Help understanding gunnery solution

[regret]

Hi all,

Got the game a week ago but i need understanding how to hit enemy ships in combat.
I've been playing the IJN campaign and so far using planes and subs well, but even taking on damaged merchant ships is causing a lot of damage to my heavy cruisers and wrecking my destroyers.

So far what works for me is popping smoke, closing in to about 4km zigzagging all the way until I manage to get my targetting solution to about 80%+ before opening fire. I start seeing consistent hits on the enemy ships, nothing less like 50-70% seems to hit less than 5% of the time.

So my question is what affects target solution besides what is mentioned in the manual?

Rate of Solution Accuracy Increases with:
- Good visibility to target, at close range
- Using Spotting fire against the target
- Correct identification of target ship class
- Using radar
- Target using radar
- Dark conditions and target illuminated by fire, muzzle flashes or fire
- Tracking target with multiple directors

Rate of Solution Accuracy Decreases with:
- Poor visibility to target, at long range - Changes in target course or speed.
- Changes in observing ship's course or speed.
- Target is burning or releasing smoke (unless observer using radar) - Losing contact with target

My questions
1. I read from discussions that having a spotter aircraft on the map helps but isn't stated in the manual, is this true? If so, does it matter which type of aircraft (Pete vs Jake) and does the aircraft just needs to be on the map or near the target?

2. If I generate smoke on my ships, does it affect the accuracy on my own ships?

3. Does it help the target solution to use main guns on full fire while secondary guns do spotting fire?

4. Does surface radar on other ships aid ships that don't have it?

5. Any other factors that I am missing?

6. Is there a mod that nerfs the guns on merchant ships?

Thanks in advance for any answers!

[JazzObserver127]

1) Spotter planes don't increase solutions, however they help you keep track of them and not lose contact.
2) It absolutely does.
3) I believe any firing of weapons help because I helps establish the range between ships and gives a general idea where to fire for hits.
4) Surface radar helps the TF spot enemy contacts, but for increasing solutions, each ship is on their own. The Allies don't run into this issue as all of their ships have surface and air radar.
5&6) I don't believe so.

[SavedbyGrace]

For surface engagements I have been having a hard time, ship to ship. I do best with subs, then air (Avengers as I play solely US), then ships. Sadly I have been getting mauled in surface engagements. It also seems like the AI is cheating on being able to dodge my torpedoes, while the AI manages to get it's long range torps into my hulls a lot more often. (surface ship to ship, not so much the AI subs). I have not used the aircraft from a CV yet. My Enterprise took a torp in the bow from a sub and I withdrew it to get repaired.

I'm glad you posted Regret, as I have had many of the same questions and thoughts.

[zOldBulldog]

I also have the strange impression that merchant ships are strangely OP'd. They do seem to cause much more damage than I would have expected. They are also very fast and it is often a waste of time to try to chase them unless I am coming at them from their front and they need to turn to run away, but if they are running and I'm behind my DDs and CLs will rarely be able to catch up and do enough damage... they just waste ammo for minimal damage. Much better to engage them with 6-8 dauntless each so that they die on the first try.

For avoiding torpedoes I found that the following approach has been very good for me and I don't think I ever took a single torpedo hit:

- Pay attention to torpedo messages and torpedoes on the minimap. I know you are supposed to be able to see them in the water even before then, but I have never - not even once - been able to see torpedo bubbles or a submarine turret before they got formally detected. The funky movement of binocs and regular sight don't help either.

- If you suspect torpedoes immediately break formation, set speed to max, send your weak ships very slightly off in one direction and your DDs and CLs in the other (a 5-10 seconds of left/right gentlest turn is enough to separate the two groups).

- As soon as you see torpedoes max-turn the ship(s) under attack, if possible to avoid the torpedoes, if not to try and slip in between two torpedoes (I once saved a carrier by heading towards the enemy and slipping between two torps, then turned and run).

- And of course, rush your DDs and CLs towards the sub and when close slow the closest one to 2-4 kn so that it can passive spot.

When engaging into battle with my ships I found that it works best if I actively monitor damage. The moment a ship goes on fire I take it off the battle group, take its speed to zero and make sure the fires are contained. Once there are no fires I make it rejoin the battle group at the rear of it.

[dangiesey]

In regards to the OP's questions:

Playing as the IJN, you're going to be at a pretty material gunnery disadvantage relative to the USN. In ideal conditions (daylight, 100% visibility), IJN gunnery performance can be OK, but hits that you achieve often start fires (which reduce the solution) or cause the enemy to initiate a smokescreen (which reduces the solution).

I think you've articulated the basic variables pretty well. Of them, range and visibility are the most important. The best general advice I have would be:

1.) Make sure that you always have a spotter aircraft aloft to prevent "losing contact" with the enemy. Aircraft don't improve your solution, but it will drop to zero if you lose contact.

2.) Hold fire until you get a 60% or so solution and then begin firing using the "spot" function, which gives a temporary boost to the firing solution. You can deactivate spot once the time-in-flight is roughly equal to the cycle time of the guns.

3.) Avoid gunnery engagements with a superior enemy force. When facing an inferior enemy, there's little risk to you in closing the range. Against a superior force, however, you'll get out-shot and really need to focus on torpedo usage instead. There just isn't a magical set of tricks that will allow you to shoot as well as the USN in most circumstances.

[regret]

Thanks for confirming, gunnery engagement has been rough. Just had one night battle where the enemy appeared between 2 columns of my CAs and DDs, that was fast and exciting. 😂

I restarted my IJN campaign, modded the merchant guns to fire slower and do less damage by creating a new downgraded version of their guns, less see how that works.

[crazy rocker]

i find my ships wont fire at the target ive told them to and fire at random targets and keep switching targets which makes it a lot harder to sink ships cause it gives them time to repair between hits.
1 battle i split the US fleet and got my fleet between the escorts and the merchants. but my ships kept switching targets. turrets firing 1 direction hit 1 target then the turrtes turn to the opposite side to fire 1 salvo then turn back to fire at another ship 1 salvo repeat over and over. usualy run out of ammmo cause it takes so long to sink enemy ships cause of that.
I select the ship i want to fire at and have all my ships target that ship. But nope they dont want to fire at that ship they want to fire at what they want. i split my fleet into 2 section. Yamoto and the 2 tone class CA target the escorting CA's while the CL and DD go after the DD and merchants. But my heavies ignore the enemy CA and want to fire at the DD's and merchants. 1 abandoned game my fleet of 10 ships found a convoy of 6 merchants 2 CA and 2 DD as escorts. my sub took out the 2 DD and the 2 CA while my surface fleet was too to far away to help out. so by the time my surface fleet got into action it was just the 6 c3 merchants left. My yamoto got hit by a merchants and sunk before i got into range to fire back. I cold see them visauly on my monitor so knew where they were but they didnt show on the mini map so my ships wouldnt fire at them. The guns on merchants r short range guns for AA defence and for firing at subs on the surface not for taking on battleships. They couldnt even take out destroyers in the real world let along the biggest warship of WWII.

[SavedbyGrace]

Originally posted by crazy rocker:

i find my ships wont fire at the target ive told them to and fire at random targets and keep switching targets which makes it a lot harder to sink ships cause it gives them time to repair between hits.
1 battle i split the US fleet and got my fleet between the escorts and the merchants. but my ships kept switching targets. turrets firing 1 direction hit 1 target then the turrtes turn to the opposite side to fire 1 salvo then turn back to fire at another ship 1 salvo repeat over and over. usualy run out of ammmo cause it takes so long to sink enemy ships cause of that.
I select the ship i want to fire at and have all my ships target that ship. But nope they dont want to fire at that ship they want to fire at what they want. i split my fleet into 2 section. Yamoto and the 2 tone class CA target the escorting CA's while the CL and DD go after the DD and merchants. But my heavies ignore the enemy CA and want to fire at the DD's and merchants. 1 abandoned game my fleet of 10 ships found a convoy of 6 merchants 2 CA and 2 DD as escorts. my sub took out the 2 DD and the 2 CA while my surface fleet was too to far away to help out. so by the time my surface fleet got into action it was just the 6 c3 merchants left. My yamoto got hit by a merchants and sunk before i got into range to fire back. I cold see them visauly on my monitor so knew where they were but they didnt show on the mini map so my ships wouldnt fire at them. The guns on merchants r short range guns for AA defence and for firing at subs on the surface not for taking on battleships. They couldnt even take out destroyers in the real world let along the biggest warship of WWII.

Have you made double sure what you are actually targeting? See what your target directors are targeting. Just clicking target on map does not change your target!

[cswiger]

The merchants and oilers in WOTS have been up-gunned significantly compared to even what late-war Victory-class transports used to carry, which was generally a single 5"/L38 gun and a single 3"/L50 gun.

The IJN didn't have six 5" guns on its merchants, either. Six 3"/L44 Type 88 guns on a Kamigara Maru seaplane tender, sure, or maybe a pair of 4.7"/L45 guns on some other ships.

Anyway, armed merchants were intended for anti-air and to fend off surfaced submarines. A merchant was not expected to be able to out-shoot destroyers, much less a battleship.

[Killerfish Games]

Originally posted by crazy rocker:

i find my ships wont fire at the target ive told them to and fire at random targets and keep switching targets which makes it a lot harder to sink ships cause it gives them time to repair between hits.

Sounds like "Fire At Will" mode is on?
- Open the orders panel and toggle the Fire At Will for all selected ships on/off (under COMBAT column).