Bombs are straight forward: the bigger the bomb the bigger the boom and larger the splash area. The lighter the armor on the gv the easier it goes boom. If the gv has on open top it is easily damaged.
There are a few things to remember with rockets:
First, there are different kinds of rockets. In AH, we have HE, SAP, and AP/HEAT. In terms of air to ground rockets the Soviet RS and the US 5in and 4.5 rockets are HE, you need to hit a weak armored area on a tank to have much effect. The British have the 3in/60 Pdr rockets and they are SAP/GP (semi-armor piercing or general purposes), these do the most HE damage for air to ground rockets in AH and they work better on gv's than the straight up HE rockets. The Germans have the only designated anti-armor rocket in AH, the Pb1 from the 190F-8. If you score a hit you get the kill, I've not ever seen a ricochet or one be absorbed, that includes vs a King Tiger. I've seen everything else bound off typical tank armor.
The second thing to remember is that rockets for straight off their launching point, meaning they do not follow the gun sight in any manner. When you line up on a tank with your aircraft, take in to consideration which rocket is firing and use your gun sight and aim wide, aim dead on and you will miss wide. The easiest rockets in AH to learn with are the 4.5in rockets from the P38G model. Why? The rocket tubes are mounted right under the pilot and the gun sight can be used almost perfectly. Otherwise, everything else has wing mounted rockets and the pilot much take that in to consideration when aiming. The other thing that must be taken in to consideration is the firing order of the rockets. I've tested every plane in AH and *know* the firing order. If you're lined up on a tank's side aiming right by 1/2 length in order to hit with a left wing rocket, there is no sense in firing 2 rockets because you KNOW the right rocket will miss. This is of course you compensate and adjust your flight path after firing your left wing rocket.
FWIW, he is some info on the air to ground rockets:
DMG vs OBJ (tied closely but not exact to dmg to vehicles, remember that OBJ do not have armor and tanks do.
)
British 3in/60 Pdr: 187 lbs
US 5in HVAR: 156 lbs
US 4.5in : 120 lbs
Soviet: RS 132: 120 lbs
Soviet: RS 82: 93 lbs (Weakest in game but still good vs light armored gv's. use them from the I-16 with great effect!)
German: Pb1: 93 lbs (only designated AP/HEAT rocket in AH)
Note worthy firing order:
1>190F-8: 2 left/2 right and so on
2>**ALL** US aircraft (P38G, P51B, P47D-25, etc) with the 4.5 in rockets (in the tubes) fire the entire left group first then switch to the right group (3 left/3 right).
3> *ALL* other aircraft in AH fire 1 left, 1 right, and so on.
I suggest you practice off line using the tanks on the field. Remember, rockets do have splash damage and can damage your aircraft if fired too close to the target. I suggest coming in at a 45° or shallower dive at high speed and firing once then watch and see where you impact. Rockets do have a trajectory, but far better than a bomb and in most cases unless you've fired from a long ways out the trajectory is no worse than a 20mm.
