In World of Warships, we are now allowed to drive the cruisers of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. However, the British cruisers all do not carry HE ammunition! We asked Wargaming about this curious matter and received an answer.
After we previously presented a report about the HMS Belfast, the first British premium cruiser, the regular cruisers of the Royal Navy have now appeared in the game. These are exclusively light cruisers, meaning ships that do not take much punishment but are very agile. This makes the light units ideal for hunting destroyers.
By the Davy Jones! Where has the HE ammunition gone?
But what is this? Anyone who takes a closer look at the new ships should quickly notice that something important is missing: The HE ammunition! British cruisers apparently can only load armor-piercing shells. But how are they supposed to effectively hunt destroyers and other light targets with that? AP ammunition tends to completely penetrate without dealing significant damage to lightly armored targets.
We asked Wargaming what this was all about. The answer: HE ammunition would have been far too overpowered for the British. Because the new cruisers shoot extremely quickly, and reload times under 3 seconds are indeed feasible. With HE ammunition and its increased fire probability, this would lead to a joyful barbecue on the high seas, and the so-called “HE-spamming” is already a major annoyance in World of Warships.
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Thus, the problematic ammunition has been completely removed and slightly modified AP ammunition has been provided instead. For the British, the AP shells explode immediately after penetrating the armor inside the opponent and not somewhere behind him in the sea. Thus, the cruisers still deal significant damage in close combat with well-placed hits but do not cause unfair and annoying persistent fires on heavy ships. By the way, the embedded video from YouTuber EiKarrRamba shows all British ships in detail.
What do you think about the new ships and the balancing decision of the developers regarding HE ammunition? Let us know and write it in the comments!
In World of Warships, the player takes control of a massive steel colossus on one of the world's oceans. The free-to-play title is typically based on real histo...
