World of Warships Supertest: British Tier X Freemium Cruiser Monmouth

Historical background

Monmouth is based on the same design of treaty cruisers-killer as Gibraltar.

In 1938, the Director of Naval Construction started working on a series of designs to counter the German Deutschland-class as well as the Japanese Chichibu-class.
The Chichibu-class was what the Allies believed to be an improved version of the Deutschland-class armed with 410 mm guns. It ended up being pure fantasy but scared the U.S.N. enough to start working on what would become the Alaska-class.

As for the British designs, multiple proposals were made with displacements ranging from 20 500 tons to 23 700 tons. As for the armament, the “weakest” design was armed with three triple turrets with 203 mm guns while the largest (Design I) was carrying three quadruple turrets with 234 mm guns.

In the end, none of these would be retained.

However, in 1939, as Winston Churchill returned as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty he almost immediately asked for a cruiser design to effectively fight the German Deutschland-class and Admiral Hipper-class. The DNC got back to work and since the restrictions of previous treaties had been abandoned, they simply went back to their previous designs and modified them. Design A was a modified version of Design I from 1938 with higher maximum speed but weaker armor protection.

In World of Warships, Monmouth is essentially a Gibraltar with very similar stats to Goliath.

Ship’s preview

Ship’s commemorative flag

Ship’s camouflages

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	Torpedoes
Monmouth	Propulsion: 135 000 HP	‎Mk X mod. 1	234 mm/50 Mk.XI in a turret	533 mm Mk VII

General Characteristics

Main Armament

3 x 4 234 mm/50 Mk.XI in a turret
Maximum Firing Range	16.850 km
Reloading Time	18.5 s
180 Degree Turn Time	22.5 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	37°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	45°
Sigma	2.05 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	149 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 234 mm HE 6 CRH
Alpha Damage	3 850
Penetration capacity	59 mm
Explosion size	1.12
Fire chance	24 %
Projectile Speed	841 m/s
Air Drag	0.36
Projectile Mass	185.3 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 234 mm AP 6 CRH
Alpha Damage	5 750
Projectile Speed	841 m/s
Air Drag	0.36
Projectile Mass	185.3 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 950
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	39 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Secondary Armament

6 x 2 113 mm/45 QF Mk.V on an RP41 Mk.VI mount
Maximum Firing Range	7.300 km
Reloading Time	3.0 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 113 mm HE Mk XVI
Alpha Damage	1 600
HE penetration	19 mm
Explosion Size	0.36
Chance to Cause Fire	7 %
Projectile Speed	746 m/s
Air Drag	0.33
Projectile Mass	25.0 kg

Torpedo Armament

2 x 4 533 mm QR Mk IV 533 mm Mk VII
Reloading Time	106 s
Maximum Distance	10.000 km
Optimal firing angles at the front	30°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	30°
Damage	16 767
Flooding Chance	282%
Speed	62 knots
Surface Detectability	1.3 km

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s	Specialized Repair Teams Number of charges: 2 Work time: 20 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration: 2.0%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 33%	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Continuous Damage: +50% Damage from shell explosions: +300%
		Hydroacoustic Search Number of charges: 3 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.5 km Ship spotting range: 5.0 km

The Armor

External armor protection:

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

So… right now, I’m scratching my head pretty hard. I have no idea why this ship is a thing honestly.

Essentially, it’s a Gibraltar with the horrible firing angles that come with it as well as the exposed citadel. She also gets almost identical stats to Goliath with a tiny bit more HP and firing range but worse torpedo reload, worse speed, turning radius, concealment, and anti-air.

I have absolutely no clue what Wargaming are aiming at with this ship.

Thank you for reading this article!

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Yuzorah

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