"Ventis Secundis (With Favorable Winds)" -HMS Hood's motto.
Background History[]
HMS Hood is arguably the most famous Ship in the history of the Royal Navy. When she was commissioned in 1920, she was the largest battlecruiser in the world, and the largest warship by extension. She held that title for a whopping 20 years until Bismarck and Yamato took that title from Hood. She is perhaps most infamously known for the Battle of the Denmark straight, where she was sunk within 15 minutes by several salvoes from Bismarck due to her old age and lack of a refit. Had she undergone a refit, she would have put up a much more ferocious fight against Bismarck.
Overview[]
At first glance, Hood seems to be just another stereotypical battlewagon of European descent with the distinctive double gun turrets. However, a closer inspection reveals that Hood actually has torpedo tubes, and these torp tubes are no joke, capable of rivaling a fully maxed Yukikaze's torps right out of the box and dealing an astonishing 15.4k damage when maxed. Her guns are equally impressive, slightly exceeding the firepower of Tirpitz while her secondaries Blows Tirpitz's out of the water in terms of DPM. Her HP pool is simply deranged for a battlecruiser. 193.4k out of the box will give even H41 a run for their money (made worse by the fact H41 does not have torps). Her AA is the only fly in the ointment, but is still pretty broken considering that at max they deal ~800 DPS which is not easy to match outside of dedicated AA cruisers and destroyers and can be supplemented with the AA of teammates. To put it simply, Hood will domineeringly show your enemies that they are in the wrong neighbourhood.
Tactics[]
Playing as a Hood[]
There is not much to say about Hood other than the fact she is basically Tirpitz that somehow inexplicably got too high on tea, and as such, players familiar with the German fan favorite will feel right at home with Hood. It should be noted that while she can match or even outperform Tirpitz in most areas, Hood does not enjoy the main gun accuracy seen on Tirpitz courtesy of it being an older design. Aside from having a lower gun accuracy, the ship lacks an interceptor, further solidifying its vulnerability from concentrated air attacks. It is advised to have an escort to provide AA support.
Playing with a Hood[]
Her weaknesses are the same as Tirpitz and Scharnhorst, They have decent AA but it wont save them from a focused air raid. Provide AA cover for the ally Hood but make sure to not get too close as this will render their torpedoes useless as you are in the way.
Playing Against a Hood[]
Trying to tackle this beast is not an easy task, with Guns that Rival those of Tirpitz but a far higher health pool to boot and torps that are just as good, anyone who attempts a half baked attempt at taking Hood on will get decimated in close quarters, even the Lone Queen of the North will have to show some respect to Hood when engaging in knife fights. Long range is also troublesome as her guns deal the 5th most damage in the game with potentially a faster reload than her super-battleship counterparts. The only feasible methods of taking her out it to saturate her with Air attacks or use top tier ships like the Yamato, Montana, and H41, which is not always guaranteed, even with recent improvements to matchmaking.
She does have a chunky broadside, so take advantage of that to deal maximum alpha when she tries to turn.
Advantages and Disadvantages[]
Advantages
- Decent main gun damage.
- High HP
- Fast main gun reload.
- Comes equipped with torpedoes.
- High Speed.
- Comes pre equipped with camouflage
- Decent secondaries
- Decent dispersion if used properly
Disadvantages
- Lacks interceptors.
- Lackluster Anti Aircraft armament.
- Underwhelming secondaries. (may seem to players at her first glace on her stats her secendroies actually stand equal to triptiz in the battlefield in terms of damage)
- Bad turn time, 38 secs.
- Gigantic free-board.
Players' opinions[]
1."Wir dachten, wir hätten sie versenkt, und wir könnten es wieder tun, aber diesmal war etwas an ihr anders. Dieses Mal waren wir diejenigen auf der Empfangsseite ..."
Translation: "We thought we had sunk her, and we could do it again, but something about her was different this time, This time, we were the ones on the receiving end..."
-German player in a Bismarck Recalling the wrath of Hood.
2."Who would have thought this Bismarck that is high on Gummy bears would sink both Yamato and WIsconsin[sic] in ine[sic] battle."
-Bow211Montana
Trivia[]
- Contrary to popular belief, the ship was not named after Robin Hood. Rather, it was named after Admiral Samuel Hood.
- Only three people survived the sinking of the historic HMS Hood. These were Ted Briggs (1923 to 2008), Robert Tilburn (1921 to 1995), and William John Dundas (1923 to 1965).
- The ship did have a catapult and planes installed, but these were removed before the Battle of the Denmark Strait (May 24, 1941).
- Her Torpedo Tubes are not visible on the ship model as they are submerged tubes in her 1941 configuration. This can often lead to a nasty surprise as most players remember her as a Guns only ship as per history but the reality of the matter was that she never got the chance to use them properly in history.
- This was later fixed almost 12 hours later, with the ship now having proper torpedo tubes, more in line with her initial hull and proposed refits. (Although I think in a new version there has now been given a full breach in the hull just for these torps)
In game inaccuracies
- The ship's statistics display the ship's length as 263.3 meters, though the historic ship had a length of 262.3 meters.
Gallery[]
