Armor thresholds
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) |
60 mm | Kreml deck Sovetsky Soyuz deck |
353 mm | 279 mm | 244 mm | 186 mm | Superheavy cruisers (305 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), Georgia (457mm,) 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. |