World of Warships Supertest: U.S. Tier X Battleship Louisiana

Historical background

Unlike the previous two ships, Louisiana actually has somewhat of a historical basis.

In 1937, to fulfill Stalin’s plan of a strong ocean-going fleet, the Soviet Union came to the negotiation with the USA to get support from them and overcome the limitations of the Soviet shipbuilding capabilities. The Soviets ordered turbines, as well as a license to produce said turbines back home, and they, were also ready to buy U.S-built cruisers, etc. At some point, they also asked if the U.S.A could build battleships for them, which initially failed. The U.S. government reconsidered the idea when the Soviet ambassador brought on the table the argument that such battleship would be used to keep the Japanese Navy in check in the Pacific and, hearing this, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations agreed with the idea being supported by President Roosevelt.

This is where things are getting crazy. Enter the firm Gibbs & Cox of New York. Apparently, they didn’t quite understand that the Soviets only wanted battleships and also forgot any sort of treaty limitations. In early 1938, they delivered three different designs of a battleship-aircraft carrier hybrid with the largest displacing almost 72 000 tons:

• Project 1058 / Design A with 66,074t standard displacement, eight 456mm guns, and 40 planes
• Project 1058.1 / Design B with 71,859t standard displacement, twelve 406mm guns, and 40 planes
• Project 1058.2 / C with 44,200t standard displacement, ten 406mm guns, and 28 planes

To nobody’s surprise, all three proposals were refused as they were in complete violation of naval treaties and there was simply no infrastructure available to build such monsters.

Later on, Gibbs and Cox would propose a… much more logical design of a normal battleship with 45 000 tons displacement, armed with ten 406 mm guns and with a maximum speed of 31 knots. In the end, with the situation in Europe spinning out of control, all cooperation ceased in October 1939.

Louisiana is based on Project 1058 C while Kearsarge was 1058 B. However, Louisiana uses a Montana hull with the quadruple turret being moved further toward the rear to clear space for the hangar and flight deck.

When it comes to her hybrid part, she is using bombers dropping in carpet bombing style. Just like U.S. dive bombers from carriers, these bombers are not getting an aiming debuff when manoeuvering while in attack mode, and on top of that, the reticule is incredibly small. From the numbers in the game files, the reticule length is about half that of the high-tier U.S. dive bombers for the sake of reference. Also, these bombers don’t have JATO (Jet assisted take-off) but have an Engine Cooling consumable.

Ship’s preview

Ship’s camouflage

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	Dive Bombers
Louisiana	Propulsion: 212 000 hp	‎Mk10 mod. 1	406 mm/50 Mk.7 in a turret	BTD Destroyer

General Characteristics

Main Armament

2 x 3 406 mm/50 Mk.7 in a turret 1 x 4 406 mm/50 Mk.7 in a turret
Maximum Firing Range	22.824 km
Reloading Time	30.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	45.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	45°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	35°
Sigma	1.9 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	288 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 406 mm HE/HC Mk13
Alpha Damage	5 700
Penetration capacity	68 mm
Explosion size	36.9 m
Fire chance	36 %
Projectile Speed	820 m/s
Air Drag	0.346
Projectile Mass	862.0 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 406 mm AP Mk8
Alpha Damage	13 500
Projectile Speed	762 m/s
Air Drag	0.352
Projectile Mass	1 225.0 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 520
Projectile Detonator	0.033 s
Detonator threshold	68 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Bombers

Carpet bombers – ‎‎‎BTD Destroyer
Tier	X
Hitpoints per plane	2 500
Cruise speed	135 knots
Maximum speed	171 knots
Engine boost time	20 s
Damage taken in attack mode	50%
Size of attacking flight	6
Aircraft per squadron	6
Bomb type	AN-M64
Bomb per plane	2
Maximum bomb damage	7 300
HE penetration capacity	42 mm
Explosion size	23.7 m
Fire chance	46 %
Detectability range	10.0 km
Restoration time	120 s

Consumable
Engine Cooling Number of Charges: 2 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 80 s

Secondary Armament

10 x 2 127 mm/54 Mk.16 on a Mk.41 mount
Maximum Firing Range	7.300 km
Reloading Time	4.0 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 127 mm HE Mk32
Alpha Damage	1 800
HE penetration	21 mm
Explosion Size	6.6 m
Chance to Cause Fire	5 %
Projectile Speed	808 m/s
Air Drag	0.279
Projectile Mass	31.75 kg

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
Damage Control Party Work time: 20 s Cooldown: 80 s	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%	Fighter Number of charges: 3 Work time: 90 s Cooldown: 70 s Number of planes in a squadron: 4 Patrol radius: 3.0 km

The Armor

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Main deck:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the stern:

Personal Opinion

Well… right now, Louisiana looks particularly scary. Just like the previous ships, you have bombers with a particularly small reticule but this time, you drop TWELVE bombs. This thing can effectively drop tactical nukes on the enemy.

When it comes to the ship itself, while the firing angles at the front are horrible, those at the rear are quite usable compared to the previous ships. Also, while the ship has weaker firepower than Montana, she still gets ten guns with the same dispersion. In action, that’s still solid firepower, especially when considering the U.S. battleships upgrade Artillery Plotting Room Modification 2.
The fact that she uses a Montana hull also offers her a decent tanking capacity and a low citadel that will help to compensate for the poor front firing angles.

Overall, despite the horrible pushing power of the ship, she still seems like a particularly strong hybrid battleship.

Easter egg

On board Louisiana can be found two special boats that actually are Landing Craft Personnel Large or LCPL. These boats were landing crafts used extensively during the Second World War to move troops from transport ships to enemy-controlled shores.

These crafts were derived from a prototype made by Higgins industries, also known for their Eureka Boats. This company was based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

For whatever reason, an LCPL can also be found on the stern of Massachusetts but I’m not exactly sure why.

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Yuzorah

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