So a thing I see occasionally discussed is what would happen if a US Iowa Class battleship had faced off against a Japanese Yamato class. The Iowa class comes out on top IMO. While Yamato and Musashi had bigger guns, more armor and were larger overall, Iowa class could survive a few hits and their smaller guns were still enough to cause severe damage. Iowas being smaller would make it harder for the Yamatos to land a hit, while being easier for the Iowas to hit them in return. Guess which had better fire control systems. Yup, the Iowa class, giving them an even bigger advantage here. Iowas were also faster, giving them more options for clever maneuvers, hit and run tactics, and making it still harder for the Yamato class to land enough effective hits to bring them down. The Yamatos would have a slight theoretical advantage at extreme ranges where the Iowas couldn't hit them at all, but actually landing any of their shots is pretty much not happening and with how fast the Iowas were the Yamato wouldn't be safe for very long. Pulling off an ambush from behind an island or something where the Iowa doesn't know the Yamato is there until shells start falling is pretty much the only scenario they're likely to win. And depending on who has the intelligence advantage, an Iowa class could pull the same stunt against a Yamato class to similar effect. Granted, it's not a sure thing, and I'm assuming an equally capable crew for both(Iowa class advantages are small enough that a better crewed Yamato could plausibly turn this around), still, I don't think the Japanese monsters would win here. They'd make swiss cheese out of cruiser squadrons and be terrifying shore bombardment platforms, but the US was simply making the best battleships afloat at the time, considering all factors, not just "big gun makes big hole". Of course it would hardly have mattered, given how submarines and aircraft carriers were taking over naval combat and battleships in general were relegated to escort(the Iowas were made as fast as they were specifically to keep up with carriers) and shore bombardment roles.
