The Constellation is an American battlecruiser (hence the speed and smaller guns). An old school standard "all or nothing" armor scheme hull that in real life was made into a carrier.
"All" isn't very much on the Constellation. The belt armor at its thickest is 178mm and the citadel protection is only 152mm + 38mm. Congress's belt is thicker than Constellation's.
@@daptrius4983 which is why it's a battlecruiser: lighter armor, high speed and big guns. Inter-war design kept the gun size down, but it's still a USN BC with a conventional USN armor scheme (albeit lighter armor).
@@swordmonkey6635The Lexington class battlecruisers would have been underarmoured for the time period they were designed in. This was a period when the British had Hood and the G3s in design and the Japanese were building the Amagis. They were the Invincibles of the 1930s. They wouldn't have been great battlecruisers, but they did make excellent carrier conversions.
@@Joshua-fi4ji The USN flirted with battlecruiser designs between the wars but never committed to them. Probably why the USN deleted the ship type "battlecruiser" from its organizational charts and made "fast battleships" and "super cruisers" instead.
It needs its proper 16"/50 guns. The Lexingtons were never going to get 16"/45s from the Colorados. Them and the South Dakota 1920s had their own set of 16"/50s, and Wargaming REFUSES to add those guns to the game.
I'm glad you do videos like these because often times when I look up videos to learn more about certain ships in game, all I can find is from when they were released. Often from so lomg ago that so so much of the game has changed.
Waiting for him to trigger me when he pronounces it "High-zen" rather than the correct "Hee-zen". Japanese pronunciation is easy and consistent yet he ignores it. lol
@@swordmonkey6635I mean it’s not his original language, have to be mindful of that, don’t expect perfect (or even decent) grammar from a WoWS streamer for another language lmao
@@guohongli5727 I understand, but a little effort goes a long way. The name isn't difficult for English speakers to say correctly since it's a vowel correction.
Spoiler alert, it's still shit. It's not fast enough, or armoured enough to do anything. And because it's lure was that it has twelve 410s (caliber-wise, you were getting Montana-levels of broadside at T9), they of course gimped it by giving it gruesome dispersion. You sometimes get RNGsus to bless a salvo that just slaps someone, but usually you watch all 12 shells fly apart and get 4-5 underwhelming hits on something. The only thing it does somewhat good is that it has good firing angles forward and if you go for a secondary build you have a decent number of 127s on the sides and the weird arrangement at the back allows two of the 155s to fire per side which is usually what you see on stuff like the French BBs. Much like the main Battery though you have a slow rate of fire and have to rely mostly on setting fires than than pens. Hope this helps, if at all.
Good that you pointed out that furious and heavy AP is a bad choice. They can work out in rare cases but overall you just suffer even more. DCP is way too overloaded in the current state of the game. Putting even more pressure on this weak point is just bad. Sure, it works on few exceptions like Maine. But overall Fire Prevention is a nobrainer. HE spam is in every single battle and people mostly spam your superstructure. One possible fire on it getting removed is huge. Being able to stay in the battle is far superior than being a damage pinata that has a bit more dpm.
I love Constellation, but it would be so much better if the ship got either its 50 cal design or its proposed 420mm guns instead of the 45 cal 406s. It also deserves at least a 27 second reload time too, which is the main thing that would help its performance. 11:20 There's a reason for that as perfectly displayed in your very next game, and it's mainly players thinking they always have to be taking advantage of the radar this ship gets. You never want to be within radar range if you can help it, as you will easily get focused down. It tricks people into thinking they need to be playing way closer than they should. If I had to liken Constellation's ideal playstyle to another ship, it's basically an American Champagne - amazingly accurate sniper, downright horrible tanking ability. I usually run both Brisk and Priority Target to help me know when too many people are taking notice of me and help me get out of those bad engagements by being further away than they think I'll be when I fire at them next.
This is actually a Lexington-class battlecruiser and a semi-real ship. The US ultimately turned these hulls into carriers with the USS Saratoga and Lexington. Constellation was never completed herself.
It both lacks firepower and has excellent firepower. The long reload on 6 guns is felt, but they are Soyuz guns at T8 and feel very nice. Powerful ship, but not the tankiest. It's a support battleship more than anything. It can carry a team, but can't do much if the team melts. Its citadel is also huge and it might as well not have secondaries.
I absolutely love Constellation. She's absolutely not a brawler nor a sniper, nor is it played for the radar utility as that gets you far too close early to mid game. I find myself playing her like a cruiser, like the Atago. Lots of hit and run ftom behind islands, using her speed as an advantage. The torps are great for nuking chasing DDs or brazen German brawlers. Nobody expects the launch angles. The Colorado guns are really good. They smack HARD, but you can't expect much from anywhere beyond 15km. That's why constantly moving back and forth across the map is crucial. Lots of people get upset because "uR a Bb GeT uP aNd TaNk NoOb!!1". Nah, you're a battlecruiser. Overall, she requires a lot of thought and attention to play her well. Definitely not an island hugging HE spammer.
I was hoping to see a comment like this :) I also love Constellation and was a little sad about PQ's final thoughts. She's a solid ship especially at mid ranges and I think you perfectly described playing her like a cruiser. She's not a tank and definitely not a brawler and the radar is very useful late game, when you can more safely move up I've found it to be very easy to catch destroyers off guard. My best game in her was kiting a flank and surprising 4 different people with torps, definitely one of my favorite T8's.
Constellation does have BC dispersion, but being an American BB, it doesn't have access to any sort of dispersion mod being a T8. Meaning you have effectively German secondary build BC dispersion with ever so slightly better than German sigma. The comparison to St.Vincent is ignoring that St.Vincent has 7% better dispersion purely because it has access to dispersion mod seeing as the American, British and German Battleships all share a dispersion formula. Personally it's why I dislike T8 and lower American BBs. They just aren't as accurate as their counterparts by design, then suddenly at T9 you become more accurate, but with longer reloads. Kind of wish they would give APR1 the normal 7% dispersion from the normal dispersion mod, with 6% range, then change APR2 to be 4% dispersion and 10% range, so that the T8- BBs aren't as bad to play, and the T9+ get some build verity. 25:00 To be fair, IRL ships had more armour than they do in Warships. Richelieu for example had at the thinnest 40mm of armour and that was for it's deck armour. If Richelieu had it's realistic armour layout, she would have roughly 170mm to 330mm of armour on her sides with anywhere from 145mm to 355mm of armour behind that, and that's before you get to the citadel/vital area armour. The belt armour was also sloped at 15 degrees, increasing it's effective thickness as well(Wish I could say how much more effective thickness it would have, but I can't find data on that from a random calculator it says her belt would be roughly 370mm of effective thickness). Richelieu was basically proof against most 406mm guns until the ship attacking her was around 8km away, and proof against most 380mm guns well into the 12km range. So realistically you wouldn't over-pen, you'd shatter or bounce, unless you hit the superstructure, then you'd over-pen, and unless you managed to luck into hitting a fire control it would effectively cause zero tangible damage to the ship. Good thing Warships isn't realistic, eh? Also fun tidbit side note, Warthunder actually has this issue but in reverse for their ground battles. A lot of AA vehicles have AP rounds that are able to fully pen basically any tank in their tier spread. While the actual tanks struggle to deal damage to them with their proper tank cannons unless they load HE shells because the AA vehicles are so thin there isn't enough armour to arm the shells. Basically leading a lot of people to question if WarThunder is so "realistic" why didn't armies around the world focus on ~40mm auto cannons over slow loading 90mm+ cannons, because the ~40mm auto cannons are just THAT effective in game.
I don't know where you're getting all this extra armor on the Richelieu. Her deck armor is 170mm over the magazine and 150mm over her machinery. Her "Citadel Roof" is 40mm thick. Her belt armor is 327mm tapering to 127mm angled at 15° 24' whereas in game it is angled at 16° and is in two sections of 330mm and 250mm. Behind her armor belt, she has a 20mm vertical splinter protection that connects with her 50mm turtleback. Her aft bulkhead is 233mm and her forward bulkhead is 355mm at the waterline and 233mm above and below that. Her forward and aft transverse torpedo bulkhead are 233mm in game but only 165mm in real life. Her torpedo protection side plating is 32mm in game but should only be 10mm. Her torpedo bulkhead varies between 30mm/40mm/50mm. Her steering gears protection is 150mm and her propeller shaft protection is 100mm, both accurately modeled in game. She does not have a 170mm plate or a 145mm, and her 355mm plate is a transverse plate and offers no side protection. Her deck armor is 40mm only in her bow. Over her citadel, the thinnest section of deck armor is a combined 150+40mm. Behind her 327mm main armor belt the only additional protection is her 50mm turtleback (part of her PBI deck) and her torpedo bulkhead which at it's thickest is 50mm for a combined total of 427mm. The only mistake is her armor is her fore and aft transverse torpedo bulkhead being 68mm thicker than they should be (233mm instead of 165mm). Richelieu was armored against 15 inch shells, this does not mean she is immune to damage. Jean Bart's armor was penetrated multiple times by Massachusetts' 16 inch shells at a distance of 22km, the 1st shell penetrating her 150mm deck 40mm citadel roof and exploded in her 152mm gun magazine, and the 7th shell penetrating her 100mm inclined deck over her propeller shafts.
This thing is a blast and can be used to terrrorize the enemy team. Most DD captains don’t know about the radar and if you’re getting chased, the torps can shoot nearly behind. Nevermind the near 40 knot top speed and excellent concealment. It can bow tank reasonably well if you arent up tiered.
Hi, former Constellation main here, Ill parrot that the reason Connies die early is because of this weird obsession with utilizing your radar all the time. The best use for it is spooking torpedo boats and cruisers into making mistakes or using it in the late, late game for blowing up those pesky DDs when you have no spotting. Its like a party drug
How you use it is simple: sit behind islands and flame mortar people, close enough to find dd’s with the radar and focus them with the guns, and know when to hold position and when to run.
Omaha and therefore Marblehead are actually important ships to know how to play. Many people end up with premiums of them as they are thrown at you for free, and the Omaha itself is a step on the way to getting US cruisers.
@@lucidnonsense942it's actually a very fun ship in the right games. It's not good at big open maps though. The torps hit hard and are great for using around islands and sub 10km the firepower is amazing. Secondaries are powerful, but few in number. Use them to supplement your firepower, but you're not playing around them like in a German BC. It's not unheard of to lose them all. The lack of hydro and speed hurts it a lot though and the design is a silly WG fantasy.
Play the ship at range to start, add extra heals. throw a few random torps out, get in to final third of match and with your hp intact and then she shines with extra range on secondaries, send torps through gaps, spotting DDs with radar. It works for me.
I love the Constellation, definitely my favorite battlecruiser. Very surprised you hadn't played it till now and somewhat disappointed you did a video on it because I like this gem to be a secret :)
Constellation is honestly one of my favorite t8 BBs, all the reviews of it would make you think its mid but if you play it correctly the thing is an absolute blast! Edit: you do have to play it pretty passively or it just gets eaten alive tho sadge
Same as all typical US cruisers - it's an island camper predominantly. It relies on you having learned the lessons Omaha tried to teach you at T5. That being that stuff will struggle to hit you if they can't see you because of islands; and will find it impossible to hit you if their flat shell arcs slam their shells into the mountains that your big rainbow arcs happily clear. It benefits a lot from having IFHE so it can more consistently spam direct damage; knowing your match-ups so you can get out from behind the island and chase down DDs with your radar when threats that can overmatch you are dealt with, and that's about it.
When I was playing I was never impressed by the Constellation. Maybe it was just the captains sailing her, but it always seemed to die quite quickly and since I was usually in a brawler my secondaries would eat her alive.
The guns should be the 16 inch 50 caliber Mark 2 guns, but the Deva got lazy and copy-pasted the Colorado 16 inch 45s. The Mark 7 guns of the Iowa were developed from the Lexington Class BC guns, as they were lighter and stronger variants with a longer barrel life.
Don't ever try make sense or reason of WG's mechanics, you will end up in a looney bin. No amount of snow boarding will save you Mr Quality. Sometimes even the most garbage of ships can perform at a godly level just the same as the most op of ships can seemingly be rendered harmless if RNGesus wills it to be so. All jokes aside, keep up the good work and welcome back. Glad you enjoyed your trip!
I don't have this ship, but my experience playing against them and with them on my team is much the same as yours: It seems like the die very quickly and usually aren't much of a help in the long game.
I might have to choose between superheavy AP and Adrenaline Rush on my captain for the Kansas whom I intend to use on the Vermont. (Going for an anti-fire build with a side of brisk/concealment)
Love my Constellation. Guns hit like a truck. fast as hell. Radar great for late game as DD's don't expect you to have a radar. Only weakness is that its squishy but speed is your friend.
Absolutely, i think too many people playing them push too hard and pay the price before contributing. You have to temper your push, which most users Constellation dont do. I trip up in this way sometimes with mine.
Given that it is a *_Lexington-class BATTLECRUISER_* the idea is to _keep moving._ Don't stop and eat shells, eh?!? You did deal good damage in the early salvos, OTOH.
Constellation is a beautiful ship, but the low armor & 16in/45 cal at T8 doesn't cut it even with her high speed + radar. Honestly I rather see her sent to T7 with no radar instead and I think she'll be FAR more competitive there.
It's a good ship people just rush in get focused by the whole red team and die. Last two games you were getting focused by to many ships and didn't have the cover you had in the first game.
I'd love to see a ship review on Van Speijk. It's become one of my favorite ships but it's also one of the least played ships in the game - even less played than Navarin!! And very few people seem to know what sets it apart from the tech tree Dutch cruisers.
I play constellation just enough to think it's good, but not enough to actually think it's good It does surprise me at times though....torpedoe angles are awesome for a BB/BC. Guns are definitely 50/50. AA is actually better then most BB it seems and speed is zoom
