Casting Off: Destroyer Screen

Hi all it's Neil here with some more WW2 ships in this Casting Off following my journey with Victory at Sea by Warlord Games.  This post will be about the destroyers from the Royal Navy Starter Fleet box that I've painted up and a bit about both the historical use of destroyers and how I think they might be useful in game.

Destroyers are small ocean going vessels armed with smaller main guns but their real offensive power comes from their torpedo loads which enable these small ships to be a threat even to the largest of battleships and aircraft carriers.  Their primary roles are in general convoy escort to defend from both surface raiders, usually cruisers or battlecruisers, and submarines as well to provide skirmish screens to the main surface fleets to threaten enemy capital ships and to stop the enemy destroyers from doing the same to their fleet.

In game the destroyers appear to have the same kind of roles.  They can be used to make torpedo runs on large enemy ships where they can do significant damage with each torpedo and to tussle with the enemy destroyers to block their attempts to do the same to your fleet.

Torpedoes are a Devastating weapon which means that when it hits rather than causing one point of damage per successful damage dice roll, you deal damage equal to the roll even if you don't beat the target's armour plus you score criticals on 5s as well as 6s and deal critical damage equal to the roll as well!  This means that a single destroyer can one shot the largest battleship with a good roll!  You can see why screening the destroyers out is going to be important in game.

Destroyers can put out a lot of damage but are very much glass cannons as they have low armour and low hull points so if hit by some big guns are likely to evaporate, so their biggest defense is to go fast which will make them harder to hit as they are always -1 to hit for being a destroyer and if they move more than 6" in a turn get an additional -1 to hit meaning that they can be hard to hit a long range and beyond.

The destroyers that come in the Royal Navy starter fleet box are three Tribal Class Destroyers armed with eight 4.7 inch guns to fight other destroyers and 4 torpedoes for attacking larger vessels.  There are 16 Tribal Destroyers that you can field with most being able to add Radar with the refits while some also improve their guns and AA.  These are cheap so can be used to round out a fleet and if upgrades with radar can be useful for generating scouting points in the pre game.

I have painted up my trio with the same colours as I used for Warspite which are;

• Primed Halfords Grey Primer
• Washed Nuln Oil
• Drybrushed Dawnstone
• Drybrushed Administratum Grey

Then for the sculpted sea bases;

• Base Colour Macragge Blue
• Wash Drakenhoff Nightshade
• Drybrush Altdorf Guard Blue
• Drybrush the Wake with Fenrisian Grey
• Drybrush the Wake with White Scar

This gives me a nice start to a destroyer flotilla for escorting my larger capital ships and then make runs on my opponent's.  Next up to join the task force are the light cruisers the came in the starter fleet box.  Check out my Instagram to see my WIP pictures of my current painting project.  If you want to see my other post about Victory at Sea they're all available here. Come back next time to see these light cruisers and for my thoughts on how I think they'll be useful in game.