Why are bombers so painfully fragile? *Rant

I just want to play bombers, they’re cool, they can be fun. I’m a terrible dog fighter and I can’t rely on my team mates to cover me when ground striking. My bomber shouldn’t just explode when a fw-190 sneezes at me. Also why do we spawn so low, it takes far too long to climb to a safe-ish altitude that most fighter can climb to without much effort.

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One bomber that I’ve had a ton of fun with is the Yer-2, massive bomb load and decent defensive armament, for whatever reason nobody seems to want to bother me when I play it. I guess I’m lucky, or there’s something I’m forgetting.

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If you want to do well in bombers you have to play one that’s totally OP like the Ju-288 or IL-28, the G8N1 also has very heavy defensive armament otherwise don’t bother.

Especially don’t bother with British bombers because a 7.7mm turret is just a joke.

Yeah, kinda, but also, nice name

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Heavy bomber models are basically just scaled up versions from a fighter, and even on the scale of a fighter, are woefully outdated and too simple. They need to massively increase the fidelity of smaller aircraft as is and then do the same again for heavy bombers but 2 or 3x more detailed.

Parts like the wings and tail shouldnt be 1 part

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if your a skilled bomber gunner tu4 is another option

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Tbf, bombers feel fragile because of both survivor bias and war thunder being a game. A lot of the photos of damaged bombers paint a false picture of their durability; for every bomber that came home without a vertical stabilizer or dozens of cannon hits, many more were shot down, they just weren’t photographed.

Also, unlike in real life, war thunder pilots have pinpoint aim due to the mouse, which allows them to land way more shots than an actual pilot would, flying a real plane and full of adrenaline.

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I made a very similar post about 3 years ago i think…when they made a big nerf to bomber gunners…
Subsequent discussion (at the time) seem to converge on three points:

  • Lone Bombers are very vulnerable as they were IRL
  • Gunners are now “realistic”, they were too effective before
  • The game aiming model allows for better than real FIGHTER accuracy

THIS^^ boils down to…bombers are now somewhat realistically modelled in game…making them actual single use missiles…

  • You fly to a target and get one chance to hit…
  • If you are unlucky, some determined fighter will intercept you before
  • If you are lucky you get more attacks before the determined fighter does arrive…
    (You can replace lucky with skilled if you want…depends on perspective)

My solution…i gradually moved to ground battles…i would never become a good dogfighter and eventually i got “bored” of the “missile” piloting…
Also had some “fun” for a while taking down bombers…also got bored of it…

BTW…in the old days i would have fun attacking bombers as they were far more dangerous…the Halifax diagram above would be very different…the rear would be a RED attack lane…and i would have to manoeuvre to attack from the side and above…

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Gaijin doesn’t like bombers because they can’t figure out how to make them interesting. Buff them too much and they become SL/RP grinders that brainlessly farm bombsites without any teamwork or tactics. Make them too weak and they become impossible to play and underscore how pitifully they interact with the rest of their team.

There’s no reason to treat them as anything other than an AFK on your team. Even if you think you’d like to protect one out of boredom or something, half the time they’re completely checked out of the match watching youtube on their other monitor and you wasted your attempt to help on nothing. I’m convinced this is an unfixable problem and Gaijin is just hoping that they will eventually be too unfun to play and will disappear naturally.

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True british bombers moment. 7.7 Browning as a turret at 4.7 :c

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Being able to do accurate prop hang shots from nearly a kilometer out dedinitely nullifies a lot of a bomber’s ability to fight back.

Remember - engagement ranges without modern gunsights and guidance were like 300 meters and even then landing a hit for the average pilot was incredibly hard unless tail sitting. Deflection shots was a skill only like the top of the pilots had until late war sights.

Germans tried all kinds of wacky sights that let you aim while flying level under a plane and a gun that points above you and not in line.

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In the old days (after the gunner nerf) i would use a US plane (6 or 8 .5 cals with lots of ammo)…go for a bomber and start firing at 1km out…
More often than not i would get hits way before any gunner started firing…

Again…after a while it became boring…i guess the fun in planes is in dogfighting…but never could master it (PS controller does not help)

IL-28? OP? You sure?

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I dont think its so op but its good for sure

Wouldn’t even go that far

If you say so, I haven’t flown it just gone against it. The tail gunner is very powerful though I guess aams can just ruin it.

Only thing that I fly that encounters the IL-28 is the Sea-vixen and red tops make quick work of it. Though I can see how something with only guns would have a harder. Especially in sim

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not just AAMs, you are the same BR as the F-86A-5 and MiG-15

because targeted audience was crying about “op” bombers, as a result, bombers are unplayable.
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