Supertest: Pan-European Tier I Cruiser Gryf
3 min readLadies and Gentlemen, it’s been a while but I’m back on duty. I took a bit of a break because of the ranked season and also because the whole Puerto Rico fiasco did annoy me quite a lot but now, back on track!
There is a whole line entering testing with Update 0.9.0 and it’s time to have a look at them. To introduce the European tech tree and as of right now, the “European” destroyers, we will first have a look at the tier I cruiser Gryf.
ORP Gryf was a large minelayer from the Polish Navy. The ship was built in France and launched in 1936 to be then commissioned in February 1938.
The ship had a fairly short career as, unlike some other Polish ships that were evacuated during Operation Peking, the ship was sunk in Hel Harbor on 3 September 1939. The ship was defending the harbor from German forces with ORP Wicher as well as 2 gunboats, but despite a fierce defense, the ship was heavily damaged by German bombers and sank.
After World War II, the wreck, that had been moved by the German forces to a beach near Jastarnia, was used as a target by the Polish Air Force.
Even though the Gryf doesn’t present any of the characteristics of the European destroyers since it’s a tier I, here are the characteristics of the line as of now:
Currently, the concept of European destroyers brings the following features:
- Very fast torpedoes with relatively low damage and long-range;
- Artillery is similar to that of American destroyers: quite effective in close combat but weaker than that of artillery-focused destroyers;
- The speed of the new destroyers is relatively low: 35 knots at Tiers VII — X. It can be increased by an Engine Boost consumable found in a dedicated slot, giving a standard bonus of 8%;
- Starting from Tier VII, the AA defense of European destroyers has a large area of effect and deals good damage;
- Presence of Repair Party: at Tiers V — VIII it is the same as on British destroyers, and at Tiers IX and X this consumable will be active for 4 seconds longer;
- Starting from Tier VIII, ships are equipped with Surveillance Radar in a dedicated slot. It has an action time of 15 seconds and a range of up to 7.5 km;
- Lack of Smoke Generator and relatively high detection range: when fighting with other destroyers for key areas it’s better to rely on Surveillance Radar and torpedoes.
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery |
Gryf | Propulsion: 6 000 hp | SKO Mod. 1 | 120 mm/50 wz. 34/36 Bofors |
Tier | I |
Health | 7 550 HP |
Displacement | 2 700 tons |
Main Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 10.740 km |
234 mm/50 Mk XII | 3 x 2 234 mm |
Maximum speed | 20 kts |
Turning Circle Radius | 360 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 3.8 s |
Surface Detectability | 7.38 km |
Air Detectability | 5.36 km |
Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 2.64 km |
4 x 1 120 mm/50 wz. 34/36 Bofors | |
Reloading Time | 4.5 s |
180 Degree Turn Time | 18.0 s |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 40° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 36° |
Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
Maximum Dispersion | 96 m |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 120 mm HE |
Alpha Damage | 850 HP |
Damage | 250 HP |
Penetration capacity | 19 mm |
Explosion size | 0.4 |
Fire chance | 8 % |
Projectile Speed | 900 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.318 |
Projectile Mass | 24 |
2 x 2 40 mm Bofors wz. 36 | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 3.5 km |
Hit chance | 90 % |
Sector’s damage | 20 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 70 |
2 x 2 13.2 mm Hotchkiss wz. 30 | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 1.5 km |
Hit chance | 85 % |
Sector’s damage | 8 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 28 |
Slot 1 |
Damage Control Party I Work time: 5 s
Cooldown: 40 s |
The armor
Well, it’s a tier I ship so don’t expect anything crazy. She is covered with 6 mm of armor with the exception of the gun shields that are 7 mm thick.
Personal opinion
From what I can see, this ship looks pretty damn strong for a tier I with the second-highest Health Pool, longest firing range and good ballistic.
Then again, it’s tier I so except a few people that somehow play thousands of games at this tier, there aren’t many that actually care about it.
It should have six main guns…
Should be bumped to T2 or T3 to rival Katori. Two of Gryf’s four turrets are actually twin mounts. Right now Wargrinding is trying to shoehorn her into T1. Pathetic.
AND, there are quite a lot of better candidates for European Tier 1. The Dutch Van Kinsbergen or the Portuguese Alfonso de Albuquerque, just to name a couple off the top of my head…
Spanish Júpiter, Norwegian Olaf Tryggvason, Swedish Klas Fleming or even Belgian Artevelde would also have been better choices.