Hi all it's Neil here with another Casting Off post for Victory at Sea and my growing Royal Navy fleet. I have painted up the trio of light crusiers that come in the starter box so this post will be about how I painted them, the historical use of light cruisers in WW2 and how I see them being used in the game.
Light Cruisers were used as long range convoy escorts, anti-aircraft escorts, screening larger vessels against destroyers and scouting for the battlefleet. They were able to travel further than destroyers due to increased fuel capacity which allows for greater operational range. Their larger armament of typically 6" inch guns makes them very capable against destroyers when mounted in the usually fast rotating turrets. Light cruisers are also often equipped with torpedoes so they can make opportunistic attacks on the larger ships immune to their guns.
In the game, light cruisers look like they want to be used as in real life as anti-destroyer screens, anti-aircraft escorts and acting as large destroyers with their torpedoes to make runs on larger ships if the opportunity arises. Light cruisers also can make good scout especially if they also mount aircraft allowing for multiple scout rolls with a single ship, and if they are able to mount radar, or even advanced radar, this effectiveness improves massively.
For my Royal Navy fleet I have painted up HMS Dido, HMS Neptune and HMS Belfast to join Warspite and the small squadron of Tribal-Class destroyers I've already painted.
HMS Dido is an anti-aircraft cruiser who's got a large number of Dual Purpose light guns able to fire at both surface and aerial targets to protect battleships and other large vessels from attacking aircraft (though you could also use them to clear out enemy fighters to help your attacks through as well). The Dido class cruisers are quite fragile so need to be used with care or risk being sunk before being useful. The Dido class comes with radar which can make it valuable as a scout with this bonus and reroll on its scouting dice, though the Tribal-class destroyers can do this more effectively being half the points even when refitted with radar.
HMS Neptune is a Leander-Class Cruiser, which makes a good anti-destroyer screen with Fast Track and Twin Linked main guns allowing to ignore penalties for shooting at fast targets and re-roll unsuccessful hit rolls for better reliability. She also carries a single aircraft which can be used to launch an observation flight for ships wanting to attack over 30" or to launch as part of Scouting. The Neptune can be refitted with Radar in games played in 1941 or later too which makes her a good choice for scouting as she can effectively contribute two dice to the Scouting pool.
HMS Belfast is a Edinburgh-Class Cruiser, and the real one is preserved as a museum ship in London today. The Belfast is the most heavily armed of the cruisers while still maintaining the Fast Tracking turrets but rather than the re-roll from Twin Linked that the Neptune gets, the Belfast gets twice the dice per turret. This gives the same average firepower but for a higher possible damage output if you're lucky. The Belfast comes stock with 3 aircraft allowing her to contribute to Scouting but you don't need to have Belfast herself to scout just in case you don't get enough Scouting points to redeploy it.
All three cruisers come with two triple launchers, one on each side of the ship, to enable them to threaten the larger ships if they stray to close or if the cruisers are able to close to make an attack run.
Currently these are the only cruisers available for the Royal Navy for Victory at Sea but they are all kind of falling into the same role of destroyer hunting, though Dido offers a reasonable defense against aircraft too. I'm hoping for some heavy cruisers and battle cruisers to appear with the full rulebook and fleet lists release scheduled for Jan 2021 but next up to join the my task force will be a new battleship so keep an eye out for the next Casting Off post for that. Check out Instagram for WIP of whatever I'm painting at the moment. See you on the seas again soon!
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