Reinforcements for the Royal Navy part 2

 

Following on from my last post I am happy to post on the two ships I have been waiting the most for Warlord Games to bring out. They are two of the most heavily armed battleships of the Washington Naval Treaty era HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney 

HMS Nelson 

HMS Rodney

The Nelson Class was a slightly modified version of the G3 battlecruiser design which had to be scrapped due to it exceeding the limitations imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty and though much slower than other battleships its heavy armour and powerful 16in guns more than made up for it 

HMS Nelson 

HMS Nelson was built at Armstrong-whitworth on South Tyneside, launched 3 September 1925 and comissioned into the Royal Navy 15th August 1927 as the most powerfull warship in the world at the time. Between the years of 1927 1939 served as the fleet flagship of the Atlantic and Home Fleets. In 1939 she struck a mine while escorting an Atlantic convoy which caused her to miss the Norwegian Campaign, after repairs was assigned to escort several convoys to Malta and after being torpedoed was again put into dock for repairs 

      From 1942 after completion of these repairs she was assigned as gunfire support to Operation Torch (French Algeria) Operation Husky (Sicily) Operation Avalanche (Italy) and the Normandy landings of June 1944. Nelson was then transferred to the Eastern Fleet till the Japanese surrender before returning to the Home Fleet, post war she became a training ship before being retired and used as a target ship to test 2000Ib armour piercing bombs on ship deck armour before being scrapped at Thos. W. Ward in Inverkeithing 1949

HMS Rodney

Rodney was built at Cammell Laird Birkenhead, launched 17th December 1925 and comissioned into the Royal Navy 7 December 1927, during peacetime she served with either the Atlantic or Home Fleets, assuming Fleet Flagship duties when her sister HMS Nelson was under going refits or repairs. At the on set of WW2 she took part in the Norwegian Campaign after this she was escorted several convoys from the United States to the UK. In May 1941 was on her way to Norfolk Naval Shipyard in the USA for repairs and refitting when the Bismarck broke out into the Atlantic and was called in to hunt down the German battleship, despite the poor condition of her boilers and engines she caught upto the Bismarck alongside Admiral Tovey's King George V and the two warships procceded to hammer the German ship with heavy gunfire until Bismarck was sunk, after which she resumed her trip to the USA for her refit. After the refit was completed she took part in Operation Torch (French Algeria) Operation Husky (Sicily) Operation Baytown (Italy) over 2 years, then in June 1944 provided gunfire support to the Normandy Landings following this she continued by bombarding targets near the city of Caen. Following this she escorted a convoy to Murmansk in the Soviet Union in late 1944 in extremely poor condition due to heavy use and inadeqate repairs and refits she was transfered to reserve in late 1945 and was sold to Thos. W. Ward for scrapping at Inverkeithing.

I have been waiting for these 2 ships to join the Royal Navy fleet in Victory at Sea since the game was launched and can say now I have them I have to admit got mixed feelings as always the models are very good, no resin defects only a few shims to be removed and no defects of the metal components, my mixed feelings come from when I viewed the ship datacard. Suprisingly the ships speed is the same as the King George V class ships 5" despite that the KGV class topped out 29 knots in speed trails and the Nelson class could only make 23 knots (23.5 with a tailwind) though this will make gameplay easier as Nelson or Rodney will be able to keep pace with the rest of my fleet. My main concern stems from the ships 16in main battery, despite being 16in weapons, the biggest on a warship(excluding the Yamato's 18.5in guns) till the Iowa class was launched there ranges in game are identical to the 14in weapons on the KGV class 9"/19"/29"/39" and the armour penetration and damage dice are identical too (AP +2 - DD 3) you also are limited as with all turrets forward you have to be careful not to allow enemy ships to get behind you or bad things may happen!! Fortunately the Nelson class has a very good secondary battery of 12 6in guns with the twin linked special rule and 6 4.7in dual purpose guns the ships also have a battery of forward torpedoes making it the only Royal Navy battleship other than the Admiral class HMS Hood to have torpedoes hopefully in game I can suprise someone with this Lol!!! The local 3 AA battery is a bit concerning but with later war refits it gets a lot better as both AA suites become local 13!! Can imagine them strapping Oerlikon and 20mm pom poms on every free inch of deck space!! 

I cannot wait to try all three out in battle maybe refight the battle of the denmark strait and the sinking of the bismarck 

Fair Winds and Following Seas to you all