Battleship - Germany Tier VIII Anhalt
Captain & Ship Build and Strategy Guide
- Build focus: Standard battleship tank build
- Playstyle: Close- to mid-range battleship
- Main strength: Massive 15-gun broadside
- Main weakness: Slow reload and very floaty shells
- Commander skill: Grease the Gears is recommended for the 45-second turret traverse
- Alternative: The 2-point AA skill is also a viable choice
- Secondary build: Not recommended; Anhalt's secondaries are not strong enough to justify specializing for them
- Applies to: Anhalt
Anhalt is an unusual Tier VIII German battleship built around one defining feature: fifteen 350 mm main guns spread across five triple turrets. Few battleships can put that many shells into the air at once, giving a well-placed broadside the potential to cause enormous damage to an exposed enemy.
The trade-off is a relatively slow 30-second reload and low shell velocity, which makes the trajectory noticeably floaty at longer ranges. Her guns are therefore most comfortable when targets are closer and their movements are easier to predict.
Use the standard battleship tank build rather than trying to turn Anhalt into a secondary specialist. Although she has improved secondary range and plenty of secondary guns, her main battery is the reason to play the ship. Investing heavily into secondaries takes attention away from the much more important fifteen-gun broadside.
Grease the Gears is a useful commander skill because Anhalt's main turrets take 45 seconds to rotate 180 degrees. The alternative 2-point AA skill is also perfectly reasonable, particularly if you are sharing a battleship captain and do not want to specialize the commander specifically for Anhalt.
In battle, Anhalt works best on the flanks or around islands where engagements naturally develop at shorter ranges. Her slow shells make long-range shots against maneuvering targets difficult, so avoid relying on fights beyond roughly 15 km whenever you have the option to move closer.
Broadside targets are your priority. With fifteen guns, even a partially successful salvo can deliver significant damage, but the long reload means missed opportunities are expensive. Watch the minimap, anticipate enemy movement and resist firing simply because a target happens to be available.
Her HE ammunition should not be ignored. Anhalt's 350 mm HE shells have good penetration and can deal respectable damage while also starting fires, making HE a useful option against angled targets that are difficult to punish with AP.
The torpedoes are another useful tool once the battle moves into very close quarters. They should not encourage reckless pushes, but they can give Anhalt an additional way to finish damaged ships or punish an enemy that commits to a close-range fight.
Anhalt is ultimately a battleship that rewards getting the most from each salvo. Keep the engagement distance manageable, use terrain to avoid unnecessarily long-range fights, switch ammunition when appropriate and look for broadside targets. When all fifteen guns connect, the result can be devastating.