The saddening situation bombers are in

[Real_K_Soze]

@Noveos_Republic

Even if G8Ns are actively hunting fighters, not everyone is doing this. Players who are good at this will keep doing it regardless of BR, while 6.3 will deincentivize newer players not to use it. Even the Tu-4 is way too high (8.0).

It doesn’t matter what you think or believe - you just have to read posts more carefully.

The question was not if G8Ns are actively hunting fighters, the question is if attacks on G8Ns are a suicide commando or not.

Nobody in this thread asked for an increase of the BR of the G8N. You see just comments that the plane is way to successful for a bomber and must have triggered some statistics guy within gaijins data crunching team.

As gaijin sees (heavy) prop bombers just as fighter food, the do what they always do: Increase the BR, usually accompanied by a stealth nerf.

Your argument regarding preventing new players from playing it is invalid - a real passionate bomber pilot went through the JP tech tree and has flown Ki-67s before.

@Noveos_Republic

Bomber players (which isn’t really me) have complained about flimsy damage models for years so I find it strange that there are those who say they are too strong.

This has 2 aspects:

1. Damage model of bombers
2. Anecdotal perceptions whilst fighting or flying G8Ns

Regarding #1 - look it up, there are dozens of threads / posts dealing with this topic.

Regarding #2 - You saw the fellow player above describing events in matches, i added that a G8Ns even survived 3 hits with MK 108 mine shells.

@Noveos_Republic

Both players and Gaijin should just realize that attacking bombers is inherently dangerous, as it was irl

This is a) not correct and b) totally irrelevant as there is zero connection between irl and the game play gaijin is willing or able to offer.

Edit: Grammar…

[Colerend]

@Uncle J Wick@live

I recommend to play some rounds in a German/ Italian 6.0/6.3 prop and try to kill a G8N with a minimum level of awareness - you might change your mind.

I do play them regularly and I have to admit that SD mechanic is quite annoying but I didn’t struggle with shooting down bombers nearly as much.

[Real_K_Soze]

@Colerend

I do play them regularly and I have to admit that SD mechanic is quite annoying but I didn’t struggle with shooting down bombers nearly as much.

It depends on the bomber model you are fighting, that was the whole point of the recent posts.

I mean i flew the G8N for the last days and met some tough and battle hardened G8Ns who scored a hell of kills.

In this match:

https://warthunder.com/en/tournament/replay/307371696770944987

You see a G8N1 with 6 kills. As i was quite sure that i saw him before i watched him with the spectator view in order to get better in it.

It boils down that the bomber has (as described earlier in this thread) a rather good damage model and insanely good defensive turrets.

[Fanta_007]

🔴 Problem Today

Bombers fly alone

Hit tiny remote bases

After bomb drop → they are useless

Historically inaccurate and boring

🟢 My Solution

Replace small bases with ONE MASSIVE стратегic target:

Naval base

Train depot

Factory

Radar complex

A global bomb counter fills as all bombers drop payload

When the required total bomb mass is reached → the event triggers

Dropping more bombs after that:

Still gives RP/SL

No wasted effort

No punishment for late bombers ✅

💥 When the Target Is Destroyed:

Airfield becomes destructible

Airfield AAA loses 90% efficiency

Enemy loses 20% of total tickets

Aircraft repair/rearming time +200%

🎓 Bonuses

additional SL and RP if you destroy a aircraft near a bomber

additional SL and RP if you bomb together

Conclusion

Bombers are often slow, fly alone, and are a big target. Even though they have guns, they don’t have much of a chance against a normal player.

Making one large target would encourage bombers to fly together, giving them a greater chance to make a difference in the battle.

It would also be more fun to play as a bomber.

This alone would already make bombers:

Match-deciding

Cooperative

Historically accurate

[KillaKiwi]

Yeah the idea that bombers need to return to their 5km away airfield to re-arm only to be free kills to any aircraft at low altitude is ridiculous.

[Admiral_Pieter]

Your solution sounds very similat to strategic targets in some servers in IL-2 GB: Finnish Virtual Pilots and Combat BOX. Love it!

[Gnza10091441]

It would be great to see bombing targets reworked into modular buildings categorized by strategic value. Imagine an industrial district split into specific sections—such as administrative offices, warehouses, and high-value assembly plants—all surrounded by civilian infrastructure that must be avoided. Rewards would be tied directly to proper targeting, making precision actually matter instead of the usual ‘autopilot’ bombing. Also, adding a ‘Hit Camera’ to visualize exactly how much damage has been dealt to enemy infrastructure.

Actually, I believe a rework from an entertainment perspective is much more important than one focused on balance. You could do everything possible to make bombers impact the match, but if it remains the same boring ‘press space over this random red circle and whittle down its health bar’ routine, then bombers will continue to be as unappealing as ever…

[Night_Trapper]

I selected a few answers from this…
Video with BVV_d ( Viacheslav Bulanikov - WT game director ) from November 27, 2025

Will the durability of tactical and long-range bombers improve?

" Yes, we are not satisfied with their current settings. Their current settings are not realistic. They are machines that are demanding to control and play, and when meeting with fighters of the same br, they are even significantly less competitive… "

Are there plans to add EC air RBs?

"No. It was already tested in the form of an event, but it didn’t gain much popularity. But a new mode called “Air War” is being worked on. We tested several events, SEAD missions and strategic bombing. There will be testing in the form of an occasional event or another variant…
Then they want to add these things to a separate mode with a global map and different types of air operations…

Are you planning to introduce strategic bombers?

They are not meta machines for us, so no.
But since there is interest in these machines, we will occasionally add them as action machines, squadron machines, or otherwise (maybe a package?)… so something like the F-117…
They are not completely excluding them, but they probably will not be commonly available…

It will be interesting to see what comes of it…

[Ckasaron]

Bombers and Attackers are inherently not PvP planes.

Unless you go after the objective setup that enables PvP alone to decide match outcomes, little else you try to change will matter. All of the added factories, radar stations, supply lines, fortifications, trains, or whatever else will unfortunately change nothing unless interacting with them is necessary to win EVERY. SINGLE. MATCH.

Air RB saw all its flavor - all its PvE content giving maps their actual differences - bled away precisely because in most cases the average fighter player was able to ignore those aspects, which made them look “unpopular” and thus was able to be removed without much pushback. Only now some of us are aware of just what we lost - go into Customs and compare the modern [Operation] Kursk with the old one listed under “Tournament (Memory)” as one glaring example.

[Night_Trapper]

After playing 23 ARB battles, without a premium account, I have researched all modifications for the B-29.
A total of 8 battles won, the rest lost, 6 enemy aircraft shot down.
Except for 3 battles where the start was from the airport, all the others were airstarts.
Climbing sideways during airstart to a height of over 6 km, on some maps it was possible to climb up to 9 km.
Bombing bases, during high-altitude bombing of static AI equipment, 20 units destroyed.
20 times destroyed, after about 15-20 minutes in the battle.
Positive SL gain in about 13 battles.
Rewards - task completion - from players, but also curses like “damn nerd who flies too high…”

Summary:

• only climb as high as possible, there are few fighters who want to climb high behind you, those who decide to climb, risk that you in the B-29, succeed in a lucky hit and after a long climb they do not get a reward, mostly fighters, but manage to shoot down the bomber…
• even if there is a lot of swearing in the chat, height, is your salvation, you can safely fly high until the end of the game, i.e. 30 minute interval and look for modeled points of interest on the map… You, you want to gain SL and you want to be shot down as late as possible, or preferably not at all!
• with this type of bomber it’s about patience, a lot of patience…
• flying as a gunship at low altitude… sooner or later you’re out of luck, the question is whether you manage to take an opponent to the hangar with you, or collect a fairly decent number of SL, which will pay for at least repairing the B-29…
• almost minimal help to other teammates in the battle, on the contrary, your SL gain is directly dependent on whether your teammates can gain the upper hand and win the battle…

So with the current type of air battles, the developers’ assessment is completely correct that strategic bombers in this game are just an addition to the collection, or a curious vehicle…

With a premium account, if you play smart, you could earn a decent SL gain, but you have to collect 4 destroyed bases in each battle and something else…
Personally, I’ll take a break from the bomber for a while now, I had to arm myself with a lot of patience…

I would still allow myself this a note to call players again, let the devs install ARB EC…
No and really not again!
From the height in the B-29 airplane, this thing was visible:

• players do not want to climb higher than 5 km
• they fly quickly to the center of the map, a head-on battle follows and within 3-5 minutes 50% of the players of both teams are in the hangar.
• within 10 minutes it is up to 90 percent of the players.
• most players do not know the capabilities of the plane they are playing, or the opponent’s planes and they engage in low-level battles, which are essentially a meat grinder, in the style of victory or the end of the game…

The maps are the size of a combat zone for tactical aircraft and if there is a possibility of winning by destroying ground AI, fast low-level air battles will be the primary variant of all battles…
As I wrote in the previous post, we will see if Gaijin will be willing to do something about it…