HE shell type

[Level 3 Mage]

trying to figure out what type of HE shells to use on my ships,

incendiary or capped?

i know DDs would run incendiary since they already have no pen. but what about CL, CA, BB?

[vanDyck]

On Ships with BB - caliber guns (BB, BC, early BB like build CAs) i use capped for better penetration against light armour like on Cruisers, all others get nose fuze or high capacity. I dont like using incendary as personal flavor.

[Wyrm]

Incendiary is OP. It lets you take down battleships with light cruisers and destroyers silly-fast. I never use it in campaign. I mostly use High Capacity as it becomes available.

[Rear]

If possible, I usually try to get HE pen up to 3-4 inches on main guns and/or large secondary guns so they can deal with destroyers and possibly get through superstructure/fore belt/aft belt armour on light cruisers.

Going with whichever shell has the most chance of starting fires is also good, but by the 1920s when rates of fire are much better, you don't really need the additional fire chance.

[Pyrit]

It generally depends on what kind of target you have in mind, deleting small ships with HE pens is hilarious but a lot of the time you just won't have the penetration to go through even a decently armored CL at realistic ranges. This is where it really hurts that you can't set shell types individually for each caliber, or at least separately for the primary and secondary battery. When in doubt, Incendiary. It's basically an exploit.

[Level 3 Mage]

so from what im reading is that with 11in or smaller mains use incendiary and that if my capital ships have a lot of secondaries use incendiary? cause fires trumps actual pen?

[Cinder/Sayo]

From my experience so far, incendiary or high capacity with tube powder 2 + dunnite or tnt IV for example you can cause so much fire that ships die to it while having barely lost any structural integrity.

Especially at closer ranges spamming HE from all guns usually causes ships to die to extensive fire. At long range it's much harder to get ships to sink due to fire cause you miss too many hits and your secondaries are also often not in range, or also miss.

[DUKT!]

I personally hate the Incendiary HE shells and never use them. I had a Dido-like AA cruiser with multiple 5 inch turrets and with incendiary shells it would literally sink anything it encountered. It really takes away from the battles as you literally light up a ship and it "sinks" even though it's flotation and half it's hull is intact. With 286 fires burning the crew just jumps ship I guess.