HMS Achilles

Notes: As the only ship from the famous Battle for the River Plate not to have a WotC card, HMS Achilles is an obvious historical choice for any card project, so it's gratifying to be able to tick this one off for the Forumini team decks.

While she would later form part of the Royal New Zealand Navy, the voting indicated that the card should be the early-war Royal Navy Achilles (the RNZN not having been formed as an independent service at that point). Even then, the majority of her crew were New Zealanders, and she proudly flew the New Zealand ensign from her mainmast - in fact it would still be flying after her white ensign had been shot away by Graf Spee.

Naturally the Special Abilities here are intended to represent Achilles' actions at the Battle for the River Plate - closing the range with Graf Spee before pouring salvoes into her opponent as fast as she could in an attempt to draw fire away from the badly damaged HMS Exeter, which had taken the brunt of Graf Spee's firepower.

The UK has quite a few attractive cruiser options already, and you'll have to make good use of Achilles' SAs to get the most out of those 12 points, but Chase and Defend Cripple are both potentially very useful, so hopefully this is another arrow in the RN's quiver.

Prototype: HMNZS Achilles was a Leander-class light cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Second World War, the second of five in the class. Originally constructed by the Royal Navy, she was loaned to New Zealand in 1936 before formally joining the new Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter and notable for being the first Royal Navy cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940.

After Second World War service in the Atlantic and Pacific, she was returned to the Royal Navy. She was sold to the Indian Navy in 1948 and recommissioned as INS Delhi. She was scrapped in 1978.

Class History: The Leander class was a class of eight light cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s that saw service in World War II. They were named after mythological figures, and all ships were commissioned between 1933 and 1936. The three ships of the second group were sold to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) before World War II and renamed after Australian cities.

Country: The United Kingdom, made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, is an island nation in northwestern Europe. England – birthplace of Shakespeare and The Beatles – is home to the capital, London, a globally influential centre of finance and culture. England is also site of Neolithic Stonehenge, Bath’s Roman spa and centuries-old universities at Oxford and Cambridge.