He111 is HERE!!!!!!!!

[Babalonian]

Finally, about time! 

(Thank you HTCs!!!)

[Volron]

Volron, it won't be an FSO setup until they actually release it 

Right now it's just a screenshot. Be patient 

But it is so hard to contain myself!

[Babalonian]

Looks like they modeled the bombs in the bay in the vertical position too, neat!

After the "newness" wears off over the first month or two, I see the He111 getting used just as much of not more than the B25's, and perhaps only slightly behind the B26's.  Time will tell.   

That's just the LWA, I think it will be quite popular in the EW and of cource scenarios/AvA/FSOs.

W00t!  Another new airplane!  Thanks, HTC!!!   

<returns to drawing board, to revise BoB setup for FSO...>

NONONONONONOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Been _YEARS_ waiting for this and the next BoB scenario.   

[Krusty]

Let them bug test it in the FSO before committing to a scenario with it...   

[mbailey]

I think you could find fault in someone finding a cure for cancer. "Hey! Cancer is gone but the drug trials state I have a 0.0001% chance of developing rectal cysts. No point in curing it at all now!"

 

[Babalonian]

Let them bug test it in the FSO before committing to a scenario with it...   

Pfft, hell no.      And I think we'll get an H-4 hybrid with the faster engines since we seems to have the heavier (and external) loadouts.  (that or multiple HE111s, but it would be sad if they put an early-war plane in this game (which features late war birds predominantley in the MA gameplay) with only some of the earliest examples produced rather than also some of the also-numerous but upgraded models.

I wonder if they're going to model the bombs from the bomb bay specifically for the He111?

Brits during the 1940s wondered about the "tail drop" method -- which was required for the He111 because there wasn't room between the solid-span wing beams to drop a bomb horizontally -- and ran some tests against RAF bombers at the time. They doubted it could be as accurate as horizontally dropped bombs... Well interestingly enough, the flip around wasn't much of a factor, BUT when in the nose-down orientation they then proceeded with made them fly much faster and with much less variation as they reached terminal velocty much quicker than bombs dropped "flat"...

Interesting fact. I wonder if HTC will model it this way.

Because the other bombs already in the game, conventionaly horizontaly dropped bombs, aren't curently modeled to be lazer-accurate whith proper technique?     

[Karnak]

Pfft, hell no.      And I think we'll get an H-4 hybrid with the faster engines since we seems to have the heavier (and external) loadouts.  (that or multiple HE111s, but it would be sad if they put an early-war plane in this game (which features late war birds predominantley in the MA gameplay) with only some of the earliest examples produced rather than also some of the also-numerous but upgraded models.

Because the other bombs already in the game, conventionaly horizontaly dropped bombs, aren't curently modeled to be lazer-accurate whith proper technique?     

If we get an H-4 I would hope it does not get used in any Battle of Britain setting.

Personally, if I were to do a Battle of Britain setting with the current planeset in AH it would only have three airplanes in it, the Hurricane Mk I, Spitfire Mk I and Bf109E-4.

[Krusty]

edit: in reply to babs:

If you watch your bombs drop from the bombsight you'll notice they already have random dispersal built into them. They aren't laser accurate, at all. Most times you'll hit your target with blast radius rather than direct hit. Ju88 external bombs scatter rather excessively if you watch them.

I'm just wondering if the AH bombs are hard-coded to drop a certain way, or if the very nature of these bombs falling "nose down" will have AH's bomb code compute the new drop rate automatically (on the fly, if you will). Will HTC need to recode these new bombs, or it is already taken care of with current code?

[Nathan60]

Still slow, still inadequately defended.

No, you would be able to use it in the LWA, but it would never be a good choice.  You can use the G4M1 in the LWA, I do at times, but that doesn't make it "usable in the LWA".

Also, what larger bomb load are you speaking of?  How large?

THe H-5 variant with the 2k mentione din Krankys write up.

EDIT: Alspo not everyone has to milkrun in a fast bomber. I even take up the Dauntless to bomb a carrier from time to time. Ive done strat raids in 88's

[skorpx1]

I see we got a pretty crappy version of the He-111. It looks nice though. It'll probably get most of its use in the EWA.

[Babalonian]

OK, time for me to hedge my excitement for a little moment to chew over reality.

Now would be the time to think/harp/reveal/pow-wow over possible ways to increase survivability in the LWMA for torpedo planes.  Since something similar was implemented with the auto-puffy AAA this last and recent patch, maybe a similar feature could be implemented with the 20/40mm stuff and planes laden with torps?  IE: 1) if below 1k altitude and less than 250mph and passing within the formation of ships, AAA won't fire if a friendly ship is also in the LoS of fire from that gun position.  2) if below 1k or 2k altitude and an enemy (friendly to the CV) is within 1k distance of your torpedo plane, AAA disengages.  As is, the sturdy and solid TBM is paper mache - elaboration on the likelyhood of success flying a Ki-67, Ju-88, Kate and now the He-111 in the MAs is beyond a waste of breath.

And clouds... as awesome as the He111 already looks, throwing in more clouds (these nice new ones, hopefully can get worked out) would look even awesome-er and add some medium to provide cover if pilots choose to fly behind them or through them.


Flying the He111 through the crystal and constantly sunfilled skies of the LWMA, running on the deck with torpedoes strapped onto your He111 through ack designed to be dense and lethal enough to hedge NOE B-24s or diving Lancstukas, etc. - will be challenging.

[Krusty]

I see we got a pretty crappy version of the He-111.

Not so sure about "crappy" version of it. We need HTC to chime in with what variant it really is. There was a wide difference between He-111H-1 and He-111H-5, but all they label it as is "He-111H" -- which doesn't help. The H line went up to He-111H-22 later in the war, where these bombers air-launched V-1 buzz bombs.

Clearly we don't have the H-22 version, but for the sake of BOB use it would be nice to have HTC give us one that represents the BOB time frame.

[Nathan60]

You have to remember the flak box's size is determined by Speed, Distance and G's so if your in a bomber moving sklowly you flak box should be pretty large.

[mechanic]

A beautiful plane, I have a model of it on my desk. Thanks htc

[Krusty]

Speed wasn't the only consideration... During the attack on the Bismark, the Swordfish torpedo bombers were flying so slow that the guns had a hard time targetting them. The bombers' speed was below that of the minimum lead targetting for the guns, so the guns were shooting for faster planes and missing.

I think size of target is also an issue. Altitude as well. While it's good to narrow the box on level bombers in formation, a TBM at sea level would be a tougher target. Not only does the water make it hard to see how far off your hits are (for gun crews) and adjust, but the low level was often hard to aim at due to minimal gun depression angles. If a ship was listing even only slightly there was a chance one entire side of the ship was undefended. There were many times in WW2 when the torp bombers attacked a ship from one side because it was listing the other way, and got away with it. This is how the IJA finished off the Prince of Wales, if I recall. POW was only listing some 11.5 degrees, and the 5" guns couldn't aim at attackers at all from that side.

I think some kind of consideration for torpedo bombers would be warranted, and wise.