Montana armor...

[ShAtTeR_DrEaMs]

I could put the bow of my Iowa straight on with the enemy team and it would take everything thrown at it. Even if my Iowa took a stiff citadel hit, yes it would hurt, but I still lived through it. I also did not notice many citadel hits against me in the Iowa. I have to report, I felt adequately armored in the Iowa. The guns were adequate as well. 

 

Now on the other hand, the Montana feels like a glass ship, but I must say the guns do deal adequate damage. I'm noticing it loses a lot of hit points quickly, I almost feel like the hitbox is much larger than anything else I have previously operated. Id like to see how large the "Citadel" hitbox is. Even putting the bow towards incoming feels squishy... Something tells me it may need to be re-calibrated/re-sized. I think it looks like this! 

 

From what I am seeing, any shots placed in there (Tier 7 & up) will guarantee you a citadel RNG hit. Yes, I understand the surface area of the ship is larger, therefore presenting a larger target...but the hitbox "citadel" must be huge! Wargaming please take a look!

 

 

 

 

[Strike_Witch_Tomoko]

Iowa is bugged so a part of the armor takes only like 5k or something before it stops takign armor

they fixing this later

 

as for montana.   never let them shoot you flat on. those are 203-400+ mm guns.  so their pen is easily enough to pen flat on with a flat arc.

 

and if they hit above or around the belt. its easier.

 

 

keep angled and the belt is inpennetrable.   and the hull/deck, with the exception of extreme angle plunging fire,   is immune to all guns 203mm and lower (for AP)

 

for 300mm+ guns......there really isn't an invincible zone.  as any angle will have a pennable spot (either the hull or the deck. but never both)

[ShAtTeR_DrEaMs]

UPDATE: After further observation, the Montana armor is broke...straight up. In all aspects, Bump this topic in hopes of balancing  please. 

[Azzura]

How is it broken?

[UrPeaceKeeper]

How is it broken?

 

The Montana takes insane amounts of damage compared to the Yamato and Iowa and is easily citadeled through the front by 16"+ guns at medium to close range.  Just earlier tonight I had a Mogami do 8k damage with HE to the superstructure of the Montana with only 3-4 hits.  It basically has no damage mitigation ability outside of small caliber AP rounds at near parallel angles to the incoming fire.  The Iowa is observably more durable of a ship.  Bugged armor or otherwise, the Montana definitely needs looked at... never mind that the Yammy has basically free reign over the ENTIRE citadel because... you know 18" shells pen EVERYTHING.

 

Literally the only advantage the Monty has is in pure AA capability and the occasional near brawling max AP damage potential.  Don't get me wrong, cruisers within 12km are basically screwed but good luck surviving a duel with a Yammy.  It's a game balance issue that needs addressed to balance the survivability of the ship... just look at DeprivedPickle's videos doing 70k+ dmg with Secondaries on his Yammy... something only accomplished with enough survivability to do it.  The Monty would be HARD PRESSED to survive that long in a similar engagement.  I don't think the Monty should be quite as survivable as the Yammy but an upward tweak would make the ship less likely to end up as a big time credit loser.  I only bring mine out in division play and play the Iowa more frequently than the Monty because it just doesn't live as long in engagements unless I'm tag teamed up with another Monty or Iowa.

[KSN]

 

The Montana takes insane amounts of damage compared to the Yamato and Iowa and is easily citadeled through the front by 16"+ guns at medium to close range.  Just earlier tonight I had a Mogami do 8k damage with HE to the superstructure of the Montana with only 3-4 hits.  It basically has no damage mitigation ability outside of small caliber AP rounds at near parallel angles to the incoming fire.  The Iowa is observably more durable of a ship.  Bugged armor or otherwise, the Montana definitely needs looked at... never mind that the Yammy has basically free reign over the ENTIRE citadel because... you know 18" shells pen EVERYTHING.

 

Literally the only advantage the Monty has is in pure AA capability and the occasional near brawling max AP damage potential.  Don't get me wrong, cruisers within 12km are basically screwed but good luck surviving a duel with a Yammy.  It's a game balance issue that needs addressed to balance the survivability of the ship... just look at DeprivedPickle's videos doing 70k+ dmg with Secondaries on his Yammy... something only accomplished with enough survivability to do it.  The Monty would be HARD PRESSED to survive that long in a similar engagement.  I don't think the Monty should be quite as survivable as the Yammy but an upward tweak would make the ship less likely to end up as a big time credit loser.  I only bring mine out in division play and play the Iowa more frequently than the Monty because it just doesn't live as long in engagements unless I'm tag teamed up with another Monty or Iowa.

 

Having played Montana in CBT and now obtaining it again today....  WG has artificially nerfed the Montana, plain and simple.  The original CBT Montana had 84-87 (can't remember exactly) to Iowa's 92-94 AA rating. It was only flipped right at the end for OBT or once OBT was released. She gets IDENTICAL Batteries; only the 127mm secondaries (with identical range) pack a bit more puch.

 

Montana shares all the weaknesses of the Iowa (Broadside = Citadel Catcus Hugs Unlimited), but very few of it's strengths, and NONE of it's angled armor resilience. There is SOOO much potential here for this ship to really be the successor to the Iowa. But currently "Iowa > Montana" period.

 

NC/Iowa/Montana are all IMPROVEMENTS on the previous design - and extra Turret and 'Sponges' for armor do not make for an overall IMPROVEMENT to the design. But in the end I think WG is concerned that if they make the Montana what it's REALLY supposed to be and historically accurate, minus USSR, GB, and Germany being in the game, and no discussion about the future of the ship then everyone will want to play only that​​; WG will probably keep it 'artificially nerfed' as is so that it doesn't become an I WIN BUTTON for players and they actually play other ships during OBT.

 

WG you really need to remove the MUZZLE from the Montana... seriously!  And you need to share with us what are the plans for the US Battleship tree's top Tier ship.

 

 

 

 

 

[Tycho_Cain]

Montana should be better armored than Iowa and deal the same damage per shot as Iowa.

 

Montana was armored against the Mk8 AP shell, Iowa was not.  Both fired the same shell from the same gun, Montana just has one more triple turret.  Montana had the same amount of 5" guns but they were 5"/54 DP instead of the Iowa's 5"/38 DP guns and they fired a heavier shell.  They carried about the same amount of 40mm and 20mm guns.

 

 

[DaddyLongStrokes]

After 20 games of testing, the conclusion with Montana is, you cannot go 1v1 with Yamato unless they make some key mistakes. They will pen you at any angle which is very disappointing.

 

Also Yamato got 3kms more range on you and AA does not matter at that tier X, midway rules you.