USS Montana (BB-67)

The Montana, as seen in-game.

### Secondary Battery

(10x2) \*10 Dual-turrets Range: 1,070m -> 1,304m Damage: 10,881 -> 13,264 Reload Time: 11s -> 8s

### Anti-Aircraft Gun

Class 1 (x18) DPS: 700 -> 834

Class 2 (x42)

DPS: 324 -> 386

### Interceptors

2

"Freedom forevermore." - Motto Of The Montana Class Battleships

USS Montana was a plan for an American warship during World War 2.

It was planned not to be not only a single ship but a whole class of battleships known as Montana class.

But they realized, that with the upcoming aircraft carriers the battleships would be less important and they stopped building the ship. So it was dismantled to build aircraft carriers from it.

If it had been completed, it would have been the largest and most powerful warship in the world.

This ship can only be obtained by various Containers or with real money.

## Tactics

### Playing Montana

Montana is basically a super powered Missouri and with a higher alpha damage of 59k. This makes her even more powerful than the Yamato class ships albeit only slightly unless flags that improve damage are equipped. (Note: while Montana does deal more damage, it is divided among 6 front guns and 6 rear guns, so in a typical early battle situation Montana is actually at a significant disadvantage.) This leaves Montana with a lot of space to use other flags such as Canada, or germany for tanking builds. Without flags, she is the Second most powerful ship in the game being slightly bested by H41 in terms of raw firepower. Her AA suite is also the best amongst battleships and tied with the H41 making her a natural bane for carriers which will have a hard time taking her down. She also has higher speed than the Yamato ships, giving her another slight edge. The best thing however is the fact she has automatic secondaries that deal up to 30K damage per broadside. Unfortunately, the secondaries can be rather inaccurate and may not hit maneuvering targets well. Even so, this allows you to focus on other ships that are more dangerous while the secondaries help you to finish off anything that approaches within 1.2 km of you and they also add on to her already high damage when engaging in a slugfest with other ships of comparable specs.

Do take note, for players who obtained her without prior experience with TOP-tier ships (and I mean TOP tier, not even Iowa, I’m talking the notoriety of Yamato and H-41), the notoriety for the skill cap of this ship is absolutely insane. The entire enemy team often gangs up and targets the Montana as a first priority, making it actually very difficult to survive beyond a few minutes for an un-upgraded Montana.

Her reload rate is also a significant early problem that plagues the ship until significant upgrades can be made, thanks in part to a less than perfect accuracy. It's frustrating to fire and miss an entire salvo, because you become a punching bag for the next 20 seconds.

A wiser tactic rather than tanking and sinking through the middle of the map is to go through the side of the map. As you move, ask for allies in chat to follow you. Due to the size of the map, the tactic of splitting a team into two "squadrons" is shockingly effective. Fire from the flanks into the center of the map and act as the distractor for your teammates with your large HP pool. This ensures larger total damage output from your team and leads more often to victories.

### Playing against Montana

To deal with Montana you need to split her fire. Whenever all of her guns are concentrated on one target she will deal massive damage to her enemies regardless of whom is being targeted. Understandably, close range encounters with her are to be avoided no matter the cost. Instead, target her with multiple teammates, forcing her to divert her fire to multiple enemies. By doing so, you increase you and your teammates overall chances of survival by sharing the damage taken amongst yourselves.

## Advantages and Disadvantages

**Advantages**

* High HP.
* Decent Speed.
* Extremely powerful guns, dealing 58K even without flags. TOP 1 ship by DPM(damage per minute) from main guns.
* Tons of barrels, 12 per broadside.
* Admirable secondaries.
* Butter Smooth maneuverability.
* The ship comes pre-equipped with a camouflage.
* INSANE AA !!!, second to only Shinano.
* Satisfactory (but not perfect) accuracy.

**Disadvantages**

* Huge size.
* Turret angles are not anything special.
* Prone to being focused down by the enemy, often their priority target
* Has poor reload rate

## Trivia

* Considering the buffed Montana is capable of 60k dmg despite using only 3 more guns, (a 10k increase) doing the statistical math, it does not add up, as the Iowas are capable of 5.56k per single shell hit, while the Montana can only do 5k per shell hit. Could be attributed to the lack of use of the infamous 16-inch SHS (super heavy shells) in the Montana.
* It's armor belt was more than capable of withstanding shells from the Yamato, as it was designed to withstand 2100 pound shells fired from the 16"/56 caliber Mark 4 naval gun (Basically the Iowa gun but with a much longer barrel by 6 calibers or an additional 8 feet) with a muzzle velocity in excess of 3000 ft/s or 914 m/s, which can both match the Yamato's range, and impact energy.
* Two Montana class battleships, USS Illinois (BB-65) and USS Kentucky (BB-66), were intended to be the first two ships of the class; but were later on constructed as Iowa class battleships due to the United States Navy's need of fast battleships to escort the carriers. Unfortunately, however, neither ships were completed. The Illinois was scrapped while the Kentucky's hull remained, with the Navy having plans to convert it into a Missile battleship, which was ultimately cancelled. The Kentucky was later on scrapped after its bow was removed to serve as a replacement for the Wisconsin's bow after it suffered a collision with the USS Eaton during 1956.
* Montana was the third ship to be named in honor of the 41st state, and was assigned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Both the earlier battleship, BB-51, and BB-67 were canceled, so *Montana* is the only one of the (48 at the time) US states never to have had a battleship with a "BB" hull classification completed in its honor.