Bomber question

[ODBAL]

Never having flown bombers, but having attacked a few of them I have a question concerning the "formation" option.  Is the human pilot assigned to a specific bomber (lead bomber) in the formation?  Is there an advantage to attacking the lead bomber assuming the other 2 are drones?  If the bomber in which the virtual pilot is flying is shot down, does he find himself back in the hanger or in one of the other 2 bombers?

Also, anyone seen my keys?

Thanks!

[BaldEagl]

The pilot is in the lead bomber.  If the lead bomber gets shot down (killed), you will move to one of the drones and the other will re-form on your wing.  If the lead bomber is crippled (wing shot off), all the buffs will go tumbling toward the deck unless you bail out.  As soon as you do your are in one of the drones and the other will re-form on your wing.

Advantage in attacking will depend.  If the buff is about to drop, then attack the lead buff as the momentary jump to a drone will throw off his drop.  If they aren't dropping, then I like to take out a drone as it makes it harder for the lead position to gun.  He has to lead you rather than fire straight at you.

[PFactorDave]

If the lead bomber is shot down, the pilot is moved to one of the drones.

When I attack a formation of bombers, I approach it like this...  If the bombers are about to release their ord, I go for the lead in an attempt to disrupt his drop.  If not about to drop, I like to hit the drones first.  If the bomber pilot isn't paying attention, you might get one or both drones before he really knows what is happening.

[Rich46yo]

Never having flown bombers, but having attacked a few of them I have a question concerning the "formation" option.  Is the human pilot assigned to a specific bomber (lead bomber) in the formation?  Is there an advantage to attacking the lead bomber assuming the other 2 are drones?  If the bomber in which the virtual pilot is flying is shot down, does he find himself back in the hanger or in one of the other 2 bombers?

Also, anyone seen my keys?

Thanks!

Yes, by default your assigned to the middle #1 bomber. And yes there is an advantage to attacking the #1, "providing hes in it". By taking out the #1, unless the bomber blows up, you force the bomber stick to eject from #1 to end up in #2. In #2 he ends up in the pilots seat and has to move to the gunners seat. What this all adds up to is it takes seconds away from him and gives them back to you.

Of course the better bomber killers slash so by the time you end up with another bomber in your sights the bomber stick is probably in a drone gun seat. I can eject into another plane/gunner seat so fast that it doesnt really hurt all that much to be shot up in #1. But it can.

Another plus to attacking #1 is that you might damage some of the guns in the #1 bomber which makes it harder to aim the other drones if you stay in the #1 bomber gunner position. Some planes, like the KI-67, are susceptible to having their gunners positions killed. And again if you kill the tail gunner in #1 you can cause a lot of difficulty for the gunner. He then has to figure out his tail gunner is killed an then jump to a drone/tail gun to aim properly. Yes you can aim drone guns in a dead #1 bomber gunners seat but not as well.

I have a special mapping for my bombers and can jump into other bombers/gunners spots almost instantaneously and without thinking about it. But still, it does slow me up and attacking my #1 can cause me problems.

So in general attacking the #1 does pay dividends.

[Hazard69]

So in general attacking the #1 does pay dividends.

Whilst I don't think the 'seconds' gained mean much, but I will always aim for #1 bomber.
The reason is simple. The drones lag, and then "mini-warp" into formation on the lead (not talking about warping due to lag here, this is the way the game appears to handle drones data). This has got me killed at least 3 times, while intercepting a maneuvering target. I thought the lead had separated slightly and decided to go for drones. A split-second before a good shooting solution, the drones "mini-warp" into formation. My aim goes down the drain. Then I have  to break off and re-engage and eventually run out of steam. On one occasion, the warp caused me to end up in the rear quarters (a place I usually avoid at all costs).

So yeah, I too will always aim for #1 first. At least hes not going to warp ahead every 5 seconds.

[MachNum]

Also, anyone seen my keys?

Thanks!

They were between the cushions on the couch last time I saw them 


It's also worth noting that the 3 planes in the formation really are individual planes. So, if you don't down a plane in one pass, you will want to hit that same plane again regardless of which one it was. Otherwise you just spread your damage out over the formation and have to face all of the guns on every pass (and may not ever down a bomber). An exception might be if you are planning to try to take out gunner positions, but that's not a tactic that I would recommend.