Ship Review:
SMS Konig

The Konig and her sisters were the first German battleships to dispense with the wing turrets and go to a full centerline arrangement. In my opinion, the result was a much better looking ship, and one that offers some interesting benefits on the water.


Firepower: B The Konig class are the first Class 5 German battleships, and as such, you'd think I'd grade them a bit higher, but ... since they lack the wing turrets of the Kaiser class, your most efficient firepower options are to go with twin sterns, haymaker and bow sidemount,

or with a Death Y and two pumps,

if you like to patch. While her firepower is very good, I don't think it quite qualifies as great.


Speed: D

Again, Konig is still a 28 second ship, and with the same three shaft arrangement will have less acceleration compared to a four shaft ship.


Maneuverability: B

And again, the same triple shaft and twin rudder arrangment will also result in excellent maneuverability.


Target Factor: B

The Konig is a bit longer than the Kaiser, and again has the raised forecastle, but this is offset by having a bit better casemate protection. Her size, and especially weight start to get her in to the territory where she can thug other boats around, though so this is a mitigating factor.


Skill Floor/Ceiling: Low/Moderate

Konig is where the German battleships start to get a bit more difficult, if only because you start entering multuple gun territory, which means having to tweak twins. (Yuck!) At least it's not triples, yet. Otherwise, Konig is a great standard style battleship, and quite accessible. An experienced battler, however, would probably find her a bit vanilla, and the low speed would still be a handicap.


Conclusion:

I've seen many Konig's in the hobby, and with the exception of poor reliability in some cases, they've all been quite effective little thugs on the water. The BC kit is very good, and makes for a good, and good looking battleship.

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