1st look at HMS Defence! I really like this ship

[@NewtypeCommander]

As my British friends tell me, LT Defence here is a representative of the super-cruiser line of thought that was in-vogue with a lot of navies in the 1930s and 1940s. Believe it or not, this was the design the Admiralty wanted instead of the designs being pushed Winston Churchill (Cheshire, Drake, Goliath, Gibraltar, Monmouth) as it was cheaper to manufacture the tried and tested 14-inch guns than brand-new 9.2-inch (234 mm) based on an older gun design.

[@Knight6831]

Yeah but 1 problem with getting her built which can be summed up in 3 words Renown, Repulse and Hood There is no point building a large cruiser when you have battlecruisers in service even ones as old as they were

[@NewtypeCommander]

@@Knight6831 Your not wrong, but due to financial problems for the UK in the 1930s only one those ships received a thorough and proper refit: Renown. Besides, it could be a argued that these super-cruisers could supplement the battlecruisers in a fast-attack formation to counter the powerful raiders the Kriegsmarine were planning on building (O-class and P-class).

[@Knight6831]

@@NewtypeCommander that is what the extra Vanguard class was for, to counter the O-class

[@NewtypeCommander]

@@Knight6831 Don't forget, the Kriegsmarine were planning on building 15 of the new P-class design, so the Admiralty would have wanted to respond in kind. It's easy to say with hindsight that building these super-cruisers might have been a bit redundant, but the Admiralty at the time couldn't have known that the Kriegsmarine was not in a position to sustain a large warship construction program like Plan Z.

[@Knight6831]

@@NewtypeCommander yeah the Royal Navy will be building new heavy cruisers as their oldest class the Hawkins were due for replacement

[@esmith1940]

Well done. I enjoyed watching video. Little surprised how quick the reload is with such large guns. thanks again for sharing

[@jasondaniels4060]

Thanks again Captain, I am really looking forward to getting this ship. A A Ron, you're still one of the best for letting us know what we can achieve in the right circumstances with a ship. Thanks again for the great work. 😊

[@benmiz9742]

Thank you Aaron for a great review, really looking forward to this ship. Reminds me of Hampshire’s bigger brother with a few extra tools at your disposal. Have a wonderful and safe festive season and all the best for 2025!

[@iamsuzerain3987]

Looks good. Thanks for showing it off o7

[@MACSPORRON]

Looks an awesome ship... Also Great gameplay Aaron 👍

[@CamMcCulls-kx6zk]

Thanks for the great review. Totally agree that every ship can be countered (even cvs with good aa and rush offensive).

[@SirAmnesia]

looks meaty, cant wait to try it

[@AbdullahAbbas-p5d]

I really love this ship it looks absolutely amazing, i consider it to be the british alaska except this is like a sniper, but iam definetly buying this one out idc if it gives me -100k credits per game, it looks like a banger and seems fun.

[@reggielavoie5048]

The British ships have the best names IMO.

[@whereruaaron]

Truly

[@7thsealord888]

I've sprung for the Campaign because she just looks interesting - having a personal fondness for 'oddball' Premiums. Based on appearance, I have started calling her the Baby Nelson. :)

[@wastelander89]

Finally a ship that could work with al Belfast commander for bringing down your smoke fire penalty. Basically a legendary tier nelson with 14 inch guns. Same armor but way better rudder and built in prop

[@fatwithmoney8953]

Started the campaign today... Legendary for 2500 doublions!!! I'm going to use Neptune, I think when i get it

[@Asnow83.]

Looks like a beast!!!

[@whereruaaron]

She is

[@angelrambojr4587]

Should you angle away like Nelson?

[@angelrambojr4587]

Nvm I see you shouldn’t because of your torpedoes

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

@@angelrambojr4587 thats not the reason, the reason is because your going to get citdeled through your ass by anyone that is a good shot and knows where to aim when, they dont need to overmatch your stern if they know where to aim

[@charlesanthony9510]

Solid video

[@franzfogens7804]

I ll test it immediately upon reaching the 100th stage of the campaign. those guns are laser beams 🤯

[@NeaonX]

Whale spotted

[@franzfogens7804]

@@NeaonX I am actually a f2p 😅 I gathered dubloons for a few months on console and mobile. on top I had the luck to drop 1250 dubloons from the free black friday crates 🤯

[@lillpete64]

I may have to try running Nelson on her just for the meme value

[@whereruaaron]

Great idea

[@Knight6831]

Yeah 1 big problem with Large Cruiser Defence always was the treasury would not give the funds to build her when the Renown, Repulse and Hood despite their age could do the job of a ship like defence and do it better

[@kierancollins7540]

This suggestion may get flak but running Belfast may be a good idea on this if you prefer a bit better use of your smokes instead of better chances of tanking shots running Cheshire

[@c.phinney1618]

Oh cool a Nelson classish battleship Wait it’s legendary tier WAIT it’s a CRUISER WAIT IT LOOKS FUN

[@ALazerOnYT]

Looks like a mini Collingwood

[@abeness88]

Kind of looks like a Nelson.

[@ghettostreamlabs5724]

"If you shoot at it, you can sink it" -A A Ron (2024)

[@whereruaaron]

lol

[@ibrahimmostafa5493]

Hey AAron, great video can you give the gimmicky smogathon build a try pretty sure you can cycle smokes like the Belfast 43 and be a toxic lil farmer for half the game

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

6.2 smoke fire penalty with the pan european cruiser commander's inspiration. the only thing at that tier that is realistically out shoot in smoke is a DD and 1 or 2 of the light cruisers

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

3:10 the cit on the defence is more forgiving than mino, its pretty thick and a bit of a turtle back design protected by a 30-40mm box on 3 sides oppose to the big tall flat box protected by nothing that is the mino, just dont kite away in the defence, it wont end well. 4:35 better HE is a bit subjective, the pen is top notch, the fire chance is pretty good, but the damage is a bit anemic for my liking, you land 6 hits on that daring and only do 9k at most. 6:20 i know this review is aimed at the free to play people of the game, but if you have the AL belfast commander and the paneuropean commander Harold inspiration you can get the smoke fire penalty down to 6.2km also if you intend to bring the ship into brawling range or maneuver a lot in the ship it will easily out turn its turrets unless you use a mod to make up for it.

[@whereruaaron]

True true

[@bananabourbonaenima]

Mini-Nelson on the outside, mini-Conqueror on the inside?

[@Gamer01939]

Yes

[@OneShotSharrock]

Defo coming out of retirement for this one. Like a Drake on drugs 😂

[@codenamepanda5256]

I thought for a second why is there a Nelson against legendary ships

[@Wilsontripplets]

Could al Cheshire be a good commander on her to make use of the reduced pen angles enemies have against her.

[@darman12able]

Belfast could work for her as well. Her skills work well with the consumables and especially the smokescreens, though she lacks fully packed. Or you can build her fully into the ship’s guns and make her guns fire faster, further and/or penetrate better, which might be better given she’s more gun focussed than support heavy like Belfast 43 herself is. Cheshire seems good for tanking and whilst it seems to be great on the Bortas I don’t know for certain if it’ll work well on a cruiser with a Nelson style of an armour layout. Though could be nice if you can consistently get them to hit the side plating if angled.

[@Wilsontripplets]

@darman12able the bow and stern are always going to be sore points for this ship, but being able to constantly have 3 guns being able to fire and still be in a comfortable auto bounce zone is invaluable in my eyes. Wished that side armor was 32mm and the bow and stern was 27 especially at Lt but still has some very good guns.

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

@@darman12able cheshire's skill with help keep AP shells from penetrating the front plate of the cit with proper angling, leading a lot of the shots hitting your bow to just be overpens. angling the armor on ships like the nelson and defence is an art form, do it just right and ships can't do any serious damage to you even if they can overmatch your bow, do it wrong and you'll likely get deleted.

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

typically when streamers review a ship they do so strictly with as much free to play content as they can for the benefit of the free to play community. AL Cheshire is just the best brit cruiser commander if your not going for something specific, otherwise if you really plan on using the smoke AL belfast is the "best commander" for defence.

[@fedordanie]

Plz make a video of the new dev-strike magnet Dupleix! That armor is worst than a DD's.

[@samutommimarchetti]

Hi

[@bumpydevoshire1067]

Klurslf goofy

[@wastelander89]

This ship i think is the best ship of the update . I dont think r lauria is worth buy at all. Defense has great built in prop mod and great accuracy great fireing angles and agile. If u angle away the firing angles are sweet. Only downside about this ship is smoke fire penalty is 11km. It's a good candidate for using al Belfast which gets it down to 8.2

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

got mine down to 6.2km

[@pedrobcoutos]

Why do you go into overview camera when you shoot?

[@d1ckmorningwood4689]

I assume for a wider field of view while his shots are going where he wants. Awareness so you don’t get slapped too hard if you don’t pay attention

[@larryc4106]

My guess is primarily so you can look around without having to rotate your guns. The overview does not move guns while allowing you to move camera so you dont get suprised by something. I do the same thing but i can only guess at aarons reasons.

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

@@larryc4106 the biggest weakness of this ship is the turret traverse

[@FLYBOY409]

The little baby Nelson that could.

[@ALazerOnYT]

Baby Collingwood*

[@FLYBOY409]

@ALazerOnYT That as well but at least its not wrapped around in the same armor as its bow and stern like the actual Collingwood which is green all the way around so if angle correctly it can bounce some shells like Nelson or Salem before the nerf.

[@ALazerOnYT]

@@FLYBOY409 fair. I only said that bc of the 3 db main batteries

[@FLYBOY409]

@@ALazerOnYT Its okay.

[@whereruaaron]

lol

[@contactpigeon4654]

Following the trend of British ships for the Christmas campaign I thought we were gonna get Gibraltar, but I aint complaining about getting Defense instead.

[@CalebRemastered]

I really hope they don't nerf it like Duncan

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

they haven't nerfed the bortas yet

[@Heizman360]

That’s awesome for the new LT ship but… #HINDENBURGWHEN?

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

i know, best tier 10 heavy cruiser, at lest when i left PC anyways

[@CalebRemastered]

DON'T Sleep on British Hvy Cruisers

[@paulschauer6273]

Agreed but most I see just sail sideways and go boom

[@SomaPokesmot]

It's hilarious that you call this game pay to win, and yet the devs try to gaslight that skill matters more. When meta builds have such buffs above tech tree builds, are then paired with accuracy of premium boats, it turns mediocre players into decent ones. That same math, goes all the way up. A very talented player, living in meta builds, will demolish a similar player running a tech tree build.

[@whereruaaron]

There are no premium legendary ships lol, I used a base commander with base inspirations

[@SomaPokesmot]

@whereruaaron BA Montana is a premium version. You may use tech commanders, and the devs all run collaboration. My comment was about ALL tiers, not just LT. Also, you called this game a pay to win game in your " I whaled 50 black Friday crates on a new account" video. It was props to you for admitting it, not an attack.

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

@@SomaPokesmot i will concede that the BA montana is more premium ship than just LT ship, but its at best a sidegrade to the montana, nowhere near an upgrade to it.

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

im sorry but even a fairly decent player with even a bad tech tree ship with wipe the floor of a truly bad player even in the best of ships 7 times out of 10. the 8 and 9 time being RNG or the other 7 decent or better players on his team you have to get through in order to even get to the bad player, and the 10th time being both.

[@SomaPokesmot]

@@xxxxCronoxxxx indeed, a SKILLED player will typically beat an UNSKILLED player. Two players, of EQUAL skills (talent) against one another, the one running META build, ie, collaboration captains, inspirations and premium boat, will likely win. Apples to apples. The caps were to stress using similar skilled players. A professional player in most sports, will utterly demolish most amateur players. Common sense was once common.

[@joshyposhy727]

That wrong pronunciation of Yamato tho😮‍💨

[@whereruaaron]

Yamamoto is commander, Yamato is a ship; not the same name or pronunciation

[@jasonaune6889]

Does this ship like you tho? Lmfao

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

it likes people who learn how to play it properly, at lest for now. might change as more people learn how to exploit its weaknesses, but you know how the average player base it and actually learning anything to do with how to play the game.