Nerf Scharnhorst Armor or make it 8.0

Machinery of War Discussion Navy
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351

Exactly. We don’t need Scharnhorst nerfed into uselessness, we need counterparts for everyone.

Sadly, Haijin keeps giving U.S DDs and CCs, other nations WW1 dreadnoughts/BCs and PT boats, none of which serves as a counterpart.

For some reason it’s like they forgot Top Tier BBs exist- even years after implementing Scharnhorst and, now, after implementing a damn Nagato class ship.

I have no idea how they can implement such stuff without counterparts for months and even years… but last thing we need is artificial needs that would never be reverted.

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352

USN’s time will come. As soon as they start to add US fast battleships, the issue will be gone for good. Right now its just the US WW1 designs…you can’t expect these to be on paar with Scharnhorst/Gneisenau. Which had a reputation to soak up damage (Torpedo hits, mines, bombs, BB main gun shells during their countless battles and operations).

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353

Interestingly though, the modern U.S BBs will be more glass canons than anything else.

On the one hand, their super heavy 406mm shells will devastate everything… but on the other hand, their mere 307mm thick belts won’t do much to protect them.

I think that, in War Thunder, Bismarck will be the peak performance apex, at least in the standard Naval mode.

Bismarck’s armor was designed for engagement ranges found currently in the standard Naval modes’ maps, while the armor on fast American BBs was designed for longer engagement ranges, which would give them an edge on EC or larger maps.

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354

I would like to see how can Alaska or Kron “easily” out tank Scharnhorst in current WT settings even if it is sometimes.

But in general I agree Scharnhorst could be quite balance even with current ships but we would need one thing for that and thats range and long range accuracy. If we got larger maps the Scharnhorst would quickly got major disadvantage since its light guns wouldn´t be potent enough to punch through the armor of other and some others would get some slight chance to pierce through the armor at that range.

I mean I would say that the aditions are not that bad at least when we get cruisers and DDs, since the USN BBs are simply not that good even if Gaijin adds the Colorado. US would need South Dakota (the unfinished one) or North Carolina which would then very likely prompt adition of Bismarck.

I wouldn´t hold my hopes too high yes the pen on the guns will be great but even they will sometime struggle with angled Bismarck or Scharnhorst and the bursting charge isn´t that great so I doupt that they will some kind of magic bullet.

And I really thing that that is precisely what is needed - larger maps since with adition of more powerful guns I have feeling that the BB meta will quickly evolve in camping meta since sticking out your nose will mean detonation.

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355

Literally never lol

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356

Lmao alaska cant tank a thing. It is oversized heavy cruiser and easiest battlecruiser/battleship to be ammoracked, Kronstadt currently is 2nd easiest

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357

“Mere 307mm”

Except that belt is inclined with 19 deg to normal which equals to the effectiveness of 350-400+mm of vertical armour depending on range and attacking shells. You can observe their effectiveness via Hood which has 305mm armour inclined at 12 deg, making it one of the most survivable ship in game along with Scharnhorst. 307mm@19deg would only be much better than that.

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358

Isn’t he talking about mere 307 mm for USS Iowa and her sisters? In that age 307 mm would be ‘mere’ even with 19 degree compared to escalating penetration compared to nowadays. And we know, American battleships’ shell and magazine loadout is not the worst but not the best.

359

Still I wouldn’t use the world “mere” as Iowa is arguably the 2nd best protected battleship class behind Yamato. Perhaps Richelieu would be slightly better on paper but she lacks sufficient protection against diving shells as Iowa does. Maybe in other words, anything that is not Yamato was insufficiently protected if using “mere” for Iowa

360

The thing is, those sloped 307mm were optimised against the plunging fire angles of longer ranges;

At long ranges, indeed, the combined angle of attack of the shell trajectory + the angling made up for an angle of up to 45º, in which case it would go up to 435mm of effectiveness from ranges where the shells would have lost up to 50% of their penetration power already, dropping them to values on the 440mm pen range.

However, in War Thunder, typical engagement ranges are actually <10km, which means the shell trajectories are essentially flat, making the angle of attack way lower, and the shells retain up to 66% of their penetration power.

For example, let’s say:

Mutsu’s No.5 APC shell vs Iowa, 20,000m;

No.5 APC shell penetration at 20,000m: 460mm
USS Iowa’s effective belt at 20,000m: 435mm + 40mm (external hull) = 475mm

Quite impressive! Iowa’s armor actually withstands Mutsu’s shell. Right?

Well… except that’s at 20,000m, the range Iowa was designed to fight from.

This is not the case in War Thunder. In War Thunder, they will face each other from 10,000m away… and this is what happens then:

No.5 APC shell penetration at 10,000m: 555mm
USS Iowa’s effective belt at 10,000m: 340mm + 30mm (external hull) = 370mm

So… while Iowa’s armor is nearly impenetrable at 20,000m, it just doesn’t work at War Thunder’s current engagement ranges. See what I mean?

Always remember; an armor being excellent in real life under the circumstances it was designed for doesn’t mean it would be as effective in War Thunder when it would be forced to function under circumstances it wasn’t designed for.

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361

King George V and Litorrio: excuse me what?
And on non-commissioned we have to remember Project 23

Personal expectation of future battleship ‘protection’ and ‘survivability’ is that ‘module layout’ precede ‘armor’. Already penetration is more than enough to penetrate enemy capital ship in 7.0. And while penetration would get bigger of at least 100 mm, armor won’t be much thicker than nowadays Scharnhorst and Mississipi. Yes angling could maximize the effectiveness of armor, but you cannot always angle against every enemy, and some ships(especially US battleships) has some obstacle when trying to angle.

362

You’re serious? KGV is one of the worst protected post 1930 designs that can’t even immune UK’s own 15" 6crh at nearly 30kyd due to the conservative vertical belt design. The only advantage KGV has among other designs was the generous width of the belt offered which gives sufficient height of protected volume even under full load condition.

As for Littorio if you count the decapping system as 100% reliable then it might be a good candidate for the 2nd place but again decapping is something very random and the idea itself hasn’t been fully battle tested. And also she lacks sufficient diving shell protection as most of contemporary European designs.

363

You’re overestimating the 16" Mark 7’s for WT purposes.

The guns will have some of the highest pen ingame, with floaty arcs leading to them having a better chance of falling into the magazines instead of sailing over them, but they also arent exactly special bursting charge-wise, at around 18kg tnt equivalent and a 30 sec reload.

For compairison, the Bismark classes 15" guns are also 18kg bursting charge. They have flatter arcs, and worst pen, bust still more pen than anything currently ingame, and have as low as a 20 second reload.

The flatter arc on the bismark guns are also interesting to note. On one hand, floaty arcs like the USN’s superheavy shells are better for penning magazines and the likes, on the other, they make shots annoyingly hard to hit on occaision.

Im sure the Iowa class will be good ingame, but mostly as a mix of all-around performance and incredible AA (which will be needed as these ships will begin to see jet bombers and the likes…)

On the gun side of things though, the Sovestky Soyuz class the russians will get will have similar pen with flatter arcs and better bursting charges (25.7kg on AP, and a whopping 88kg on SAP…), likely giving them the best guns ingame. Likely also just the best overall BB tbh, russian dreamboat style.

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364

Ive had situations where the Alaska were weirdly hard to kill, but yeah usually they pop if you get a decent shot on them.

Weirdly enough, those “super tanky” situations were always when the Alaskas were super super close range

365

Don’t try to hide the simple fact that KGV has sole 343~374 mm armor, which is surpassing the minimum effectiveness of Iowa class armor in simple mathematic calculation.
And when counting ‘overmatching’ mechanism, things become worse. War Thunder’s sloped armor got it’s effectiveness reduced when shell’s caliber is 1.3 or more bigger than the armor. And 307 mm means that every 16’’ will get this ‘reduced sloping effect’ on Iowa’s armor.

Actually, when I calculate, 400 mm RHAe is what Iowa could gain with all its STS(de capping plate, back plate, etc) implemented. pretty much the same with KGV and Lion’s main belt. And when angling started, Iowa’s effectiveness become even worse than those two.

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366

I’m not of the Opinion that the Post WW1 Mutsu 16.1 AP rounds are inferior to the Duke of Yorks 14" AP rounds that flat out killed the Scharnhorst.

367

This does also mean that it will lose penetrative ability faster over distance.

And the Bismarck doesn’t have a sustained 20 second reload rate…and they have effectively a ready rack in their turret, I’m sure that will be coded ‘not’ to instantly cook off it’s turrets on demand.

368

But of course! Shell rooms with fire suppression and a load of metal separating the boom-makers from each other means it’s a literal powder keg, but ready ammo is practically inert until it flies down your citadel.

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369

Scharnhorst got torpedoed by more than a dozen.

370

The Duke of York is the reason why that happened however.

The biggest issue here is the ham-handed nature of how different ships coded durability is getting used. A la the Kron (until recently) where you could all the 14"+ rounds into the magazines you want and it wouldn’t explode. Meanwhile you hit the shell room on a USN Battleship? instant karma.

A feature missing on the Scharnhorst as well.

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