Supertest: German Tier IX Premium Cruiser Ägir
6 min readLadies and Gentlemen, let’s have a look at the last ship worth mentioning that is entering testing with Update 0.9.1., the Ägir (or Aegir).
The ship is a bit of an oddball. It’s the sistership of the Siegfried that is based on the O-class battlecruisers of the Plan Z from the Kriegsmarine but there is a substantial difference. Unlike Siegfried that carries the planned 3 twin turrets with 380 mm guns of the O-class, the Ägir carries 3 triple turrets with 305 mm guns (the same as Odin). Her secondary battery and AA armament are also reinforced compared to Siegfried but she trades more than 2 km of range for this as well as her catapult.
I have a bit of a Déjà vu feeling with Albemarle and Cheshire.
For the name, the ship is named after Ægir, a jötunn (an entity of the Norse mythology) associated with the ocean.
The ship also has 2 characteristics worth mentioning. First, her dispersion formula is sitting between the standard cruiser formula and the Azuma/Yoshino formula. This means that for their caliber, these guns will be pretty accurate. The second thing to mention is the secondary armament. She can bring a total of 10 guns to bear and these are the German 128 mm secondary guns with a much shorter reload than usual, 31 mm HE penetration and 7.6 km base range. I actually tried a secondary build on Siegfried and considering how it was already working… with Ägir, it will be quite brutal.
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery | Torpedoes |
Aegir | Propulsion: 176 000 hp | FKS Typ 9 Mod. 1 | 305 mm L/56 SK C/39 | G7 Steinbutt |
Tier | IX |
Health | 62 850 HP |
Displacement | 35 720 tons |
Main Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 18.500 km |
305 mm L/56 SK C/39 | 3 x 3 305 mm |
Secondary Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 7.000 km |
128 mm L/61 KM40 | 9 x 2 128 mm |
Maximum speed | 33.5 kts |
Turning Circle Radius | 880 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 14.0 s |
Surface Detectability | 15.12 km |
Air Detectability | 10.74 km |
Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 11.73 km |
3 x 3 305 mm L/56 SK C/39 | |
Maximum Firing Range | 18.500 km |
Reloading Time | 22 s |
180 Degree Turn Time | 30.0 s |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 36° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 40° |
Sigma | 1.8 sigma |
Maximum Dispersion | 175 m |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 305 mm P.Spr.Gr. L/4.9 |
Alpha Damage | 3 600 HP |
Damage | 2 960 HP |
Penetration capacity | 76 mm |
Explosion size | 1.65 |
Fire chance | 27 % |
Projectile Speed | 865 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.28 |
Projectile Mass | 415 |
Type of Projectile | AP – 305 mm Spr.Gr. L/3.8 |
Alpha Damage | 9 400 HP |
Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
Projectile Speed | 865 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.28 |
Projectile Mass | 415 |
Projectile Krupp | 2 450 |
Projectile Detonator | 0.01 s |
Detonator threshold | 51 mm |
9 x 2 128 mm L/61 KM40 | |
Maximum Firing Range | 7.600 km |
Reloading Time | 3.1 s |
Sigma | 1.00 sigma |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 128 mm Spr.Gr. Kz. |
Alpha Damage | 1 500 HP |
Damage | 430 HP |
HE penetration | 31 mm |
Explosion Size | 0.41 |
Chance to Cause Fire | 5 % |
Projectile Speed | 900 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.313 |
Projectile Mass | 26 |
2 x 4 533 mm Vierling G7 Steinbutt | |
Reloading Time | 90 s |
Maximum Distance | 6.0 km |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 30° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 40° |
Damage | 13 700 |
Flooding Chance | 227 % |
Speed | 65 kt |
Surface Detectability | 1.3 km |
9 x 2 128 mm L/61 KM40 | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 6.0 km |
Hit chance | 90 % |
Sector’s damage | 37 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 130 |
Flak clouds number | 6 |
Flak cloud damage | 1 540 |
9 x 2 55 mm L/77 Gerät 58 Zwilling | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 4.0 km |
Hit chance | 90 % |
Sector’s damage | 104 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 364 |
10 x 4 20 mm Flakvierling 38 | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 2.0 km |
Hit chance | 85 % |
Sector’s damage | 34 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 119 |
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 |
Damage Control Party I Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 90 s | Hydroacoustic Search I Number of charges: 2 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 180 s Ship spotting distance: 6.0 km Torpedo spotting distance: 4.0 km | Repair Party I Number of charges: 2 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 120 s HP regeneration speed: 0.5% HP/s |
Damage Control Party II Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 60 s | Hydroacoustic Search II Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s HP regeneration speed: 0.5% HP/s Ship spotting distance: 6.0 km Torpedo spotting distance: 4.0 km | Repair Party II Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: 0.5% HP/s |
The armor
Just like the Siegfried, Ägir presents a great armor protection for a cruiser with heavily armored sides, a citadel protected by a thick turtleback and even a 30 mm deck that allows her to bounce 406 mm shells, unlike Azuma or Kronshtadt.
The bow section
For the external plating, the bow of the Ägir is 27 mm thick. Sadly, she doesn’t get the extended belt that the O-class was supposed to have but at least, she can bounce up to 380 mm shells. That’s something.
The upper casemate is 25 mm thick and for the citadel’s athwartship and the bulkheads around it, it is only 100 mm thick for the upper part and 30 mm thick for the lower part. Now, while it’s not great, only a tiny part is above water and it’s also relatively narrow thanks to the turtleback armor scheme.
The middle section
The deck of the Ägir is 30 mm thick. This allows her to bounce shells up to a caliber of 420 mm which is quite a significant advantage for a tier IX ship.
The side armor is simply great with a 90 mm thick upper belt and a 190 mm main belt.
Behind the main belt, there is the 80 mm turtleback sloped at 51°. It is the same as on the Siegfried and during combat, it proved to be very resilient against enemy battleships.
For the protection of the citadel itself, the horizontal protection is only 60 mm, staying in line with the notoriously poor horizontal protection on German capital ships. Of course, this means that AP bombs will have no issue to citadel the ship.
The side armor is 60 mm thick under the turrets and 45 mm thick around the engines. Combined with the turtleback and the heavy belt armor, this ship will overall be though to citadel from the sides.
The stern section
Just like the bow, the stern is protected by 27 mm of armor, leading to 380 mm AP shells to bounce on it at the right angles.
Compared to the bow, the stern presents an internal protection that covers the rear citadel athwartship. Here, we are talking about an armored deck with a 60 mm central part and 80 mm sloped sides. With this additional plating, the ship will be very hard if not almost impossible to citadel from the stern.
The internal protection of the middle section is the same as at the front. 25 mm casemate, 100 mm citadel athwartship as well as the bulkheads on each sides of it and finally, the lower part of the citadel is 30 mm thick.
The superstructure
The superstructure is quite massive just like on the German capital ships in general. Plenty of 16 mm surfaces to shoot at for destroyers or anything that wouldn’t be able to penetrate the rest of her armor.
The turrets
The turrets are overall well protected with a 360 mm face slopped at 18° and 220 mm sides and back. The roof is 150 mm thick except right in the middle where it’s only 130 mm thick.
For the barbette, the exposed part is 350 mm thick and the part inside the ship is 300 mm thick.
Personal opinion
Right now, the Ägir is shaping up to be a really strong Tier IX premium. She keeps the great armor that Siegfried had and compared to her, she gets better guns, secondaries and anti-air.
Just for the comparison of the main battery on both ships: Siegfried had incredibly accurate guns but since they were the German 380 mm ones, the HE as horrendous and the AP would overpenetrate the target very often if it wasn’t a battleship.
In comparison, Ägir has accurate 305 mm guns with a decent HE, Strong AP, in line with Yoshino and Alaska in terms of penetration but on top of that, her AP gets a short fuse time which leads to more reliable penetrations! Ah, and since we are at it, her HE gets the 1/4 HE penetration so she can citadel Smolensk with HE for example.
Other than that, she can reach a really nice 11.9 km surface detection range and with the combination of German Hydroacoustic Search, great secondaries and good main guns, she will be quite lethal against destroyers if she gets the opportunity.
I’m betting Siegfried will be a coal ship and Ägir will be steel or some brutal mission like Benham.
… and she will be available for modest price of around 64€’s in shop 😀
Please make both of them for Coal, then it will make a choice for people, weather they want bigger guns or smaller but more, etc! it would be a great thing in the armoury to have that choice, both for coal!
The next German premium ship with a totally stupid name …