Supertest: Pan-Asian Tier VIII Premium Destroyer Fen Yang
4 min readThe Yoizuki (“Moon Visible as Day Joins Evening”) was the 11th ship of the Akizuki-class of destroyers from the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was only completed in January 1945 and as such, never saw any action.
The Akizuki-class were designed as anti-aircraft escorts, mostly to protect carrier battle groups. They were armed with what was at the time the best anti-air armament that the Japanese had available, the 100 mm/65 Type 98 (but at the same time were still carrying the infamous 25 mm AA gun). In total, 36 ships were planned but only 12 were completed before the end of the war. Out of the 12 completed ships, 6 would be lost in action. The rest was either scrapped or surrendered to other nations.
After being disarmed, Yoizuki was given to the Republic of China in August 1947 and would be used as a training ship from 1949 until she was scrapped in 1963. There were plans to rearm the Fen Yang with 100 mm guns and long-lance torpedoes salvaged from other ships as well as with 25 mm and 40 mm AA guns but the Korean war put an end to the project.
In World of Warships, we are somewhat getting what Fen Yang might have looked like after she was rearmed even though she is using the twin Japanese 40 mm. Interestingly, her model isn’t a copy-paste from the one of the Akizuki and is instead a proper standalone. Compared to Akizuki, she has a much better anti-air with Defensive AA Fire, deepwater torpedoes and pan-Asian Smoke Generator. However, she loses a lot in terms of firepower due to the fact that her HE shells follow the standard 1/6 HE penetration rule and she has a slower main battery reload.
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 |
Fen Yang |
Propulsion: 52 000 hp |
Mk 8 mod. 1 |  100 mm/65 Type98 |
Type90 mod. 1 |
| Tier | VIII |
| Health | 19 700 HP |
| Displacement | 3 700 tons |
| Main Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 12.460 km |
| 100 mm/65 Type98 | 4 x 2 100 mm |
| Torpedo Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 12.000 km |
| 610 mm Quad | 1 x 4 610 mm |
| Maximum speed | 33 knots |
| Turning Circle Radius | 730 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 4.5 s |
| Surface Detectability | 7.76 km |
| Air Detectability | 3.55 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 2.48 km |
| 4 x 2 100 mm/65 Type98 | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 12.460 km |
| Reloading Time | 4.0 s |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 11.2 s |
| Optimal firing angles at the front | 30° |
| Optimal firing angles at the rear | 30° |
| Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 108 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | HE – 100 mm HE Type98 |
| Alpha Damage | 1 500 HP |
| Damage | 350 HP |
| Penetration capacity | 17 mm |
| Explosion size | 0.28 |
| Fire chance | 8 % |
| Projectile Speed | 1 000 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.314 |
| Projectile Mass | 13 kg |
| Type of Projectile | AP – 100 mm AP Type98 |
| Alpha Damage | 1 700 HP |
| Projectile Speed | 1 000 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.314 |
| Projectile Mass | 13 kg |
| Projectile Krupp | 2 154 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.01 s |
| Detonator threshold | 17 mm |
| Ricochet Angles | 45° – 60° |
| 1 x 4 610 mm Quad Type90 mod. 1 Deepwater torpedoes – Can only hit Battleships and Aircraft Carrier | |
| Reloading Time | 122 s |
| Maximum Distance | 12.000 km |
| Optimal firing angles at the front | 54° |
| Optimal firing angles at the rear | 62° |
| Damage | 20 967 |
| Flooding Chance | 355 % |
| Speed | 67 kt |
| Surface Detectability | 0.8 km |
| 4 x 2 100 mm/65 Type98 | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 5.8 km |
| Hit chance | 100 % |
| Sector’s damage | 32 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 112 |
| Flak clouds number | 5 |
| Flak cloud damage | 1 400 |
| 5 x 2 40 mm/60 Type5 2 x 1 40 mm Bofors Mk. 3 | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 3.5 km |
| Hit chance | 100 % |
| Sector’s damage | 38 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 133 |
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 |
Damage Control Party  Work time: 5 sCooldown: 40 s | Smoke Generator  Number of charges: 5Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 100 s Smoke radius: 450 m Smoke duration: 70 s | Engine Boost  Number of charges: 3Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Bonus: +8% speed | Torpedo Reload Booster  Number of charges: 3Work time: 1 s Cooldown: 160 s Torpedo reload time: 5 s |
Defensive AA Fire  Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Continuous Damage: +50% Damage from shell explosions: +300% |
The Armor
Without any surprise, the Fen Yang presents the same armor profile as the Akizuki. The hull is protected by 19 mm of armor and the superstructure and turrets by 13 mm of armor.
Personal Opinion
Initially, this ship was revealed as a straight-up better Akizuki. Now… well she doesn’t look so promising anymore.
First of all, she loses the special HE penetration of the Japanese 100 mm guns. This means that she is basically forced to take IFHE, otherwise, you would almost not be able to penetrate anything at her tier with HE as even destroyers’ hulls are 19 mm thick. That need to take IFHE annihilates the buff to her fire chance. Her reload also got hammered from 3s to 4s which is not compensated at all by the slight increase in damage of the HE shells.
In the end, she trades the primary thing that made the Akizuki strong for Defensive AA Fire, deepwater torpedoes and better smoke. If you ask me, that isn’t really a good trade.
