User blog:Nainodel/All About Firepower

This will be a detailed blog post where, using damage calculations, ship and weapon stats, I'll try to determine efficient combinations to deal more damage. Most of the information are taken from the other pages in the wiki and will depend on the correctness of those information.

Battleship Guns - Exactly how much firepower is too much?
Which guns do you equip on a battleships? How many? What about other equipment? (this analysis will ignore accuracy for now)

Battleships according to firepower stat, final remodels only:

Large Caliber Guns according to firepower stat: Damage formula for daytime shelling: Because of the way the attack power cap works, attack power above 151 will only result in a marginal increase in damage and is not very efficient. Example: 200 attack power becomes 157, only +6 more than 151.
 * Damage = ([base attack power * pre-cap modifiers] * post-cap modifiers - enemy armor reduction) * ammo modifier
 * Base Attack Power = ship firepower +5
 * Pre-cap modifiers are:
 * Formation modifier:
 * Line Ahead: 100%
 * Double Line: 80%
 * Diamond: 70%
 * Echelon and Line Abreast: 60%
 * Engagement modifier:
 * T Advantage: 120%
 * Parallel: 100%
 * Head On: 80%
 * T Disadvantage: 60%
 * attack power cap for daytime shelling is 150
 * attack power calculation when going over cap is:
 * post cap attack power = 150 + √(pre-cap attack power - 150)

Ship firepower required to reach 151 after applying attack power cap:

Reasonable firepower values in bold. We can say that reaching the attack power cap is easiest using Line Ahead and equipping Saiun to prevent T-disadvantage. With that setup, 184 firepower is enough to reach the cap in all engagements. 146 firepower for line ahead and at least parallel engagement. Other situations may call on using Double Line, Diamond or not equipping Saiun.

Damage formula continued: We can say that the most desirable artillery spotting special attack is Double Attack, this requires Main Gun/Main Gun/Seaplane. In the case of high armor enemies where one strong attack is preferable to two attacks, Main Gun/Main Gun cut-in may be preferred, which requires Main Gun/Main Gun/AP Shell/Seaplane. (cut-in setups are said to be more accurate but this analysis is about firepower)
 * post-cap modifiers are:
 * Critical: 150%
 * no confirmed factors have been found for critical so we can't do anything about it
 * Artillery Spotting Shooting:
 * Main Gun/Main Gun: 150%
 * Main Gun/AP Shell: 130%
 * Main Gun/Radar: 120%
 * Main Gun/Secondary: 110%
 * Double Attack: 120% x2

Because of this, the most recommended battleship equipment setup are: and a third more uncommon setup is:
 * Main Gun/Main Gun/Seaplane/Radar: double attack and accuracy bonus (radar can be switched to something else)
 * Main Gun/Main Gun/Seaplane/AP Shell: double attack and cut-in.
 * Main Gun/Main Gun/Main Gun/Seaplane: double attack and more firepower.

The first two for all battleships, the third if night battle is not needed, or if on a high luck battleship like Haruna (41 luck), Nagato (32), Ise-class (30) or modernized with Maruyu.

Sample Equipment Setups: (priority is reach the attack power cap and then bonus accuracy)
 * for the 146 firepower soft cap. (line ahead, parallel)
 * Kirishima with Proto 41cm/Proto 41cm/Seaplane/Radar = 148 FP
 * Kirishima with 38cm Kai/38cm Kai/Seaplane/Type 91 AP Shell = 146 FP
 * Nagato with 46cm/Proto 41cm/Seaplane/Radar = 147 FP
 * Nagato with Proto 41cm/38cm Kai/Seaplane/Type 91 Shell = 146 FP
 * Kongou with 46cm/Proto 41cm/Seaplane/Radar = 146 FP
 * Kongou with Proto 41cm/38cm Kai/Seaplane/Type 91 Shell = 145 FP
 * Haruna with 46cm/46cm/Seaplane/Radar = 148 FP
 * Haruna with Proto 41cm/Proto 41cm/Seaplane/Type 91 Shell = 148 FP
 * Haruna with 38cm Kai/38cm Kai/Proto 35.6cm/Seaplane = 148 FP
 * Ise with Proto 41cm/Proto 41cm/Proto 41cm/Seaplane = 145 FP
 * Yamato with any two guns will go over the cap by a lot.
 * for the 184 firepower soft cap. (line ahead, head-on & double line, parallel)
 * Yamato with 46cm/46cm/Seaplane/Radar = 191 FP
 * Yamato with Proto 41cm/38cm Kai/Seaplane Type 91 Shell = 186 FP
 * Kirishima with 46cm/46cm/46cm/seaplane = 182 FP
 * All other ships can go 46cm/46cm/Seaplane/Type 91 Shell and get around 159 firepower.
 * higher firepower soft caps
 * Yamato with 46cm/46cm/Seaplane/Type 1 Shell = 200 FP

Prototype 46cm and Type 1 AP shells were not included in the sample setups due to their rarity. Type 91 AP shell can be replaced with Type 1 AP Shell to get +1 firepower and +1 accuracy. 38cm Kai was included but could be replaced by Prototype 35.6cm (can be mass produced via Akashi's Arsenal) for +1 firepower and -1 accuracy.

Please note that for the above sample setups, weapon fit and overweight system was ignored because there isn't enough data to add it to accuracy calculation. As such, accuracy bonus is very likely wrong, and a different combination will result in more accuracy. Another system not considered is the bonus damage given by AP shell against certain enemies. Finally, the samples are for one ship and uses a lot of protoype guns, if using a fleet with several battleships, normal guns should be used to fill up equipment slots.

TO DO: aircraft carriers, heavy cruisers, night battle, support expedition