Talk:Summer 2014 Event/@comment-113.162.152.193-20140825061848/@comment-24332640-20140825095545

24.98.102.2: Well, total plane count feels pretty irrelevant to me these days. Since you're almost always equipping at least 1 Saiun or the like and they don't actually benefit from more planes in a slot that's the fourth slot always seems to end up being used for (well, for me at least). But now we have the option of equipping the maintenance personnel equipment as well (and it's really quite good), so if anything the plane count in that fourth slot has become even less relevant. That's why I think there are big advantages to having your planes concentrated in the first three slots.

So for the first three slots it's 24/24/24 vs. 18/21/27. The crane sisters still appear to have a slight edge, but it's not as much as you would think. First of all, both fighter power and opening attack damage are based on the square root of the plane count, rounded down. So before plane losses that's 4/4/4 vs. 4/4/5. Making all of the crane sister's slots one short of the next square means their only advantage is the ability to weather plane losses. The 18 slot on Unryuu is pretty likely to drop to a 3 after a battle or two. Though fighters are lost at a lower rate than attack planes since it's only based on the air-to-air combat phase. Attack planes have to weather that plus ship AA defenses. But if you can get air supremacy your losses are really quite minimal (less than 10%), making the 18 and 27 slots useful for fighters.

Then of course Unryuu's base firepower is higher. That's a big deal.

So it does depend a lot on what you're doing. If you want to equip a lot of attack planes for powerful opening attacks over multiple battles then yeah, the crane sisters are better. But I can't remember the last time I actually did that on more difficult maps. What you're usually doing is equipping as many fighters, Saiuns, etc. as you can and then maybe squeeze in one bomber so your carrier can still attack. In that case Unryuu's plane arrangement has advantages and base firepower is much more important (since you're unlikely to hit the shelling damage cap for either one).