World of Warships Supertest: German Tier X Freemium Destroyer Z-42
4 min readHistorical background
Historically, Z-42 was a planned unit of the Typer 1936B destroyer of the German Kriegsmarine. The construction was canceled in 1940.
As for the Z-42 that we get in-game, it is a Wargaming-modified Type 1936B destroyer from the Kriegsmarine. Compared to the standard Type 1936B destroyer, Z-42 is armed with ten 105 mm guns in five dual-purpose twin turrets.
The ship will be available for Steel with a price that should be around 28 000 steel.
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 |
Z-42 | Propulsion: 70 000 HP | FKS Typ 10 Mod. 1 | ![]() 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/37 mount | G7a T1 |
General Characteristics
Tier | X |
Health | 19 700 HP |
Torpedo Damage Reduction | 0 % |
Displacement | 3 542 tons |
Dimensions | |
Overall length | 127.0 m |
Beam | 11.9 m |
Overall height (keel to the highest point on the ship) | 14.6 m |
Freeboard | 2.35 m |
Main Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 12.570 km |
105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/37 mount | 5 x 2 105 mm |
Torpedo Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 10.000 km |
533 mm Vierling | 2 x 4 533 mm |
Maximum speed | 36.5 knots |
Turning Circle Radius | 670 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 4.4 s |
Surface Detectability | 7.25 km |
Air Detectability | 3.48 km |
Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 2.44 km |
Main Armament
5 x 2 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/37 mount | |
Maximum Firing Range | 12.570 km |
Reloading Time | 3.1 s |
180 Degree Turn Time | 18.0 s |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 35° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 45° |
Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
Maximum Dispersion | 109 m |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 105 mm Spr.Gr. Kz.![]() |
Alpha Damage | 1 200 |
Penetration capacity | 26 mm |
Explosion size | 0.31 |
Fire chance | 5 % |
Projectile Speed | 900 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.29 |
Projectile Mass | 15.1 kg |
Type of Projectile | AP – 105 mm P.Spr.Gr.![]() |
Alpha Damage | 2 300 |
Projectile Speed | 900 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.29 |
Projectile Mass | 15.1 kg |
Projectile Krupp | 2 149 |
Projectile Detonator | 0.01 s |
Detonator threshold | 18 mm |
Ricochet Angles | 45° – 60° |
Torpedo Armament
2 x 4 533 mm Vierling G7a T1 ![]() | |
Reloading Time | 100 s |
Maximum Distance | 10.000 km |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 43° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 55° |
Damage | 18 400 |
Flooding Chance | 311% |
Speed | 66 knots |
Surface Detectability | 1.8 km |
Anti-air Armament
5 x 2 105 mm/65 SK C/33 on a Dop. L. C/37 mount | |
Sector firing range | 0.1 km – 5.2 km |
Hit chance | 100 % |
Sector’s damage | 32 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 112 |
Flak clouds number | 5 |
Flak cloud damage | 1 540 |
4 x 2 37 mm/69 Flak M42 on an LM/42 mount | |
Sector firing range | 0.1 km – 3.5 km |
Hit chance | 100 % |
Sector’s damage | 22 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 77 |
3 x 4 30 mm/45 Flak 103/38 on a quadruple mount | |
Sector firing range | 0.1 km – 3.0 km |
Hit chance | 95 % |
Sector’s damage | 28 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 98 |
Consumables
Consumables | |||
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 |
Damage Control Party ![]() Cooldown: 40 s | Short-Burst Smoke Generator Number of charges: 6 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 70 s Smoke radius: 600 m Smoke duration: 40 s | Engine Boost ![]() Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Speed bonus: +8% | Hydroacoustic Search ![]() Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 4.0 km Ship spotting range: 6.0 km |
The Armor
Personal Opinion
Right now, Z-42 looks like a rather nasty little ship, being basically a German Harugumo with all the advantages that come with it. In terms of gun handling, the ships have very similar ballistics but Z-42 suffers from poor firing angles at the rear as well as a slower turret traverse. Fortunately
Z-42 might lose (but not by much) in the HE spamming contest, however, she has a much higher AP DPM which will be perfect for farming damage on broadside targets. Just like Harugumo, she will just be raining shells on anything in range and farm damage like no tomorrow.
Where Z-42 gets interesting is her consumables. She gets a short-burst smoke with many charges and a short cooldown which is perfect for farming damage whenever you wish to do so. The best thing however is her Hydroacoustic Search. It turns out that her Hydroacoustic Search has a 6.0 km range while you can get the surface spotting range to 5.87 km. This means that you can basically stealth hydro enemy destroyers and nothing can outspot Z-42 as long as the consumable is active. I don’t know if it’s intended or not but that is pretty juicy.
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