Russian Nacy (VMF) - Tier 4: Svietlana

This is the last phase that I've spoken about in the last two posts. The Novik, Bogatyr and Svietlana play very similarly, only as you progress with each you get more guns! The Svietlana is the epitome of 'bristling with guns'.

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Just from viewing the image above, you can see the enormous amount of guns that she boasts. The Svietlana is laden with firepower, more so than the previous Bogatyr. Apart from guns that put most other ships at their tier to shame, she comes equipped with torpedoes! This is the first ship in the Russian cruiser line that has the ability to torpedo enemy ships.

A Hail of Ordnance

I found the guns to have a slow reload, but the amount of them allows each volley to terrify any enemy on the receiving end. Being equipped with 15 guns with essentially full 360 degree firing capabilities allows for at most 8 of these guns to be aimed at any one target when angled or giving broadside.

For enemies unfortunate enough to be in close range to you, your armor piercing will make short work of them. For destroyers at any range and other targets at medium to long range, high explosive rounds will be sure to turn their ships into floating 4th of July celebrations, with fires being ignited all across their decks.

The Torpedo Question

The two torpedo tubes located at the rear of this ship offer more than just overwhelming fire power. The torpedoes have a small range of 5km and you will need to expose your broadside in order to deploy them, these are the downsides. Despite the torpedoes not being practical when brawling from medium to long range, they make for a great deterrent and punishment tool should an enemy ship stray within that 5km range and not respect your defensive capabilities.

Downsides

The Svietlana starts to show a downside that i find is prevalent throughout my whole experience with the Russian cruiser line: Slow rudder shift. The time it takes for the rudder to shift from full port to full starboard is incredibly slow. This means maneuverability is a problem, especially if you find yourself sailing among st island and need to turn around, you could run aground.

While the Svietlana possesses AA guns, they are incredible bad. Any pilot dropping rockets, torpedoes or bombs on your ship will laugh as he flies past the poor excuse of aerial peashooters mounts on your ship. Being tier 4, you will face carriers regularly. You must stay close to allied ships if you don't want to become the focus of an enemy carrier who wished to sink you faster than you can reach the capture point, which brings me to my next point - Speed

The Svietlana is extremely slow. Coupled with the rudder shift problem, i found myself almost exclusively in open water to avoid being run aground or quickly pulled out of position by advancing enemy forces. My advice with the Svietlana is stay at maximum range using the large amount of guns the fact you have torpedoes to keep the enemy at range. Always keep the option of retreat in your mind, because you are so slow. If you fail to identify when a situation is lost, you will suffer with the Svietlana. Multiple times i failed to notice the enemy would soon overrun my flank and while attempting to chug away with a bad turn rate, i was caught full broadside or had my engine / rudder knocked out.

One point i should highlight is that you should not pull out of a situation prematurely just because you are scared of a potential flank collapse. If you do this, your team might collapse without your support. The Svietlana shows an increasing difficulty in the game that the developers have obviously implemented.

All in all the Svietlana is a high skill step above the previous ships i have talked about in the Russian cruiser line. From playing the Svietlana you will begin to gain an understanding of situational awareness. I've refined this ability quite so, however, i can tell you that if you fail to learn this skill you will lose many games. This is also a skill needed increasingly as you progress to higher ranks and face more skill opponents and powerful ships.