Supertest: Russian Tier X battleship Slava
7 min readSlava will take her place next to the Kremlin and will be the second researchable tier ten in the line of Soviet battleships. The reason why we did not install her guns as an alternative module on the Kremlin and decided to introduce a new battleship are due to the following factors: gun calibres of 457 mm vs 406 mm have a large difference in gameplay and armor penetration. This is especially noticeable when interacting with cruisers and directly affects their behavior in battle.
The second ship will offer an alternative gameplay that will be different from the “main” tier X and will help to avoid confusion in determining the caliber of the guns. The initial concept that we want to test on the battleship Slava at the moment is a ranged sniper with good armor, but with less damage per minute and fewer hit points than her sister. In the future, we plan to make similar separation for other ships with similar differences in the game.
Just like the Kreml, the Slava (or Pobeda as she is called in her game files) is based on the Project 24 of battleships of the Soviet navy. These ships, that were the follow-up design to the Project 23 (Sovetsky Soyuz), were made to equal ships like the Yamato or the Montana-class (even though these were never built). The design was started at the end of World War II and was abandoned with other designs like the Project 66 (AKA Moskva) or the Stalingrad-class after the death of Stalin.
The Slava trades the huge HP pool and huge guns of the Kreml for a better sigma, better concealment and also better ballistics.
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery |
Pobeda (A) | Propulsion: 280 000 hp | GFCS X mod. 1 | 406 mm/55 B-52 |
Tier | X |
Health | 91 800 HP |
Main Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 22 700 km |
406 mm/55 B-52 | 3 x 3 406 mm |
Secondary Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 6.00 km |
130 mm/60 BL-109A | 8 x 2 130 mm |
Maximum speed | 30.0 kt |
Turning Circle Radius | 1090 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 16.3 s |
Surface Detectability | 16.74 km |
Air Detectability | 13.68 km |
Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke | 16.20 km |
3×3 406 mm/55 B-52 | |
Reloading Time | 30.0 s |
180 Degree Turn Time | 30.0 s |
Optimal front firing angle | 30° |
Optimal rear firing angle | 30° |
Sigma | 1.90 sigma |
Maximum Dispersion | 267 m |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE |
Alpha Damage | 5 800 HP |
Damage | 5 020 HP |
Alpha Piercing HE | 68 mm |
Explosion Size | 2.53 |
Chance to Cause Fire | 40 % |
Projectile Speed | 870 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.22 |
Projectile Mass | 1 108 |
Projectile Krupp | 250 |
Type of Projectile | AP |
Alpha Damage | 13 450 HP |
Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
Projectile Speed | 870 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.237 |
Projectile Mass | 1 108 |
Projectile Krupp | 2 430 |
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 |
Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 20 s Cooldown: 60 s | Consumable charges: 2 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 120 s HP regeneration speed: 0.005 % HP/s |
Consumable charges: 4 Work time: 20 s Cooldown: 40 s | Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: 0.005 % HP/s |
The armor analysis
Well, the armor is exactly the same as the armor of the Kreml. That means that the ship is a massive chunk of floating steel that will tank damage like crazy.
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 Slava/Pobeda shares with the Kreml 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 Kreml and Slava because of the slope.
Also, now that I tested the Kreml, I can tell you that this main belt gives you amazing protection even though the citadel is exposed. I tried hard to get citadeled yet happened very few times.
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, Slava gets the medal. The face of the turrets is angled at 45° compared to 28° for the République. This means that the Slava’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.
Personal opinion on the ship
As of right now, I’m even more hyped by the Slava than I was for the Kreml. Of course, the ship loses 16 500 HP compared to Kreml but at the same time, she gets better gun reliability, better concealment that makes her the second stealthiest battleship at tier X with the Bourgogne, both having a 16.74 base detection by sea. On top of that, the Slava has the old version of the Russian battleships Damage control party. Finally, the ballistic is much better and as a fun fact, the 406 mm guns have better penetration than the 457 mm guns at close range.
As a cherry on the top, the Slava now opens the possibility of actually getting stuff like Thunderer (AprilWhiteMouse must already be hyped as hell from that) or who knows… maybe a German tier X battleship with twin turrets that wouldn’t trigger the wehraboo.
Anyway, thank you for reading this article. Now we can finally start to have a look at the French Destroyers.
That is some next level Russian Philadelphia Project bull****. Slava and Kreml are roughly as long as Kurfurst, Kreml is just about as stealthy, and yet Slava gets concealment that rivals a ship far smaller than it.
After presenting all this russian bias I would like to see full scale H-44 and A-150 battleships to be tested. I am fully aware of the fact that the axis archives are very incomplete but still, all this bs especially with slava is getting kinda boring.