Montana Battleship

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## Tactical Analysis

* **(Title 1):** The largest warship in the Continental arsenal. The Montana Battleship serves as the Continentals capital ship.

* **Kachow!:** The Montana Class battleship might be showing some age, but modifications to it give it the ability to fit enormous spiral fan systems to push it at incredible speed, creating a devastating wake behind it as the ship goes alarmingly quickly. It also deals increased ramming damage if it collides into anything in the way, though it will damage itself if it hits another large ship, and will be instantly destroyed if it impacts Ultraheavy or Epic ships. And it should not be stressed that they should never ram ships that can ram back, like the Shogun.

* **Product of the Rust Belt:** The Montana class Battleship is old and the various refits the Continentals do to them can't really disguise the fact that its armour is less advanced than modern craft and its guns are simply not in the same weight class as the likes of the Shogun or Potemkin classes and it will have to run away from fights with other battleships. Similarly like most capital ships it is large enough to have to worry about Bombardment ship impacts and is vulnerable to submarines.

* **(Title 4):** High-ranking Montana admirals are known to play out American songs, mainly from the War of Independence, through boosted speakers on their ships to embolden their naval allies to fight harder. (oh, and they also used their experience to better command and coordinate vessels around them too)

## Operational History

The Second World War is remembered by many Allied sailors as the last great hurrah for conventional warfare at sea. The Soviet Union had their subs, but none could compare with the sheer range and destructive power of the Allied heavy cruiser. The designation heavy cruiser was always something of a misnomer - although most nations had quickly disregarded the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty, the United States Congress was leery of approving funding for a new class of battleship even as the United States Navy decided that it needed a new class of warship suitable for long-range destruction of Soviet surface units (a predicted need that failed to materialize) and direct naval support of land-based operations. The Navy's response was a ship only marginally smaller than the existing *Florida* class battleships, and was designed around an armament of four sixteen-inch cannons. Naming it the *Montana* class, the Navy presented it to Congress as a "heavy cruiser", correctly figuring that Congress didn't know that only battleships were traditionally named after American states. The project was approved, and only a short time later, the *Montana* class warships were in Europe, pounding the Soviets with a might previously unseen among the Allies.

The *Montana* served with great distinction during the war as the hardest-hitting artillery piece the Allies had to offer. Although vulnerable to air attacks and submarines, that's what destroyers were for, and the restriction of the *Montana* to naval and coastal operations proved to be only a minor restriction, given the range of its sixteen-inch cannons. Unfortunately, these restrictions were enough to provoke controversy among the European Allies, who were eager to discuss the idea of mobile, floating air bases as a means of fire support rather than naval gunfire, citing the flexibility and range of modern aircraft. Defenders of the *Montana* cited its twelve inches of armour and the sheer demoralizing effect of cruiser bombardments, but the discussion ultimately won out in favor of carriers, and the *Montana* was formally retired from active duty with the Allies.

One diehard defender of the *Montana*, however, was also quite wily. Admiral Matthew Horner, with great support from the Navy and even the Marine Corps, successfully persuaded Congress to keep the surviving *Montana* class cruisers and transfer them to the United States Coast Guard instead of simply retiring them. The mothball fleet was enormous already, and with the enormous magazines of the *Montana* stripped out, they could be used for all manner of purposes, including use as floating hospitals, transporting supplies in an exceedingly well-defended vessel, and the like. Of course, Horner never had any intention of actually following through, but Congress didn't need to know that.

During the Third World War, there was much talk of bringing the *Montana* back, with the most common rationale being "We want guns, not sissy drones or fancy-shmancy cryo beams! GUNS!!!", according to Allied records. This talk came to naught, but it did return the idea of a heavy naval gun platform to the minds of many American naval officers, and a program was even launched to nullify the cruisers' weaknesses by fitting the ships with "beehive shells" and a new fire control system stolen from the Empire of the Rising Sun's transforming craft to allow the cruisers to rain destruction on both surface and air targets. Yet the venerable warships remained out of sight, and for the Allies, out of mind...

...And when the Allies began to impose themselves on the United States following the war, the Europeans failed to think about reigning in, or indeed exercising any control over, the Coast Guard, the oft-forgotten fifth branch of the American military. When Admiral Horner, by this point retired, heard of the Continental uprising, several phone calls to the Coast Guard were made, and Coast Guard vessels assigned to patrolling the American mothball fleet curiously happened to avoid detecting a fleet of frigates and destroyers leaving Corpus Christi unannounced and unscheduled. Even more curiously, a significant number of the Coast Guard's *Montana* class cruisers went missing or sank in unfortunate accidents shortly thereafter. All of the Coast Guard's heavy cruisers, in fact.

Although somewhat outdated compared to modern battleships, the *Montana* still has a nasty kick to it, a kick the Continental sailors, many of them Coast Guard crewmen who came with the ships, are more than happy to share with the Allies. Aircraft carrier captains in particular have recently received warnings that any *Montana* class ship detected is to be handled with extreme caution: the question of battleships versus aircraft carriers may be tipping towards "battleships with convertible surface/air bombardment cannons".

It should be noted that for the sake of more damage from the outdated guns (and fun), the Continentals added ample amounts magnesium powder to each of the shells, resulting in a magnificent glow each time the shell explodes. Soldiers being bombarded by multiple cruisers have been often reported to have near death experiences from this glow, more precisely the feeling of time slowing down as the shells rain around them...

## Famous Ships

*USS Cold Reception* (formerly ANV Washington) - Stationed along the northern part of the West Coast, the Cold Reception provides support to Continental operations along the coast. Forced to deal with potential threats from the Allies, Soviet Union and the Japanese; its crew are considered second to none in terms of skill and combat experience among the Rebel navy, leading their nickname “Iron Duke”.

*USS Kametz* (formerly ANV Pennsylvania)

*USS Mustang* (formerly ANV New Orleans) - The USS Mustang, instead of staying near America, travels across the world, using its modified engines to stay one step ahead of pursuing Allied forces. Its preferred targets are any Allied military targets it can get away with attacking. Ironically, as the Allies are looking mostly for Soviet submarines, a Continental ship can get closer than one might think. The USS Mustang has no hesitations about attacking Soviet targets as well, and many incidents that might have led to war (which is what some elements of the Continentals want) have happened. The USS Mustang uses any port of call it can find, from tiny ports operated by civilian sympathizers to the massive harbours of the Mediterranean Syndicate, who instead calls it the “Agrippa”.

*USS Leigh* (formerly ANV Texas)

*USS Kenny* (formerly ANV Oregon) - Stationed along the Northwest coast, taken over by a group of Continentals disguised as fry cooks, the *Kenny's* primary role is to provide fire support for the West Coast, though it has a difficult time of it due to a strong Allied naval presence. However, when damaged it can call upon some of the best engineers at UC Berkeley for assistance and can be back on the sea quicker than the Allies can disable it, leading to the crew calling him “Calypso”. And gave rise to an in-joke that “Kenny” has died again whenever it’s disabled, only to rise back up the next day.

*USS Buckland* (formerly ANV Louisiana)

*USS Jefferson Davis* (formerly ANV Michigan) - The USS Jefferson Davis has so far eluded the Allies' attempts to track her down, due to most intelligence pointing out that its port is actually in New Orleans. The Jefferson Davis provided much of the fire support for the Continentals in the Gulf of Mexico, and many a Continental ambush has started with a salvo from its guns, giving it the nickname “Victory”.

*USS Aguilar* (formerly ANV Minnesota)

*USS Jacqueline* (formerly ANV Vermont) - The USS Jacqueline is the main flagship of the Continental Navy, and the first Montana they "liberated".

*USS Conroy* (formerly ANV New Hampshire)

*USS Perry* (formerly ANV Montana)

*USS Delisle* (formerly ANV Connecticut)

*USS Fagerbakke* (formerly ANV New Mexico) - The *Kenny* is the sister ship to the *Fagerbakke*. The *Fagerbakke* is able to avoid Allied resistance, leading to his nickname “Indefatigable”, due to not being in the United States at all, as the town of Guerro Negro in Baja California is fiercely loyal to the Continental cause and can provide a nearby anchorage and supplies. The *Fagerbakke* is able to menace Allied sites in South America, though just as often is on call for operations in California.

*USS Welker* (formerly ANV Utah)

*USS Hamil* (formerly ANV Colorado) - Originally supposed to be called the "Hamilton", but the person painting the name was more "rural" than the Continentals knew, and the name stuck (mainly because it was simply too expensive to repaint the ship).

*USS Fearless* (formerly ANV Georgia) - Originally stationed along the southern part of the East Coast and responsible for many sinkings of Allied ships, with the Allies giving her the call-sign “Prince of Wales”, she was heavily damaged in a botched ambush on a seemingly unarmed Allied supply convoy. She is currently in drydocks disguised as a container ship as she undergoes repairs.

*USS Lindbeck* (formerly ANV Ohio)

*USS Chase* (formerly ANV California)

*USS Saab* (formerly ANV New York)

## Behind the Scenes

The *Montana* class is a historical in-joke: traditionally, US battleships were named after American states. At the conclusion of real-world WWII, Montana was the only state in the US that had not had a battleship named after it. That has been rectified in this timeline, with bureaucratic chicanery designating it only as a heavy cruiser.

The Montana was a noble attempt by Endless Twilight to write lore for the Cruiser, but contradicted much of the established lore. Twilight then read all the lore, and became very good at writing for Paradox!

Formerly it was cut from the original Paradox. But, like the Uprising units, have been revived for the new PEQAN PIES.