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Supertest: British Tier VI Premium Cruiser London

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It is time to have a look at the upcoming British heavy cruisers that will enter live testing next month. I will not lie, I never thought that we would actually see an entire line of heavy cruisers in the Royal Navy tech tree but then again, I also believed that Wargaming would never ever bring submarines…

Some might point out that I still didn’t cover the stats of Gorizia aaaand… after playing it, I just don’t want to do it. If you want a quick summarize, the ship is simply a worse (PRE-BUFF) Zara that exchanges torpedoes for a hydroacoustic Search.

Now, enough talk about the Gorizia, let’s talk about HMS London.

HMS London, pennant number C69, was part of the second group of the County-class of heavy cruisers from the Royal Navy. The ship was launched in September 1927 and commissioned in January 1929.
London started her career as part of the 1st cruiser squadron and in 1937, she and her sister ship Shropshire helped to evacuate civilians from the city of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.

From March 1939 until March 1941, London underwent a reconstruction that modified the ship significantly, may it be the superstructure, the secondary armament or the protection.

When she returned in active service, HMS London took part in the Hunt of the Bismarck in May 1941. During this period, her upper deck and hull were damaged because of the weight of the new superstructure. The ship had to be repaired from October 1941 until February 1942. Her return to active service didn’t last long though. She spent 9 months in the North Atlantic, escorting convoys and took a serious beating from the heavy seas with cracks forming on the hull and rivet popping out. The damage she suffered lead to the ship being dry-docked in December 1942. These repairs were the occasion to make a proper refit to the ship: new radars, more anti-air weapons, rectification of the hull, etc. The refit was completed in May 1943 and after sea trials, the ship served off the South African coasts and later on with the Eastern Fleet until the end of the war.

After the war, she was implicated in the Amethyst Incident in early 1949 with Communist Chinese forces and was badly damaged while fighting them. She returned to Hong Kong for repairs and remained in Chinese waters until August 1949. HMS London was sold for scrapping in 1950 after more than 20 years of service.

In World of Warships, despite being the Premium ship used to go with the introduction of the new Heavy Cruiser line, the London is a “One of a kind” ship because unlike the others, she has the same Smoke Generator as the Leander

3D Preview

As you can see, this article signs the return of the 3D models available in our previews so take the time to explore the model of HMS London!

k3nll9722or31.jpg

Modules
Hull
Engine
Gun Fire Control System
Main battery
Torpedoes

London

Propulsion: 80 000 hp

Mk VI mod. 1

203 mm/50 BL Mk VIII

533 mm Mk VII

Characteristics
GeneralMain BatterySecondariesTorpedo TubesAir DefenseConsumables
TierVI
Health34 600 HP
Main Armament
Maximum Firing Range13.400 km
203 mm/50 BL Mk VIII4 x 2 203 mm
Secondary Armament
Maximum Firing Range5.000 km
102 mm/45 QF Mk XIX4 x 2 102 mm
Torpedo Armament
Maximum Firing Range7.000 km
533 mm QR Mk IV2 x 4 533 mm
Maximum speed32.3 kt
Turning Circle Radius710 m
Rudder Shift Time7.8  s
Surface Detectability12.06 km
Air Detectability6.58 km
Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke6.79 km

4 x 2 203 mm/50 BL Mk VIII
 Reloading Time15 s
180 Degree Turn Time22.5 s
Optimal front firing angle
35°
Optimal rear firing angle34°
Sigma2.00 sigma
Maximum Dispersion125 m
Shells
Type of Projectile HE – 203 mm HE 256 lb
Alpha Damage2 850 HP
Damage1 230 HP
Penetration capacity 33 mm
Explosion size0.86
Fire chance15 %
Projectile Speed855 m/s
Air Drag0.346
Projectile Mass116.1
Type of ProjectileAP – 203 mm AP 256 lb
Alpha Damage4 550 HP
Chance to Cause Fire-0.5 %
Projectile Speed855 m/s
Air Drag0.346
Projectile Mass116.1
Projectile Krupp2 400
Projectile Detonator0.033 s
Detonator threshold34 mm

4 x 2 102 mm/45 QF Mk XIX
Reloading Time3.0 s
Sigma1.00 sigma
Shells
Type of ProjectileHE – 102 mm HE 35 lb
Alpha Damage1 500 HP
Damage310 HP
HE penetration16 mm
Explosion Size0.3
Chance to Cause Fire6 %
Projectile Speed811 m/s
Air Drag0.33
Projectile Mass15.88
2 x 4 533 mm QR Mk IV
533 mm Mk VII
Reloading Time106 s
Maximum Distance7.0 km
Optimal fronfiring angle51°
Optimal rear firing angle42°
Damage15 733
Speed59 kt
Surface Detectability1.2 km

4 x 2 102 mm/45 QF Mk XIX
Sector range0.1 km – 5.8 km
Hit chance90 %
Sector’s damage28
Sector’s damage frequency0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second98
Flak clouds number4
Flak cloud damage1 260
2 x 8 40 mm/39 QF Mark VIII
Sector range0.1 km – 2.5 km
Hit chance90 %
Sector’s damage22
Sector’s damage frequency0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second77
15 x 1 20 mm Oerlikon Mk IV
Sector range0.1 km – 2.0 km
Hit chance85 %
Sector’s damage37
Sector’s damage frequency0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second130

 

Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot 3
Slot 4
Damage Control Party I
Work time: 5 s
Cooldown: 90 s
Repair Party I
Number of charges: 1
Work time: 10 s
Cooldown: 120 s
HP regeneration speed: 1% HP/s
Hydroacoustic Search I
Number of charges: 2
Work time: 180 s
Cooldown: 180 s
Torpedo detection range: 3.0 km
Ship detection range: 3.0 km
Smoke Generator I
Number of charges: 2
Work time: 15 s
Cooldown: 240 s
Smoke radius: 600 m
Lifetime: 99 s
Damage Control Party II
Work time: 5 s
Cooldown: 60 s
Repair Party II
Number of charges: 2
Work time: 10 s
Cooldown: 80 s
HP regeneration speed: 1% HP/s
Hydroacoustic Search II
Number of charges: 3
Work time: 180 s
Cooldown: 120 s
Torpedo detection range: 3.0 km
Ship detection range: 3.0 km
Smoke Generator II
Number of charges: 3
Work time: 15 s
Cooldown: 160 s
Smoke radius: 600 m
Lifetime: 99 s

The armor

Capture.JPG

The London might have the firepower of a heavy cruiser but her armor protection is quite light, even for her turrets.

The bow section

bow1.JPG

The bow is covered with 16 mm of armor. This means that she will be protected from the AP from other cruisers with the exception of the soon to arrive Cheshire at tier VIII that is actually carrying 234 mm guns.

The frontal protection of the middle section is… quite thin to say the least. The upper casemate is 19 mm thick so anything that went through the bow will go through that without issue.

For the citadel’s athwartship, the upper part is 25 mm and the lower part is 16 mm. Basically, do not stay bow-in in front of a battleship. unless you want to be nuked.

The middle section

mid1.JPG

The middle section is decently protected for a tier VI cruiser but far from great.

The deck and the sides are 19 mm thick while the main belt is 114 mm thick. It also goes half-way above the waterline which will lead to AP shells from battleship bouncing on it if it’s angled properly (even though it can also mean that the same AP shells will just be able to punch through without issue).

There is an interesting thing about that citadel though. It is very short and only covers the engine space so that will at least help the ship a bit.

mid2.JPG

The citadel deck is only 35 mm thick. If a CV with AP bombs wants to citadel the ship, it will have absolutely no issue at scoring citadel hits.

The stern section

stern1.JPG

The stern is protected the same way as the bow with 16 mm of armor.

Once again, the upper casemate is 19 mm thick and the citadel athwartship is 25 mm thick for the upper part and 16 mm thick for the lower part. The armor on this ship is simply made of paper and the fact that you have a smoke generator will be very useful, to say the least.

The superstructure

supers.JPG

The superstructure on the London is 13 mm thick and is actually fairly big, going even past the X turret.

The turrets

turrets.JPG

The turrets are entirely covered with 25 mm of armor. Anyone who already played the Japanese cruisers that also had thinly armored turrets to compensate for their top-heavy nature knows that it is really not good. HE shells from cruisers will be able to cripple these turrets.

Personal opinion

For now, I will wait to see how are the guns on this ship but they better be packing a very nice punch to compensate for the armor protection and lack of range.

The Smoke Generator and good concealment will definitely be useful to get close but that range really bothers me, especially if you land in a Tier VIII match.

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15,466 thoughts on “Supertest: British Tier VI Premium Cruiser London

  1. Sadly the account on which we were hosting the 3d models got banned while we had the authorization from WG to show them…

    We are currently trying to find an alternative.

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