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I found some blueprints for submarines, destroyers, cruisers, and aircraft carriers designed by other countries for the Kuomintang. The National Archives of Taiwan opened these drawings for viewing at the beginning of this year. Submarine: Destroyer: Cruiser: Aircraft carrier: I also found a Thai light cruiser designed by Italy: Taksin-class light cruiser The current Pan-Asian cruiser branch, to be honest, is disappointing. :(

It has occurred to me, as I was looking through the premium shop, that the ship INS Mysore has been added to the game as a commonwealth cruiser. On the one hand, neat, India is getting some naval representation as it probably should, with one of the most active navies of the post WWII era. However, the fact that Mysore has been added to the game does pose something of a political issue… sort of. When the British empire granted independence to India, splitting the administered territory into India and the newly created Pakistan, they were sure to also partition the navy, with a 2:1 ratio in favor of India. Very quickly it became apparent (if it wasn’t already) that the two nations would not have the most stable relationship, with the tumultuous mass migrations of Hindus to India and Muslims to Pakistan followed immediately by the first Indo-Pakistani war. So, if harmony wasn’t in the cards, parity had to be. Which leads us back to Mysore. Mysore was the second cruiser acquired by the Indian navy after the INS Delhi (formerly HMNZS Achilles of the Battle of the River Plate) and was far newer and more capable. This was the second cruiser to the Pakistanis none, and was upsetting the naval balance in the area. To rectify this, the first sea lord at the time, Lord Mountbatten (who was also viceroy of India when the partition happened) was eager to address this and was all too happy when the head of Pakistan’s navy asked him what could be done. The modified Dido class cruiser HMS Diadem was modernized and sold to Pakistan, causing a stir in that country when the head of the navy requested the government provide him 400,000 pounds for the ship, and eventually got a price tag far in excess of that. Regardless of the cost though, the newly refurbished ship was arguably the ultimate example of the Dido class cruiser. This ship was PNS Babur. And now, in 2021, we find a much smaller scale of the situation. With Mysore, India has a cruiser at tier 6 in WOWS. To maintain parity, Pakistan needs one as well. PNS Babur, as it was then, is the answer now. So what would it be like in game? Armor: Luckily, by the time I’ve written the third one of these I have a lot of notes to go off of. The armor on Babur would be the same as on a Modified Dido like HMS Bellona, and would have 16mm plating all around, with a 89mm citadel belt, 51mm citadel roof armor, 25mm citadel caps and turret armor, and 10mm superstructures. HP would be similarly quite low for its tier, I would say 27500. Armament: Again, I can just pull this from what I have already put forward in previous proposals. Its guns have a range of 13.1 km, doing 2700 damage max with AP and 1900 damage and 8% fire chance with HE. Rate of fire is 10 rounds per minute per gun. Compared to other cruisers at tier 6, Baburs AP damage per minute clocks in at 5th out of 20 ships with 216000 dpm. HE looks better, coming in third overall with 152000 potential damage per minute and not being far behind the two ahead of it. However, when considering the smaller gun caliber and thus the reduced amount of things it can penetrate at this tier, this high potential HE damage is needed. Coming in 7 out of 20 as far as fire-starting goes, she does not look to be too disturbing on that count. However, we need to add in the effects of fire flags and IFHE. This ship, like most ships below 152mm at this tier just need IFHE. With that, the deck armor of most tier 6 and 7 battleships as well as the armor plating of tier 8 American and German heavy cruisers becomes penetrable, so that even at bottom tier Babur can punch up. So, when factoring in IFHE on all ships that would benefit from it, as well as DE and fire flags, Babur sits pretty much in the middle. Without IFHE Babur crawls her way to the middle of the pack. Pretty clearly so far Babur’s battery is not exceptional in any way apart from her extremely fast 20 degree per second stock turn rate. Whoop de do. She also has a torpedo armament, and these should just be a direct copy of what’s on Fiji. For reference, that’s 8 km, 72 second reload, 15867 max damage, and 61 knots with ability to single fire. Now, the only real change I would give Babur from my previous proposal for Bellona would be giving the turrets the ability to rotate 360 degrees. A and B turret would have diabolical 40 degree over the shoulder arcs, as would y turret, but x turret would have much improved 20 degree blind spots. Concealment: Again, I can just copy my notes from Bellona. Babur would have a base detection range of 9.55 km, going down to 8.34. Agility: Babur would have a top speed of 32.5 knots base. However, this is where things go off the rails. She would get the improved engine power and energy retention of the RN light cruisers, and then atop that get the speed boost consumable for 15%. So, with the Sierra Mike signal flag, Babur would go 34.125 knots. With the speedboost added, this goes up to 39.25 knots. Add in the Outnumbered commander skill and Babur is going at an absurd 42 knots. With the RN energy retention. I’ll have to do some calculations, but this boat will be without question the most agile at tier 6, and probably the most agile cruiser in the game. AA: follow this stinking link to the picture because this photo is copyrighted by the Pakistani Navy. Babur will have good AA. When modernized, it had its 40mm pom poms and 20mm Oerlikons rationalized all to 40mm bofors. With 3 twin bofors on the mk V mounting and 8 single bofors on the Mk VII mounting, she had 14 barrels overall. After some number crunching, the Mk V mount does 20 DPS per (based on stock hull Neptune) and the mk VII does 12 dps (based off a very confusing calculation. It doesn’t really matter) for a total of 156 dps at 3.5 km. the long range dps is 120 at 6 km. while not best at tier 6, it is all concentrated at range. Flak barrage would be 4 bursts at 1617 per burst. Consumables: Well, already talked about one, speed boost, giving the ship crazy mobility. And that would be the gimmick of the ship. All the other Didos that I have proposed so far would have smoke, because without it, I do not think they would last awfully long. This would be a attempt to make a Dido that didn’t hide, that fought fair and square. And to facilitate that with such a small hitpool and mediocre armor, it needs to either not be seen, not be hit, or be able to recover. To that end, I would recommend the same heal as given to Leander. Finally, there would be a choice of defensive AA or hydro as its last consumable. And that’s that. A oversized destroyer with a citadel but hopefully the toolbox to avoid and make good on damage if played right. Why people would buy it: Because it is Pakistani? Apart from that, Hell if I know. I know I would, but… I’d buy any Dido. Let me know what you think.

For the lunar new year, Wargaming will release the Bajie and the Wukong. The Bajie is a premium tier 9 Izumo and the Wukong is a premium tier 8 Charles Martel. Here are my thoughts: My thoughts on Bajie: Its literally just an Izumo with better accuracy and a slightly lower reload time (both are basically negligible). Its only purpose is going to sell skins. Its a fake ship based on a fake ship (wth) Its gonna be expensive because its tier 9 Its trying to appeal to Chinese nationalism (I think). This is really stupid because 95% of Chinese people (myself included) do not care about what nation the ship is coming from. Its a Japanese ship.... Its like adding in a Bismarck that flies the Israeli flag. Suggestions: Just give the Izumo a lunar new year skin instead of making another fake ship. If your gonna give the Pan-Asians a battleship just to sell skins, why not make it the Tingyuan. It was a Chinese battleship that participated in the First Sino-Japanese War. It had 4x12 inch guns and a crap ton of secondaries just like the Mikasa. I'd rather have a REAL tier 2 Chinese battleship that isn't just another copy-paste ship. Why the Tingyuan is better than the Izumo: It's real. It's not based on a fake ship. It would be the only other tier 2 battleship and it gives the Mikasa a better matchup It has actual historic value which is why people would by the ship. It's tier 2 so its gonna be cheap. If people are just buying the ship for skins, the cheaper the better. It's turrets are mounted in a unique and cool way. A 1:1 replica of the ship still exists today, which is pretty awesome. Edit: I'm doing the Charles Mar... I mean Wukong too. My thoughts on the Wukong: It's a Charles Martel with worse consumables (wth). Its not real. Its gonna be expensive because its tier 8 Its trying to appeal to Chinese nationalism (I think). This is really stupid because 95% of Chinese people (myself included) do not care about what nation the ship is coming from. Its a French ship.... This is just weird. Suggestions: Give the Charles Martel a new years camo instead of making a fake ship. Add in one of the following REAL Chinese cruisers Chao-Ho Class (tier 3-4) Type: Protected cruiser Displacement: 2,460 long tons (2,499 t)-2,750 long tons (2,794 t) Length: 98 m (321 ft 6 in)-105.5 m (346 ft 2 in) o/a Beam: 12 m (39 ft 4 in)-13 m (42 ft 8 in) Draught: 4 m (13 ft 1 in)-4.5 m (14 ft 9 in) Speed: 20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h)-26 knots (30 mph; 48 km/h) Range: 4,500 nmi (8,300 km)-5,000 nmi (9,300 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h) Complement: 238-283 Armament: 2 x 1 - 6-inch (152 mm)/50 guns 4 x 1 - 4 in (100 mm)/50 guns 4 x 1 - 14pdr QF guns 6 x 1 - 47/40 Hotchkiss guns 2 x 1 - 37/32 Maxim guns 2 x 1 - 450 torpedo tubes Armour: Deck: 19–26 mm (1–1 in) Conning tower: 76 mm (3 in) Ning-hai Class (tier 4-6) Type: Light cruiser Displacement: 2,526 t (2,486 long tons) standard Length: 360 ft (109.7 m) Beam: 39 ft (11.9 m) Draught: 13 ft (4.0 m) Propulsion: Triple-expansion Reciprocating Steam Engines; coal/oil-fired boilers Speed: 21–23 knots (39–43 km/h; 24–26 mph) Range: 5,000 nmi (9,300 km) at 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h) Complement: 361 Armament: Common 6 × 140 mm (5.5 in) guns 4 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes 9 × Depth Charges Ning Hai only 6 × 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type naval gun (AA guns) some Vickers 2-pounder AA guns 10 × machine guns 9 × depth charges Ping Hai only 3 × 76 mm (3 in) AA guns 4 × 57 mm (2 in) AA guns 4 × machine guns Armour: Belt: 25 mm (0.98 in) Deck: 19 to 25 mm (0.75 to 0.98 in) Turrets: 25 mm (0.98 in) Conning tower: 25 mm (0.98 in) Aircraft carried: 2 x floatplane (Ning Hai only) Aviation facilities: Hangar and crane only (Ning Hai only) Number 64- Class (never completed but still more real than the Wukong) (tier 2-3) Type: Protected cruiser Displacement: 1,800 tons Length: 106 m (347 ft 9 in) o/a Beam: 10.9 m (35 ft 9 in) Draught: 4 m (13 ft 1 in) Propulsion: 2 shafts, 2 AEG steam turbines engines, 4 Yarrow boilers, 12,500 bhp (9,300 kW) Speed: 24.5 knots (28.2 mph; 45.4 km/h) Armament: 4 × Škoda 120-millimetre (4.7 in)/50 (2 × 2) 8 × 66 mm (3 in)/50 (8 × 1) 4 × 47 mm (2 in)/44 (4 × 1) 2 × 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes (2 × 1) Armour: Deck: 20–25 mm (1–1 in) Conning tower: 60 mm (2 in) Turrets: Unknown Yi Xian (tier 4-5) Type: Light cruiser Displacement: 1,650 t (1,624 long tons) Length: 270 ft (82 m) Beam: 34 ft (10 m) Draught: 12.4 ft (3.8 m) Propulsion: Two-shaft Reciprocating Engines 3 coal-fire boilers 4,000 shp (3,000 kW) Speed: 19 knots (22 mph; 35 km/h) Complement: 182 Armament: As Built 1 × 152 mm (6 in) gun 1 × 140 mm (5.5 in) gun 4 × 75 mm (3 in) AA guns 1 × 47 mm (1.85 in) rapid fire gun After Japanese Reconstruction 1 × 120 mm (5 in) DP gun 2 × twin 40 mm (2 in) Type 91 "HI" guns 5 × 25 mm Type 96 AA guns 6 × 7.7 mm machine guns Why these ships are better: They are real. They are somewhat original They are lower tier than the Wukong so cheaper If people are just buying the ship for skins, the cheaper the better. Conclusion: As a Chinese player, I love how WG does the lunar new year events. I think the new captains (Zhu Bajie and Sun Wukong) are going to be pretty awesome. I just dont like how they are making fake ships for the Pan-Asians just to cater to Chinese people. If your gonna do that, make it a real ship at least. Happy New Years!

With the new Pan-European line coming out it seems like the Pan-Asian line is now utterly worthless in its play-style. Save the deep-water torps (which reload way too slowly and cannot hit DDs) the Euro's seem to be better in every way while being quite similar. Heals, Radar, amazing torpedoes, reasonable gun DPM. No smoke but you couldn't mount Radar and smoke in either line anyway. I'm just left wondering what in the hell happened with the Pan-Asian's that they are being completely re-imagined in the form of the Euro line? Why would you completely cannibalize a line? Why was YueYang nerfed so damn hard that many were left scratching our collective heads. I can back a nerf when needed but the YueYang and then Chung Mu nerf were just too much for me. I like many others completely abandoned that line.