As tall as a 17-storey building. Built from 72,000 tons of steel. Firing shells as heavy as cars, from turrets protected by armoured plates more than half a metre thick.
In life, the Yamato was born too late – the ultimate battleship in a time of submarines and aircraft carriers. But unlike life, World of Warships is carefully balanced – a timeline-agnostic place where this sea monster can finally make the splash it was supposed to.
The Yamato never met another large ship in battle – instead, it was pecked to pieces by 400 planes over the course of two hours. Nevertheless, its dense hull makes it the “most durable warship in the game”.
“It will require a whole squadron to deal with this battleship,” say Wargaming. “She can withstand a torpedo salvo and keep firing from all guns.”
The Yamato sits at the very top tier of the Japanese tech tree in Warships, and asks players to draw on every ounce of their experience. Accelerating, turning and stopping all have to be planned far in advance, and the ship’s incredibly long-range turrets require players to lead targets properly.
What’s more, smaller ships can survive direct hits that go in one side and out the other – shells that would stick in and sink the Yamato. Think you’re up to floating it?
Here’s a bunch of things that happened when our Steve went to visit Wargaming in Saint Petersburg.