Naval Thunder Comparison Littorio v Renown pt 2

 In a previous post I gave some of the basics to compare two ships in the Naval Thunder game, the HMS Renown and the Italian Littorio.




Target Number
NT uses d10s and each category of ship has a particular “Hit on” or Target number. For example, every Battlecruiser and Fast Battleship are hit on a roll of 7+. (A Battleship is hit on a 6+, and destroyers are hit on 9+. Though, there is talk of making destroyers have a “hit on” or target number of 10+.) This number can be, and is usually modified by a number of factors such as the range to target (ranging from 0 to 5); if the shooter has Fire Control (0 or -1); Rate of fire (shots at 20” or less); various conditional criteria (how far target moved, shooter has severe list, etc.); Crew and other technical modifications; and modifiers for torpedoes.


Advantage: neither.


Hull Points

Littorio

Next stat is the Hull, these are a number of points, in this case, Renown has 138, and Littorio has 150. After each hit, penetration and damage are determined and each gun does a specific amount of damage. For example, the main guns on the Littorio does 10 points of damage for each hit. So, one hit would take the Renown down to 128. Of course, when this reaches 0, the ship is out of commission. You can run the ship at full speed and shooting even if down to 1 hull point. 

However, this is very unlikely because, other issues like flooding, fires, bridge hits, rudder hits, main/secondary battery loss, etc will usually take effect, making a 1 hull point ship a very ineffective ship.


Advantage Littorio..


Speed
This is based on inches moved each movement phase. Both ships move 8”.


Advantage: neither.


Move Step
The sequence of play for NT is quite long. However, after a couple of turns, most of it becomes second nature. Each turn is broken down into phases. They are:

I. A/C & Submarine Battle Phase
II. Movement Phase
    A. Battleship Movement
    B. Cruiser Movement
    C. Destroyer Movement
III. Shooting Phase
    A. Battleship Shooting
    B. Cruiser Shooting
    C. Destroyer Shooting
    D. Torpedo Shooting
IV. End Phase (damage and command checks, etc)

Renown

Within each phase are several steps, but you get the point. Movement is simultaneous. For example, at the beginning of the Battleship Movement phase every player writes down their orders for how each Battleship, Fast Battleship and Fleet Carrier is going to move. Then, at the same time all players move those ships. You then do the same for Cruisers and Destroyers.


(Side note: I didn’t think I would be a fan of the simultaneious movement. However, after a couple games of Johnny Reb III and then a solo run through of NT, I like it.)


As you can see, it’s advantageous to move in the later steps because  you can see where the slower and bigger ships moved. In this case, the Renown is classified as Battlecruiser and therefore moves in the second Cruiser Movement step. Littorio, though a Fast Battleship, still moves first in the Battleship Movement step.


Advantage Renown.


Shoot Step
Similar to movement, shooting is simultaneous within each shooting step. So, in this case all ships classified, for shooting, as Battleships will shoot at the same time. Their hits on each other won’t affect their shooting during the current turn. However, their hits on the smaller and later shooting steps will be  affected and may not get a chance to shoot if damaged during the Battleship step. Battleships, Fast Battleships, and Battlecruisers all fall into the Battleship category for shooting.


Advantage: Neither.


Fire Control

This is broken down into four categories based on the nationality. In this example, the Renown as RDR which gives it a -1 modifier to the Target number for targets in the Short, Medium, and Long Ranges. (Note: There is an X-long Range. Also,German radar only gives a -1 to the target number at Long range.)  The Littorio is just STD, or standard and gets a modifier to target of 0.


Advantage Renown.


Armor Value (AV)
This represents the main armor of the ship that recieve the bulk of the hits when fired upon. When a hit is a achieved on a target, the shooter takes the “Penetration” factor of the gun they shot, add a d10 roll to it, add or subtract one of 5 modifiers and if this number is greater than the target’s AV then full damage is taken and another roll is made to see what critical damage is taken. 

If the Penetration+d10+modifiers is equal to or less than AV then half damage is applied to the ship. If there is no way the shell, with Penetration+d10+modifiers, can equal AV even if a 10 is rolled, then there is no hull damage. However, if a natural “10” is rolled then a “superstructure critical” roll is made...more on that in a later post.  Renown is 14 and Littorio is 18.


Advantage: Littorio


Secondary Armor Value (SAV)
This is the protection against torpedoes. It operates the same as AV, but just with torpedoes. Littorio is 6 and Renown is 5. Close, but in this case Littorio doesn’t have torpedoes and Renown does.


Advantage: Littorio


Anti-Aircraft/Submarine Warfare (AA/SW)
I’ve not played with Aircraft or submarines yet. However, basically every ship in the fleet, against an air attack, totals their AA number and rolls this number of d10 against all aircraft attacking them.  10+ hit and knock down the aircraft.


The same manner of play is used when defending against submarines. Total the SW ratings and roll this number of dice against the subs. 8+ hit.


There are more nuances to the rules, modifiers etc. But that’s about as much as I’m going to say about these since I’ve not experienced them before. But looking at the numbers:


AA Advantage: Renown
SW Advantage: Neither


Conclusion

If you look at a chart with pluses and minuses of advantages for the basic ship stats, it appears that Littorio has a slight advantage with  3 to 2. The movement advantage is a big deal because the Renown Captain can adjust their placement to get out of a harmful shot or to position for a better shot. The fire control is nice...if the ships had similar guns. More on that later.


The Littorio has advantages on stats that can help it to be much more resilient to damage. The AV 
difference is big, 4 points. This will help them not take serious damage more often than the Renown. In addition, more hull points means it will be in the fight longer.



In a future post we’ll compare their guns by looking at the stats and looking at a couple turns of firing.

And thank you all, we reached 50 followers!