Prussia Class Battleship
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The Prussia Class Battleship is the second of the German battleship designs, and moves away from the standard German doctrine of heavy armor and 24cm guns. Where the Kaiser Class went all in on defense, preferring to outlast its enemies, the Prussia class asks instead "what if we just blew them up?" Guns, gun crews, and an engine just barely fast enough to allow you to turn the ship while moving at speed are the hallmarks of the class.
The limitation of the ship class are the guns and the speed. While faster than the Kaiser class, the Prussia class is still not fast, topping out at merely 4MP without any Admiral card upgrades. Likewise, the guns to be used to overwhelm your opponent are all 10.5cm guns in casements, not turrets, which means you need the opponent in your side arcs and not your bow or stern. While the guns themselves are decent and have saturation attacks, they cannot be used to bracket fire without another ship with a Bracket Crew.
SML Preußen
The namesake ship for this class is the SML Preußen, costing 460 points to add to your fleet. Both this and the SML Pommern variant come in the Prussia Class Battleship box. This variant still holds onto armor strong enough to hold out against strong enemy attacks, while boasting five secondary saturation fire gun batteries on each of its sides. It also has chaff on both its bow and sides to protect it from torpedoes, an important consideration for the slow German battleships.
Because the majority of its guns are facing the side, are short range, and aren't in a turret, it needs careful positioning to present a broadside to the enemy. Arguably, this would put the ship as a close range brawler vs enemy flagships rather than something that can hunt down faster cruisers or destroyers.
Guns vs Armor - SML Preußen
Low = lowest breach value slot after +breach value Armor slots. High = highest breach value slot. Average = all slots breach value / 6. Loc Dice = average roll of all location dice (moved). Net = Average - Loc Dice. vs Red Gun = Difference between average roll with the loc dice for the "typical" Battleship gun at short range and armor, lower is better. vs Blue = same for the "typical" Destroyer gun at short range. vs RR Bomber = difference between average Green Bomber roll and breach value. vs RRR Torpedo = difference between average Red dice torpedo roll and breach value.
The armor is frankly not as robust as the Kaiser class of ships, but still respectable verses enemy bombers, and smaller unsupported guns. With the chaff it might even be able to risk a torpedo or two. With that in mind, the ship is not built to withstand sustained fire. It just needs to last long enough to get close and deliver some haymakers.
Guns - SML Preußen
The 28cm dRed/dYellow saturation gun in the front arc turret is the biggest gun the Germans have, reaching out to 7 hexes at short range and 15 hexes at long range, but it is just one gun. This ship is built to get kills with its secondary weapons, the five 10.5cm dBlue/dGreen saturation guns in each side arc. With green crew, you are counting on volume of fire to score hits, and when you do score hits the saturation will ensure significant damage. With saturation fire you only need to get lucky a couple of times to cripple or crack an enemy ship, even if you aren't rolling hot. If you do roll hot, you can just delete an enemy cruiser or destroyer, or cripple an enemy battleship, all in a single turn.
SML Pommern
The next ship of the class is the SML Pommern, which at point cost of 470 is the most expensive ship the Germans can field, costing just under half the points of a standard list. But the crew manning the guns might just make it worthwhile. This ship gives up the armor and chaff of the class namesake for better crew, and redundant crew. Who needs defense when your opponents die faster than you after all?
Assuming you can get this ship into range, that it. It remains slow, and difficult to maneuver.
Guns vs Armor - SML Pommern
Low = lowest breach value slot after +breach value Armor slots. High = highest breach value slot. Average = all slots breach value / 6. Loc Dice = average roll of all location dice (moved). Net = Average - Loc Dice. vs Red Gun = Difference between average roll with the loc dice for the "typical" Battleship gun at short range and armor, lower is better. vs Blue = same for the "typical" Destroyer gun at short range. vs RR Bomber = difference between average Green Bomber roll and breach value. vs RRR Torpedo = difference between average Red dice torpedo roll and breach value.
About the only thing this ship will reliably withstand are aeroplane based bombing runs, and uncrewed small caliber shots and even then it isn't a guarantee. Large caliber shots will shred through its armor, torpedoes will cause a ton of damage.
But it is still a battleship, and the 35 structural integrity means that it can hopefully get close and present the broadside for...
Guns - SML Pommern
The same 10.5cm broadside as before, but now with Blue crew means you're tossing 2dBlue for an average of 7 breach roll with each saturation attack within 5 hexes. That's just under a 50/50 shot of cracking the armor on a Kaiser Class with each shot. Because they're saturation attacks, every successful hit will be knocking out two slots. When this ship gets into range, whatever is unfortunate enough to be beside it is getting deleted.
Overall - Prussia Class
These ships have much better guns than the Kaiser, but remain slow and difficult to get into position. Recommended Admiral cards to mitigate their issues are:
Commander - Obvious choice and the best Admiral card, though might be inappropriate for casual play.
Hard Burn - Like commander, makes your slow ship faster, so that you can get it into position faster.
Type Reduction - The most interesting choice in my opinion, as it lets you use the ship aggressively against an enemy cruiser or destroyer that might otherwise be able to dodge the dangerous side arc.
Tesla Support - Let's be honest, you're going to be taking some damage. Might as well stay aggressive when you do so.
Ratings:
SML Preußen: B
SML Pommern: A-
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