USS Nevada (BB-36)

[EvyL]

Couple of days from now, Pearl Harbor shens (and both spicy and dank memes to go with it) are gonna happen, and I gotta admit, I kinda feel guilty about not making a bad post about the USN's first dread full of grit.

 

I PRESENT TO YOU USS NEVADA (BB-36)

 

 

... well, Azur Lane's Nevada could sorta work...

 

 

THIS Nevada.

 

Well... her refit anyway.

 

When Dreadnought came out, she pretty much changed the entire scene on how to battleship, and even the Americans took notes on how to battleship... well... said how to battleship being how to dreadnought when the Brits rolled out the Queen Elizabeths and for the time, having a dread run absurdly fast apart from new tech was pretty much a solid prospect up there in the drawing board yet here was Queen Liz who did it like a Lady which also added the fervor on how to battleship better, and the Americans were no exception. Sure the New Yorks were good dreads that would theoretically obliterate the living crap out of any surface target they ever so much as plot firing solutions for but they were nowhere near fast nor modern like the newer Queen Liz's were... and add the fact that those dreads were naval battle veterans at this point, Warspite and Malaya getting the hurt... and they were tougher than any battleship the Allies had then due to their 13 inch armor belts which made them pretty much tough-as-nails whereas the other dreads during this period, excluding the battlecruisers because they werent battleships "yet" hurr only had 11-12.5 inches max to make room for EVEN MORE GUNS because broadside obliteration made seamen shed manly tears then.

 

And so came the Nevada.

 

Well... its something to show for.

 

Nevada was protected with 13.5 inches of belt and started running the "all or nothing" scheme, 13 inches of barbette and conning tower with 18 inches of turret as per her modest protection and she had ten 14 inch guns in the AB-XY configuration which was a rather unusual layout for USN dread that removed the P-Q turrets that once occupied the centermost of the ship, some 76mm guns to serve as AA defense which were later changed for DP 5 inch guns as well as the whole AA suite reinforced with 20mm Oerlikons and 40mm Bofors because there can never be enough AA dakka in WW2... NEVER ENOUGH AA DAKKA as fellow battleships North Carolina and South Dakota testify hard.  I totally did not leave out the fact that dreads then, Nevada included, had torpedo tubes because reason. The dread could run at about 21 kts which was pretty standard and she had better burners on her boilers which added more efficiency.

 

About the battleship...

 

Remember when I said she was unusual for her AB-XY layout?

 

... yeeeah.

 

Out of the battleships out there, Nevada at her day was likely the first one running a triple mount turret that wasnt a paper what-if and while the traditional dual mount turrets of turrets B and X respectively were there, turrets A and B were these things. Other thing to note about it was that the Americans didnt really cast a big ass gun more than the 14 inch guns they had and so could liberally cram a gun in the centerline without really much problems like making the turret crew more uncomfortable with stuff like feed trays, rammers, the breech on each freakin' gun and the shell cradles. their counterparts the British and Germans on the other hand crammed out 15 inch guns and you'd need a designer to have a wet dream in that time period to make a triple mount turret capable of lugging those puppies while maintaining the dread's hull specs. 

 

Also to note is that, apart from the eyebrow twitching hyperboloid masts, Nevada had pretty much a unified space for the better powerful boilers so she's running a single funnel instead of the two to four found on most ships at that era.

 

A thing to be amused with Nevada is that right after her and Oklahoma were done, she was the first of the "standard type" dreads which was basically "the newer dreads' X Y Z's must be roughly similar to progenitor's X Y Z's but feel free to furiously masturbate on the copious amount of crap you wish to put on future dreads" and her, along with fellow battleships Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Tennessee and Colorado were pretty much all called "standard type battleships" as they weren't that too different to each other, or if you want to be a dramaskub, the "Big Five" American battleships.

 

Cue mad cackling all around.

 

Float! FLOAT YOU MAGNIFICENT LASS!

 

After her trials and fitting out that had a tiny rain check because strong winds and a possibility of a strong storm literally stopped her from going all out in straining herself on her shakedown cruise (which I think is bullshit because Mikhail Kutuzov YOLO'd a storm WILLINGLY during her shakedown and even a tiny ass destroyer like the Benson class Kalk was riding the damn storm she slammed into so why not something heavy as a battleship?), she got her commission and started with her first skipper by the name of Captain William Sims, and yes, this notable gritty individual is also the namesake of the Sims destroyer you know, love and/or hate and spent her WW1 days operating off port since she can't sail into European waters due to the fact she ran oil and the Brits can't into oil at this time so the older dreads ran out to the British Isles as attached units as well as escorting then-president Woodrow Wilson in a luxury liner and spent her days alternating between the Atlantic Fleet and Pacific Fleet which, in the eventuality after some refits and maintenance shens, she stayed there based from Pearl Harbor.

 

All honesty, Nevada's silhouette is fairly easier on the eyes even after she got those lolmasts replaced with tripods.

 

And then WW2 sparked... and this battleship got a good taste of plane spam... right where she slept.

 

Cue Gothic Storm's Rapid Alarm playing full blast as Nevada tries to run.

 

The battleship wasn't fully tethered nor she had a berthmate so she was able to run while her crew started, thankfully one of her boilers was currently roaring likely as a maintenance run that enabled her to run in the process, cranking up the AA guns while being subjected to brutal air attacks before getting so messed up that she had to beach herself to save the ship after eating a torpedo that resulted in a minor list and flooding as well as bombs finding their marks. Apparently the magazines were empty because she was supposed to have new powder and shells so that sort of saved her ass from the bomb strikes in a way... her sister Oklahoma... not so much.

 

If anything, she'd be given a Dreadnought badge after that thrashing.

 

Cue hardcore repair.

 

And GOOD GOD SHE BETTER NOW.

 

She was attached to convoys since the threat of German ships going full pirate was still out there, participated in D-Day as a bombardier that was allegedly the most damaging out of the US dreads participating in Overlord and was with Texas when both dreads were pummeling the living crap out of Cherbourg harbor as the Allies needed it badly because Mulberry ports had their limits on logistics work.

 

Returned to the Pacific afterwards and was pretty much a bombardier and had a second stint with Japanese aircraft with her new AA suite and ended her days as a test target for Operation Crossroads to see if battleships getting nuked wouldn't totally microwave the hell out of the crew which failed miserably: the battleship was still combat worthy after damage control could fix her but IF  there's a damage control aboard that floating tomb.

 

In-game wise, I'm expecting the Nevada to be a tier 6 battleship because a standard at tier 5 would be Giulio Cesare 2.0 all over again: she's tough-as-nails, has good guns, can reliably turn on a dime and with her final refit AA suite means she'll make carriers cry. However, to differ from New Mexico and fellow standard Arizona, I'm assuming she'll load marginally faster at 29s, have good dispersion of 2.0 and an AA suite that's similar to New Mexico's as well as improved acceleration for a dread.

 

Derp.exe has crashed

 

 

[EULA_violator]

im not usually one to necro a thread, but the refit after pearl made her look damn sexy, 10/10 would prprpr