how to play air craft carriers

[Justin_Santiago_defender]

i need help learning to play aircraft carriers im fairly new to them i know some of the basic buy my planes keep losing to equal tier carriers and i dont know why

 

[LoveBote]

The basics. 

What tier CVs are you playing? I am assuming tiers 4 & 5? Make sure you consult the WOWS Wiki for the CV you are playing.

[Speedstang]

The problem is tier 4 and tier 5 CVs had their manual drops and strafes removed, so no real way to beat enemy fighters one on one. American fighter squadrons are better than Japanese and have more planes per squadron, so that may be one cause of your loss. Also, make sure you get the fighter module upgrade, as the stock is typically down a tier. 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Some good stuff here; even if it does tend to be IJN-centric.

 

 

[Admiral_Thrawn_1]

Captain Skills that are related to Aircraft Carriers and their planes are good to research as well, I think only skill to avoid is the Catapult Aircraft skills, rest of the plane skills are useful.

Concealment Expert skill and Basic Fire Training are also useful for the Carrier itself since these 2 skills help the Carrier hide better and also increase the damage the AA guns and secondary guns put out which is useful for self defense.

 

[WanderingGhost]

Depends on match up and all -

 

-USN fighters basically always beat IJN, even out tiered.

-if they have aircraft servicing expert (the skill that adds 5% to survivability if I have the name wrong), DFE (depending on their plane tier or even just the extra ammo helps), or Air superiority (additional plane that adds DPS), these can have some to major effect.

-upgrade level - are you stock vs same country higher tier fighters, higher tier basically always wins.

-Modernization's - There's one that adds 10% to DPS, that can make a pretty big difference.

-Any AA - if your anywhere near the AA of enemy ship, it adds up against your planes. You may think you are, but sometimes your not.

 

Things like this are why long time CV players have been getting worked up over some of the recent issues (*cough*GZ*cough*) and want the rework we were promised. You have no real options, you have to build a certain way or you stand no chance. Some people have their high point captains in lower ships because upper tiers AA is too damned insane. So you might be up against ships with maximum ability. To give you an idea (math ahead)

 

The F4F-4 of the Bogue has 43 DPS stock, and 1090 HP stock. vs the same fighters, it has a 23.6% chance every second to down planes from the start - the calculation is (43x6)/1090, though every plane you lose lowers that, 1 plane lost lowers it to 19.7%. However lets take bare bones vs full spec. The full spec get's 5% to HP, 10% to damage, and an extra fighter - thus, the equation for chance to shoot down the stock plane becomes (43x1.1)x7/1090, and the chance the stock plane shoots it down becomes 43x6/(1090x1.05) - the upgraded planes have a 30.3% chance to shoot down stock F4F-4's, the stock F4F-4 has a 22.5% chance to down the upgraded F4F-4. Meaning it gets the edge in likely to down a plane first which, remember, drops the chances that group downs a plane because of DPS loss, which in this case would be 18.7%. It's why at times if you lose a plane or two it can seem to cascade out of control for you.

 

Basically, you ever want to figure out shoot down chances, been thinking of making a chart but no time at the moment -

Aircraft - (Aircraft DPS x bonuses)x number of planes in group/(target HP x bonuses)

Bonus multipliers - fighter damage modification is 1.1, Dogfighting expert is 1.1 for 1 tier lower, 1.2 for 2, 1.3 for 3, ASE is 1.05 to HP, upgrade in 3rd slot (Tier 9 CV's, Enterprise, maybe GZ) is 1.15 to HP.

 

AA is usually a little simpler albeit it has more bonuses that can stack. AA x bonuses/plane HP x bonuses. Bonuses to AA are 

- BFT - 1.2 multiplier

-Flag that adds 10% to AA damage - 1.1 multiplier

-Manual AA - 2x 85 mm or larger AA DPS (do this first if you have it)

-Focus target - 1.3x multiplier to damage

- AA mod 3 (tier 9+ ships, E, maybe GZ if they choose not to get attack plane HP) 1.25

- Defensive Fire consumable - Cruisers, USN DD is 3x to DPS, USN CV's 1.25 on USN CV, 1.75 IJN CV, supposedly on only the 25 mm or larger guns. So, let's take an Iowa as the most extreme example of what the formula looks like having all that and focusing planes from an upgraded Essex, namely, the DB's -

 

((151x2)+302+195)x 1.2 x 1.1 x 1.25 x 1.3/(1910x1.15x1.05)=1713/2306 = 74% chance per second a plane is downed of anything that enters the range of the 20 mm guns. For a similar ship in terms of tier but with Defensive fire (keeping these numbers so I can copy paste) it'd be -

(((151x2)+302)x3)+195)x 1.2 x 1.1 x 1.25 x 1.3/(1910x1.15x1.05).

 

It can be a lot of math, but it can help on why your losing fighter battles and why it might be you get close to certain ships you lose planes fast even if you normally don't expect to. You'll also start to see how much of an edge USN truly has in fighters.

[Justin_Santiago_defender]

i am playing the langley its at max modules and im getting frustrated at my planes just losing to the same exact planes with no AA guns near by

 

[LoveBote]

3 hours ago, Justin_Santiago_defender said:

i am playing the langley its at max modules and im getting frustrated at my planes just losing to the same exact planes with no AA guns near by

 

Then your lack of competitiveness may be due to captain skills. Possibly flags too.

aircraft servicing, and dogfighting, each only cost 1 point. More than worth the investment. Air supremacy is a 4 point skill, I imagien you'd have enough points to unlock that yet.