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 completed as a battlecruiser as he believed that while British battleship numbers were already adequate, the German Kaiserliche Marine was dangerously closing the gap in battlecruiser numbers. 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 fulfil 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 defence. Compared to HMS Hood, Renown has one less main battery turret and worse armour protection but is offset by large quantities of fast-firing secondary turrets, greater anti-air capability, and better acceleration compared to her larger counterpart. Due to the 1944 refit, Renown currently stands as the most modern British capital ship currently in game.
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. There are additional armour layers across the bow of the ship, but none of them are particularly thick. Because of this, the Renown's forward bulkheads are weak spots that high tier battleships can easily overmatch. Typically in naval, going bow-in (pointing the bow directly toward the opponent) is a great way to increase survivability, however with the Renown, it is advised to be cautious with this type of positioning due to the weak bulkheads. It's entirely possible for a capital ship to detonate the magazines of a bow-in Renown, especially at longer ranges where the shells increased angle of fall allows them to hit the ammunition with greater ease if they hit the correct spot.
Speaking of magazines, the Renown's main ammo racks are located dangerously close to 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. Not helping the situation is the fact that the WW1 era design of the Renown places the magazines above the shell rooms. This is an outdated layout which became highly obsolete when people realised that shell rooms are harder to detonate than magazine stores and began placing the magazines deep in the ship, underneath the shell rooms. In War Thunder, shell room detonations tend to be much less destructive than magazine detonations and some ships can easily survive ammunition explosions if only the shell room is hit. Due to the magazine placement, Renown does not have this luxury.
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 WW2 era battlecruiser, the Renown possesses a good top speed for a capital ship at 57 km/h in RB. Renown stands out for her greater acceleration that allows her to shift speed significantly faster than slower battleships, 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 381 mm 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 pack more than enough punch against any ship she may face.
She has two rounds available, 15 inch 4crh CPC, which functions as your semi-armour piercing shell, and 15 inch 4crh Mark XIIa APC, an armour-piercing shell. Unfortunately, the ship does not have access to higher performing 6crh shells.
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 a 0 degree angle 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 shell to potentially tear up battleships designed before "all or nothing" armour schemes came into wide use, as while their main belts may be able to hold up, their weaker armour layers can be punched through and will activate the fuze on the shell. However, there are still capital ships with enough armour to shrug off this shell, especially at range. The shell is most reliably used on cruisers, which are large enough and armoured enough to prevent most shells from overpenetrating harmlessly yet none have enough armour to resist this shell's penetration and take catastrophic damage from its bursting charge.
The APCBC shell is strong with ~20 kg of TNT effective filler and competitive penetration statistics, making it quite handy for punching deep into the internals of an opposing capital ship, fairly reliably penetrating all but most heavily protected battleships.
Although the 15 inch guns offer quite a punch, they are plagued with a painfully slow turret traverse speed. This prohibits the usage of the gun in close quarters and significantly reduces its flexibility. In addition, the shell elevator of the gun has a relatively weak protection at 177.8 mm, which means it will often be damaged or disabled by most battleship guns or even some cruiser-calibre guns.
Finally, the dispersion of the guns in the current version of the game is quite bad and is not helped by the low number of barrels and slow reload. It's not the most uncommon for a salvo to straddle targets at medium to long range (8-15km). The salvo has been perfectly aimed but the dispersion results in shells striking both before and beyond the target, with none actually hitting the target itself.
| 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 114 mm 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 have very good traverse speed and coverage, and are capable of engaging surface and air targets.
As these are the same guns found on the Battle-class destroyers, they have 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 ships without much armour, an SAP shell with 77 mm of penetration at 5 km range, making it ideal for dealing with lightly protected ships, and an HE-TF shell for air targets. Unfortunately, there is no VT shell currently available to choose from, though the guns can still put up a fairly competitive flak field.
For maximum effectiveness, the guns can equip both SAP and TF shells for use against both air threats and small surface targets, though this will require much more effort to keep tabs on selected secondary ammunition and swapping between controlling main and secondary turrets. For easier gameplay, it is also viable to simply take only TF and keep the AI controlling the secondaries except for when they're needed against a surface target. Due to the rate of fire and number of broadside turrets, the TF can still effectively smother smaller ships in explosions.
| 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 extremely heavy anti-air armaments in the form of 28 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 92 guns in total (112 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 turn AA gunner crews into literal cannon fodder in the process. However, it is wise to keep an eye on the status of the 40mm mounts in particular. Though the majority of the anti air guns are the Oerlikons, they are only 20 mm and so have a very short range. A lot of attackers may only come into effective range of them just as they're deploying ordinance, if not after. The main threat to aircraft in your dedicated AA guns is actually the 40 mm mounts, which have a much more useful effective range, do much more damage if they hit and though you only have 4 mounts, they spew fire at a biblical rate, ensuring a good chance of striking a hit despite just having those 4 mounts. With that in mind, it may be prudent to ensure that at least the 40 mm guns are online whenever is reasonably possible or whenever an aircraft is in the vicinity.
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
The 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 capital ships
Due the Renown's lesser armouring, going toe-to-toe against high tier battleships is not advised. The Renown is infamously vulnerable to magazine detonation and they will see the ship as food. The guns may do good damage to these battleships if they hit, but attracting their fire can be reckless. Though higher tier capital ships are dangerous, lower ranker battleships tend to be a bit less of a threat and your guns are more capable of dealing lethal damage to them, making them ideal targets.
When engaging battleships, it's ideal to stay at roughly long range, about 10km. The guns should still have enough penetration to deal with most battleship armour and the dispersion, though annoying, is manageable. This range also allows for you to disrupt the aim of your opponent by adjusting your speed unpredictably. An ideal example could be going forward at flank speed but switching to full reverse about 5-10 seconds before the opponent fires their guns.
At typical ranges in regular matches, the your shells will usually be able to penetrate the belt of most battleships (when not angled). Captains should usually attempt to aim slightly at the waterline around the magazines (typically underneath the front or rear turrets) in order to detonate the opponents ammunition. When at closer ranges, it's a good idea to fire the guns one at a time, to minimise time not spent firing and to allow for greater accuracy at striking critical parts of the opponent.
Against cruisers, destroyers & coastal ships
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. The shells have such great penetration that overpenetration is common when engaging targets from the side. Though more difficult to hit, a bow-in target will take catastrophic damage from your guns. As before, it's advised to fire one gun at a time rather than broadsiding all at once when at close range.
Against lightly protected ships is where the Renown's secondary armament shrines. As the Renown can use up to ten destroyer-calibre guns on a broadside, she is capable of dealing constant damage against cruisers or anything smaller without even using the main battery. The SAP shell is effective against both destroyers and cruisers with little armour, though more heavily armoured cruisers are likely to require the attention of the main guns.
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 defence
- Decent top speed and acceleration for its size
- Large hull size allows for spaced out internals
- 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
- Weak underwater protection, leaving the main magazines vulnerable to diving shells
- Sits high in the water, exacerbating magazine vulnerability
- Poor overall agility, The ship's high centre 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
- Frustrating main gun dispersion
- Broadside of only 6 guns, coupled with a slow reload
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
- Skins
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 | |
