USS St.Louis, The Keeper of Guns and Future Seal Clubbing.

Welcome back for another ship review on my Blog. Things over the last 2 weeks have been a little crazy with Berlin and also with going south to Lands End (in Cornwall, UK) on a last minute trip. Needless to say I haven't had a huge amount of time for gaming these past 2 weeks but what I have saved for this week is a ridiculously good tier 3 Cruiser that throughout the closed beta I had a fair amount of fun playing.

All the way through the closed beta, every player that I talked to loved this ship and many came to the conclusion that they would be keeping a harbour slot ready for it when the open beta went live. This ship is of course the USS St. Louis. When fully upgraded this little power house sports 14 rapid firing guns that would give butterflies to even the hardiest of American redneck's. The St. Louis is equipped with ample amount of armour so can be a real pain in the ass to kill without taking large amounts of damage in return.

To see just how typically American this ship is you only have to look down the length of its port and starboard sides to see multiple barrels poking their way out of the hull. This ship pretty much sets the standard for all American cruisers to come. Where the focus of Japanese cruisers is a mixture of guns and Torpedoes the American cruisers do away with any distractions and focus on high DPM Guns.

The St. Louis and The Cleveland are pretty much indicative of this characteristic in the lower tier game play and demand respect from all opposing players that encounter them. Needless to say that these 2 cruisers will be common place in all good captains harbours in World of Warships as they are so much fun to play.

Historically in real life the USS St. Louis (C-20) had a pretty unremarkable service history. The St. Louis was launched in 1907 after sea trials to the Pacific Fleet. During her design phase the consensus was made for improvements on the existing Columbia class cruiser design to which she would be based upon. The decision was made up the armour her hull in comparison to other Columbia class cruisers, increasing her displacement from 6000 tons to 9700 Tons. This made the St. Louis a fully fledged protected Cruiser. With all the extra armour that was fitted to the cruiser and in a bid to save weight, the St. Louis was fitted with 6 inch guns rather than the standard 8 inch. A larger power plant was also needed in the ship to counteract the extra weight from the added armour. 

Throughout the St. Louis's service life there was only one point of note but this didn't really involve the ship but more the crew that manned her. On the 4th of Feb 1917 the crew stopped the scuttling of a interned German Sloop Geier by boarding with an armed party. The Geier was captured before her planned scuttling and ended up serving the United states under the new name of the Schurz. The St. Louis was mostly consigned to transporting goods and convoy escorts other than this singular event. The St. Louis was eventually decommissioned and scrapped in 1930.

In World of Warships this is a stonkingly good tier 3 cruiser. This ship is literally crapping guns with fourteen 152 mm guns with a secondary armament of eighteen 76.2 mm guns. On a tier 3 Cruiser this ship even can hold its own against battleships of equal tiers. Having so many rapid firing guns makes this ship a real threat for destroyers and other cruisers. The St. Louis has almost 30K of hit points and is very heavily armoured for a cruiser. This means you can weather a fair old chunk of punishment before going down swinging. When compared to the Japanese T3 Cruiser you can really see this amplified when the Tenryu has a mere 17.7 K HP. 

Having 6 guns on both the port and starboard sides of the ship and one rotating turret in both the fore and aft of the ship. This means with additional 2 guns that can rotate 180 degrees on the deck you can have a maximum potential 8 guns on target when firing a full broad side. Due to the positioning of the guns facing directly outwards from the ship you won't have to wait for your turrets to turn when changing directions. You will always have some guns on target if you get surprised by the enemy or if you have to switch targets.

With all these great advantages there has to be some disadvantages that stem from its historical design choices that favoured many guns and large amounts of armour. All this extra weight ladened on a cruiser makes the St. Louis suffers most in its speed and rudder shift time. Torpedoes will be your biggest nightmare as the St. Louis drives very similar to a skip and doesn't respond well to sudden threats. The gun range isn't great either at 10km, presenting the danger that many ships can use their speed and range to keep you at a distance where by shoot you without you being able to respond in kind. Not many players will be wise enough to realise this at tier 3 and will generally close to shorter ranges where they can actually hit you. This will be playing into your hands and the strengths of your ship especially if they close into your secondary range adding to your ginormous gun array. 

One thing to note with the St. Louis is it doesn't have a great concealment range so being careful with your approach using some cover in the initial stages of the match is best advised. Most Battleship captains will always choose to shoot at a cruiser they know they can get big numbers of damage from over another opposing well armoured battleship.

In conclusion with this ship, the key to your success in this ship is to simply keep the guns singing. You have lots of them so use your main strength as much as you can. This is a strong cruiser for its tier but its still a cruiser and charging into to many enemies will normally get you focused down even if you can put up a fight. When facing off against torpedo baring ships try to predict when they will be firing their torpedoes and start your evasive turns early. The speed and rudder shift time are terrible on this ship but the turning circle is good. Reacting early in these dangerous situations will help you survive. Doing aggressive manoeuvres in other ships tends to leave you having to turn turrets around to defend yourself but with the gun arrangement in the St. Louis you can fire continuously and cause your enemy to retreat under a withering hail of fire.

The characteristics of captaining the St. Louis feels very similar to the HMS Warspite with her fairly slow speed, good armour, slow rudder shift time and good turning circle. Not to mention they both have fantastic armaments. If you find yourself getting on with the St. Louis I would highly recommend looking at the Warspite. As you can see below you can get great results from the Warspite once captained properly.

Until later in the week take care and I'll see you back here soon.

HMS Warspite, that gruff old lady you can't quite get rid of.

This week I'll be looking at the new premium ship the HMS Warspite of the Royal Navy. This ship has a long history of combat seeing more combat honors of any other ship ever in the Royal Navy, participating in as many as 15 separate combat scenarios (7 of which were major engagements in the World Wars). The HMS Warspite was commissioned in 1912 as a part of the Queen Elizabeth class Super Dreadnoughts in response to the rumored development of German battleships sporting 14 inch guns.

At the time of her designing Germany and the United Kingdom were having a naval race which increase tensions between the two nations in the lead up to World War 1. On the date of her official intoduction into Royal Navy the HSM Warspite was arguably one of the most powerful ship to exist to date. 

HSM Warspite resilience was legendary being able to take punishment in large quantities. This was proved in the Battle of Jutland (1916) and in Crete (1941) where Warspite took huge amounts of damage and was able to return in a repairable state. Her reputation of the Warspite earned her the nickname 'Grand Old Lady' from her crew and with her 15 inch guns and feared reputation on the seas. HMS Warspite holds the one of the longest known hits in a gunnery duel from a moving ship to a moving target, smacking the Italian ship Giulio Cesar at a range of 24km in the battle of Calabria in 1940.

After 2 refits in her service in the Royal Navy she was a considerable force on the open seas with 14 inch belt armor and bristling with guns and improved engines modernising her for current state of sea faring battles. In World of Warships introduction of the 'Grand Old Lady' I hoped that Wargaming had done a good job in introducing their first British Royal Navy Ship into the game.

The entrance of the HMS Warspite has caused quite a bit of talk on the forums in World of Warships when first people looked at the stats, this prominently comes down to the gun armament rotation speed and range of the 15 inch guns. 

Another Mighty Jingles Video on the Grand Old Lady

All is not lost however as for a battleship the Warspite has a 14km visual spotting distance which is very good for a Battleship, that's pretty much cruiser styles spotting distances. The turning circle is incredible enabling you to be aggressive with your evasive maneuvers. This agile movements and the combination of the thick hide makes the Warspite fun to captain whilst being able to output the damage with you big ass guns. I find that I can consistently do decent damage with this ship having good shot dispersion in comparison to the Imperial Japanese fleets Battleships and large caliber of gun for its teir.

I mentioned that the turret range and rotation speed were pretty terrible and to be fair for battleship... it is pretty terrible. 50-60 seconds to rotate the turrets 180 degrees is down heatedly bad to say the least and combined with its shell range of just over 16km I can see why when people are looking at the stats of the Fuso and the Warspite are just shoving their noses up and raging.  

I feel that people are really overlooking the advantages of this British  Legend of a battleship. This ship was designed to take a beating and dish a proverbial crap ton back and you will have to come to terms with taking damage whilst being clever in your engagements. Getting into gun range to deal damage in the initial stages of the game is important but there is no use powering into the fleet of enemy ships and getting focused down. This Battleship is really meant for the experienced player who can read the flow of the battle and use the accuracy of the big guns to deal consistent high damage to your foes. Once within range of other battleship they are committed to engage you due to Warspite matching most of the equivalent Battleships speeds.

Citadel Hits don't really happen that often with the Warspite. The citadel seems to be sunk bellow the waterline and the kind of engagements you are likely to have will be at a range where the shell trajectory will be too shallow to penetrate to lower vital areas that will cause massive damage. The massive torpedo bulges ensure a massive reduction of damage when torpedoes find their mark. The secondary armament of this ship is deadly to light ships unwary of the massive bulk of this ship powering up to them and can surprise many with their damage output.

In summary for this ship I feel there is a certain amount of experience needed to really benefit from this ship. Looking past its short comings and looking at its advantages really helps you to focus on how to play this ship more effectively. Using this ship you will really notice the turning speed and how you can use it evasively and also to make up for the really bad turret traverse. You can respond to threats effectively with this maneuverability and if not know that your thick 330 mm armor  can weather the storm. It's taken me some time to get used to and love the Warspite even if I was initially disappointed. I do fear this ship will suffer the same fate as the Lowe tank in World of Tanks where people playing for a few hours buy this ship and really suck at it because its geared towards the experienced/intelligent player.