WoWS Closed test for 0.11.2: new ships

British supercruiser Edgar, German battleship Mecklenburg, and Japanese battleship Iwami have been added to the game for testing.

We’re adding the following new ships to the game for an upcoming closed test session:

British Supercruiser Edgar

An evolution of the Minotaur-class cruisers developed in the 1950s and 60s which included an increased number of main battery guns, as well as more advanced anti-aircraft and anti-submarine armament.

Edgar is functionally quite similar to its predecessor — Minotaur. The main differences are the increased torpedo range and the availability of an alternative firing mode, which allows Edgar to fire several volleys in quick succession that have a higher penetration and damage than those fired using the basic firing mode.

During the Victorian era, while Great Britain’s all-powerful Royal Navy had free rein over the world’s oceans, an “Arthurian Revival” was permeating English culture — it was precisely in this period when the legend of Camelot as we know it today was shaped. Perhaps not surprisingly, at the turn of the 20^th century, the armored cruisers HMS Royal Arthur and HMS King Alfred plied the waves under the flag of St. George — the latter ship named after Alfred the Great of Wessex, the first king after the legendary Arthur to unite England, in the 9th century.

The third of this company of early medieval English kings was Edgar, the lead in a series of 9 first-class armored cruisers which served in the Royal Navy from 1900 to 1921. The ship was named in honor of Edgar the Peaceful, king of England in the 10th century. However, the cruiser had 5 more predecessors of the same name since the 17th century. The Admiralty did not forget the name after the 1920s, but the 2 more Edgars that were built just happened to be quite unlucky: an aircraft carrier laid down in 1944 was renamed on the slipway, and an order for a cruiser was canceled in 1946.

German battleship Mecklenburg

A battleship armed with sixteen 305-mm guns arranged in four quadruple turrets. The ship’s anti-air defenses are based on systems developed in the 1940s.

The key feature of this new German battleship is its unique set of guns — their small caliber, high rate of fire, good accuracy, and just the sheer number of them make Mecklenburg stand out among its peers. The ship is also armed with torpedoes and has good anti-air defense. However, unlike most German battleships, it does not have access to Hydroacoustic Search.

The capital ships of the Kaiser’s fleet were named mainly after the states that made up the German Empire, as well as in honor of German kings, emperors, and their families. During the years of the Third Reich, the naming convention changed in favor of honoring prominent statesmen of German history, although the battleships Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien remained with their names. From this, we can conclude that the traditional geographical principle could eventually return, adjusted, of course, for new political realities.

Of the German battleships in the early 20th century that were named after the emperors and monarchies of Germany, 5 ships of the Wittelsbach-class — each named after a German noble dynasty — were lost. One of these was Mecklenburg, which carried on board the name of the ducal house of two small states of the empire: Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The revolution of 1918 abolished the duchies, and the battleship was decommissioned in 1920. But the provinces of Mecklenburg in northeastern Germany were united in 1934 under a historical name that could well have been used to name a capital ship. Thus, since 1996, the frigate Mecklenburg-Vorpommern serves in the modern German Navy.

Japanese battleship Iwami

The A-140-J3 version of the Japanese Navy’s super-battleship project, featuring a smaller number of main battery guns, more efficient universal artillery and the presence of torpedo armament.

Iwami is a close-quarters combat battleship that enjoys powerful main armament, secondaries with good armor penetration, and torpedoes with a range of 12 km that are similar in stats to those on Shimakaze. To compensate for this formidable array of offensive weaponry, the ship received 32 mm plating and a vulnerable citadel.

When translated, the names of Japanese warships reveal themselves to often be very poetic in nature — a custom which, however, did not preclude the existence of strict naming rules for the Imperial Japanese Navy. In fact, these rules were approved by Emperor Meiji on August 1, 1905, on the proposal of the Minister of the Navy, Admiral Yamamoto Gombei — the man considered the “father” of Japan’s 20th-century fleet. According to these rules, battleships were to be named after the provinces of Japan, and the emperor himself had the prerogative to choose the name of the ships of this class by either approving one of the two options proposed by his staff, or indicating his own.

Iwami is one such historical province in the west of Honshu. This same name was given in 1905 to the former Russian Pacific squadron battleship Oryol, which remained in the Japanese Imperial fleet until 1922. This choice of name probably came down to the fact that the Battle of Tsushima — during which the ship was captured — was fought not far off the coast of this region. Since 2013, the name Iwami graces the lead ship of a 6-unit class of Japanese Coast Guard patrol ships.

Please note that all information in the development blog is preliminary. Announced adjustments and features may change multiple times during testing.