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Royal Navy Revisited

Part II, Ships named Nelson:


 * Note, for best effect, read with British accent rather than any American accent you might associate with me*

Hello and welcome back to Royal Navy Revisited, where we examine Royal Navy warships, from the perspective of an experienced player. Today we shall examine two ship classes, both named after Britannia's finest admiral, Horatio Nelson.

The first ship we will examine is the Semi-Dreadnought Lord Nelson:

The Lord Nelson class pre dreadnought is the first class of battleship in the British line of warships. Attainable at level 15, she is a follow on to the L-Class destroyer, and precedes the HMS Dreadnought in the early battleship line.


 * Armament: The Lord Nelson's armament has some relatively good weapons, however, range of these guns leaves much to be desired. With a range in the lower side of 200, the guns have a short reach that can be outdone by many cruisers. The secondary slots give the player lots of options however, including torpedoes, which can greatly increase your punch.


 * Speed and Handling: This ship has fairly good speed, with 18 knots being possible with a health coat of armour. Turning is ok, but nothing special however. Nothing really noteworthy here.


 * Armour: When I got this ship on my first go, I was very impressed with the attainable thickness. However, in hindsight a second time around, we run in to trouble. Compared to other pre dreadnoughts, particularly the Russian one, the Lord Nelson begins to seem inadequate. It's still decent armour, but not the best in class.


 * Overall Hindsight: This ship, while not the wonder ship that later British ships might seem to be, is still a decent warship for her level. She is also a vastly superior alternative, to the British cruiser line.

On to the interwar Nelson:

The Nelson class is the level 40 battleship of the Royal Navy's battleship line, and follows the level 30 Revenge and precedes the level 50 King George V. A notable trait is an all forward main armament.


 * Armament: Both in my first experiences with this ship, and my second run through, I have encountered the same main issue, the guns posses horrendous accuracy. They do have high damage output, and decent range, but they have such a high dispersal of fire that it's the rare occurrence for more than a few shots to hit per salvo. The unusual layout does not help matters, it is impossible to focus fire on a smaller area, and the secondary armament has weird firing arcs. Not to mention that there's a gaping blind spot to the rear, forcing the use of secondary guns.


 * Speed and handling: The Nelson is, despite being slow in comparison to other ships, fairly fast for her level. A 21 knot full load speed is actually fairly impressive, when compared to other level 40s like the Colorado or Fuso. Handling is average, not great but not bad either.


 * Armour: When I first got the Nelson I was amazed by the large amount of available armour. A full thickness deck was possible for the WHOLE SHIP! This is after coming from either battlecruisers or low level dreadnoughts, which had much weaker armour. And the belt is equally impressive, with the overall performance still being the best I've seen in armour.


 * Overall Hindsight: The Nelson is a good ship for her level. If a heavily armoured tank is what you want, then the Nelson is what you want.

Next time on Royal Navy Revisited, we return to a favorite, the Admiral class.