Testing the design against a Regia Marina-style force

The combat test pairs the proposed battleship, modified 1936 Town-class light cruisers, and 1936 Tribal-class destroyers against an Italian force with a battleship, heavy cruisers, and very light cruisers. The Regia Marina's early-war surface doctrine suits a carrier-less Mediterranean comparison better than a Japanese scenario. The game makes ships fight until they sink and does not model ammunition exhaustion, so the result cannot reconstruct real fleet behaviour. Within those limits, the six-inch battery keeps enemy light cruisers away from the capital ship. The British cruisers survive a dangerous close fight with Italian heavy cruisers because their torpedoes decide the exchange, while the battleships settle into a prolonged gun duel. The outcome provides a useful mixed-force test of the design without proving its historical performance.