Supertest: Russian Tier X battleship Kremlin

Here we finally are. Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for waiting, it is here, the tier X Russian battleship Kremlin. Or Kreml. Or the name might change because I saw quite a few Russian players not happy with it just like French players as well as me weren’t happy back when République was called France.

Anyway, the Kremlin is based on the Project 24 of battleships from the Soviet Navy. This project was, as the name suggests, an evolution of the previous project 23. The ships were planned as an upscaled version of the Stalingrad-class (just like the Project 66 AKA the Moskva was a downscaled version) and were designed to have a standard displacement of around 75 000 tons. At the start, the main battery was planned to consist of 406 mm guns. However, the idea of fitting the ships with 457 mm guns was considered until Stalin stepped in to tell to the naval engineers to calm down and to stick to the original 406 mm guns especially considering the fact that the design kept getting bigger.
In the end, no ship was ever laid down as the project was cancelled with Stalingrad and the rest after the death of Stalin.

Characteristics

GeneralMain BatterySecondariesAir DefenseConsumables

Tier	X
Health	108 300 HP
Main Armament
Maximum Firing Range	20 680 km
457 mm/48 B-45	3 x 3 457 mm
Secondary Armament
Maximum Firing Range	6.00 km
130 mm/60 BL-109A	8 x 2 130 mm
Maximum speed	29.5 kt
Turning Circle Radius	1090 m
Rudder Shift Time	16.3 s
Surface Detectability	17.04 km
Air Detectability	13.92 km
Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke	18.10 km

3×3 457 mm/48 B-45
180 Degree Turn Time	30.0 s
Reloading Time	34.0 s
Optimal front firing angle	30°
Optimal rear firing angle	30°
Sigma	1.70 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	274 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE
Alpha Damage	6 600 HP
Damage	6 400 HP
Alpha Piercing HE	76 mm
Explosion Size	3.04
Chance to Cause Fire	48 %
Projectile Speed	800 m/s
Air Drag	0.24
Projectile Mass	1 583
Projectile Krupp	240
Type of Projectile	AP
Alpha Damage	15 500 HP
Chance to Cause Fire	-0.5 %
Projectile Speed	800 m/s
Air Drag	0.256
Projectile Mass	1 583
Projectile Krupp	2 450
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s

8 x 2 130 mm/60 BL-109A
Reloading Time	4.0 s
Sigma	1.00 sigma
Horizontal Dispersion	50 m
Vertical Dispersion	110 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE
Alpha Damage	1 800 HP
Damage	500 HP
Alpha Piercing HE	22 mm
Explosion Size	0.43
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	950 m/s
Air Drag	0.291
Projectile Mass	33.4
Projectile Krupp	1

8 x 2 130 mm/60 BL-109A
Sector range	3.5 km – 6.6 km
Hit chance	75 %
Sector’s damage	500
Sector’s damage frequency	1.18 s
Sector’s damage per second	424
Flak clouds number	10
Flak cloud damage	1820
12 x 4 45 mm SM-20-ZIF
Sector range	2.3 km – 3.5 km
Hit chance	75 %
Sector’s damage	260
Sector’s damage frequency	0.41 s
Sector’s damage per second	634
Flak clouds number	11
Flak cloud damage	1120
18 x 4 25 mm 4M-120
Sector range	0.1 km – 2.3 km
Hit chance	70 %
Sector’s damage	190
Sector’s damage frequency	0.22 s
Sector’s damage per second	864
Sector reinforcement
Sector reinforcement bonus	+25%
Sector reinforcement time	12 s
Sector reinforcement shift time	12 s

Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 60 s	Consumable charges: 2 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 120 s HP regeneration speed: 0.005 % HP/s	Charges: 2 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 270 s Spotting range: 15 km Will only spot battleships and aircraft carriers
Consumable charges: 4 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 40 s	Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: 0.005 % HP/s	Charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 180 s Range: 15 km Will only spot battleships and aircraft carriers

The armor analysis

That is one serious level of armor right here Ladies and Gentlemen. Considering the ship is basically designed to fight under 16/15 km, don’t worry, her armor will help you to achieve your mission.

The bow section

Starting with the bow, as usual, the main part is 32 mm thick like all the other tier X battleships but you have also a very nice icebreaker. It is, starting from the middle section, 150 mm thick and then it gets thinner to 50 mm thick. Half of that icebreaker is above the waterline.

Inside the bow, there is an armored deck just above the icebreaker and it is 100 mm thick. At the end of that armored deck, there is a 420 mm thick heavily angled bulkhead.

For the frontal protection of the middle section, there is for the upper part a 150 mm thick casemate.

For the lower part including the citadel’s athwartship, it is 350 mm thick.

The citadel (in orange) has the Russian battleships T shape which means that below the waterline, the citadel is in a spaced armor configuration.

The middle section

The Kremlin gets the record of the thickest main belt of the game! Below the turrets, the main belt is 430 mm thick and between these 2 sections, it is 410 mm thick. If you add to this the angle of that main belt, it beats almost completely the Yamato. There is just a single portion of the Yamato’s 410 mm main belt where it gets thicker than on the Kremlin because of the slope.

The citadel’s lower section is protected on the sides by 70 mm of armor on top of the main belt for the upper part. For the part really deep underwater, it is more than unlikely that a shell ever reaches it.

The citadel’s deck is 150 mm thick so AP bombs from Hakuryu and such will definitely be able to reach your citadel if they are dropped the right way.

Now, the following description is surrounded by one massive IF. It turns out that inside the citadel, there is a splinter deck. This might mean that Wargaming planned ahead on lowering the citadel in the event that people start complaining about it being too easy to hit.
As I said though, it is a major IF.

This splinter deck is divided into 3 parts. Below the turrets, it is 75 mm thick and on the engine section, it is only 20 mm thick.

Once again, right now, this splinter deck doesn’t come into play. It will only be a thing if somehow Wargaming decide to lower the citadel of the ship.

The stern section

For the stern, the ship is well equipped to kite if need be. The major part is the classic 32 mm plating. There is then the extended belt that is, starting from the middle section 150 mm thick and then 300 mm thick.

Inside the stern, there is an armored deck split into 2 parts. The first one, on the left, is 100 mm thick and the second one on the right is 150 mm thick. Between the 2 parts of the armored deck, there is a bulkhead of 100 mm.

At the end of the armored deck, there is a bulkhead similar to the one inside the bow. It is however much wider and is 400 mm thick. I would say, good luck hitting the citadel through the stern or through the bow.

The superstructure

For the superstructure, it is quite similar to the one on the Stalingrad (which is quite logic) so it is fairly big. As usual for a tier X battleship, it is 19 mm thick.

The turrets

Hmmm. Boy, these turrets. Boy, they are spicy.  Let’s put it straight, they should be beating the République turrets and by such would take the position of the second most resistant turrets of the game. Of course, the great winner will always remain Yamato.

The face of these turrets is 550 mm thick. You might say “But wait, République has 590 mm turret face.” and you are right but it’s without counting the effective thickness and with that, Kremlin gets the medal. The face of the turrets is angled at 45° compared to 28° for the République. This means that the Kremlin’s turrets armor gets a big bump compared to République’s turrets.
For the rest of the armor, the sides are 254 mm thick, the back is 508 mm thick and the roof is 254 mm thick.

To conclude on this ship, boy I am hyped for it. It is well armored with a massive HP pool, the guns are nasty and the handling is fantastic, the anti-air as well, it has on top of that the third best concealment of all tier X battleships. It will still require a more careful playstyle due to the limited number of damage control party and fewer repair party but I am frankly looking forward to this ship.

Side note: it has better concealment than Stalingrad… Yes. Yes, that doesn’t make any sense.

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Yuzorah

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