User blog comment:Ninthsense/Correlation between Bauxite Losses and Slot sizes/@comment-24430017-20140709151840/@comment-24430017-20140711064610

Fighters (green) only attack enemy fighter planes in a battle for air supremacy, which will help determine how many planes you lose in that phase. They can not attack enemy ships, although they can prevent enemy fighters from shooting down your bombers. This is the first stage of air combat.

The second stage is that enemy vessels are randomly assigned to target your bombers with their AA (which includes ship AA as well as the strength of the fleet's total AA equipment values). They only target bombers (red/blue/seaplane bombers) and do not always succeed at shooting down planes.

Preemptive airstrike happens after this. For this phase, your bomber strength is based on the corresponding number of planes left in the slot after the enemy fighters and AA have attempted to shoot them down.

There are no planes shot down in shelling phase. If a carrier has no bombers or if they are all shot down, they do not participate in shelling phase.

Torpedo bombers are better for CV damage vs enemy battleship (high armor) because they have a chance for higher damage that allows them to damage high armor targets.

Generally you want to use more Fighter planes on later maps if enemy has carriers. Fighter planes are more important in helping your other ships like BB do more damage with the artillery spotting mechanic as well as reducing the amount of bauxite you need to spend. Your selection will depend on map and the air superiority values you need to achieve.