Supertest: Italian Tier II Cruiser Nino Bixio
5 min readBefore the update 0.8.7., let’s try to cover all Italian cruisers. Today, we are looking at the tier II, Nino Bixio.
The Nino Bixio-class was a pair of protected cruisers (Nino Bixio and Marsala) built between 1911 and 1914 by the Regia Marina. Both ships were planned to act as scouts for the main fleet thanks to their good speed. However, they were terribly overweight as completed which prevented them from reaching the planned top speed of 29 knots.
Both ships saw limited action in World War I due to their underwhelming performances and the cautious strategies of the Regia Marina and ended up being scrapped in the 1920s.
In World of Warships, the Nino Bixio is slightly different from the real ship. Indeed, her 2 single torpedo launchers (that you can see on the drawing just below) were replaced by 2 additional 120 mm gun mounts.
Semi-armor piercing shells
Semi-armor piercing shells have the features of two types of shells at once:
- Semi-armor piercing shells can ricochet, but the angles of the ricochet are more comfortable than those of armor-piercing shells (60–85°);
- For semi-armor piercing shells, the 14.3-caliber rule will apply;
- If the ricochet does not happen, the mechanics of semi-armor piercing shells are similar to high explosive ones;
- Semi-armor piercing shells don’t have over penetrations;
- Can’t cause a fire;
- Damage and penetration is better than high explosive shells;
- Semi-armor piercing shells deal only 10% of their damage to destroyers.
Semi-armor piercing shells are designed to deal stable high damage when armor-piercing shells are not effective.
Fuel smoke
Fuel smokes are almost similar to a usual smoke generator, but a ship equipped with fuel smokes is able to be concealed at full speed. Therefore, Italian cruisers will be able to hide from enemy ships or aircraft, without sacrificing speed and the ability to maneuver. Fuel smokes last from 25 to 40 seconds and disperse in 10 seconds.
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery |
Nino Bixio (A) |
Propulsion: 23 000 hp |
SDT 2 mod.1 |
120 mm/50 Ansaldo 1909 |
Nino Bixio (B) |
SDT 2 mod.2 |
Also, as we are now deep into another AA rebalancing, the values that I will share here are most likely going to change and I will try to update them if they do.
A Hull
| Tier | II |
| Health | 15 500 HP |
| Main Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 10.340 km |
| 120 mm/50 Ansaldo 1909 | 8 x 1 120 mm |
| Secondary Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 2.500 km |
| 76 mm/50 Vickers 1909 | 6 x 1 76.2 mm |
| Maximum speed | 26.8 kt |
| Turning Circle Radius | 480 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 6.72 s |
| Surface Detectability | 8.1 km |
| Air Detectability | 3.96 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke | 2.94 km |
| 8 x 1 120 mm/50 Ansaldo 1909 | |
| Reloading Time | 13.0 s |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 22.5 s |
| Optimal front firing angle | 10° for 4 guns 20° for 5 guns |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 10° |
| Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 111 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | SAP – 120 mm proiettili CS 1909 |
| Alpha Damage | 2 850 HP |
| Penetration capacity | 34 mm |
| Projectile Speed | 840 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.267 |
| Projectile Mass | 22.13 |
| Projectile Krupp | 3 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.03 s |
| Type of Projectile | AP – 120 mm proiettili AP 1909 |
| Alpha Damage | 2 100 HP |
| Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
| Projectile Speed | 850 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.28 |
| Projectile Mass | 22.75 |
| Projectile Krupp | 2 100 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.01 s |
| 6 x 1 76 mm/50 Vickers 1909 | |
| Reloading Time | 6.00 s |
| Sigma | 1.00 sigma |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | 76 mm proiettili HE 1909 – HE |
| Alpha Damage | 1 100 HP |
| Damage | 360 HP |
| HE penetration | 12 mm |
| Explosion Size | 0.19 |
| Chance to Cause Fire | 4 % |
| Projectile Speed | 815 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.381 |
| Projectile Mass | 5.9 |
| Projectile Krupp | 3 |
| 2 x 1 12.7 mm Browning M2 Mod2 | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 1.5 km |
| Hit chance | 85 % |
| Sector’s damage | 4 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 14 |
Slot 1 |
 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 90 s |
 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s |
B Hull
| Tier | II |
| Health | 16 600 HP |
| Main Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 11.374 km |
| 120 mm/50 Ansaldo 1909 | 8 x 1 120 mm |
| Secondary Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 2.500 km |
| 76 mm/50 Vickers 1909 | 6 x 1 76.2 mm |
| Maximum speed | 26.8 kt |
| Turning Circle Radius | 480 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 4.8 s |
| Surface Detectability | 8.1 km |
| Air Detectability | 3.96 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke | 2.94 km |
| 8 x 1 120 mm/50 Ansaldo 1909 | |
| Reloading Time | 13.0 s |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 22.5 s |
| Optimal front firing angle | 10° for 4 guns 20° for 5 guns |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 10° |
| Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 111 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | SAP – 120 mm proiettili CS 1909 |
| Alpha Damage | 2 850 HP |
| Penetration capacity | 34 mm |
| Projectile Speed | 840 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.267 |
| Projectile Mass | 22.13 |
| Projectile Krupp | 3 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.03 s |
| Type of Projectile | AP – 120 mm proiettili AP 1909 |
| Alpha Damage | 2 100 HP |
| Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
| Projectile Speed | 850 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.28 |
| Projectile Mass | 22.75 |
| Projectile Krupp | 2 100 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.01 s |
| 6 x 1 76 mm/50 Vickers 1909 | |
| Reloading Time | 6.00 s |
| Sigma | 1.00 sigma |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | 76 mm proiettili HE 1909 – HE |
| Alpha Damage | 1 100 HP |
| Damage | 360 HP |
| HE penetration | 12 mm |
| Explosion Size | 0.19 |
| Chance to Cause Fire | 4 % |
| Projectile Speed | 815 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.381 |
| Projectile Mass | 5.9 |
| Projectile Krupp | 3 |
| 2 x 1 40 mm/39 Vickers-Terni 1915/1917 | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 2.5 km |
| Hit chance | 90 % |
| Sector’s damage | 7 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 25 |
Slot 1 |
Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 90 s |
Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s |
The Armor
Since it’s a tier II, don’t expect anything too complex.
The ship is entirely covered by 6 mm of armor except for the gun shields that are 30 mm thick and the conning tower that is 100 mm thick.
Her citadel is protected by a sloped 38 mm plating that extends inside the bow. This makes the ship impossible to citadel through the bow. The stern also has an armored deck but it’s only 6 mm thick.
Here is another view angle to see the slop of the citadel protection.
Personal opinion
Let’s start with the new SAP shells. I’m not convinced by them, especially on low tier. With the slow reload coupled with the 10% damage dealt to destroyers, the Nino Bixio will definitely struggle a bit at tier II since there are quite a lot of destroyers at this tier.
Against cruisers, she should do quite well with the SAP. She also has a surprisingly good ballistic for a pre-WW1 ship with a low air drag and good initial shell velocity. With these guns, she will easily be able to stay at range while still being able to easily hit the target. Just pray that no destroyer decides to rush her.
About Author
For a low tier, she is surprisingly gorgeous.