Supertest: German Tier IX Battleship Prinz Rupprecht

Just as a side note before starting, on the last article about Zieten, I didn’t include personal opinions on the ship’s stats. I considered that in the end, it wasn’t really worth it. However, it turned out that a few people pointed it out and said that they actually liked having some sort of TL;DR at the end of the article. As such, don’t worry, now I will write one every time.

Historical background

Just like the Zieten, the Prinz Rupprecht is based on a German battlecruiser design from the end of World War I. Considering the size of the Prinz Rupprecht as well as its armor, it’s most likely the Schnelle Großekampfschiffe GK 4541 design.

This design was armed with eight 420 mm guns in four twin turrets in an AB XY configuration.

In World of Warships Prinz Rupprecht represents a hypothetical refit of this design with a more modern superstructure and anti-air as well as the addition of a torpedo armament on the deck of the ship. The guns were, however, downgraded to 406 mm.
For the rest, it’s the same as the rest of the line. She gets battlecruiser dispersion on her main battery and the same dispersion as Massachusetts and co. for the secondary battery. She also is equipped with a Hydroacoustic Search consumable and again, the rear-most turret can turn at 360°.

If you want, you can learn a bit more about those late World War I battlecruiser designs here.

Ship’s preview

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	Torpedoes
Prinz Rupprecht (A)	Propulsion: 152 000 HP	‎FKS Typ 9 Mod. 1	406 mm/52 SK L/52 in a turret	‎G7a T1 Ausf. B
Prinz Rupprecht (B)		‎FKS Typ 9 Mod. 2

Stock Ship

General Characteristics

Main Armament

4 x 2 406 mm/52 SK L/52 in a turret
Maximum Firing Range	17.740 km
Reloading Time	28.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	30.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	30°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	31°
Sigma	1.70 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	198 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 406 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.4 Kz.
Alpha Damage	4 800
Damage	4 900
Penetration capacity	102 mm
Explosion size	2.51
Fire chance	38 %
Projectile Speed	810 m/s
Air Drag	0.299
Projectile Mass	1 030 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 406 mm P.Spr.Gr. L/4.4
Alpha Damage	12 700
Projectile Speed	810 m/s
Air Drag	0.299
Projectile Mass	1 030 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 527
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	68 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Secondary Armament

6 x 2 150 mm/55 SK C/28 in a casemate
Maximum Firing Range	7.950 km
Reloading Time	6.7 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 150 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.5
Alpha Damage	1 700
Damage	670
HE penetration	38 mm
Explosion Size	0.54
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	875 m/s
Air Drag	0.33
Projectile Mass	45.3 kg
10 x 2 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/31 mount
Maximum Firing Range	7.950 km
Reloading Time	3.0 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 105 mm Spr.Gr. Kz.
Alpha Damage	1 200
Damage	330
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

Torpedo Armament

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
Fast Damage Control Team Number of charges: 4 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 40 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: 10%	Hydroacoustic Search Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 4.0 km Ship spotting range: 6.0 km

Fully Upgraded Ship

General Characteristics

Main Armament

4 x 2 406 mm/52 SK L/52 in a turret
Maximum Firing Range	19.514 km
Reloading Time	28.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	30.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	30°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	31°
Sigma	1.70 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	212 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 406 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.4 Kz.
Alpha Damage	4 800
Damage	4 900
Penetration capacity	102 mm
Explosion size	2.51
Fire chance	38 %
Projectile Speed	810 m/s
Air Drag	0.299
Projectile Mass	1 030 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 406 mm P.Spr.Gr. L/4.4
Alpha Damage	12 700
Projectile Speed	810 m/s
Air Drag	0.299
Projectile Mass	1 030 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 527
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	68 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Secondary Armament

6 x 2 150 mm/55 SK C/28 in a casemate
Maximum Firing Range	7.950 km
Reloading Time	6.7 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 150 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.5
Alpha Damage	1 700
Damage	670
HE penetration	38 mm
Explosion Size	0.54
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	875 m/s
Air Drag	0.33
Projectile Mass	45.3 kg
10 x 2 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/31 mount
Maximum Firing Range	7.950 km
Reloading Time	3.0 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 105 mm Spr.Gr. Kz.
Alpha Damage	1 200
Damage	330
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

Torpedo Armament

Anti-air Armament

The Armor

Well, the armor… really isn’t looking good. The extended belt on the bow is only 30 mm thick, the deck is only 32 mm thick and the main belt is also really thin for a tier IX battleship.

We won’t even talk about horizontal protection, any CV with planes carrying AP bombs is gonna feast on this ship.

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

Just like for the Zieten, on paper, I’m really not impressed by the Prinz Rupprecht.

While the firepower is, effectively better than the one of the Friedrich Der Große (which… isn’t really an achievement) the capacity of the ship to tank damage is really low due to her armor (32 mm deck and 27/30 mm bow and stern) as well as low HP pool.

I honestly can’t see this ship being effectively able to put her secondaries to work with such limited capacity to take hits. Even if we talk about the classic mid-range battleship role, it doesn’t look great either, to be honest.

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Yuzorah

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