As far back as at the beginning of the year,
when we shared our plans with players,
we said we were going to make British battleships.
We realized this would be one of the most awaited ship branches this year.
And we're happy to finally present them to players.
Developer Diaries
These were British engineers who designed and launched HMS Dreadnought in 1906,
which completely changed the perception of ships of the line.
Her construction became a turning point in world naval shipbuilding
and initiated an arms race at sea in the beginning of the 20th century.
In World of Warships, the new branch represents
the evolution of battleships as viewed by their creators.
The ships of the lower tiers are designed to carry out standard tasks:
force your way through a flank, take enemy fire,
and, of course, deal heavy damage in return.
However, these ships do have some national traits.
First of all, British battleships are different
because they have the Repair Party consumable,
which is better than that of other battleships.
It restores more of the so-called "white damage,"
Second,
they have HE shells whose penetration capacity is calculated by the rule:
one-fourth of the round's caliber.
These shells can be found on German battleships.
But the British ships feature both the consumable
and the HE shells virtually from the very start, from Tier III.
The British battleship branch starts with Bellerophon.
She is basically a sistership of HMS Dreadnought.
The main thing that distinguished battleships from their predecessors,
ironclads, was firepower.
While pre-dreadnaught battleship Lord Nelson
was able to fire only four 12-inch guns in a broadside salvo,
Bellerophon could fire eight.
The next logical step was to increase the caliber.
Having built battleships with 12-inch guns,
the English were the first to transition to battleships with larger guns.
Their caliber reached 13.5 inches, that's 343 mm.
The first battleship like this was Orion.
In World of Warships, you'll meet her at Tier IV.
This super-dreadnought and her sisterships took part in World War I
and performed well in the Battle of Jutland.
The result of this project's further evolution,
battleship Iron Duke, will be awaiting players at Tier V.
At first sight, she may seem to be a slightly improved Orion;
but as a matter of fact, the English managed
to strongly increase the ship's secondary armament.
At Tier VI, you'll see another breakthrough in naval design,
which happened after the Admiralty asked British engineers
to develop an adequate response to new German,
US, and Japanese ships.
The Queen Elizabeth-class battleships appeared as this kind of response.
Their primary armament had a caliber of 15 inches,
which made Great Britain the world leader in this field again.
Beginning with Tier VII, gameplay changes a bit,
and concealment starts playing a decisive role.
By using relevant upgrades, Commander skills, and camouflage,
you can reduce your battleship's detectability range by sea
to 11 km at Tiers VIII and higher.
With concealment parameters like this, you'll be able to both ambush enemies
and escape from their fire—unless there are some enemy aircraft nearby,
as they're quite effective for spotting British battleships.
Also keep in mind peculiarities in the armor layout of the new ships.
The British dreadnaughts and super-dreadnaughts
at Tiers III to VI can block damage quite well
and have enhanced Repair Party, which makes playing them pretty convenient.
But starting with Tier VII,
their armor doesn't allow you to stay under enemy fire for long.
Therefore, it's important that you don't come under focused fire,
and instead impose the conditions that are convenient for you in battle.
The armor is the same as in the historic prototypes,
so in the game it'll be just as it was in real life.
British battleships should be treated in a special way,
they require a particular approach to playing battleships in general.
There's a certain interesting way to play these ships:
approach the enemy,
make a number of salvos, step back, and restore your HP.
That way, step by step, you'll be destroying the enemies,
wearing down their resistance.
And when you feel how these tactics work,
feel this new battleship gameplay,
you'll be able to enjoy playing these ships.
At Tier VII, you'll meet King George V.
She's the first battleship intended for the new gameplay.
The ship that was eventually launched by the shipyard
turned out somewhat less balanced in terms of her characteristics
than what had been envisaged by the design documentation.
So we decided to bring to life one of the preliminary designs
for the King George V-class battleship
and place it at Tier VIII under the name Monarch.
At Tier IX you'll find Lion.
It was an improved version of the previous battleship class
that envisaged more powerful primary armament.
The project was real, it was pretty detailed,
and they even implemented it to a certain extent:
Vanguard, the only battleship built after World War II,
was pretty similar to the Lion project.
Generally speaking, she is a Lion-class battleship
with outdated artillery from old battlecruisers.
The top of the new British branch is battleship Conqueror.
This ship inherited from Lion a Repair Party that restores HP faster.
In addition, the battleship offers a hard choice between twelve 412-mm guns
or eight powerful 457-mm cannons.
Had the English suddenly decided to build a Yamato for their Navy,
their Yamato would've resembled Conqueror.
Another distinctive feature of British battleships
is the need to change shell type more often.
No matter how the enemy battleship is positioned to you—
with her bow or side—you can always find a way to damage her.
With high-tier British battleships, you'll be maneuvering all the time,
making use of your concealment characteristics
and cover on the map, dealing damage,
and dodging attacks in return—
experience notes of cruiser gameplay in a battleship symphony.
British battleships are entering the final testing stage,
which means that as soon as in the next update
you'll be able to see and check them out in battle yourself.