Hull & Armor Formulas in Classic SC:
Clearing Away the Confusion

The hull section was the most confusing section in the NAM book.  Eleven years ago, it took me a few tries to get my first designs right ( basically I had to first recreate both the Kennedy and the small craft examples to check my spreadsheets/formulas).

Here are the formulas from GDW's ( now FFE's) NAM restated in a clearer manner.
 

Terms and Definitions:

Material Volume is abbreviated ( MV).
"/" means division, and "*" means multiplication.
Unarmored/armored volume is the volume of the ship's skin, NOT the total interior volume of the hull's shape.
 

Design Step 13. Hull ( NAM p 9-10)

It is either an unarmored hull or an armored hull.  You do not layer the armor part on top of the unarmored hull ( the Punyuang example demonstrates that it is NOT layered).

If your ship is unarmored ( There are NO unarmored Advanced Composite hulls, see below), then use just this pair of formulas:

• Unarmored volume = MV
• Unarmored mass   = Unarmored volume * ( Material tons per m3)

If your ship is armored, then use just this pair of formulas:

• Armor volume = MV * ( Armor Multiplier) * ( Level of Armor Protection)
• Armor mass   = Armor volume * ( Material tons per m3)

Advanced Composite hulls: These equations also mean that hulls of this type have an automatic Armor Level of 1 ( The Kennedy properly should have armor level 1 because of this fact).  The minimum safe hull thickness using Advanced Composite materials is the same amount that is needed for level 1 armor protection, so only use the armored ship pair of formulas.

Remember you either use EITHER the unarmored OR armored pair of formulas, but NOT both pairs.
 

Evaluation Step 8. Hull Hit Value ( NAM p 11)

The hull hit points formula simplifies down to the following:

• Total Hull Hits = ( Unarmored or Armored volume) / ( Armor Multiplier)