World of Warships Supertest: Commonwealth Tier IX Premium Cruiser Hector

Historical background

Hector is a Wargaming kitbash made out of a never-built British AA cruiser design and an Edinburgh-class cruiser’s modified hull.

When it comes to the AA cruiser design, it is the K25 series of design studies. These studies were part of the designing process that would lead to the Crown Colony-class of light cruisers.

In total, 8 variations were proposed, named from A to H. Outside of K-25F which was armed with eight turrets, all the others were armed with seven of them. In all cases, the turrets were the same dual-purpose 133 mm (5.25″) twin turrets as on the Dido-class. The rear three turrets were in superfiring positions and the front turrets were either all four in superfiring position or with turrets 2 and 3 being on the same deck level.
The fastest design, K-25A was able to reach 32.5 knots and in terms of armor, the thickest main belt was on K-25E with 89 mm.

The armament was completed with 40 mm Pom-pom AA guns and two triple torpedo launchers.

When it comes to the hull, as I previously said, it’s the hull of an Edinburgh-class cruiser modified to fit four quadruple torpedo launchers, with a different superstructure and no secondary battery.

When it comes to the game design, the ship is basically a tier IX Perth with a Crawling Smoke Generator.

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
Hector	Propulsion: 82 500 HP	‎Mk IX mod. 1	133 mm/50 QF Mk.I on a RP10 Mk.I* mount	533 mm Mk V

General Characteristics

Main Armament

7 x 2 133 mm/50 QF Mk.I on a RP10 Mk.I* mount Turret n°1 can rotate at 360°
Maximum Firing Range	15.570 km
Reloading Time	6.7 s
180 Degree Turn Time	9.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	40° for at least 6 turrets (Between 40° and 60°, 7 turrets)
Optimal firing angles at the rear	42°
Sigma	2.05 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	140 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 133 mm HE Mk IC
Alpha Damage	1 900
Penetration capacity	22 mm
Explosion size	0.46
Fire chance	8 %
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.321
Projectile Mass	36.3 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 133 mm AP Mk IC
Alpha Damage	2 550
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.321
Projectile Mass	36.3 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 882
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	22 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Torpedo Armament

4 x 4 533 mm QR Mk IV 533 mm Mk VII
Reloading Time	96 s
Maximum Distance	10.000 km
Optimal firing angles at the front	27°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	32°
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	Slot 4
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 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: 33%	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Damage from continuous DPS: +50% Damage from flak explosions: +300%	Crawling Smoke Generator Number of charges: 3 Work time: 90 s Cooldown: 160 s Smoke radius: 450 m Smoke duration: 10 s
		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:

Personal Opinion

I am a bit hesitant regarding this ship. The firepower is nice on paper but I’ve never been a big fan of crawling smokes on cruisers. I don’t like the long downtime combined it forcing you to stay at 1/4 speed. When you are out of the smoke, it also will not be like playing a Colbert where you can speed dodge and zoom around easily. Here, you have to work with an Edinburgh hull with all its ups but also all its downs.

At least, you have great concealment, going down to 8.5 km spotting range by sea and the speed is also pretty high for a British cruiser at 34 knots. This will allow you to move around swiftly to a better position.

Thank you for reading this article!

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Yuzorah

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