Final Review: German Tier VII Premium Cruiser München
9 min readThe tier VII German cruiser München was recently released and it’s now time to share my opinion on her. Is she worth to be put compared to the Mainz? Let’s see together.
Historical Background
The München is based on the M-class of light cruisers that were designed by the Kriegsmarine as part of Plan Z, starting from 1936. In total, 6 ships were planned for construction but all were canceled in September 1939 with the keel laying of the first 2 units having already been started.
The M-class light cruisers were meant to work as scouts in the Atlantic for commerce raiding. As such, these ships were trading armor protection in exchange for a 36 knots top speed. When it comes to the armament, the design was calling for the German standard 4 twin turrets with 2 superfiring at the front and 2 superfiring at the rear with 150 mm guns.
As mentioned before, the armor was thin with the main belt being only 50 mm thick.
The design also had a major flaw with all turbines being located in the same room. This means that a single hit could have disabled them, rendering the ship incapable of escaping. This issue would have been fixed with the last 2 ships that were supposed to be larger than the first 4.
The Good and the Bad
The Good
- Fast main battery reload
- High HE penetration
- High alpha damage on the AP
- Good firing range
- Lazy ballistics which allows you to abuse island cover
- Fastest cruiser at this tier with 36 knots
- Very agile with a fast rudder shift and small turning radius
- Small size, making it a harder target to hit
- Greater concealment that will allow you to pick your engagements
The Bad
- Low HP pool
- Small broadside with only 8 guns
- Lazy ballistics (because yes, it a double-edge characteristic) that will put you at a disadvantage against other cruisers at long-range
- Low HE damage
- Bad anti-air with weak long-range and no mid-range aura
- Terribly weak armor protection
- Vulnerable engines and rudder, even against some 203 mm HE shells
The camouflages
The permanent camouflage of the München provides the classic bonuses for tier VII 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
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery | Torpedoes |
München | Propulsion: 116 500 hp | FKS Typ 7 Mod. 1 | 150 mm/55 SK C/28 in a turret | G7a T1 |
General Characteristics and playstyle
Tier | VII |
Health | 30 200 HP |
Displacement | 10 400 tons |
Main Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 16.610 km |
150 mm L/55 SK C/41 | 4 x 2 150 mm |
Secondary Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 4.500 km |
105 mm L/65 Dop. L. C/31 | 2 x 2 105 mm |
Torpedo Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 6.000 km |
533 mm Vierling | 2 x 4 533 mm |
Maximum speed | 36 knots |
Turning Circle Radius | 690 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 8.3 s |
Surface Detectability | 10.8 km |
Air Detectability | 5.78 km |
Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 4.89 km |
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 |
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s | Hydroacoustic Search Number of charges: 3 Work time: 110 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.8 km Ship spotting range: 5.5 km | Fighter Number of charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 90 s Patrol radius: 3.0 km Number of planes in the squadron: 3 |
Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Reload time: 80 s Bonus to continuous DPS: +50% Bonus to flak damage: +300% |
There are 2 ways to nickname the München in my opinion. Most people will call her a Mini-Mainz but I prefer to call her Über-Nürnberg due to the lack of armor, ballistic and small HP pool.
With that in mind, she basically fills up the same role as the 2 others while being more flexible at using island covers with her ballistics and small size compared to the Mainz but still being more effective than Nürnberg when fighting in open water thanks to her great agility and speed.
In the end, she really is a damage focused cruiser that will either burn down enemy ships with HE from behind an island or while wiggling around between shots. However, don’t underestimate her AP alpha damage to punish the broadside of enemy ships.
Main Battery
4 x 2 150 mm/55 SK C/28 in a turret | |
Maximum Firing Range | 16.610 km |
Reloading Time | 5.0 s |
180 Degree Turn Time | 20.0 s |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 32° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 35° |
Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
Maximum Dispersion | 148 m |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 150 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.5 |
Alpha Damage | 1 700 HP |
Damage | 670 HP |
Penetration capacity | 38 mm |
Explosion size | 0.54 |
Fire chance | 8 % |
Projectile Speed | 875 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.33 |
Projectile Mass | 45.3 kg |
Type of Projectile | AP – 150 mm P.Spr.Gr. L/3.8 |
Alpha Damage | 3 750 HP |
Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
Projectile Speed | 875 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.33 |
Projectile Mass | 45.5 kg |
Projectile Krupp | 2 200 |
Projectile Detonator | 0.025 s |
Detonator threshold | 25 mm |
The München’s main guns are very similar to what you will find on the Nürnberg at tier VI. They have slightly worse ballistics (a bit more than 1 second of additional flight time at max range) but it’s frankly not the end of the world. While it will make engaging cruisers at maximum range a bit of a challenge, it will also allow you to abuse island covers way more easily.
Due to the low damage per hit of the HE, you will be relying a fair bit on stacking fires to get good damage numbers. However, when you spot a broadside target, unless it’s at maximum range or things like Sinop with her very thick upper belt, don’t hesitate to switch to AP and pump up some nice salvos.
Secondary battery
2 x 2 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/31 mount | |
Maximum Firing Range | 4.500 km |
Reloading Time | 3.35 s |
Sigma | 1.00 sigma |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 105 mm Spr.Gr. Kz. |
Alpha Damage | 1 200 HP |
Damage | 330 HP |
HE penetration | 26 mm |
Explosion Size | 0.31 |
Chance to Cause Fire | 5 % |
Projectile Speed | 900 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.33 |
Projectile Mass | 15.1 kg |
Her secondaries are only here to provide a bit of anti-air. Against surface targets, I will salute you if you get any meaningful results.
Torpedo Armament
2 x 4 533 mm Vierling G7a T1 | |
Reloading Time | 90 s |
Maximum Distance | 6.000 km |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 30° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 40° |
Damage | 13 700 |
Flooding Chance | 227 % |
Speed | 64 kt |
Surface Detectability | 1.3 km |
Due to their limited range, you will rarely get to use the torpedoes on the München. They will come into play for the few times you will be rushing a battleship from behind an island or when fighting at close range with a cruiser but that’s about it.
In both cases, the great front-firing angles will be very useful.
Anti-air Armament
2 x 2 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/31 mount | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 5.2 km |
Hit chance | 90 % |
Sector’s damage | 13 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 46 |
Flak clouds number | 1 |
Flak cloud damage | 1 330 |
8 x 4 30 mm/45 Flak 103/38 on a quadruple mount | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 3.0 km |
Hit chance | 85 % |
Sector’s damage | 77 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 270 |
The anti-air of the München is nothing to be proud of or scared of. The long-range aura’s radius is only 5.2 km, she lacks any sort of mid-range aura and, while the close range has a decently high DPS, it just won’t save you due to the small size of the aura.
The armor
While the München has fairly good firepower, high speed and great concealment, her armor is definitely on the weaker side and even though her citadel has additional protection, it remains vulnerable.
The bow section
Due to her nature as a light cruiser, the external protection of the bow is only 16 mm thick. This means that anything with guns bigger than 228 mm will be able to overmatch it.
The citadel’s athwartship is also thinly protected with the part above water and the casemate around it being 30 mm thick and the part below the water, 13 mm thick. I don’t think that I need to tell you how easy it is to penetrate.
For the upper casemate, it’s 16 mm thick, just like the external bow armor so I can’t show it here.
The middle section
When it comes to the middle section, the deck is 25 mm thick and the sides are 20 mm thick. For the main belt, it’s a bit complex. The biggest part is actually a casemate protecting the sloped citadel deck. However, deep below the waterline, the citadel is exposed so some battleship AP might be able to reach this part.
The torpedo bulge is 16 mm thick.
For the internal part of the citadel, the 35 mm deck is sloped at 44° to 45° which can make it somewhat trolly to hit at times. However, against battleships, it will be a dice roll. Either it’s an overpenetration fiesta or you get half of your HP gone if not more.
Finally, when talking about the horizontal protection, outside of the 25 mm weather deck, the middle part of the citadel deck is only 20 mm thick. With some luck and considering the small profile of the ship, AP bombs for the most part will just go through the ship completely.
The stern section
On the stern, the München at least has some extra protection. The most part is 16 mm thick but she gets a 30 mm extended belt that will prove itself to be useful when kiting the enemy.
Inside her bow, she also has a 20 mm armored deck. This will effectively only come into play when facing a Graf Spee or Scharnhorst with their 283 mm or Cheshire and Drake with their 234 mm guns. It will block them from getting citadels through your stern.
Finally, her rear citadel athwartship and the casemates around it are only protected by 13 mm of armor. When battleships will be shooting at this ship, it will be either an overpenetration fiesta or a large chunk of HP gone.
The superstructure
The superstructure is the classic 10 mm thick on tier VII light cruisers.
The turrets
Compared to the rest, the turrets are decently protected for the standards of tier VII. The face is 100 mm thick, the sides are 60 mm thick and the roof, as well as the back, are 40 mm thick.
For the barbette, it’s a uniform 60 mm plating except for the 40 mm roof.
These turrets won’t get crippled too often, at least from my experience.
Final Opinion
Personally, I’m somewhat split about her. She will struggle quite a lot to get a real impact when uptiered against tier IX ships (which, these days, happens a lot for tier VII) but when facing tier VIII ships or lower, she will just do fine and her characteristics make her very versatile in terms of playstyle may it be island hugging and fighting in open water.
Recommended build
During the testing of the München, I used the following captain build and upgrades:
Captain build:
- Priority Target: Very useful skill, especially on a cruiser to know what might be aiming at you.
- Last Stand: With the ship’s engines and steering gears being quite fragile, I definitely recommend Last Stand. I was, in fact, quite happy to have it when a Yorck crippled my engines twice in a row with HE.
- Demolition Expert: The ship is your classic HE spammer (with the occasional AP on broadside targets) so the better fire chance will be appreciable.
- Concealment Expert: With her already low concealment, concealment expert gets it down to 9.43 km which will allow you to outspot a lot of cruisers and pick your fights.
- Adrenaline Rush: As usual, Adrenaline Rush is a must-have on anything except carriers. The lower your HP will be, the better your damage output.
- Radio Location: Fairly useful skill to avoid bad surprises and getting spotted by a destroyer that might be flanking.
- Preventive Maintenance: Due to how fragile the engines and steering gears are, reducing the risk of having them crippled as a good idea if you ask me.
- Jack of All Trades: For the last 2 points, Jack of All Trades can be a good option for the lower cooldown on the Damage Control Party and Hydroacoustic Search. Alternatively, you could pick Expert Loader and Incoming Fire Alert for example.
Upgrades:
- Main Armaments Modification 1: There is literally nothing else worth taking in this slot. You want to keep your turrets working.
- Engine Room Protection or Hydroacoustic Search Modification 1: As I said earlier, the engines and of the München are quite weak so you will prefer to make sure that they stay operational as often as possible. However, since she has the German Hydroacoustic Search, making it last longer can be a good idea.
- Aiming System Modification 1: There isn’t any real other choice on that slot. Since you have only 8 guns, you will prefer to have the shells landing as often as possible.
- Propulsion Modification 1: The rudder shift time is already fast enough with that ship and for the few times where you will be raining down shells on your enemy from behind an island, it’s nice to get on the move fast.
On Tier 6, München would be much better off because it actually does not represent a real improvement in gameplay compared to Nürnberg.