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Italian Navy tech tree review / World of Warships guides / WoWS

Italian Navy tech tree review / World of Warships guides / WoWS

By Denis Marasan ☆ 08/Feb/2020

Here’s everything you always wanted to know about the Italian Navy in World of Warships (play now!) but were afraid to ask. Learn about linear and premium Italian Battleships, Cruisers and Destroyers (coming soon, I hope), their distinctive features, strengths, and weaknesses.

Italian Destroyers

There are no Italian Destroyers in World of Warships to date, but the official wiki says that there’re two Italian Destroyers currently tested:

  • tier VI Leone: a very large destroyer in comparison with her contemporaries, officially classified as a "light scout" for a long time. One of the ship's features was 8 main battery guns placed in 4 twin mounts.
  • tier X Paolo Emilio: The project of a relatively large and a very high-speed "armored reconnaissance ship" with a powerful main battery, developed by the Ansaldo company under Project UP 39. Paolo Emilio was the predecessor of the Capitani Romani-class light cruisers.

No other details are available.

Italian Cruisers

The tech tree line of Italian Cruisers is all we have to explore in World of Warships to date. Below are the main features of Italian Cruisers:

  • Heavy Cruisers (main battery gage exceeding 8 inches / 203 mm) from tier VI with good penetration. Great ballistics from tier VII.
  • Epic reload. In the bad sense of the word.
  • Semi-Armor Piercing (SAP) shells instead of High-Explosives (HE) with zero chance of fire.
  • Exhaust Smoke Generator from tier V.
  • Italian Cruisers are not recommended for novice players unless you’re an Italian.

The main feature of linear Italian Cruisers is their Semi-Armor Piercing (SAP) shells that replace High-Explosives (HE). These are basically AP shells with better rebound angles (this parameter is similar to AP shells on USN Cruisers), short fuse time (this parameter is similar to AP shells on UK Light Cruisers) and increased damage compared to standard AP shells (with no surprise mechanics like fires in the case of HE shells).

A guide on SAP shells

All the above means that SAP shells inflict massive damage to ship parts they are able to penetrate and these are all Destroyers, Cruisers (except for armor belt) and Battleships’ ends and superstructures. This means that SAP shells are the scourge for Destroyers and require aiming vulnerable parts when firing at Battleships. And since the amount of hit point in ship ends and superstructures is finite, SAP shells are very potent when firing at full Battleships at the start of the battle, and not so potent when firing at heavily damaged Battleships.

As for gunning down enemy Cruisers, you may choose from SAP and AP shells. Since the firing range is poor and the trajectory of fire is flat, you may hit the citadel of an enemy Cruiser from almost any distance. Therefore select AP shells if you’re aiming at the citadel, or select SAP shells if you’re aiming at the ends, superstructure or casemate.

Another new feature that was introduced with the Italian Cruisers’ tech tree line is Exhaust Smoke Generator. This consumable permits setting the smoke screen at full speed, effectively concealing the ship. Exhaust Smoke Generator operates for 25 seconds on tier V and VI and 40 seconds on higher-tier Italian Cruisers with smoke screen dispersion time of 10 seconds. This makes it not very efficient for concealed firing at enemy warships from a smoke screen. Particularly because the parameter of detectability after firing main guns in smoke is disappointing because of the heavy gage of the main battery.

It looks like that conceptually Exhaust Smoke Generator was designed as a defense feature for safe maneuvering and retreating. In reality, it permits diving into enemy Battleships under the cover of smoke and launching torpedoes from a short range ensuring one hundred percent hit. Provided you're not going to be spotted by enemy Hydroacoustic Search, Radar, or disclose yourself by firing in smokes.

Cruisers to notice: all cruisers starting from tier VIII are marvelous.

Notes on tier X Cruiser Venezia: a great ship with unique gameplay, a logical conclusion of the whole tech tree line. You should be reconciled to a fact that Venezia has a reload of 20 seconds to love her. And you’ve got the whole tech tree line to reconcile with it.

Premium Italian Cruisers: since several premium Italian Cruisers appeared long before this tech tree line was finalized, tier VI Duca d'Aosta and tier VII Duca degli Abruzzi are just generic Cruisers with no SAP shells or Exhaust Smoke Generator whatsoever. These ships are recommended for players that disliked the tech tree line of Italian Cruisers, but still want to purchase some premium Italian Cruisers. Whereas tier V Genova has SAP shells and tier VII Gorizia has both SAP shells and Exhaust Smoke Generator.

  • Check out this guide on Commander Skills, including the skills overview, as well as the Commandes Skill builds for different classes of ships in WoWS.

Italian Battleships

Since the tech tree line of Battleships is not introduced yet, here’s a brief overview of the two Italian premium Battleships.

Tier V Giulio Cesare

Tier V Italian Battleship Giulio Cesare was so imbalanced she’s long removed from sale. The WoWS developers were even considering moving her to tier VI without improving her characteristics but eventually changed their minds. At the time of this writing her win rate ranged from 58% in EU to 62% in NA, so if you want to annihilate random players in battles and have an opportunity to purchase Giulio Cesare on some rare occasion, go for it.

Tier VIII Roma

Unlike Giulio Cesare that is clearly overpowered on her tier, Roma is good or, better say, slightly above average. She has no distinctive features, a kind of generic tier VIII Battleship. If for some reason you want to get an Italian Battleship – go for it safely.