HMS Belfast, light cruiser, premium vehicle, UK, rank IV.

Pros

• Good armour
• Powerful armament
• Heavy-duty anti-aircraft artillery

Cons

• Lack of torpedo armament

In our game, the Belfast became a premium rank IV ship in the Royal Navy tech tree. Technically, she is a town-class cruiser, just like the Southampton, a ship players will already be familiar with. However, the Belfast is slightly different from her – and for the better. For our game, we chose the iteration of the ship after her last significant modernisation during service. In 1959, the primary armament of the cruiser comprised of four triple 152mm cannons (12 in total) and four dual purpose 102mm cannons (8 in total).

The Belfast’s primary distinctive feature lies in her extremely powerful anti-air armament, practically all of which are 20 mm in calibre, except for the 40mm cannons that replaced some of the 102mm dual purpose cannons. So, to sum it all up, the deck of this light cruiser carries twelve anti-air barrels: six twinned 40mm cannons all locked and loaded for repelling air strikes. Given all of that, the Belfast is also fairly well protected – her main armour belt is 114 mm thick, while her deck armour thickness amounts to 76 mm above the magazines and 51 mm over the engine rooms. The main armament turrets also have 102 mm of armour.

In a nutshell, the Belfast truly is a phenomenal light cruiser representative in our game. This ship cannot be recommended enough to players – and not just for the purpose of researching new heavy rank V ships, which made their first appearance in update 1.93, but also simply for the fun factor alone, as the Belfast’s powerful armament, excellent defences against attacks from the air, and great armour make her a real toughie that far from every opponent can handle.

The Belfast is a legendary ship and contemporary London tourist attraction that has come to War Thunder in update 1.93. So keep calm and rule the waves!

Major update 1.93 devblogs: