8in Hull hit B* (HE) on 4in 1890 armour - lucky roll?

[Arralen]

I had a 8in 1893 Melinite HE shell penetrate the 4in belt of a 1890 starting ship.

I don't think I've ever seen a HE shell do that in Rtw3 before, or in RtW2 with a 1900 start.

Has something changed? 1-in-1000000 roll?

[WLRoo]

https://nws-online.proboards.com/post/107240

In a word, you were somewhat lucky, but the game is WAD.

[Squarehead]

Yeah that's a somewhat lucky role and one presumes the hit probably didn't do much damage as it would have been mostly spalling off the back of the armour and there wouldn't be anything terribly important right behind the belt armour - in the 1890s it's probably just a coal bunker.

HE seems to be most dangerous against turret top armour, there if you fire major caliber HE it's not uncommon to see the * against armour that would reject that caliber of AP shell out to much longer ranges or even beyond maximum range. In my experience hits like that don't usually destroy the turret, but it does happen sometimes.