Supertest: Russian Tier VIII Premium battleship Poltava

The Poltava is based on the project 64 of battleships from the Soviet Navy. The ships were designed to operate in the Black and Baltic seas but the project was abandoned in favor of more heavily protected battleships of the project A.

While the Poltava, as of now, is quite disappointing, she at least has a nice looking camouflage. That’s… something.

Characteristics

GeneralMain BatterySecondariesAir DefenseConsumables

Tier	VIII
Health	59 100 HP
Main Armament
Maximum Firing Range	16.200 km
356 mm/54 Model 1938 TP-1	3 x 3 356 mm
Secondary Armament
Maximum Firing Range	5.000 km
130 mm/55 B-2-U	8 x 2 130 mm
Maximum speed	29 kt
Turning Circle Radius	1000 m
Rudder Shift Time	14.8  s
Surface Detectability	13.94 km
Air Detectability	12.02 km
Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke	12.07 km

3 x 3 356 mm/54 Model 1938 TP-1
Reloading Time	30 s
180 Degree Turn Time	45.0 s
Optimal front firing angle	30°
Optimal rear firing angle	27°
Sigma	1.70 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	226 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 356 mm HE Model 1938
Alpha Damage	5 300 HP
Damage	4 500 HP
Penetration capacity	58 mm
Explosion size	2.18
Fire chance	41 %
Projectile Speed	895 m/s
Air Drag	0.45
Projectile Mass	750
Projectile Krupp	385
Projectile Detonator	0.001 s
Type of Projectile	AP – 356 mm AP Model 1938
Alpha Damage	11 250 HP
Chance to Cause Fire	-0.5 %
Projectile Speed	895 m/s
Air Drag	0.345
Projectile Mass	750
Projectile Krupp	2 400
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s

8 x 2 130 mm/55 B-2-U
Reloading Time	5.00 s
Sigma	1.00 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – HE-46
Alpha Damage	1 900 HP
Damage	570 HP
HE penetration	21 mm
Explosion Size	0.45
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	900 m/s
Air Drag	0.255
Projectile Mass	33.4
Projectile Krupp	52

8 x 2 130 mm/55 B-2-U
Sector range	0.1 km – 6.0 km
Hit chance	75 %
Sector’s damage	36
Sector’s damage frequency	0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second	126
Flak clouds number	data unavailable
Flak cloud damage	data unavailable
8 x 4 37 mm 46-K
Sector range	0.1 km – 3.5 km
Hit chance	75 %
Sector’s damage	51
Sector’s damage frequency	0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second	179
6 x 1 12.7 mm DShK
Sector range	0.1 km – 1.5 km
Hit chance	70 %
Sector’s damage	13
Sector’s damage frequency	0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second	46

Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
Number of charges: 3 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 60 s	Number of charges: 2 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 120 s HP regeneration speed: 0.5%/s	Number of charges: 2 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 90 s Radius: 3.0 km
Number of charges: 4 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 40 s	Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: 0.5%/s	Number of charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 135 s Radius: 3.0 km

The armor

While the Lenin’s low HP pool is well compensated by her amazing armor… it’s not really the case for the Poltava.

The bow section

The Poltava presents the same enormous bow as the Vladivostok. It is 32 mm thick except for an extended belt of 200 mm.

Inside Poltava’s bow, there is an armored deck. It is for the biggest part 75 mm thick and just in front of the first turret, it is 255 mm thick.

For the upper casemate protecting the middle section, it is 25 mm thick at first and then 200 mm thick.

The citadel’s athwartship is for the upper part 250 mm thick and for the lower part 38 mm thick. It is quite weak for a battleship but with the extended belt and armored deck, it doesn’t really matter since it cannot be reached.

The middle section

Even for the middle section, the tankiness of the Poltava is disappointing. The upper deck is 32 mm thick meaning that it gives little protection against HE shells. The lower deck is 40 mm thick but it represents such a small portion of the exposed plating that overall, it doesn’t help much.

For the side armor, it’s  32 mm thick, at the top. You then have an upper belt of 200 mm followed by the main belt which corresponds to the citadel with 370 mm of armor and a thinner portion of 290 mm. It is decent but avoid giving broadside with this ship.

Finally, the 38 mm thick torpedo bulge protects the underwater part of the citadel that is 30 mm thick and deep inside the ship.

Under the 32 and 40 mm deck, there is the citadel deck with 180 mm of armor under the turrets and 150 mm above the engines. Overall, it’s decent protection for the part under the turrets and it might limit the number of citadels from AP bombs.

Stern section

The stern is as usual similar to the bow. 32 mm plating for the major part and a 200 mm extended belt even though here, it doesn’t go to the tip of the stern.

The armored deck is split into 3 sections. From the middle of the ship towards the tip of the stern, the armor thickness is first 255 mm then 75 mm and finally 150 mm over the steering gears.

For the protection of the middle section, the upper casemate is 200 mm thick. The citadel’s athwartship is just like at the front 250 mm thick for the upper part and 38 mm thick for the lower part. Considering the armored deck and the extended belt, don’t bother with it. As long as you stay angled, you will be relatively fine against AP.

The superstructure

As if the tanking capacity of the Poltava wasn’t limited enough, she also has a big superstructure that goes farther than the back turret so that even destroyers have plenty of things to penetrate with their HE shells. It is, as usual, 19 mm thick.

The turrets

The face, as well as the back of the turrets, are 425 mm thick. Considering how flat the face is, we can expect a lot of incapacitations (as if it wasn’t already bad enough). The sides and the roof are 240 mm thick. For the barbette, it’s 400 mm thick for the upper part and 325 mm thick at the bottom.

Personal opinion

I just don’t see the point of this ship, it has literally only one thing going for it and it’s the concealment with 10.95 km spotting range by sea. The range is horrendous, the firepower as well except for pure HE spam because she does have strong HE shells. The agililty is also terrible with the huge turning radius and the combination of very low health pool and decent-ish armor will limit her tanking capacity.

I seriously do not get what is the point of this ship and wonder if Wargaming didn’t get the tier wrong and she is actually meant to be a tier VII ship.

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Yuzorah

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