World of Warships Final Review: Soviet Superbattleship Admiral Ushakov

Comrades! Looks like Wargaming decided to put floaters on the entire USSR!

Admiral Ushakov, the Soviet Superbattleship is now final. Just like Sekiryu, she will be available in an auction that will start on the 1st of December at 13:00 UTC and will last until the 5th at 13:00 UTC. Just like with the previous superships auctions, the minimum bid will be 100 000 000 Credits with a total of 500 ships available on all servers combined. It still includes the CIS client though.
Afterward, the ship will be fully available with Update 0.12.2.

Historical background

Admiral Ushakov is POSSIBLY based on one of the variants of the Project 24 of battleship from the Soviet Union. The same project from which emerged Kremlin that we all know… and love… I guess. More precisely, it could be one of the fourteen variants from after 1948, when work on Project 24 was transferred from TsKB-17 to TsKB-L. Among these variants, some had a displacement reaching 100 000 tons for a speed of 28 to 29 knots.

Without more detailed information, it is however hard to confirm or deny that possible origin.

In any case, I have to thank Kremlin_Lover (Gee I wonder why he called himself like that) for sharing his knowledge on the subject.

Special Ability

Alternative firing mode settings:

• Duration: 25 s
• Hits required: 9
• Main battery firing range: +10%
• Main battery dispersion: -30%

Ship’s preview

The camouflages

The permanent camouflage of Admiral Ushakov comes with the standard permanent tier X economic bonuses:

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

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• Able to overmatch 30 mm plating
• Has access to a Combat instruction that grants her a reduced main battery dispersion for one salvo
• Great firing angles
• Improved dispersion at close range
• High AP penetration
• Heavy secondary broadside
• Great anti-air with the strongest flak barrage of the game
• Largest HP pool of the game
• One of the heaviest armor protection in the game
• Immune to citadels from AP bombs
• Pretty good torpedo damage reduction
• Has access to the commander Nikolai Kuznetzov

The Bad

• Long main battery reload
• Horrible dispersion past 17 km
• “Only” nine 457 mm guns
• Lowest alpha damage per salvo among superbattleships
• Short main battery range
• Very large target
• Enormous turning radius
• About as sluggish as you can get
• Horrible air spotting range
• Limited number of Fast Damage Control Team
• Only three charges of Repair Party

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery
Admiral Ushakov	Propulsion: 320 000 HP	‎GFCS XI mod. 1	457 mm/55 on a SM-45 mount

General Characteristics and Playstyle

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2
Fast Damage Control Team Number of charges: 4 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 40 s	Repair Party Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: +0.5%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 10%

If I had to give you a brief summary of what Ushakov is, it would be “a gigantic floating punching bag made of vodka-flavored steel with guns on it”.

This thing is a tank in its truest definition. It is a ship that will be eating shot after shot after bombs, after torpedoes, tanking millions of potential damage, and just refusing to die. Bonus point if you take Nikolay Kuznetsov with his Will for Victory.

Generally speaking, you will want to use that gargantuan HP pool and armor protection to lead the charge (although I don’t mean by that that you should just press W toward the middle of the map). Ushakov has tremendous pushing power due to her capacity to tank shots and get all the attention on your flank. At that point though, you face a bit of a problem. While this ship’s defensive stats are absurd, its offensive capabilities are quite limited compared to the rest of the superbattleships.
Because of this, while you will take the damage, it will be up to your team to deal damage in return. The problem is that in random battles, it isn’t exactly a good idea considering the level of the average player. However, if you have a division with one or two good players with you to deal the damage, here, the ship becomes a proper beast.

Sadly, I don’t have a replay for Admiral Ushakov for the simple reason that I just can’t play this ship properly. I will say it out loud, I straight up suck with her. I can’t get the timing right with this ship on when and where to push. The problem is that she is so damn huge and unmaneuverable that getting out of situations where you are caught bow-in can be a proper challenge. At that point, you are stuck there, waiting for your team to help you out. The thing is that in random battles, it is really unlikely to happen.
So yeah… instead of showing you a terrible replay, I prefer to show nothing at all and let proper battleship players display her combat capacities.

Main Armament

3 x 3 457 mm/55 on a SM-45 mount
Maximum Firing Range	21.300 km
Reloading Time	33.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	30.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	29°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	27°
Sigma	1.8 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	286 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 457 mm HE Model 1946
Alpha Damage	6 500
Penetration capacity	76 mm
Explosion size	44.85 m
Fire chance	45 %
Projectile Speed	800 m/s
Air Drag	0.24
Projectile Mass	1 373.0 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 457 mm AP Model 1946
Alpha Damage	14 500
Projectile Speed	800 m/s
Air Drag	0.256
Projectile Mass	1 373.0 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 500
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	76 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Outside of the Combat instruction, the main battery of Ushakov is the exact same as that of the Kremlin. While at tier X, it is a strong main battery, at tier XI/with superships, it is falling behind quite significantly. She might retain the 30 mm overmatch and the great close-range dispersion but at long range, have fun dealing with a Condé that will pepper you non-stop or a Satsuma that completely outclasses you beyond 15 km in terms of firepower. Now, that’s obviously just two examples but you get the idea.
Once in a while, you will get a tight spread but unless you can close the distance, you will get that shotgun dispersion with shells going everywhere except where you want them to.
While every four or five salvos, you will get the combat instruction that offers you a very tight dispersion just for one volley, it still is nowhere near enough to compete with the other superbattleships. They all have higher alpha damage and either better dispersion, higher volume of fire, or higher rate of fire. Satsuma and Hannover also happen to have the capacity to overmatch 32 mm of armor. Also, Ushakov suffers from particularly bad vertical dispersion past 17 km. With the overall meta, is less than ideal as it would force you to get much deeper than the rest of your teammates and at that point, everything breathing is looking at you.

So overall, while this main battery works fine at tier X, in the realm of superships, it is falling quite far behind the others.

Secondary Armament

8 x 4 130 mm/58 on a BL-132B mount
Maximum Firing Range	7.300 km
Reloading Time	4.5 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – HE-46
Alpha Damage	1 900
HE penetration	22 mm
Explosion Size	0.45
Chance to Cause Fire	8 %
Projectile Speed	900 m/s
Air Drag	0.255
Projectile Mass	33.4 kg

The secondaries of Ushakov actually are quite nasty. We are talking about a broadside of six turrets with four guns each (Yes, yes it’s Smolensk turrets) for a total of twenty-four guns on targets with a fairly short reload.

How much daka? Da.

Now, because of their limited range, I wouldn’t go as far as going with a secondary build but if you get a destroyer popping on your broadside at close range, the guy might have a surprise.

Anti-air Armament

The anti-air of Ushakov is no laughing matter. While her long-range anti-air has a shorter range compared to Kremlin, the DPS is WAY higher and she also generates the strongest flak barrage of the game.

The problem is that while her anti-air is particularly strong, it is all concentrated around the superstructure, making it easy to destroy multiple mounts at a time. Also, the ship is just a massive brick so unless the enemy carrier player has 2 meatballs at the end of their forearms, they will have the easiest time in the world to hit you. Trust me, when you get hard-focused (which will happen), it is particularly unpleasant.

The Armor

As a giant slab of steel, Ushakov has the armor that goes with it. It takes Kremlin’s absurd protection but then brings it to the next level with a much smaller citadel, a thicker main belt and she also gains a near immunity to citadel hits from AP bombs.

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Main belt:

Hidden deck:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the bow and stern:

Final Opinion

I will be honest, I actually hate Ushakov. It is fat, it is sluggish, it turns like a shopping cart full of bricks with three wheels jammed and the guns are far too unreliable at anything beyond 15 km.

For competitive and clan battles, that thing will definitely be a guaranteed pick because of how unkillable she is. She just tanks and tanks for days and requires some serious focus fire to be brought down.
The problem is that while she tanks like no tomorrow, she really lacks the punching power. Sure, she gets the combat instruction for one salvo every four or five but it really doesn’t qualify it as superbattleship firepower. She is just a glorified, sluggish, punching bag.

Basically, while you tank and push, you have to pray to all available gods that your team will do the rest of the job. If you can get a division running with a supercarrier and Condé or Annapolis, this is where it can get nasty. Otherwise, it was overall a rather painful experience for me.

Recommended Build

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

If you have Nikolai Kuznetzov, you definitely want him on this ship for his Will for Victory talent.

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

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Yuzorah

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