Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25390763-20151014010359/@comment-26486243-20151027221313

First we consider the two top-tier mass-producable aircraft for each case. Ryuusei Kai have 13 torpstat. Suisei 12A has 10 bombstat.

Dive bombers add 2x their divebomb stat to firepower, while torpedo planes add 1.5x their torpedo stat to firepower.

Air strikes deal sqrt(plane number) * Torp/Bombstat + 25 damage per squadron. For this formula, torpstat is multiplied by either 0.8 or 1.5 at a 50% rate, while bombstat is used as it is.

Shelling - 2x 10 = 20 firepower per Suisei 12A, while 1.5x 13 = 19.5 firepower. This part is clear-cut, Suisei 12A wins by a small margin of 0.5 firepower.

Airstrike: A Suisei 12A will deal 10 bombstat, while a Ryuusei Kai will deal either 10.4 bombstat or 19.5 bombstat. As both of the Ryuusei Kai's numbers are greater, it's always superior in Airstrikes.

Assuming you sortie these with battleships, the Suisei 12A will contribute 1 firepower more in shelling (2 phases), and 0.4-9.5 * sqrt(plane number) less in the airstrike (1 phase). Overall, the Ryuusei Kai would blow the Suisei 12A out of the water for standard battles.

For support expeditions, Suisei 12A are optimal as there is no airstrike to speak of, so they just deal more damage.

Since the advantage of the airstrike is amplified by the number of planes used, if you ever equip a mix of dive bombers and torpedo bombers, the torpedo bombers will take the higher slot number because they're better at air strikes, while the dive bombers take the lower slot number because shelling firepower is entirely independent of the number of planes in the slot.

AA mechanics are given as follows:

First, a certain fraction of planes are shot down by enemy fighters based on your overall air power ratio. This is calculated per slot. Large slots lead to greater plane losses. This applies to all aircraft.

Second, the fleet base AA kicks in, where each enemy bomber will be randomly assigned to one ship. Then a fraction of these aircraft are shot down. The approximate amount lost at maximum conditions will be about 0-25% of the squadron size. Finally, this remaining number has a constant number deducted from it, which can be around 0-10.

Last, Anti-Air Cut-in is factored. If it triggers, a fixed number of planes from 1 to 8 will be shot down from EVERY bomber-type slot.

If you remember the earlier case that dive bombers take small slot sizes in as they are brought for their firepower contribution to shelling, it should be readily apparent that people will tend to lose more torpedo bombers than they do dive bombers, as two of the above AA mechanics reduce numbers based on a fraction, while two reduce it by a constant. This leads to the misconception that torpedo bombers are less survivable than dive bombers, one that has never fully disappeared from the community.

In addition, as only one out of 4 mechanics reduces aircraft based on air power (the first), if you are facing an enemy fleet with high base AA and the ability to use Anti-Air Cut-ins, going for Air Supremacy is counterproductive as the losses in aircraft are still approximately constant - but the loss in initial airstrike power will be much larger, given that AS+ has double the air power requirement of AS. In Aerial Nodes in particular where Anti-Air Cut-in can happen twice it is IMPERATIVE that the initial airstrike be as strong as possible as sinking all AACI users (usually Tsu-class CL) in the enemy fleet will cut the number of AACI activations from 2 to 1. Against an enemy fleet with low base AA but a lot of enemy fighters however, taking Air Supremacy will reduce the losses in aircraft almost proportionally, while boosting Artillery Spotting rates.

Finally note that as the number of aircraft per slot is reduced, the strength of the initial airstrike will also be reduced. At the start of a sortie, while there is little or no reason to bring a Suisei 12A instead of a Ryuusei Kai, by the end of a sortie, the same aircraft may deal only minimal damage from the initial airstrike and most of it through shelling. In this particular case, it might be useful to bring fewer carriers in total, and assign bombers only to the largest slots they need to survive until the end until your carrier is firepower-capped (150), then use the rest of the slots for fighters to gain Air Supremacy in order to boost the attacks of the other ships in your fleet which use Artillery Spotting - without the advantage of airstrikes, it is more efficient to use ships that can continue to attack in Night Battle than to use more carriers. This made long sortie chains formerly highly inefficient for Carrier Task Forces, and favoured Surface Task Forces when such a choice was available. This has now changed with the new mechanic.

Modifications due to the recent Aircraft Proficiency mechanic are: increased critical damage at 20%-10%-10%-10% for the four slots - so there is an added incentive to bring bombers in the first slot specifically. This affects both shelling and airstrikes - with the effect that now, there is a reason to bring additional bombers rather than aim for AS+ for long sortie chains as the critdmg% effect will still apply even if the airstrike is still weak, and that since the airstrike itself is also affected it is possible for it to be partially useful if it scores a critical hit. The survivability of aircraft is unaffected - in long sortie paths without AACI users, stacking bombers is viable in exchange for resource costs.