Adequate Protection but Odd Layout

Before World War Two fully broke out, and all restrictions on battleship displacement and naval gun sizes were abandoned, two unique battleships were created:  the British HMS Nelson and the French Richelieu.

Both these ships featured non-standard arrangement of their primary naval guns:  they were all mounted forward of the main superstructure, with no ability to fire aft at all.  The key requirement here was to limit the amount of hull form that needed to be protected by armour, thereby limiting the overall displacement, whilst maximising protection.  Even so, both battleships were still formidable opponents:  as HMS Nelson featured nine 16 inch guns in three triple turrets; with Richelieu featuring eight 15 inch guns in two quadruple turrets.

I think that Richelieu was a much better looking/capable ship, as Nelson's aft-most turret was unable to fire directly forwards; where as the twin super-imposed turrets of Richelieu, did not encounter this problem.