MAINE

Country
United States of America (USA)

Class
Battleship

MMweight
10.0

Obtain Method
Rank Point

Arena rating

D

PVP rating

B

Maine is the chonky fat pig of the US navy battleships. It’s a Tillman IV-2 battleship design from World War 1 era. It was quite an ambitious and insane design. There’s a reason why the higher ups didn’t approve its construction. Well, in this game we can experience a little bit how it feels like sailing such a big ship against more modern battleships.

Maine has 5×3 457 mm guns, making its potential firepower the highest in its tier. Such guns can easily delete cruisers and make a battleship’s life miserable if they’re caught broadsiding at close range. The HE is also good and can burn enemies easily due to large amount of shells. However, there are two main drawbacks. First, it’s an old design gun. It has very high drag at long range. At more than 17 km range, Maine’s penetration becomes so low that it performs the same as 380 mm French guns. Second, it has slow reload (around 33 seconds). That slow reload often makes it miss important moments.

Maine’s big size, understandably, makes its agility and concealment terrible. It only has 25.2 knots speed and it doesn’t have engine enhancement module to equip. The turning radius and rudder shift is very bad, even German battleships can maneuver better. This ship really doesn’t move anywhere quickly. Maine can be detected from very far away. The enemy must be dumb to be ambushed by it.

Maine’s armor is decent, although not as strong as Montana. The bad maneuverability makes it prone to taking huge damage. Maine can be damaged easily by any kind of ammunition. Destroyers and CVs love harassing it. Maine’s survivability completely relies on its huge HP pool.

Maine is the only US battleship that has torpedoes. The torpedoes are located at the front, only 4 launchers, but has 45 seconds reload. Unlike other ship’s torpedoes that are launched as a spread, Maine’s torpedoes are launched one by one (ripple fire). With good aim, you can hit a bowtanking enemy with all torpedoes. One full salvo of torpedoes can inflict more than 45k damage. Because it has fast reload, Maine can spam torpedoes multiple times. The torpedoes make Maine a decent brawler and can prevent ramming.

Playstyle

Maine’s big size, terrible agility, and slow speed makes it uncomfortable when fighting at close and medium range. However, at long range the guns inflict very low damage. This makes Maine very hard to use. You must keep it angled all the time if you don’t want it to sink quickly. Large HP pool won’t save you.

Maine is better acting as a medium range support. Afterall, it’s just a floating gun platform. The ideal engagement range is 10-15 km. Ask a teammate to tank for it so Maine can fire all guns without being shot at. Without a good teammate to protect it, Maine will be focused to death without being able to disengage. Interestingly, in PVP there are many players that underestimate it. They think Maine is just a big citadel city, so they’re tempted to show broadside and fire all guns, only to get deleted by Maine’s guns.

Maine’s slow speed makes it unable to retreat if the situation turns bad. Be very careful when sailing into a flank. Often it’s better to just wait until all enemies has been spotted before committing to sail to a flank. If there are too many enemies at your flank, snipe at long range and start kiting away.

Sniping is often disadvantageous for Maine because the enemy can reliably hit it and inflict large damage, but Maine struggles to fight them back. Maine can’t even citadel a broadsiding Super Yamato at more than 17 km range unless you’re very lucky. Sniping should only be done if you have no other choice and your team is in danger of collapsing. It’s better to use HE for long range fights.

Maine is bad at short range combat, but it’s not completely hopeless. For short range combat, Maine has torpedoes as its primary weapon. Rush the enemy while pointing the bow straight forward, shoot it until its HP is down below 45k, then torpedo it. You can also torpedo the enemy as soon as you enter your torpedo’s maximum range, then launch the torpedoes again as soon as it’s reloaded. If the enemy is maneuvering, spread the torpedoes to limit their movement. Shoot AP if the enemy is broadsiding, HE if the enemy is angled. Maine’s AP at close range is very good. Keep in mind that showing broadside at close range can get you killed.

Is it worth to buy?

Maine is considered a meme ship with eccentric stats. It’s often terrible in team battles, but there are situations when using Maine can be fun. Plus bragging point if you can win as the top scorer, because nobody expects a pig to carry the battle.

Maine is a rank point ship. Rank point is a rare currency that can only be obtained from arena ranking rewards and limited-time shop sales. Maine is not worth to buy. If you like battleships and have a lot of rank points, Charlemagne is highly recommended. If you like brawling, H41 is also an option. Maine is just for shits and giggles.

Strengths
Large number of guns, high caliber, high initial shell velocity, decent accuracy, good fire chance, large HP, has fighter planes, has 4 frontal torpedoes, has fighter planes.
Weaknesses
Slow reload, bad penetration at long range, bad armor, bad maneuverability, big size, slow speed, bad concealment, doesn’t have engine acceleration module.
General playstyle
Brawling, kiting
Preferred fighting range
Medium to short range

Recommended Build

Equipment
Slot 1: adv. disaster retardant module
Slot 2: steering gears enhancement module
Slot 3: aiming system module
Consumables
Slot 1: elite damage control
Slot 2: elite repair
Crew Skills (after basic skill)
Captain: boost morale – artillery warning – hull protection
Gun: crack gunner – high speed aiming – burn the ship behind
Engine: quick shift – adv. quick shift – steering master
Damage control: emergency flooding – buoyancy reserve – extinguish

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