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Royal Navy Revisited

Part One: The Renown Class:

Ok, so, this the first in a series of reviews I'm doing on Royal Navy ships, where I re-evaluate lower level ships with the experience of an experienced player. These are my second use of such ships, so chances are, I've reviewed these ships before.

The Renown class is often praised as a powerful and fast ship for her level, and is noted for the powerful variety of weapons available. Having played higher level ships in the line, and other similarly leveled ships, let's see if the Renown truly is all that.


 * Armament: This is one of the Renown's best aspects, and certainly remains such a second time around. Things start a bit weak, though the new 13.5" gun has good range, but get better with higher levels. At level 35, the next 15" twin is made available, along with the famed 16" MK I triple. Level 45 grants the twin 14" gun, with better stats than the level 35 15", and is lighter, and a quite powerful 15" with much improved range. If one wishes to stick on till level 52, there is yet another 15" twin, which is the highest level gun available for this ship. The secondary gun variety is lackluster, but with the limited weight allowance, I don't recommend bothering with them. I will note that the inclusion of 5.25" guns in the test run is an annoying bit of false advertising, but it doesn't really detract from the ship. Five for five on armament.


 * Speed and Handling: The Renown has decent speed for her level, though similar levels can be gained from ships like the Kongo. Under the scrutiny of hindsight however, she does seem a bit lacking. To achieve high speeds comparable to cruisers, bigger battlecruisers, and even higher level battleships, you have to sacrifice a large amount of armor. Thus, to keep pace with a cruiser, you leave your armor so thin that you can be sunk by a cruiser. But more on that later. Sacrifices aside, she actually performs fairly well for her level, with excellent acceleration, and a fairly quick helm response. Three point five out of five on this.


 * Armor: Do not expect good protection on this ship! The Renown has never been known for good protection, and revisiting her confirms this. Depending on how fast you want to go, and what weapons you use, you have a few options on armor amount. With a lightweight gun like the 14" or a low tier gun, you have a decent amount of free displacement for armor. You can go fairly fast, and be proof against most cruisers, and can even offer some resistance to battleship grade guns with low speed. Or you can go very fast, and have poor protection. With heavier guns like the higher level 15"s, or the triple 16", you lose out on armor. Often you cannot even resist cruisers, and battleships can make a mess of you rather quickly. Settling for a lower speed only offers limited help, and higher than 30 knots speeds requires almost nill armor thickness. Two out of five, as she isn't the worse I've seen in armor.


 * Overall Performance: Despite the poor armor, the Renown is an enjoyable ship to use. The powerful guns and high speed give her a potentially very hard hitting hit and run ability, and in the right hands, she can be quite deadly. If a fast and agile capital ship is what you want, I highly recommend her. Playing styles for this ship also foreshadow both the Admiral class, and the King George V class. Also of note is that the German Scharnhorst class is strikingly similar, with an almost identical displacement, similar armor capacity, and similar speed/displacement ratios. The German does have a slight armor advantage though, and can mount torpedoes.

I hope you've enjoyed this fist installment of Royal Navy Revisited, I look forward to presenting the Lord Nelson next. Cheerio! (That is what those dudes say right?)