Superstructurre Armor how useful is it?

[Sandermatt]

It seems the armor is extremely heavy, and if I just apply 1 inch or so of armor, everything will still penetrate it anyway. How much do you use and is there any benefit in small armor values?

[GooseSpringsteen92]

I might be mistaken but I think the general idea of superstructure armour is to be shrapnel proof so 2" is about the maximum I would consider personally. 

[Sandermatt]

6 hours ago, GooseSpringsteen92 said:

I might be mistaken but I think the general idea of superstructure armour is to be shrapnel proof so 2" is about the maximum I would consider personally. 

I don't think shrapnel damage exists and for direct hits it seems not enough either way (unless a ton of weight is spent on it).

[Plazma]

I think Superstructure Armor works little like deck armor, I found that 5" could block most of the shells even from 12" guns(need proof /testing). I am not sure, but I think some armor even 0,1" reduced the damage from shell even penetrated, but I have no proof of that. 

If we have armor technology +50% and 2" armor that means we have 3" armor, that could block a lot of HE shells from 2", 3" 4" even from 5" depends on shells (heavy/capped or no). 

Also if you fight with ship what have main armed optimized for HE (heavy Shells, a lot of 2" 4" guns, Nose fuze, Picric Acid) some armor could save you! No penetration could make around 20-80 damage, but over penetration is like 140-280, but penetration is 250-750 (2"-4"). Also when main tower or second tower is destroyed you lost a lot of accuracy, crew, damage control and destroying funnel make you lost acceleration and accuracy. 

So in the end you can receive like 10x more shoots if the shells are penetration instead of partial pen. Plus where you want add this extra saved weight? 

 

1" Usually block any shells from 2-4.9" guns if they are Nose fuze. So basically you block the most danger shells. If 12" gun shoot in your funnel, bad luck... but you can't make a ship able to protect vs all type of the attacks. I usually make them 1,3"-3" thick, but sometimes 1" and 4" happens too, depends of ship/year/tactic.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Plazma

[Hussarball_PL]

I used to not put any armor on superstructures on any ship, which was a mistake. While this type of armor is not quite as important as other types in 1v1 scenarios it is necessary to put at least 30mm on battleship when expecting a swarm of enemies (i.e. in campaign) since overpens and superstructure pens can give you nasty -50% accuracy debuff.

[Lakel]

Can say   6" superstructure on a BB is pretty darn impossible to damage its funnels and fire control towers at all. least for the AI shooting at it.

Wouldnt recommend it with less than krupp II though.

[Norbert Sattler]

I'd say it is pretty important to put at least some on.

Whenever the AI comes out with a 0 super-structure ship they usually have their entire upper-works wiped in a couple of salvoes. I usually go with something between 60 and 80 mm (3" plus/minus a little in imperial) on everything that is bigger than a TB, which works pretty well.