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Armor thresholds

Armor thresholds

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HE penetration

Here are some common armor thicknesses and the minimum HE shell diameters needed to penetrate them, according to the HE penetration formula. "Super" refers to the enhanced HE penetration of British battleship primary armament, German battleships (Primaries, 150mm and 128mm secondaries at all tiers and 105mm secondaries from tier IX), German cruisers (tiers IV-X primary armament and 150mm secondaries), and Japanese 100mm guns (Primaries and secondaries).

By armor thickness

Armor thickness Occurrences
(non-exhaustive)
HE shell diameter
needed to penetrate
Beneficiaries
(non-exhaustive)
Standard IFHE Super Super IFHE
16 mm Tier 3 battleship bow/stern
Tier 6-7 battleship superstructure
Most tier 6-7 cruiser bow/stern
99 mm 76 mm 67 mm 51 mm
19 mm Tier 4-5 battleship bow/stern
Tier 8-10 battleship superstructure
Tier 8-10 destroyer plating
117 mm 88 mm 79 mm 59 mm Some destroyers (102 mm - 114 mm)
25 mm Tier 6-7 battleship bow/stern
Some tier 8-10 cruiser bow/stern
153 mm 118 mm 103 mm 79 mm Many light cruisers (152 mm)
Most destroyers (120 mm - 150 mm, 100 mm super)
27 mm Some tier 8-10 cruiser bow/stern 165 mm 124 mm 111 mm 83 mm Most light cruisers (152 mm, 155 mm)
Most destroyers (127 mm - 150 mm, 100 mm super)
30 mm Some tier 8-10 cruiser plating 183 mm 142 mm 123 mm 95 mm Most light cruisers (152 mm, 155 mm, 180 mm)
Some Japanese destroyers/secondaries (100 mm super)
32 mm Tier 8-10 battleship bow/stern 195 mm 148 mm 131 mm 99 mm Most light cruisers (152 mm, 155 mm, 180 mm)
Some Japanese destroyers/secondaries (100 mm super)
50 mm Khabarovsk belt
Moskva plating
Großer Kurfürst deck
303 mm 232 mm 203 mm 155 mm Henri IV (240 mm)

By HE diameter

HE shell Occurrences
(non-exhaustive)
Maximum armor thickness penetrated IFHE beneficial against
(non-exhaustive)
Without IFHE With IFHE
152 mm
100 mm super
Most light cruisers
Some Japanese destroyers/secondaries
24 mm 32 mm Tier 8-10 battleship bow/stern
419-420 mm super Conqueror, Friedrich der Große, Großer Kurfürst, Lion 104 mm 136 mm Citadels: Cleveland, Edinburgh, Fiji, Helena, New Orleans, Worcester

Notes

  • As can be seen, 152 mm and 155 mm normal HE, primarily found on light cruisers; and 100 mm super HE, found on Japanese gunboat destroyers, are by far the biggest beneficiaries.
  • Henri IV is a niche use, but considered in some scenarios.
  • Secondary weapons can also benefit from IFHE, particularly German secondaries that follow the 1/4 penetration rule (All 150mm and 128mm German secondaries and the 105mm German secondaries of Friedrich Der Große). For instance, the 128mm secondary guns of Großer Kurfürst and Gneisenau can penetrate 30mm of armor without IFHE, and 32mm with.
  • Some other ships gain some benefit, but this is not generally considered worth the cost in skill points.

AP overmatch

An AP shell whose diameter is greater than 14.3 times the thickness of an armor plate will overmatch and pass through it regardless of angle. Here are some thresholds where this occurs, which determines whether it is feasible to "bow-tank" a particular AP shell.

Armor thickness AP shell diameter
needed to overmatch
Occurrences
(non-exhaustive)
Notes
10 mm 144 mm Tier 4-5 cruiser superstructure
Tier 4-5 destroyer plating
Will bounce most destroyer shells if sufficiently angled, but not most light cruiser shells.
13 mm 186 mm Tier 4-5 battleship superstructure
Most tier 6-7 cruiser superstructure
Will bounce light cruiser shells if sufficiently angled but not heavy cruiser shells (203 mm).
16 mm 229 mm Tier 3 battleship bow/stern
Tier 6-7 battleship superstructure
Most tier 6-7 cruiser bow/stern
Tier 6-7 destroyer plating
Will bounce almost all cruiser shells if sufficiently angled.
Notable: Can bounce Moskva (220 mm) but not Henri IV (240 mm), Graf Spee or Scharnhorst (283 mm).
19 mm 272 mm Tier 4-5 battleship bow/stern
Tier 8-10 battleship superstructure
Tier 8-10 destroyer plating
Will bounce up to 10-inch shells (254 mm) if sufficiently angled.
Notable: Can bounce Henri IV (240 mm), but not Graf Spee, Scharnhorst (283 mm), Kronshtadt (305 mm).
25 mm 358 mm Tier 6-7 battleship bow/stern
Some tier 8-10 cruiser bow/stern
Will bounce up to 14-inch shells (356 mm) if sufficiently angled.
27 mm 387 mm Some tier 8-10 cruiser bow/stern Will bounce up to 15-inch shells (380 mm) if sufficiently angled.
30 mm 430 mm Some tier 8-10 cruiser plating At current only Republique (431mm), Conqueror with larger-caliber option (457 mm), Musashi and Yamato (460 mm) can overmatch.
32 mm 458 mm Tier 8-10 battleship bow/stern At current only Yamato and Musashi (both 460 mm) can overmatch.
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