Sovetsky Soyuz

> Советский Союз силен (The Stalin Republic stands strong).
>
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The Sovetsky Soyuz, as seen in game.

She was a Soviet ship that if built, would have rivaled the Yamato and Montana's in size albeit with less firepower of only nine 406mm (16-inch) guns compared to Yamato's nine 460mm (18.1-inch), and Montana'a twelve 406mm guns.

## Historical Background

The **Sovetsky Soyuz** (Cyrillic: *Советский Союз*, Romanized: *Sovetskiy Soyuz*, Literary Translation: *Soviet Union*) was to be the first of fifteen planned Project 23 "Sovetsky Soyuz" class battleships built by the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin's ambitious ship building program.

The Project 23 "Sovetsky Soyuz" design was a result of numerous testings and revisions of previous battleship designs. These designs called for a "Pacific Battleship" (Project 23 "A") and a "Baltic Battleship" (Project 21) (the Project 23 "Sovetsky Soyuz" was descended from the former).

Construction began during the year 1938, starting with four battleships (including the *Sovetsky Soyuz*). The construction of these ships was constantly hampered because of bombings or faulty materials. After the end of World War 2, only the *Sovetsky Soyuz* survived. But after the death of Joseph Stalin, during 1953, the construction of the *Sovetsky Soyuz* was cancelled and the ship was scrapped later on.

## Tactics

Judging from her stats and effective playstyle, she should be treated a Russian version of *Missouri* with a lower speed. Her pros are high ass and I mean high ass HP (~245K fully upped) that gives *Yamato* and *H 41* a run for their money, unconventional hull shape that makes bow tanking easy and ricochets VERY common when angled properly. Her primary con is her aforementioned low speed but through upgrades even without flags she can reach a decent speed of 34.5 knots, which is still faster than the *Yamatos*. Dealing 49K damage, she slightly edges out *New Jersey* and outclasses her in secondaries. In short, use her like how you use a *Missouri* with more emphasis on bow tanking. Only within 2.5km shall you go full broadside and unleash destruction.

**Playing as Sovetsky Soyuz**

The *Sovetsky Soyuz* is a budget verson of the *Iowas*, having a similarly powerful main artillery and slightly higher HP, but at the price of weaker secondaries and meager AA. The *Sovetsky Soyuz* is useful at long range engagements due to its impressive shell dispersion, and can hit accurately on small ships even at the distance. Aside from that, its high HP means that it can take high levels of punishment. The ship is also relatively fast, it can catch up with allies and can chase down disengaging wounded ships. The ship also has a reputation of deflecting shells, so going bow in is recomended. Beware not to go head on with other top tier battleships like *H 41* and the *Super-Alsace* as they could destroy the Soyuz before you can even deal 150,000 of damage.

**Playing along with a Sovetsky Soyuz**

The *Sovetsky Soyuz* is useful as a support ship, its accuracy can strike enemies from the distance while you attack closer to the rival ships (as a non Aircraft Carrier warship). Also, you might consider escorting a fellow *Soyuz* due to its lackluster secondaries and below average AA. As it attacks powerful warships, you can finish the job by delivering the death blow.

As an Aircraft Carrier, you can help out the Soyuz by clearing out any rival carriers that will certainly be a danger to it.

**Playing against Sovetsky Soyuz**

The *Sovetsky Soyuz* is an dangerous opponent for any ship to engage in at any distance, and so you need to have a contingency plan in case things go FUBAR. Use its lower speed relative to other fast battleships against it, and destroyers can close the distance to unleash a full torpedo salvo. The most effective counters are carriers however, as the soyus does not exactly posses good AA although it might take some work due to the amount of HP it possesses.

## Advantages and Disadvantages

**Advantages**

* High main gun damage.
* Fast main gun reload, 10 secs compared to the standard 11 secs.
* High HP.
* One of the Highest DPM (Damage per minute) among ships, sitting around 330K !!!
* decent secondaries

**Disadvantages**

* Clunky turning.
* Lackluster AA guns.
* Can only launch one interceptor at a time.

## Trivia

* The ship is longer and than the *Yamato*, having a length of 269 meters; while the *Yamato* has a length of 263 meters.
* She would have had an armor belt even thicker than the *Yamato class* at some deranged 17 inches (420mm) but failure of the Soviet armor industry to produce plates this thick forced them to weld 2 slabs to the appropriate thickness which negated the increased protection due to armor brittleness as a result of the welds.
* *Sovetsky's* guns had one of the longest range of any naval artillery at the time with a maximum range of over 45.6 km which is just a tad short of the *Yamato's* 46km.