Tier 8 Cruiser Citadel Protection

[Terrible_Turtle]

Several are already aware that I currently have a love afar with the Hipper. The topic of its "tankiness" was brought up in another thread so I thought I'd create a separate post about it. No, the Hipper is not a tank and should not be played as such, but it does has three advantages in terms of citadel protection over its contemporaries. You still don't want to show your broadside in the ship, but it easily has the best protection of all Tier VIII cruisers.

 

A. Lowest citadel of all T8 cruisers (on par with Edinburgh)

B. Angled turtleback armor

C. Two layers of armor to pass through (80mm and 30mm)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[renegadestatuz]

Hipper is definitely made in German lol

 

[saagri]

I have noticed that in some cases I had a hard time getting citadels on German CA's because of their citadel layout. Especially at close ranges. 

[The_first_harbinger]

Aww, but Miku is my favorite...

Just kidding, love the Hipper too, I'm yet to get better in armor angling and dodging shells, yet she's no doubt the most forgiving cruiser in tier 8 when talking about taking shells.

It's just that I plays Moskva and bbs too often, and I always stuck my neck too far out, and Miku have smoke for me to get my aft out in one piece...

[MrDeaf]

You probably don't have to worry about it now, but Hipper used to have issues trying to get the other set of guns into action.

This was a combined problem of poor turret arcs and super slow rudder and this caused DPM issues when fighting other cruisers with guns that reloaded faster than yours.

Now? WG has fixed the poor turret arcs and you can also equip SGM3.

[Mahrs]

The Hipper has been...well...not growing on me.  I'll have the C-hull tomorrow, I expect, but I doubt that'll really make much difference in how she plays.  I feel reasonably comfortable picking fights with other cruisers or the occasional badly played destroyer.  However, she's not fast, and she's not especially durable in terms of her HP.  Red BBs don't seem to have much trouble finding my citadel from any angle.  It's all down to whether they lead correctly, whether I dodge and what RNG comes up with besides.  

[Terrible_Turtle]

The Hipper has been...well...not growing on me.  I'll have the C-hull tomorrow, I expect, but I doubt that'll really make much difference in how she plays.  I feel reasonably comfortable picking fights with other cruisers or the occasional badly played destroyer.  However, she's not fast, and she's not especially durable in terms of her HP.  Red BBs don't seem to have much trouble finding my citadel from any angle.  It's all down to whether they lead correctly, whether I dodge and what RNG comes up with besides.  

 

Do you use the rudder shift modules?

[YukikazeFortunateBeaver]

Hipper is definitely made in German lol

 

[Mahrs]

 

Do you use the rudder shift modules?

 

Both of them.  She maintains Yorck's maneuverability when so outfitted.  That's a bright spot of sorts, you can get your wiggle on after the shells are in the air if you can keep them 12+ km away.  To your point, while my ship has been hard-ish to hit, my citadel has not been hard for red BBs to find, even if they only find it with on shell at a time. 

 

At this point, I am wondering if I should focus on the IJN or the VMF as a compliment and comparison.  The gun handling is great on Hipper, the accuracy and arcs are good, and she's a lot of fun when cruisers broadside you.  Annoying distracted battleships is OK too.  That said, I produce consistently underwhelming damage numbers.  Last night actually dropped me to 42k average.  That just isn't acceptable to me at Tier VIII - it tells me the rest of the team is pulling my weight.  

 

The reality might be that I have reached a point in the KM cruiser line where my skill level is simply no longer equal to the task at hand.

[Terrible_Turtle]

 

Both of them.  She maintains Yorck's maneuverability when so outfitted.  That's a bright spot of sorts, you can get your wiggle on after the shells are in the air if you can keep them 12+ km away.  To your point, while my ship has been hard-ish to hit, my citadel has not been hard for red BBs to find, even if they only find it with on shell at a time. 

 

At this point, I am wondering if I should focus on the IJN or the VMF as a compliment and comparison.  The gun handling is great on Hipper, the accuracy and arcs are good, and she's a lot of fun when cruisers broadside you.  Annoying distracted battleships is OK too.  That said, I produce consistently underwhelming damage numbers.  Last night actually dropped me to 42k average.  That just isn't acceptable to me at Tier VIII - it tells me the rest of the team is pulling my weight.  

 

The reality might be that I have reached a point in the KM cruiser line where my skill level is simply no longer equal to the task at hand.

 

At all tiers battleships are the bane of any cruiser's existence. The armor on cruisers is almost always overmatched by BB caliber guns. Angling is more advantageous for the purposes of making a smaller profile for BBs to shoot at. Hence, maneuverability (not amor) is what's gonna save you when dealing with big brother. 

[crzyhawk]

I've been playing the heck out of my Hipper lately and I won't lie...she feels "safer" than my other cruisers.  I am a little more aggressive in Hipper because she feels like she can take a hit better than most of my other cruisers.

[SeaRaptor]

The high end of the German cruiser line ALL have citadels fully below the waterline.  They are most vulnerable to plunging fire at long range, same as German battleships.  At mid- and close-range, they are difficult to citadel (but plenty easy to land regular pens against).

[Terrible_Turtle]

The high end of the German cruiser line ALL have citadels fully below the waterline.  They are most vulnerable to plunging fire at long range, same as German battleships.  At mid- and close-range, they are difficult to citadel (but plenty easy to land regular pens against).

 

That's what I've noticed while purusing the armor viewer. Almost to the Roon and I absolutely can't wait. My Hipper tends to get dragged into T10 regardless, so the Roon should be a nice upgrade from an already impressive ship. 

 

Ironically, the brawling style of German ships doesn't suit the sniping meta often seen at higher tiers, so we'll see how it goes. lol

[Wyatt_DERP85]

I have the Prinz Eugen and am very close to having enough exp on my Yorck to get the Hipper and have been thinking about this a little bit. I'd say the Hipper is the most durable cruiser of the tier 8 tech tree because of leading in hit points and also much less likely to citadel.

I've gotten citadels on german cruisers at long range though, and they DO like to stay at long range and use their flat firing guns.

[SeaRaptor]

That's what I've noticed while purusing the armor viewer. Almost to the Roon and I absolutely can't wait. My Hipper tends to get dragged into T10 regardless, so the Roon should be a nice upgrade from an already impressive ship. 

 

Ironically, the brawling style of German ships doesn't suit the sniping meta often seen at higher tiers, so we'll see how it goes. lol

 

You'll do fine.  It's not hard to work into mid-range in Roon or Hindenburg and crush people with your high rate of fire.   You have to pick your targets with care, of course, but I've survived for long periods in Hindenburg with 4-6 ships shooting at me while I retreated at full speed.  You'll be surprised at how much damage you can absorb.

[TenguBlade]

You probably don't have to worry about it now, but Hipper used to have issues trying to get the other set of guns into action.

This was a combined problem of poor turret arcs and super slow rudder and this caused DPM issues when fighting other cruisers with guns that reloaded faster than yours.

Now? WG has fixed the poor turret arcs and you can also equip SGM3.

Didn't Hipper always have a 12-second reload?  Only the CLs at T8 fire faster than that.

[MrDeaf]

Didn't Hipper always have a 12-second reload?  Only the CLs at T8 fire faster than that.

 

Nah, it was most ships.

Kutuzov can shoot 6 and wiggle 12

NO can shoot 6 and wiggle 9

Mogami can shoot 6 and wiggle 15

Atago can shoot 4 and wiggle 10

Chappy is incapable of wiggling, but will still shoot 6

 

As Hipper, you had 4 guns you could use, because of the, formerly, useless slow rudder and horrible turret firing arcs, against an angled and wiggling T8 cruiser.

4 guns, even if they had 12s reload, was a severe DPM disadvantage unless they gave a full broadside.

 

But now Hipper has improved turret arcs and can use SGM3, which allows it to wiggle 8 guns into play.

[Gaishu_Isshoku]

It should be noted that Hipper also has a 40mm armor belt extending to the very front of her bow, covering about 1/4th above water and an equivalent below, making her the only CA in game with the ability to bounce even Yamato shells off her bow if they hit the right place.