Supertest: Japanese Tier VII Premium Cruiser Maya

Historical background

Maya was the 3rd ship of the Takao-class of heavy cruisers from the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship was laid down in December 1928, launched in November 1930 and commissioned in June 1932. Alongside her sisters Takao, Atago and Choukai, she was one of the most modern cruisers of the Japanese Navy.

The ship spent most of her early career in training as part of the IJN 2nd fleet. During this time, it was discovered that the Takao-class was suffering from stability and seaworthiness issues due to their top-heavy design. While Takao and Atago were rebuilt to fix these issues, Maya and Choukai were deployed in 1937 as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War. As such, the ships weren’t rebuilt as extensively.

Later on, the ship would take an active part in the Second World War. She was providing fire support during the Invasion of the Northern Philippines. She was also deployed in the Dutch East Indies and took part in the sinking of HMS Stronghold, USS Pillsbury and USS Asheville.
In April 1942, Maya was part of the fleet in charge of pursuing Task Force 16.2 led by Admiral William F. Halsey after the Doolittle Raid but failed to establish contact with them.

From August 1942, Maya would take part in the Battle of Guadalcanal and would be part of the operation that saw the sinking of the USS Hornet. She would later be damaged by a dive bomber from the USS Enterprise that crashed on the ship. The fire that broke out forced the crew to jettison the torpedoes to avoid an explosion. She was brought back to Yokosuka for repairs in January 1943 and in March, Maya was back to business for the Battle of Komandorski Islands against US cruisers and destroyers with both sides being damaged in the engagement.

With the ever-growing threat of enemy carriers, Maya would undergo in early 1944 a conversion into an anti-aircraft cruiser. Her 3rd main battery turret was removed as well as her aircraft hangar in favor of a whole lot of 25 mm AA guns in single and triple mounts, 13.2 mm machine guns and six twin 127 mm dual-purpose secondaries.

She would put a new anti-air armament to good use during the Battle of the Philippine Sea during which her combat group was stormed by aircraft from the USS Bunker Hill, Monterey and Cabot.

Finally, it is during the Battle of Leyte Gulf that her story would end. While escorting the battleships Yamato, Musashi and Nagato alongside her sisterships Takao, Atago and Choukai, the group was attacked by the submarines USS Darter and USS Dace. Darter scored four torpedo hits on Atago that quickly sank and Takao was heavily damaged by two more. Maya was misidentified as a Kongou-class battleship and was hit four times by USS Dace. The ship sank in 5 minutes taking 336 crewmen with her.

In World of Warships, we are getting Maya as she was at the time of her sinking. WG decided to not give her the 13.2 mm machine guns but honestly… these would have been as useful as swearing at incoming planes. She has the usual traits of Japanese heavy cruisers but is also equipped with a Main Battery Reload booster and even comes with a Repair Party which is a pretty big deal at tier VII.

Ship’s preview

Ship’s commemorative flag

Ship’s 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
Maya	Propulsion: 130 000 HP	‎‎Type7 mod. 1	203 mm/50 3rd Year Type No.2 in a Model E turret	Type93 mod. 1

General Characteristics

Main Armament

4 x 2 203 mm/50 3rd Year Type No.2 in a Model E turret
Maximum Firing Range	15.280 km
Reloading Time	15.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	30.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	31°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	30°
Sigma	2.00 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	130 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 203 mm HE Type0
Alpha Damage	3 300
Penetration capacity	34 mm
Explosion size	0.84
Fire chance	17 %
Projectile Speed	840 m/s
Air Drag	0.337
Projectile Mass	125.8 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 203 mm AP Type91
Alpha Damage	4 700
Projectile Speed	840 m/s
Air Drag	0.337
Projectile Mass	125.8 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 468
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	34 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Secondary Armament

6 x 2 127 mm/40 Type 89 on a Model A1 mount
Maximum Firing Range	5.600 km
Reloading Time	5.0 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 127 mm HE Type0
Alpha Damage	2 100
HE penetration	21 mm
Explosion Size	0.41
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	725 m/s
Air Drag	0.34
Projectile Mass	23.45 kg

Torpedo Armament

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4	Slot 5
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Damage from continuous DPS: +50% Damage from flak explosions: +300%	Fighter Number of charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 90 s Number of fighters: 3 Patrol radius: 3.0 km	Repair Party Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: +0.5%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 33%	Main Battery Reload Booster Number of charges: 3 Work time: 15 s Cooldown: 60 s Effect: -50% Main battery reload time
	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

The Armor

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Personal Opinion

Right now, Maya looks incredibly strong for a tier VII cruiser. While Myoko has an additional turret as well as shorter reload, Maya gets in return the Main Battery Reload Booster that can be a massive game changer for her. This, combined with the way better firing angles and turret rotation speed will offer a more comfortable experience. She is also faster, has better concealment and a much higher survivability thanks to the Repair Party.

When it comes to the anti-air… yeah. In this game, very few are the Japanese ships that can be considered to have good anti-air and Maya definitely isn’t one of them.

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Yuzorah

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