Legitimate Zeke dweebery for 1.05

[juzz]

1.05 is going to have an American fleet, right? So how do you excpect that poor old Zeke to damage those shiny new ships?

Well, after I read this, I got to thinking...

 

Some A6M5s were converted to dive bombers by replacing the centerline drop tank by a rack for a single 550-pound bomb. Unfortunately, the rack was mechanically unreliable, and frequently failed to release its bomb when commanded to do so by the pilot. Consequently, many Zero dive bombers were forced to fly back to their bases with their bombs still attached, and many were forced to ditch at sea and were lost.

This was of course not a problem for those A6M5s that were used for kamikaze attacks. Modified Zeros assigned to Air Group 201 based in the Philippines carried out the first suicide missions against American naval units. The first such attack was carried out on October 25, 1944, led by Lt Yukio Seki. These suicide aircraft were at first primarily modified obsolete A6M2s, but modified A6M5s were later used as well. These attacks were an outstanding success, and other Kamikaze units were formed, primarily equipped with Zero fighters modified to carry 500-lb bombs underneath their fuselages. In ten months of use, suicide aircraft accounted for nearly half of all US warships damaged. Nevertheless, the desperate Kamikaze attacks were not able to stop the relentless American advance across the Pacific to Japan.

The AH A6M5b has the option for a single 250kg centreline bomb. Did HTC intend this to be a kamikaze weapon? Hmmmm...

[Ripsnort]

Here's my prediction: HTC said the US fleet will be first to arrive, my bet is that when they implement the Japanese fleet, we will get the Val and the Nate as well...

Like your idea of allowing the 500 lb. bomb for  the Japanese, or better  yet, give us the Betty!

[brady]

  Betty and a SUPPER PERK the BAKA!,can u imagine spending your hard earned "perk" points on a BAKA,torching that motor after a friend caries u to the launch point and then,BANZAI!

  However a Nakajima B6N2, and a Aichi B7A2, (and to round out the package Frances could come out to play ),would make for a great addition since these were considered to be the best (or at least some of) of their type in the world at the time.

    Brady

[funked]

I think kamikazes would be abused in the MA.  They would have to be rationed.  

But for scenarios they would rock.  We did a kamikaze scenario in WB and it was a blast!!!
Of course the damage model did not account for our impact with the ship.  IIRC the number of Zekes hitting the ship was manually counted and it was ruled that we killed it.  

[flakbait]

Funked, that's why you drop your bomb just before impact. Enough people here do that when going Ost-Dweeb hunting and get shot down. They're spiraling down, right at you, and dump eggs just before impact. Nearly always kills the Ost-Dweeb. Typhoon got me like that when I was going to play camper at V41's VH with an M16. He dove on me, and I opened up. Once his range marker hit 400 his wing came right off, he dumped one bomb. Nailed me good.

Had a B26 do the same thing when I was going to A6 to raise merry hell with a panzer. yancyan was covering me with an Ost, while I was plinking away at an enemy M16. He got the B26, which then ended up diving straight for me. He dropped bombs, my panzer went BOOM.




------------------
Flakbait
Delta 6's Flight School
"My art is the wings of an aircraft through the skies, my music the deep hum of a prop as it slices the air, my thrill the thunder of guns tearing asunder an enemy plane."
Flakbait
19 September 2000

[juzz]

The point is that the 250kg bomb option for the A6M5b would appear to have been exclusively a kamikaze weapon, unless HTC was modelling the small number of faulty dive-bomber modifications...

How detailed will the ship damage models be I wonder. Surely better than WarBirds "explode into craters" ships? Being able to do stuff like temporarily stopping flight ops by putting a hole in the carrier deck would be way cool.