County cruisers as station flagships

The Counties filled the role of large station ships under treaty limits, a smaller concept than the heavy cruisers the Royal Navy had once contemplated. As older armoured cruisers left service, the navy needed flagships and symbols of power beyond the Home and Mediterranean Fleets. A cruiser could provide that presence without the permanent crew rotations, dockyard capacity, and logistics burden of basing a battlecruiser far from major infrastructure. That made the County a command ship and visible cornerstone for stations whose smaller cruisers carried most routine duties.