Basically, I’ve been playing sporadically for about a year, only recently starting to play more frequently. Because of this, I’ve gone through some game updates, and so far there haven’t been any significant changes for the low and mid-tier bombers and strike aircraft. The current gameplay boils down to being destroyed without doing anything. I started with the Americans because of the iconic B-17, but it’s disappointing to have your wing and tail easily broken instead of being a flying tank that withstands many shots. However, the reality is that planes get to you very quickly, and a single burst sends you back to the lobby with a loss in Silver Lions. The recommendations basically remain to play SB with the bombers, in the case of strike aircraft, ground RB or air SB (I’ve never played with strike aircraft). I’m still waiting for changes to the bombers and strike aircraft, whether it’s the map, objectives, or anything else that improves the gameplay.
P.S. I play on console and I’m bad at aiming. I like the German bombers because of the explosive ammunition that destroys the engine or wing with just one shot; very reliable for me. Then Japan and Russia.
still looking for a good controller configuration.
Gaijin is working on bomber durability at this time. They stated this later last year, and stated it as a priority.
We don’t know how long it will take because there are hundreds of bombers, and buffing bomber durability without making them OP like they were originally will take effort.
From my pov you don’t have the right tools to be somehow successful in Air RB - i am talking about things like this (relevant for bombers in Air RB):
Success as a fighter pilot
General game experience resulting in crew xp
Game experience resulting in making the right aircraft choices
Game experience resulting in applying the right tactics
It boils down that your individual success is mostly determined on your own actions and applicable experience. If you fly a PvE plane in a PvP environment you need to be better than your average PvP opponent. And better means that you chose the right path / route to your base and that you are able to drop and rtb without getting shot at.
For cases in which you have to defend yourself your crew xp are decisive - mainly spotting range and gunner reload time. And fighter experience is recommended to be somehow able to assess their performance and possible attack angles.
Finally your aircraft choices and played nation plays a role too. In Air RB just a few bombers have the necessary performance to complete a “safe” bombing run alive without a major risk to lose your aircraft (and SL) and this still requires a better than average experience level. This means that you have to fly a detour avoiding anticipated interceptor resistance whilst you have to consider own strike aircraft or fighter attacking the base(s) you aimed for.
Regarding the played nation you will find out that your survival chances in JP B7A2 or G8N1 are higher than in a US B-17 or B-25 or any German bomber except a well flown Ju 88 A-1 as the average player quality is outside the big 3 nations usually higher. That means that your chances to drop increase if you let your fighters go in first.
The best bomber for reliably scoring with a rather limited experience is imho the Rank III B-18B. Correct flown (= sideclimbing outside of spotting ranges coming in very high) you are (almost) untouchable and your teams are usually good enough that they don’t collapse within the first minutes - which allows you a safe return to base.
That seems to be part of your problem - in order to use your defensive guns properly you have to be able to control your aircraft and your defensive guns simultaneously.
Even with deactivating autopilot in gunner view you have to use SFC (SimplifiedFlightControls) instead of Mouse aim as with mouse aim the plane gets back to level flight as soon as you stop with your control surface input.
With a controller (i use a joystick) you need then one mini-stick for aircraft controls and the other for the gunner - no idea how you do that.
In order to have fun i recommend to consider to connect MnK - imho MnK offers the best experience for casual players. If you have some money to spare and consider yourself as a pilot: Use the certified Thrustmaster Hotas for a better flight experience. I never used a controller for flight control, but i use in addition a mouse to look around or using the gunners and the controller for MEC and minor functions like chat…
As stated above, in RB you need to select your planes to some extend if you want to have fun.
In general, you probably need to work on your flight path.
In air arcade, nearly all bombers and attackers can do well. You just have to learn how to play them.
“Win 25(?) times with first place challenge”: I did half the job with bombers in arcade, because it is so reliable.