KMS Deutschland

The Deutschland, as seen in game.

"[Deustchland] rushed the side. Killed both [of] us, sorry." - Player apologizing to team

The Deutschland was a German heavy cruiser built by the Reichsmarine that is featured in the game.

## Background History

The Deutschland was laid down during February 5, 1929; was launched during May 19, 1931; and was commissioned during April 1, 1933.

The ship was built by the Weimar Republic's Reichsmarine. Due to the harsh restrictions set by the Versailles treaty, the Germans were able to successfully design a large warship that still followed the restrictions. It was initially classified as a Panzerschiffe (Armored ship), but the British called them "Pocket Battleships". The ship, along with its sisters, was then reclassified as a heavy cruiser.

The ship participated in non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War (July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939), but was damaged by Republican bombers.

During World War 2, the ship raided Allied convoys within the Atlantic, and participated in the invasion of Norway and several other operations. The ship was sunk in the shallow waters in the Kaiserfarht by RAF bombers during April 1945, but was still used as a gun battery to support German soldiers that were fighting the Red Army until May 4, 1945. The ship was raised by the Soviet Navy during 1947, and was then sunk as a target ship in the Baltic sea.

## Tactics and Overview

Deutschland is essentially a smaller version of Scharnhorst (and an upscaled Majestic/Yukikaze) in terms of play style and as such can use the same tactics. you gun down ships of equal or less power before moving on to bigger game and if a destroyer or another cruiser comes in within .6km, you fire your torpedoes. If a battleship of better specs comes your way, try to retreat and find cover while you shoot back. And finally, avoid aircraft as much as possible as this ships AA is mediocre with only mid to lower ranked ships being worse in this respect.

### Playing Deutschland

Keep in mind that your speed is the lowest within the cruiser category and the guns are not very accurate. While the Deutschland is more than capable of going solo, you need a good grasp of how to use the ship so sticking with the team is your best option. Your main job is that of a hunter killer. You target anything that is slow and short of a mid tier battleship and such as Grosser KurfÜrst or Arkansas and gun them down with your superior firepower. Avoid high spec cruisers and battleships. They will quite literally scrap you within several salvos. As long as you keep this ships shortcomings in mind and compensate for them accordingly by closing the distance and choosing the right prey, you will come out on top. When forced to go against a top spec BB, provide support fire if there is any nearby teammates and get your teammates to know of your plight. In most cases you are already dead so try to get as close as possible and perform a banzai with your torpedoes while spamming your guns as much as possible. This way if you do eventually go down you can at least also take out a chunk of the enemy teams best surface combatant with you.

Flags should be used as per player's choice; it depends on how you plan to play. Some sound options are:

Reload flags, Speed flags, HP flags, damage flags

The Deutschland is weak in these aspects except for reload, with a rather respectable reload of 10 seconds. Flags cut it down to 8, and upgrades can reduce it to 6. Use your ship as a machine gun and top up on damage, and you have quite an underrated ship.

Its speed is disheartening and not only hinders your escape, but leaves you unable to chase down any weak enemies or choose flanks quickly enough. Speed flags are advised.

The best combination, therefore, is the Brazilian flag.

### Playing with a Deutschland

The main way of supporting this ship is by providing AA cover. This is because while Duetschland is more than capable of fighting off planes, saturation attacks will leave it vulnerable and will most likely deplete it's HP to the point that is is as good as out of action until it can repair all the damage.

### Playing Against a Deutschland

Most ships of similar or higher tiers such as HMS Rodney, KMS Admiral Hipper, and even fully upgraded royal sovereigns can completely demolish this ship in a long range duel due to this ships comparatively poor accuracy and firepower in terms of number of guns. Be careful at close range as this ship does have mid-tier torpedoes that deal over 44K damage on each broadside when maxed (their angles also favor frontal engagements, making this ship harder to hit and allowing quick switching to second launcher). This will not be a problem with ships also armed with torps as they can deliver far more punishing blows of the same type.

## Advantages and Disadvantages

**Advantages**

* Fast main gun reload.
* Decent secondary guns.
* Has decent torpedoes
* Torpedo angles are great.

**Disadvantages**

* Low number of main guns.
* Lackluster Anti Aircraft guns.
* Slow turn time, 32 secs.
* Quite underwhelming HP pool.

## Editor/Contributor's Opinion

1) **XercesDenial** :- " Despite the fact that this ship is very unique and interesting... interesting turret and torpedo layout.. she has the ability to under-perform at everything.. she'll require you to get used to her play-style if you want those 400K + damage games... "

## Trivia

* The ship used to suffer from visual glitches. This was later on solved after an update late on the 26th December 2018.
* The Deutschland was renamed to Lutzow during 1940 because Hitler feared that the loss of a ship bearing the name of Germany might reduce the morale of Germans.
	+ The ship was renamed Lutzow after the unfinished Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser bearing the same name was sold to the Soviet Union.
* During April 1934, Hitler visited and toured the ship, speaking informally with the ship's crew.

### In-Game Inacurracies:

* If observed close enough, it resembles the Admiral Graf Spee, it's most famous sister ship.
* The torpedo tubes are not inside of casematings, unlike the real-life models. The models in-game are only normal tubes.