Speed is armor. use 14" normals. Your crew sound like its not good enough yet.

Tell me about your crew.

How many engineers?
How many repairs?
What lvl are they?
are they boosted?
How many veterans/experts approx?

7.5" should be sufficent.

i dont know ... my crew is pretty decent. got 6 engs 4 reps all +12 boosted, with 109 vets and almost full experts.

With nelly, you would be more dissapointing if you expect a decent spread with 16".

7.5" stops max range KM shells, but HE from every other nation has no problem with that amount. Not until you get a lot more inside their max range will it start to bounce HE from other nationsf. Just remove it and go for all out speed.

Also if you prefer AW the Nelly will not break 7" of deck if you have all 3 turrets on.

If you continue to have problems playing POW, revert back to the UK PBB Dunkerque and ride it till Lion or Vanny.

The PoW is a fine ship. Its a hit and run style though and not so much a line fighter. IMO its not worth it to armor it ever since the BB234 patch. Unless you ghost the piss out of your crew, it wont do much good to armor it these days as every BB4,5 and 6 (and many BB3's) will ignore the limited amount you can stack on while vastly out ranging you as well. With this ship, speed is your biggest asset.

Personally on mine I run two quad 14"N's on the front. Just linger around a min or two after battle starts and wait till some BBs are blind or engaged with BBs on your side and while occupied, rush them. Its often quite hard for people to hit a zig-zagging BB rushing at them at 47knts pumping 14" block shots into their deck. Once you hit a few times, retreat back, recover your OH and repair while sniping smaller ships within range. Then repeat.

Also a positive for the PoW is with its speed and high turn rate, its HELL OF A LOT easier to dodge subs over say a L1 and L2 or an armored down slow slug KGV. You see torps, hit the gas and turn. Hence another reason why speed is often your best armor in this game especially with ships like the PoW and SoDak that are geared to be very fast.

hmmm forgot the bb345 patch thingy... no wonder i can just get 7.9" deck

 

but still experimenting  some settings :D, tried the L guns = spread is a little better than nelson's 16"...

 

tried AWing, im still fast can go 23/38 lol and got a good game sank a h44, an AD, a high level CL :D, and could have sunk a ark royal if i hadn't miss 3 salvos and didn't notice that im already at their front line lol...

 

going to try SWing next :D...

 

sorry for the necro XD lol, find POW is fun to play than Nelson

Use 14" Normals, it is a medium ranged gun with excellent spread. These guns are usually used with only the two front guns, which helps you reach 47 knots (or 49 knots in some cases where your sailor weight is lower).

With the speed and spread, the POW is played by rushing others, when their attention is at others. You will usually have to weave alot to confuse your attackers and to change your speeds so that you preserve your OH time.

The skills you gain from the POW (like pinpoint gunnery, weaving, battlefield awareness, speed management, etc.) will be critical for your future L1 and L2 gameplay. This is training for BB5 uberness so do it right.