HSwMS Östergötland (J20)

HSwMS Östergötland (J20)

Scope:

It’s v 4.4 during the Lucky 6 Campaign rewarding either Tier 7 Destroyer USS Black, or Tier 5 Carrier USS Independence. Ostergotland represents the Tier 7 Tech Tree Destroyer for the Pan-European Tree. Ostergotland is a GREAT ship with a HIGH skill floor and an EXTREME skill ceiling.

This ship was not given to me by Wargaming for review, I earned it all on my own.

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Rating Matrix:

• [BAD, WEAK, AVERAGE, GOOD, GREAT]
• {LOW, MODERATE, HIGH, EXTREME}

History:

Constructed in the 1950's, the Östergötland Class Destroyers were the last destroyer designed by the Swedish Navy until the modern era. She represented the lead and namesake of her class and was built largely following the designs of the Oland Class despite weighing slightly more due to upgraded equipment. The design featured a pair of automatic 120mm with a fierce rate of fire and numerous Anti-Air weaponry.

Östergötland was laid down in May of 1956 at Gotaverken in Gothenburg. She was launched in June of the same year and would be commissioned into the Swedish Navy in 1958. The ship would serve until July 1982 then sold for scrap in 1985.

Strengths:

• Excellent AA
• Fast Torpedoes
• Blistering DPM
• Good Handling
• Strong Concealment

Weaknesses:

• Anemic Torpedo Damage
• Smokeless
• Slow Top Speed
• Sluggish Turrets
• Skill Locked

The Basics:

This is a ship that on her first blush looks riddled with challenges and obstacles that would otherwise prevent the more orthodox destroyer from success. While at first blush this might dissuade captains from jumping into one of the more competitive destroyers in her niche, Östergötland genuinely has an answer for most situations.

Only 4 guns? No problem!

Östergötland has a fierce rate of fire and throws off a lot of shells. Friesland is a nice point of comparison here, though it should be noted and expected; gunnery focused Friesland does have better gunnery performance.

The key difference is that Östergötland takes a smarter consumable loadout. While this may be more challenging due to the lack of smoke, this is a ship with hybridized performance so adept, she really doesn't need it.

The bigger advantage, Östergötland sports quite adept, fast, narrow spread torpedoes.

Offense:

• GREAT

There's kind of a lot to gush over here if I'm being completely honest. Despite having just 4x120mm main battery, Östergötland takes home the second fastest reload of any destroyer, behind Friesland. Expectedly, this gives her an immense amount of wiggle room in her engagements knowing she will generally out-gun more often than she is herself out-gunned.

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Range here is subjective, and to be honest 10.9km range is well more than enough. Östergötland likes to walk a fine line; she is not a gun spammer in the sense of most gun heavy long range nuisance destroyers, but rather, Östergötland prefers close range 1v1 near surgical engagements. The kicker here is, that with short range and close engagements, Östergötland has the ability to drop off detection after killing her target.

This almost beautifully kicks off the Time to Kill (18,500) Table, which is an excellent measurement for a destroyers' anti-destroyer prowess. Genuinely, this test measures how long it would take for any destroyer to generate a specific amount of damage, and in this case, 18,5k HP which is a bit above the tier average.

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Östergötland takes home 4th here without the MBRB ships. 18.77s is quite fast for a hybrid destroyer, and that is all straight spicy damage per minute. Unsurprisingly, Östergötland sits in a similar rank in the next chart.

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Ballistics:

• AVERAGE

Now, normally this is where one might stumble into the Ballistics section. However, there is no destroyer in Tier 7 with improved ricochet angles, nor shorter fuses. Everyone shares the same 2.0 sigma, 45/60 angles, and 0.01s fuse for <130mm Main Battery and 0.025s for >130mm Main Battery. As far as the Östergötland's Main Battery performance, it generally mimics most of her 120mm contemporaries in performance.

Torpedoes:

• GOOD

Östergötland has some anemic looking torpedoes at first blush. The kicker here is, she has very narrow torpedo spreads, with her widest spread being narrower than most destroyer's narrow spreads. This means that quite frequently, Östergötland's fish can be fairly close together. In part, here is a double-edged sword, as this generally tends to either result in more torpedoes hitting, or more missing.

Another pivotal factor is their speed and the target's reaction time. These fish start at 86 knots and rise quickly when built in for torpedo specifics, and those captains may not be wrong for doing so; though they may entirely miss the wonderful, hybridized concept this destroyer has to offer.

It's not fair to call these torpedoes bad because they are anemic in terms of alpha. They simply take some getting used to, and then, captains can blissfully master the art of perma-flooding with greater relative ease than most torpedo focused IJN Destroyers can offer.

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GOOD. Different, but good.

Defense:

• GOOD

This category turns in on essentially an existential question into how valuable a smoke screen is for a destroyer. Turns out, not very much.

Observe.

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At first blush, 15,8k seems like a bad joke for a hybrid. Until you remember, Östergötland is an EU DD which means she can slot Swirsky; thus, freeing up an inspiration slot for improving something like say, fairly below average base HP. Will Sim's might help here, adding a couple thousand base HP into the mix, and in turn, giving Östergötland among the better Effective Health Pools in her class/tier. 20k stock isn't bad at all. Add Sims into the mix and that jumps up to nearly 24k or, third, overall.

Armor

• AVERAGE

Don't be silly. This, like Ballistics, is more of a Cruiser/Battleship section than a Destroyer section. Basically, and just like ballistics, most things are entirely the same with 19mm plating and generally no exceptions, though there are a couple; Östergötland is not one of them.

Anti-Air Suite:

• GREAT

Östergötland has a step above something even Friesland can't compete with, an individually slotted AA Consumable. Fitting though, Friesland and Östergötland run away with the card here, and are generally considered very well protected against carriers.

Östergötland, unlike Friesland, can play trickery games with carrier squads, letting the squad fly well into the aura before opening fire and activating the Anti-Air Consumable. End result, most carrier squads melt in literal seconds and never have the chance to escape your anti-air.

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GREAT, and undeniably so. This strength negates carrier spotting, as most carrier squads will not survive long enough in this Anti-Air Aura to make detecting her a viable strategy. This means Östergötland is uniquely able to control her concealment entirely by controlling the range of her surface engagements.

Not only is Östergötland's Anti-Air make her readily immune to most carrier strikes, but the carrier will also generally lose all their planes in the process. Repeatedly striking this ship can become near punitive for stubborn CV players, and Clear Skies medals are not uncommon.

Concealment:

• GOOD

This is more like a strong ABOVE AVERAGE than a true good, but I don't want to give the wrong impressions. Swirsky and Bey are a viable pair for this ship, resulting in a blissful 5.1km concealment radius, which is just scraping into good territory.

The second nice part here, is that most squads have to fly well into Östergötland's "Danger Zone" before ultimately realizing they have gotten much too close to an Anti-Air ship.

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While Östergötland lacks the ease of concealment behind a smoke generator, this is a ship that able to genuinely control her concealment through position and is readily able to outgun anything that can out-spot her.

Maneuverability:

• AVERAGE

A fairly narrow turn radius, fairly quick rudder shift and a slow top speed. Östergötland won't win many races, but she is agile enough where it counts. Large Gunboats trying to bully her with speed and range will not be able to stay close enough to keep her spotted, and engage her; thus, negating the most critical speed advantages beyond the cap control game.

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AVERAGE, but kind of like a tried-and-true average performer. Not bad, not spectacular.

Commanders:

Access to one of the better base inspirations that is genuinely always applicable for destroyers, Swirski is a match made in heaven here. I'm sure there will be some torpedo focused builds, but this is the one I found to be consistently dominant and flexible.

Jerzy Swirski:

Erich Bey*: Shifty (-5% Destroyer Concealment)*Will Sims: Built to Last (+400 HP per tier)

• Hide N Seek: -4% Concealment
• Observant Rage: -8% Reload, +15% Torpedo Detectability, +10% Rudder Shift
• Look At Me Now: -6% Concealment
• Perceptive: -4% Incoming Damage, +4% Torpedo Detectability, Direction of Closest Enemy
• Cloudy Daze: -20% Engine Boost Reload, -20% Smoke Screen Dispersion/Deployment
• Unstoppable: -5% Engine Repair, Gain reduced mobility with disabled engine/rudder

Consumables:

• GOOD

Access to an individually slotted heal, speed boost and CV repellent.

In terms of heals, the weakest of the pack, however, so few have a heal it is notable to have a heal in the first place. Secondly, topping out around 24k EHP isn't bad either.

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Then there is access to the cookie cutter speed boost found in the class.

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Throw in the CV repellant and you've got yourself an unorthodox, but effective kit.

Modifications

1. AA Guns Mod 2: +20% AA Range, the other correct answer is Aiming Systems Mod. AA for CV repellent as you don't really need the -7% to dispersion to succeed in this ship.
2. Propulsion Mod 2: Personally, I prefer this over Steering Gears, but that's just me. The only wrong answer here is Damage Control Systems.
3. Concealment Mod 1: Because every destroyer likes to be sneaky sooner or later.
4. Main Battery Mod 3: -12% to main battery reload because firing your guns faster tends to solve problems faster.

Upgrades:

1. Hull B: This will up Östergötland's HP/EHP and knock down that rudder shift to very comfortable times.
2. Torpedoes: Adding 10 knots and 1500 Alpha to your torpedoes is never a bad thing.
3. Skip the targeting upgrade. I know this sounds silly, but Östergötland should never be in gunfights greater than 8km, so, the extra Km here just serves as extra bloom.

Research:

• Östergötland is not currently involved in any Research Bureau Projects.

Summary:

• GREAT

Östergötland is sort of paradoxically awkward in the sense that she has a more unique approach to a similar problem faced by most destroyer captains than the norm. It can take some practice and isn't the most graceful of learning curves, nor is she terribly forgiving. However, master the duality of learning to engage on the advantage and disengage before the tide turns to disadvantage and this is a ship that is bountiful in her tactile near surgical control of the battlefield. I won't say she is the best, but she certainly makes a very convincing argument in her ability for area control.

Most things cannot stand either approach she may offer, gunning down smaller targets, or fishing out larger ones. Invulnerable to predation from the sky, Östergötland is the kind of ship which can control her own surface detection with smart use of short gunnery ranges, island cover, or killing the only target actively spotting her. She's frail, yet resilient, and will readily dominate the classic destroyer cat and mouse games.

While other destroyers chime in with fancy concealment or surveillance consumables, Östergötland outright doesn't perse need them to have the ability to deter or destroy ships of other classes, or her own.