So as the US of A in a no-battleship game I got into a war with Great Britain in 1920 (Or maybe 1919 or 1918) with France and Italy as my allies. Since I had lost the Phillipines and Guam to France in a prior war (although I had taken Polynesia from them), it was very apparent that this war would mostly be fought in the Caribbean and the North American East Coast, with some minor actions happening along the west coast and in the South Pacific.
A battle takes place along the east coast of America which results in an old British battlecruiser being sunk. The British colonies of Trinidad and Grand Bahama fall, and invasions begin on their provinces of New Providence and New Brunswick. And that's when the most significant action of the war took place.
Britain was trying to sail a convoy into New Providence to help fend off the invasion. I elected to attack this convoy.
My force consisted of the 2 Nebraska class battlecruisers, USS Nebraska and USS New Hampshire, along with the light cruiser USS Providence and a squadron of 4 destroyers.
Do note that during this battle these ships would not be fitted with Improved Directors. I believe they either had normal directors or central firing, and whatever they had the British had as well.
The Nebraskas were the first of the super-dreadnought-like battlecruisers in my navy, armed with 10 13" guns and a modest top speed of 26 knots. They were the best battlecruisers in the world at the time of their completion (1912) but in the years since have been eclipsed by more modern vessels armed with 14"-15" guns capable of doing up to 28 knots (At this time they were smack-dab in the middle of all the battlecruisers I had built. Nebraska is battlecruiser 10. New Hampshire is battlecruiser 11. I have 20 battlecruisers in service at this time. Basically, they're among the oldest still-relevant battlecruisers.) If I ran into a British 14" or 15" armed battlecruiser or battleship I could be in serious trouble.
As luck would have it, I encountered 2 older non-relevant British battlecruisers to the south of my position.
HMS Queen Mary of the Inconstant class and HMS Indomitable of the Invincible class.
These 2 classes of battlecruisers made up Britain's first 10 battlecruisers. With 13" guns of quality -2 (My 13" BCs all have quality 0 guns) and a 6" belt these ships were horrendously obsolete and completely outmatched by the Nebraskas in every single way except fire control and, at least for Queen Mary, speed. Escorting them was a similar force to what was escorting my ships.
The convoy we were supposed to be attacking was to the southwest of my position at this time, but I decided to engage the battlecruisers first. I set my battlecruisers up heading to the east, broadside to the enemy battlecruisers, which decided to charge straight at my formation. Queen Mary only took 6 hits before a turret flash fire sent her to the bottom, and Indomitable's fore and aft turrets were quickly destroyed with a third turret knocked out, with the ship slowing to a small percentage of her maximum speed and attempting to get away from my battlecruisers.
However, it was about now that I noticed something. A couple enemy destroyers were not forming up with the spotted enemy formation, and instead were heading to the southsoutheast (I think, I remember it this way but they could've sailed to the southsouthwest). One thing Rule the Waves likes to do is they like to spawn the escorts for the supporting division close to where the enemy division is. These are probably escorts for the enemy supporting division. Which means the enemy has 1 or 2 more capital ships than I thought they did which could sail north at any moment and catch me by surprise. And that could mean having to ditch the convoy mission and could potentially mean suffering damage or even losing my battlecruisers.
So I made the decision to pull a 180 with my ships and ditch the Indefatigable, instead focusing on trying to sink the enemy convoy before the support force gets here. But I was too late, as the support force arrived just as I started shooting at the convoy. I only have time to sink 1 small merchant vessel before being forced to engage the enemy squadron.
Now opposing me were the 2 Queen class battleships, HMS Queen and HMS Prince of Whales.
These old dreadnought battleships use the dreadnought layout, having a broadside weight of 8x12" guns of quality 0. The Nebraskas outclass them in every way, but not by as much as they outclass the Indefatigables and Inconstants. That 11" belt is going to me more capable of withstanding hits, and the 12" guns are going to be capable of dealing damage to my battlecruisers. However, the 21 knot max speed of these things is going to give my battlecruisers the upper-hand in controlling the engagement. But one lucky hit could still sink, or put at great risk of being sunk, one of my much more expensive Nebraskas.
They're coming from the southsouthwest, when I honestly expected them to come from the southsoutheast. I set my Nebraskas heading to the northwest, in such a way that I can get their full broadsides off at the enemy. I don't remember if the enemy only got 2 turrets firing per ship or managed to get 4 on each ship firing at my formation. Anyways, the third hit on Queen caused a flash-fire in one of her turrets, meeting the same fate as HMS Queen Mary.
My battlecruisers then manage to cross Prince of Whales' T, turning her around, while putting large volumes of 13" rounds into her. Her turrets get silenced one by one, and then the ship slows, and eventually stops. The ship was already sinking at this point, but I didn't know that and sent my destroyers in anyways to put a couple of insurance torpedoes into her.
Low on ammo, my battlecruisers turn around to attempt to engage the enemy convoy again, but are harassed by the British light cruisers and destroyers. There's not really a good approach I can make which would put my ships in a position to attack the convoy where they are unlikely to be torpedoed with the light forces ground down by enemy fire. But I notice 3 enemy destroyers escorting a large, slow ship down to the south, away from the battle. It's time to sink Indomitable.
My battlecruisers approach and start firing at the crippled battlecruiser. They run out of AP and eventually switch to HE, but the damage is done. HMS Indomitable stops and proceeds to sink. Now almost out of ammo my group turns northwest again to try to intercept the convoy, although the sun getting close to setting. In the twilight hours the tail end of the convoy is spotted but not much is done before everything is dark. My formation heads to where they saw the enemy transports, finds 2 of them, sinks them, and then retreats to the northeast to avoid enemy light forces which could potentially torpedo my battlecruisers. The battle is over.
One more merchant strikes a mine on the way to New Providence however and sinks, bringing my kill tally to 4 out of 7 transports.
Now, the interesting thing about this battle is that neither Nebraska nor New Hampshire was actually hit by an enemy shell. In fact, the British had only managed 3 5" hits against one of my cruisers and 2 4" hits against one of my destroyers. That was it. They had numerical superiority and had still managed to lose all 4 of their capital ships to gunfire while not managing to even hit the 2 enemy capital ships engaging them. And I think that's what defines this battle for me. Not that it was a victory, with the forces involved it would've taken Britain a bit of luck to come out with a victory in this fight, but how overwhelming of a victory it was, and that it was achieved with 2 mediocre capital ships.
And that is that story. Hope you all have a good day!