Armor Guide: North Carolina - Menz Gaming | World of Warships

The tier 8 United States Navy battleship North Carolina is a heavily armored battleship that packs a mean punch at the cost of a low top cruising speed.  Like most United States Navy battleships the USS North Carolina is designed with an “all or nothing” armor design that focuses all of the armor around a centralized armor box with the non-essential forward and aft end of the ship being poorly protected.  With the majority of the armor focused around the citadel area where the crucial main turrets, propulsion system, powder magazines, and coning tower are located the North Carolina is able to equip more armor in these crucial areas instead of wasting it protecting non-critical areas.

This World of Warships North Carolina armor guide will break down the USS North Carolina based on armor thickness and also based on the critical areas of the ship like the powder magazines.  World of Warships’ damage model is based not only on whether you penetrate a ships’ armor, but also on whether or not you hit a critical area of the ship.

The citadel area of the ship is protected by the armored belt along the amidships section and it is 300mm towards the upper section(highlighted in red) and it tapers down to 150mm on the lower section at the waterline and below the waterline.  You must also contend with the 410mm armored plates on the sides of the coning tower and also on the main turret barbettes that extend underneath each main turret.  The 300mm armored belt, coning tower, and main turret barbettes are the most well protected areas on the USS North Carolina and are very difficult to penetrate.

Moving onto the areas highlighted in yellow you will see a maximum armor thickness of 230mm on the sides of the main turrets.  The 150mm armor sections are found on the lower amidships section of the armored belt that protects the citadel area at and below the waterline.  The green areas of the ship are poorly protected at the bow and stern of the USS North Carolina but do not hold any critical areas and thus won’t cause a great deal of damage.  The small secondary guns found behind the coning tower are easily knocked out as they are only protected by 50mm armored plates.  The white superstructure area above the main deck is protected by sub 15mm armor and is virtually non-exsistent.

Below the waterline the USS North Carolina has an additional anti-torpedo bulge that extends the length of the heavily armored citadel area and it will negate additional damage against torpedoes in this area.  Additionally in this area you will find the powder magazines nestled away under each main turret towards the lower part of the ship and damage caused here will do a massive amount of damage.  In the center of the citadel is the propulsion system that if damaged will reduce the North Carolina’s ability to maintain speed and/or turn.