B-26 Marauder...uber?

[Rich46yo]

I love this aircraft now. I cant help myself and I cant get myself out of the thing and back into my 17s, KIs, 25s, and 24s. I have even lost interest in the 234 since the B-26 upgrade.

                          Great climb rate, very good and versatile bombload, speed, toughness, range, fly-ability, and gunnery...I must ask, is the new B-26 the new uber bomber of the game?

                        What really changed the plane was the increase in speed, and thus the increase in energy. It simply gets high faster, and gets in and out of targets faster. Egressing at over 300 mph will put more fighters in the "sweet 6" position where the 26 has 1,600 rounds in the twin tail turret and 800 in the top turret. Even the door guns with their 400 rounds are quite shoot-able. The other night I damaged a 262 from the left side gun only. And anyone or thing that gets in front of the nose guns??? Splat!!! But most of all its the tailguns that make it so dangerous. They will simply incinerate anything coming up the 6.

                    Another thing I noticed is the bomber turns very nicely, and at speed. You can dump air quickly and get the 26 into those little one strip canyon airfield on the front lines. And you can do so with the 26 shot up so bad you wonder how its still flying.

                  And 4,000 lbs is a respectable bombload. I'd love to get a mission up with 6 Marauders loaded with 500 lbs bombs and aim it at an airfield. Before the fix it was a very good airplane but now??

               Now it is a great airplane. In my opinion its the best medium bomber in the game and the best "all around" bomber period! Its only weakness is the lack of a belly gun but I even found a way to slice a fighter trying a belly attack. The key to the tactic is the energy the 26 now produces.

                         This is simply a terrific bomber. Thank you AH for giving us a tool like the Marauder.

     

[bj229r]

There's no reason whatsoever to fly a B25C in the MA---if you're goin med bomber, b26 is it (Boston IS the fastest of the lot, but is defenseless) Hardest thing to kill is B26's on the deck, cant get under em, and the frikkin guns ALways seem to hit you even before you roll in:furious

[Rich46yo]

Originally posted by bj229r
There's no reason whatsoever to fly a B25C in the MA---if you're goin med bomber, b26 is it (Boston IS the fastest of the lot, but is defenseless) Hardest thing to kill is B26's on the deck, cant get under em, and the frikkin guns ALways seem to hit you even before you roll in:furious

                           I dont believe in flying the B-26 on the deck. Ive always though altitude was the best defense. I also found a defense against belly attacks and have been chewing up fights with it, but, like anything eventually it will be learned and countered. The guns seem to be especially accurate at long ranges. I agree.

[Spikes]

I always take 26s on CV runs...usually on the deck and pop up once super-ack starts shooting...I take 4x 1000lbs and pickle them off in a salvo of 2.

[Widewing]

Originally posted by bj229r
There's no reason whatsoever to fly a B25C in the MA---if you're goin med bomber, b26 is it (Boston IS the fastest of the lot, but is defenseless) Hardest thing to kill is B26's on the deck, cant get under em, and the frikkin guns ALways seem to hit you even before you roll in:furious

Well, the Boston is only defenseless if you just fly along straight and level. Thus, I never fly a formation of Bostons, I take only one. That way, if intercepted, I can engage the attacker and slug it out. More often than not, I get it home with a few kills to boot. A well handled Boston can more that hold its own with noobs in fighters. The secret is to be very aggressive.. Catch them flat-footed.

My regards,

Widewing

[ghi]

Originally posted by Rich46yo
I love this aircraft now. I cant help myself and I cant get myself out of the thing and back into my 17s, KIs, 25s, and 24s. I have even lost interest in the 234 since the B-26 upgrade.

       
                         This is simply a terrific bomber. Thank you AH for giving us a tool like the Marauder.

     

 B26 was not changed too much, was deadly and before this patch, fast good climb, best tail gun amo load,kills from 1k, you can HO, voolch and dogfight in it in F3 mode, good firepower in nose. My favoritte CV killer, but many players go for better bomb load in much slower and vulnerable B17s,B24s,Lancs ,even if they don't need it,

[Ghosth]

Well the B26 is certainly a lot harder target to catch now.  And its really tough to get into a good firing position with a pilot who knows what he's doing.

[badhorse]

I haven't flown the B-26 since the patch. Guess I will have to give it a try again.  

I like the KI for its speed, range, rate of climb and the 20mm in the tail.  Wish it carried a bigger load though.

[Rich46yo]

I found a new use for the B-26. That of radar buster. I load it with 100 lb bombs and fly thru 4 or 5 front line enemy radar zones bombing their radars. While I usually get ganged up on by 5 fighters I also normally get to 2 to 5 radars,and, have some swell gunfights. I dont get many points doing this but who cares?

                             The 26 is actually well suited for this role. It carries enough bombs for salvos of 5 that allow you to bomb at full speed hitting radars. The KI-67 wouldnt be bad either but I like having more ammo or defense. The 67 is more hit and run.

[ScorpCH]

i honestly think b26's are over modeled.  couple of night ago, i was on my last flight before i went to be.  i upped a p38L from a nearby base and flew high over the cv for bomber cap.  i looked down after patroling for about 5 mins and saw a formation of 26's headed straight for the carrier bearing 319.  i turned the nose in the direction of the b26's and waited till they were right under me.  i cut the throttle, rolled over, and dove in on the bombers.  i was a little left of the bombers so i made a slashign attack to the right.  when i was 800 out i let the lead fly as all 4 .50 cals and 1 20mm hispano began to score hits on the lead bomber.  all i got was an aerlion off on the left wing of th lead bomber.  and then i climbed back up to the right away from the bombers.  i then began to grab again about 2k from the bombers, but just parellel to his flight path.  i got a good 4k alt advantage and then went in from the left for another slashing attack.  again 800 out i let lead fly from 800 out to 400 out and scored more hits then the first time, and to no effect.  no flames, no parts coming off, nothing.  i knew i hit him i saw the rounds flashing on his plane.  i know b26's are tough, but geeze.  i again waited and got some more and tried one mroe last slashign attack, with many hits,  but to no effect.  then i got to thinking that there was no ball turrent and the bomber might be softer from the belly.  so on the slashing attack this time i went down instead of climbing diagonal to the bombers.  i leveled out about 5k under the bombers and then pulled back on the stick and up into the bombers.  i could see his doors still open.  i started comign up on him fast and i began firing in front of the nose.  my rounds where short of the nose and ended up striking the belly and the tail hard.  i came to the top of my climb at about 800 feet above the bombers and was getting ready to go down under the bombers again when the tail gunner (who had been shooting at me the whole time with little success, or aim...) manages to not only kill one of my engines in the dive, but also PW's me.  at that point i decided that this guy was no fun.  i managed to crash land with the PW, looked at my ammo, and was shocked to see what i did.  out of the 2000 .50's and 150 20mm rounds i had,  i had 237 left, and im sure no less then 1200 of the .50's went into the aircraft, and i was completely outta cannon.  all that ammo and not one kill was unbelievable.  i mean heck, i can kill a b24, or 17 with 500 or less .50's.

[comet61]

I fly 26's alot in the MA, either short or long range. I have noticed that fighters that slash attack have less success of knocking me down than those that come up low on my 6 (no belly guns). It seems that the 6 attack will do more engine damage than the slash. Granted, usually a 6 attack can be very risky to the fighter jock because of the tail gun. Now...on 17's and 24's the slash attack does well for kills. Perhaps the 26 is over modeled, but it's a great plane anyway.

[Rich46yo]

Ive had my 26s get incinerated by 38s. Ive had both experiences shooting against 38s, both the kevlar ones and the paper ones. I once had all 3 26s smoked by one 110 at 1,000 yrds in about 2 seconds. I couldnt believe it happened. I'm sitting there waiting to fire and the next second Im all blown up, "all 3 planes". Last night I had a fighter skip from 500 yrds away to 100 yrds in about 1/10th a second. Must have been a frame thing.

                             While I would rate the 26 as a fairly tough airframe the truth is this is a computer game and about anything can, and will, happen.

[DoNKeY]

Originally posted by Rich46yo
I found a new use for the B-26. That of radar buster. I load it with 100 lb bombs and fly thru 4 or 5 front line enemy radar zones bombing their radars. While I usually get ganged up on by 5 fighters I also normally get to 2 to 5 radars,and, have some swell gunfights. I dont get many points doing this but who cares?

                             The 26 is actually well suited for this role. It carries enough bombs for salvos of 5 that allow you to bomb at full speed hitting radars. The KI-67 wouldnt be bad either but I like having more ammo or defense. The 67 is more hit and run.

Who do you fly for?  If its rooks, hit me up.  I'd love to fly escort.

[Rich46yo]

Originally posted by DoNKeY
Who do you fly for?  If its rooks, hit me up.  I'd love to fly escort.

                          Bishes, tho Im thinking of abandoning them. Were you flying last night about 1930 EST when five of the Rook frontline radars went down, one after another? Yep, that was me.

                          If I switch sides whats your game name? Mine is "bombrich". Escort on my radar busting missions would be great. All I would need is for you to tie up enemy fighters for a minute or two.

[Rich46yo]

Originally posted by comet61
I fly 26's alot in the MA, either short or long range. I have noticed that fighters that slash attack have less success of knocking me down than those that come up low on my 6 (no belly guns). It seems that the 6 attack will do more engine damage than the slash. Granted, usually a 6 attack can be very risky to the fighter jock because of the tail gun. Now...on 17's and 24's the slash attack does well for kills. Perhaps the 26 is over modeled, but it's a great plane anyway.

                       Comet did you see my new belly attack defense tactics on the squad forum?