New Orleans

As the lead ship of her class, which was to be the last series of ships designed to abide by the Washington Naval Treaty, the USS New Orleans (CA-32) was among the first cruisers to be built with enough armour to stop 8in shells. Due to the time in which she was designed, the class name was considered unofficially as either the Minneapolis-class or more affectionately as Astoria-class. However, after the loss of Astoria, along with Quincy and Vincennes, in 1942 at the Battle of Savo Island, New Orleans became the official class name for the cruisers.

Twenty-three cruisers were originally planned under a 1929 programme by the US Navy, but the due to the 1930 London Naval Treaty and already owning several 8-inch cruisers, they only produced seven of the New Orleans-class ships. However, this class had three distinct test designs, with the New Orleans, Astoria, and Minneapolis all belonging to one. As a result from these test designs, the class spawned the Baltimore, Brooklyn, Cleveland, and Wichita class cruisers. The final four New Orleans-class ships were scrapped 1959-1961.

Historical Inaccuracies

• Permanent camouflage resembles the Measure 33/13D scheme, which was only applied to sister ships Tuscaloosa and San Francisco. New Orleans was painted in overall Navy Blue. In 1945 she was repainted with Measure 22 camouflage.
• No ships of the New Orleans class were ever fitted with twin mounted 40mm Bofors. The first Bofors guns to be fitted on the ships were already in quadruple mounts.
• The four quad 1.1" (28mm)/75 caliber AA guns that were fitted in 1941 is missing. These guns remained until late 1943, when they were replaced by six quad 40mm Bofors.

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  USS New Orleans (CA-32).

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  1943 ONI identification sheet for the U.S. Navy New Orleans-class heavy cruisers from the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence.

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  1.1-inch (28 mm) quad guns on USS Astoria in 1941. This configuration is currently missing from the in-game New Orleans.

See here for links to Update notes.

• Added to the game in Update 0.1.6.
• Update 0.5.0:
  • he power of the Bofors anti-aircraft guns was halved on the base hull of the ship.
• Update 0.5.1:
  • 203 mm AP shells' ricochet angles improved from 45 - 60 degrees to 60 - 67.5 degrees.
  • the number of charges of the "Catapult fighter I" / "Spotting aircraft I" consumable was increased to 4 ( "Catapult fighter II" / " Spotting aircraft II" - up to 5).
• Update 0.5.2:
  • experience earnings increased by 3%.
  • credit profitability increased by 2%.
• Update 0.5.3.2:
  • the Type 8 camouflage was renamed to Type 10.
• Update 0.5.4.1:
  • Radar consumable added.
• Update 0.5.7:
  • the ventilation intersection in front of the main battery turret was fixed.
• Update 0.5.8:
  • the hull armored model was refined.
• Update 0.5.10:
  • the display of some decorative objects was fixed on low graphics settings.
• Update 0.5.13:
  • areas between the bow magazines and outer armoring of the citadel were removed from the cruiser's citadel. Consequently the bow part of the cit noticeably lowered and is now surrounded by bow armor. As a result, the size of the most vulnerable part of the cit has significant decreased, and the general survivability of a cruiser has significantly increased when firing at the bow area
  • the thickness of the deck protecting the bow citadel was reduced from 83 to 57 mm.
  • the armor of the power plant below the main armor belt was increased from 19 to 25 mm.
  • the armor of the side of the aft citadel was increased from 51 to 102 mm.
  • HP points were redistributed between ship parts.
• Update 0.6.4:
  • the base detectability from ships was reduced from 12.42 km to 11.82 km.
• Update 0.6.6:
  • improved appearance of the ship using a special technology for high-quality rendering of thin elements (mainly rigging).
• Update 0.6.8:
  • the range of the secondary battery was increased from 4.5 to 5 km.
• Update 0.6.12 :
  • visibility when firing main guns in smoke changed to 7.05 km.
• Update 0.6.13:
  • fire extinguishing time is now 30 s instead of 60 s.
  • the survivability of air defense weapons was tested and brought to a single standard. The change affects 40mm guns.
• Update 0.6.15:
  • made minor fixes to textures and ship geometry.
  • the penalty to detectability from an aircraft when firing was increased from 4.02 to 4.06 km, the detectability when firing main guns from smoke was reduced from 7.05 to 6.62 km.
  • added a bonus to the "Congratulatory" permanent camouflage - a 10% discount to the cost of post-battle maintenance.
• Update 0.7.5:
  • New Orleans was moved to Tier VII.
• Update 0.7.6:
  • fixed description in the Port.
• Update 0.7.7:
  • minor fixes to geometry and textures on the ship and her camouflage.
• Update 0.7.9:
  • minor fixes to geometry and textures.
• Update 0.7.10:
  • the range of the Hydroacoustic Search consumable was unified - 4 km for detecting ships, 3 km for detecting torpedoes.
• Update 0.9.2:
  • the armor thickness was changed: the central section was reinforced from 16 mm to 25 mm.
• Update 0.9.3:
  • armoring of extremities increased from 16 to 25 mm.
• Update 0.9.6:
  • the value of the in-game turning circle radius was changed to 660 m to correct prior discrepancy.
• Update 0.9.10:
  • the distribution of HP in the hull was slightly updated.
• Update 0.10.0:
  • the firing range of the secondary battery was increased to 5.6 km.