Supertest: German Tier X Destroyer Elbing
5 min readAt the top of the new German Destroyer/Spähkreuzer sub-branch, here is the Elbing.
The Elbing is based on the never-built Spähkreuzer 1940 from the Kriegsmarine. This design was the final one proposed for the Spähkreuzer concept and was the biggest of all with a standard displacement of 6 500 tons. Compared to the previous Spähkreuzer 1939, it was one knot faster, able to reach a top speed of 36 knots thanks to stronger engines and was also more heavily armed as it was equipped with two quintuple torpedo launchers while the Spähkreuzer 1939 had none.
In February 1941, the first 3 ships of this design SP1, SP2 and SP3 were ordered and the construction of the SP1 was even started. However, in 1942, the construction was stopped as the resources were reallocated to the production of U-boats.
In World of Warships, we are getting the Spähkreuzer 1940 as it would have been completed but just like on the previous ship, the twin dual-purpose 88 mm mounts are replaced by twin 55 mm AA mounts. Interestingly, Wargaming decided to take the standard displacement for the ship instead of the full-load displacement (around 7500 tons) like they usually do for tier X ships. It is somewhat understandable as such displacement, with the destroyer HP formula, would have brought her HP pool to roughly 37 100 HP.
Currently, the concept of the alternative branch of German destroyers implies the following features:
- Accurate 150 mm guns
- Powerful AP shells with good damage, penetration capability, and improved ricochet angles. HE shells, on the contrary, deal moderate damage per minute.
- Availability of the Hydroaccoustic Search and, starting from Tier VIII, the Defensive AA Fire consumable. However, the new destroyers do not have a Smoke Generator.
- Great armor for the class.
- Torpedoes with good reload time and decent speed, but average damage and range.
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.
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery | Torpedoes |
Elbing |
Propulsion: 110 000 hp |
FKS Typ 10 Mod. 1 |  150 mm/60 SK C/25 on a Tbts KC 42T mount |
G7 Steinbutt |
General Characteristics
| Tier | X |
| Health | 30 900 HP |
| Torpedo Damage Reduction | 0 % |
| Displacement | 6 508 tons |
| Main Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 12.350 km |
| 150 mm/60 SK C/25 on a Tbts KC 42T mount | 3 x 2 150 mm |
| Torpedo Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 8.000 km |
| 533 mm Fünfling | 2 x 5 533 mm |
| Maximum speed | 36.2 knots |
| Turning Circle Radius | 890 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 6.3 s |
| Surface Detectability | 8.46 km |
| Air Detectability | 5.13 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 3.62 km |
Main Battery
| 3 x 2 150 mm/60 SK C/25 on a Tbts KC 42T mount | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 12.350 km |
| Reloading Time | 7.5 s |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 22.5 s |
| Optimal firing angles at the front | 33° |
| Optimal firing angles at the rear | 34° |
| Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 58 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | HE – 150 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.4 Kz. Ausf. B |
| Alpha Damage | 1 700 HP |
| Damage | 670 HP |
| Penetration capacity | 38 mm |
| Explosion size | 0.54 |
| Fire chance | 8 % |
| Projectile Speed | 960 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.237 |
| Projectile Mass | 51 kg |
| Type of Projectile | AP – 150 mm P.Spr.Gr. L/3.7 Ausf. B |
| Alpha Damage | 4 100 HP |
| Projectile Speed | 960 m/s |
| Air drag | 0.237 |
| Projectile Mass | 51 |
| Projectile Krupp | 2 950 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.025s |
| Detonator Threshold | 25 mm |
| Ricochet Angles | 60° – 67.5° |
Torpedo Armament
| 2 x 5 533 mm Fünfling G7 Steinbutt | |
| Reloading Time | 85 s |
| Maximum Distance | 8.000 km |
| Optimal firing angles at the front | 50° |
| Optimal firing angles at the rear | 56° |
| Damage | 13 700 |
| Flooding Chance | 227 % |
| Speed | 65 kt |
| Surface Detectability | 1.3 km |
Anti-air Armament
| 3 x 2 150 mm/60 SK C/25 on a Tbts KC 42T mount | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 6.9 km |
| Hit chance | 100 % |
| Sector’s damage | 13 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 46 |
| Flak clouds number | 2 |
| Flak cloud damage | 1 750 |
| 2 x 2 55 mm/77 Gerät 58 on a twin mount | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 4.0 km |
| Hit chance | 100 % |
| Sector’s damage | 25 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 88 |
| 10 x 4 30 mm/45 Flak 103/38 on a quadruple mount | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 3.0 km |
| Hit chance | 95 % |
| Sector’s damage | 87 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 305 |
Consumables
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 |
Damage Control Party  Work time: 5 sCooldown: 40 s | Hydroacoustic Search  Number of charges: 3Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 4.0 km Ship spotting range: 6.0 km | Defensive AA Fire  Number of charges: 3Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Continuous Damage: +50% Damage from shell explosions: +300% |
The Armor
We are getting a last improvement compared to the previous ships in the new sub-branch. The whole middle section is now protected by 25 mm plating. This will help against most destroyers’ HE shells as well as against the AP shells of supercruisers as they will not be able to overmatch it.
Personal Opinion
Well… A good thing is that now the entire middle section is protected by 25 mm.
The AP was also greatly improved compared to the one of the Schultz and now, you pretty much have the same AP as the Hindenburg in terms of penetration and ballistic.
Outside of that, the ship is much bigger but is also slower than the Schultz, being close to the Smolensk in terms of length. The sad part is that, while it’s almost as big as Smolensk, it turns nowhere near as well as her. In fact, the Elbing obliterates the previous turning radius record for destroyers (Harugumo with 830 m) with her gigantic 890 m turning radius. Just for the sake of comparison, the Yamato has 900 m…
I just cannot imagine seeing that ship dealing with cruisers or French destroyers and Japanese gunboats. With that size, speed and agility, she will just get obliterated.
When it comes to the anti-air, the long-range is still absolutely terrible but at least now at 3.0 km, the DPS is quite good.
In the end, that whole German DD line just looks horribly uninteresting right now but who knows, we might have some surprises when testing them. One thing for sure, the dispersion on them will be absolutely crazy.
Thanks to WoWsBallistic managed by 901234, I made a simulation of her total dispersion area over the range (so horizontal and vertical dispersion combined) and here is how it looks:
Just so that it doesn’t get too confusing, only look at the “Max” value.
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what’s the point of 25 mm armor strip? just good to arm cruiser ap and even most dds he can do damage there
25mm armor means that other DDs have to use AP. Their HE will shatter on 25mm. Well except for the Japanese 100mm which absurdly have the same 30mm pen as 152mm guns.
Won’t stop these German giant DDs from being trash though. They’ve got nothing going for them when trying to fight other DDs. Their DPM is bad and their big HP pools are just good for everybody else to damage-farm them.
This whole new DD line looks so uninteresting. Same for the last lines WG added: big floating islands farmed by everything (new USA BBs), upcoming shotgun short range and bad dispersion italian BBs. Why add another close quarters BB line to be farmed, after nerfing another line (secondary build german BBs) that normally also played close the objectives, logic….. I’m looking forward to an italian DD line similar to the Paolo Emilio though. Hope we’ll see that added to the game soon.
It’s not as it would have been built. Wargaming once again botched the use of the splendid 15 cm/48 KC/36T guns (the game mis-designates them as 150 mm/55 for whatever reason) that only seems to be on Z-31 and Z-39 in the game. Everything else seems to either have them replaced with the weak but fast 12.7 cm L/61 KM40 guns or just something else entirely (Siegfried was supposed to have 3×2 15 cm L/48 KC/36T guns and 4×2 10.5 cm guns as secondaries, but Wargaming decided to replace both with 7×2 12.7 cm L/61 KM40s. Even the Ägir has 9×2 of the KM40s despite ALSO being an O-cl*** battlecruiser, just with a different main battery).
If the Spähkreuzer would have been built, it would have had the 15 cm L/48 TBts KC/36T guns in LDrh LC/38 twin-mounts, not Nürnberg’s guns in ALLEGED Tbts mounts, which aren’t even the same style used on German destroyers. Elbing is given turrets of a similar design to München’s main battery and Bismarck’s secondary 15 cm guns. They’re basically Nürnberg’s guns and turrets but with a barrel removed from each turret. Disappointing, as that was the last ship designed to use them. The only one left would be the interwar cruiser Emden as planned for her 1940 refit to have her single, outdated 15 cm guns replaced with 4×2 of the 15 cm L/48 TBts KC/36T guns in LDrh LC/38 twin-mounts, but they opted to give her 8 of the 15 cm L/48 TBts KC/36 guns in the Tbts LC/36 single-mounts instead.
@Shinimegami Well, German DDs with anything over 100 mm guns running HE would penetrate it since German DD guns pen at 1/4 value. Other DDs would have to be more than 150 mm becuase they run at 1/6 value. Also Akizuki, Kitakaze, and Harugumo all can pen up to 30 mm of armor with their main battery. All according to the Wargaming Wiki.