Duca d'Aosta
|Anno=
A light cruiser, Duca d'Aosta was a good ship for her time. Among her competitive advantages were high speed and generally well-balanced parameters.
Duca d'Aosta first went on sale on 21 April 2017 on the NA servers, and on 20 April 2017 on the EU servers.
|Performance= Duca d'Aosta, named after Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, 2nd Duke of Aosta, is a Tier VI Italian cruiser which features a play style unique to any other ship in game. She features eight 6-inch (152mm) guns in four turrets in an AB-XY configuration, complimented by one triple-tube torpedo launcher both her port and starboard sides. Her guns feature high velocity and flat arcs — making leading enemy ships at range easy — but are hampered by sub-par performance from her armor piercing shells; most Duca d'Aosta captains will find themselves firing almost exclusively high explosive rounds.
Her torpedoes have a 12.0 km range, allowing for some interesting uses that most other cruisers (with their shorter-ranged fish) are not capable of. However, Duca d'Aosta has a very vulnerable citadel — similar to Russian cruisers at her tier — meaning that captains must play cautiously to avoid being punished hard. She also has relatively bad turning and poor acceleration, making her vulnerable if caught in a bad situation.
LittleWhiteMouse's Premium Ship Preview: Duca d'Aosta from the NA Forums
|Pros=
- Duca d'Aosta has a top speed of 36.5 knots making her the fastest cruiser at Tier VI.
- The ship can mount the Hydroacoustic Search, Defensive AA Fire, and Spotting Aircraft consumables simultaneously.
- The torpedoes have an impressive 12.0 km range and reload speed of only 71 seconds.
- The main battery guns fire at a very high velocity.
- Decent AA with the right upgrades.
- Torpedoes do heavy damage.
|Cons=
- Similar to other light cruisers, Duca d'Aosta’s armor will not withstand many hits from large caliber shells.
- The traverse speed of the main turrets is somewhat slow and will sometimes lose their aim during hard turns.
- The fire chance on the HE shells is low at 7%.
- Despite their range, the torpedoes are slow at only 51 knots.
- Her AP is not as effective as her contemporaries due to low armor penetration values on the shells themselves.
|Research= As a premium ship, Duca d'Aosta doesn't have any upgrades to research.
|OptimalConfiguration=
|Upgrades= As a Tier VI ship with access to four of the upgrade slots, the following upgrades are recommended:
Contenido
Slot 1
- Main Armaments Modification 1 (as your main batteries are your main weapons in a cruiser)
Slot 2
- Aiming Systems Modification 1 (as your anti-aircraft weapons are unreliable and your turret traverse is already good enough)
Slot 4
- Damage Control System Modification 1 (as the rudder and propulsion systems are well protected)
Slot 5
- Steering Gears Modification 2 (as your rudder shift is somewhat poor for a Tier VI cruiser)
|CommanderSkills=
Recommended Commander Skills 
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| Cost (points) |
Endurance | Attack | Support | Versatility | ||||
| 1 |
 ★★★ |
 ★★ |
 ★ |
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 ★★ |
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 ★ |
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| 2 |
 ★★ |
 ★★ |
 ★★★ |
 ★★ |
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|
 ★★★ |
 ★★ |
| 3 |
 ★★ |
 ★ |
 ★ |
|
 ★ |
 ★★ |
 ★★★ |
 ★★ |
| 4 |
|
|
 ★★★ |
|
 ★ |
 ★ |
 ★★ |
 ★★★ |
| Key: ★★★ - Extremely Useful ★★ - Frequently Useful ★ - Occasionally Useful No stars - Not Useful | ||||||||
|Consumables=
|Camouflage= As a premium ship, Duca d'Aosta comes included with Type 10 camouflage that lowers her detection radius, reduces the accuracy of incoming shells, and increases the amount of experience she earns.
|Signals= As with all cruisers, Duca d'Aosta has 8 slots for signal flags. Victor Lima and India X-Ray are highly recommended to boost fire chance, increasing the damage potential of the ship. Zulu Hotel is also highly recommended as it increases commander xp gains, which is already high due to the Duca d'Aosta being a premium ship, and the signal flag being relatively easy to obtain. XP gains can be multiplied even further with the Equal Speed Charlie London, Papa Papa, and Dragon Flag signal flags, which boost regular xp gains, free xp gains, and commander xp gains, respectively. The Zulu signal flag may also be mounted to increase the credit income of the ship, which premium ships are good for. Sierra Mike is recommended in order to make the already fast Duca d'Aosta even faster. Finally, you may choose to add the Juliet Charlie signal flag in order to prevent detonations to the ship .
Recommended Signal Flags 
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| Combat | |||||
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 ★★★ |
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 ★★★ |
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 ★★ |
 ★★ |
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|
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 ★ |
| Economic | |||||
 ★★ |
 ★ |
 ★★ |
 ★★★ |
 ★★ | |
| Special | |||||
 ★ |
 ★★ |
 ★★ |
 ★★ |
| |
| Key: ★★★ - Extremely Useful ★★ - Frequently Useful ★ - Occasionally Useful No stars - Not Useful | |||||
Duca d'Aosta under way.
Duca d'Aosta firing a full broadside.
Duca d'Aosta firing forward after combing a spread of torpedoes.
Duca d'Aosta firing torpedoes.
Duca d'Aosta passes near a dead Cleveland.
Duca d'Aosta engages an enemy Sims.
JUSTICE! Duca d'Aosta takes an enemy Warspite with her.
|History=
Construction
- OTO; Livorno, Italy
- Laid down: 29 October 1932
- Launched: 22 April 1934
- Commissioned: 13 July 1935
Specifications
- 8,317 tons displacement, standard
- 186.9m length
- 17.5m beam
- 6.1m draft
Machinery
- 6 boilers, 2 turbines
Performance
- 36.5 knots at 110,000 shaft horsepower
- 3,900 nautical miles at 14 knots
Armor
- Main belt: 70mm
- Decks: 30-35mm
- Bulkheads: 30-50mm
- Barbettes and Turrets: 50-70mm barbettes, 90mm turrets
- Conning tower: 100mm
Armament
Main
- Eight (4x2) 152mm guns
Secondary
- Three (3x2) 100mm dual-purpose guns
Anti-Aircraft
- Eight (4x2) 37mm guns
- Twelve (6x2) 13.2mm guns
Torpedoes
- Six (2x3) 533mm torpedo tubes
Aircraft
Float Planes
- Two (2) Ro43 floatplanes, one catapult
History
Design
Built for the 1931-1933 naval program, Emanuele Filiberto Duca d’Aosta was the lead ship of her class of light cruisers, and moreso the fourth "sub-class" of the Condottieri-class light cruisers of the Italian Navy. She shares the same overall hull shape utilized by the previous Montecuccoli-class light cruisers — which is considered to be the first major redesign seen in the “super-class” — albeit a more enlarged version.
Compared to the first two sub-classes, Duca d’Aosta was over 2,000 tons larger in order to accommodate a greater thickness of armor, one of the more glaring deficiencies of the earlier ships. The belt, bulkheads, and deck armor was increased by 45mm, 15mm, and 10-15mm respectively. Although this was a step in the right direction, the armor was still objectively inadequate, as there was no immunity to 203mm shells and only an approximate 2,000m immunity zone (14,000-16,000m) from 152mm shells.
In order to not compromise on speed – the one major strong suit of the “superclass” – Duca d’Aosta utilized upgraded propulsion machinery that was built in Italy. Unique to Duca d’Aosta’s sub-class, her propulsion machinery was centered inline of the ship, and arranged in alternating firerooms (housing 3 boilers each) and engine rooms (housing a single turbine each). She was the first of the Condottieri-class vessels to exceed 110,000 shaft horsepower and maintain a solid 36 knots.
Other discreet changes included the forward superstructure being simplified to a central tower design, which housed the main conning tower within. The main forward fire directors were located on top, and the base of the superstructure contained an enlarged bridge with external platform. The aircraft catapult was positioned on the center of the ship, in between the two funnels, due to her overall length.
The main battery configuration of Duca d’Aosta was largely retained from the Condottieri “super-class”. D’Aosta was armed with four turrets paired fore and aft, and each turret was armed with two Model 1929 152mm/53 naval guns. Compared to the earlier Model 1926 guns, the improved rifles could be loaded at a greater angle and had a larger breach ring, which lead to significant increase in rate of fire. Unfortunately, these guns were suffered from dispersion problems due to their close mounting on the gun cradle in the turrets, which were partially rectified by a decrease in muzzle velocity and a smaller AP shell weight.
Upon completion she was also armed with 2 triple torpedo tubes and an anti-aircraft artillery suite consisting of three (3) dual 100mm guns, four (4) dual 37mm guns, and six (6) dual 13.2mm guns. In a retrofit in 1943, her torpedo tubes and 13.2mm machine guns were removed in order to make room for the addition of 20mm AA guns.
Italian cruiser Emanuele Filiberto Duca d’Aosta was laid down on 29 October 1932 at the OTO shipyards in Livorno. She was launched 22 April 1934, and commissioned into the Regia Marina 13 July 1935.
Service
RN Emanuele Filiberto Duca d’Aosta joined the 7th Cruiser Division when she entered service, with her only notable pre-war event being her circumnavigation alongside her sister-ship RN Eugenio di Savoia in 1938; but their trip was cut short due to worsening international relations. Both ships joined the 2nd Squadron in early 1940, participating in the Battle of Punto Stilo (known otherwise as the Battle of Calabria) in July, later sailing with the fleet to intercept British Cruisers en route to Malta by the end of October. D’Aosta spent most of 1941 participating in minelaying duties; rotating between minelaying and convoy escorts between Italy and Benghazi to support the Italians and Germans fighting in North Africa. By December however, the Italian convoys of M41 and M42, whose escort including d’Aosta, coincided with a British attempt to run a convoy to Malta, resulting in the indecisive First Battle of Sirte.
In early 1942, her duties were still limited to convoy escorts. By mid-1942, the situation in North Africa was looking dire, but Italian sorties to counter British operations (“Operation Harpoon” and “Operation Vigorous”) intensified, with her sister-ship Savoia directly credited for the sinking of HMS Bedouin. Little of note happened from mid-1942 to 1943, owing to dwindling oil supplies on mainland Italy, with the main sorties that d’Aosta participated in were failed attempts to bombard Allied positions on Sicily, following the successful Allied Invasion of Sicily.
Following the Italian Armistice in September 1943, d’Aosta’s service continued on the Allied side, and after a minor refit she, RN Luigi di Savoia Duca Degli Abruzzi, and RN Giuseppe Garibaldi sailed to the Atlantic, taking part in new anti-blockade-breaker duties against the old ally-turned-enemy German Kriegsmarine’s attempts. These patrols lasted from November 1943 to February 1944, returning to Italy by April that year. She spent the rest of the war only participating in transport duties. After the war, she was laid up and later transferred to the USSR in March 1949 as Z15, to be renamed to Stalingrad and later Kerch. She served with the Soviet Black Sea Fleet until 1959, where she was stricken and was later scrapped in the 1960s.
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