But maybe it's still score after all?

[PuppetZ]

So everyone agree's that I am in charge then ?

Sir, if you are going to serve pie in the o'club, count me out. I'd rather have ham 'n bacon with maple syrup.

 

[Lusche]

Care to elaborate on the plan? I assume you're talking about a B29 raid on one strat and the city.

Singles or formations for the B29s? And for the escort  - I'm guessing 152s?

Oh, actually it all depends on situation and number of experienced players available. But yes, it's based on 29 formations (at least for the initial strike), as they do have the range, speed and bombload required for such a raid.
If everything goes perfect, it needs only two players to kill off the city in one sortie. When more players are available, you can start to get creative.. staggered launching times, or all at once, one standing by for reserve or starting to take down a factory while the city is being smashed.

Of escorts are actually used (I did quite fine during the last days without any), I would rather prefer 47N's. But in case it's a map like OZKansas, different high altitude types will do as well, because the ultra long range ain't needed (no reason to escort the Superfortress on climbout).

[Lusche]

Some additional observations from yesterday.

OZkansas is a good map for bombers to work  on the strats, as the distances do allow for much shorter trips. Our (rooks) closest base had been only three sectors away, for example.
When I entered arena, someone had already taken Knight City down to ~70%, with two additional sorties I dropped it below 20%. In the end, I was joined in my efforts by Volron, and we then smashed the Knight ordnance factory. Only by then the defense really started to show up. (And that was really fun)

Unfortunately, despite our repeated 'suggestion' nobody tried to take advantage of this by porking the Nit fields. Which was particularly fascinating as during this time Knight were pressing the attack hard. The generals were alternately yelling their orders and voicing their displease with the Rook's apparent lack of organisation, fighting will and planning. Ironically our pointers to the Knight's somewhat delicate auto resupply situation in regards to ords were dismissed, and I was told that 'strats are only good for score' 

My whole evening I was also watching the other strats too. I saw occasional attacks, but always only by single pilots, and always the bombs had been dropped on several targets at once. Of course, this way attacks on the industrial complex are indeed a total waste of time.

Conclusion:
I was reinforced in my belief that a few experienced players can indeed have an impact by more 'strategic' gameplay if they get their act together. Kill City-> kill factory -> pork. Direct tactical combat is still more efficient in some ways (at least in theory), but it might still be an attractive path if action for those interested in something 'more historical', flying bombers, or just taking a break from the old smash&grab routine. Just a little bit of planning and organisation is required.
Too bad apparently not only nobody did know anything about the strats & the resupply system, but also the term 'organisation' seems to be strictly limited to blunt 'capture a base' operations.

[PFactorDave]

Is it, because attacking the strats is horrible for the score ( I thoroughly wrecked mine with my B-29 sortie - despite every bomb hitting it's mark, my hit% went from over 3000 down to 280)

Seems to me that the current scoring system encourages score potato tactics that allow a hit percentage of 3000%...  Maybe the system needs changed so that your 3000 hit percentage is no longer possible, and make it so hitting the Strats is the most efficient way for a score minded person to...  well...  score.

[ttflier]

Too much effort, too little reward and too much risk for a target that can be resupplied in minutes (with a great perk incentive to resupply).

[Lusche]

Too much effort, too little reward and too much risk for a target that can be resupplied in minutes (with a great perk incentive to resupply).

Too much effort in the context of the situations I presented with the strats "next door", or just general?

Also, during all my raids during the last week I never ever noticed any factory being actually effectively resupplied... on top of that, the City itself can't be resupplied at all (unless something has changed recently, but there was no indication for it anywhere)

addendum: Just verified it, unlike factories, city still can't be resupplied.

[RTHolmes]

another problem with the new city/strat complex is knowing what to bomb. the old strat factories were pretty simple - the map looks like the strat and everything you hit counts. the new city/strat complex is really difficult to bomb effectively by comparison. the strats arent quite as bad as the city itself, but its very easy to spend a long time flying over there to only hit a couple of strat objects.

[Lusche]

another problem with the new city/strat complex is knowing what to bomb. the old strat factories were pretty simple - the map looks like the strat and everything you hit counts. the new city/strat complex is really difficult to bomb effectively by comparison. the strats arent quite as bad as the city itself, but its very easy to spend a long time flying over there to only hit a couple of strat objects.

How is the city bad? Every city tile on the center island counts, as clearly indicated by the clipboard map 

[RTHolmes]

previously 99% of everything you could see was worth something to bomb (apart from 1x indestructible in each strat), ?75% of the current complex is worthless.

the city is a more difficult target than the factories because the target objects look like buildings just like the rest of the complex, unlike the strats which have visual clues (radar masts, refineries etc.)

[Lusche]

the city is a more difficult target than the factories because the target objects look like buildings just like the rest of the complex, unlike the strats which have visual clues (radar masts, refineries etc.)

^


The whole island is one big target, everything outside is not. I can't imagine any bigger visual clue than that.



From 30k, through some cloud cover:



It's a huge landmark that can be identified from far away while lining up, I have more problems to spot the factories.

[wil3ur]

...it's gamey, but you can turn your gamma correction down at high altitude to get slightly better ground visibility through the clouds.

[Lusche]

...it's gamey, but you can turn your gamma correction down at high altitude to get slightly better ground visibility through the clouds.

I prefer getting upset because an otherwise fine approach is suddenly thwarted by intervening clouds.

And I would have never mentioned that here for obvious reasons... 

[Daddkev]

 

[The Fugitive]

If it doesn't get you faster planes, bigger cannons, or help your horde roll a base in under 5 minutes, nobody is interested!

This game is all about rolling base after base and winning the war as quickly as possible. Anything else you can do, and there is a CRAP-LOAD of stuff to do is un-important to these players. They haven't a clue as to what bombing the city does (see the above remark about score padding).

To bring strat bombing, strategic planning, co-ordinated missions back into this game HTC is going to have to make it part of the win the war REQUIREMENTS. Other than that MOST people don't care about it and will not be interested in it.

[Lusche]

To bring strat bombing, strategic planning, co-ordinated missions back into this game HTC is going to have to make it part of the win the war REQUIREMENTS. Other than that MOST people don't care about it and will not be interested in it.

Incredible... I do agree