Weapon Leathality

[Jayhawk]

Don't try and tell me that there's no difference attacking a bomber going 185mph than there is one going 300mph.

I don't think either are saying that, but you can make successful attacks with patience and planning.

Out of curiosity, do you propose making bomber's engines overheat?

[Tec]

A few points.

1. The vast majority of game play is "unhistoric".
2. Fighter engines don't overheat either.
3. With the exception of the Boston, which is rare enough in the MA to be considered moot, the only piston powered bomber that does 300mph in level flight is the 17, and it does that speed at ~30k.
4. Bombers are meat.

[Nemisis]

B-24 can pull 301 at alt and the Ki-67 can pull over 325mph at 20k or so.

[Tec]

the Ki-67 can pull over 325mph at 20k or so.

Yea forgot about that one, probably due to the fact that hardly anyone ever flies them.

[Nemisis]

IDK about that, and the boston is more common than you think. Often they leave formations in the hanger, and their icon is the same as the A20's from a distance. They A20 you see flying about 10-15k is most likely a boston since 15k is above where the A20 is fastest.

[Ghosth]

Krusty if you can catch them from dead 6, then you can catch them echelon'd off to the side 1k. Then turn and attack from the side instead of flying up his 6.

It really is that simple.

I know you have a pet peeve about bombers flying faster than they did in some situations.
But it really doesn't apply here.

Bomber engines were designed for long runs. And even if they did pull the throttle back a bit when flying with a large formations. That really doesn't effect their top speed that much. At 250 - 300 mph,  5 mph difference is minor.

It certainly won't make the fighter attacking have it any easier. And the very first thing a bomber would do when it sees a fighter is firewall the throttle.

[Lusche]

Not so Ack-Ack... Even in a position of alt and speed, you make 1 pass and even if you move along the same path as the bombers, they move so fast that by the time you reposition for a second pass they are pulling away. Every jink/evasive you pull while zooming past them serves only to bleed your speed.

No matter how often you will claim this, it's still not true.

Buff busting is my business in AH, and I make repeated successive attacks on them without seeing them "pulling away". Unless they fly 25k+ (which only a utter minority does), one should have no real problem to catch up, overtake, do repeated attacks.

[Stoney]

No matter how often you will claim this, it's still not true.

And no matter how many times we try to explain this to him, he refuses to budge.  I don't even have the energy to joust with him anymore on this one.

[Jayhawk]

.

[Jayhawk]

3. With the exception of the Boston, which is rare enough in the MA to be considered moot, the only piston powered bomber that does 300mph in level flight is the 17, and it does that speed at ~30k.

Empty lancs can do something like 320 @ 34k. 

[hitech]

I must point out that following the logic of bullets doing more damage because you are flying into them, then they would do even more damage when attacking head on, as you have the speed of the bomber, the speed of the bullet and the speed of the fighter all working together, where as from dead 6, you have the speed of the fight and the speed of the bullet minus the speed of the bomber.

Nemisis beetle is correct but for the wrong reasons. At longer range the bullets relative speed is faster then when shooting backwards. This is simply because the drag is a V^2 function.

The simplest way to in vision it is a bomber going 300 mph shoots a bullet backwards with a muzzle vel of 300 mph. Relative to the ground and air it would not be moving. But even if a fighter is 1 mile behind traveling at 300 mph he will still hit that bullet at 300mph.

Same case forward the bullet would slow down very quickly with a 600mph air speed and strike the fighter moving at 300mph with a speed less then 300 depending on the distance.

HiTech

[Yeager]

the game can be incredibly frustrating at times but there are always ways to defeat the reds.  Always.  The challenge of it keeps me interested.

[Ack-Ack]

Not so Ack-Ack... Even in a position of alt and speed, you make 1 pass and even if you move along the same path as the bombers, they move so fast that by the time you reposition for a second pass they are pulling away. Every jink/evasive you pull while zooming past them serves only to bleed your speed.

Yes, you can.

You come in for your first pass from above, after you make your pass you extend out of gun range while in a shallow climb.  When you get beyond gun range, you pull up into the vertical and come over teh top and back down on the bomber formation.  You will not be in the trailing position when you make your 2nd attack.  Make your 2nd pass, repeat extending beyond gun range, pull into the vertical come over teh top and dive back down on the last remaining bomber.  If done correctly, each pass set up you for the subsequent pass and you will not end up at the trailing position. 

The only time you would end up in a trailing position is if you extended to short or you stayed in a vertical climb for too long.


ack-ack

[Puck]

I have never been a bomber gunner during WWII, nor have I ever played one on TV...but my father WAS.

Anyone dumb enough to come up from dead 6 was just that...dead.  Anyone dumb enough to parallel a bomber 1000 yards out was (probably) going to have additional ventilation added to their aircraft.

Where AH and reality grossly diverge is where fighters attack bombers solo and where the bomber guns are all ganged together.  As near as I can tell second hand, there were bad guys coming in from multiple angles (and not always at YOU, but very likely at someone near by) and every gunner chose whichever target looked the most dangerous.  They NEVER (at least the training was very specific about this) fired on a fighter after closest approach; the odds didn't favor a hit and the guy coming in was more threatening.

...ok, so the Icons were harder to see and hit sprites were often lost in the excitement...

I've put my dad in a bomber gun and he did annoyingly well for an 80-something that doesn't fly AH.  Way, way better than the punk kid with the good hand-eye coordination and no real-life experience, anyway.

The best view in the aircraft...Emerson nose turret on a B-24.  Nothing but glass between you and the whole Pacific Ocean.

[Rino]

Only if those 3 fighters attack bombers in the most stupid way... which most AH players unfortunately do.

When I'm in a bomber I see 9 out of 10 players simply creep up my six. I'm a mediocre buff gunner, but most of the time I can blast them.
But each time I see someone is simply taking his time to get into a serious attack position... I know I'm about to die.

     Interesting when your bomber is cruising around at 300 mph huh?