Charleston
Also called: 查尔斯顿 Beta- Hold under 10 km with islands tight enough to break vision on demand
- Avoid: Firing the moment an enemy appears
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Charleston Community Stats
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Charleston Community Stats
Record History
Playstyle
Overview
Charleston is a Tier II American all-rounder light cruiser with 152mm guns at 10.1 km: no single dominant trait, but competent at AP citadels, HE pressure, and cap support. Adapt to the team comp - DD hunter, BB chip, or cap contester - rather than locking into one role. Standout traits: top-decile high HP pool in T2 CAs (29,500 HP) and top-decile heavy citadel belt in T2 CAs (102 mm).
Positioning
Hold under 10 km with islands tight enough to break vision on demand. The HE pressure rewards a steady firing arc more than rotation play; pick a corner of the map you can hold and work fires from there. Your guns lose penetration at range, so aim AP at broadsides you can still citadel and put HE into superstructures and upper-hull sections, rather than the bow-in or belt armor your shells bounce and shatter on. With 8.5 s on the rudder she starts turning late, so the angle has to be set before you are shot at.
Potato Avoidance
Firing the moment an enemy appears
The guns are what reveal you: one salvo lights you up from 9.1 km away, and a battleship that suddenly has a broadside cruiser to shoot at will take the free citadels, which is 29,500 HP back to port in a single salvo. Choose the angle and the cover you will shoot from BEFORE anything spots you, so your first salvo is one you can turn away from rather than one that starts a trade you cannot win.
Signature Traits
29500 HP, top decile of T2 CAs.
- Heavy citadel belt · 102 mm
- Heavy belt
Shell pattern widens about 10.2 m per km of range, bottom decile of T2 CAs. Salvos spread more at any given distance than peers', so bracketing matters (this is range-normalized, so out-ranging peers does not count against her).
8.5 s rudder shift, bottom decile of T2 CAs. Hard to dodge incoming AP; lean on island cover.
How to get Charleston
Charleston is a Premium ship and not available to unlock in the Tech Tree. Acquisition path: Premium/Event.
Builds
Pair with a commander whose unique skill complements her main armament; check the build tool for current recommendations.
Have a build you swear by? Open it in the Build Tool and hit Save build to share it here.
Cohort position
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Where Charleston sits among Tier II CAs (25 ships). Notable standouts are shown first; the rest of the cohort-ranked stats are in the expand below. Acquisition variants (Black Friday, Founders Edition) are counted once with their base ship, not as separate peers.
See 27 mid-pack stats
Not standouts for Charleston -- here's where she sits on every other ranked stat in the cohort. Stats tagged NORM are tied across more than half the cohort, so the value is the cohort default rather than a standout.
Peers in this cohort
Compare Tier II CruisersStats & specs
Customize in the Build Tool →ƒ
How far each mount can train, in degrees to either side of the mount's own facing, read from in-game data. A rear turret with ±150° leaves a 60° blind wedge over the bow; one-sided arcs are wing mounts that cover a single side. The data does not say which way each mount faces, so the arcs are listed per mount without bow/stern angles.ƒ
How far off the bow (or stern) the ship must angle before every main turret can fire: the widest blind wedge among the rear-facing (or forward-facing) mounts, from each mount's trainable arc. Mount facing is inferred from turret stations and verified against known layouts, including Izumo's aft-facing forward turret.ƒ
Horizontal dispersion ellipse width at max range, from the verified WoWS dispersion model:ƒ
Vertical dispersion ellipse height at max range:ƒ
50%-hit horizontal radius:ƒ
50%-hit vertical radius:ƒ
180 degrees / 8 deg/s traverse speed = 22.5 s.ƒ
8 broadside guns x 60 / 9 s base reload = 53.3.HE shells
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25 mm ≈ 152 mm caliber / 6 (standard HE penetration ratio).ƒ
2,100 HE damage x 8 broadside guns = 16,800.ƒ
16,800 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 9 s base reload = 112,000.ƒ
53.3 shells/min x 7% fire chance = 3.73.AP shells
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floor(152 mm caliber / 14.3) = 10 mm (AP auto-penetrates plating this thick or less).ƒ
Canonical community AP formula (jcw780/wows_shell), evaluated at muzzle velocity: . Matches the in-game spec card.ƒ
Same formula at the ship's max firing range (10.1 km), where the shell has slowed to 345.3 m/s: .ƒ
3,000 AP damage x 8 broadside guns = 24,000.ƒ
24,000 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 9 s base reload = 160,000.ƒ
AP shell over-penetration splash radius; scales with shell mass. Wickes 102mm = 3, standard 152mm CL ~ 20, Iowa 406mm ~ 270, Yamato 460mm = 400, Incomparable 650mm = 550 (max). Larger value = bigger splash damage area when AP over-pens.ƒ
Longest-reaching family on the in-game AA card. Base AirDefense aura max range is 1 km; dual-purpose mount auras extend it.ƒ
Effective DPS: 7 raw aura damage × 3.5 × 0.85 hit probability = 21 - the same in-game units as the Close-range AA DPS headline.ƒ
Max dispersion = range (km) × 57 + 30. Each dispersion type sets its own slope; this is not a percentage applied to a standard baseline.ƒ
2.5 km × 57 + 30 = 172.5 m.ƒ
top speed / 4 + 4.9 = 22 / 4 + 4.9 = 10.4 kt. The community reverse-speed model from the WoWs ShipBuilder project, the same source as the acceleration model on this card. Base value; speed modifiers scale it. Not shown on the in-game card.ƒ
Seconds from top speed to a dead stop after ordering full reverse: reverse power winds in over the reverse spool-up while water drag does most of the braking. Same community-model simulation as the acceleration times, using the ship's own reverse-power ratio from in-game data. The full curve is on the acceleration chart.ƒ
Speed below which the engine's built-in power boost applies in reverse. Matches the in-game maneuverability card's reverse threshold (Vampire II reads 10.5 here and the card shows 11; the card rounds half up).ƒ
Time to reach 90% of top speed (19.8 kt of 22 kt), from our in-house acceleration model.ƒ
Time to reach 99% of top speed (21.8 kt of 22 kt). 99% rather than 100% because true top speed is asymptotic (thrust meets drag), so the last fraction of a knot is never quite gained.ƒ
How many degrees the turret can swing for each degree the hull turns. Turn rate , so . Below 5 the turrets drag in a turning fight; 25+ keeps up with any rudder.ƒ
Equal to the ship's main battery range (never below base detectability): firing makes you visible to everyone you can reach. Matches the in-game 'Detect Firing Sea' value on all 8 unmodified captures, and range-modified captures track the modified range.ƒ
Air detectability plus the gun-firing bloom (3.04 km, which tracks main-battery caliber x 0.020). Matches the in-game 'Detect Firing Air' value on every captured ship.ƒ
Base sea detectability + 2.0 km while burning; matches the in-game 'Detect Fire Sea' value on every captured ship.ƒ
Base air detectability + 3.0 km while burning; matches the in-game 'Detect Fire Air' value on every captured ship.
Damage Control Party∞ charges · 60 s reload · 5 s active
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All values are ship base stats with modifications and upgrade changes denoted inline.
Numbers the spec table cannot show directly: alpha-strike math, DPM, dispersion, AP penetration. Click the formula chip on any row to reveal how it is calculated.
Main battery formulas
Horizontal dispersion ellipse width at max range, from the verified WoWS dispersion model: Horizontal scatter at a fixed 5 km, from the same verified dispersion model as the rows below - a knife-fight-range anchor comparable across ships.How wide your shells scatter at 10 km, from the same dispersion model as the max-range figure above. Picking a fixed range makes this number directly comparable from ship to ship: max-range dispersion makes a longer-range gun look worse even when it's tighter at any common range. The interactive Dispersion tab on the Charts card plots the full curve from 0 to max range.Vertical dispersion ellipse height at max range: How tall the same scatter ellipse is at 10 km. Comparable from ship to ship for the same reason as the width value above. The height/width ratio is a piecewise-linear curve through three points from the ship's own dispersion data: at 0 m, at m, and at 10093 m. Above the kink: , so .50%-hit horizontal radius: 50%-hit vertical radius: Canonical community AP formula (jcw780/wows_shell), evaluated at muzzle velocity: . Matches the in-game spec card.Same formula at the ship's max firing range (10.1 km), where the shell has slowed to 345.3 m/s: .AP penetration at a fixed 5 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.AP penetration at a fixed 10 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.How long an HE shell takes to reach a target at a fixed 10 km, from the same numerically integrated trajectory the Charts card plots. The shell slows under quadratic air drag, , where is air density from a standard-atmosphere profile and bundles the shell's drag coefficient, caliber and mass: . That runs from a 853 m/s muzzle velocity in 0.02 s steps under gravity 9.8 m/s² until the shell lands, then divides by 2.77: the game clock runs faster than real time, and that factor was measured against stopwatch runs in the Training Room. Lower is better, since a faster shell is harder to dodge and needs less lead.How long an AP shell takes to reach a target at a fixed 10 km, from the same numerically integrated trajectory the Charts card plots. The shell slows under quadratic air drag, , where is air density from a standard-atmosphere profile and bundles the shell's drag coefficient, caliber and mass: . That runs from a 853 m/s muzzle velocity in 0.02 s steps under gravity 9.8 m/s² until the shell lands, then divides by 2.77: the game clock runs faster than real time, and that factor was measured against stopwatch runs in the Training Room. Lower is better, since a faster shell is harder to dodge and needs less lead.25 mm ≈ 152 mm caliber / 6 (standard HE penetration ratio).floor(152 mm caliber / 14.3) = 10 mm (AP auto-penetrates plating this thick or less).AP shell over-penetration splash radius; scales with shell mass. Wickes 102mm = 3, standard 152mm CL ~ 20, Iowa 406mm ~ 270, Yamato 460mm = 400, Incomparable 650mm = 550 (max). Larger value = bigger splash damage area when AP over-pens.Barrels that can bear on one beam (8 of 14); casemate/wing mounts only fire one side.180 degrees / 8 deg/s traverse speed = 22.5 s.2,100 HE damage x 8 broadside guns = 16,800.3,000 AP damage x 8 broadside guns = 24,000.16,800 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 9 s base reload = 112,000.24,000 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 9 s base reload = 160,000.8 broadside guns x 60 / 9 s base reload = 53.3.53.3 shells/min x 7% fire chance = 3.73.AA defense
Only families that reach 1 km contribute at the outer edge of the AA bubble. In-game families: Hotchkiss MG Mk1 8x1 -> 21 DPS @ 1 km.Longest-reaching family on the in-game AA card. Base AirDefense aura max range is 1 km; dual-purpose mount auras extend it.Cumulative AA DPS at each family range threshold. Inner ranges stack the outer families, so a target closing the distance hits stronger AA bubbles as it crosses each band.Sum of every family's average DPS, achievable only inside the closest-range family (1 km).SUM over AA auras of (aura DPS x aura range km). A plane crossing the AA bubble is exposed to each aura for a time proportional to that aura's range, so long-reach DPS is worth more than the same DPS in a short bubble. Units: DPS*km; used to rank overall AA threat across the cohort.Secondary battery dispersion
Max dispersion = range (km) × 57 + 30. Each dispersion type sets its own slope; this is not a percentage applied to a standard baseline.2.5 km × 57 + 30 = 172.5 m.Secondary battery firepower
Sum across all secondary families of (per-side barrels × 60 / reload_s × alpha), where per-side barrels = mounts × barrels-per-mount / 2 (the guns that bear on one broadside target). Per-family: 18×1 76.2 mm (9/side) × 60/5 × 1100 = 118,800. Assumes every shell hits (real hit rate is lower; the Brawl matchup tool on the Compare page folds in dispersion + target armor).Maximum HE damage per shell across secondary HE families. Best on this ship: 1100 from the 76.2 mm family.Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 4% from the 76.2 mm family.Maximum HE armor penetration across secondary HE families (caliber × 1/6 for most nations; 1/4 for German/UK BBs). Shells whose pen falls under a plate's armor thickness shatter for 0 hull damage though fire chance still applies. Best on this ship: 13 mm from the 76.2 mm family.Armor Beta
Hull HP 29,500, distributed across 5 hull zones, each with its own plate thicknesses, saturation cap, and pen thresholds. HP caps are the exact in-game values, not estimated.
Overmatched by 105+ AP guns across the bracket. Can’t reliably bow-tank; gets bow-citadelled and overpenned.
Thin belt: battleship AP citadels straight through it broadside. Rely on angle, speed and concealment, never sit flat.
Superstructure and extremities take HE pens and AP overpens from nearly any gun: steady chip damage. Fire resistance 3%, fires burn 30s. Range-by-range in the Compare tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 6 mm primary (range 6–38 mm) | 2,600 (9% of HP) | Overmatched by 127mm+ AP (Farragut, Shenyang)6 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Bow-tank fits behind this exterior plate. Saturation is FAST here; the cap is often only a few thousand HP. |
| Hull (midship) | 13 mm primary (range 13–51 mm) | 22,100 (75% of HP) | Overmatched by 203mm+ AP (Furutaka)Angle bounces 152mm13 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 6 mm primary (range 6–13 mm) | 1,700 (6% of HP) | Overmatched by 127mm+ AP (Farragut, Shenyang)6 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 102 mm primary (range 6–102 mm) | ≈ 165,500 (effectively no cap) | Citadel pen: full damageOver-pen: ×0.10 damage | Effectively no cap; citadel pool sits at ~165k HP on every ship. An AP citadel penetration deals the shell's full damage, the biggest single hit available; only over-penetrations are damped, to ×0.10. |
| Superstructure | 6 mm primary (range 6–13 mm) | 900 (3% of HP) | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage. HE-spam target, and the section saturates fast (often only a few thousand HP). |
| Turret (module, per magazine) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 14,800 magazine HP | Turret knocked out | Per-turret powder-magazine HP, a separate pool that does not drain ship HP. As it is worn down the turret is likelier to be knocked out, and a smaller pool gets there faster. |
| Secondary mount (76.2 mm mount) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 800 per-mount HP | Destroyed at 0 HP | Per-mount HP for the heaviest secondary on this ship. A mount destroyed at 0 HP is out for the rest of the battle; DCP does not repair destroyed mounts. Smaller (lighter-caliber) secondaries typically share the same HP value. |
| AA mount (8 mm mount) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 200 per-mount HP | Destroyed at 0 HP | Per-mount HP for the heaviest AA on this ship. An AA mount destroyed at 0 HP stops shooting down planes for the rest of the battle; DCP does not repair destroyed mounts. HE shells specifically target AA mounts since the small-caliber HP pool falls fast. |
| Rudder (module) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 8,900 module HP | Incapacitated at 0 HP | When module HP reaches 0 the rudder locks at its current angle until DCP repairs it. Repair via Damage Control Party. |
Saturation cap = HP a section can absorb before further damage to it is reduced (the "bow-tank" effect). Citadel pool is ~165k on every ship (effectively no cap); damage is gated by pen/over-pen multipliers instead. Superstructure saturates fast but HE always pens regardless of the plate thickness. Rudder (and other module HPs) are a separate pool from ship HP: damaging a module doesn't drain ship HP. Incapacitated modules like the rudder and engine are restored by DCP, but secondary and AA mounts destroyed at 0 HP stay out for the rest of the battle.
Ship Charts
Skins & permanent camouflages
Every custom exterior Charleston can equip, from in-game data.
DefaultThe ship’s standard exterior
Primary official WG sources
Filtered to official World of Warships: Legends pages where this ship is a focus, reward, line member, or high-context variant mention.
