Armor thickness & other parameters for 1920s BB

[Captain Meow]

Spent like an hour arranging this mighty battleship & thought I'll go kick afts 1v5 as good as in 1895 BB, but instead was getting showered by enemy fire & was watching my %'s slowly lowering while I'm still trying to get any damage at AIs.

Is there something wrong with this design or chosen armor thickness or combination of all?  

Edited January 8, 2022 by Captain Meow

[crp1985]

The armor is a little thin on this design. Especially the fore and aft belt. There is too much armor on the turrets. Main deck armor seems decent, fore and rear deck armor could be increased to 55mm or 2in. The conning tower does seem to be light on armor there. Too much armor on the superstructure. It could be decreased to 55mm or 2 inches. Increase Barbette to Barbette III at least. Increase your bulkheads to maximum, and at least anti-flood II. 

Historical values for armor. Let's take the battleship Bismarck as an example. 

Speed: 30 kn

Main Belt - 12.6in (320mm)

Fore, Aft Belt - 8.7in (220mm)

Main Deck - 4.7in (120mm)

Fore, Aft Deck - 2in (51mm)

Turrets - 8.7 Side, 5.5 Top (220mm side, 140mm top) (This part I may have wrong. 8.7 for sure on the sides. Not sure about the tops. It does say 14.2 total.)

Conning Tower - 14in (356mm) 

Turtleback Citadel I believe

Armor quality would be Krupp III. (Krupp Cemented + face hardened)

 

I'd take the side 16 in turrets off the ship as this probably is reducing your hull stability and gun accuracy. Take a look at your Roll stat and see how much accuracy loss there is. 

Anyone else have any suggestions or observations also?

 

[Captain Meow]

Since all parts in the game are too heavy that it's nearly impossible to recreate most BBs' armor thickness while having close to original layouts, my thinking usually is like:

Turrets: sides - same as their guns' caliber or lower, top - half of sides' value or lower.
Main belt - same as main guns' caliber or lower.
Fore/aft belt - half of main belt's value.
Main deck - half of fore/aft belt's value.
Fore/aft deck - half of main deck's value.
Superstructure - same as fore/aft deck's value.
Conning tower - same as main guns' caliber or higher.

I use such for 1890s battleships, but for 1920-1940 BBs that doesn't seem to work as the ship becomes heavy: maybe too much of main guns or too heavy main guns or too much speed or too upgraded technology used?  I had to lower armor thickness, downgrade technologies used, lower the speed to 23kn, use standard bulkheads, etc in order to have this design playable.
Maybe those midship side main gun turrets are unnecessary, since during the battle one turret is always idle? It's just the ">" shape of the back of main tower was suggesting that there should be some gun(s) behind it. Maybe second funnel is too much as it obstructs the second tower with smoke? Maybe those superfiring turrets should be of lower caliber?

Edited January 9, 2022 by Captain Meow

[crp1985]

I didn't even notice the two smoke stacks. I'd definitely check to see if it's affecting gun accuracy. No better defense than a good accurate offense!

 

 

[Lastreaumont]

I'm a little more generous on armor thickness. (maybe too much?)
For a 1920 BB design (and sometimes for BC too, because I often use heavy armored BC instead of BB), I use following values:
Main Turrets sides: 410mm
Main Turrets top: same as Main Deck.
Main belt: 410mm.
Fore/aft belt: 150 to 250mm.
Main deck: 150 to 200mm.
Fore/aft deck: half of main deck's value.
Superstructure: 40 to 60mm.
Conning tower: 410mm.
Armor quality: always best available
Bulkheads: many
Speed: 30kn or higher
No main side turrets

Edited January 13, 2022 by Lastreaumont

[Captain Meow]

Seems like what I would chose if I wasn't restricted in weight, looks like I made the ship overweight with all the guns.
Regarding guns: all main guns should be of same caliber or superfiring ones better be lighter (less barrels or lower caliber) like side ones?
Should secondary guns be around half or of main guns caliber?  Looks like I have a habit of including everything as the mounting points allow.

[Lastreaumont]

To choose my main guns caliber, I take care about the associated Mark level. I often choose the highest caliber for a given Mark level. All the main turrets are the same (caliber and guns number). 
To choose my secondaries, I take care about max range and weight. Result is often some triple 178 or 152mm, completed with dual 127 or 102 or 76mm, depending of available slots. 
I'm far away to use all the allowed mounting points, because of weight of course, and I like to have turrets with large firing angles. Also, especially for main turrets, I try to give them the full 360° rotation capability, to reduce rotation time when I'll perform swarm torpedoes dodging dance figures during battle. 
On current game versions (up to 1.03 included), I also use some 51mm secondary guns to balance my ship, abusing of their enormous weight balance effect comparing to their weight. 

[UnleashtheKraken]

On 1/7/2022 at 6:10 PM, Captain Meow said:

Spent like an hour arranging this mighty battleship & thought I'll go kick afts 1v5 as good as in 1895 BB, but instead was getting showered by enemy fire & was watching my %'s slowly lowering while I'm still trying to get any damage at AIs.

Is there something wrong with this design or chosen armor thickness or combination of all?  

I would shed barrels.  You've gone with triples and a heavy secondary armament.  For this time period, dual barrels can be better, in this game, in my experience, any other caveats assumed.  Your deck is crowded, and I would simplify gun layout.  I too used to cram every turret I could get in the hopes of long range luck.  I now am a firm believer in finding the range where main guns are at 10-15% accuracy, keep the ship angled to improve the armor with effective thickness, and manage range to target.

In order to accomplish this, I'd swap your triples for doubles across the board, mains and secondaries and wing turrets.  Also try to keep the weight as close to centerline as possible, this affects stability and stability affects accuracy.  Use saved weight from reducing barrels and thinning the secondary armament for better armor and faster speed to accomplish closing and holding range.  I'd want at least 26 knots out of this beast, and the armor to withstand hits as you close.  Fewer guns can be far deadlier when they reach effective range, than lots of guns at 'might as well be throwing darts blindfolded' range.  Also increase the protection modules - barbette and citadel, so that even when you take damage, you don't watch turrets do their impression of a Saturn V.

That's my advice and reasoning.  Hope it helps.