CONs

Slow rate of fire of 1.8rpm

Very slow turret traverse of 60s for 180′ turn.

Limited fields of fire on her #3 and #4 turrets, forcing her to risk exposing her broadside to fire.

Pathetic secondary battery armament.

AA armament is limited to self defense ranges (3.5km).

AA armament cannot benefit from Manual Fire Control for AA Armament skill.

skill. Very slow, with a top speed of 20.5knots.

Slower rudder shift than the New York of 14.0s.

Dangerously vulnerable to Destroyers.

The USS Texas is upgraded beyond the level of the New York-class Battleship from the tech tree. This runs contrary to the USS Marblehead, which was a partially upgraded Omaha-class cruiser. On it’s surface, this may make the USS Texas appear to be better than the New York. However, like the anti-aircraft upgrades for USN destroyers, there’s always a catch when you add more flak.

The Texas is a New York-class Battleship. For those familiar with the lead of her class as she appears in World of Warships, the changes which differentiate the Texas from the research vessel are minor and easily summed up. The Texas has a better anti-aircraft armament but the added weight makes her slower and less agile. In short, she gains defense against aircraft carriers but she pays for it with a small loss to her flexibility. The other differences are minor — enough to make the Texas feel similar too, but distinct from the New York.

Primary Armament

The Texas shares the same main armament as the upgraded New York-class. This comes in the form of ten 356mm rifles divided between 5 turrets. Two turrets are mounted on the prow in a superfiring position. Two are similarly arranged on the stern. The number 3 turret lies amidships behind the funnel but before the second mast. The performance of these weapons is identical to those found on the New York.

These weapons have a 15.6km range, putting out shells at a rate of sluggish 1.8 rounds per minute. Their alpha strike is sufficient, with a good AP shell and modest HE shell at 10,300 and 5,000 alpha damage respectively with a 30% chance to start a fire per shell. The slower rate of fire hurts somewhat, making bad episodes of RNG feel punitive. With USN dispersion being what it is, finding consistency with the accuracy of these guns is sketchy. This makes the Texas especially vulnerable to Destroyers which sneak past escorting elements. She just doesn’t have the HE DPM to put down these small predators.

One of the issues with the Texas is the limited traverse of her amidships and rear turrets due to interference of her superstructure and deck clutter. The New York-class is infamous for the tiny field of fire of it’s #3 turret due to the lifeboats on deck. This is corrected on the Texas, giving this gun mount a much better angle. However, the rear tower on the Texas is wider than on the New York, costing her some of her field of fire on that mount instead. Like the lead of her class, the Texas must present (and expose) it’s full broadside to make best use of her guns, leaving her vulnerable to reprisals from other dreadnoughts.

The USS Texas above and the USS New York below, showing the differences of the turret angles. Though the Texas has better angles on her #3 turret, she has worse on her #4 turret. Like the New York, she must risk exposing much of her broadside to fire all ten of her guns.

Secondary Armament

The secondary battery of the Texas is uninspired and downright disappointing. She is armed with three 127mm rifles in casemate mounts on each side of the ship for a total of six guns. Firing a mere 8.6rpm out to a range of 4.0km, these high explosive shells do a maximum of 1800 damage with a 6% chance to start a fire. Her secondaries are utterly incapable of providing any form of appreciable self defense for the Texas. This makes her exceedingly vulnerable against any torpedo armed vessel that slips by the barrage of her main guns.

Maneuverability

The Texas, overloaded with anti-aircraft mounts like she is, isn’t a fast ship. She caps out at a maximum speed of 20.5 knots — a half knot slower than the New York, which was never a fast ship to begin with. This really limits the tactical flexibility of the Texas, requiring you to put a lot of thought and care on where you’re heading and when you need to redeploy. When combined with her modest range of 15.6km, this slow speed can be downright frustrating on some of the larger maps she can see — keeping you forever out of range until the local engagement is already decided.

Her rudder shift is also slower than the New York — 14.0s which cannot be improved by module upgrades (tier 5 ships do not have access to Steering Gear Modification 2).

As bad as these traits may seem, they are counterbalanced by her 600m turning circle. This is the one ray of sunshine when it comes to torpedo defense with the Texas. With proper set up, she can shimmy and wiggle her way between the runs of a torpedo salvo or surprise an overconfident destroyer with a (relatively) rapid change of direction. This also gives her the ability to navigate narrow channels rather easily. As tempting as this may be, however, when driving the Texas, be very wary of ambush locations for destroyers. She does not have the rate of fire or secondary batteries to keep her safe.

Her slow top speed also means that successfully disengaging when things turn south will often require the Texas to fight her way out. Almost every ship she encounters can keep pace with her in a stern chase. Keep a ready eye on your minimap. Otherwise, when the tables turn against you, you may not get a chance to pull away.

Cutting through the narrows on Fault Line, the Texas (wearing non-premium camouflage) is overtaken by a friendly Cleveland. Though she is agile enough to easily navigate through tight channels, her vulnerability to torpedo armed vessels makes staying close to islands a severe risk. Still, due to her slow speed, you will need to make risky plays like this to facilitate getting your Texas back into the action after securing a flank.

Durability and Defense

The Texas has 49,100hp — 100hp more than the tier 7 Colorado (for some reason). Her armour layout appears to be standard for the New York-class, sharing the same overall characteristics. It’s hard to describe it as a good armour scheme. It’s decent, but it has weaknesses, particularly to the prow or stern. Make sure to angle properly and don’t allow your opponents to blast right down the center line of your vessel.

For torpedo defense, her anti-torpedo bulges will reduce torpedo damage by 28% if you take strikes amidships. This will, of course, do nothing to torpedo strikes that hit her bow or stern. The catch here is that strikes amidships will also count as citadel damage, reducing the amount you can heal back with your Repair Party, while those on the bow or stern can have 50% of their damage repaired, provided the blast of the explosion doesn’t hit the magazines of your forward or rear turrets.

Speaking of her Repair Party, it’s identical to the New York, healing back 245hp per second (or just shy of 7000 damage per charge). She has no other consumables aside from the standard Damage Control Party which has the typical American values of a 20s up-time and 120s reset timer.

The slight modifications to her towers makes the USS Texas visible at 10.7km as opposed to 10.4km from the air, though she has the same surface detection range as the New York of 16.0km. With her premium camouflage, her surface detection range drops down to 15.5km, just inside the reach of her main batteries. Her premium camouflage also provides the standard boost to gunner disruption.

Where the Texas really stands out is her anti-aircraft armament.

She has the same weapon-types as the New York-class. This is to say, it’s a combination of 76mm artillery pieces, 40mm Bofors and 20mm Oerlikon cannons. These guns are short ranged, with the 76mm and 40mm guns being able to reach out to 3.5km and the 20mm automatic cannons only reaching out to 2.1km. This limits the Texas’ AA power to self defense purposes. Even with the Advanced Fire Training Captain Skill & AA Guns Modification 2, this maximizes her umbrella out to 5.1km & 2.9km respectively. The difference between the Texas and the New York, however, is the number of these guns.

The Texas has four times as many 20mm and five times as many 40mm guns. This amounts to thirty-two single-mount Oerlikons and forty Bofors divided between ten quad emplacements. Along with the ten 76mm guns, these put out more combined DPS than the Cleveland or the Atlanta. Note that this is not the same as effective DPS — the cruisers have better range and their dual-purpose mounts put out frightening amounts of damage in high alpha bursts every 5s. The cruisers can also benefit from the bonuses from Defensive Fire. In addition, with the small caliber of her 76mm artillery, the USS Texas does not benefit from Manual Fire Control for AA Armament, further limiting the ceiling of her damage totals.

In practical terms, with some defensive maneuvering to delay attack runs, the USS Texas is functionally immune from single squadron aircraft attacks from tier 4 carriers. Once upgraded with the proper modules and Captain Skills, this immunity extends up through tier 5 carriers as well. In addition she will absolutely maul tier 6 attack craft and severely damage tier 7 attack craft. If CVs get desperate and keep throwing their planes at you, you will find yourself receiving a Clear Sky medal without much effort. In short, savvy carrier players will look for easier targets rather than waste attack runs on the Texas. Those that try and bully through her flak bursts will suffer high casualties.

This does not make her a good escort ship, though. Even upgraded, her flak is just too short ranged to provide much in the way of overlapping fields of fire which is an absolute necessity for a good escort. Keep your Texas on the front lines and in the fight, not skulking in the back pretending to be of some use.

As good as her anti-aircraft firepower is, the USS Texas isn’t invulnerable to air strikes. High speed planes (exemplified by these Skyraiders) can run the gauntlet of her short ranged guns and drop their payload before taking any losses. These six planes got all of their fish in the water before losing two of their number to flak. The Texas took four hits — an uneven trade.

How to Kill It

The Texas is still a New York-class Battleship, with all of the weaknesses inherent to the vessel save AA-power. Tactics used to best low-tier American Battleships all apply here and players in surface vessels shouldn’t balk at applying their tried, tested and true methods for engaging one of these Dreadnoughts.