HMS Renown
Contents
Description
Originally laid down as the sixth ship of the Revenge-class battleships, construction of the HMS Renown was suspended at the outbreak of World War I due to concerns that the ship would not be ready for action in a timely manner. However, after Admiral Jackie Fisher was promoted to the First Sea Lord, he ordered Renown to be completely redesigned to his preferences for a battlecruiser. The ship was to have a similar displacement as the Revenge-class, yet being significantly faster. To this end, the ship was lengthened to 242 meters (compared to Revenge's 189.2 meters), powered by thrice the power of the Revenge, and has its armour and armaments significantly reduced to save weight. As a result, the Renown became the lead ship of an entirely new class of battlecruiser, and she would be pressed into construction priority to fulfill the Royal Navy's needs.
While the Renown did not see any combat in World War I, she underwent several refits before and during World War II, ranging from major increases in anti-air capabilities to trivial ones like replacing the seaplane hangar with a cinema and laundry. Because of this, combined with the fact that she was frequently used to transport British PM Winston Churchill to various conferences due to her relatively luxurious accommodation, she has gained the nickname "Refit" by her crews. Other than this, the ship saw action on both the European and Pacific theatres and participated in landings in Africa and South East Asia before being phased out of service after the war.
Introduced during Update "La Royale" as a reward for the 2023 Summer Extreme event. The HMS Renown is in her 1944 configuration, with a substantial increase in dedicated anti-air defense. Compared to HMS Hood, Renown has one less 15-inch turret and worse armour protection but is offset by large quantities of fast-firing 4.5-inch secondary turrets, greater anti-air capability, and better acceleration compared to her larger counterpart.
General info
Survivability and armour
Being designed with speed as the main priority, the Renown's armour is quite thin for a capital ship. Most of the Renown's citadel sides were covered with 228.6 mm of RHA, save for the bow and stern bulkheads that were only covered with 101.6 mm and 76.2 mm of armour, respectively. Because of this, the Renown's bulkheads will be obvious weak spots that most battleship can easily overmatch and potentially sends the ship to the bottom of the ocean via magazine detonation.
Speaking of magazines, the Renown's main ammo racks are located just a bit below the waterline. Unfortunately, as the ship is currently modelled in game, the vessel is sitting roughly a metre or two higher in the water as it should be for a fully loaded 1944 Renown, meaning that the ship is highly vulnerable to shells hitting the unprotected hull below the main armour belt, especially given that the damage model of the ship is currently missing an extension to the sloped armour deck designed to protect from hits below the belt, all of this resulting in diving shells easily being able to pass through a small distance of water and then right into unprotected ammunition stores.
On the bright side, the Renown's massive profile and spread-out crew distribution also allows the ship to tank several hits from the enemies should they be unable to hit your ammo racks. As such, prioritize your damage control on crew conservation and do not repair the damaged modules when not necessary.
Mobility
As a battlecruiser, the Renown possesses decent top speed for a capital ship at 57 km/h in RB. While not as good as a cruiser, the Renown stands out for her greater acceleration that allows her to shift the sail speed significantly faster, making it easier to bring the ship to a halt when needed. However, due to the ship's long and narrow hull, combined with her high centre of gravity, the Renown's turn rates are very poor. The ship would often list while turning, resulting in poor accuracy and a huge turn radius.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 66 | 29 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 57 | 25 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
The main armament of the HMS Renown is six 15 inch BL Mark I cannons, mounted in three twin turrets in A-Bs-X configuration. While having one less turret compared to the HMS Hood, these guns still packs more than enough punch against any ship she may face.
She has two rounds available, 15 inch 4crh CPC, a SAPCBC shell, and 15 inch 4crh Mark XIIa APC, an APCBC shell. The SAPCBC shell, while having a smaller filler than the equivalent SAP shells on the Bayern and the Japanese 356 mm, is still the strongest SAP shell in the game, solely due to its penetration. Penetrating 487 mm at point blank, it has very minimal penetration falloff, and it still penetrates 308 mm at 15 km, while the Bayern can only penetrate 170 mm at that range, while the Japanese 356 mm SAP can't even reach that penetration at 1 km. This allows the Renown to smash any battleship designed before "all or nothing" armour schemes came into wide use, as while their main belts may be able to hold up, their weaker upper belts stand no chance, and several of these SAP shells finding their way around the realms of enemy ammunition magazines will have very entertaining results. Due to the high filler, even hits to the upper hull may cause a large enough explosion to detonate ammunition several decks below.
The APCBC shell is fairly strong with ~20 kg of TNT effective filler and decent penetration statistics, making it quite handy for punching deep into the internals of an opposing capital ship and bypassing most, if not all armour that it comes across while in regular battle ranges.
Although the 15 inch guns offered quite a punch, it is plagued with a painfully slow turret traverse speed. This prohibits the usage of the gun in close quarters and significantly reduced its reflexibility. In addition, the shell elevator of the gun has a relatively weak protection at 177.8 mm, which means it would often get damaged or disabled by most battleship guns or even some cruiser-calibre guns.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| 4crh CPC | SAPCBC | 487 | 462 | 427 | 399 | 377 | 345 |
| 4crh Mark XIIa APC | APCBC | 644 | 597 | 528 | 470 | 422 | 357 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 4crh CPC | SAPCBC | 752 | 871 | 0.035 | 26 | 58.6 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| 4crh Mark XIIa APC | APCBC | 752 | 871 | 0.025 | 26 | 20.68 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
Secondary armament
The Renown is armed with 20 x 4.5 inch QF Mark IV dual-purposes cannons. Distributed in ten twin turrets with five placed on the port and starboard side of the superstructure each. The turrets has very good traverse speed and coverage, and is capable of engaging surface and air targets.
As this is the similar guns found on the Battle-class destroyers, it has very good rate of fire of 20 rpm when maxed out. It has three shell choice: A basic HE shell with 2.32 kg of TNT equivalent, capable of dealing decent damage against deck mounts and non-capital ship at longer ranges, a SAP shell with 77 mm of penetration at 5 km range, making it ideal for dealing with non-capital ship at close range, and a HE-TF shell for air targets. Due to the lack of HE-VT shell which can be used both against surface and air targets, this effectively reduce the versatility of the guns, as you have to switch between regular HE and HE-TF when engaging new targets. Loading the guns with only HE-TF shell are not advised as this will effectively cut your secondary firepower out altogether.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| 4.5 inch HE | HE | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 |
| 4.5 inch SAP | SAP | 117 | 100 | 77 | 61 | 50 | 41 |
| 4.5 inch HE-TF | HE-TF | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 4.5 inch HE | HE | 746 | 24.95 | 0 | 0.1 | 2,320 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| 4.5 inch SAP | SAP | 746 | 23 | 0.015 | 5 | 910 | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
| 4.5 inch HE-TF | HE-TF | 746 | 24.95 | 0 | 0.1 | 2,320 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
Anti-aircraft armament
Being in a late war refit, the Renown features an extremely heavy anti-air armaments in the form of 24 x 40 mm Pom-Pom autocannons in three octuple turrets and single quadruple turret, and 64 x 20 mm Oerlikon autocannons in 20 twin mounts and 24 single mounts, respectively. With 88 guns in total (108 if counting secondary guns), the Renown can effectively create a "no-fly zone" around her and allies, and will deter any daring PT boats and aircraft from attacking.
As with any ship with large number of AA mounts, however, the Renown can bleed quite a large number of crews when they are damaged by HE blasts. Thus it is advised not to repair them while during a firefight, as you will be effectively put your AA gunner crews as a cannon fodder in the process.
Additional armament
The Renown has an option to equip eight Mark V torpedoes, launched from eight fixed single tubes distributed in four on the port and starboard sides each. Given that the torpedo has a very short range of just 4.5 km (9.5 km with "Torpedo mode" modification) and that the ship has very slow traverse speed, it is not recommended to use them.
Usage in battles
HMS Renown is in many ways similar to HMS Hood, being a fast, large, but not-so-agile battlecruiser with large guns. However, the Renown's design features a recurring armour tradeoff common to battlecruiser, while her late refit compensate the lack of protection with very good secondary and anti-air armaments.
Against BBs & BCs
Due the Renown's lesser armouring, going toe-to-toe against other battleships are not advised unless you has sufficient range and angle to neuter the penetration of enemy capital ships. Though given that she has 15 inch cannons, the Renown benefits greatly from first shot advantage should you know where to aim to deal crippling damage.
At typical ranges in arcade and realistic battles, the SAP shells will typically be able to penetrate the belt of many battleships. The 15-inch SAP actually has more penetration that many early battleships AP rounds. Captains should attempt to aim slightly at the waterline around the magazines (typically underneath the front or rear turrets) as the penetration and subsequent discharge of the large explosive mass will extremely often result in catastrophic damage; many "one-shots" can be expected with good placement of salvos. On the off chance that combat is taking place at further ranges; for example in naval enduring confrontation; captains should load a small amount of APCBC for those situations, though more precise aim will be required as these have less than half the explosive mass.
Against CAs & Below
Anything that is not a capital ship will be penetrated under almost all circumstances by the SAP shell; this is the only one which should be used against cruisers and the like. Against extremely lightly armoured targets attempts should be made to engage from angles closer to the bow or stern of the enemy ship if possible. The shells have such great penetration that against lightly armoured cruisers overpenetration is common even with the SAP round; this results in little damage even with a successful hit. One option when engaging multiple enemies is to utilize the ranging shot function. This fires one turret at a time, mitigating the 30 seconds the main battery takes to reload.
In this situation, this is where the Renown's secondary armament shrines. As the Renown can use up to ten 4.5 inch guns against surface targets, she is capable of dealing constant damage against cruisers or anything smaller without even using 15 inch guns. Typically, the HE shell is sufficient at all ranges, though you might wanted to load some SAP shell for close range engagement or against destroyer as well.
The lack of HE-VT shell may not seems to be a problem at the first glance due to abundance of anti-air armaments, but once several of your AA guns were disabled, you will often be forced to use an HE-TF shell to engage enemy aircraft and effectively cut off your anti-ship firepower for a moment.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Six 381 mm guns with good shell options
- Impressive dual-purpose secondary armaments with a very high rate of fire and good firing arc
- Great dedicated anti-air defense
- Decent top speed an acceleration for its size
- Large hull size allows the ship to absorb several hits from the enemies
- Has four propeller shafts powered by four blocks of powerful engines, can maintain its acceleration even with some of them disabled
Cons:
- Very large in size, can be easily spotted and hit
- Extremely slow main turret traverse speed, inability to fire reactively
- Overall mediocre armour protection, its bulkheads and barbettes, in particular, can be easily overmatched by most battleship guns
- Very weak underwater protection, leaving the main magazines vulnerable to diving shots and torpedoes
- Poor overall agility, The ship's high center of gravity will cause the ship to list while turning, hampering accuracy
- Secondary armament lacks HE-VT shell options, thus reducing its effectiveness against aircraft
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company | |
|---|---|
| Destroyers | |
| G-class | ORP Garland |
| K-class | HMS Kelvin |
| Battle-class | HMS Cadiz |
| Hunt-class | La Combattante* |
| Light Cruisers | |
| Town-class | HMS Liverpool |
| Heavy Cruisers | |
| County-class | HMS Norfolk |
| Battlecruisers | |
| Renown-class | HMS Renown |
| *HMS Haldon in French service | |
| Britain battlecruisers | |
|---|---|
| Invincible-class | HMS Invincible |
| HMS Queen Mary* | |
| Renown-class | HMS Renown · HMS Repulse |
| Courageous-class | HMS Glorious |
| Admiral-class | HMS Hood |
| * Unique ship | |
