KmsH44's ORP Blyskawica Review

[The_GoDDfather]

 

KmsH44's ORP Blyskawica Review

 

Welcome to my review,  "Even if you don't play these ships, this can help you counter them. Know thyself, know thy enemy!"

 

 

 

Table of Contents

Intro to Kriegsmarine BB H44

1. Intro to Blyskawica

2. Armament

-Guns

-Torpedoes

-Anti-Air-Aircraft

3. Maneuverability & Concealment

-Maneuverability

-Concealment

4. Captain Skills

-American DD Build

-Russian DD Build

5. Modules

-Captain Skills

-Consumables

 

Introduction to Kriegsmar​ine BB H44

Howdy, welcome to my ORP Blyskawica review! I have made some other lengthy posts here, and love to write guides. If you don't know, I've written this guide to destroyers. It is quite good, if I don't say so my self, and would like for y'all to take a gander at it after you get down here. I only write things here to keep my noob-[edited]out of the game, it hurts my stats, heh. So do try to enjoy my entertaining/informative review I've been writing most of today! Now on to the show....

 

Introduction to the Blyskawica

The Blyskawica is the first, and only, Polish ship in the game. It was a rarity, and rightfully so. The Blyskawica is the best tier seven destroyer, and can rip up tier eight and nine destroyers easily. When you equip it correctly, you can out Damage-Per-Minute a Sims/Benson (“C”) in a knife fight at three kilometers. When stock, the turret traverse is in the sweet spot for dueling, fast enough for one target, but not for two targets, the health is above average, the concealment is on par with the American destroyers, the turret traverse is a bit higher than the Kiev’s, it has a torpedo reload comparable to the Sims, and the maneuverability is a mix of all nations. It’s a very nice ship, and it could be argued to be overpowered in the right hands.

 

Armament

Gun Armament        

    The Blyskawica gets a broadside of seven 120mm shells that reload every six and a half seconds. These shells have a high velocity of 900m/s, which can propel shells out to twelve kilometers in 13.3 seconds. This is theoretically better than the Russians (13.8s) and Americans (15.15s), but the Japanese would beat the Blyskawica’s round with 13.1s if it could fire to that range. However, this is a theoretical yield that’s based entirely on 12km/shell velocity. In actuality, the order would be Russians, Blyskawica, then American, with the Japanese unable to contend.

    The ammunition on the Blyskawica is a bit weak compared to the other destroyers, mostly due to the Blyskawica having 120mm guns. The rounds themselves are a bit strange. The Blyskawica has an HE shell that’s alpha damage is the second lowest of the other tier seven destroyers, but it’s fire chance is the second best at the tier. Yet this is before we actually consider the volume of fire, and its accuracy.

    The reload of the Blyskawica is below average as well, being second worst, again. Then there is little hope in the game of Rounds-Per-Minute. The Blyskawica has an rpm of 64.6, which is actually only above the Hatsuharu (26.7rpm) [sims: 72.7, Mahan: 75, Kiev: 72]. This isn’t that strange, nor telling of damage output, but it is a good measure. We see that the Blyskawica isn’t much of a gunboat so far.

    Following this trend, the potential damage-per-minute output for the Blyskawica is quite low as well at 109,820 for HE, and 142,120 for AP. This is quite meh when you consider the Kiev has a potential dpm of 115,200 for HE and 180,000 for AP [sims: HE: 130,860: AP: 152.670; Mahan: HE: 135,000: AP: 157,500; Hatsuharu: HE: 56,070: AP: 58,740].  The HE amounts go down to 1/6 their current whenever you fire at a ship that’s armor is too great to penetrate while the AP is anything from bounce to full damage.

    Now, the turret traverse is a great sweet spot, it would be the most mathematically closest to being equal to the turn rate. (I tried to do the math, but I forgot that the game is compressed as hell. I found out it takes Blyskawica 3 minutes to do a circle at 39 knots though…damn compression.) It is only slightly behind, and can actually go faster than the turn rate if you equip Expert Marksman. This puts the Blyskawica at an advantage against the Kiev and Hatsuharu, especially in a duel. The stock traverse shouldn’t matter much if you’re sniping at ten kilometers or more. Even if you’re sniping Udaloi.

Overall, the Blyskawica doesn’t seem to beat the Americans or Russians in gun armament. However, these values are just fine for the Gremyashchy playstyle. Sitting at ten kilometers, pounding the enemy where Americans couldn’t with a fire chance equal to the Russians. (Higher HE alpha too.)

 

Torpedoes

    The Blyskawica gets a total of six 533mm torpedo tubes that reload every 70 seconds for a potential broadside of 86,400 damage. They are the fastest reloading torpedoes at tier seven, even beating the Sim’s astronomical 72 second 9.2km torpedoes.  These torpedoes go 57kts, which put them third overall in terms of speed. However, these torpedoes are only five knots slower than the Hatsuharu’s upgraded torpedoes, and are on par with her stock torpedoes. This puts them at a good starting place in torpedo speed.

    The Blyskawica’s damage output over the side is quite good at 86,400 damage for 6 hits versus the Mahan’s 92,800 over 8 torpedo hits, Sims’s pitiful 68,000 over 8 torpedo hits, Kiev’s comical 179,330 over 10 torpedo hits, and Hatsuharu’s justifiably 103,398 over 6 torpedo hits. Even by themselves, the Blyskawica’s torpedoes are very modest for her tier at 14,400. Especially when you take out Kiev due to it having a hilariously low torpedo range of four kilometers. After removing Kiev from the competition due to its inadequate torpedo range, Blyskawica has a far better placement; coming only second for single torpedo, and third for broadside weight.

    When we look at speed, the Blyskawica’s torpedoes are a bit slow, but are pretty good for the tier when you consider that the Mahan and Sims get 55 knots or slower for invisi-torping, only being bested by the Hatsuharu with 10km, 62 knot torpedoes. However, Blyskawica’s range is almost too short to be used for invisi-torping, which makes the ship’s torpedoes much harder to use. You can still use them liberally due to the short reload, but finding targets without getting spotted is difficult. Their range is enough to speed in close after pounding someone from eleven kilometers and fire a quick salvo, but generally it’s better to stay at long range.

    Then the least important stat: Total Potential Damage. This is only useful when you decide to fire salvos back to back, which we all have to do at some point or another.

Ship-Salvo/Time I Salvo 1                  I Salvo 2                    I Salvo 3                    I Salvo 4                    I

Sims                      I 72s. (1min. 12s.) I 144s. (2min. 24s.) I 216s. (3min. 36s.) I 288s. (4min. 48s.) I

Mahan                  I 87s. (1min. 27s.) I 174s. (2min. 54s.) I 261s. (4min. 21s.) I 348s. (5min. 48s.) I

Hatsuharu            I 83s. (1min. 23s.) I 166s. (2min. 46s.) I 249s. (4min. 9s.)   I 332s. (5min. 32s.)  I

Blyskawica            I 70s. (1min. 10s.) I 140s. (2min. 20s.) I 210s. (3min. 30s.) I 280s. (4min. 40s.) I

 

Which translates to:

Ship-Dmg./Time I Salvo 1              I Salvo 2                I Salvo 3                I Salvo 4                I

Sims                      I 68,000 (72s.)   I 136,000 (144s.) I 204,000 (216s.) I 272,000 (288s.) I

Mahan                  I 92,800 (87s.)   I 185,600 (174s.) I 278,000 (261s.) I 371,200 (348s.) I

Hatsuharu            I 103,398 (83s.) I 206,796 (166s.) I 310,194 (249s.) I 413,592 (332s.) I

Blyskawica           I 86,400 (70s.)    I 172,800 (140s.) I 259,200 (210s.) I 345,600 (280s.) I

 

    Overall, the Blyskawica’s torpedoes are pretty good, with great stacking power. They are a bit situational, as ships tend to continue steaming towards you. If you’re going to use them, make sure to fire at targets coming towards you or are steaming parallel to your ship’s position, otherwise, the enemy will outrun your torpedo’s range.

 

Anti-Aircraft- Armament

    The Blyskawica, like most other destroyers, has very little AAA, lucky for us, it has a very low range of 3.5km. This means you don’t need to turn off your AAA due to it being lower than your 3.8km air detection range.

Since I like writing, here’s some data:

Ships-AAA I 1.2km I 2km    I 3.1km I 3.2km I 3.5km I 5km    I

Sims            I 15dps I 7dps   I N/A     I N/A     I N/A    I 43dps I

Mahan (B)  I N/A    I 14dps I N/A     I N/A     I N/A    I 16dps I

Kiev             I N/A    I N/A     I 24dps I 23dps I 12dps I N/A    I

Hatsuharu  I N/A    I N/A     I 48dps I N/A     I N/A    I 20dps I

Blyskawica I 14dps I N/A     I N/A     I N/A    I 22dps I N/A     I

 

AKA (Bubbles)

Ships-AAA I 1.2km I 2km    I 3.1km I 3.2km I 3.5km I 5km I

Sims           I 65dps I 50dps I 43dps  I “”         I “”       I “”     I

Mahan (B) I 30dps I “”        I 16dps  I “”         I””        I ””     I

Kiev            I 59dps I “”         I “”         I 35dps I 12dps I N/A I

Hatsuharu I 68dps I “”        I “”          I 20dps I “”        I “”    I

Blyskawica I 36dps I 22dps I “”         I “”        I “”        I N/A I

 

    As we can see here, the Blyskawica’s AAA will not be nearly as effective as it was during WWII. Only six damage per second from having the worst anti-air for the tier seven destroyers. This is only because I chose not to use the Mahan’s “C” hull for comparison due to its low popularity.

 

Maneuverability & Concealment

Maneuverability

    The Blyskawica is second fastest destroyer of this tier, has the second worst turning radius, and is the hardest to turn due to its abominable rudder shift. With a rudder shift of 5.8 seconds while having a turning radius of 610 meters, this ship very susceptible to enemy torpedoes. However, the Blyskawica doesn’t drift very well, and bites into turns. This allows for easy chasing evasion maneuvers, as these maneuvers don’t need rudder shift as much as gripping the turn to avoid being struck.

    Only barely surpassing the Sims in speed, the Blyskawica steams at a maximum speed of thirty-nine knots. This allows the ship to get to caps very quickly and stealthily using its sea detection range of 7.5km. Meanwhile the turning radius is a bit large at 610 meters; only being 30 meters from the Hatsuharu’s 580 meter turning radius, mind you. Then again, the only true competition is the Kiev for the rudder shift, since every other ship is under three seconds.

 

Concealment

    The Blyskawica has a medial concealment range, much like many of the American destroyers, of 7.5 kilometers. This range would be most familiar to American destroyer captains, as when I personally was grinding the American destroyer line all the destroyers from tier six and up had a detection range of 7.6 kilometers. If you used these ships during this period, you will be right at home in this ship, and know the exact limitations of having this intermediary detectability. However, as this is a review… The Blyskawica’s detection range of 7.5km is in a strange place in between the Sims and Mahan; both of which are out-detected by the Hatsuharu, and are all stealthier than the colossal Kiev. Although this 7.5km detection range is strange, it does allow you to invisi-fire from stealth at a range of 11.9km. This isn’t a very wide range, but it does give you a metric as to if Advanced Firing Training and Concealment Expert would be beneficial to you. It’s also what makes your eight kilometer torpedoes so difficult to use.

    Meanwhile, your air detectability is the American standard of 3.8km. This means you can keep your AAA, since no matter what you’ll be detected before your guns go off. However, like the American destroyers (unless you like Defensive Fire), you don’t really have a chance against spotter planes. If the plane’s coming at you, you’re going to get spotted.

    A bit of a sweet spot as well.

 

 

Captain Skills

The Blyskawica is such a smorgasbord across the nations, you can run almost any competent skill set. However, I have a couple I’d recommend, and they follow the guide I linked up at the top for the most part.

 

American Build

First up, I have an American destroyer setup. Since the Blyskawica shares many characteristics in concealment with the American destroyers, I would recommend a invisi-firing, rate of fire build with cues from the Russian line.

Lvl 1: Situational Awareness (Need to know when you’re spotted), Basic Firing Training (DPM/RPM), and Basics of Survivability (This is your 19^th point, this is a small bonus skill since you can get anything else).

Lvl 2: Last Stand (Engine keeps you running from enemies, and you can evade fire.) and Expert Marksman (You can knife fight American destroyers with success using both EM and BFT).

Lvl 3: Vigilance (Due to the abysmal rudder shift, more time to react keeps you alive).

Lvl 4: Survivability Expert, since you've invested in BFT, EM, and VG, SE is just the icing on the cake for this versatile build. Having this can keep you alive against enemy USN DDs for far longer than usual so you can knock them out or die trying.

Lvl 5: Concealment Expert (Because 6.75 detectability! This also helps your invisi-firing range).

Total: 19 skill points

 

Russian Build

Second up, we have a Russian destroyer setup, which focuses more on survival and damage output from maximum range.

Lvl 1: Situational Awareness (‘’’), and Basic Firing Training (‘’’).

Lvl 2: Last Stand (‘’’).

Lvl 3: Superintendent (This skill allows you to put your American detectability to work and offensively smoke at ranges under eight kilometers for a maximum of five times).

Lvl 4: Demolition Expert (You can have a fire chance of eleven percent! Need I say more…. [~1/10]), Advanced Firing Training (‘’’), and Survivability Expert (Because nothing say “**** you” like a Blyskawica with 18,300 health!)

Lvl 5: N/A

Total: 19 skill points

 

Modules

Upgrades

1^st Slot: Main Battery Modification 1 (Faster turret repairs prevents use of repair party).

2^nd Slot: Gun Fire Control System Modification 1 (Better accuracy to piss off BB drivers!)

3^rd Slot: Propulsion Modification 1 (Keeps your ship from being a total sitting duck when necessary).

4^th Slot: Steering Gears Modification 2 (Gets your rudder shift down to 4.6 seconds).

 

Consumables

Since you can make boatloads of credits with this ship, you can run all the premium consumables on the Blyskawica. This will help you a lot in the long run, but at the expense of your profits.

Repair Party: Repair Party II

Smoke Generator: Smoke Generator II

Speed Boost: Speed Boost II

 

Hope y'all enjoyed, and if you have any comments, feel free to post something!

 

 

 

 

[HKRevolutionOfOurTime]

The Blyskawica is the best tier seven destroyer, and can rip up tier eight and nine destroyers easily.

 

Blyskawica has a really tough time against higher tier gunboat DDs, which have higher DPM and a large enough hitpool to take some hits.

[ckupf]

Blyskawica is love. Blyskawica is life. Blyskawica is bae.

 

She and I took a wondrous trip to rank one together, generally being the only T7 in our battles. I have her with Demo Expert and AFT. 3.2 km of Invisifre with an 11% fire chance (12% during ranked when i run flags), she can bring the heat with her 7 guns. In ranked and random I have outdueled Bensons at close and mid-range. Kievs and Mahans barely worry me, and I can actively hunt IJN DDs, She is also the owner of my favorite volley ever when she 7 citadeled an Omaha at 4km. Yes, every shell was a citadel, it was beautiful. She has several Krakens for me (is there any way to find out how many?), and I have a 64% win rate with her in random. 

 

You understate the importance and effectiveness of her ability to spit fire from stealth. You will get Arsonists and Witherers with her, the only other DDs I have gotten Witherer in are T9+ Russians.

[Kookaburras]

 

Blyskawica has a really tough time against higher tier gunboat DDs, which have higher DPM and a large enough hitpool to take some hits.

 

As long as you keep a bit of a distance, you should be fine. 

[HKRevolutionOfOurTime]

As long as you keep a bit of a distance, you should be fine. 

 

Hard to do that against a US DD, and Soviet DDs have the shell velocity to hit you from farther distances.

[The_GoDDfather]

 

Blyskawica has a really tough time against higher tier gunboat DDs, which have higher DPM and a large enough hitpool to take some hits.

 

Arguably, the Blyskawica, when properly equipped, lets say Russian DD captain skills without SE is very comparable to a Benson ("C") that's running SA, LS, VG, DM, and AFT. Only after the Benson's initial shot does the Blyskawica see the Benson. Let's break it down.

Ship I Avg. Hit/Salvo I Avg. Salvo Dmg I Health  I Reload Time I RPM        I DPM     I Salvos to Kill I Time to Kill I

Blys I 6/7                   I 1,700                 I 15,500 I 5.8s.               I 62 shells I 17,567  I 15 salvos       I 49.5s.        I

Ben  I 3.5/4                I 1,050                I 15,400 I 3.3s.               I 63 shells  I 18,900 I 9 salvos         I 52.2s.        I

 

According to this situation, the benson would kill the Blyskawica first, but the Blyskawica's shells would kill the Benson seconds later, as the Blys's shells were midair. Very comparable in this situation, but this isn't counting incapacitations, nor Blyskawica's superior fire chance dealing damage.

I believe Blyskawica would easily win this fight if you counted fire damage.

We could easily say that Blyskawica can beat a Tashkent, a Kiev, a Sims, and Mahan © will all submit to the Blyskawica.

 

[centarina]

its not that simple. benson gets 1km better concealment which means it can easily control the engagement.  plus no one I know runs C hull in benson.      when they engage  closer up, benson has advantage as it should from higher tier.       Also, it is tougher for blysk to get 15 point captain.   that is lot of matches even with premium.  (about 600k xp)   until you have AFT, you will be suffering a bit as well.

 

Blysk is a good DD though, and in capable hand,  as good as tashkent.     but don't knife fight against US DD if you can help it. 

[Kookaburras]

 

Hard to do that against a US DD, and Soviet DDs have the shell velocity to hit you from farther distances.

 

RU DDs can be a bit tricky to go up against, but USN ballistics get pretty bad at range. The Blys when upgraded gets 14km range and the guns are fairly easy to use. 

 

And while it is disadvantaged in a knife fight against USN DDs, I have won against Bensons before. Just stay away from Fletchers. 

[HKRevolutionOfOurTime]

 

RU DDs can be a bit tricky to go up against, but USN ballistics get pretty bad at range. The Blys when upgraded gets 14km range and the guns are fairly easy to use. 

 

And while it is disadvantaged in a knife fight against USN DDs, I have won against Bensons before. Just stay away from Fletchers. 

 

USN ballistics don't matter when the ships can get to within 6km of the target without getting spotted.

[HKRevolutionOfOurTime]

 

Arguably, the Blyskawica, when properly equipped, lets say Russian DD captain skills without SE is very comparable to a Benson ("C") that's running SA, LS, VG, DM, and AFT. Only after the Benson's initial shot does the Blyskawica see the Benson. Let's break it down.

Ship I Avg. Hit/Salvo I Avg. Salvo Dmg I Health  I Reload Time I RPM        I DPM     I Salvos to Kill I Time to Kill I

Blys I 6/7                   I 1,700                 I 15,500 I 5.8s.               I 62 shells I 17,567  I 15 salvos       I 49.5s.        I

Ben  I 3.5/4                I 1,050                I 15,400 I 3.3s.               I 63 shells  I 18,900 I 9 salvos         I 52.2s.        I

 

According to this situation, the benson would kill the Blyskawica first, but the Blyskawica's shells would kill the Benson seconds later, as the Blys's shells were midair. Very comparable in this situation, but this isn't counting incapacitations, nor Blyskawica's superior fire chance dealing damage.

I believe Blyskawica would easily win this fight if you counted fire damage.

We could easily say that Blyskawica can beat a Tashkent, a Kiev, a Sims, and Mahan © will all submit to the Blyskawica.

 

 

You took one of the worst setups for gunboat duels to demonstrate how great the Blyskawica at gunning down higher tier DDs. Not impressed.

 

You're also really generous in giving the Blys BFT but not the Benson.

[The_GoDDfather]

 

You took one of the worst setups for gunboat duels to demonstrate how great the Blyskawica at gunning down higher tier DDs. Not impressed.

 

You're also really generous in giving the Blys BFT but not the Benson.

 

Both have a 15 point captain in the setup I'd used for both.

I did screw up with saying AFT rather than CE, though.

[centarina]

my 15 point benson has

 

bft

LS

Vig

SE

CE

 

with 5.8km conceal, I don't need SA.   use the smoke circle  mod  .         I would need SA in   Blysk though.

[The_GoDDfather]

my 15 point benson has

 

bft

LS

Vig

SE

CE

 

with 5.8km conceal, I don't need SA.   use the smoke circle  mod  .         I would need SA in   Blysk though.

 

I run SA rather than BFT because it's only .3 of a second. Then the added benefit of finding out if a DD is within my invisi-firing range. I also run DM over SE because I tend to focus on larger target, but get some perks the double for knife fighting (DM, VG, LS) only because I'd rather be versatile than stick to one role.

[HKRevolutionOfOurTime]

 

Both have a 15 point captain in the setup I'd used for both.

I did screw up with saying AFT rather than CE, though.

 

Exactly. You gave the Blyskawica a more gunduel-oriented skill setup and the Benson a more balanced skill setup with those 15 pts. But the captain skills aren't half the reason why your comparison is invalid. Not only did you distribute captain points in such a way to favor the Blyskawica, you also gave the Benson the C hull instead of the more popular B hull. The hull choice is what I meant by "setup."

[Camping4XP]

Nice review of my favorite destroyer. Gonna give you a +1 when I get on a computer

[centarina]

 

I run SA rather than BFT because it's only .3 of a second. Then the added benefit of finding out if a DD is within my invisi-firing range. I also run DM over SE because I tend to focus on larger target, but get some perks the double for knife fighting (DM, VG, LS) only because I'd rather be versatile than stick to one role.

 

invisi firing from benson with CE,  is   about 2km total.     I don't worry too much since I only do it situationally. (usually after DDs are thinned down a bit).  some do prefer SA, and I fine with that.    Also,    with number of total hits per match,  Idon't get enough extra fire from DE  to justify  it.  I seemed to average of 2 fire per match, and DE only boost this to 3 or 4.   not a big a difference for me. I have DE on my farragut and it doesn't seem worth it.    rather have extra HP.