Supertest: Spanish Tier VI Premium Cruiser Canarias and The New Spanish Nation

Historical background

Canarias was the lead ship of the Canarias class of heavy cruisers from the Spanish Navy. The ship was laid down in August 1928, launched in May 1931 and commissioned in September 1936. Along with her sistership Baleares, the ships were basically a modified version of the British County class.

Canarias had a particularly active career during the Spanish Civil War, sinking no less than 34 ships. The ship took part in the battle of Cape Espartel and was also the main actor of the Battle of Cape Machichaco during which she was up against 4 armed trawlers. Canarias was able to sink one of them and damage two others. The transport that was covered by the trawlers was also captured.

During World War II, the ship took part in the search for survivors from the sinking of battleship Bismarck in May 1941.

Canarias would remain the flagship of the fleet during her whole career thanks to multiple refits and repairs. A major refit was planned in 1973 but it was considered that, at this point, the ship was too old and obsolete. Plans to turn her into a museum failed and after being decommissioned in 1975, she was sold for scrap in 1977, steaming to the scrapyard under her own power.

In World of Warships, the ship is only able to fire AP shells with similar properties to those of British light cruisers. She is also able to use an Alternative Firing Mode with the following characteristics:

• Maximum main battery shell dispersion: -25%
• Main battery AP shells armor penetration: +100%
• Maximum AP shell damage: +15%
• Reload time: 40 s.
• Number of salvos in a firing sequence: 2

In action, the alternative firing mode doubles her Krupp value which makes her AP reach roughly the same penetration capacities as the AP shells of Pensacola. Without it, it’s worse than the AP of a Leander as you can see below.

Ship’s preview

Ship’s commemorative flag

Camouflage

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.

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery
Canarias	Propulsion: 90 000 HP	‎20 mm/65 C/30 on an L/30 single mount	203 mm/50 BL Model 1924 Mark D

General Characteristics

Main Armament

4 x 2 203 mm/50 BL Model 1924 Mark D
Maximum Firing Range	14.550 km
Reloading Time	15.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	22.5 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	36°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	31°
Sigma	2.05 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	133 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	AP – 203 mm AP 256 lb
Alpha Damage	3 800
Projectile Speed	814 m/s
Air Drag	0.304
Projectile Mass	116.1 kg
Projectile Krupp	1 500
Projectile Detonator	0.005 s
Detonator threshold	12 mm
Ricochet Angles	60° – 75°

Secondary Armament

8 x 1 120 mm/45 Mark F
Maximum Firing Range	7.300 km
Reloading Time	3.5 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 120 mm HE
Alpha Damage	1 700
HE penetration	20 mm
Explosion Size	0.4
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	808 m/s
Air Drag	0.393
Projectile Mass	22.68 kg

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Slot 1	Slot 2
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s	Hydroacoustic Search Number of charges: 3 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.0 km Ship spotting range: 4.0 km

The Armor

External armor protection:

Main Belt:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the bow and stern:

Personal Opinion

For now, Canarias looks alright. Her AP penetration is really underwhelming without the alternative firing mod and in terms of firepower, it’s basically a worse Leander unless you can obliterate something giving you broadside. At least, the survivability seems quite solid with a high HP pool, small internal citadel with slopped deck and the 38 mm weather deck.
The ship is also incredibly stealthy for a heavy cruiser which will help her to put the Alternative firing mode to good use.

The Spanish Nation

Canarias opens the gate to a whole new nation in the game and it turns out that Wargaming already planned ahead for multiple aspects of the Spanish techtree.

Namely, we already have the emblems for being top 3 XP 15, 25, 50 and 100 times:

We also have multiple flags covering the different periods from 1875 to 1977:

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Yuzorah

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