The Daily Bounce

WOT Leaks, WOWS Leaks, News and much more!

TDB Home » World of Warships Final Review: German Supercruiser Clausewitz

World of Warships Final Review: German Supercruiser Clausewitz

8 min read

Ladies and Gentlemen, after Patrie and Edgar, it is time for two new superships to make their way into the game. Clausewitz and Dalarna will become available as separate lots in a new Auction starting on the 29th of September at 12:00 UTC and lasting until the 3rd of October at 12:00. Just like the last time, the minimum bid will be at 100 000 000 credits and in total, it will be 500 of each which will be available for all servers COMBINED.

After that, the ships will become fully available with the release of Update 0.11.11. Which should be in early December.

So… is Clausewitz worth it? How is she stacking against the monsters that are Annapolis and Condé? Here is my opinion.

Historical background

Clausewitz doesn’t have a historical background to speak of. Essentially, she is a larger version of Hindenburg with 210 mm guns and 128 mm secondaries. She also has improved armor, notably with a 50 mm deck.

Ship’s preview

The camouflages

The permanent camouflage of Clausewitz comes with the standard permanent tier VIII economic bonuses:

  • +200% XP
  • +200% Commander XP
  • +100% Free XP

The Good and the Bad

The Good

  • Improved HE penetration
  • High AP shells damage
  • Good ballistics
  • Good firing range
  • Fast turret traverse
  • heavy torpedo broadside
  • Pretty good anti-air
  • 50 mm deck armor
  • Extended belt on the bow and stern
  • German 6.0 km Hydroacoustic search
  • 4 charges of Repair Party compared to the standard 3

The Bad

  • Squishy turrets
  • Fairly bad firing angles
  • Low HE shell damage
  • Fairly underwhelming AP penetration
  • No alternative firing mode
  • Torpedoes with short firing range
  • Individual torpedoes dealing low damage
  • Low ship speed and as a whole, poor handling

Modules

Hull
Engine
Gun Fire Control System
Main battery
Torpedoes

icon_module_Hull_installed

Clausewitz

icon_module_Engine_installed

Propulsion: 165 000 HP

icon_module_Suo_installed

FKS Typ 11 Mod. 1

icon_module_Artillery_installed

210 mm/60 SK C/34 on a Drh LC/40 mount

icon_module_Torpedoes_installed

G7 T1 Ausf.C

General Characteristics and Playstyle

TierXI/Supership
Health58 000 HP
Torpedo Damage Reduction16 %
Displacement25 639 tons
Dimensions
Overall length230.1 m
Beam24.73 m
Overall height (keel to the highest point on the ship)30.4 m
Freeboard4.64 m
Main Armament
Maximum Firing Range18.510 km
210 mm/60 SK C/34 on a Drh LC/40 mount4 x 3 210 mm
Secondary Armament
Maximum Firing Range8.300 km
128 mm/61 KM40 in a turret
10 x 2 128 mm
Torpedo Armament
Maximum Firing Range6.000 km
533 mm Fünfling
4 x 5 533 mm
Maximum speed32.5 knots
Turning Circle Radius820 m
Rudder Shift Time11.83 s
Surface Detectability15.81 km
Air Detectability9.71 km
Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke10.6 km
Consumables
Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot 3
Slot 4
Damage Control Party
consumable_PCY009_CrashCrewPremiumWork time: 5 s
Cooldown: 60 s
Hydroacoustic Search
consumable_PCY016_SonarSearchPremiumNumber of charges: 3
Work time: 120 s
Cooldown: 120 s
Torpedo spotting range: 4.0 km
Ship spotting range: 6.0 km
Spotting Aircraft
Number of charges: 4
Work time: 100 s
Cooldown: 240 s
Maximum firing range: +20%
Repair Party
Number of charges: 4
Work time: 28 s
Cooldown: 80 s
HP regeneration speed: +0.5%/s
Casemate damage regeneration: 50%
Citadel damage regeneration: 10%
Defensive AA Fire

Number of charges: 3
Work time: 40 s
Cooldown: 80 s
Damage from continuous DPS: +50%
Damage from flak explosions: +300%
Fighter
Number of charges: 3
Work time: 60 s
Cooldown: 90 s
Number of planes in a squadron: 4
Patrol radius: 3.0 km

Clausewitz is almost what any supership should be. She doesn’t have any sort of bull***t alternative firing mode or Combat instruction, doesn’t have very different characteristics from the previous ship, and just sticks to the ol’ reliable. In essence, it really is a bigger Hindenburg with almost stronger everything with only one substantial downside. Sadly, she suffers from worse firing angles than Hindenburg by 2° at the front and 4° at the back.

Overall, these firing angles remain fairly manageable unless you are dealing with U.S. heavy cruisers AP and more specifically, pray that you will never meet an Annapolis. Against battleships, not only does the 50 mm deck helps a lot on its own but on top of that, you will have a decent margin to angle in time. The additional armor compared to Hindenburg allows you to play somewhat more aggressively but don’t get overconfident in case your battleships decide that it’s better to camp at the back and do nothing. At that point, you would become the priority target and even with the improved armor, the inability of the ship to properly dodge shots will be your downfall.

Other than that, it really is the classic Hindenburg playstyle of farming damage with the HE until you find a broadside target at which point, you can get the high alpha damage of the AP in action. Compared to Hindenburg, the AP penetration is also much better so punishing cruisers will be easier.

Now, the big problem is that while she works well as an improvement over Hindenburg, it isn’t all nice and happy when comparing her to Condé and Annapolis. For starters, both of them get the alternative firing mode, especially Condé’s one that works incredibly well with her reload booster to deal with the long reload time. Annapolis’s citadel protection also improves massively compared to Des Moines. As if it wasn’t enough, in both cases, their firepower is also a lot superior to that of the previous ship as they keep the same guns (and reload time for Annapolis) but also get an additional 3 barrels. In the case of Clausewitz, the firepower increase is far more limited. I know that I say it often but I’m still scratching my head, trying to figure out how Annapolis and Condé are considered fine.

If you want to see the ship in action, here is a commented replay:

Main Armament

4 x 3 210 mm/60 SK C/34 on a Drh LC/40 mount
 Maximum Firing Range18.510 km
 Reloading Time10.5 s
180 Degree Turn Time22.5 s
Optimal firing angles at the front37°
Optimal firing angles at the rear39°
Sigma2.05 sigma
Maximum Dispersion161 m
Shells
Type of Projectile HE – 210 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.7
Alpha Damage2 950
Penetration capacity 53 mm
Explosion size0.9
Fire chance15 %
Projectile Speed925 m/s
Air Drag0.297
Projectile Mass138.7 kg
Type of ProjectileAP – 210 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.4
Alpha Damage6 200
Projectile Speed925 m/s
Air Drag0.297
Projectile Mass138.7 kg
Projectile Krupp2 400
Projectile Detonator0.033 s
Detonator threshold35 mm
Ricochet Angles45° – 60°

Clausewitz’s main battery is very similar to that of Hindenburg but gives it some extra kick. In action, the raw HE DPM goes up by 10% and the fire starting capacity also gets improved. It isn’t a massive improvement but still quite appreciable.

As for the AP, it is a bit more mitigated. the raw DPM itself is a tiiiiiiiiny bit reduced compared to Hindenburg but at the same time, you get better penetration and better alpha. As a whole, she gets an appreciable improvement in her capacity to punish broadsides.

While her firepower is an overall improvement over Hindenburg, she has the problem of getting nowhere near the same firepower improvement compared to Condé and Annapolis. If you face any of these two, unless the guy is a complete smooth brain, it’s gonna be a downhill battle. Don’t get me wrong though, Clausewitz remains a very strong damage-farming cruiser but as a whole, she lacks the actual impact to fully influence a game.

Secondary Armament

10 x 2 128 mm/61 KM40 in a turret
Maximum Firing Range8.300 km
Reloading Time4.0 s
Sigma1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of ProjectileHE – 128 mm Spr.Gr. Kz.
Alpha Damage1 500
HE penetration32 mm
Explosion Size0.41
Chance to Cause Fire5 %
Projectile Speed900 m/s
Air Drag0.313
Projectile Mass26.0 kg

Even though Clausewitz presents a heavy secondary broadside, it’s still a cruiser with standard secondaries so don’t go try running some dumb secondary build.

Torpedo Armament

4 x 5 533 mm Fünfling
G7a T1
Reloading Time112 s
Maximum Distance6.000 km
Firing angles at the Front32°
Firing angles at the Rear32°
Damage13 700
Flooding Chance227%
Speed64 knots
Surface Detectability1.3 km

The torpedoes of Clausewitz are particularly useful for close-range combat. While each torpedo deals low damage, she can drop 10 of them per side which will be more than enough to kill anything you will come across.

Anti-air Armament

10 x 2 128 mm/61 KM40 in a turret
Sector range0.1 km – 6.0 km
Hit chance90 %
Sector’s damage40
Sector’s damage frequency0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second140
Flak clouds number6
Flak cloud damage1 610
8 x 2 55 mm/77 Gerät 58 on a twin mount
Sector range0.1 km – 4.0 km
Hit chance90 %
Sector’s damage89
Sector’s damage frequency0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second312
12 x 2 30 mm/45 Flak 103/38 on a twin mount
6 x 4 30 mm/45 Flak 103/38 on a quadruple mount
Sector range0.1 km – 3.0 km
Hit chance85 %
Sector’s damage114
Sector’s damage frequency0.29 s
Sector’s damage per second399

The anti-air of Clausewitz is solid for a German ship. While the long-range aura isn’t that effective, the mid-range and close-range have high DPS coupled with an above-average range.

The Armor

Compared to Hindenburg, Clausewitz gets a fairly substantial improvement in terms of armor protection. The most notable change is the 50 mm deck armor that gives the ship an easier time against battleships with 431 mm guns and bigger which are the ban of Hindenburg. Other than that, the rest of the armor also gets thicker and the extended belt on the bow and stern is longer as well.

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Main belt:

Turtleback:

 

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the bow and stern:

Final Opinion

While Clausewitz is definitely behind the Annapolis and Condé in terms of overall game impact, she is by absolutely no means a ship that one can call weak. She very much is an improvement over Hindenburg and if you enjoyed her predecessor, Clausewitz will suit you perfectly with her higher firepower and higher tanking capacity. However, it might take a little bit of time to get used to the new firing angles.

As for going ham on the auction, it is up to you. Personally, I’m waiting for the Sekiryuu auction because… well… SUPER-HAKURYU!!! but by all means, if you want to grab Clausewitz in advance, you should normally not regret it.

Recommended Build

For the Clausewitz, I recommend the following commander build and upgrades:

If you have Günther Lütjens, his Main Battery Loader talent will be very useful and the improved Grease the gears is always nice to have.

This concludes my review of Clausewitz. Thank you for reading this article!

Don’t hesitate to subscribe to our notifications to ensure you don’t miss any future articles.
Have a good one and see you soon!

Also if you are new to the game or want to get back to it, feel free to use my Recruiting Station code for free goodies such as Premium ships, premium time, and more: https://warships.net/yuzorah

Have a good one and see you soon!

About Author

1 thought on “World of Warships Final Review: German Supercruiser Clausewitz

  1. Love your reviews, but link to “World of Warships Supertest: British Tier X Freemium Cruiser Monmouth” is not working.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from The Daily Bounce

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading