MZ1

MZ1

MZ1

Description

The MZ1 is a rank German motor torpedo gun boat with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.79 "Project X" as part of the fleet closed beta test.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour protection on the MZ1 is almost nonexistent. Other than a 15 mm gun shield on the 88 mm guns, the boat does not have any protection even against smaller calibre guns. To make the matter much worse, at its BR, the MZ1 will face several opponents with either high-calibre guns or autocannons, both of which is a great threat to the ship's survival. On the plus side, however. The MZ1 can take a high amount of crew loss by up to 37 when aced thanks to its fairly large crew count of 52 and its huge, spaced profile.

Mobility

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode	Upgrade Status	Maximum Speed (km/h)		Turn Time (s)	Turn Radius (m)
		Forward	Reverse
AB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded
RB/SB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded

Mobility of the MZ1 is mediocre at best and poor at worst. When stock, the boat has a terrible top speed of only 29 km/h (AB) / 23 km/h (RB) and awful traverse speed (even worse than some motor barges). This, combined with its poor protection, makes the stock MZ1 very frustating to play. After getting a mobility upgrade, the MZ1's top speed is more tolerable and gives more room for evasive manoeuvre.

Armament

Primary armament

The MZ1 is equipped with two 8.8 cm S.K.C/35 cannons placed at the bow and stern. These cannons have relatively quick reload time of 5 seconds, and is quite deadly against lightly-armoured boats with direct hits. The 88 mm cannons have two types ammunition which are largely the same, the only differences being the researchable HEF-I shell is capable of dealing more damage via incendiary fillers and has a higher chance of detonating enemy boat's ammunition racks.

Secondary armament

Secondary armament consists of a single 3.7 cm FlaK cannon mounted at the bridge. This multi-purpose cannon is very useful against most opponents it faces. Due to its high penetration, this cannon is more useful against a well-armoured targets such as Soviet armoured boats. The downside is that it cannot fire backwards because the bridge obstructs its line of fire.

Anti-aircraft armament

The MZ1 is equipped with 4 x 2 cm FlaK cannons. These cannons are adequate for fending off incoming aircraft, although it may be more efficient to manually aim the guns yourself instead of leaving it to the AI.

Additional armament

The MZ1 is equipped with two G7a torpedoes launched from the bow. These torpedoes are powerful enough to destroy most targets in a single hit. However, due to the boat's poor mobility, launching torpedoes can be tricky, especially when you're moving around rocks and small islets.

Usage in battles

The MZ1 is best described as a glass cannon with its slow speed and powerful armaments. The two 88 mm cannon can deal massive damage to anything it hits, however, another effective method to use the ship is to switch to the auxiliary weapon, the 37 mm cannon. The 37 mm has a high rate of fire and can fire hard-hitting shells which will overwhelm both boats and planes. This weapon is best use on coastal vessels and aircraft while destroyers are best dealt with using torpedoes.

The MZ1's biggest weakness is its slow speed compounded with the limited armour. Positioning is key: never advance to a risky area without support. The largest threats to the MZ1 are destroyers which can bombard the vessel and autocannons which can quickly deplete the crew.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Fairly powerful armament, both large and small calibres
• Torpedoes can knock out most targets in one hit

Cons:

• Poor top speed and mobility
• Non-existant armour; relies entirely on large crew count for survival
• Very vulnerable against large-calibre HE shells due to its size and speed
• Performs poorly when stock

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the MZ1 from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #30 - Metal Beasts section at 05:16 discusses the MZ1.

See also

Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the ship;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] Big Boat: The MZ1

H. C. Stülcken Sohn
Multi-Purpose Boats
Mehrzweckboot (MZ)	MZ1
Frigates
Köln-class	Köln · Lübeck