While any giant bombers are kinda dead in this game. The smaller and slightly more maneuverable ones are pretty decent.
Do wish we could still destroy airfields (At least stopping re-arm and refueling) and get to our bases before fighter mains decide to take our job from us.
No, they don’t. Stick to the facts. Bombers do not win games in WT anymore since the massive nerf to how much they affect tickets.
Bombers do very little in the game and therefore earn mediocre amounts of RP/SL. They aren’t even consistent at doing this because they don’t reach bases every single game with the current weak nature they have. I am not referring to jets using napalm/bombs but actual bombers.
“Playing for a long time” means what here exactly? You still have to get activity time to get rewards. You can’t AFK.
Bombers also aren’t CAPABLE of killing decent fighter pilots. The tactics the fighter can use simply make the bomber unable to defend itself.
Are you a moron? Don’t answer that, I have the answer here:
Swedish T-18B in AAB whenever I have a task requiring killing a number of ground units with a bomber. Along with the Ju-88 in the tree.
Also use this combo when grinding an event vehicle - easily get 3000 pts (score) per game - often much higher, making 30-45,0000 pts in 2 day reasonably achievable.
Also gives good SL.
To minimise repair costs I run this alongside a French lineup that uses SB2C and A35 as the initial bombers, a Chinese one using the P1Y1 to start, Japanese with B7A
All these do the same thing - hit lots of ground units ASAP for max score. If it looks good I’ll also spring the “Anti-mech” order to kill the most ground units with these - I will get that about 2 times out of 3.
complete the lineups with fighters and perhaps a lower level bomber too
“What type of bombers you play, and in what game modes for fun (and with decent rewards)?”
A comprehensive answer looks rather complicated as
Fun is highly subjective
Decent rewards is highly subjective
Game impact and gained rewards is highly subjective
Effectiveness of classic bomber game play varies in different game modes
So whilst prop bombers (with decent defensive armament) actually win matches in Air AB and have severe advantages vs fighters in Air SB thanks to 3rd person view in manual gunner mode the picture for the former crown jewel mode Air RB is rather sad as they are borderline useless regarding game impact and subsequently match results.
I agree in general if we assume that a fighter meets an equally skilled bomber pilot.
From my perspective it looks often that flying a bomber is seen as cheap tool to progress without the necessity to learn how the game (and aerial warfare in general) works and the majority of bomber players i meet in my main mode Air RB are not even remotely interested in anything else than grinding what ever it takes.
If we have a common understanding that the success of a bomber can be determined by being:
A) able to actually deliver the payload
B) able to defend himself to a large degree
C) Having an actual game impact
D) able to survive a match or at least can safely rtb
I would not recommend using any “real” bomber in Air RB as the efforts to make them even remotely working requires a significant experience advantage vs your average fighter opponent.
Imho the only exceptions from this rule for Air RB are:
Ju 88 A-1
B-18B
G8N
The Ju-88 can still win matches at very low BRs if you come in very late and very high and you are on a map with a “killable” airfield. A good flown B-18B is a pain to kill due to very good turn, very good high alt performance and still strong defensive 13.2 mm cannons - and the G8N has insane defensive power thx to twin 20 mm turrets and can survive a lot of hits.
As the dogfighting capabilities of Ju 288s were mentioned:
Before the plane was nerfed into oblivion you were able to turn with most US fighters and if you were experienced enough (= level 75 + aced plane) all you had to do was to stay at the six of your opponent and your ai gunners (chin turret) sprayed them down before they were able to extend out of gun range.
Oh Arcade, in that case I also need the fast bombers to reach a higher altitude before the MiG-3 decide to go after me, and if they do I also have a chance to dive and waste their energy before dying.
I like to play bombers in GRB, some of them are quite agile and play light heavy fighters, others are too unweildy and I make a game of sniping targets with the bombsight.
If I notice the enemy pilots are less experienced or have brought bad/low tier planes I might try and use the turrets like a gunship.
Sometimes I’ll just use heavy bombers like big goofy attackers and try not to hit trees and buildings.
I can’t say I’ve devevloped a reliable or profitable strategy with bombers, but so long as I’m not too tired or worn out to have fun, I tend to enjoy the novelty of bombers quite a bit
For fun and decent rewards, play sim. Almost any bomber in that mode is a viable option. I’d only avoid light bombers with very small payloads (some like the D4Y are decent dogfighters) and be extra careful with anything that only has rifle-caliber machine guns for defense.
Only bombers I’ve played that have even a semblence of what could be called fun is the ju228 (faster than most things it sees unless uptier) so you can fight on your terms mostly (forcing them into posistions for your 20mm to shred them or at least have a chance) or the TU-2 variants can sort kinda somewhat fight if you are decent switching to turrets. IL28 ISH has some funny stuff you can do with setting fuses on the rockets in headons + gun pods, but its a big gimmick, but halarious when it works. It also isn’t the worst boat in the air.
Bombers in this game pretty much just exist to grind out TT while watching youtube or something on the second monitor for 90% of the game, and then becoming a free kill hopefully for you after you get a base.