So super fucking late but re: tank design... WWII tanks still operated largely on the principles of steel plates for armor, and the "fanciest" you got was spaced armor and sloping. All shit that you can mentally approximate the effectiveness of without a physics/chemistry degree.
Nowadays we use bullshit ceramics and reactive armor and stuff. Some of which actually works better for direct, straight-on hits than angled "effective thickness" hits.
