User blog comment:FlammeumDraco333/Tales From the Not so Blocky Seas/@comment-13740085-20160228234248

Review: Bayern class Super-Dreadnought

"Für das Vaterland! Gott Schütze Wilhelm der Kaiser!"

-Me, while playing this ship, often

I always found it strange that the High Seas Fleet, from the German Empire, a country dominated by Prussia, would name the class of its most powerful dreadnoughts after Bavaria.

That being said, this has so far been my favorite ship of the German tree.

Why? I'm glad you asked.

* Firepower: oh boy. A level 30 battleship, and you can mount four 15" dual turret right off the bat. I did that and never took them off. This was the first ship I found I can really one-salvo cruisers in the missions. Against heavier battleships I found it had more trouble, but a couple more main battery salvos proved to mop up nicely. This was actually the first Axis ship I defeated the Hood and Prince of Wales in. Secondaries, however, consist of a series of casemate guns, with the included limited firing arcs, and no torpedoes. The secondaries could definitely be better, but that's really my only complaint on the weapons.

* Protection: I ran a 4" deck, and 7" belt armor scheme for most of my run with it, and that proved sufficient. With that, what did me in were the 15-16" guns of the later mission Allies battleships (in particular the random Nelson stage on the third Japanese mission), though I found that the heavy 14" fire the Prince of Wales can throw does do a similar effect.

* Maneuverability: with my armor scheme, I managed into the mid twenties in speed. But when I increased it later on, I eventually settled on 23 knots. Though in the interest of disclosure I can't say what it's like with max armor because I never tried it. Despite this, I can say that, at least with the armor schemes I've tried, it turns just as well, if not better, than its contemporaries.

All in all, if you're at the 1935 Deutschland, and can't decide to sidestep to the Bayern or stick it out to the Scharnhorst, I recommend going for the former, if not because the best guns for the Scharnhorst are the Bayerns own guns, and it has four of them to the Scharnhorsts three.

Long live the Kaiser