The Royal Navy

 From cannon armed sailing ships to sleek and silent nuclear powered submarines The Royal Navy, at almost 500 years old is the worlds oldest professional Navy founded by King Henry 8th (yes that one Lol) has always been the United Kingdom's senior service at its most powerful sailing 1,400 vessels protecting the home islands and the British Empire's holdings across the globe.

Some of the worlds most famous warships have sailed under the White Ensign

So being a bit of a Royal Navy enthusiast I recently added the Royal Navy fleet from Warlord Games Victory at Sea tabletop game to my gaming collection, my friend Mart owns the core set which contains the US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy, when covid relents we will be able to get some games in 

The core box set

Royal Navy fleet box

So here is my Royal Navy fleet fully painted and ready for action. The flagship of course is probably the most famous ship in the fleet HMS Hood 

HMS Hood appears in the game as a battleship armed with 8 15in 45 calibre main guns in 4 twin turrets dual port and starboard torpedo tubes and 12 5.5 inch secondary guns. 

HMS Hood in real life was a WW1 era Admiral class battlecruiser and for many years was the largest ship in the world serving as flagship during the interwar period and sailing all around the world, however she met her fate during WW2 in May 1941 during the Battle of the Denmark Strait when she was hit by shellfire from the German battleship Bismark and exploded and sank with only 3 of the crew surviving 

HMS Warspite also carries 8 15in guns in 4 turrets and 8 6in and 8 4in secondary guns but does not carry any torpedo armament 

The single most decorated battleship in the Royal Navy, fighting in the Battle of Jutland, where her rudder was disabled and she sailed a circle through the German fleet recieving many hits but sailed on and was repaired, then was deployed to the Mediteranean against the Italian Navy where she gained the record for the longest ranged unguided attack against a moving target of over 10 miles, a record she holds to this day. It is perhaps no ship was better named as by the end of the war she held 14 battle  honours and after she was paid out of the fleet refusing to go to the breakers by running hard aground off of Cornwall

HMS Duke of York, a King George V class battleship 10 14in guns in 2 quad and 1 dual turrets her seconadary battery guns consist of 16 5.25in guns 

HMS Duke of York's most famous missions began in Dec 1941 as she conveyed Prime Minister Churchill to meet with President Roosevelt, Oct 1942 she was made flagship of Force H to lead the Allied invasion of North Africa, but her most famous action came in Dec 1943 at the Battle of the North Cape against the German Battleship Scharnhorst where her highly accurate gunnery no doubt contributed to the German warships destruction

HMS Eagle is a one of a kind carrier armed with 9 6in and 4 4in guns and can carry 5 aircraft flights in game

HMS Eagle was a conversion of a battleship ordered by the Chilean Navy, the conversion started in 1917 but was delayed till the end of WW1 at which time it was decided to complete the ship as a full fleet carrier, she served in the hunt for the Panzerschiff Admiral Graf Spee then served in the South Atlantic and the Mediterranean. She was finally sunk by U-73 off Cape Salinas

So those are the heavy capital ships in my fleet the escorts consist of the Edinburgh Class light cruiser HMS Belfast, the Leander class light cruiser HMS Neptune Dido class anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Dido and 3 Tribal class destroyers

I am really looking forward to see how this fleet performs in action and will add posts as I add new ships to my fleet, I am planning to add the Ark Royal and some additional aircraft when I can and really hoping that the Nelson class battleships with there heavy armour and 16in guns join soon, wishing you all fair seas and following winds