| Potemkin-class Battlecruiser | |
| |
| |
| Faction |  Soviet Union
|
| Unit Type | Capital Ship |
| Designation | Anti Ship |
| Prerequisites | |
| Production Building | Naval Yard |
| Secondary Ability | Magnetic Harpoon |
| Cost | Unknown |
| Production Time | Unknown |
| Heroic Upgrade | Surface-to-air missiles |
| Dev. Status | Coded |
| Country of Origin |  Russian SFSR
|
| Manufactured at | Admiralty Shipyard, Leningrad |
| Key Features | » 508mm naval guns (×4) » "Shchuka" magnetic harpoon » 16-layer reinforced steel armour » Armour piercing shells (many) » Mechanical targeting computer (outdated) |
"We sunk Atlantis!"
- - Potemkin Warship crew
Tactical analysis[]
- Seafaring Tanks: Essentially an Apocalypse Tank if it was a battleship and armed with four massive cannons and a large reserve of health and armour, the Potemkin can easily decimate enemy vessels in direct combat.
- 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 slow, thus lighter vessels like torpedo boats can easily surround and fire upon their flanks, and they lack both depth charges and AA weapons, meaning that they are easy picking for submarines and aircraft without an escort.
- Your Wings Are Nothing!: 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 surface-to-air missiles that help to offset the Potemkin's vulnerability to aircraft. These newer ships, however, are generally entrusted to the care of the more experienced commanders.
Background[]
In testing of the Dreadnought-class missile cruisers following their refit, something soon became apparent; though the new Dreadnoughts retained all of their survivability, and though they could now level coastal fortifications with ease, the once unstoppable battleships were found to be lacking in anti-ship capability. Their V4 missiles were formidable, but they were not able to track moving targets, and their high explosive warheads were not designed to penetrate ship hulls. Furthermore, all of the Dreadnought's pre-refit weaponry had been removed to make room for the missiles; before, the Dreadnought could have dispatched ships that closed the distance with its ancillary guns and fended off attacking aircraft with its anti-air mounts; now, it had no defence against either.
Attempts to rectify the issue by arming all Dreadnoughts with scaled up versions of the S-15 anti-ship missile for ship to ship combat soon ran into problems, and despite the best efforts of Soviet engineers, it didn't look like those problems would be sorted out any time soon. Premier Cherdenko ordered Admiralty Shipyard to develop a ship to fill in the niche the pre-refit Dreadnoughts had filled now that all the Dreadnoughts had been converted to missile cruisers.
With the issues surrounding anti-ship missiles, they were soon discarded in favour of a more traditional armament; guns. However, with the Soviet Union gearing up for war by this time and most steel going into the production of more tanks and airplanes, Admiralty didn't have much to work with. To get around this, they employed the hulls of an existing ship class; the Potemkin-class battlecruisers. A total of eighty of these ships had been built during during the early 1940s, but they were considered obsolete after the Second World War and decommissioned, stripped of their weapons and almost all machinery.
The slowly rusting hulls of the ships still remained, however, and were suitable for Admiralty Shipyard's purposes. The ship would of course have to be able to defeat battleship grade armour like that found on the Pennsylvania-class battleships, which would require large, powerful guns. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough steel available for a full complement of battleship calibre guns, and the Potemkin-class battlecruisers were likely too small to mount all of them anyway. However, smaller guns wouldn't be powerful enough.
A compromise was made; instead of six or nine guns, Admiralty engineers eventually decided on just four. To justify the new ship's worth, however, it was decided that the guns would have to be of massive calibre; to this end, the engineers came up with a design for a thoroughly monstrous 508mm naval gun. Such a large and heavy gun, it was reasoned, would be able to wreck any ship easily with just one or two shots. Inspired by the Apocalypse tanks, a powerful magnetic harpoon was also mounted, a system to allow the Potemkin to pull ships that tried to flee towards it (or it towards them). Three hundred twenty guns were soon made, and the magnetic harpoons were requisitioned from Arkhangelsk. Cherdenko had his warship, and all guns were pointed forwards for maximum firepower.
The newly refitted 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 508mm 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 aircraft and submarines, and with proper escorts these could be dealt with. While the Potemkins were ponderously slow due to their new engines being insufficiently powerful, their armour (reinforced by Admiralty to ensure it could survive engagements with battleships) allowed them to go toe to toe with battleships, and their firepower ensured that, once the target was in range of their guns, it was good as sunk.
Behind the Scenes[]
- The Potemkin is basically a navalised Apocalypse Tank.
