San Martín

Template:SupershipInfoBox

Topping off the Pan American cruiser line, San Martín is the peak of the consumables-focused play style developed across the preceding cruisers. Based on a combination of preliminary Worcester-class designs, she shares many traits with her American cousin mixed with some elements of the Minotaur line.

Most notably, she features the Combat Instruction mechanic, which significantly reduces the cooldown of all consumables.

Armament

San Martín's main battery is fairly standard for a light cruiser, but with some interesting twists. She mounts ten 152 mm guns in four turrets — two triple and two superfiring twin turrets. Her 15.5 km main battery and 6 second reload are both average for a Tier X light cruiser. But while most cruisers have HE shells, San Martín only carries AP. Although she has high per-shell damage for a light cruiser, her total DPM is lower than most Tier X light cruisers.

Like the British light cruisers, her AP shells have significantly improved penetration angles — 60-75° compared to 45-60° for most cruisers. However, she lacks the reduced fuse timer and arming threshold that makes Minotaur so effective against destroyers. She will have little trouble damaging broadside cruisers and battleships, but enemy destroyers can generally ignore her as she will likely overpenetrate and deal minimal damage.

But not all is hopeless for her main battery. San Martín uses destroyer dispersion like Zao and Smolensk, so her guns are very accurate for a cruiser. She also has better ballistics than most light cruisers, allowing her to comfortably engage distant targets without needing to lead as much.

Unlike Worcester, San Martín carries torpedoes, with one quintuple launcher per side. Her torpedoes have an average 106 second reload and 10.5 km range. Although their 1.4 km detection is slightly high, they’re fast at 66 knots, giving targets little time to react and dodge. And with a maximum damage of 17,500 per torpedo, they hurt when they hit. With a full concealment build, she has a 1.5 km stealth torpedo range, and despite only firing five per side, she has decent rear angles that make them particularly strong if she has to kite away.

San Martín carries a standard ASW airstrike for Tier X. She has two charges that reload in 30 seconds each, with an 8km range and two bombs per charge. Each bomb deals up to 4900 damage. Whereas some light cruisers (like Minotaur) carry depth charges, San Martín's ASW strike gives her more flexibility when dealing with submarines.

Consumables

One of San Martín's greatest strengths (and most distinctive traits) is her diverse consumable suite. In addition to the standard cruiser Damage Control Party, she carries a highly specialized and unique Specialized Repair Teams, a choice between Hydroacoustic Search or Defensive AA Fire, and a choice between a Spotter Aircraft or Surveillance Radar. Her Defensive AA Fire and Spotter Aircraft are the normal versions carried by most cruisers.

San Martín's Specialized Repair Teams may be one of the strongest “superheals” of any cruiser. It repairs 80% of all damage taken as well as 80% of all citadel damage, and can repair up to 30% of her health per charge. While other cruiser superheals can heal more total health per charge (40%), no other cruiser comes close to San Martín's penetration and citadel damage repair potential. Unlike most cruisers that only carry three charges of their Repair Party, San Martín carries four. Combined with the high per-charge repair potential, San Martín can be particularly difficult to kill. Like other superheals, it’s only active for 20 seconds rather than the normal 28.

Her Short-Range Hydroacoustic Search consumable is similar to the one carried by British destroyers. It detects ships and torpedoes out to 3 km, but has a shorter 100 second action time. Due to its short range, it’s primarily a defensive tool.

San Martín's Surveillance Radar sits between the versions carried by other light cruisers. It has a 9 km range like the American light cruisers, but has a shorter action time of 25 seconds, similar to the Russian light cruisers. With a full stealth build, San Martín only has a 0.1 km window between her detection and radar ranges.

Like the preceding cruisers, San Martín's consumables have a very long cooldown (with the exception of her Damage Control Party). Her Spotting Aircraft cooldown is the normal 240 seconds, but her other consumables have a three minute cooldown by default. However, her Combat Instruction reduces this cooldown by 85%, down to 27 seconds for her heal, radar, Hydroacoustic Search, and Defensive AA Fire, and 36 seconds for her spotter plane.

When timed correctly, her consumables become extremely potent with a super fast cooldown before another charge is available. But the rest of the time, the long cooldown can be painful.

Maneuverability

San Martín's maneuverability is decidedly average. With a 34 knot top speed, 790 m turning circle, and 11.4 second rudder shift, she isn’t going to win any races or twirling prizes. She has enough speed to keep up with the group and is agile enough to avoid running into them. But that’s it.

Survivability

San Martín can be surprisingly durable for a light cruiser in the right situations, but players must remember that she is still a light cruiser. Her 49,800 HP is average for a Tier X cruiser but decent among light cruisers, and she inherits Worcester’s rather unimpressive armor protection. Her 25 mm bow, stern, and upper belt offer little protection against cruiser HE and battleship AP. Her 30 mm deck can bounce the occasional battleship AP shell and shatter some small-caliber HE, but is still vulnerable to cruiser HE and overmatch from 431+ mm AP shells. Her citadel is protected behind a 127 mm main belt, and extends slightly above the waterline. Although she’s less vulnerable to citadels than ships like Minotaur and Moskva, she must still be careful when turning broadside to a battleship. Her torpedo protection is terrible at just 7%. Combined with her Short-range Hydroacoustic Search and AP that likes to overpenetrate thin targets, destroyers are a major threat for San Martín.

The vast majority of San Martín's survivability comes from her excellent heal. Able to restore 80% of any penetration and citadel damage she takes (and usable in quick succession when combined with her combat instruction), she can withstand a lot more punishment than most cruisers. As long as she doesn’t get deleted by a battleship or surprise torpedoes, she can shrug off most damage and still be effective throughout the battle.

Further improving San Martín's survivability is her excellent concealment. With a full concealment build, her surface detection gets as low as 9.1 km, making her the second stealthiest cruiser at Tier X behind Minotaur and one of the stealthiest in her battle. Destroyers will still outspot her, but she can sneak up on most cruisers without getting detected.

Anti-aircraft

San Martín's AA defenses are decent overall. Her 6.9 km AA range is the highest in the game, tied with Worcester, Minotaur, and Alexander Nevsky at Tier X. Her 4 km mid range and 2km short range auras are more normal. However, her continuous damage is fairly average at all ranges. She produces five flak clouds, which is rather average for the tier, but uses the same high-damage flak found on Worcester and Minotaur. Because of the increased AA range, she can still deal a lot of damage to attacking planes before they drop, but she can’t fully deter strikes by herself. Attacking her will be costly, but not impossible for most Tier X carriers. If she finds herself getting focused, she should seek additional allied air cover.

Players that wish to further boost San Martín's AA defenses can opt to swap her Short-Range Hydroacoustic Search for Defensive AA Fire.

Battle performance

Much like the cruisers that precede her, San Martín will live or die by her positioning and consumable management. Her guns are comfortable at all ranges, and potent against broadside cruisers and battleship superstructures, but she will struggle against sharply angled targets. And unlike most other light cruisers, destroyers pose a significant threat as her AP is ineffective against them. Her consumables make her a decent team support cruiser, providing vision, fire support, and AA cover for her allies.

Like most light cruisers, she is vulnerable to deletion by battleship AP. But if she can avoid massive damage from battleships and torpedoes, she can be a difficult ship to kill. Her superheal allows her to stay in the fight and outlast her opponents with relative ease. And this is especially useful toward late game, where most cruisers are lacking the health for extended fights.