Quote Originally Posted by Diamondback View Post
There's very little science and a lot of "fling stuff at the wall and see what sticks" in the game stats.

Technically, though, a Temeraire 74 DOES have more throw weight than a British threedecker... the rub is your chit draws have a ton of different variables for loss of combat effectivity all abstracted together to "keep it simple." Damage to guns and gun crews, damage to structural members the guns are tied to... it's also not just the number of bores but the weight of shot from each, though counterintuitively a long hi-vel 24-pdr will out-penetrate a 32.
A 32pdr of 9.5ft using an 8lb 'mid' charge will penetrate roughly the same as a 24pdr of 9.5ft using it's 8lb 'large' charge. As range increases the retention of this penetration will favour the heavier gun in ratio to it's shot diameter (more or less, some details of drag variation with mach number and reynolds can sometimes detectably distort this relationship, when much more significant differences exist).

When driving the 32pdr shot with the large charge of 10 2/3 lb, the penetration favours the heavier shot, with the gap widening over range.

It is only with the later "medium" and light rebored 32pdr guns that the velocity given up with service charges gives 24pdr guns an advantage in penetration at short ranges. Even Carronades will outperform guns of smaller bore at random ranges.