Greetings, fellow Captains!
In a previous episode we told you about the Japanese cruiser line.
And in this episode, we’ll talk about American and Japanese battleships.
For many decades, battleships were the backbone,
linchpins and superstars of any large fleet.
Starting from the 20th century up until World War II, a country’s image,
the power of its industry
and its scientific progress were estimated by the number of its battleships.
After the launch of HMS Dreadnought, the worldwide “dreadnought race” began.
This was the first modern technological race.
The United States and Japan joined this competition at the same time
and set out to catch up with the trendsetters—the British.
Due to their special one-of-a-kind peculiarities,
battleships of each country provide players with a unique style of play,
quite distinct from that of other nations.
Certainly, American and Japanese ships have many similarities
but they were the products of absolutely different approaches to shipbuilding.
The Americans almost immediately adopted the “all or nothing” armor scheme:
they concentrated the majority of the armor around the ship’s citadel—her central section,
housing propulsion and the main battery magazine—leaving her ends unprotected.
In addition, American battleships were well armed and had excellent survivability,
including outstanding firefighting capability.
While inferior to the US battleships in survivability,
the Japanese battleships were faster and possessed more advanced optics.
Adopting British shipbuilding experience
and drawing lessons from the Russo-Japanese War,
Japanese engineers aimed at covering as much area as possible with armor
at the expense of its thickness.
They changed over to the American armor scheme only for Yamato.
Tier I–VII battleships of the American Tech Tree
are pretty similar both in configuration and playstyle.
Their low speed is the first thing that stands out.
The US naval doctrine from the beginning of the 20th century held
that operational range of warships was more important than speed,
so the maximum speed of the battleships from South Carolina to Colorado is 21 knots.
But such low speed is balanced by a highly sophisticated armor system
that is noticeably superior to most ships of that time.
Powerful and well-balanced main guns are another great advantage of the American ships.
South Carolina and Wyoming have 305-mm in four
and six two-gun turrets, respectively.
The next-higher ships—New York and New Mexico—have 356-mm caliber guns,
grouped in five two-gun turrets on New York,
and in four three-gun turrets on New Mexico.
Colorado follows the pattern and takes it a step further:
she has four two-gun turrets with 406-mm guns.
Japan chose a different development pattern.
Their first battleship—Kawachi—
was actually a continuation of the preceding classes of armored ships
and inherited their major disadvantages:
slow speed and ineffective placement of 305-mm guns.
But in their following projects,
Japanese shipbuilders implemented the idea of a high-speed wing of the fleet—
battle cruisers.
Myogi (a completely Japanese project) and Kongo (developed and built by the British)
were poorly armored,
but were fairly well armed with 356-mm guns,
and in terms of speed these ships were significantly superior
to battleships from other countries.
Created on the basis of the Kongo design,
the Tier VI battleship Fuso can boast reinforced armor protection
and a main battery of six two-gun turrets, though her speed is lower.
The Tier VII battleship Nagato is the apex of Japanese shipbuilding of the early 1920s.
She is armed with 406-mm guns placed in four two-gun turrets,
and has better armor than Fuso.
And the battle cruiser Amagi, at Tier VIII,
though sporting noticeably thinner armor, has one additional turret.
The international Washington Conference
held shortly after World War I
restricted construction of new battleships;
for this reason,
the time-lapse between Colorado and North Carolina at Tier VIII
is more than 15 years.
US battleship doctrine had changed during that time.
As a consequence,
North Carolina leaves behind all her predecessors in terms of speed.
At the same time,
North Carolina has an impressive battery
of nine 406-mm guns in three turrets and stout armor equal to that of Colorado;
in addition,
North Carolina’s anti-aircraft defense is far superior
to that of the preceding ships in her branch
and her counterparts from other countries.
The famous battleship Iowa—
the most technologically advanced class of US battleships to participate in World War II—
developed from North Carolina.
Having similar systems of armament, AA guns,
and torpedo defense as North Carolina,
Iowa is better than her predecessor in terms of armor.
This is not surprising,
because Iowa’s design was not constrained by the restrictions
of the Washington Treaty and the Treaty of London.
The Tier IX Japanese battleship,
one of the projects of the 1930s under the designation A140-J2,
is called Izumo in the game.
She is significantly different in gameplay from her predecessor:
most notably in the unusual placement of the main battery artillery,
resembling the British Nelson.
In addition, while almost equal to Amagi in speed,
Izumo is superior to her predecessor in AA artillery and has much better armor.
Yamato is perhaps the most famous ship in the world,
not only in Japan,
and certainly deserves to be called the crown of the Japanese battleship branch.
Yamato carries the most powerful guns in the game—
457-mm caliber monsters—
and the thickest armor—
up to 650 mm on the face plates of the main-battery turrets.
This battleship can’t be called fast and maneuverable,
but she has fearsome AA guns and an excellent torpedo belt
that gives her the ability to sustain many hits.
But those nine powerful main guns are the Yamato’s greatest advantage.
Engaging in a shootout with Yamato will likely prove deadly for any ship,
including Yamato herself.
Her American opponent—the Tier X battleship Montana—is developed from Iowa.
She is different from her predecessor in her significantly reinforced armor
and torpedo defense.
Montana’s gun caliber is less than that of Yamato—406 mm—
but, as opposed to Yamato, she has twelve guns:
three guns in each of four turrets.
With them, she can equal Yamato in damage per minute.
In addition, Montana is faster than Yamato.
Overall, these two rivals deserve each other.
And now fans of naval battle history will finally be able to see for themselves
exactly how these two warriors match up in battle.
Action Stations