User blog:Ninthsense/Correlation between Bauxite Losses and Slot sizes

5-4 Runs with Complete Air Supremacy (362 Air)
Composition: BB, CA/V (recon), Taihou, Kaga, Chitose, CAV (barrels)



103 Trials, Avg Baux = 97



Complete Data:





3-2A Runs
Composition: CV/L, 2 DD, CL, SS, BB



Analysis
It appears that plane losses are strongly correlated with the size of slot. This correlation appears to extend to maps with no enemy air support. Bombers and Fighters suffer different types of losses. However, the specific type of bomber or fighter does not appear influence plane losses. Choosing between Torpedo bombers and Dive bombers will not affect plane losses (assuming they do not contribute to Air superiority). Thus the selection of plane should be based on estimated effectiveness rather than bias.

An interesting observation is that the at the losses increase at certain thresholds. For example small plane slots will not lose planes under air supremacy. Kaga's 20 slot fighters had approximately half the losses of Taihou's 24 slot fighters. Recon planes slots did not suffer any losses; Saiun (not tested) seem similar in that they generally don't suffer losses (This might be due to lower slot sizes they are typically placed in). Bombers also show a similar phenomenon in 3-2A, where the 24 size slots seem to lose disporportionally more planes.

A possible explanation for this noticeable increase might be similar to the hp chipping phenomenon in combat where enemy vessels damage is based on a percentage of targeted ship hp and higher hp ships tend to take higher chip damage.

Bombers accounted for approximately 77% of bauxite costs in the scenario given on 5-4 where Air supremacy is achieved.

These results suggest that carriers with more smaller slots like CVL should have much lower plane losses. Unfortunately, CVL have much lower performance in terms of stats. However, maps in which CVL can suffice, they are likely to yeild much lower bauxite costs in addition to lower consumption.

Deploying more CV/L can help you achieve air supremacy. This has the drawback of putting more slots into play. You typically need at least 1 bomber slot per CV/L and these will tend to suffer high losses. Because of this, on maps with high enemy air opposition, it is probably not necessary to aim for air supremacy on all nodes.

Suggestions to Reduce Bauxite Costs

 * Keep in mind that reducing Bauxite costs often means reducing the effectiveness of your CV/L.  Thus these suggestions are often intended for farming purposes and not clearing purposes.
 * Consider the effectiveness of CV/L with smaller slots and lower resource costs.  Using CVL like Chitose/Chiyoda could yield optimal performance to cost on easier maps.
 * Attempt to achieve Air Superiority or Supremacy
 * Try to limit the number of bomber slot used.  Each slot of bombers will likely increase your bauxite consumption significantly on maps with higher AA defenses.
 * Larger slots mean higher effectiveness but also higher bauxite costs for both bombers and fighters.
 * On later maps, Enemy vessels tend to have much higher armor.  This requires higher carrier shelling firepower to do more damage in shelling phase.  Bombers highly increase Shelling firepower as well, so that using 2 slots of bombers can make them more effective.  Placing Bombers in larger slots will tend to yeild better results during premptive airstrike (smaller slots have a hard time piercing armor).  Because of these reasons CV can often outperform CVL especially when only 1 bomber slot is used.  (CVL also have lower armor, which often means mod/heavy damage from enemy vessels and inability to attack).
 * If air supremacy can be achieved on high AA enemy maps, using bombers on a single large slot rather than 2 small slots can be considered.  Two slots will yield higher shelling damage and higher bauxite costs, but smaller slots will typically yield poor preemptive airstrike results.  A single large slot tends to yield better premptive strike results although premptive strikes tend to be much less effective on later maps due to their high evasion and armor.