New Player Bomber Tips

[Hap]

Hi Guys, well you've found Aces High, & I hope you have a blast.  I'll lay out a few tricks and tips that might increase your enjoyment.  Been at this since 2002 off and on and played Air Warrior beginning about 1997.

I began playing as an adult in my 40's.  So the things that trip kids' triggers really didn't rock my boat.  I very much wanted to plan a sortie, accomplish the mission, and rtb safely.  So what follows are some fyi's that should help new players who fly B-17's etc a leg up on the learning curve.

Base ack reaches to 8,000 feet above ground level.  That means if you fly over at 4K, you'll get chewed up pretty decently -- not to mention fighters will shoot down and harass you during your bomb run making your life miserable.

Fuel load . . . go for 25% if you are attacking a base 25 miles or so away.  And stick with that load out until you figure out on your own how your time in flight relates to distance.  A B17 will climb at about 1,000 feet a min with 25% gas and at about 750 feet a min with 50% roughly.

Also, get back to r x t = d.  Really helps, for example the bad guy base is 25 miles away, you're flying at about 150 mph true airspeed (roughly!!) and climbing at 1,000 feet a min (roughly!!)  So then you get this: 25/150x60 = 10 mins.  That does not account for having to level off, get a constant airspeed so your calibration is good.  My point is if you fly straight at the bad guy base you'll arrive roughly in 10 min at 10,000 feet with no time left to get a constant airspeed or to calibrate.  And, fwiw, a hot rod fighter can get to 10,000 feet in 2 to 3 mins.  Oh joy.

About turning, do it from the bomb site because if you do so you will pick up airpeed which will allow you to reach a 0 climb rate on your E6B which means when you calibrate your will have calibrated while your airspeed is constant.  If you turn from the gunner's position or pilot's chair, you'll bleed speed awfully.  Turns of 45 degrees or less work very well from the bomb site.  More to follow, but that should give you 3 tips to help: 1) alt, time to target, & turning.  More later <S>

[RotBaron]

About turning, do it from the bomb site because if you do so you will pick up airpeed which will allow you to reach a 0 climb rate on your E6B which means when you calibrate your will have calibrated while your airspeed is constant.  If you turn from the gunner's position or pilot's chair, you'll bleed speed awfully.  Turns of 45 degrees or less work very well from the bomb site.  More to follow, but that should give you 3 tips to help: 1) alt, time to target, & turning.  More later <S>

Thanks for the info, but I find the last part quoted here confusing. Can you clarify on how and why to turn from the bombsight. Also with a twisty-stick I do this turning in the bombsight using the twist?

 
Rot

[Gorf13]

Thanks for the info, but I find the last part quoted here confusing. Can you clarify on how and why to turn from the bombsight. Also with a twisty-stick I do this turning in the bombsight using the twist?

 
Rot

Meaning stay in F6 Bombardier position and turn w/ stick. This way you keep your airspeed and altitude constant.

[Hap]

Yes; Gorf got it right.  From F6, you can pull your stick all the way to the left or right and turn while simultaneously picking up airspeed to that coveted 0 climb on your E6B which then allows you to calibrate while you have achieved a constant airspeed.  At that point, losing weight will be your only bugbear.

Keep your map and E6B open in your bombsite.  Reduce it's size a bit so the two pages fit nicely under your cross-hairs.

You navigate using the map not your eyes until your target comes into the bombsite proper.

[RotBaron]

Rgr. Thank you for the clarification(s.) Turning while in bombsight won't cause you to lose the drones if you turn to hard?


 

Rot

[Gorf13]

Rgr. Thank you for the clarification(s.) Turning while in bombsight won't cause you to lose the drones if you turn to hard?


 

Rot

Nope...you can turn as hard as you like in F6 and drones will stay w/ you...but be advised, patience is required, F6 turns are slow.

[Hap]

Rot, I'll try to layout how I discovered this method.  And, again, Gorf is spot on.  I had upped Ki's for a bomb run.  So once to alt, I was in the bombsite and pushed forward on my hat (or #8 on your keypad), and I was looking out the nose of the bomber.  How cool, I thought.

Then I opened up my E6B in the bombsite, and the thought came, I wonder if I can steer from here.  And voila!  I can, and the turns are slow as Gorf said.  But I noticed as I watched my E6B climb # that during the turn it was decreasing -- meaning I was accelerating less and approaching a constant speed.  That was an eye opener.  So I can make this turn, and come out of it in much better position than I would using the gunner's or pilot's position.

Also, when your climb rate reaches 4, open your doors.  The drag will slow you down until you are very quickly at 1.  Then the nice 0 we want.

Here's 1 last tip.  Let's say you just nailed 2 FH's and are extending away from the airfield.  You've just lost much weight and picked up some airspeed by releasing some bombs.  Keep an eye on your climb # in your E6B.  When it is 0, calibrate then.  Before your turn.  Type that # in your range radio channel.  When you're ready to turn, do it from F3 which will mess up your airspeed.  After your turn, dive down a bit keeping an eye on your true airspeed on your E6B and when it matches the # your typed in your range radio channel (this way you don't have to remember it) hit F6.  And voila!  You're lined up, neither accelerating nor decelerating with a climb of 0, and calibrated to boot.

Hope that helps.

[bozon]

Fighter defense:
Don't be afraid to maneuver your bomber around. Constant angle trim (shift+X is the default I think) will hold when you jump to the gunner position. You can get fighters that creep low under your arc of fire by pitching up, hitting auto angle trim and jump to the gunner position. The advantage over rudder turning is that you will not lose your drones.

When your drones are lost, go fighter mode and evade attackers instead of sitting in the gunner position waiting to die. Some medium bombers have forward firing guns and can surprise many fighters when unburdened by bombs. In the days before formations I used to go fighter mode in the B-26 after releasing the ords. Good fun. With a gunner buddy on board it can be hilarious.

I can post a film demonstrating the above two points if someone reminds me how to attach a .ahf file here.

[RotBaron]

Thanks for all the tips. I've tried some of them out and with success!   

 

[texasfighter]

The quote below is from the notes on the new patch. Which bombs should we use when? I am sure the AP bombs are better for bombing the CV. But should we use HC/LC bombs on Hangars? Or is a GP still better for that? How about radar? Tanks?

"Added new bomb classifications to the game.  In addition to General Purpose(GP) bombs, there are now Armor Piercing(AP), Semi-Armor Piercing (SAP), and High Capacity (HC) or Light Case (LC) bombs.  For purposes of the game, compared to a GP bomb of the same weight the new bombs do the following: HC or LC bombs do 75% damage on a direct hit and have 125% of the blast radius.  SAP bombs do 125% damage on direct hits and have 33% of the blast radius.  AP bombs do 150% damage on direct hits and have 20% of the blast radius.  AP and SAP bombs are mostly available on dive bombers. "

[bozon]

The non GP variants are only available on specific planes. SAP and AP are on dive bombers and HC are on bombers, so you never get to choose between AP and HC.

The scale works like this:
SAP/AP <--> GP <--> HC
hard structure <---> soft structure

Hard structure are those that take a significant amount of ordnance to bring down, like hangars and CVs.
Soft structure are those that any old bomb can bring down, like acks, barracks and most importantly town buildings.

With hard structures you want to minimize the about of lbs required to bring it down, so you try to get a direct hit as much as possible - use SAP/AP when available, otherwise use GP.
With soft structures any near miss will kills it, so go for blast radius to minimize the chances of a miss and perhaps hit more than one structure in the radius.
Against GV, I suppose that blast radius will be more useful than the concentrated power of SAP/AP because GV's are harder to hit. On the other hand, tanks often survive the blast of small bombs. I'd go for GP.

Finally, it depends on the loadout options of the specific AC, especially the bombers. For some, you can get a larger total poundage of bombs by selecting an option of GP that has no variant equivalent, but has more total lbs, or simply more bombs that allow you to cover a larger area with small blasts.

The 4000 lbs cookie now comes only in HC version. With that kind of poundage and increased blast radius, if you drop one at the center of town it really becomes a block buster. Haven't tried it yet though. Good reason to roll out my Mossie XVI.