Supertest: Pan-Asian Tier VIII Premium Aircraft Carrier Sanzang

Second Premium that will be released for the upcoming Chinese new year alongside Fen Yang and Wujing, here is the tier VIII Pan-Asian carrier Sanzang.

Not much to talk about here, the Sanzang is a simple copy-paste of tier VIII U.S Premium Saipan. No gimmick, no small tweak, just a pure copy-paste with a fancy skin.
The ship is named after the fictional character Tang Sanzang from the novel Journey to the West.

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. In her case, though, don’t expect any change though as Wargaming are pretty clear when they announce that she will be a copy of Saipan.

Modules

Hull	Attack Aircrafts	Dive Bombers	Torpedo Bombers	Propulsion
Sanzang	F8F Bearcat	BTD Destroyer	BTD Destroyer	Propulsion: 120 000 hp

General Characteristics

Tier	VIII
Health	47 900 HP
Torpedo damage reduction	4 %
Displacement	19 051 tons
Aircraft on deck
Attack Aircrafts	9
Dive Bombers	9
Torpedo Bombers	9
Anti-Air Defense
40 mm Bofors Mk2 40 mm Bofors Mk1	5 x 4 40 mm 10 x 2 40 mm
20 mm Oerlikon Mk20	15 x 2 20 mm
Maximum speed	33.0 knots
Turning Circle Radius	920 m
Rudder Shift Time	16.0 s
Surface Detectability	12.24 km
Air Detectability	10.18 km
Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2
Damage Control Party Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 90 s	Fighter Number of charges: 4 Work time: 600 s Cooldown: 40 s Patrol Radius: 3.0 km Planes in a squadron: 4

Attack Aircrafts

Attack Aircrafts – ‎F8F Bearcat
Tier	X
Hit points per plane	1 660
Cruise speed	176 knots
Maximum speed	216 knots
Engine boost time	5 s
Engine boost reload time	10 s
Size of attacking flight	2
Aircraft per squadron	6
Rocket type	HE Tiny Tim
Rocket per plane	3
Maximum rocket damage	5 400
Rocket damage	3 700
HE penetration capacity	68 mm
Explosion size	2.07
Fire chance	33 %
Detectability range	10.0 km
Aircraft restoration time	123 s
Aircraft on deck	9
Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2
Engine Cooling Number of Charges: 2 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 80 s	Patrol fighter Number of Charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 10 s Aircraft per squadron: 5 Patrol radius: 3.0 km

Dive Bombers

Dive bombers – ‎BTD Destroyer
Tier	X
Hit points per plane	2 150
Cruise speed	131 knots
Maximum speed	166 knots
Engine boost time	20 s
Engine boost reload time	40 s
Size of attacking flight	2
Aircraft per squadron	6
Bomb type	HE AN-M66
Bomb per plane	2
Maximum bomb damage	11 200
HE penetration capacity	67 mm
Explosion size	2.83
Fire chance	64%
Detectability range	10.0 km
Aircraft restoration time	142 s
Aircraft on deck	9
Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2
Engine Cooling Number of Charges: 2 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 80 s	Patrol fighter Number of Charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 10 s Aircraft per squadron: 5 Patrol radius: 3.0 km

Torpedo Bombers

Torpedo bomber – BTD Destroyer
Tier	X
Hit points per plane	2 040
Cruise speed	131 knots
Maximum speed	166 knots
Engine boost time	20 s
Engine boost reload time	40 s
Size of attacking flight	2
Aircraft per squadron	6
Torpedo type	Torpedo Mk.13-2
Torpedoes per plane	2
Maximum torpedo damage	6 467
Maximum torpedo range	3.5 km
Torpedo speed	35 knots
Torpedo arming distance	470 m
Flooding chance	52%
Detectability range	10.0 km
Aircraft restoration time	150 s
Aircraft on deck	9
Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
Engine Cooling Number of Charges: 2 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 80 s	Patrol fighter Number of Charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 10 s Aircraft per squadron: 5 Patrol radius: 3.0 km	Repair Number of Charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 10 s Repair speed: 10% HP/s

Anti-air Armament

The Armor

As an escort carrier converted from a Baltimore-class hull, the Sanzang’s armor is really nothing good. Keep in my that she can also be citadelled by AP bombs.

External armor protection

Internal deck

Citadel armor protection

Personal Opinion

Just like quite a few event premiums, Sanzang is an exact clone of the original. In this case, a clone of the Saipan which is a Premium that you should only get if you are very good at dodging flaks and at managing reserves. She allows absolutely no mistake at all due to her very low reserves and long plane restoration time.

Even with all of that, she is honestly underwhelming as she was designed back when the damage dealt by AA was randomly applied to the planes in the squadron which meant that they were WAY harder to kill. These days, even when doing everything right, she is really tight in terms of reserves. Her rockets are also relatively bad with the last reticule change as they now have a true shotgun-like dispersion.

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Yuzorah

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