What is the citadel??

[montanaaa]

Hello guys

I've just started playing and don't understand some of game's mechanics. So, my question about it.

Sometimes I see that I hit the citadel. What is the citadel and how to hit it? If I understand correctly, hitting the citadel will bring the most damage to the enemy's ships, so this can be very useful to me to know.

[Karstodes]

The citadel is the vital part of any ships, where machinerie, boiler and ammo are. For every ships outside of DD you can hit it with AP, and the rule of thumbs is: waterline between the first turret and the last turret. But every ships and line have their gimmick so it can vary.

[Nevermore135]

15 minutes ago, montanaaa said:

Hello guys

I've just started playing and don't understand some of game's mechanics. So, my question about it.

Sometimes I see that I hit the citadel. What is the citadel and how to hit it? If I understand correctly, hitting the citadel will bring the most damage to the enemy's ships, so this can be very useful to me to know.

Welcome to the game and the forums. As you’re starting to figure out, there are a lot of detailed mechanics in WoWs that take some time to learn and, hopefully, eventually master, but it’s one of the things that keeps me playing.

The citadel is the most heavily armored part of a ship, but shells penetrating the citadel deal 100% of the listed damage visible in port. However, destroyers do not have citadels; they are only found on battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers. There is an armor viewer tab in port (just below the commander portrait) that will give you a detailed view of your ships’ armor profile. 

Some links that should be helpful:

https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Gunnery_and_Aiming

https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Armor_Penetration

[Navalpride33]

26 minutes ago, montanaaa said:

Hello guys

I've just started playing and don't understand some of game's mechanics. So, my question about it.

Sometimes I see that I hit the citadel. What is the citadel and how to hit it? If I understand correctly, hitting the citadel will bring the most damage to the enemy's ships, so this can be very useful to me to know.

It really depends on the interaction between ships gun caliber VS the armor it hits... Now there is a lot of other info like

• Shell weight
• Shell velocity
• IFHE changes

I highly recommend the WOWS "How it works" series.. This path of enlightenment will take hours to complete..

GL

[Capt_Ahab1776]

Here are a couple citadels. From stem to stern. 

[SgtBeltfed]

1 hour ago, montanaaa said:

Hello guys

I've just started playing and don't understand some of game's mechanics. So, my question about it.

Sometimes I see that I hit the citadel. What is the citadel and how to hit it? If I understand correctly, hitting the citadel will bring the most damage to the enemy's ships, so this can be very useful to me to know.

The Citadel is the armored box in the bottom of the ship that contains the ships engine's, magazines, boilers, and any other equipment vital to keeping a ship in the fight.

Every weapon except torpedoes only do full damage with a citadel penetration. Other penetrating hits only do 33% damage, and over penetrations do 10%.

Something to pay attention to is HE rounds will almost never do full damage. They either do 33% or nothing, with very rare exceptions (like shooting ships with exposed citadels).

[Bluemoon51]

Think of the citadel as all the bits on a ship that you really don't want to be hit.

 

Basically ship builders had two competing requirements speed v protection, the more protection your ship has the more it weighs, the more it weighs the slower it goes(not included in the game but in RL weight also impacts range). So one of the options is to lightly armor(relatively speaking) the bulk of the ships and the decks (this is why plunging fire can be an issue for many ships)and protect the bits you can't afford to get hit in. This is modeled in-game as giving a bonus to damage by penetrating it(the USS Massachusetts takes a shell through its laundry room its annoying, HMS Hood takes a shell through its magazine and it sinks in 2mins)