Potemkin Warship

**Key Features** | »» Quadruple 560mm naval guns (×4)»» *"Shchuka"* magnetic harpoon»» 16-layer reinforced composite armour armour»» Armour piercing Tesla shells (many)»» Mechanical targeting computer (Snarky)

*"We sunk Atlantis!"*

- Potemkin Warship crew
## Tactical analysis

* **Seafaring Tanks**: The Apocalypse Tank of the Sea, the Potemkin packs sixteen 560mm gun barrels in four turrets firing electrothemal chemically boosted Tesla enhanced shells for some of the heaviest firepower of any non tier-4 warship, and also has its own array of missiles and thermobaric rockets to deal with lesser foes and virtually impenetrable armour.

* **Can't Escape Davy Jones Locker**: Similar to the Apocalypse Tank the Potemkin can fire a magnetic harpoon to hold and slowly drag enemy ships or vehicles towards them, its prowl opening to grinding teeth to rip apart the unfortunate vessel and using its remains to repair itself. But to maintain the beam the Potemkin must shift all powers from its cannon to the harpoon, thus unable to fire while the harpoon is active.

* **Come Here And Face Me**: However, like the Apocalypse, the Potemkin is a large target that is perilously vulnerable to bombardment ships in particular, and while significantly faster than anything its size should be, is still hardly fast, and is also quite vulnerable to submarines.

* **You cannot touch me!**: After the Rising Sun launched its invasion combined with witnessing the effectiveness of the Potemkin the Soviets are starting to make newer models of the Potemkin sporting Iron Curtain flash field generators that can intercept incoming attacks to block incoming enemy alpha strikes. These newer ships, however, are generally entrusted to the care of the more experienced commanders.

## Background

The Potemkin was born out of a need for the Soviet Union to protect its large but cloistered access to the sea and to reach important but often disparate allies such as the APRC or to ensure Naval superiority in the likes of the Indian Ocean and to force the Bosporus straits. While guided missile cruisers and tesla ships had proven their worth, there was a need for something bigger and badder still, something that could take a beating while not being as large as a full on ultraship. Thus they decided quite simply on taking the basic principle of the Apocalypse Tank and just making it much bigger.

With a new hull meant to accomodate the new systems and the armour meant to endure anything up to and including heavy coilgun fire or direct Athena Satellite bombardment, the Potemkin was left to the designers of the Admiralty Shipyards in Leningrad to figure out the specifics of through a process lasting many feverish months and nights. While Cherdenko had initially cut the military budget as part of his destalinisation, the growth of the economy and the tighter integration of MCV production paid its dividends and the Potemkin project enjoyed the funding it'd need with room to spare.

While guided anti-ship missiles were powerful, the increased availability of means to jam or shoot them down was concerning, especially as ships could only carry so many missiles at a time and missiles were inherently explosion risks. Energy weapons were powerful and endlessly reusable, but ran into the issue of generally not having the range of physical projectiles, and with the existing warships in the Soviet fleet, it was felt that relitigating the Electric Eel or the Iron Cruiser was not in the Red Navy's best interests. But the young engineer Svetlana Bezenova and her companions decided to once again look at the apocalypse tank for inspiration and simply doubled the calibre of its main guns.

With electrothermal chemical propulsion, the enormous shells could be lobbed at enough speed to achieve great range, particularly when paired with the A.I drone computers the USSR had developed to allow for quite accurate firing, and while the Tesla Shells fitted into the apocalypse were somewhat new, these larger shells could fit them quite easily. Allowing them to deliver devastating impacts that would fry secondary components and greatly damage hulls as well as punch massive holes into them. This it was then decided, was quite satisfactory, particularly when paired with the anti-air, rocket launcher, and CIWS suite that helped fill out these massive warship's demands.

Armour research that created the material that Allied intelligence nicknamed "Stalinium" but went by the codename of "Alloy 413" was used as part of the composite for some of the sturdiest hulls on the planet, and tesla fired engines would propel the behemothic craft at a pretty good speed for their sheer size. However, inertia is something that cannot be so easily overcome, and so they had a harder time coming to a stop when at full steam or accelerating to full speed which meant that generally captains were expected to keep a constant speed with their ships lest they find themselves accelerating or decelerating at an inopportune time.

The newly created Potemkin-class got the chance to prove themselves in naval battle soon enough, when the Third World War broke out. It soon made a reputation for itself. As the designers had predicted, the 560mm naval guns could utterly destroy other ship that opposed it, and the magnetic harpoon could pull targets right into the Potemkin's sights. The only real threats it faced were from submarines and protracted artillery bombardment, and with proper escorts these could be dealt with. While the Potemkins were hardly agile due to their inertia, they had the firepower to simply outmatch most battleships and could overwhelm the likes of the Trident or Shogun in a slugging match in a hurry.

## Behind the Scenes

* The Potemkin is basically a navalised Apocalypse Tank.