The descendants of the grim Teutons designed the unique Scharnhorst,
which combined the advantages of a battleship and a cruiser.
The resulting warship was both beautiful and highly functional:
a stubby hull, formidable primary armament turrets,
and elegant superstructures— a classic warship as she should be.
This beauty is pretty effective in battle.
Armada 2.0
So, let’s have a look at our cocktail and try to find out how to drink it properly.
First, let’s look at the ingredients.
Scharnhorst inherited the best aspect of battleships—the armor.
The face of the primary armament turrets is 360 mm thick.
The conning tower, barbettes, and armor belt are 350 mm.
The athwartship armor is 150 to 200 mm.
Thanks to the low silhouette, hitting the citadel is not an easy task.
And of course, it has highly effective secondary armament guns with a good firing range,
high rate of fire, and HE shells that automatically increase the damage dealt to destroyers.
Cruisers also gave the best to Scharnhorst. First, it is the primary armament.
Twenty seconds for reloading and one of the fastest rotating turrets among all battleships in the game.
High muzzle velocity provides for less target lead and more comfort of fire.
Keep in mind that the three guns in each turret
give you an advantage over same-tier battleships in a frontal attack.
And how do you like the speed of 30 knots? Finally, let’s garnish our cocktail with torpedo tubes.
It’s so delicious that one would say: “I’ll take two please!”
Armada 2.0
However, there’s a fly in the ointment that also comes from the ingredients.
Scharnhorst has inherited mediocre AA guns from a battleship.
You will be able to knock down half of an enemy squadron,
but the other half won’t miss the opportunity to rain on your parade.
Add to this a noticeable shell dispersion at long distances
and a long hull that makes it harder to dodge torpedoes.
She inherited a smaller primary armament caliber from cruisers compared to same-tier battleships
and, accordingly, their penetrative capability, which drops rapidly as distance increases.
For this reason Scharnhorst will have a hard time in long-range engagements against same-tier battleships.
But at medium and short distances, her higher muzzle velocity makes firing very comfortable.
However, this peculiarity starts to work in Scharnhorst's favor
if her adversaries have cruiser-like armor,
because her shells will have significantly fewer overpenetrations than those from same-tier battleships.
And that's when the true calling of Scharnhorst becomes obvious—she's a natural nightmare for cruisers.
Her outstanding reload time, turret rotation speed, and excellent armor are made for it.
And if you reinforce all this power with upgrades and commander skills,
even the cruisers of higher tiers will have a hard time fighting her.
And don't forget about the torpedoes that none of the battleships,
except for Tirpitz and Gneisenau, have.
Combining them with armor and speed that allows her to get close enough for a torpedo salvo,
Scharnhorst is a formidable adversary.
But don’t forget that she is a battleship after all.
To sum it up, Scharnhorst is a fusion of a classic battleship and a battlecruiser.
She is for those who dreamed about torpedoes on Fuso and North Carolina,
and for those who were frustrated by the long reload times and sluggishness of battleships,
or considered cruisers' armor inadequate.
Your time has finally come—now you have Scharnhorst.
Enjoy, captains!