Both teams went low and the only threat for him was an XP-50 at high alt. He flew a detour so that the XP-50 went for me (in a B7A2) and XP-50 paid the price.
The Pe-8 pilot killed 5 bases uncontested (and based on the replay he is obsessed with watching his bombs hitting bases😎) and used the rather high top & dive speed of the Pe-8 to retreat - he fended off a F4U-4 and won the match for us as he killed their best fighter (a Pyörremski) with his gunner.
This kill was decisive as the Pyoerremski was the only fighter able to win a fight vs my B7A2 - the remaining Swedish J26 (5 kills) and the F4U-4 (2 kills) are no match in a 1 vs 1 even if flown to it strengths if my energy disadvantage is not too large. The J26 offered a good high speed fight but lost, the F4U-4 ran out of fuel.
We won by tickets as our 7 basekills produced a large enough ticket lead.
As a side note: I finished the special task “20 base kills” with 4 base kills in this match with just 7 x 60 kg bombs. I finished a base with one and had to drop the remaining 3 under my wings in order to outturn the XP-50. I dropped then 4 to finish another base and dropped after that one on each of the two available bases - knowing that the Pe-8 would kill them and my single bomb on each will be counted as base kill.
Dont fly in a straight line to a base.
99% of bombers just spawn and fly directly into the enemy team or are extremely predictable.
I have alot of success with bombers still.
Not if enemy fighters actually climbed instead of diving into the furball. Bombers, because of the neutered AI gunners, have little chance once spottted.
We need a mode where you can ONLY win by destroying tough land objectives. Gives bombers something to do, and fighters will have plenty to do as well fighting each other and having the incentive to search and destroy the bombers who can help decide the game.
Problem is, it takes so long to side-climb and get into position to drop the load. There are times battles are pretty much decided before the bombers are in a decent position to participate. Especially if the bombers are stock or close to stock. Unlike fighters, bombers HAVE to enter player vs player with stock vehicles.
Now this is from perspective of prop planes. I have no experience with faster jets.
GL! Use internal bombload only - external load produces a hell of drag and has a severe impact on climb and speed!
PS: I used this strategy ~150 times with the Ju 88 A-1 (here with max load 1.900 and then 2.400 kg) and lost just 2 planes (one to midfield AA😂) but thx to the bomb load i was (almost) always able to kill the enemy airfield - 80% WR.
I’ll keep that in mind! I’m trying to get back into air, I spaded the P-36-A last week, so literal baby steps. I may send you a DM every now and then asking for advice if you don’t mind, mate :D
The discussions within this thread circle around the challenges of playing bombers, the ability / possibility to drop, bomber reward structure and game impact in general.
I am not sure if you have noticed that currently all (not really rare) 3 bases maps at prop BRs (maybe except Malta, not played since update) are bugged - meaning that the few bomber players able to get through the fighter / interceptor screen can’t earn mission score / SL & RP as the enemy airfield will not be available as bomb target.
I created a bug report (included in this thread/post):
I added 3 replays - especially the last 2 show a B-25 (#2) and a Pe-8 (#3) ending the match with zero points due to this - the airfield did not open so their efforts to get through were not rewarded - and both matches ended with ultra-fast ticket defeats.
You might consider supporting the bug report. Thx in advance!
depends on the bomber, gun arrangement, alt performance etc.
For example, If I fly a Lancaster - I would ground spawn and go to the side, or alt spawn and immediately lose alt I have enough payload for all bases, I just need to be undetcted.
If I fly high - I will be spotted easy, the Lanc performs better at low alt however.
The lanc has no bottom gunner - hence if I fly low I do not present my underside.
A little bit of thought goes a long way.
Majority of players use every vehicle in exactly the same way.
Flying into the entire enemy team every single time is one method . . . . .
I agree it is difficult for bombers, However 99.9% I see just fly straight into 10 or more fighters every single match.
Hell - give bombers more armour - will still proceed to fly directly into 10 enemy fighters.