Supertest: British Tier X Premium Cruiser Gibraltar

Historical background

In 1938, the Director of Naval Construction started working on a series of designs to counter the German Deutschland-class as well as the Japanese Chichibu-class.
The Chichibu-class was what the Allies believed to be an improved version of the Deutschland-class armed with 410 mm guns. It ended up being pure fantasy but scared the U.S.N. enough to start working on what would become the Alaska-class.

As for the British designs, multiple proposals were made with displacements ranging from 20 500 tons to 23 700 tons. As for the armament, the “weakest” design was armed with three triple turrets with 203 mm guns while the largest (Design I) was carrying three quadruple turrets with 234 mm guns.

In the end, none of these would be retained.

However, in 1939, as Winston Churchill returned as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty he almost immediately asked for a cruiser design to effectively fight the German Deutschland-class and Admiral Hipper-class. The DNC got back to work and since the restrictions of previous treaties had been abandoned, they simply went back to their previous designs and modified them. Design A was a modified version of Design I from 1938 with higher maximum speed but weaker armor protection.

In World of Warships, Gibraltar is based on Design A but with a much more modern approach. Her main battery can only fire AP shells similar to those of the British CLs and she also has the same Smoke Generator. The Repair Party remains the standard one though.

Ship’s preview

Ship’s commemorative flag

Camouflage

For the classic reminder, this is a ship in testing, anything can change so don’t look at her like she would already be released.

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery
Gibraltar	Propulsion: 135 000 HP	‎Mk X mod. 1	234 mm/50 Mk X

General Characteristics

Main Armament

3 x 4 234 mm/50 Mk X
Maximum Firing Range	16.850 km
Reloading Time	14.5 s
180 Degree Turn Time	22.5 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	37°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	45°
Sigma	2.05 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	149 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	AP – 234 mm AP 6 CRH
Alpha Damage	5 750
Projectile Speed	841 m/s
Air Drag	0.36
Projectile Mass	152 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 950
Projectile Detonator	0.005 s
Detonator threshold	12 mm
Ricochet Angles	60° – 75°

Secondary Armament

6 x 2 113 mm/45 RP 41 Mk VI
Maximum Firing Range	7.300 km
Reloading Time	3.0 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 113 mm HE Mk XVI
Alpha Damage	1 600
Damage	410
HE penetration	19 mm
Explosion Size	0.36
Chance to Cause Fire	7 %
Projectile Speed	746 m/s
Air Drag	0.333
Projectile Mass	25 kg

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s	Repair Party Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration: 0.5%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 30%	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	Smoke Generator Number of charges: 3 Work time: 15 s Cooldown: 160 s Smoke radius: 600 m Smoke duration: 96 s

The Armor

Unlike the Goliath with a spaced armor, the citadel on Gibraltar is fully exposed.

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the bow and stern:

Personal Opinion

Right now, Gibraltar looks like a really spicy concept (though I generally hate anything related to smoke camping). Such AP shells coupled with the super-short fuse timer and low arming threshold are gonna be nuts although, there is one, non-neglectable problem.
Because the fuse is so short, it will be literally impossible the get citadels on ships with layered/spaced armor. The shells are guaranteed to detonate before reaching the citadel.

Another downside worth keeping in mind is that the ship doesn’t have torpedoes compared to the Goliath which could be troublesome in close-quarter engagements.

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Yuzorah

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