AH2 Bomb Wing

[tedrbr]

Originally posted by FiLtH
At most Id like a primary and secondary target to choose from...but dropping a bunch of bases moves away from the realistic for me. Im as gamey as the next guy, but this I'd like to try to keep it mostly realistic and totally thump a target whatever it may be.

Considering the wish to keep a formation, and go for some historical accuracy in a buff raid, hitting a bunch of bases won't make much sense, unless you plan to carpet bomb them.  That *IS* a bit a waste of ord, and capability, in-game.  Might look pretty, might be "acurate" as the game can be to RL, it will make a lot of noise, but serves little purpose unless there is a follow up force against those bases.  Hangars down for 15 minutes, strats probably under an hour.  And if these missions are percieved as no threat, less chance they will get intercepted, which is part of the fun.

Suitable in-game carpet bomb targets include; cities, factories, and towns.  Enough B17's loaded with 250# bombs could probably take out up to three such sights, dropping 1/3 their load per sight.  4 flights of B-17's can level a town in one pass with full salvos easily.  A large formation should be able to wipe out three strat sites easily enough.  

(edit:  guess you could carpet bomb the valley in Tank Town too.... give them boys a moonscape to play in....)

Cities resup factories and HQ, factories resup bases.  Even here, unless there are base strat strikes in the zone of the cities and factories hit later, the effect is minimal.  Cities and factories do stay down for 3 hours, unless resupped at least.

Essencially, you can restrict the offensive operations in a zone by hitting the strats en mass, and then follow up attacks on the bases later, or at least in this effort support other offensive operations.

A large buff could hit the strats at many bases with some effect... all fuel, ord, troop, ack,.... but you either carpet bomb 1 or 2 bases to keep the formation, or you assign targets, salvos, etc.... in which case you can hit a half dozen bases or more, if you have the pilots..... but the formation will creep and wander as pilots line up on assigned targets.  This goes for HQ raids as well.

It is a game, with game mechanics and dynamics.  You can still get a reasonably "historic" flight, and still serve some purpose in-game.

[Baine]

I'd like to give it a try

[96Delta]

I can definitely do this!
What arena is this to take place in again?

Good job Filth!

[FiLtH]

One of the main late war preferably. If however we all can't get in one, we will use the mid war as a backup plan.

   HOWEVER...we will meet in the lobby before we decide so we can make sure everyone is accounted for.

[uberhun]

Sounds like a blast!
It might be a FPS problem, but what the hell. When the mission goes knight I am in! When it is not, I will be looking for ya in my 190 A8:t

[tedrbr]

Just checked a couple things to be sure.

1.  FiLtH  need not settle on an arena until that night.   The find  ".f FiLtH" command  will work in any arena.... the Lobby too, but mine tends to freeze up on me when I'm in there..... So long as the players have 2 or three names to key on with the "find" command in text buffer ... 2 or 3 that arrive in the arena maybe 30 minutes prior to launch time or more..... we can meet up as required.

This means he can decide which arena has the space for us.  He could also decide to jump in on the losing side... say Country 1 is being mauled by Country 2's "Horde", we can run a mission from Country 1 to 2 to distract them, throw them off balance, or limit their offensive capabilities.


2. Ran a couple B-17's in the TA.  Each time was about 18,500 feet in alt.  Running 50% fuel, 40 MAN, 25 RPM, 245 to 257 mph at drop.

12 500# bombs, salvo 12, delay 0.50 almost crossed a radar strat target area (dropped as I crossed first structure along path N to S) --- about 95% coverage along that lane.

16 250# bombs, salvo 16, delay 0.40 also nearly crossed a factory strat target completely - 95% - when released at first structure, with a little more overlap in blasts.

The width of the blast damage almost covers 1/4 of the target width.  4 bomber flights wide would be the minimum to be effective.  5 flights would be better for overlap.

Ergo;  4 or 5 flights of B-17's with 250's or 500's with full salvo can flatten 1 strat factory target.  Similar damage to a city (at least knocked down well below 50%).  4 or 5 lanes wide.

8 to 10 flights can salvo half their load over two such targets with good effect.  4 or 5 lanes wide, 2 spans deep.

12 to 15 flights can salvo roughly 1/3rd of their load over three targets.  4 to 5 lanes and 3 spans deep.

16 to 20 flights can salvo 1/4 of their loads over 4 targets..... beyond that, I think you are just dropping more ord on each target.... trying to break up a target's lanes more than into 1/4 deep spans get's a little tricky with that many pilots.  

The goal of 36 pilots would be a huge amount of ord.  And a frame rate killer to be sure.  Just can't see gathing all that resource to dump on one target only.  But that's just me... I like my effort to produce an effect, and if these runs are considered no threat, you limit the opposition.

(Of course, 36 flights of buffs could turn TT into the Valley of Death and a Virtual Moonscape.  You'd have a captive audience.  And plenty of reaction from all sides..... um....  Real screen rate killer too.... all those craters....might crash the server......)

Not sure how you plan to spawn a group this large on one runway, or if you plan on coordinating different groups to meet up en route (that would be a darbar to see..... three full sectors headed your way, eventually combining into one......  Or if you set up multiple missions, each with a launch time 1 minute apart for each squadron or group on the same runway.


It any case, you create a strike force capable of carpet bombing 1 to 4 targets in a zone.  Pick targets of importance, and go against the most numberous populated country, and you should generate some resistence for a good fight.  Managing such a formation.  Keeping it together under course correction turns, enemy attacks, putting your ord on target, and getting home intact is the challenge.

[nexus69]

Originally posted by uberhun
Sounds like a blast!
It might be a FPS problem, but what the hell. When the mission goes knight I am in! When it is not, I will be looking for ya in my 190 A8:t

Oh! Yes!! Target rich environment!

[FiLtH]

Great info Ted, have it on hand for friday night.

  WHat Id like to see us do is have the bombers up from 2-3 different bases and converge at a point on the map. Then strike off to the target. Goes the same for any escort we get.

   If we do have alot of bombers, we could also have each hit a different target. We'll see what happens.

[Reynolds]

Sign me up!

(If you need e-mails: Echo5dash7@hotmail.com)

[FiLtH]

Hi Reynolds...no need to sign anywhere. Just keep an eye out for missions for Bomb Wing. As a matter of fact, the mission alert is up..see other thread. Its Friday night Dec 8th 9pm et...meet in lobby.

[doobs]

what field filth, where ya hedin? what alt?

just askin:rolleyes:

[FiLtH]

Training Arena , A3, heading north, 5k

[2Slow]

Originally posted by SKJohn
I'd be willing to bet my squad members - The Skyknights - would be interested in this.  I'll post it on the squad website.

Ditto for me.

[Tilt]

IN


Edit

oops just seen I am too late

[Max]

Originally posted by Stang
Count me in, I miss the huge bomber missions of old.

Shedder