What's good about Italian battleships?

[Curesto]

 

Hi, i want to know what's good about Italian battleships.

 

I have Andrea Doria, didn't unlocked the T7 one.

 

AP penetration is bad, shells bounces any little angle. I thought they still have bad sigma, but AP penetration would be  much better.

 

Dispersion is bad, sometimes none of my shells hits the enemy ship, even at 10 km range.

 

Low health pool. 

 

But, they have good turret traverse, they look gorgeous.

 

What's the other good about Italian battleships?

 

[_HomTanks_]

There is one thing good about Italian ships, actually they are better than all other ships in this; their design and how slick they look.

[hellhound666]

good free XP sinks ...

[DFens_666]

10 minutes ago, Curesto said:

AP penetration is bad, shells bounces any little angle. I thought they still have bad sigma, but AP penetration would be  much better.

 

Dispersion is bad, sometimes none of my shells hits the enemy ship, even at 10 km range.

 

Bounces have nothing to do with penetration. Bounces occur, if you cant overmatch the armor when it has a certain angle (30-45° for most AP shells). If caliber/14,3 is bigger than the plating you are hitting, then you can overmatch it. Andrea Doria only has 320mm caliber guns, which can only overmatch 22mm of armor (320/14,3 = 22,3). You will bounce on all BBs except bow/stern from some T5 BBs, and even some Cruisers on T6-7 can bounce your shells (T8 Cruisers can all bounce your shells, except RN CLs)

[Procrastes]

18 minutes ago, Curesto said:

hey have good turret traverse, they look gorgeous.

 

What's the other good about Italian battleships?

They are generally rather well armoured, or at least that is my impression so far. I've played a very limited number of battles with the new Italian battleships, mind you, so I cant say that I speak with much authority on the matter.

 

I happen to own the Giulio Cesare and the Roma as well. Of those two, the Roma is tough as an old boot as long as you keep a decent angle. The GC is a bit more vulnerable, but unless you show broadside you can rely to tank a goodly amount of damage in her as well. (And of course the GC is seriously op at tier V, but that's another matter.)

 

Besides the debatable SAP ammunition, I'd say that good armour, good turret traverse and dashing good looks seem to be the main trademarks for the Italian battleships!

 

Edited: As Captain @ColonelPete quite rightly points out in the post below, Italian battleships are also fairly nimble and maneuverable. I would add that the Roma and the Giulio Cesare have very good concealment values as well. I don't know if this trait spills over on the new silver line, though.

[ColonelPete]

15 minutes ago, Curesto said:

 

Hi, i want to know what's good about Italian battleships.

 

I have Andrea Doria, didn't unlocked the T7 one.

 

AP penetration is bad, shells bounces any little angle. I thought they still have bad sigma, but AP penetration would be  much better.

 

Dispersion is bad, sometimes none of my shells hits the enemy ship, even at 10 km range.

 

Low health pool. 

 

But, they have good turret traverse, they look gorgeous.

 

What's the other good about Italian battleships?

 

Their AP penetration is ok to good. That is not the problem.

They are also faster than some other BB.

The armor layout for the low and mid Tiers ships allows good tanking, when you know what you are doing.

[MementoMori_6030]

Vor 30 Minuten, Curesto sagte:

Hi, i want to know what's good about Italian battleships.

Not much, but obviously they were better than anything the Russians could build, so they gladly took the Giulio Cesare to have at least one real battleship in their sorry excuse of a navy.

[HassenderZerhacker]

22 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

The armor layout for the low and mid Tiers ships allows good tanking, when you know what you are doing.

probably means tanking without being shot at.

[ColonelPete]

Just now, HassenderZerhacker said:

probably means tanking without being shot at.

Nope. That means not getting shot from the side. Their side armor is rather weak.

[lafeel]

5 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

Nope. That means not getting shot from the side. Their side armor is rather weak.

Not the first BB line in the game that has that issue, for sure. The Russian ones do as well.

[tocqueville8]

Just now, Curesto said:

What's the other good about Italian battleships?

 

The armor profile is good.

While they don't have a good turtleback, the deck is at least in some places thicker than on some of their peers, as is the upper belt. Many have an icebreaker bow or an extended lower belt. The Caracciolo, for instance, can bow-tank guns 15'' and above much better than the Colorado or the KGV/DoY.

[lafeel]

Just now, tocqueville8 said:

The armor profile is good.

While they don't have a good turtleback, the deck is at least in some places thicker than on some of their peers, as is the upper belt. Many have an icebreaker bow or an extended lower belt. The Caracciolo, for instance, can bow-tank guns 15'' and above much better than the Colorado or the KGV/DoY.

That's not really saying much though as neither Colorado nor KGV can bow tank those at all :P And neither can Nelson for that matter.

[tocqueville8]

Just now, lafeel said:

That's not really saying much though as neither Colorado nor KGV can bow tank those at all :P And neither can Nelson for that matter.

Well, yes, that's the point.

 

But the deck is also important: the Veneto has 45 mm plating, which is immune to most cruisers, even with IFHE.

[lafeel]

4 minutes ago, tocqueville8 said:

Well, yes, that's the point.

Also, the eight knots of (much needed!) top speed as compared with Colorado (and the knot of extra speed over the KGV) certainly doesn't hurt either.

 

In fact, the entire line has a good turn of speed, and decent stealth, both of which are handy things to have.

[Itwastuesday]

Well, you get SAP for alpha without overpens, so that should be good high tier.

[arttuperkunas]

7 minutes ago, Itwastuesday said:

Well, you get SAP for alpha without overpens, so that should be good high tier.

It is at best a trade-off. I.e. better against angled cruisers and battleships in some circumstances, worse against DDs (as you have no shell type that does 1/3 damage to DDs and breaks modules/sets fires).

[Maris_Piper]

I have the T-4/5 and 6 and they are ok Andrea Doria is a steady T-6 good reload and turret traverse I'm not a SAP fan but it's usable, I'll soon have the T-7 , I was looking forward to this one but the Muppet Sh Development Department gave it a last gasp reload Nerf so I'll probably go the way of the American Fat Boys and that will be me done with the line But I do have Roma and I'm going to miss Dead Eye  soo much.

[DFens_666]

21 minutes ago, arttuperkunas said:

It is at best a trade-off. I.e. better against angled cruisers and battleships in some circumstances, worse against DDs (as you have no shell type that does 1/3 damage to DDs and breaks modules/sets fires).

 

eh, i think the "italian BBs dont deal any damage to DDs"-meme is kinda overrated. Ever shot HE with a german BB? Its not too far off compared to SAP damage.

The most important thing against DDs is to hit as much shells as possible, even then BB AP still hurts like a truck, and so does SAP.

[arttuperkunas]

17 minutes ago, DFens_666 said:

 

eh, i think the "italian BBs dont deal any damage to DDs"-meme is kinda overrated. Ever shot HE with a german BB? Its not too far off compared to SAP damage.

The most important thing against DDs is to hit as much shells as possible, even then BB AP still hurts like a truck, and so does SAP.

Sure, close up even BB AP will evaporate a DD. I agree that the problem is overstated, or rather misstated.

 

"Italian BBs cannot defend themselves from DDs" -> not true. An AP/SAP salvo is going to hits most shells at 4-5 km and absolutely ravage whatever it hits, even a DD

"Italian BBs are subpar at dealing with DDs" -> true. Bad accuracy and shells not best suited for DDs means that if you shoot at 10-12 km (which is a normal/reasonable range to be shooting a DD), you will most likely hit only 1-2 shells, dealing sub par damage.

[Yedwy]

2 hours ago, Curesto said:

What's the other good about Italian battleships?

The good thing is the event utterly cured me from the "spend on WG" bug once and for all

[MementoMori_6030]

Ok, I played ONE coop game with the F. Caramba.

I have never ever had a worse battleship than this useless thing.

Doesn't hit, doesn't hurt, takes forever to reload its useless guns.

[Curesto]

6 dakika önce, MementoMori_6030 dedi:

Ok, I played ONE coop game with the F. Caramba.

I have never ever had a worse battleship than this useless thing.

Doesn't hit, doesn't hurt, takes forever to reload its useless guns.

33 sec of reload for 8 380mm bad accuracy guns. It would be painful.

 

 

[MementoMori_6030]

Gerade eben, Curesto sagte:

33 sec of reload for 8 380mm bad accuracy guns. It would be painful.

No kidding. SAP is meant to be effective vs. destroyers? Well, look at this dispersion at close range. We need much fatter destroyers, like 30m wide.

[RossijskijAxisFlot]

Italian wives waiting for you after the battle 

[MementoMori_6030]

Well, I found out how to use them efficiently. Don't shoot, just ram.