World of Warships: British Tier X Battleship Thunderer Review

As I’m trying to catch up with all the new ships that were recently released, it is about time to talk about that monster of a ship that the Thunderer is. If you still didn’t spend your coal on Smolensk, I would advise you to keep it for Thunderer.

Talking about her price, she costs 252 000 coal in the Armory and with the coupon 189 000 coal.

I also dedicate this review to AprilWhiteMouse, a fellow Community Contributor who is so to say the mother of this ship.

Tier X British Freemium Battleship Thunderer: Who needs Slava anyway?

Her permanent camouflage gives the standard Tier X permanent camouflage bonuses:

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• 457 mm guns able to overmatch 30 mm platings
• Amazing accuracy
• High alpha damage per shell
• Fast reload
• Good firing angles
• Strong anti-air with, on top of that, Defensive AA Fire
• Fast rudder-shift
• Improved Repair Party
• Great Concealment

The Bad

• Low HP pool
• Weak protection against HE
• Weak torpedo protection
• Bad engine power that makes it lose a lot of speed when turning

My opinion

The Thunderer is simply a fantastic ship. The guns are very accurate for a battleship, they hit hard, the ship also has that amazing concealment that allows her to move around the map with a lot of freedom. She does, however, lack the tankiness against HE shells due to the 32 mm plating.

As a side note, this ship has the amazing capacity to make the Slava completely irrelevant before she even arrives.

Health pool

When it comes to the health pool, the Thunderer has the 2nd lowest of all tier X battleships with 82 900 just like the Conqueror. While the Conqueror has the zombie heal to compensate, the Thunderer only has a slightly improved Repair Party so you will have to be careful when engaging the ship somewhere.
Her Repair Party covers 60% of normal penetration damage and 33% of citadel damage.

One more thing, avoid taking torpedoes with this ship. Her 28 % torpedo damage reduction will not save you.

Main batteries

Main Battery

4 x 2 457 mm/45 Mk II
Maximum Firing Range	24.250 km
Reloading Time	26.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	36.0 s
Optimal firing angle at the front	30°
Optimal firing angle at the rear	40°
Sigma	1.90 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	252 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 457 mm HE Mk II
Alpha Damage	8 200 HP
Damage	7730 HP
Penetration capacity	113 mm
Explosion size	3.25
Fire chance	63 %
Projectile Speed	757 m/s
Air Drag	0.29
Projectile Mass	1 814
Projectile Detonator	0.01 s
Type of Projectile	AP – 457 mm AP Mk II
Alpha Damage	14 900 HP
Projectile Speed	762 m/s
Air Drag	0.29
Projectile Mass	1 506
Projectile Krupp	2 485
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s

The guns of the Thunderer are her bread and butter. They have the same dispersion formula as the battlecruisers like Stalingrad or Alaska, they reload faster than the other battleships with the reload being able to go down to 22.9 seconds and they hit hard. Also, if it wasn’t enough, they can overmatch cruisers 30 mm plating.

What is not to like?

Ah and if an enemy battleship decides to angle against you, you can simply load the ridiculous British HE and burn it to oblivion.

The only downside is that the ballistic is not amazing and for long-range shots, getting the good lead might be difficult for some people.

Secondary batteries

Secondaries

8 x 2 133 mm/50 Mk I*
Maximum Firing Range	6.00 km
Reloading Time	6.67 s
Sigma	1.00 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 133 mm HE Mk IC
Alpha Damage	1 900 HP
Damage	550 HP
HE penetration	21 mm
Explosion Size	0.46
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.321
Projectile Mass	36.3

The Thunderer’s secondaries are nothing to write stories about. They could POTENTIALLY be nice if a destroyer decides to charge you. but that’s really not something I would rely on.

The anti-air armament

I always called the Conqueror a Bofors Museum and Thunderer is following the same trend but with some extra.

While she lacks in long-range anti-air, her mid-range is simply terrifying and she has, on top of that, the defensive AA. Tier VIII planes will simply evaporate and tier X planes will suffer quite high casualties.

Maneuverability and Concealment

The Thunderer is really an odd one when it comes to maneuverability. Her turning radius is much bigger than the one listed in port (credits to AprilWhiteMouse for that) and even though she has a cruiser-like rudder shift time, she doesn’t turn like one, far from that. Due to her weak engine power, she also loses A LOT of speed when turning.

When it comes to the concealment… well this is Conqueror’s sister ship. What do you expect? With a full concealment build, you can reach a 12.3 km detection by sea and 10.1 km detection by air. It is incredibly stealthy and some cruisers will have a very bad day when this ship will pop in their faces.

The armor

The Thunderer has the exact same armor as the Conqueror. Her bow, stern and sides are 32 mm thick with the exception of a small extended belt of 269 mm and 229 mm.

When it comes to her main belt, it is divided into 3 parts. The upper 406 mm belt that is still part of the casemate, the middle portion that is the actual citadel and that comes partially above the waterline and finally, the 279 mm portion below the waterline. This 279 mm portion protects the citadel that is in spaced armor configuration with 45 mm of additional plating.

Due to the absence of slope on her main belt, I recommend to not give too much broadside because otherwise, you will have a very bad surprise. Compared to other battleships’ main belts, the Thunderer’s main belt presents much less effective armor so high caliber AP shells will have a much easier time to penetrate it.

Inside the bow, there is an armored deck with 89 mm of armor for the biggest part and the last part, close to the middle section is 152 mm thick. This plate partially protects the ship from taking citadels through the bow by things like Yamato or Musashi.

The stern also has an armored deck with the biggest part being 127 mm thick and the smaller one 152 mm thick.

The Thunderer also has a decent AP bomb protection with a 152 mm armored deck and the 32 mm citadel deck. Unless they have the correct impact angle, AP bombs will have a bit of trouble to go through.

Overall, the Thunderer is quite vulnerable to HE but against AP and well angled, she is doing fairly well.

The consumables

Consumables

Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
Damage Control Party I Work time: 15 s Cooldown: 120 s	Repair Party I Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 90 s HP regeneration speed: 0.6 % HP/s	Defensive AA Fire I Number of charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 135 s Damage per second: +50% Damage per second inside explosions: +300%
Damage Control Party II Work time: 15 s Cooldown: 80 s	Repair Party II Number of charges: 4 Work time: 90 s Cooldown: 60 s HP regeneration speed: 0.6 % HP/s	Defensive AA Fire II Number of charges: 4 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 90 s Damage per second: +50% Damage per second inside explosions: +300%

Conclusion

The Thunderer is an amazing battleship that compensates her lack of tanking capacity by accurate and hard-hitting main batteries. You remember when people were crying about Slava? Well, Thunderer does everything that the Slava could do but better. She has harder hitting guns with an accuracy that doesn’t go all over the place at close range and that is pinpoint accurate at long range. She can overmatch 30 mm armor that Slava couldn’t overmatch. She can tank more than Slava with her poor 3 standard repair parties. She has better concealment. Her turrets are not turning slowly.

This ship is simply a better Slava and if you didn’t spend your coal on Smolensk yet, grab this ship. You will not regret it.

Recommended build

During the testing of the Thunderer, I used the following captain build and upgrades:

Captain build:

• Priority Target
• Adrenaline Rush
• Expert Marksman
• Superintendent
• Basic Firing Training (or Basics of Survivability)
• Concealment Expert
• Fire Prevention

Upgrades:

•  Main Armaments Modification 1 or  Auxiliary Armaments Modification 1
• Damage Control System Modification 1
•  Aiming Systems Modification 1
•  Damage Control System Modification 2
•  Concealment System Modification 1
•  Main Battery Modification 3

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Yuzorah

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