Warships attributed to the Royal Navy in World of Warships.
The British Royal Navy is the fourth faction to be introduced; their first ship was the Tier VI premium battleship Warspite. The British tech tree, beginning with the Light Cruiser line, was released in October 2016. Battleship line was added in August 2017. The Destroyer line was released in October 2018. The Aircraft Carrier line was released in March 2019. The Heavy Cruiser line was added in February 2020. The Battlecruiser line was added in mid-2022.
British ships, with the sole exception of their first line, are excellent firestarters. The HE shells of the battleships (but not the battlecruisers) and highest tier cruisers (Drake and onwards) have improved penetration, while all of them high fire chance. Torpedo-outfitted ships of the Royal Navy are also capable of single-firing torpedoes. Most British ships also have an improved Repair Party, capable of almost completely healing fire/flooding-induced damage. However, these ships are quite fragile, and their Repair Party can heal only a sliver of damage to the citadel. Their AP shells are somewhat underwhelming, too, except at close ranges, suffering from low initial velocity and poor alpha damage.
Researchable ships
- Gradual Grinder: Their torpedoes won't deal much damage, but they reload very quickly, allowing the player to exploit the flood mechanic.
Undine
Tier VI British Submarine. Undine was the lead boat of U-class submarines. The class was subdivided into three groups, for total of 49 boats built. The in-game version specifically represents the first group, as it had two additional external torpedo tubes, removed on later vessels to reduce submarines' bow wave.Sturdy
Tier VIII British Submarine. Sturdy was an S-class submarine, the largest series of submarines to ever be buit for the Royal Navy, with 62 units completed. The class was subdivided into three groups, with Sturdy being the lead boat of 1942 batch of the third group. Compared to previous groups, they carried one additional external torpedo tube.Thrasher
Tier X British Submarine. Thrasher was a T-class submarine, the backbone of British submarine fleet in WWII. This class was likewise divided into three groups, with Thrasher being the first one to be launched. Compared to the first group, they had different arrangement of fore-facing external torpedo tubes, as well as one additional aft-facing one.- Removed Achilles' Heel: Unlike previous ships in the line, Thrasher actually has aft-facing torpedo tubes, making it more difficult for the enemy to sneak up on her from behind without retaliation.
Medea
Tier II British DestroyerValkyrie
Tier III British DestroyerWakeful
Tier IV British DestroyerAcasta
Tier V British DestroyerIcarus
Tier VI British DestroyerJervis
Tier VII British DestroyerLightning
Tier VIII British Destroyer- Jack of All Stats: While she lacks the heal of her higher tier cousins, she's the first ship in the line that can do almost any role well.
Jutland
Tier IX British Destroyer- Heal Thyself: She and Daring get a heal.
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: Her and Daring are armed with the second smallest destroyer guns at high tier. However, they have improved HE penetration and improved AP ricochet angles. Underestimating them will get you sunk quickly.
Daring
Tier X British Destroyer
- Kill It with Fire: Rivals several cruisers in its ability to start fires. To give you an idea, it has the same burn probability per salvo as the Harugumo, despite having four less guns than the Japanese destroyer. And Daring has a better rate of fire.
- Mighty Glacier: Has the slowest speed of all tier ten DDs and lacks an engine boost. However she makes up with the ability to mount damage repair, which complements her sizeable hitpoint count.
Black Swan
Tier I British CruiserThe Black Swan-class sloops — the most numerous ships of this type in the Royal Navy during World War II — were intended for escorting and guarding convoys. They had a rather moderate speed, but outgunned their foreign counterparts in terms of firepower and rate of fire. HMS Black Swan was laid down by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Scotland on 20 June 1938 and was commissioned into the Royal Navy two years later. She was designed as a larger version of the preceding Egret class sloop which would allow her to accommodate more anti-aircraft guns. After World War II began, Black Swan had her anti-aircraft armament upgraded. Her older, ineffective machine guns were replaced with Oerlikon cannons and she received additional 2-pounder guns. Black Swan was the lead ship of a class of four that were employed primarily as convoy escorts during World War II. She was sold off and broken up after the war, in 1956.
- More Dakka: With 6 guns (most Tier 1 cruisers only have 4) and 3 second reload (every other Tier 1 takes from 4 to 6 seconds to reload), Black Swan has by far the most Dakka of any Tier 1 ship. In earlier builds, Black Swan was also the only Tier 1 to get AP shells, allowing her to reliably score citadel penetrations. Unsurprisingly, she was the first choice of experienced players who decide to drop into a Tier 1 battle to seal-club the newbies.
- Starter Equipment: First Royal Navy ship available for free at the start of the game.
Weymouth
Tier II British CruiserHMS Weymouth was designed and constructed as an improved variant of the Town-class cruiser. This medium-size cruiser had weak armor protection, but boasted powerful artillery and quite a high speed. She was conceived as a "trade protection" cruiser and was designated for countering lightly-armed enemy ships of the same type. The Weymouth class were commissioned shortly before World War I and saw service from the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. With the exception of Falmouth, the other three cruisers participated extensively in the hunt for German raiding cruisers, notably Karlsruhe and Emden, and also successfully initiated shipping attacks of their own. Weymouth was torpedoed, but not sunk, and survived the war. Three of the surviving ships of her class (except Falmouth, which was disabled and sunk after the Battle of Jutland) remained in service until they were paid off and sold for scrapping from 1928-1930.
- Mighty Glacier: Good fire rate and armor, but bad rudder shift time. Oddly enough she doesn't have access to the Repair Party consumable either.
Caledon
Tier III British CruiserHMS Caledon and her sister ships were ordered in 1915 as repeats of the original C-class cruiser design. These ships were designed with excellent seagoing characteristics which allowed them to operate in the rough North Atlantic waters. This light cruiser was designed to provide support to destroyers and perform reconnaissance duties. In contrast to her predecessors, this ship had a higher speed and carried powerful torpedo armament. She joined the Grand Fleet in March of 1917 and was assigned to the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron. She participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November of 1917, where she was damaged by a 12in shell but survived. Remaining in commission, she served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during the interwar period until she was placed in the Naval Reserve in 1931. By the beginning of World War II, Caledon was considered old and outdated. She initially served with the Home Fleet, participating in the hunt for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, before being converted into an antiaircraft cruiser in 1942-1943. At the end of the war, she was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1948.
- Fragile Speedster / Glass Cannon: A light cruiser with an insane-for-its-tier top speed of 29 knots, fast-traversing main battery and double twin-tube torpedo launchers on each side. Just don't try to shotgun heavier cruisers or battleships in open water...
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: Her torpedoes only have 6 km range, meaning you'll be doing this more than you'd think.
Danae
Tier IV British CruiserHMS Danae was the lead ship of her class, launched in 1916 and completed in 1918, just in time to see service in the closing months of World War I. After the war, she went to the Baltic in support of the White faction during the Russian Civil War. In 1923, she joined the Hood on its round-the-world propaganda tour, making stops in Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zanzibar, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Australia, several Pacific islands, the US, and several countries in South America before returning home. In 1929, she was withdrawn from the fleet for refit and modernization, returning to service the following year. She spent the first half of the 1930s on various stations in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and was sent to the Pacific in 1935 to escort convoys during the Second Sino-Japanese War. She was placed in reserve until the outbreak of war in 1939, when she was reconditioned and put back into service. She served in the South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Pacific before being sent in for refit in 1943. After returning to active service, she provided fire support during the invasion of Normandy before being leased to the Polish Navy as ORP Conrad, named after Joseph Conrad. She did little of consequence for the rest of the war and was scrapped in 1948.
Emerald
Tier V British Cruiser of the Light Cruiser lineHMS Emerald was the lead ship of her class, laid down in 1918 and launched in 1920, but not completed until 1926. She served in the East Indies station for nine years, with a one-year refit at Chatham Dockyards in 1933. She went into reserve in 1937. At the outbreak of war in 1939, she was recommissioned and sent to the North Atlantic. Her most notable role during this time was her participation in Operation Fish, the relocation of Britain's gold reserves and other wealth to Canada. She and her sister ship Enterprise made two trips from England to Halifax. Emerald carried £58 million of gold bullion from the Bank of England on the first trip and millions of pounds in private securities on the second. She was transferred to the Indian Ocean in 1941 and then to the Pacific when Japan declared war, where she served on convoy duty for a year before returning to England for refit in August 1942. In 1944, she participated in the invasion of Normandy, providing fire support at Gold Beach. By 1945 Emerald was considered superannuated and was sent to the reserve fleet. In 1947, she was sunk as a target, then refloated the following year and broken up.
- Fragile Speedster: The first cruiser in the line with improved acceleration, allowing her to go from zero to 30 knots in a timeframe of less than 10 seconds.
- Glass Cannon: Weak main battery, but comes with a large number of torpedo tubes for her tier. Unfortunately, there are relatively few opportunities to make use of them, due to their comparatively short range.
- Made of Explodium: Emerald has a massive citadel and terrible armor. When first released, her citadel roof was actually unarmored, meaning that even HE shells from destroyers' 102mm guns could score citadel penetrations. While that particular weakness was removed in a later buff, Emerald is still a contender (on a tier-for-tier basis) for the title of most fragile ship in the game.
- Even with this flaw removed, she has very thin citadel roof armor that's exposed to the air unlike most other ships, where it's at least covered by deck plating. This leads to her consistently eating high explosive citadels from plunging HE shells and from HE bombers.
- Smoke Out: From this point on, all RN CL get smokescreens, something normally reserved for destroyers.
Leander
Tier VI British Cruiser of the Light Cruiser lineHMS Leander was the lead ship of her class of light cruiser. Launched in 1931, she was commissioned in 1933. She and her sister ship Achilles were assigned to the New Zealand Division. She served there until 1941, when the Division was made into the Royal New Zealand Navy, whereupon she was recommissioned as HMNZS Leander. She spent the early war in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, hunting enemy merchant ships and raiders. In 1941, she was transferred to the Mediterranean for several months before returning to the Pacific in September. She was torpedoed during the Battle of Kolombangara in July 1943; though she survived, she lost 26 crewmembers and was so heavily damaged that she was out of action for the remainder of the war. After refitting in Boston, she rejoined the fleet in August 1945. In 1946, Leander was involved in the Corfu Channel incident, which led to the UK breaking off diplomatic relations with Albania until 1991. She was sold for scrap in 1950.
- Lightning Bruiser: Unusually for a British light cruiser, she actually has a solid armor scheme for a light cruiser of her tier and a heal to back it up, as well as a difficult-to-hit citadel.note Moreover, her armament is much more powerful than her predecessor, with a larger all-centerline battery of eight 152mm guns in four turrets firing shells with greatly improved penetration and damage, though her torpedo armament is cut down from eight to a still-respectable four tubes. You still don't want to go charging battleships in a Leander but she can brawl with other cruisers and win.
- Unfortunate Names: She's named after the classical "hero" Leander, who is essentially only known for drowning while swimming on the way to his lover one night. Not a stellar name for a watercraft.
Fiji
Tier VII British Cruiser of the Light Cruiser lineHMS Fiji and her sisters were ordered in the mid-1930s as smaller derivatives of the Town-class cruisers. Their size was limited by the Second London Naval Treaty, but they still managed to pack a surprising punch. Fiji was completed in 1940 and immediately went into service. While steaming to join a task force for the attack on French West Africa, she was torpedoed by a U-boat; she managed to limp home and spent the next six months undergoing repair. After rejoining the fleet in March 1941, she was assigned to patrol and blockade duties on various stations, including Gibraltar and the Denmark Strait. Fiji met her end in May 1941, during the Battle of Crete. She and the cruiser Gloucester were ordered to provide support for two destroyers on a rescue operation; both ships had already expended nearly all their AA ammo and consequently were overwhelmed and sunk by German aircraft. As a result, all British cruisers were ordered not to allow their AA ammunition reserves to drop below 40%. Her sisters went on to provide sterling service throughout the war.
- Glass Cannon: Zigzagged. Compared to Leander, Fiji has a much more powerful main battery, but slightly fewer torpedoes. Despite being more heavily armoured overall, Fiji has a worse protection scheme than Leander, with a long exposed citadel, but her repair party and smoke screen make her potentially one of the more resilient cruisers at her tier.
Edinburgh
Tier VIII British Cruiser of the Light Cruiser lineHMS Edinburgh was one of the last of the Town-class light cruisers. Laid down in 1936 and commissioned in 1939, she was assigned to the Home Fleet. On the outbreak of war in 1939, she suffered minor damage when German bombers raided the Royal Navy base at Rosyth. For the next few years, she conducted convoy and patrol duties on several stations and participated in the hunts for Scharnhorst and Bismarck. In April 1942, she was part of the escort force for Convoy QP 11, steaming from Murmansk to Iceland; in her bomb room she was carrying 4,570 kg of gold bullion, payment from the Soviets for the war materiel being shipped to them by the Allies. Over 29-30 April, a U-boat wolfpack attacked the convoy, and U-456 hit Edinburgh with two torpedoes on the 30th. One of the torpedoes ripped off her stern, while the other impacted just aft of the gold compartment. Heavily damaged, she limped away from the convoy under escort by several destroyers and minesweepers. A German destroyer group attacked them on 2 May. Edinburgh was able to hit and severely damage one of the destroyers, but in turn was hit by another torpedo. The crew abandoned ship, and Edinburgh was later scuttled by the destroyer Foresight. In the 1980s, the British government decided to attempt salvaging the gold from the wreck. The wreck was located in 800 feet of water, and over three weeks of deep dives the salvage crew was able to recover nearly all the gold (431 of 465 ingots); 29 more were recovered in 1986, leaving five unaccounted for.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Taking radar instead of smoke makes her considerably better at hunting DDs and camping islands, though the effects are not nearly as dramatic as with the Minotaur, as her concealment-to-radar range buffer is much lesser.
- Glass Cannon: From here on out Royal Navy cruisers are considered squishy even with their improved heal. The citadel simply can't keep AP rounds out, making these cruisers quite easy to take down if in open water. Equipping radar makes them even more vulnerable as they won't be able to stealth fire without the aid of islands.
- Powerup Let Down: Stats-wise, her main improvements over the Fiji amount to a slightly higher number of hitpoints, along with a better damage repair. These improvements sound nice, but the fact is that her armour simply won't stand up to the firepower of the higher-tier ships she is expected to face. She also gets radar, but this is mounted at the expense of her smokescreen, which further imperils her survivability.
Neptune
Tier IX British Cruiser of the Light Cruiser lineThe Neptunes were a proposed class of Royal Navy light cruisers. Planning for the cruisers began in 1942, taking into account the Navy's three years of wartime experience. They were initially designed as smaller antiaircraft cruisers, but when Andrew Cunningham became First Lord of the Admiralty he rejected this design, which led to them being redeveloped as larger versions of the Belfast, with twelve 152mm guns in four turrets, six 113mm guns in twin turrets, and four quadruple 533mm torpedo mounts. There were initially to be five ships in the class: Neptune, Centurion, Edgar, Mars, and Minotaur; the Tiger-class cruiser Bellerophon was later scheduled to be built to the Neptune design. The end of the war, combined with the drawdowns in naval spending and an ongoing debate over the role of cruisers in AA defense and carrier operations, saw all six cruisers canceled.
- Glass Cannon: Survivability problems aside, Neptune has a much-improved main battery with a rate of fire 50% higher than its predecessor, firing heavyweight shells that deal more damage, as well as having greater range and penetration, with the downside of longer travel times. She also has a set of eight torpedo tubes per side, more than double that of her predecessor and on par with fellow Glass Cannon light cruiser Emerald.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: British cruisers are more fragile than those of other nations (that Repair Party only helps if you're not wiped out entirely from the first salvo), so they require a ninja-like playstyle that emphasizes stealth and ability to Smoke Out to survive. The problem is that Neptune has dramatically worse concealment than both Edinburgh before her and Minotaur after her. Taking into account captain skills and the Tier 8 Concealment Systems upgrade, Neptune is the least-stealthy ship in the entire British cruiser line.
- Made of Explodium: The very high and long citadel leads to frequent loss of large sections of health if caught out of position. Even tier 7 cruisers firing AP can be a problem if they catch your broadside.
Minotaur
The Minotaurs, also known as Design Z, were a planned postwar cruiser class for the Royal Navy. They were follow-ons from the Neptune design, with improved armament, watertight subdivision, and commonality with the US Navy. There were several proposed designs with varying armament and propulsion schemes, but the final design was set to be armed with ten auto-loading 152mm guns in dual mounts, four quadruple 533mm torpedo mounts, and sixteen 76mm guns in eight dual mounts. Rapidly changing conditions in the postwar era led to the program being revised and suspended several times until it was finally canceled in the 1950s. The guns and turrets were ultimately mounted in the Tiger-class cruisers.
- Anti-Air: While lacking the defensive AA fire of American cruisers, she can still wreck planes with her secondary battery.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Taking radar instead of smokescreen may compromise survivability in open waters, but it turns the Minotaur into one of the most fearsome DD hunters and island campers in the game, allowing her to stealthily radar enemy ships before they can spot her.
- Glass Cannon: Like her predecessors, Minotaur can't really take many hits, despite having an improved heal (explaining why most players tend to favour the safety of taking smoke instead of radar). And even more than Neptune, Mino's AP DPM is utterly monstrous.
- More Dakka: Has one of the fastest firing guns in the game. Ten 152mm's firing every 3.2 seconds gives her one of the highest DPM counts in the game (among Tier X ships, surpassed only by Colbert, whose AP is significantly weaker), though this is somewhat blunted by the fact that like most British light cruisers, she can only fire AP shells.
Edgar
British Super-Cruiser of the Light Cruiser line. A larger version of Minotaur, boasting an additional turret.- More Dakka: As if Minotaur didn't have enough, Edgar possesses one more gun turret, and also an alternate firing mode that allows her to shoot several salvos of vastly improved AP shells in exchange for a long reload time.
Hawkins
Tier V British Cruiser of the Heavy Cruiser lineThe start of the Royal Navy Heavy Cruiser branch, splitting off from the Danae.HMS Hawkins was the lead ship of her class. She was laid down during WWI, but not completed until 1919. She was stationed in China for nine years and in the Atlantic for one before being put into reserves in 1931. She was converted into a cadet training ship in 1938, but was recommissioned and rearmed when WWII broke out. She spent the early part of the war hunting commerce raiders and escorting convoys in the Atlantic before being transferred to the Indian Ocean and then to the East Indies. Her last action was the Normandy invasion, where she bombarded shore positions in support of the landings at Utah Beach; she was paid off the following month and sent to be converted to a training ship. The conversion was ultimately canceled. Hawkins was used for bomb testing in 1947 and scrapped at the end of the year.
- Good Thing You Can Heal:Like the light line, all the cruisers of this branch get the repair party consumable, although not as powerful as those found on battleships.
- Master of None: Considered to be a generally poor cruiser due to her low speed and awkward gunnery arrangement.
Devonshire
Tier VI British Cruiser of the Heavy Cruiser line representing the London-subclass of the County-class cruisers.HMS Devonshire was a County-class (London-subclass) heavy cruiser, laid down in 1926, launched in 1927, and commissioned in 1929. She spent the bulk of her prewar career with the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet, aside from a one-year stint in China. Not long after her commissioning, she suffered a serious accident while conducting gunnery exercises in the Aegean; one of the guns in X turret misfired, and when its breechblock was opened the propellant charge in the gun exploded, igniting the charge that was ready for the next shot and killing 18 men. Upon the outbreak of war, Devonshire was transferred to the Home Fleet, where she participated in the hunt for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and was later assigned to patrol and interdiction duties in the North Sea. During the German invasion of Norway, she escorted Allied and Norwegian troop transports and evacuated King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav from Tromsø before it fell to the oncoming Germans. She was sent back to the Mediterranean to assist in operations against Vichy France, then spent the rest of the war on escort duty in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. After the end of the European war in May 1945, she was part of the squadron that returned King Haakon of Norway to Oslo. She was converted into a cadet training ship in 1947 and served in this role until 1954, when she was sold for scrap.
Surrey
Tier VII British Cruiser of the Heavy Cruiser line representing the Norfolk subclass of the County-class cruisers.HMS Surrey is a Norfolk-class heavy cruiser, though she was never actually completed. Ordered in 1929, she and sister ship Northumberland were cancelled in 1930 by the new Labour government as a cost-saving measure and a gesture to the upcoming London Naval Conference. Her sisters Norfolk and Dorsetshire performed sterling service in World War II, though Dorsetshire was sunk by Japanese dive bombers in 1942.
Albemarle
Tier VIII British Cruiser of the Heavy Cruiser line based on one of the 1942 series designs for a 3x3 8in armed ship.- Good Thing You Can Heal: Zigzagged. From this point on, all RN Heavy cruisers get the Royal Navy super heal capable of healing over 50% of the ships' HP in one use. However, the exposed, above-waterline citadel of these ships (Albermarle being the worst offender) means you'll most likely use them to recover from citadel damage, rather than being an advantage.
- Made of Explodium: Albemarle shares the same hull as the Neptune at tier 9, but without the smokescreen or improved agility used to hide that ships massive and weak citadel. Making the problem worse is the ship's atrocious firing angles from her turrets, meaning you have to show a nearly 45 degree angle to use all of your guns. A single citadel penetration can rip off over 40% of your maximum hp, depending on the gun fired at it. It is incredibly easy for your opponents to get a devastating strike on you, even from high angles or long range due the impossibility of hiding the citadel. The super heal only partially mitigates this issue, as it is easily overwhelmed by the sheer volume of damage you regularly take.
Drake
Tier IX British Cruiser of the Heavy Cruiser line- Kill It with Fire: Both Drake and Goliath feature 234mm guns with very high fire chance per shell, but reload their guns very slowly.
- Mighty Glacier: Has somewhat slower speeds than other heavy cruisers, but with the Royal Navy Superheal and a much less exposed citadel than Albemarle. However you should not get too complacent, as the citadel does stick above the waterline.
Goliath
Bellerophon
Tier III British BattleshipHMS Bellerophon was an improved "mass production" version of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought. Laid down in 1906 and completed in 1909, she and her sister ships Temeraire and Superb were assigned to the Home Fleet, which became the Grand Fleet upon the outbreak of WWI. Bellerophon was in the 4th Battle Squadron at the Battle of Jutland, where she fired on the cruiser Wiesbaden and battlecruiser Derfflinger. The remainder of her career was unremarkable, though she was present for the surrender of the German fleet in 1918. Now obsolete thanks to her advanced age, she served briefly as a gunnery training ship before being paid off and scrapped in 1921.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Nothing really jumps out about Bellerophon's stats until you look at the rest of the Tier 3 battleship spread. Its at that point you realize she is a hill among a field, with a comparatively large and powerful main battery that handles more like those on higher-tier battleships, good armour, high speed (for her tier) and decent maneuverability, topped off by a large secondary battery.
- Unfortunate Names: Named after the Greek mythical hero Bellerophon, most famous for riding Pegasus and slaying the Chimera. Unfortunately hes also one of the most famous examples of hubris destroying a hero in Greek mythology as he later tried to ascend Mount Olympus and was crippled and forced to spend the rest of his life as a beggar. Maybe not the best name for a new expensive ship.
Orion
Tier IV British BattleshipHMS Orion was the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleships. They were the first British dreadnoughts to be armed with 343mm (13.5 in) guns. Due to their increased size and firepower over the preceding dreadnought classes, they were considered the first "super-dreadnoughts". Orion was laid down in 1909 and completed in 1912, part of the Anglo-German naval arms race leading up to World War I. Like all her fellow battleships in the Grand Fleet, she spent much of the war awaiting the "grand battle" between the British and German navies. She and her sisters in the 2nd Battle Squadron sortied in an attempt to catch the German battlecruiser squadron after its raid on the Yorkshire coast in 1914, but saw no further action until Jutland, where she engaged König and Markgraf and heavily damaged the battlecruiser Lützow. Aside from occasional sorties by the fleet, Orion saw no further action for the remainder of the war. She was sold for scrap in 1922 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.
- Jack of All Stats: Largely similar to Bellerophon, though Orion's margin of superiority over its competition is comparatively less or non-existent. She does however, possess an excellent main battery for her tier.
Iron Duke
Tier V British BattleshipIron Duke was the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleships. They were improved versions of the King George V class, with heavier armour and a 152mm secondary battery as opposed to the 102mm guns mounted on the King Georges. She was laid down in 1912 and launched in March 1914, making her one of the last dreadnoughts completed prior to the outbreak of war in August. Upon joining the Grand Fleet, she became its flagship and served in that capacity until 1917. Though she missed the Scarborough Raid and the Battle of the Dogger Bank, she was present at Jutland, where Admiral John Jellicoe commanded the fleet from her bridge. During the battle, she inflicted significant damage on SMS König and also claimed to have sunk a destroyer. Like the rest of her fellow dreadnoughts, she saw no action for the remainder of the war. She served as flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet from 1919 to 1924, when she was superseded by Queen Elizabeth, who had previously replaced her as Grand Fleet flagship. She continued to serve as a squadron flagship in the Mediterranean and Atlantic until 1928. The Navy considered modernizing her, but ultimately opted not to, since she was due for replacement in 1931. In accordance with the London Naval Treaty of 1930, she was disarmed and converted into a gunnery training ship. She spent WWII as a harbor ship and antiaircraft platform in Scapa Flow, where she was twice damaged by German bombing raids and had to be run aground. She was refloated in 1946 and sold for scrap in 1948.
- Stone Wall: By RN battleship standards and for the tier, Iron Duke is exceptionally resilient, with a strong, well-distributed armour scheme and an improved heal. However, this is compensated for by her relatively slow speed and poor manoeuvrability, as well as a relatively weak main battery.
Queen Elizabeth
Tier VI British BattleshipQueen Elizabeth was one of the most powerful dreadnoughts produced by the Royal Navy. She and her sisters were the first battleships to mount 381mm guns and had a maximum speed of 25 knots, making them the first "fast battleships". Laid down in 1912 and completed in 1915, she was sent to cut her teeth at the Dardanelles, serving as flagship for the commander of the British troops at Gallipoli. After being withdrawn from that campaign due to fears of losing the newest dreadnought in the fleet to a lucky shot from a Turkish fort or marauding U-boat, she rejoined the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. She was being overhauled during the Battle of Jutland, making her one of the few dreadnoughts not to participate in the battle. Admiral David Beatty chose her as the fleet flagship in 1917, a position she held until the end of the war, whereupon she became flagship of the Atlantic Fleet from 1919 to 1924. She spent the rest of the decade bouncing between the Atlantic and Mediterranean and underwent two significant modernizations from 1926-1927 and 1937-1941. After her second modernization, she provided sterling service in WWII, fighting in the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters. With the end of the war, she was sent to the reserves in 1945 and sold for scrap in 1948.
- Anti-Air: One of the strongest, well-balanced AA suites of any ship in her tier.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Can punch through regular hull plating like her sister Warspite, though shorter fuse times may interfere with penetration at longer ranges.
- Point Defenseless: While her AA is excellent, Queen Elizabeth starts off a trend of RN BBs having secondary armament optimized for anti-aircraft duties at the expense of surface targets.
King George V
Tier VII British Battleship.The lead ship of a new generation of British battleships, the Washington and London Naval Treaties limited the size and firepower of this class. Her proprietary (for the British) quadruple 14in/356mm gun turrets were a factor of this restriction, but her reload is quicker to compensate. HMS King George V was laid down in 1937 and launched in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II. One of her first missions saw her participating in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck; alongside the battleship Rodney, she caught up to Bismarck and pummeled it into submission, forcing the Germans to abandon ship. After this, she was reassigned to convoy escort duty in the North Sea and Arctic, during which she accidentally rammed and sank the destroyer HMS Punjabi after the latter ship turned to avoid a mine. After being repaired, King George V briefly resumed Arctic convoy duty before transferring to the Mediterranean to support the Allied invasion of Italy and then to the Pacific to join the British Task Force 63. She bombarded Japanese shore installations in the Ryukyus and Honshu and provided support during the invasion of Okinawa. After Japan surrendered, King George V was part of the British contingent that attended the formal ceremonies in Tokyo Bay. She briefly served as flagship of the Home Fleet before being converted to a training ship in 1946 and then mothballed in 1950. After being downgraded to extended reserve, she was ultimately scrapped in 1957.
- Jack of All Stats: Compared to the other tier VII Royal Navy battleships, she does not excel in any particular respect, but has few obvious shortcomings. Her speed and maneuverability is good but not outstanding. Main battery armament is on the weak side with poor accuracy and lousy AP penetration, but this is compensated for by a large number of fast-reloading guns and excellent HE performance. Her durability is also quite good, combining a well-armored citadel with the trademark RN heal and a respectable number of hitpoints, but her hull plating can be bypassed by many battleship weapons at the same tier or higher. Her anti-aircraft suite is commendable but not particularly notable.
- Kill It with Fire: One of the best firestarters at her tier, with a fast-reloading ten-gun battery boasting a whopping 41% fire chance per shell.
Monarch
Tier VIII British Battleship. A draft design of the King George V class, with 15in/381mm guns in triple turrets instead of 14in/356mm guns.- Good Thing You Can Heal: The main redeeming feature of the Monarch is that she has the higher tier RN repair party.
- Master of None: Monarch simply lacks any redeeming characteristics, essentially being little more than the King George V with the Queen Elizabeth's guns.
- Power Up Let Down: Monarch is widely considered to be one of the worst battleships in the game: pretty much every other battleship in its the tier is just flat-out better in almost every single way. The only things she has going in her favour is an improved repair party similar to that mounted on Nelson, Lion, and Conqueror, as well as a low detection range.
- Stealth Expert: Her less-appreciated distinction is that she is the stealthiest battleship in her tier when properly kitted out.
Lion
Tier IX British Battleship.Developed as an improved successor to the King George V class, the Lion class wielded 15/in406mm guns. There were to be six Lions built; Lion and her sister Temeraire were laid down in 1939, but the advent of WWII saw construction suspended on both. The Admiralty briefly reauthorized construction in October 1939, but halted it again in May 1940. The design was thoroughly revised in 1942 in light of wartime experience, but construction was never reauthorized on either ship and they were ultimately scrapped in 1943.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Has a super repair party shared with the Nelson, Monarch, and Conqueror.
- Mighty Glacier: Its low hitpoint total (lowest in its tier) and exposed citadel is compensated for by relatively thick citadel protection and its high-tier repair party. Moreover, when fully-upgraded, the Lion boasts one of the most powerful guns in its tier, with the usual excellent HE but also good AP performance as well.
Conqueror
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Is often regarded as overpowered simply because it can heal so much before succumbing to damage.
- Mighty Glacier: Zigzagged. On one hand, it does have the lowest hitpoint count of any battleship of its tier save for the Bourgogne. Its armour is weak for its tier, and its citadel is located above water. Though maneuverable, its speed is on the slow side as well. However, because of its super heal, it can shrug off an enormous amount of damage, especially from fires. Its main battery guns are identical to those on the fully-upgraded Lion, differing only in that it has more of them.
- Miles Gloriosus: Not the ship herself, but Conqueror is hated because of this trope, being the battleship that exemplifies stereotypical battleship player behavior, namely doing nothing almost the whole match then attempting to salvage the match (which most of the time end with the outnumbered player(s) being killed in short order) when almost the entire team is dead, in an attempt to claim credit for the victory. Her playstyle leans into this, unfortunately (backline sniping, albeit with HE instead of the usual AP common to most B Bs).
- Theme Naming: Developers decided to extrapolate Admiral-class' naming theme to all of the paper ships in the line. Duncan and St. Vincent are both taken from older real-life ships, while Rooke and Hawke are named after George Rooke and Edward Hawke respectively.
Indefatigable
Tier III British Battleship of the Battlecruiser line. A class of three ships, they were the second class of battlecruisers in the Royal Navy. The lead ship of the class, Indefatigable was laid down in 1909 and commissioned in 1911. She served briefly with the First Cruiser Squadron before transferring to the Mediterranean. She was still stationed there when war broke out in August 1914. She was one of the ships tasked with pursuing the German battlecruiser Goeben and light cruiser Breslau, though a series of contradictory orders and bad decisions on the part of the British commanders allowed both ships to escape to Constantinople. Indefatigable later bombarded Turkish forts at the Dardanelles prior to the British declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire in November. She refit at Malta in early 1915, then returned to Britain and joined the Grand Fleet. The rest of her career was uneventful until the Battle of Jutland. During the "Run to the South", the initial engagement between the German and British battlecruisers, Indefatigable was blown up and sunk by several hits from the battlecruiser Von der Tann; the shells detonated her magazines and tore the ship in half, with only three survivors from a crew of 1,019. Her wreck is protected as a war grave by British law.Queen Mary
Tier IV British Battleship of the Battlecruiser line. The sole ship of her class, she was laid down in 1911 and commissioned in 1913. As part of the First Battlecruiser Squadron, she fought in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight and was part of the unsuccessful attempt to intercept the German battlecruisers after their raid on the cities of Scarborough, Whitby, and Hartlepool. She was refitting during the Battle of Dogger Bank, but was back in service for the great clash at Jutland. Like Indefatigable, she was blown up and sunk during the Run to the South. She was hit several times by the battlecruisers Seydlitz and Derfflinger; one of Derfflinger's shells detonated her forward magazines and ripped her in two, with eighteen survivors from a crew of 1,266. She is protected as a war grave.Tiger
Tier V British Battleship of the Battlecruiser line. Another unique ship, she was laid down in 1912 and commissioned in October 1914, two months after the outbreak of WWI. Her first action was at the Battle of the Dogger Bank, but as she was still undergoing shakedown, she performed poorly; her gunnery was especially criticized. Tiger next saw action at Jutland; though she was hit 18 times, she managed to avoid the fate of Invincible, Indefatigable, and Queen Mary. She later underwent an extensive refit to reinforce her armor and add additional rangefinders, and spent the remainder of the war on patrol in the North Sea, though she never saw action again. She survived the postwar cull of the British fleet, though she was made into a gunnery training ship in 1924. She briefly returned to active service when Hood went into dry dock in 1929, but she was taken out of service in 1931 according to the terms of the recently signed London Naval Treaty and scrapped in 1932.- One-Steve Limit: Averted with Tiger '59, which, confusingly as far as the game is concerned, was a cruiser.
Renown
Tier VI British Battleship of the Battlecruiser line. She and her sister ship Repulse were laid down in 1915 and completed in 1916. They missed the Battle of Jutland and consequently saw no action in World War I. Both ships were retained in the postwar fleet and underwent extensive reconstructions in the 1920s and 1930s. Both Renown and Repulse served in WWII; Repulse was sunk by Japanese aircraft in 1941, while Renown served with distinction throughout the war. She participated in the hunts for Graf Spee and Bismarck and served in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean. After the end of the war, she was scrapped in 1948. Renown was the last British battlecruiser to be sent to the scrapyard, just outlasting Furious.Rooke
Tier VII British Battleship of the Battlecruiser line. Project J3 was developed after WWI, in 1921.Hawke
Tier VIII British Battleship of the Battlecruiser line. This ship is based on another post-WWI design, namely Project K3.Duncan
Tier IX British Battleship of the Battlecruiser line. Project G3 was the final version of the 1921 battlecruiser program. However, it was never built due to the Washington Naval Treaty.- All of the Other Reindeer: Duncan and St. Vincent are excellent ships, but they won't be winning any World of Warships beauty contests any time soon. Though based on real design proposals (with the logic of reducing the citadel length), the two highest tier ships of the British battlecruiser line are almost universally considered among the ugliest ships in the game between the placement of P-turret, the comical forward superstructure and busy aft superstructure.
St. Vincent
Tier X British Battleship of the Battlecruiser line. Project I3, developed in 1920, was the preliminary version of the British post-WWI battlecruiser program.- Always Accurate Attack: RN aerial torpedoes are even more accurate than IJN aerial torpedoes. They will actually converge on a single point if fully aimed. While it's still possible for the player's aim to be off, or the target to manuver out of the way, the consistency of RN torpedoes is notable in a game that's so full of RNG.
- Mighty Glacier: British aircraft are slow and generally few in number but relatively durable. While this allows them to weather ship-based anti-aircraft weaponry better than most other aircraft, they are proportionately more vulnerable to floatplane and carrier fighters.
Hermes
Tier IV British Aircraft CarrierOne of the first purpose-built aircraft carriers in the world, Hermes evolved from a seaplane carrier design created in 1916. She was laid down in 1918 and launched the following year, but her construction was suspended pending the results of trials with the converted carriers Argus and Eagle. These trials resulted in several design changes, and Hermes was finally completed in 1924. She spent her prewar years in the Mediterranean and China, where she helped develop carrier tactics, showed the flag, interdicted pirate ships in the South China Sea, and participated in the search for the lost Lady Southern Cross airplane. She was converted to a training ship in 1938, but was refit and recommissioned due to the outbreak of war the following year. She conducted antisubmarine and commerce patrols in the Atlantic and Mediterranean and unsuccessfully attacked the French battleship Richelieu in port at Dakar after the governor of French Senegal declared allegiance to Vichy. She was later transferred to the Indian Ocean on patrol duty, then was assigned to support the British invasion of Madagascar. While sailing from Trincomalee with the Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire, they were spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft from the Japanese battleship Haruna and promptly swarmed and sunk by at least 35 dive bombers. Her wreck lies in shallow water 45 miles northwest of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, and is a popular destination for recreational divers.
Furious
Tier VI British Aircraft CarrierHMS Furious began life as one of the Courageous-class battlecruisers, conceived by First Sea Lord Jacky Fisher to get around a wartime restriction on building anything larger than a light cruiser. He justified them as part of his pet "Baltic Project", a proposed amphibious assault on the German coast. Furious had only two 460mm (18in) guns and paper-thin armour (51-76mm belt armour, the same as a light cruiser), so had to rely on her superior speed of 31.5 knots to avoid being smashed by enemy ships. As a result, she earned the sarcastic nickname of "Spurious". Furious was modified during construction with a hangar and flying-off deck in place of her forward turret and then had a landing deck and second hangar installed on her aft deck in 1917. At first, these decks were separated by her superstructure and funnel, an awkward arrangement that made landing hazardous at best. Furious and her half sisters Courageous and Glorious were rebuilt in the 1920s according to the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, becoming the first fleet carriers of the Royal Navy. Furious was the only one of the three to survive WWII, and was sold for scrap in 1948.
- Ur-Example: Furious was arguably the first aircraft carrier, being fitted with a dedicated fly-off deck in place of a front turret and eventually having her rear turret replaced by a landing deck. These were awkwardly separated by a superstructure and it took her an extensive rebuild to get to the game configuration.
Implacable
Tier VIII British Aircraft CarrierHMS Implacable was the lead ship of her class of carriers, laid down in 1939 and commissioned in 1944 after several delays in her construction. She initially served with the British Home Fleet and attacked targets in Norway until being reassigned to the Royal Navy's Pacific Force. She participated in an attack on the Japanese naval base at Truk, then bombed targets in the Home Islands until the end of the war. After the Japanese surrender, she served as a transport for Allied POWs and demobbed soldiers before returning to active duty. After the war, she did a brief stint as flagship of the Home Fleet in 1950 before going into reserve. The Royal Navy considered modernizing her to carry jet aircraft, but the project was deemed too time-consuming and expensive and she was instead converted into a training ship in 1952 and scrapped three years later.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory:Those using premium containers to get Implacable don't have to play the previous two RN carriers and can start grinding their way to Audacious early.
- Lightning Bruiser: The ship itself is reasonably quick for a CV and has a (partially) armored flight deck.
Audacious
- Difficult, but Awesome: She stands out as this compared to Implacable. Audacious's bombs from her level bombers fall out at a noticeably slower rate and her attackers take more time to aim and are more sensitive to movements. But both of these drop incredibly high amounts of ordnance and are quire devastating when everything hits.
Eagle
British Super-Carrier. She is the final version of Audacious, showing how the ship was finished in real life.- Crippling Overspecialization: She lacks normal attack aircraft squadron, which makes it very hard for her to damage destroyers.
- Multi-Ranged Master: In addition to normal planes she has tactical squadrons of reactive aircraft that have a very high speed but long reload time, making them perfect for surgical strikes.
- Underground Monkey: She's mostly the same Audacious with slightly different armament and paintjob.
Premium ships
Campbeltown
British Tier 3 premium destroyer. A former American Wickes-class destroyer, provided to Britain under the Lend-Lease program. Famous for her role in the St Nazaire Raid
, HMS Campbeltown is mostly just a worse version of the American tier 3 non-premium destroyer Wickes. With 1 less main gun and 6 fewer torpedo tubes, her only advantage is that the torpedoes are longer-range and do more damage than those of any other Tier 3 destroyer. Sadly does not get any bonuses to ramming damage.Anthony
British Tier 5 destroyer. Usable in the Operation Dynamo event in July 2017.- Anti-Air: She is tied with the Americans' Nicholas destroyer for the lowest tier ship with access to the "Defensive Fire" consumable. However, she is also the only ship with this consumable that has no dual-purpose mounts, meaning she has this simply for gameplay purposes.
Gallant
British Tier 6 premium destroyer. Gallant was laid down in 1934 and commissioned in 1936. She patrolled off the Spanish coast during the Spanish Civil War, enforcing the edicts of the Non-Intervention Committee. When World War II began, she was transferred from the Mediterranean to English waters for patrol and escort duty. She participated in the Dunkirk evacuation, where she was slightly damaged by a near-miss German bomb. She continued her escort and patrol duties in the Atlantic and Mediterranean until January 1941, when she struck a mine that tore off her bow and killed 65 of her crew. She was towed to Malta for repairs, only to be further damaged by German air raids. Now judged a total loss, she was scuttled as a blockship off St. Paul's Island, then raised and broken up in 1953.- Nitro Boost: She and Cossack have access to the "Engine Boost" consumable, whereas none of the tech tree destroyers do.
- Smoke Out: She has a more standard smoke screen compared to the short duration smoke generators of other RN DD's, allowing her to sit in smoke and use her guns more effectively.
Cossack
British Tier 8 premium destroyer.- Lightning Bruiser: While her durability is nothing special for her tier, Cossack has a powerful gun armament, boasting eight rapid-firing 120mm guns in four turrets. She's also quite fast and maneuverable, especially as she is one of the few RN DDs to have a speed boost consumable.
London
Tier VI Premium Heavy Cruiser- Short-Range Fighter: Her small firing range of 13.2 km with her main battery is her main limitation. Unlike other cruisers, she doesn't get access to a spotting aircraft to extend this, and is too low tier to use equipment that would extend it.
- Smoke Out: Equipped with a standard British cruiser smoke screen, a very unusual feature for a Heavy Cruiser.
Belfast
British Tier 7 premium cruiser. Notably preserved as a museum on the Thames River in London, and is the largest British warship to receive such an honor.- Bribing Your Way to Victory: The combination of HE shells (something other RN light cruisers don't get)smoke screens, hydroacoustic search and radar means this ship can sit in smoke, spot its own targets, and avoid any return torpedo attacks, making it almost impossible to counterattack unless you have radar too. She has since been removed from sale.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: She's one of a handful of ships below tier 8 with the radar consumable and also one of only two ships in the game, the other being USS Black, that can also wield a smoke screen at the same time. Combined with the fact that her radar is only a hair shy of being equal to her detection range, this oddity makes the Belfast extremely good at spotting things while it can't be seen in return.
- Glass Cannon: For all of Belfast's superlative capabilities, she is even more fragile than other British cruisers, lacking any form of healing.
- Kill It with Fire: Unlike other British light cruisers, Belfast has high explosive shells, allowing her to invoke this trope.
- Stealth Expert: Thanks to the ability to mount a concealment module, Belfast is the stealthiest cruiser at her tier by a wide margin. Combined with the fact she can carry hydroacoustic search, a smoke screen, and radar at the same time, its basically impossible to out-spot a Belfast unless its consumables are on cooldown.
- Squishy Wizard: Her consumables and stealth make her one of the most overpowered ships in the game. However, her average armor scheme, lack of healing, and lack of torpedoes puts her at a disadvantage in a straight fight against most other ships larger than a destroyer.
Cheshire
Tier VIII Premium Heavy Cruiser- Necessary Drawback: Features the same large 234mm guns found on the higher tier Drake and Goliath, but only gets 6 guns in 3 double turrets compared to thier 9 guns in 3 triple turrets.
Belfast '43
Tier VIII Premium Light Cruiser- Powerup Let Down: Despite being a tier higher than the old premium ship it was designed to replace, it its generally considered the worse vessel. Wargaming did not repeat the original's overpowered status, and therefore heavily handicapped the ships stats.
Dreadnought
The granddaddy of all modern battleships. With an all-big-gun armament (dispensing with the mixed-calibre gun armament of the "pre-dreadnought" battleships) as well as using steam turbines for propulsion, (pre-dreadnoughts relied on triple-expansion steam engines), Dreadnought ushered in a new era of battleship design, such that an entire generation of battleships were called "dreadnoughts" after the ship herself. Her construction sparked a naval arms race between Germany and Britain in the build-up to World War I. Poor Dreadnought missed the only major clash of her kind at Jutland and sank only one ship during her career, a U-boat which she rammed after it attempted to torpedo HMS Neptune.note- The Dreaded Dreadnought: The Trope Maker and Trope Namer, and not-at-all bad for her tier.
- Lightning Bruiser: After her buff she moves at her historical speed of 21 knots, which is more than some same-tier cruisers.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Much like Bellerophon and Konig Albert. She trades in some of Bellerophon's speed and secondaries for better concealment and forward firing angles and the ability to equip a commander without retraining. She still is quite more zippy, tanky, and just all around easier to use than other Tier 3 battleships, and other tier 3 premiums typically under-perform to a much greater extent versus the tech tree counterparts to compensate to ability to equip highly trained commanders.
Warspite
A Queen Elizabeth-class battleship and one of the most famous battleships in history, with a slew of combat honors from both World Wars. Warspite fought in the Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific and Indian Oceans as well as in the Mediterranean Sea, and survived all kinds of damage from shells, bombs, mines, ramming attacks, and even guided missile hits (Fritz-X anti-shipping glidebombs). Sadly, her sterling record didn't save her from the sad fate of being scrapped, despite the ship fighting off attempts to tow her to the scrapyard. Warspite has the most battle honors of any individual ship in Royal Navy history (15, if you're curious).- Armor-Piercing Attack: Warspite was the first tier VI ship in the game with a main battery capable of overmatching hull plating on both tier VI and VII battleships.
- BFG: Before the release of Mutsu and West Virginia, Warspite had the biggest and most powerful guns of any ship in its tier.
- Master of All: One of the best battleships in her tier, with powerful and accurate guns, superb protection, and excellent maneuverability, with her main faults being her somewhat slow speed and low gunnery range.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: You'd probably be wary of tangling with a ship named Warspite. It doesn't help that her fearsome reputation in Real Life is reflected nicely in her in-game performance.
- Point Defenseless: Notably averted among other RN BBs, with a respectable secondary battery that is relatively long-ranged, highly accurate, and fires rapidly. Her AA capability on the other hand, is decent but not outstanding.
Duke of York
Sister ship to the King George V. Her most famous role is leading the squadron that sank Scharnhorst in the Battle of North Cape. In-game, she functions as a King George V that sacrifices reload time to get access to Hydroacoustic Search and improved AP shells.- Bragging Rights Reward: She could be obtained for free via a difficult campaign, but this trope is in play because she has a difficult time competing with ships of her matchmaking spread.
Nelson
A battleship built under the Washington Naval Treaty restrictions, carrying nine 16in/406mm guns. To save weight by shortening the length of the citadel, the entire main battery was placed forward of the superstructure in a pyramid arrangement, giving the ship an unusual and distinctive appearance.- BFG: Nelson gets nine 16in/406mm guns, one more than the Colorado and Nagato. They exhibit decent AP penetration while still retaining outstanding HE performance.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Properly played, it can repair over two times its maximum hitpoint count thanks to its repair party, which is comparable to that of higher tier British battleships.
- Mighty Glacier: Zigzagged. While it has thick citadel armor, it can be easily targeted and penetrated if not properly angled, though given that all three of its turrets are located ahead of the bridge, it does not have to expose much of its side to fire a full salvo. However, the bow is thin and easily overmatched by many other battleships at the same tier and above, and the ship is generally not very well-armored overall, which makes it vulnerable to HE shells from just about any vessel afloat. Low speed and average maneuverability combined with weak torpedo protection also make her quite vulnerable to torpedo attack.
- Point Defenseless: Half-decent, with most AA firepower is concentrated into easily-destroyed, short-ranged mounts. The secondary battery is at best passable.
Hood
British Tier 7 premium battleship and the second British battleship to appear in the game (though she is technically a battlecruiser).HMS Hood was one of the most famous warships of her day. Laid down in 1916, she was still under construction when three British battlecruisers blew up and sank at Jutland due to inadequate armor and antiflash protection, leading Hood to receive 5000 tons of extra armor and bracing. Despite this, her armor scheme remained flawed, a vulnerability which may have ultimately led to her destruction.note She was the last battlecruiser the Royal Navy ever built and the largest warship afloat at the time of her launch, which quickly earned her the nickname "Mighty Hood". She spent the interwar years traveling the world as a showcase for the might of the British Empire, though as the years passed she was superseded by the new fast battleships being produced worldwide. Hood was scheduled for an extensive modernization in 1941 that would have improved her propulsion and armor, but WWII intervened and she never received the upgrades. She was on constant service from 1939 to 1941, during which time she participated in the assault on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir and the hunt for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In May 1941, she received orders to intercept and destroy the German battleship Bismarck before it could break out into the Atlantic. She and HMS Prince of Wales caught up to Bismarck and her companion Prinz Eugen on 24 May, as they were transiting the Denmark Strait. Only eight minutes after the British had opened fire, Bismarck hit Hood with a salvo that triggered a cataclysmic explosion in her aft magazines, tearing poor Hood apart and sinking her in three minutes with nearly her entire crew.note Bismarck herself was sunk three days later.
- Achilles' Heel : As in Real Life, she is vulnerable to plunging fire due to a combination of the area of her citadel and substandard deck armor. By extension she really struggles against battleships capable of out-ranging or outrunning her since they stand the best chance of doing so. Quite appropriately, this includes the Bismarck.
- Anti-Air: Formerly infamous for her absolutely murderous short-ranged AA rockets when boosted by her Defensive Fire ability, the overhaul to aircraft gameplay has made her good but not excellent for her tier.
- Back from the Dead: Like her nemesis Bismarck, she has a special permanent camouflage that mimics her appearance after being sunk (aside from the whole "vaporized stern" part).
- Fragile Speedster: Fast for a battleship but highly susceptible to citadel damage if exposed.
- Lightning Bruiser: Strangely played straight, given the usual battlecruiser Fragile Speedster/Glass Cannon conventions. Her armor is actually quite resilient when angled against other battleships, and she has the hit points and excellent repair party to allow her to endure considerable damage.
Vanguard
The last battleship launched in the worldnote Vanguard was built as a cheaper alternative to the proposed Lion class and designed around surplus 15inch gun turrets taken from the Courageous-class battlecruisers after their conversion into aircraft carriers. Notably served as the Royal Yacht for a brief period of time.- Achilles' Heel: Bad firing angles means that firing off a full broadside can leave her citadel (which sits over the waterline) dangerously exposed.
- Boring, but Practical: For a premium, Vanguard sports an unimpressive armament for its tier, an exposed citadel and troublesome firing angles. She also doesn't have much in the way of gimmicks, like long range secondaries or torpedoes. That said, she does have a number of very good stats otherwise: fast with a large hitpoint count, a better-than-average protection scheme for both the citadel as well as much of the hull, and an improved repair party that helps her recover from more penetration and citadel damage, with a lower cooldown. And for all of the deficiencies associated with her main battery guns, they do reload fast, are highly accurate, and have excellent HE and AP performance. Additionally, she also boasts good anti-aircraft defences. Even when bottom tier, a well-played Vanguard can still be a menace.
Thunderer
Tier X British Battleship. Conqueror used to have the option to mount 457mm guns. That option was removed. Instead, Thunderer was released.Thunderer wields eight highly-accurate 457mm guns in four turrets. Thunderer also gets DFAA, an oddity for battleships. However, Thunderer does not get the super heal of her 'sister', Conqueror.- Glass Cannon: Thunderer has one of the best main battery guns in the game, possessing long range, a high degree of accuracy, and excellent AP and HE performance. However, based as it is on the Conqueror's hull, it shares the same vulnerabilities without the same repair capabilities as the latter.
- Kill It with Fire: This ship's main gimmick. Its HE shells have a whopping 63% chance to cause a fire with a quick (for a battleship) reload. Their penetration is high enough that high-explosive citadel hits against cruisers are possible at mid-range. To add final insult, these shells have a large blast radius—trashing torpedo launchers, annihilating anti-aircraft weaponry, and scorching secondary guns on their targets.
