Final Review: Japanese Tier VI Premium Battleship Ise

Wargaming recently released in World of Warships the very first hybrid ship of the game. The Ise, as she appeared after her conversion to an aviation battleship is now available for 6 800 doubloons or in the Premium.

How the concept of a hybrid ship working for her? Is she able to compensate for the loss of firepower compared to Fuso, the closest competitor at tier VI? Here is my opinion on the subject.

The Historical Background

Ise was the lead ship of a class of two dreadnaught battleships from the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship was laid down in May 1915, launched in November 1916 and was completed in December 1917.

While the ship played no role in World War I, she provided fire support to the Japanese forces during the Siberian Intervention in the Russian Civil War. In 1923, she assisted survivors of the Great Kanto earthquake. Through the 1920s and 1930s, she underwent several refits and even a reconstruction to improve her armor and propulsion systems. When World War II started, the ship was already considered obsolete and she saw limited action during the first years of the war.
Following the disastrous battle of Midway, the Japanese Navy found itself in dire need of ships able to launch planes and so, Ise was rebuilt with a flight deck replacing her two rear turrets. The problem was that, due to a lack of aircraft available and even pilots, she actually never operated her aircraft in combat. The ship participated in the Battle off Cape Engaño in late 1944, where she was one of the ships that decoyed the American carrier fleet supporting the invasion of Leyte away from the landing beaches. Afterward, the ship was transferred to Southeast Asia. In early 1945 Ise was more of a glorified cargo than anything else and participated in Operation Kita, where she transported fuel and other strategic materials to Japan. The ship was then reduced to reserve because there was not enough fuel for ships to operate until American airstrikes sank her in July. After the war, the ship was scrapped in 1946.

If you want to learn more about Ise, here is a video from Drachinifel covering the ship:

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• Highest HP pool of all tier VI battleships
• Higher sigma value than average
• AP shells with good penetration for their caliber
• Good anti-air (at least for the standards of tier VI battleships)
• Capacity to launch a squadron of torpedo bombers offering a spotting tool for your team and the possibility to create your own crossfires

The Bad

• Only eight 356 mm guns
• Horrible firing angles at the rear
• Low speed
• Massive flight deck at the rear that acts as a shell magnet
• No spotting aircraft consumable
• Slow torpedo bombers
• Aerial torpedoes with very low damage and abysmal flooding chances
• Huge torpedo spread
• Incapacity to shoot or operate your ship (except for autopilot) while controlling the torpedo bomber squadron making you quite vulnerable

The camouflage

The permanent camouflage of the Ise provides the classic bonuses for tier VI ships:

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

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery	Torpedo Bombers
Hyuuga	Propulsion: 81 050 hp	Type6 mod. 1	356 mm/45 41st Year Type in a twin turret	Aichi M6A2 Seiran

General Characteristics and playstyle

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2
Damage Control Party Work 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

Overall, the Ise’s playstyle remains very similar to the one of the other IJN battleships, being more suited for medium to long-range engagements where their accuracy generally takes the edge compared to battleships from other nations.

What Ise brings to the table, however, is the capacity to deploy a squadron of torpedo bombers, offering her an unrivaled spotting tool among battleships as well as the capacity to force the enemy to give broadside to her or the rest of your fleet.

The problem is that, as a hybrid between a battleship and a carrier, she ends up underperforming in both categories (especially the carrier part). Compared to her direct competitor Fuso, she loses a whole third of her firepower with the remaining turrets also being partially crippled in terms of firing angles. She also loses the capacity to use the Spotting Aircraft consumable and as a whole, takes a massive dive when it comes to her survivability due to the massive flight deck at the rear and, generally speaking, weaker armor protection.

I think that, by now, you already understood that Ise trades a lot of valuable assets just to get a crappy squadron of torpedo bombers.

Main Battery

4 x 2 356 mm/45 41st Year Type in a twin turret
Maximum Firing Range	21.400 km
Reloading Time	30.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	45.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	35°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	63° for 4 turrets 35° for 2 turrets
Sigma	2.00 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	238 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 356 mm HE Type0
Alpha Damage	5 700 HP
Damage	3 010 HP
Penetration capacity	59 mm
Explosion size	1.89
Fire chance	25 %
Projectile Speed	805 m/s
Air Drag	0.531
Projectile Mass	625 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 356 mm AP Type91
Alpha Damage	10 200 HP
Projectile Speed	775 m/s
Air Drag	0.331
Projectile Mass	673.5 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 657
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	59 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

So basically, on paper, you have the firepower of the Kongou but at least, you have 2.0 sigma instead of 1.8. When firing forward, everything is “fine”. You can fire your 8 guns without trouble. You still possess a fairly strong AP penetration considering the caliber but the limited amount of guns, standard reload time and lack of overmatch against other battleships limit her fighting capabilities quite a fair bit.

The real problems start when you are forced into a kiting position. The firing angles at the rear are simply tragic, forcing you to give flat broadside to fire all guns. At this point, if it is against another battleship, don’t even bother trying to get all guns on target. You will suffer more than the guy you are shooting at.

Torpedo Bombers

Torpedo bomber – Aichi M6A2 Seiran
Tier	VI
Hitpoints per plane	1 820
Cruise speed	122 knots
Maximum speed	140 knots
Engine boost time	10 s
Engine boost reload time	20 s
Size of attacking flight	4
Aircraft per squadron	4
Torpedo type	Type 5
Torpedoes per plane	2
Maximum torpedo damage	2 767
Maximum torpedo range	2.3 km
Torpedo speed	35 knots
Torpedo arming distance	376 m
Flooding chance	17%
Detectability range	7.5 km
Aircraft restoration time	120 s

So basically, unless you are playing with some big brain division composed of 2 Ise and a carrier (preferably a Ryujo since she has the best TBs on the market), consider these Torpedo Bombers as nothing more than psychological weapons.

They have literally nothing going for them. The planes are slow, the HP pool is nothing great and then, there are the torpedoes that are as lethal as Ehōmakis thrown at you from 15 m. They combine low flooding chances, low damage and, as you can see in the picture above, the spread is just gigantic. Also, don’t even bother trying to go after tier VIII ships. Against these, except for those with pitiful AA, the planes will barely reach their target.

What these torpedoes will be useful for, however, is forcing the poor fellas fearing to be tickled to death to turn broadside to you and your teammates. Those torpedo bombers basically allow you to create a one-man-crossfire. Too bad that the guns are greatly limiting the actual utility of these TBs. You can always hope that there will be someone next to you to bring better firepower on the table though.

Secondary Armament

8 x 2 127 mm/40 Type 89 on a Model A1 mount
Maximum Firing Range	4.960 km
Reloading Time	5 s
Sigma	1.00 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 127 mm HE Type0
Alpha Damage	2 100 HP
Damage	440 HP
HE penetration	21 mm
Explosion Size	0.41
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	725 m/s
Air Drag	0.34
Projectile Mass	23.45 kg

Mostly decorative but quite decent for the AA DPS.

Anti-air Armament

For the standards of tier VI battleships, the anti-air on Ise is fairly good actually. The long-range is well above average and the mid-range also deals “good” DPS.

Of course, in action, it won’t do much against tier VIII or even tier VI carriers but hey, better than nothing right?

The Armor

The Ise has a massive, easily exploitable, weakness. Her flight deck sits high above the water, it’s large and on top of that, it’s only protected by 26 mm of armor. This turns it into a perfect shell sponge and even when you will be well angled, you will take big chunks of damage because of it. It’s also free real estate for the HE of enemy cruisers in general.

External armor protection:

Front and rear protections of the middle section:

Casemate protection:

Citadel protection:

Turret Armor Protection:

Hidden Armor Plates in the Bow and Stern:

Final Opinion

I really cannot recommend the Ise. As a battleship, she is honestly terrible, especially when you compare her to the Fuso. You give up so much to get torpedo bombers that act more as a psychological weapon than anything else that in the end, it’s just a terrible trade.

If you wanna go with some dumb double Ise and Ryujo divisions, sure go ahead but outside of those, the ship is just terrible.

If you want a proper mid-tier battleship, hurry up and grab the Hyuuga. That one is actually worth the shekels.

Recommended Build

During the testing of the Ise, I was running the following build:

• Expert Loader
• Grease the Gears
• Adrenaline Rush
• Concealment Expert
• Fire Prevention
• Emergency Repair Expert
• Priority Target
• Preventive Maintenance

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

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Have a good one and see you soon!

Yuzorah

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