“What was that? What the hell was that?! It went by like we were standing still”
It was the Blohm & Voss BV 238 intercepting P51 bombers
5 Likes
cannon damage against bombers is still nowhere near where it should be, even after the “nerfs”
the spars & skin still have a ridiculous resistance to explosives to the point where you need 5-10kg of TNT to rip a bomber’s wing off.
5 Likes
Uhm wrong, you need more
4 Likes
Try with the M55, maybe it will work better💔
2 Likes
I tried 183mm, no effect
And when I tried 203mm it actually worked
So guys, you just need 203mm he with 23kg tnt and land a direct hit to rip wing of some twin engine bomber
9 Likes
Ackshually this is historically accurate because the Flying FORTRESS was well-known for tanking THOUSANDS of flak 88 rounds!!!
5 Likes
“Errmm, you should be firing AP to kill bombers. Skill issue.”
8 Likes
Should have pilot sniped
4 Likes
or aimed for the engines
4 Likes
or the bombs
1 Like
I wanna give a perspective on the problem as someone that has a over 6.6 K/D on the most flied prop I have, the J6K1, having over 1600 kills, so I can assure you that I in fact am skilled enough to comment on whether or not something is a “skill issue”. If something even I deem to be basically impossible, then it’s absolutely not balanced for the general player base.
I’ve been playing the J6K1 ever since earlier this year, and I racked up an impressive kill score in it. Most of it are F8Fs, P51s, and F2Hs, with the F-89 and Me-262 C2B here and there. I believe I’ve become very proficient in the plane. I want to point out that I do not farm kills from bombers, and I don’t see them as a free kill. In my opinion, every match I enter i have the potential to earn from 3-6 kills, and if going for a bomber in the beginning of the match means possibly damaging my aircraft due to their ability to shoot in every direction, then I wouldn’t go for them. I don’t need to miss out of the dogfight and miss out on my 3-6 kills simply for a single bomber kill, it was simply not worth it. The J6K1 has an impressive frontal firepower of 6x 20mm cannons, although their lower fire rate make them harder to use and actually shoot less rounds / second than the US 4x 20mms on the banshee. Even with that in mind, the firepower is not to be messed with as everything I shot at (before the bomber patch) fell apart instantly.
After the bomber update my first thought was to instantly check how much they were buffed, and found out that upon dumping 1200 rounds into them, into one wing segment, there seems to be no real damage taken, so I instantly believed that the bombers are simply not worth going for. Ever since that I tested everything that could possibly counter bombers to no avail, and most 30mms and even higher caliber rounds would require way too much time staying behind a bomber to kill it. I would again like to note that this is considered difficult even by me, therefore is completely imbalanced for the general player base with a much lower K/D.
Then there’s the pilot snipes. From my experience as I flew the J6K, it had wing mounted guns. Pilot snipes were basically impossible for me because of how spaced apart the guns are, and the fact that I’m forced to aim beyond 1km for the front aspect shot. Bombers always maneuver as well, which makes it even harder to actually hit something. My plane also get set fire the moment a single round hits, .50 cal or 20mm, it didn’t matter. This meant I only engaged bombers when I had no choice, could not run away as they were hunting me, or when I’m trying to land and I wanted to maybe set fire to them to make them shoo off. I’ve witnessed myself bombers tanking airfield AA, which means landing was a risk as well, even at the rear airfield.
I’ve found a strategy that works against bombers, and that is to not fight them at all. I would climb, kill as many fighters as possible until there are only bombers left, and then land and leave. My plane is too fragile, and my 20mms that are supposed to be extra deadly against bombers simply doesn’t even tickle them. Every time I tried to go after a bomber meant I die as a free kill for the bombers, funny how the tables have turned on that one.
I hope the bomber mains can take a look at this and realize how ridiculous they sound when they tell fighter mains “skill issue”, “just aim for pilot”, and “just get better aim”. My stats on a fragile plane that dies to one shot is better than yours on a stalinium plane that’s impervious to 20mm fire that you’re abusing just because of the update. Please take a moment to come to your senses and realize this is not only completely unrealistic, but also completely unbalanced. I hope this gets overhauled soon so that I can actually play the game like it was meant to be played. Fighters fighting fighters, interceptors intercepting bombers, and bombers bombing bases. Now it has become bombers are fighting fighters, and interceptors if they try to do their job becomes a free kill.
In the end I want to add that to make sure that gaijin actually sees this problem, please let’s get more people to check “I have the same issue” in the bug report page, and help me with documentation as well as historical sources that would help gaijin actually balance things right. The link is here:
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/DELo1NeAl4iz
4 Likes
I’m gonna be honest, after the Oct 8 “nerf,” these bombers still play nuts. I’ve been playing Tu-1 lately and I still fly fine after getting beamed by an Ostwind 2’s 37 mm HEs
Any one else feel a difference in survivability at all?
I decided to finally play the SB-25J after having it for a bit. Got four funny kills with the 12 .50s at the front. Dogfighting another B-25 that tried camping my unprotected AF was actually really fun since we both tanked so much (of course, I won, sustaining a slightly yellow engine). Dogfought another and easily won (holy 12 .50s really do something). I will now start playing this vehicle more since that one match helped me fully grind rank I (4-5 vehicles) of the French tech tree.
1 Like
I’ve basically ground out every USSR plane I’ve got using Tu-1, Yank9K, and Yak-1 (19)
1 Like
you only got cannons so you cant
that easy
bomber skin still is better than god damn steel armor at tanking HE
1 Like
shoulda aimed for the engicockpilot
1 Like
I do feel a difference! They die slightly more easily to my Ki-109’s 75mm cannon.
They’ll still tank a hit or two sometimes.
So all you need is an artillery cannon shooting at them and possibly hitting several times. Easy!
6 Likes
The meta is still to forgo HE and stick to pure AP, due to the bizarre dislogic that was used in the unbalancing. .50 cal Brownings are still king across the board, because they can start fires too, which mean little in terms of damage on their own but look nice and earn you more points.
I just found out today in a test flight that the 47mm AP-T rounds of the Tempest Mk. V (Vickers P) fighter will gib B-29 Superfortresses. Yes, they will shatter to pieces, wings flying off and everything, in a single hit(1). You can’t make this stuff up.
(1) lol technically 2 hits.
3 Likes
Most large AP projectiles have extremely high direct damage, so when they hit the spar it’ll be enough to completely destroy it. There’s also a lower damage modifier against ‘generic’ damage than other types.
Meanwhile HE still has to break through the drastically inflated skin protection, and fragmentation damage is hit with a huge negative modifier.
3 Likes