USN Large cruisers and the future

[M0rbihan]

Hello everyone.

 

Ever since PR came back (and this time I managed to get it) Ive been quite a fan of USN large(super) cruisers. I don't have Alaska and don't see myself getting it (without gambling and that is a big no-no).

So anyway, sometime ago I was wondering, what if we get an Alaska/PR line but with Georgia/Ohio.  You know how, Alaska and PR are kind of Iowa and Ohio but minituarized and in cruiser form. Well I though why not try to mock up the same type of ship but with the Georgia and Ohio ?

 

Since I don't have an Alaska, I couldn't make a mock up of it, but I could make one for PR. Without further ado, here it is TX USS Samoa :

 

https://imgur.com/BmhLI8s Here is a diagram of it and (most) of its armament :

 

As you can see, there are some upgrades to the AA, mostly replacing some of the quad 40mm with twin 76mm. But most important is the main battery.

Instead of the 305 of the current Large cruisers, we get the 356mm (new mexico) guns and shells in twin turrets.

 

Now for the stats, here you can check detailed stats of the ships CLICK

NOTE: all stats are for base ships, no modules, no captain skills.

 

First, how I "made up" the ships' stats.

What I did, is check to see what the relationship was between Alaska and Iowa (ie ratio between their respective stats). Then I applied the same ratio to Georgia to create the T9 ship - Hawai.

Did the same thing with PR and Montana, then applied it to Ohio to make the T10 ship - Samoa.

 

Anyway, here is the gist of it.

 

With Hawai , the T9 large cruiser, you get the following compared to Alaska:

 

With Samoa, the T10 large cruiser, you get the following compared to PR:

 

As you can see, you generally get higher per shell damage, better reload and dispersion, but at the cost of reduced Alpha, DPM and volume of fire.

There is some weirdness going on, that is to say scaling isn't that great. For example, Hawai (Alaska counterpart) gets hilarious base speed of 37 knots.

We will address these at the end of the post.

 

Now, lets see how the "new" ships in the line relate to each other, compared to Alaska and PR:

As you can see, the Hawai performs better than Alaska when compared to its own T10 counterpart (Alaska being compared to PR).

 

Now lets see how Hawai (T9) and Samoa (T10) compare to the other (really) large gun cruisers. We will compare Hawai to Siegfried and Samoa to Sevastopol:

 

As can be gleamed, Sieg and Sevastopol are superior in per shell characteristics and range, but give way to the larger volume of fire (at T10) and faster reload (T10 and T9).

 

Now lets check the final "balancing" sheet, where the stats of the Hawai and Samoa have been adjusted a bit so they are not 1:1 translation of Iowa->Georgia to Alaska and Montana->Ohio to PR:

 

Overall, the new ships gain a bit of HP advantage, have better shell characteristics, have better reload and accuracy, but lose on DPM and Alpha ( full broadside ) damage, range and fires per minute.

 

Haven't really included AA as it seems less relevant and frankly, doesn't matter much (if at all), but considering the updated armament (on the T10) at least, an increase of 10-15% of the medium aura damage would be nice.

As for consumables, obviously can be said a lot, but for the sake of keeping it simple - def AA for both, no switching to hydro. Both get Radar, but with shorter duration than Alaska/PR duration.

That should bring them to about the same performance (IMHO).

 

Overall, I think such ships would be an interesting addition. More of a sidegrade than anything else. You get better but also fewer guns and similar ship to the existing ones. Gun caliber is the large, but not the largest, for cruisers, but it doesn't provide meaningful overmatch and not making life for cruisers even harder than it already is.

 

Feel free to chime in, suggest adjustments or ideas for those ships and generally, have a good time !

 

Cheers !

 

 

 

[Panocek]

20 minutes ago, M0rbihan said:

I don't have Alaska and don't see myself getting it (without gambling and that is a big no-no).

+-16k dubs and she's all yours during Black Friday, no gambling needed.

 

As for tech tree, WG at some point will add large cruiser flavored line simply to fulfill ship quota, whether Alaska or her sisters will be there... I can see some post ww2 config as tier 10 (with 76mm replacing Bofors etc), given Alaska proper proved to be bit too effective and popular for Saint Spreadshiet to handle.

[M0rbihan]

5 minutes ago, Panocek said:

+-16k dubs and she's all yours during Black Friday, no gambling needed.

 

As for tech tree, WG at some point will add large cruiser flavored line simply to fulfill ship quota, whether Alaska or her sisters will be there... I can see some post ww2 config as tier 10 (with 76mm replacing Bofors etc), given Alaska proper proved to be bit too effective and popular for Saint Spreadshiet to handle.

Oh sure. I meant that most of the time she isn't available and I didn't have her currently to make her a mock up like PR.

[Panocek]

1 minute ago, M0rbihan said:

Oh sure. I meant that most of the time she isn't available and I didn't have her currently to make her a mock up like PR.

Thats how FOMO works yes, get her now as no one knows when, or if at all [item] will return.

[M0rbihan]

1 hour ago, Panocek said:

Thats how FOMO works yes, get her now as no one knows when, or if at all [item] will return.

Let us hope then that if we get those ships, we might enjoy them as a TT line.

[Panocek]

44 minutes ago, M0rbihan said:

Let us hope then that if we get those ships, we might enjoy them as a TT line.

Sadly, given how most "first premium, then tech tree" releases looks, Alaska/Pay2Rico are going to be preferable/more appealing options over tech tree US large cruisers. Kearsage vs tech tree hybrids or Roma vs Italian BBs come to mind.