Ladies and Gentlemen, as the Russian battleships arc is still running, the balancing of that new line also doesn’t stop (and for Slava, we have a long way to go…). I have been playing a fair bit with the recently buffed Kreml and the freshly arrived Slava. It is time for me to tell you what I think about these ships.

Of course, since they are still a work in progress, here is your usual warning:

Soviet Tier X Battleship Kreml: The Russian wall

The conditions of testing

During the testing of the Kreml, I used the following captain build and upgrades:

Captain build:

Priority Target

Preventive Maintenance

Expert Marksman

Adrenaline Rush

High Alert

Superintendent

Concealment Expert

Fire Prevention

I use the unique Russian Captain but considering the new Kuznetsov captain coming with the Update 0.8.4, you might prefer to use him on the Russian battleships.

Upgrades:

Auxiliary armaments Modification 1

Damage Control System Modification 1

Aiming System Modification 1

Damage Control System Modification 2

Concealment System Modification 1

Main Battery Modification 3

The Good and the Bad

The Good

Hard hitting main batteries

The AP overmatches 30 mm platings

Good firing angles

Amazing armor against both HE and AP

Turrets with 40 000 HP

Largest HP pool of the game

2nd best torpedo protection of the game

Strong anti-air

Fast reloading Damage Control Party

Very good concealment

The Bad

Huge target

Awful maneuverability

Exposed citadel (even though the belt is ultra thick)

Vulnerable to AP bombs

Dispersion pattern that forces to be closer to get the full potential of the guns

Limited number of Damage Control Party

My opinion

The Kreml is a bit of an oddball. Her main thing is tanking thanks to her amazing armor and large HP pool. It isn’t rare to tank more than 170 000 damage per game with her and while the enemy is busy at focusing you to oblivion, your teammates can fire back at them and deal good damage (in theory…). Between her 60 mm deck and extended belt, her thick as hell side armor, her great torpedo protection and her 108 000 HP pool, this ship will be very hard to bring down. The only real problems when it comes to tanking are the limited number of Damage Control Party (maximum 5 charges), the limited number of Repair Party (only 4 charges at max) and kinda the exposed citadel. The thing is that her main belt is very strong so citadels won’t be very frequent.

When it comes to her main batteries… it is a bit hard to describe. At long range, they simply suck. You will have one or two good salvoes but overall, the dispersion will be all over the place. This can be pretty frustrating if you have a Conqueror camping at 20 km happily spamming at you (There is nothing worse than that, can’t wait for that raised citadel on Royal navy battleships…). HOWEVER, once under 15 km, these 9 457 mm guns become amazeballs. They become fairly reliable and they hit like a truck. Now, it’s both good and bad. It is both because it forces you to get closer but it’s also bad because it blocks you from punishing enemy ships that would be keeping their distances.

Recently, the Kreml got buffed as you can see here:

Devblog Soviet battleship Kremlin, tier X Increased Sigma parameter from 1.7 to 1.8;

Main battery reload time reduced from 34 to 33 seconds. Kremlin is distinguished by strong armor, reliable torpedo bulges and a large pool of hit points, but she has inferior firepower compared to other tier X battleships. With the new gun characteristics, she will shoot more often and more accurately, which will be especially noticeable at medium to short distances.

That buff made the guns somewhat more reliable at long range but overall, it didn’t make that much difference from what I saw.

As for the rest, as I said, her maneuverability is simply awful with her 1 090 m turning radius so always be aware of possible torps otherwise, you will never dodge them.

The concealment is, however, very good and fully specced for it, you will reach 13.4 km detection by sea and 11.3 km detection by air. This will allow the ship to get closer to be able to use her guns at their full potential.

Her anti-air is also very strong and will be shredding planes in short order. The only downside is that the mounts are concentrated on the superstructure which means that under heavy fire with HE, even with the Auxiliary Armament Modification 1, they will fall relatively quickly.

Conclusion

The Kreml is an amazing battleships when it comes to handling heavy focus fire, however, the lack of accuracy at long range can make her a tiny bit frustrating if you face an enemy that does nothing but running away at 20 km.

Soviet Tier X Battleship Slava: The Vassili Zaitsev of battleships

The conditions of testing

During the testing of the Slava, I used the following captain build and upgrades:

Captain build:

Priority Target

Preventive Maintenance

Expert Marksman

Adrenaline Rush

High Alert

Superintendent

Concealment Expert

Fire Prevention

I use the unique Russian Captain but considering the new Kuznetsov captain coming with the Update 0.8.4, you might prefer to use him on the Russian battleships.

Upgrades:

Auxiliary armaments Modification 1

Damage Control System Modification 1

Aiming System Modification 1

Damage Control System Modification 2

Concealment System Modification 1

Main Battery Modification 3

The Good and the Bad

The Good

Shells with the best ballistic and travel time of the game

Best AP penetration of the game above 5.90 km

Very good firing angles

24.7 km range

Special dispersion pattern that makes her very accurate at long range

2nd best concealment of all battleships at tier X

Very good anti-air (and soon best anti-air of all battleships)

Very strong side armor

The Bad

32 mm deck, bow and stern making her vulnerable to HE spam

Lack of reliability at close range

Awful maneuverability

Only 91 800 HP

Exposed citadel (even though the belt is ultra thick)

Vulnerable to AP bombs

Large target

My opinion

Do you remember the whole drama regarding Stalingrad? Well Slava/Pobeda kinda brings it back.

Unlike the Kreml that is all about her armor, the Slava is all about her main batteries. She only carries 9 406 mm guns in 3 triples turrets, HOWEVER, they have the best ballistic and AP penetration of the game. Even Kronshtadt falls behind when it comes to shell travel time. This combined with her amazing long-range dispersion makes her a terrifying ship for long distance combat. She really is the complete opposite of Kreml. When it comes to random battles, she is an absolute monster because of the amount of players not angling properly. This is where a weakness appears for this ship. When facing enemy ships that know how to angle and that she can’t overmatch with her guns, she quickly loses her teeth.

When it comes to the survivability, she falls behind quite a lot compared to Kreml. Her 32 mm deck, bow and stern make her very vulnerable to enemy fire. This lack of survivability makes the ship even more keen on keeping to distance. This, coupled with the way the guns work, is for me really bad since it promotes a lot of passive gameplay. Basically, when you play this ship you are like “Why would I get close since my guns work so well at long range and my armor is so vulnerable?”

She suffers from the same issues as Kreml when it comes to maneuverability so no need to write lines about it. Long story short, this thing is a brick.

Now… let’s talk about her anti-air… Right now, she has the exact same anti-air as Kreml which already shreds planes. The thing is that with the update 0.8.4, she will get a new model and it comes with a stronger anti-air.

Here is a comparison:

0.8.3 Anti-air 0.8.4 Anti-air 8 x 2 130 mm/60 BL-109A Sector range 3.5 km – 6.6 km Hit chance 75 % Sector’s damage 500 Sector’s damage frequency 1.18 s Sector’s damage per second 424 Flak clouds number 10 Flak cloud damage 1820 12 x 4 45 mm SM-20-ZIF Sector range 2.3 km – 3.5 km Hit chance 75 % Sector’s damage 260 Sector’s damage frequency 0.41 s Sector’s damage per second 634 Flak clouds number 11 Flak cloud damage 1120 18 x 4 25 mm 4M-120 Sector range 0.1 km – 2.3 km Hit chance 70 % Sector’s damage 190 Sector’s damage frequency 0.22 s Sector’s damage per second 864 Sector reinforcement Sector reinforcement bonus +25% Sector reinforcement time 12 s Sector reinforcement shift time 12 s 8 x 2 130 mm/60 BL-109A Sector range 4.0 km – 6.6 km Hit chance 75 % Sector’s damage 500 Sector’s damage frequency 1.18 s Sector’s damage per second 424 Flak clouds number 10 Flak cloud damage 1820 12 x 4 57 mm ZIF-75 Sector range 1.9 km – 4.0 km Hit chance 75 % Sector’s damage 310 Sector’s damage frequency 0.34 s Sector’s damage per second 912 Flak clouds number 12 Flak cloud damage 1260 18 x 2 25 mm 2M-3 Sector range 0.1 km – 2.3 km Hit chance 70 % Sector’s damage 150 Sector’s damage frequency 0.24 s Sector’s damage per second 625 Sector reinforcement Sector reinforcement bonus +25% Sector reinforcement time 12 s Sector reinforcement shift time 12 s

As you can see, her short-range anti-air is getting a small nerf but my God the buff on the mid-range is huge.

The concealment is also a very strong point of the ship. Once fully specced for it, she reaches 13.2 km detection by sea and 11.1 km detection by air. This gives the ship a good capacity to move around without exposing herself too much.

Finally, unlike Kreml, the Slava gets the standard Damage Control Party with unlimited charges for battleships as well as the standard repair party.

Conclusion

Overall, for random battles, this ship is just too strong. The incredible reliability of the guns, the short shell travel time, the very strong AP, at this point, it’s not seal clubbing. In my opinion, Wargaming needs to do 2 things. First, nerf the accuracy of the guns at long range and make them more reliable at close range. Second, slightly buff the deck armor as well as the extended belt armor to not make people so eager to stay at long range because of the lack of protection.

I will quickly show you the new model of the Slava. There aren’t much differences except the radars, the anti-air armament (even though the 57 mm are very similar to the 45 mm) and the camouflage.

Feast your eyes!

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