Battleship
“Fourteen-inch guns, thirty knots, and a will of iron. We are the fist of the empire.”
The Battleship is the most powerful surface warship, a floating fortress bristling with heavy guns capable of devastating coastal cities and obliterating enemy fleets. With massive armour, long-range firepower, and the ability to transport units, the Battleship is the capital ship that commands the seas.
Stats
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Attack | 24 |
| Defence | 18 |
| Movement | 4 |
| Range | 3 |
| Cost | 75 Production |
| Required Tech | Steel |
| Required Resource | None |
Special: Cargo capacity: 3 units.
Abilities
- Ranged Attack – Can bombard enemy units and cities up to 3 hexes away.
- Shore Bombardment – Can attack coastal cities and land units adjacent to the coast.
- Transport – Can carry up to 3 land units.
Available Promotions
- Combat I – +10% attack (5 XP)
- Combat II – +10% attack (15 XP, requires Combat I)
- Siege – +50% attack vs cities.
Upgrade Path
The Battleship has no upgrade path. It is the ultimate surface warship.
Strategy
The Battleship is a mobile fortress with the firepower of an Artillery battery and the durability of a Tank. Its 3-hex range allows it to bombard coastal cities and enemy naval forces from beyond retaliation range, while its 24 Attack and 18 Defence make it dominant in surface engagements. With cargo capacity for 3 units, a single Battleship can serve as both fire support platform and invasion transport.
The Battleship’s primary vulnerability is the Submarine. With no innate ability to detect or counter submerged threats, a Battleship caught without Destroyer escort is a sitting duck for torpedo attack. Always pair Battleships with Destroyers in a ratio of at least one Destroyer per Battleship. Use the Battleship’s 3-hex range to soften up coastal cities before landing your transported troops – the combination of naval bombardment and ground assault is devastatingly effective against coastal empires.
Historical Background
The modern battleship emerged in 1906 with the launch of HMS Dreadnought, a revolutionary warship that rendered every existing capital ship obsolete overnight. Dreadnought mounted ten 12-inch guns in five twin turrets – all of the same calibre, allowing unified fire control at unprecedented ranges – and was powered by steam turbines that gave her a top speed of 21 knots. Every major naval power immediately began building “dreadnoughts” of their own, triggering an arms race that contributed to the tensions preceding World War I.
The battleship’s reign as the supreme naval weapon was relatively brief. World War II demonstrated that aircraft carriers had supplanted battleships as the decisive capital ships – the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse by Japanese aircraft in December 1941, and the destruction of the Japanese super-battleship Yamato in April 1945, proved that even the mightiest battleships could not survive concentrated air attack without air cover. Nonetheless, battleships served throughout the war in shore bombardment, convoy escort, and surface action roles. The Iowa-class battleships of the US Navy were so effective at shore bombardment that they were repeatedly reactivated, serving their last combat deployment during the 1991 Gulf War.