Even after the nerfs, bombers remain powerful, tearing through average players on our team as if they were gunships; sustaining around three engine fires still isn’t enough to reliably bring one down, HE shells remain useless against them, and they still take negligible damage from base anti-aircraft guns and air-to-air missiles.
Of course, a skilled player can shoot down a bomber, but it consumes a lot of ammunition and time; intercepting a bomber that has climbed into the upper atmosphere is incredibly frustrating. On the other hand, ignoring the bomber to target ground units offers just as little fun and reward as chasing after the bomber does.
The counter-arguments made by bomber players against fighter pilots are also absurd—specifically the claim that “fighter pilots now need to coordinate to intercept bombers.” They are expecting far too much from Air RB… Players are more interested in maximizing their own rewards than in cooperation. In fact, in standard RB matches, people will even team-kill over a single mini-base; surely, an aircraft that requires teamwork to take down is simply overpowered. And even when you work together to intercept a bomber, the reward goes to just one person; I set a bomber’s engine on fire multiple times, yet all I got was a mere assist.
“Aim for the cockpit or the engines”—that advice is perfectly valid, provided the bomber keeps flying straight. In reality, however, smart bomber pilots in Realistic Battles (RB) will turn away when they see an enemy approaching head-on, forcing the enemy to chase them from behind (into their “six o’clock” position). Alternatively, if an enemy tries to dive from above to target the cockpit, the bomber pilot can simply dive as well. Consequently, unless the opponent is foolish enough to fly in a straight line, the bomber’s cockpit is extremely difficult to hit. Furthermore, if a fighter engages in a head-on attack against a bomber equipped with forward-facing fixed weaponry, it will instantly turn into a ball of fire.
Targeting the engines is certainly easy, but even after the nerfs, engine fires extinguish quickly and don’t cause much damage. Four-engine bombers and the six-engine BV 238, in particular, shrug off engine fires with little trouble. Consequently, you have to keep tailing them and repeatedly setting their engines ablaze—a process that takes a long time and consumes a lot of ammunition, all while increasing your own risk of being shot down by staying close to the bomber.
There was a lot of talk about using things like rockets, X-4 missiles, or Schräge Musik, but most of these are difficult for the average player to utilize, and the aircraft capable of using them are limited.
I don’t dislike bombers; in fact, I was one of the people who cheered as soon as I heard the news about the buff to bomber durability. However, I never imagined that bombers would end up ruining Air RB like this…
Bombers are intentionally closing in on fighters to destroy them, or wreaking havoc by wiping out defenseless fighters parked at bases and destroying base anti-aircraft guns. I’m not sure if this is what bombers are actually supposed to be doing… Right now, bombers are dragging out matches in RB, making the gameplay tedious.
The situation is even worse in Assault mode and SB right now; in SB, 90% of players use bombers, and fighters have all but gone extinct.
Whenever I see people in the comments defending the current durability of bombers, I feel my affection for this community and the game waning.
would like to see the durability of bombers significantly reduced compared to current levels. Instead of the standard deathmatch-style Realistic Battles (RB), I hope a dedicated game mode is introduced where protecting bombers with fighters is the key objective; even with lower durability, bombers would remain safe if escorted by multiple fighters, and the overall experience would look much more impressive.
Finally, I’d like to share a photo taken after my team—flying the P-61—had finished intercepting a bomber and were returning to base, only to be attacked by that very bomber.
