Compared to ironclads, the investment in armored cruisers is lower. This leads to a reduction in the protection of armored cruisers during ship design, ensuring that they can have firepower comparable to ironclads.
Simply put, an armored cruiser is a cruiser equipped with main battleship guns, with armor protection only slightly stronger than ordinary cruisers, far inferior to the large-scale ironclads deployed by various countries.
This type of warship was initially funded by Russia for construction, intended only as auxiliary ships to provide additional firepower for the main fleet warships.
However, with Russia's decline, during the Russo-Japanese War, these warships with obvious defects became Russia's main warships. Because the armor of armored cruisers is relatively weak, they eventually suffered heavy enemy attacks during the war.
