Heavy armament, high gun positions, and protected decks

The ships combined two 21-centimetre guns with eight 15-centimetre pieces, ten 8.8-centimetre guns, and three 45-centimetre torpedo tubes. Their weapons sat high in the hull so crews could keep fighting them in heavy seas, an important quality for cruisers expected to operate far from home. Carrying this weight high affected stability and metacentric height. A 4-to-10-centimetre armoured deck concentrated protection lower in the ship and helped balance that design choice without turning the class into a full armoured cruiser. The resulting silhouette looked imposing on overseas presence missions, although the ships' 18.5-to-19.5-knot speed left little margin against the next generation of warships.