Through the Spy Glass: Viribus Unitis

Today we’re covering the only (for now!) Pan-European battleship in Legends—Tier IV Premium Viribus Unitis. She was an Austro-Hungarian dreadnought of the Tegetthoff class, also known as the Viribus Unitis class, and she was the lead ship. The class consisted of three more sisterships in addition to her. Viribus Unitis means “With United Forces,” the personal motto of emperor Franz Joseph I, who reigned over the Austro-Hungarian Empire for as long as 68 years, from 1848 to 1916.

Her story is a fascinating one, albeit tragic. For starters, Archduke Franz Ferdinand sailed to the Balkans aboard her in 1914, where he was subsequently killed in Sarajevo. That infamous chain of events led to the start of WWI. 

As the death of the Austro-Hungarian emperor-to-be sparked the war, the ship's fate was sealed at the very end of the Great War: Viribus Unitis was sunk by Italian frogmen using explosives known as “limpet mines” in the last days of WWI. Her captain and fleet commander-in-chief, Janko Vukovich, went down with her. 

Meet Janko Vukovich, a captain of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1910s. This experienced leader's Stone Skinned base trait reduces the duration of fire instances on your ship—a handy skill for any battleship.
We like to leave inspirations to your own creativity, but we went with the following skills:

• Reckless Gunman, Vukovich’s unique skill, to reduce the main battery reload time, but beware—you might not see incoming torpedoes as soon as you would like.
• Porcupine to increase the capabilities of Viribus Unitis' powerful secondary suite.
• Firefighter to prevent your already limited HP pool from being depleted by unwanted heat.
• Properly Meticulous for decreased secondary gun reload time.
• Will to Rebuild to stay afloat as long as you can when next to an ally. 

Viribus Unitis has one main argument—guns. If that argument isn't enough to dissuade an opponent's retort, her secondaries will be called to the bar. With 12-inch (305 mm) main guns in four triple mounts, her main armament isn't unmatched in terms of barrel count or caliber. However, it is unique in terms of a special layout that will allow you to maintain a healthy six-rifle salvo frontally while keeping another six in reserve if angled against enemy battleships. The sacrifice made for this advantage is in the ship's HP, which is one of the lowest at Tier IV. Don't let that disappoint you, though—Viribus Unitis has excellent armor protection consisting of "icebreaker," reinforced casemate plating, and she even has a turtleback snuggled around her citadel. Embedded in said casemate, you can find a generous array of 5.9-inch (150 mm) secondary guns with improved firing range, albeit a slow reload. What’s the core gameplay of this first Pan-European dreadnought? While you may struggle to inflict critical damage against angled battleships, cruisers won’t have the same luxury. Let your dreadnought whittle down the opposing capital ships while covering them with devastating fire, and make sure not to sail astray—with a top speed of 21.5 knots, you're guaranteed to NOT be able to run away from anything.

Sail valiantly, and turn the tide!