The future of naval is eventually going to see more top tier battleships, and battleships in particular are an area that Germany is severely lacking in. If Germany is only going to get ships that were actually constructed, then that only leaves Bismarck and Tirpitz left, and they are going to be outclassed by Sovietsky Soyuz, Iowa, and Yamato. However, if ships that were begun but never completed, like Sovietsky Soyuz which is already present in WT Mobile, are to become additions, then that would give Germany a top tier option to stay competitive in the form of H-39. I don’t want to see ridiculous fantasy ships like that other naval game. That 20" monstrosity that funny mustache man dreamed up, for example, should stay over there, but H-39 had approved blue prints and construction had been underway for two of them for quite a long time before the German war industry could no longer support them. H-39 would have been essentially an enlarged Bismarck class armed with 16" guns which would be a good option to top off the German battleship line and give Germany something that is better able to compete with the Iowas, Sovietsky Soyuz, and Yamato. Another option to augment the German naval line up would be to add the planned upgrade to the Scharnhorsts that replaced their 12" guns with 15" guns. This is just my opinion on it, but I would like to know what everyone else thinks. Do you think that the German line up would benefit from H-39 or a 15" gunned Scharnhorst, or should the German line end with Bismarck and Tirpitz?
Something being laid down is the rule for inclusion, so we’ll certainly see two H-39s eventually. :)
H-39 would definitely come, as it is another non-comissioned ship like Project 23(aka Sovietsky Soyuz)
So no need of worrying in my personal opinion.
But for ‘benefit’, well, I don’t know. Bismarck and Tirpitz would have penetration similar to Mutsu and Mississippi in game at 10 km, and those guns were now performing quite well in penetration even against standard battleship’s main belt, which is actually one of thickest main belt for current-ingame and future-could_be_ingame capital ships. H-39’s 16’’ gun will be better in penetration, but loss of fast reload which previous Kriegsmarine capital ship gets seems more imoprtant than penetration to me.
If that’s the case, then maybe we’ll also see the French Clemenceau and the British Lion. It’s a shame the US never laid down a Montana.
As well as all 5 normandie class BBs.
I’m pretty sure H-39 will come to the game at some point, and I’m glad, as that thing also looks cool!
I wonder what it’s name will be. Skinny Mustache Man came up with Hutten and Berlichingen if I remember correctly, and I also seem to remember reading Hindenburg somewhere, but I’m not too sure about that.
They were mentioned in official documents only as schlachtschiffe H and J so I doubt they will named something else in the game.
Hitler is supposed to have said he would suggest the names Ulrich von Hutten and Götz von Berlichingen
Yes, I seem to remember that too
Biggest downside i see to the H-39 will be its atrocious AA compliment.
Last i’d checked, the H-39’s AA compliment was similar to that of early Bismark class AA compliments, and notably still included the mediocre 10.5cm DP guns and the quite frankly laughably atrocious 3.7cm single shot guns, giving it effectively subpar long range AA, no mid-range AA, and mediocre short range AA.
The bismark class pretty quickly got a few more 20mm’s and the Tirpitz was refit with a whole lot of them eventually, but german naval AA was pretty terrible for the most part due to the lack of streamlining in procurement and production of weapons in WW2 germany.
Excellent DP weapons like the 12.8cm Flak42 never made it onto ships
Respectable mid-range AA like the 37mm Flak18/36/37 or the developped but never adopted 5.5cm Gerat 55 never ended up on BB’s (afaik)
With german BB’s being armed with this piece of garbage instead:
Being massive, with an old armor scheme, and poor AA is going to be a struggle…
I would say that it won’t be so bad as you think. Until Gaijin decides to greatly expand the battle ranges the armor scheme of Bismarck and H-39 will be one of the best.
As for the AA, I think that it won’t really make much difference until the possible addition of CVs, I would say that as long as we face 1 plane attack the AA will be sufficient.
Lastly both Z-46 and Z-47 show that Gaijin isn’t above making up AA refits, but then again the H-39 would be more prominent so Gaijin might choose not to do that. (even if I would say that as long as it isn’t Russian most people wont care)
I doubt the efficiency of single shot AA. It is usually not enough when it comes to props and here you will be fighting jets like f84s, canberras and il28s.
Also what is not accurate about Z46 AA? Afaik it was mid war design so 20mm guns seem accurate
Fair but is there enough evidence of that in military grade documents?
The number of the AA mounts is innaccurate as far as I can see, based on the navypedia which proved to be accurate in many other scenarios the AA armament should be:
3 x 2 - 37/69 Flak M/42 and 3 x 2 - 20/65 C/38 (Flakzwilling)
While in game the Z-46 has:
2 x 2 - 37/69 Flak M/42 and 3 x 4 20/65 (Flakvierling) and 2 x 1 20/65 C/38
I would say that while this seems to be innaccurate the discrepency can explained by different interperetation of the sources but the Z-47 is inexplainable since it should have same armament as Z-46 but in game it has:
7 x 2 - 37/69 Flak M/42 and 2 x 2 - 20/65 C/38 (Flakzwilling) and 2 x 4 20/65 (Flakvierling)
At very least in case of Z-47 it has completly made up AA refit which it couldn´t get since they were never completed.
Also at least according to navypedia again the H-39 would have improved AA armament over original Bismarck they should get:
8 x 2 - 37/80 SK C/30, 8 x 4 - 20/65 C/38
And the suggestion on the forums also quotes the Flakvierling even though in different amount of mounts.