IX ALSACE – 603 Sec. Hits – 234K DMG – World of Warships

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Alsace — French Tier IX battleship.

A battleship design developed in France in response to construction of the German “H”-class battleships. The ship was a development of the Richelieu class, but in contrast to her predecessor, she had more powerful artillery that was arranged according to a more reasonable scheme. One of the design versions received twelve 380 mm guns that were placed in three main turrets.

Performance
​Continuing the grand tradition of the French battleships from Normandie at Tier VI onward, Alsace brings twelve 15-inch rifles in three quadruple turrets to the table. Historically designed to counter the German H-class battleship projects, Alsace is the next step up from Richelieu, carrying a third turret to her rear, with her guns laid out in the AB-X style common to her peers of Lion, Iowa, Missouri, and Musashi. She has more guns than any other battleship of her tier, the second-highest base top speed, plentiful secondaries, a potent AA suite, and excellent agility. Alsace is well-suited for both mid-range dueling and close-range brawling, utilizing her mobility to move into prime positions and to escape if the situation turns against her. With Speed Boost active and the Sierra Mike signal flags equipped, Alsace can easily chase or outrun enemy battleships, even able to keep pace with cruisers in a straight line.

However, Alsace doesn’t have everything going for her. She has the smallest guns at Tier IX at 15″, leading to her lower overmatch statistic, meaning she can’t overmatch bow armor thicker than 25mm. While her armor is decent, she has the second-lowest health pool of all tier nine battleships; the lowest goes to British Lion, but while Lion has a super-charged version of the Repair Party (While active, restores a percentage of the ship’s health points each second.) consumable, Alsace does not. Alsace relies on her high mobility and properly angling her armor (made easier by her excellent turret arcs) to survive against her peers at Tier IX. Alsace comes fully equipped for aggressive and mobile gameplay, where cruisers are easy prey and battleships have no hopes of keeping up with the agile and swift Alsace.

Pros:
Heavy broadside of twelve (12) 380mm guns with good shell velocity and penetration
Good firing angles for both frontal turrets, ideal when kiting/angling away
Heavy secondary armament with an excellent base range
Strong AA suite when upgraded to Hull (B)
Very good torpedo damage reduction
Excellent top speed and access to the Engine Boost (While active, increases a ship’s speed by a fixed percentage.) consumable

Cons:
Longer than average main battery reload speed
Smallest gun caliber in tier/class, struggles to damage angled ships with 27mm of armor or better
Lowest main battery range in tier/class, tied with Friedrich der Große
Subpar accuracy and horrible sigma value of 1.6 heavily balance a large number of main guns
Secondaries require a heavy investment in commander skills to improve their penetration and accuracy
Third lowest hitpoint pool in tier/class
Outer plating is mostly 32mm thick, extremely vulnerable to HE spam and overmatch from Yamato, Musashi, and Shikishima