Weapons of Navy Field
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Weapons of Navy Field come in a wide range and serve multiple purposes. While many of these weapons are based on their World War II counterparts, they can perform far differently due to game balance.
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[edit] Ship-Mounted Weapons
By and far, the majority of weapons available in Navy Field are mounted on ships. Ships use these weapons to fire ordnance at enemy targets in order to damage and destroy them. The number of mounts available vary from ship to ship.
In order to mount a weapon on a ship, several factors must be taken into account:
- Mount type: in Navy Field, there are two types of mounts, R mounts and T mounts. R mounts are for the primary armament of the ship, and only naval guns may be mounted on them. T mounts may mount both naval guns and torpedo launchers, but usually have less space available for mounting. R mounts are located at the bow and stern of a ship, while T mounts are located amidships.
- Weight: each ship has a certain displacement that it cannot go over. In order to mount certain guns, the ship must have enough available displacement to mount them. Heavier guns take up more weight but are more powerful, while lighter guns take up less space but are weaker against enemy targets.
- Gun space: in addition to weight, each mount only has a limited amount of space available for certain weapons; even if enough displacement is available, some guns cannot be mounted if they take up more space than is available. Furthermore, remaining gun space is used to store ammunition, so the less remaining gun space there is, the less extra ammunition it has, and the greater the chance that the player will run out of shells in the middle of combat.
[edit] Naval Guns
The large majority of ships in the game carry Naval Guns, which they use to fire shells of various calibers at other ships in order to damage them (or, in the case of AA, at enemy planes in order to shoot them down). As a player's gunnery sailors rise in level, they gain access to larger and more powerful guns; higher caliber shells can be fired from larger guns, and they also have more guns per turret (RN players can wield a turret that has four 14" barrels, popularly called the "quad" by players).
[edit] Gun Variants
Each specific gun has up to four variants that determine its firing range and reload times. In general the N varients are avaliable at the lowest level, soon followed by the L varient, and then the D varient. A varients need specialised anti-air gunners are therfore seperated from regular guns even if they are similar otherwise..:
- N guns (sometimes denoted by no letter at all) are balanced in both muzzle velocity and reload time. They are also balanced in weight and gun space.
- L guns have a higher muzzle velocity, giving them a longer range. However, they suffer from longer reload times, are heavier, and take up more space.
- D guns have a faster reload time than N guns, but have lower firing velocities. They are also very light and use the least gun space out of all gun variants.
- A guns are specially designed for anti-aircraft duty. They have extremely short reload times and have balanced muzzle velocity, but are heavy and use almost as much gun space as L guns. Only low- and medium-caliber guns (up to 6") have A variants.
- P guns are Premium guns added with the new Premium Battleships. They are considered to be much more powerful then any other gun at the same level with increased damage and range. They are only useable on Premium ships, with some nations premium CA's being able to carry the Premium guns and they come in both N and L varients as per the above.
[edit] Ammunition
Each gun can fire various types of shells (certain guns are limited in this choice, however):
- High Explosive (HE) Ammunition: This type of shell explodes on contact, and is very effective against poorly armored ships. It comes in three types: Light, Normal, and Heavy. Light shells travel farther but do less damage, while heavy shells travel a shorter distance but do more damage.
- Armor Piercing (AP) Ammunition: This type of shell is designed to break through armor, and is effective against heavily armored ships, at the cost of doing less damage. It is believed by some players that AP shells cause more critical hits, and thus kill more of their target's crew. However, this has not been proven. Lower-caliber guns cannot carry AP shells, but rather APC shells, which are effective against armored and unarmored ships.
- Anti-Air (AA) Ammunition: Designed specifically to shoot down airplanes. Depending on the caliber, some guns will do more damage to planes than others. AA shells do no damage against ships, and, like A guns, are available only for low- to medium-caliber guns.
- Fireworks (FC) Ammunition: Fireworks do just as they say: they create fireworks when fired into the air. For the most part these shells are useless, though some players sometimes attempt to use them as a blinding and distracting tactic, while others use them for miscellaneous purposes such as celebrations.
[edit] Torpedo Launchers
Generally considered as a secondary armament by most players, Torpedo Launchers (sometimes shortened to simply Torps) are used to drop torpedoes into the water. Torpedoes then travel in a straight line until they either contact a ship or land, or run out of fuel, at which point they detonate, doing splash damage to all ships nearby. While torpedoes take longer to reload than naval guns, they also do far more damage, in some cases being able to sink poorly-armored ships with one or two torpedoes. Some ships, particularly those of the IJN, are designed specifically to use torpedo launchers as their primary weapons. In order to combat torpedoes, players may mount bulge armor. When launching torpedoes, players may choose to fire them in a tight or wide spread, and to set them to a fast or slow speed. Wide spreads allow the torpedoes to cover a wider area, but lower the chance that a larger number of them will hit the same target; fast torpedoes give enemies less time to dodge the torpedo, but run for a shorter distance overall.
Unlike naval guns, the remaining gun space on a torpedo mount is not used to store torpedoes. The number of available torpedoes that can be stored on a ship is determined by the ship's armament locker, which varies from ship to ship.
[edit] Naval Mines
Certain ships may mount mine launchers in order to drop naval mines in the water. In order to launch mines, players must first purchase them (500 mines for $1 USD, or 1000 mines for $2 USD), then mount a mine launcher on their ship. Only FFs, DDs, and CLs have the ability to mount mine launchers.
When dropped on the battlefield, mines will become invisible, and arm themselves 10 seconds after being dropped. If a ship, friend or foe, crosses the mine while it is active, it will explode, damaging the ship. Mines are always visible to all ships on the team of the ship that launched the mine. Ships on the enemy team will not be able to see the mines, except for FFs and DDs, which can spot enemy mines in the water close to a certain radius. Mines may also be attacked using guns, which will destroy the mines after a certain amount of damage.
[edit] Aircraft
As in real naval combat, airplanes are very potent weapons and tools that can easily turn the tide of battle in the proper circumstances. In order to use airplanes, players must first have at minimum a Rookie Pilot sailor on their ship; for the specialized airplanes, more specialized classes are required. Their ship must have the ability to carry planes. In general, all ships CL and above are able to carry airplanes, though some CLs do not possess this capability. Furthermore, only CVs have the ability to carry and launch planes other than scouts.
[edit] Scouts
Scouts, while not necessarily weapons in the normal sense, are considered the eyes of a fleet. Most CLs, all CAs and BCs, and most BBs (the Nelson class battleship being the only exception) are able to carry scouts. Scouts have a very wide range of view; however, they possess very little firepower with which to defend themselves, are comparatively slower than most other planes, and are easy to shoot down. For this reason, most ships are able to carry more than one scout, in the very likely event that one is lost in battle. Scouting is a very important tactic in the game, since it gives each team information regarding the whereabouts of enemy ships, and spot gunnery fire for BBs, allowing them to shoot targets farther than their sight-range allows.
Scouts require a Rookie Pilot to fly them; pilots of higher classes may not pilot scouts. As a Rookie Pilot increases in level, he gains access to more powerful scouting aircraft.
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SOC-1 Seagull |
Walrus |
AR 196A-3 |
E8N 95 |
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SON-1 Seagull |
Blackburn Skua |
AR 95 |
A6M2-N Rufe Type 2; C3N Type 97 |
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J2F Duck |
Sea Otter | Dornier Do 22 | E13A Zero |
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Dauntless Recon |
Sea Mosquito | BF 108 Taifun | C6N Saiun |
[edit] Fighters
In order to protect their fleets, CVs may carry and launch Fighters from their flight decks. The role of the fighter is to intercept and destroy enemy planes that pose a threat to all friendly ships and, in the case of enemy fighters, a threat to friendly airplanes. While fighters are very useful in destroying enemy airplanes, they cannot attack enemy ships, which can shoot them down with AA. Fighters are very fast and have considerable firepower, but have the shortest flight time of all planes and rely on friendly ships and scouts in order to see around them, as their sight-range is very poor. Using fighters to shoot down planes also yields the most credits.
Fighters require a Fighter Pilot or higher to pilot. As a Fighter Pilot increases in level, he gains access to more powerful fighting aircraft, and becomes more effective at fighting.
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F4F Wildcat Lvl.40 |
Sea Gladiator Lvl.40 |
AR 197 Lvl.40 |
A5M4 Type 96 Lvl.40 |
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F6F Hellcat Lvl.60 |
Sea Hurricane Lvl.60 |
BF-109T Lvl.60 |
A6M2 Model 21 Zero Lvl.60 |
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F4U Corsair Lvl.75 |
Seafire Lvl.75 | FW 190A Lvl.80 | A7M3 Type 11 'Sam' Lvl.75 |
[edit] Torpedo Bombers
One of the primary anti-ship weapons of CVs, Torpedo Bombers (TB for short) are used to attack enemy ships. Like scouts, they are slow and vulnerable to enemy attack, and they, like fighters, have very limited sight-range. However, they have the ability to attack enemy ships by getting close and dropping torpedoes into the water, which then run towards enemy ships and detonate. They are very useful for destroying ships that have little to no bulge armor, such as DDs, and also for wearing down BBs, which cannot move quickly enough to completely dodge torpedo salvoes. Because they have to drop altitude in order to release their torpedoes, torpedo bombers are very vulnerable to ships' automatic anti-aircraft weapons.
Torpedo Bombers require a Torpedo Bomber Pilot or higher to pilot. As a Torpedo Bomber Pilot increases in level, he gains access to more powerful aircraft, which can carry and use more powerful torpedoes.
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TBD Devastator Lvl.45 |
Swordfish Mark I Lvl.42 |
AR 195 Lvl.48 |
M6A Seiran Lvl.33; B5N1 Type 97 Lvl.40 |
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TFB/M Avenger Lvl.77 |
Barracuda Mark II Lvl.77 |
Fi 167 Lvl.77 |
B6N2 Type 12 Lvl.77 |
[edit] Dive Bombers
The second primary anti-ship weapon that CVs yield, Dive Bombers, or DBs for short, are used to attack and destroy enemy ships. Similar to TBs they are vulnerable to attack and cannot see very far, but like TBs, they have the ability to destroy ships without putting the CV in danger. Dive bombers attack by flying over their targets, diving downwards, and dropping their bombs onto the decks of ships. Because they directly attack a ship instead of its bulge, they are very useful for wearing down a ship for others to finish off with shells. Furthermore, because they do not have to drop altitude to release their ordnance, they are less vulnerable to automatic AAW. However, because they have to fly directly over a target, they are more vulnerable to flak.
Dive Bombers require a Dive Bomber Pilot or higher to pilot. As a Dive Bomber Pilot increases in level, he gains access to more powerful aircraft, which can carry and drop more powerful bombs.
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SBD Dauntless Lvl.53 |
Dauntless RN Lvl.55 |
Ju 87c Stuka Lvl.46 |
D1A1 Type 96 Lvl.45 |
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SB2C Helldiver Lvl.75 |
Blackburn Skua Mark II Lvl.75 |
Ju 87e Stuka Lvl.75 |
D3A1 Type 99 Lvl.60 |
