modules

Hull
Engine
Gun Fire Control System
Main battery
Torpedoes

icon_module_Hull_installed

Brandenburg

icon_module_Engine_installed

Propulsion: 180 000 hp

icon_module_Suo_installed

FKS Typ 8 Mod. 1

icon_module_Artillery_installed

305 mm/56 SK C/39 in a turret

icon_module_Torpedoes_installed

‎G7a T1

General Characteristics and Playstyle

TierVIII
Health58 800 HP
Torpedo Damage Reduction23 %
Displacement47 520 tons
Dimensions
Overall length242.25 m
Beam34.88 m
Overall height (keel to the highest point on the ship)35.0 m
Freeboard4.3 m
Main Armament
Maximum Firing Range18.460 km
305 mm/56 SK C/39 in a turret4 x 3 305 mm
Secondary Armament
Maximum Firing Range7.600 km
150 mm/55 SK C/28 on a Dop. L. C/34 mount
105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/37 mount
6 x 2 150 mm
10 x 2 105 mm
Torpedo Armament
Maximum Firing Range6.000 km
533 mm Vierling2 x 4 533 mm
Maximum speed32.5 knots
Turning Circle Radius820 m
Rudder Shift Time15.8 s
Surface Detectability16.2 km
Air Detectability11.22 km
Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke12.78 km
Consumables
Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot 3
Damage Control Party
consumable_PCY009_CrashCrewPremiumWork time: 15 s
Cooldown: 80 s
Repair Party
Number of charges: 4
Work time: 28 s
Cooldown: 80 s
HP regeneration speed: +0.5%/s
Spotting Aircraft
Number of charges: 4
Work time: 100 s
Cooldown: 240 s
Maximum firing range: +20%
Fighter
Number of charges: 3
Work time: 60 s
Cooldown: 90 s
Number of planes in a squadron: 3

The Brandenburg is somewhat sitting in-between the traditional German battleships and the German battlecruisers. Just like the German battleships, she is well armored and has the same main battery and secondary battery dispersion but at the same time, just like the German battlecruisers, she has a low HP pool, high speed and low detectability.

One thing for sure, while her secondaries are quite strong, she isn’t really suited for extensive close-quarter engagement because of her low HP and the speed, coupled with the concealment will be valuable tools to disengage if things go bad.

Overall, while she will do decently as top tier, the moment you get uptiered, the ship becomes nothing more than a damage pinata. She just doesn’t have the firepower or survivability to deal properly with higher-tier ships. When downtiered, you will be forced to play much more passive if you don’t want to melt in a few minutes.

Also, she might be one of the worst tier VIII Battleship to fight other high tier battleships because of the combined low HP pool and horrible firing angles which would force you to be broadside, leading to you taking massive damage.

If you want to see the ship in action, here is a replay from one of my games:

Main Battery

4 x 3 305 mm/56 SK C/39 in a turret
 Maximum Firing Range18.460 km
 Reloading Time26.5 s
180 Degree Turn Time36.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front41°
Optimal firing angles at the rear42°
Sigma1.80 sigma
Maximum Dispersion245 m
Shells
Type of Projectile HE – 305 mm Spr.Gr. L/3.8
Alpha Damage3 600 HP
Damage2 960 HP
Penetration capacity 76 mm
Explosion size1.65
Fire chance27 %
Projectile Speed865 m/s
Air Drag0.28
Projectile Mass415 kg
Type of ProjectileAP – 305 mm P.Spr.Gr. L/4.9
Alpha Damage9 400 HP
Projectile Speed865 m/s
Air Drag0.28
Projectile Mass415 kg
Projectile Krupp2 450
Projectile Detonator0.033 s
Detonator threshold51 mm
Ricochet Angles45° – 60°

The main battery of the Brandenburg isn’t anything to praise. Just like the Odin, she is armed with 305 mm guns which lead to multiple issues. Firstly, the AP penetration of these 305 mm guns is not great. While it will definitely be enough against cruisers, against BBs, their performances at medium to long range are definitely lacking. Secondly, you aren’t overmatching a lot of plating with this caliber. The only relevant one is the 16 mm plating on some light cruisers. There is also the general issue of German battleships with the HE being quite weak in terms of damage and fire chances.

Another massive problem of the main battery of the Brandenburg is the horrible firing angles of the ship. She needs to show a lot of broadside to be able to fire all her guns, which, combined with her low HP pool, leads to her being easy prey for other battleships.

Secondary battery

6 x 2 150 mm/55 SK C/28 on a Dop. L. C/34 mount
Maximum Firing Range7.600 km
Reloading Time7.5 s
Sigma1.00 sigma
Shells
Type of ProjectileHE – 150 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.5
Alpha Damage1 700 HP
Damage670 HP
HE penetration38 mm
Explosion Size0.54
Chance to Cause Fire8 %
Projectile Speed875 m/s
Air Drag0.33
Projectile Mass45.3 kg
10 x 2 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/37 mount
Maximum Firing Range7.600 km
Reloading Time3.35 s
Sigma1.00 sigma
Shells
Type of ProjectileHE – 105 mm Spr.Gr. Kz.
Alpha Damage1 200 HP
Damage330 HP
HE penetration26 mm
Explosion Size0.31
Chance to Cause Fire5 %
Projectile Speed900 m/s
Air Drag0.33
Projectile Mass15.1 kg

The secondaries of the Brandenburg are more or less her most valuable asset. While she has the same range and dispersion as the other German battleships, she has more secondaries to bring on target. However, compared to Odin that gets 128 mm which are able to penetrate 32 mm platings, here, you are mostly stuck with 105 mm secondaries that would need IFHE to shine.

Torpedo Armament

2 x 4 533 mm Vierling
G7a T1
Reloading Time90 s
Maximum Distance6.000 km
Optimal firing angles at the front29°
Optimal firing angles at the rear30°
Damage13 700
Flooding Chance227 %
Speed64 kt
Surface Detectability1.3 km

The torpedoes, just like on Tirpitz or Odin will be decorative 90% of the time until you are kiting a ship at less than 8 km rushing your ass or, as a whole, in brawling situations.

In true German fashion, these torpedo launchers are completely exposed and might randomly get crippled or destroyed by random HE shells passing by.

Anti-air Armament

10 x 2 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/37 mount
Sector range0.1 km – 5.2 km
Hit chance75 %
Sector’s damage55
Sector’s damage frequency0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second193
Flak clouds number8
Flak cloud damage1 400
18 x 4 30 mm/45 Flak 103/38 on a quadruple mount
Sector range0.1 km – 3.0 km
Hit chance70 %
Sector’s damage146
Sector’s damage frequency0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second511

The anti-air of the Brandenburg isn’t great, even for self-defense. As per usual, even though the DPS is quite high, you are still suffering from the limited range so the planes don’t take that much damage overall as they spend less time in your anti-air.

The Armor

The Brandenburg presents very similar armor protection to Tirpitz and Bismarck. She is quite tanky, both against HE and AP (when angled) but her horizontal protection is terrible so planes with AP bombs will just destroy the ship.

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Turtleback:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the stern:

Final Opinion

In my opinion, Brandenburg really isn’t worth it. She is basically a hybrid between Tirpitz and Odin but in worse.

What mostly kills her is the combination of low HP and horrible firing angles which make it very painful to play against other battleships.

Recommended Build

For the Brandenburg, I recommend the following commander build:

  • Demolition Expert
  • Inertia Fuse for HE Shells
  • Long-Range Secondary Battery Shells
  • Concealment Expert
  • Manual Secondary Battery Aiming
  • Emergency Repair Expert
  • Adrenaline Rush

You can also switch Emergency Repair Expert for Fire Prevention.

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

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Have a good one and see you soon!

About Author

15,466 thoughts on “Final Review: German Premium Tier VIII Battleship Brandenburg

  1. May I ask why the German battlecruiser build is recommended over the German battleship build? Or Odin build?
    Wouldn’t IFHE harm her main batteries?

  2. But Brandenburg model is new and armor scheme quite different, so she isn’t copy-pasted hull, just slightly alternative.

  3. As I explained, you definitely want CE on Brandenburg because of her already good concealment. As for IFHE, you don’t care about the main battery since you won’t be spamming HE 24/7. It’s to help her 105 mm secondaries that she has in high quan***y and can only penetrate 26 mm while Odin has the 128 mm that naturally penetrate 32 mm platings.

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