So, I made the mistake of buying the Tornado IDS for Germany.
For Air Battles -
Take off speed is fantastic, that said payload limiting it to bombs puts it at a huge disadvantage comparing to other “ground pounders” at BR. Usually a case of rockets getting to a base before bombs.
Lack of air to air armaments. Getting into a rear aspect with the plane is not a easy feat. Turn time on the plane is uh… lacking. Coming in at 26 seconds with a max level, expert crew.
Lack of countermeasures - First 1 or 2 on your tail missile spamming and you are out of flares. Against radar missiles you might as well accept your fait and take the L.
Plane is extremely stable but have found that it tends to “wobble” in attempts of high G turns, making it a hazard in low flight to avoid radar missiles.
Ground Battles -
Payload here pays off - Being able to run in with **12 x 1000lb bombs means you can CAS run very effectively. The flight stability making it real nice to drop accurately even when doing low passes over the battlefield. Un-aware AA sitting in the enemy spawn makes for very easy targets.
Most players ignore air, this making your 2 air to air missiles a bit more viable in securing a kill if you have to go “defensive” against enemy CAS.
SIM Battles -
The stability mentioned earlier makes it super easy to fly and with payload you could hit 2 bases with more ease.
A friendly player will shoot you down.
–
So, in my opinion do not buy it if you want to grind out the German air tree as everything at BR will out perform you. Though if you want it to have fun in ground battles, go for it.
I don’t own the WTD version, only the MFG event Tornado, and like this very much for Sim, and it’s my best bomber there - or at least the one I enjoy to fly the most.
My biggest issue with it is a fundamental WT issue not restricted to the Tornado, namely the impossibility to freely select ripple quantity and interval of bombs: The Tornado with its 12 1000 pounders could kill 2 bases in CCRP theoretically (2x 6 bombs), but the game only allows intervals of 2, 4, 8, S…
One could work around this bringing 6x low drag and 6x high drag bombs, but a recent bug (again, not specific to the Tornado) makes the high drag bombs always fall short of the CCRP target.
Peeps tend to sit with “if it ain’t on my RADAR, it does not exist” mentality in high tier. Sneak low and profit. Figured early last year taking the A10A into 11.7 battles and must say, the S-1 & FlaRakRad became easy targets. CAS wise this changed for me with the F16C and JS39C where I go high with guided munitions & sit above the radar arc. Here again I started fearing the ITO.
In my experience that rarely works, especially with tornado, even with addition of retarded bombs.
Tornado has nowhere near enough agility to be able to aim the bombs effectively during low alt flight, no thermal pod means target acquisition relies solely on team mates and pilot eyeballs, and it also hinges on inatentive AA player AND AA not having guns.
Unguided rockets like zunis(which tornado does not have), maybe. But not bombs.