How to bomb bases and not get shot down? If I fly high, I get shot down by interceptors or all the bases get taken before I can release my bombs. If I fly low I get completely smoked by the entire enemy team. What else can I do? Huge detours? Already tried and doesn’t work cause the bases get taken before I even get close and somehow I still get shot down. Please help.
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What aircraft and BR are we talking about?
Everything. USA bombers, German bombers, Swedish Lansen jet (A32A) and A4 Early.
at what BR?
Fly high, very high.
You will still get bases, but it needs more time. Mark the bases you will bomb at the start of the game, if someone takes the base, it’s okay, just wait for your turn.
Or else play simulator and bomb airfields.
Start by climbing slowly and look carefully if there are enemy fighters climbing as well. If there are, your best bet is to dive down to reach a base fast. Sometimes there will be no enemy fighters climbing, then you continue to climb and reach enemy bases slowly, but without opposition.
All bombers have different tactics.
Light bombers should dive straight towards the bases. If you choose one of the closer ones, generally you should make it there before the enemy. It’s quite likely that you’ll get shot down shortly after, but you’ll have dropped your bombs by then. If you really can’t beat your allies to the bases, just hang around near the front line, attacking some ground targets if you can, and bomb the second wave of bases once they respawn.
Heavy bombers should stay high. Sideclimbing depends on circumstance. If there aren’t many other bombers you could try to go for the nearest base. If there are and they seem faster than you, you may as well take a roundabout route and bomb the second wave of bases, and let enemy interceptors go for your allies first. Altitude in itself doesn’t provide much protection; if enemies are determined to get you, they will get you.
Jet bombers play very similar to light bombers (except that from Rank VI and above you don’t get airspawn): just fly straight towards the nearest base if you’re fast enough, ground pound otherwise. I see you mentioned the A4 and A32A as examples. I haven’t played the A4 much, but my experience with the A32A is that it’s too slow to compete with other allied base bombers for the first bases. You’re better off attacking ground targets and waiting for the second group of bases to respawn, or just bring the small bombs or rockets and go full out ground attack.
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For prop bombers I just renew my recommendation from another thread:
Even as i don’t play jets (just a few actual WW 2 jets) - the ~ 3.600 matches in it researched as a side effect the whole Swedish TT, currently i am 90k SL away from unlocking the last Rank VII aircraft, the ASJ 37.
So some folks with bombing experience in jets might give you some advice how to use jet bombers, but for relaxing bomber game play in orops: Nothing better than a B-18B or a B7A2.
With some experience you drop (and score) in every match and you have no problem to stay alive; the plane faces just a few serious enemy threats (P-47 D-30, I-225) whilst all other enemy fighter are somehow manageable.
In order to give you examples, i added 5 subsequent matches in a B-18B as advice. Watch the replays with option “2” to see where i was looking at, which routes i flew and how i was able to drop in every game without being attacked by an enemy:
Example #1:
Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
4.0 - 5.0 match. Sideclimbing after spawn, watching the game development, furball near enemy bases, detour, orbital strike from 8 km. As i was the last player in a 1 vs 2 i decided to land and j out, no need to play further 10 minutes when my team (with 2 exceptions) played like trash and got even caught landing on forward airfield without aaa cover. Game lost.
Example #2:
Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
3.7-4.7 match. Sideclimbing after spawn, detour, drop from 8 & 8.7 km. Based on the game development (they had a typical 2nd account sweatlord with them) i decided to stay high (after 2 BnZ attacks on a B-17) to drag the sweatlord high, whilst staying in his sight in order to prevent him to kill ground to win. It worked. Ticket win 1 vs 3…
Example #3:
Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
Reverse climbing after spawn (180 turn and climbing towards my airfield) as it was vs JP and i expected 4 B7A2s. They came with 4 BP Thai Helldivers so no problem; the only rather dangerous opponent (French VB 10) went too early too low, free run for 2 base kills and a rearmed Helldiver, TDM win 3 vs 1.
Example #4:
Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
3.7 -4.7 match. Normal climbing towards own bases, no resistance, 2 drops and a one BnZ run vs a Pe-8. TDM win 7 vs 1.
Example #5:
Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
4.0-5.0 match. Excessive detour via empty south of the map, i saw my team melting away and activated anti-mech order at ~ 07:30 (my last friendly died at 08:19) in order to stall blind hunt order by them. Drop from 8 km (just one base as full uptier) after 11 minutes. As the airfield aaa on this map is broken (see bug report) i decided to stay high - they had a 109 F-4, a 190 A-5 and a Yak-9T left; all no threat in a B-18B. Got blind hunted at 13:05 and had no problem to outrun all 3 fighters chasing me until the 25 minute timer - i was above 10 km. Ticket defeat.
So with this plane you have no issues to drop without getting shot down.
Have a good one!
Thanks! l mostly have problems with jets such as the A4 Early and the A32. Also those American dive bombers and light bombers like the SB2C and others that don’t have bomb sights. I have to stay low to hit the target but then die right after.
Its your choice to fly those planes - imho a bomber without a bomb sight is no real bomber. Going low in a prop for enemy bases or ground units is, was and will be a recipe for disaster…
ARB has its own tactics, but in AAB there is often no choice but to try to dive as quickly as possible to the nearest base in the hopes of dropping bombs faster than you are shot down by fighters. Overall I like to play bombers, I’ve tried different ones, from Wellington to B7A2.
In my opinion, the option to climb as high as possible in most AAB battles does not work. K/D monkeys and spawn campers are constantly climbing up, some scumbags even climb to 8000+ to get an easy frag on a lonely bomber. Besides, while you’re climbing to 7000+ on some EP-2, a lot of the bases and ground will simply be taken by those who immediately dived on them, even with a one-way ticket. The targets will be smashed before you, and in the end you will be shot down by another K/D monkey who thinks of himself as a “pro-gamer”.
The exceptions to this, in my opinion, are few and far between: B7A2, Brigand B1, Swedish B18, possibly P1Y1. I also sometimes climbed to 6K+ on the Pe-2-*, but I prefer maneuverable combat near the ground on this plane. Sitting on top is boring, although quite effective.
I don’t know what to do with slow long-range bombers in AAB. With the current “glass” bombers, probably not to play at all. Otherwise, after just a couple of battles I start thinking about how many finger bones I would like to break on the “pro” who shot down my bomber before I could earn any points. Although of course it is not he who is to blame, but Gaijin, who made the game on this class so toxic and annoying.
Not sure if this is just a misunderstanding, but my posts were referencing to the tag “air-rb” as I do not play Air AB.
Nevertheless, thx for describing your experiences in Air AB!
I saw countless posts describing Air AB as way more fulfilling than playing a bomber in Air RB; based on your description those guys play either a different game or do something different :-)
In case you change your mind and consider playing Air RB: The only heavy 4 engine bomber worth to play (from my pov) is the JP G8N1. I summarized my rather positive experiences with them in this post.
Have a good one!
Yes, I saw that you wrote about ARB, I just added my opinion about AAB on the same class of aircraft.
If you have some time, check out my replay Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
Unfortunately, the daily tasks for 3 and 5 points are to destroy bombers. I usually change this task, knowing well that bombers are not so easy to play. But today I’m trying to cosplay a K/D stat monkey myself, since it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to change both tasks to normal others (without GE payment ofc). I encounter a similar situation, but from my bomber, every second battle in AAB, hence my opinion in the post above.
In your opinion, if I try ARB, should I start with biplanes or can I start with BR 2.3-2.7 right away?
I watched it - not bad.
Not sure how to answer this - this depends mainly on your own level of confidence and your ability to adapt to the “new” environment.
I mean besides the less chaotic general set-up of Air RB the complexity comes with limited ammo, way more realistic FMs and (if taken seriously) with the necessity to learn about actual strengths & weaknesses of the involved aircraft in order to be effective.
If i take your replay as an example:
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I saw you stall climbing in your Air AB match - so way outside optimal climb speed which makes your MiG 3 borderline useless as any experienced pilot energy traps you with little to zero effort.
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At around 7-8 minutes you flew a very long time straight with a F6F 0.9 km below and behind you - a death sentence in Air RB as the effective 0.50 cal range for guys behind you goes up to 1.7-1.8 km (if the guy has a convergence of 6-800 meters).
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Tailchasing stuff like B-25s (effective gun range firing at you of ~ 2.5 km with 0.50 cals) is a no-go; even the MG 81 Z of Ju 88s hit you reliable up to 1.3 km.
So you might need to adopt your general play style and learn to deal with the more or less open TDM character of the mode. So even if there is a strong connection between the number of kills and high WRs, the topics target prioritisation and decision making are way more decisive as killing the right targets at the right point of time is essential.
Your mentioned BR range of 2.3 - 2.7 is imho a mixed bag as this BR range is dominated by early Yaks, Finnish B-239s and US P-39s. So if you have some of them with good crew levels i would start with them.
Hidden as imho off-topic: Why i play wt:
Summary
Have a good one!
Thanks for the advices. The replay was just an example of “what usually happens to bombers in AAB”.
I don’t consider myself a strong player: in this match the opponents were too inexperienced. Otherwise I wouldn’t have a chance to shot down two fighters with my dying one, with an overheating engine.
I also understand that playing in a kamikaze style for an ARB player seems ill-conceived and illogical. But this is a consequence of the AAB ability to take several planes in one battle, the loss of one fighter means less to me than additional point for the daily task. Playing AAB cautiously is less effective for me: other players take out targets in suicide attacks and it only takes me longer to complete the daily task.
Thanks for your replays, especially #5 was funny when the fighters couldn’t catch up. Judging by the chat (I understand perfectly well what exactly they wrote), they were very unhappy and wanted you to go down to them, because it’s hard for them to climb up to 10000+.
PS. How many ground targets are there in ARB, maybe it’s just on these maps, but after AAB, where on some maps there are almost no ground targets, it looks like “I want to bomb you completely, right now”.
Funny to a certain degree, if i would have had the chance to land and jump out i would have left the game. But it makes zero sense trying to land when the airfield aaa is not working like on this map. If i had spawned on the other side of the map i would have left as the af aaa works perfectly fine on the other side.
So going high was logical as all 3 enemies have a rather slow top speed at this alt - and my 13.3 auto cannons outrange MG 151/20 by at least 1,5 km. So their closing speed is way too slow, allowing me to pepper and reliably hit them from 2.5 km whilst they have to get within 1 km to hit me at very high speeds.
In other words: They have the illusion that they would chase me, but i can control if, when and how those fights happen. So in order to get in gun range they have to fly straight which allows me to shot at them, if the they dodge they get slower allowing me longer firing time (10 sec reload of gunners).
There are enough ground targets on every map. The question is always if you want to sacrifice altitude /energy for a low level run or not. Some bombers have severe delays between pressing the release button and the actual drop, so you have to consider this too.
Some years ago it was no problem to hit and kill 8 moving tanks with 8 x SC 250 (ok you needed experience and a fuze delay of 1.5 seconds) in a Ju 288 in low level runs - and even today i am able to kill a landed plane with a 60 kg bomb from 9 km alt in B7A2 - but the release delay in a B-18B makes this almost impossible.
As soon as you understand that these Daily/Special/BP tasks & challenges are solely aimed to lure you in more reckless game play it is up to each player if he wants to switch tasks for SL or accept getting steered by gaijin.
Unfortunately, in AAB there is often a different option: either try to get to ground targets first and take at least something before you are shot down by enemy fighters. Or waste time bypassing or climbing and get nothing, since other players from the team got there earlier. The problem is compounded by the poor design of many maps, which forces attack planes to fly straight into a bunch of enemies in the center of the map, without the ability to use the terrain for any cover.
As for BP tasks, I try to change the tasks that are inconvenient for me, the problem is that most of them are like that. And the generator is made so that the same thing can drop out several times. I’m sure that this was done intentionally.
Unfortunately, I see only one way to get rid of the problem of BP tasks: ignore them completely.