I cant stand all the over-pens playing BB

[Legio_X_]

I can understand overpens on cruisers,  but when im playing my Iowa and get overpens on German BBs or Yamatos, what the hell?

[Estimated_Prophet]

Likely superstructure hits, but yeah...

...overpens can be some serious wth?

[Maple_Chan_]

Your hitting thinly armored sections probably like the superstructure.

[MidnightPhoenix07]

Superstructure or maybe the bow/stern when mostly broadside and shells are going through before they arm 

[Lert]

Load up the armor viewer. See how little area on a battleship is actually armored.

[loco_max]

46 minutes ago, Legio_X_ said:

I can understand overpens on cruisers,  but when im playing my Iowa and get overpens on German BBs or Yamatos, what the hell?

LoL, gosh I thought that it was only a feature of sinful and hated light cruisers that I'll not name...LoL

[HallaSnackbar]

You have to learn how the shells of the particular ship interact with the armor of others.  If you are having too many overpenns aim just below the water line.  

[Iron_Myke]

You want to see over-pens? Play the Bajie...that is the only thing that ship can do. Well, other than always having the 3rd turret in rotation limbo.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

On 2/15/2020 at 1:36 PM, Lert said:

Load up the armor viewer. See how little area on a battleship is actually armored.

All-Or-Nothing armor schemes 

The logic of 'all or nothing' protection was that at very long ranges, ships would be attacked primarily with AP shells since hits might be anywhere on a ship, and HE would be useless against thick belt or deck armor. In consequence only the heaviest armor (or no armor at all) was worth using: anything in between would serve only as a burster. By way of contrast, the Royal Navy concluded at about this time that heavy HE shells would be extremely effective against unarmored portions of ships, and used considerable amounts of medium armor, which would resist HE fire, in its dreadnoughts. Only after World War One did the Royal Navy adopt "all or nothing" protection, in the abortive 1921 battleships and battlecruisers, and in the Nelsons, all of which were expected to fight at longer ranges than those envisioned for the earlier British Dreadnoughts. To the extent that the U.S. battleships, then, were designed specifically to fight at extreme ranges, they were well ahead of their time.
"U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History", pages 101 and 102, by Norman Friedman

[DeletedUser]

Going from NC to Iowa gunnery is very difficult to handle. You can really feel the difference, especialy when going back to NC after the iowa grind. Shot groups are much tighter in NC.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

On 2/23/2020 at 4:42 AM, mrieder79 said:

Going from NC to Iowa gunnery is very difficult to handle. You can really feel the difference, especialy when going back to NC after the iowa grind. Shot groups are much tighter in NC.

NC has better groups but IMO, the 16"/50 guns of Tier IX-X are easier to engage targets at range than the floatier shells from the 16"/45 guns of Tier VIII.  The arcs are lower, the shells arrive at the target sooner with the Tier IX-X guns.

I will say that the VIII guns, with the higher arcs, stand pretty good chances for pens because of the high angles of impact.  This is absolutely vital against Cruisers with their thinner hulls.  More level flying shells can fly right into one side of a Cruiser and out the other.  But the floaty Tier VIII BB shells from USN BBs?  They sort of just crash down, not vertically of course, but you get more Pens.

 

The problem for the VIII USN BBs is reliably hitting targets at range, namely DD Gunboats and Cruisers.  Sure, it's easier to hit a large, slow BB target, or a Bow Camping BB.  But if you have to engage some Zao at 17km, or an Engine Boosting Henri IV at long range, good luck with those Tier VIII USN BB guns.

 

On the flip side, when I played my High Tier Cruisers, there were only 2 guns I feared:

1.  Yamato and her super precision 460mm guns with fantastic Overmatch characteristics.

2.  USN 16"/50 guns, most especially Montana who has 12 of the d*mn things.

In today's game, I would add Thunderer and her nasty 457mm main battery to this.

 

These guns can reliably hit even Cruisers out at range.  Tier VIII USN BBs?  Just be at 16km or longer range and there's little they can do to reliably hit you.  If their shells can hit, that'd be bad, but they got trouble hitting to begin with.