HQ Downtimes set for 5 minutes

[Grin]

Lol, we forgot that the 49:ers is way above the reso of us. 
The reason for not having large bomber formations is excatly what you are decribing. A large formation attracts so many defenders that even with ecort it will have a hard time to get trough. I have seen forations of 8 bombers being dismantled in a matter of minutes and damage done to strats are equal to what 1 set can do. With B-17 i drop a factory to 25-30% or city to 70-80%. Its just a waste of time to bring more bombers and risk to attract too many uppers. If u go alone noone up until after drop.

Going alone is not very fun. Going as a group and drawing the attention away from the front and towards their strats is quite fun. Drawing pilots further behind enemy lines keeps the front line skies a little greener, and it's even more fun to swat fighters like flies, as Jazzi, LaSalle, R711 and Flint discovered while I was gunning for 49Hack yesterday in the B-29 Bait Plane of Doom 

I think it was back in April, the last time we flew bombers for FSO. 10+ pilots in B17s. We flattened our targets and went home with the majority of our aircraft surviving. Never underestimate a well-coordinated group of bombers and the smackdown they can lay upon aggressors. Single flights can be picked off with ease at normal altitudes, but a large flight of bombers in defensive formation with their eyes open and mics ready is quite formidable. You may be more interested in going TO the fight. Bomber groups ARE the fight and they go where they please.

Would you attack this alone?

[Zimme83]

A couple of 110s w rockets will create havoc in that formation.

[Interceptor]

Your "low-pop" hours arent the real true VERY-low-pop hours : i play at European morning mostly, and today when i logged there were 27 players: with tower sitters, that was barely 15-18 ppl fighting in WHOLE game : good luck finding a dogfight if HQ had been down for hours as it happened everyday last week. 

i play 0730-1000hrs Central Standard Time. the "off time" hours still no issues finding fights, taking bases, or bombing bases. just cant be lazy and there are alot of lazyones

[Zimme83]

Just look at the scenario, not even 30 bomber formations survive unescorted. The 109 and 190s had plentu of fun there...

[Grin]

A couple of 110s w rockets will create havoc in that formation.

Nobody ever does that. It's always 262s, 163s, and run90s, at least on the Bish side. Knights will at least add some variety, like Spits and Ponies, or the odd Typhoon.

[Zimme83]

Nobody ever does that. It's always 262s, 163s, and run90s, at least on the Bish side. Knights will at least add some variety, like Spits and Ponies, or the odd Typhoon.

We did, even with crappy pilots like me, Havermyr etc a bomber formation doesnt last long. Attacked a group close to city once. Took 3 mins to shoot down all 8 sets, they got about 15% of city...

[Zimme83]

Since u never can find enough pilots to get a proper escort for a large formations simply have to rely in numbers (that there are enough of them so not all are shot down before the target).
Formations are fun yes but from a strategic standpoint a waste of time most of the time.

[Grin]

Regardless of the spam of high-perk fighters to defend Bish strats, it's still fun to fight over their homeland, and it is equally fun to take 3 or 4 sets of bombers with LOTS of bombs and carpet a wirblenest into oblivion. Even with HQs down, you make a front line V base flash on the Bish side during peak times and you can almost guarantee 4-8 wirbles spawning inside of 30 seconds. Lancs doing a 9-1-9 with good delay netted me 2 hangars and 4 kills in one pass before, with a good little fight on the way home against some K-4s that scrambled from a nearby airfield. Players who depend on HQ need to learn how to play without it.

[Grin]

Since u never can find enough pilots to get a proper escort for a large formations simply have to rely in numbers (that there are enough of them so not all are shot down before the target).
Formations are fun yes but from a strategic standpoint a waste of time most of the time.

Lots of folks are willing to jump in and lend a hand for escort. I've lost count of the number of times we've picked up escorts along the way to supplement our own. Shoot, I've even been part of raids where the Knights picked us up with a 262 and a couple Ponies for a few sectors through no-man's land. 

vMrBig wasn't too happy about that. lol

[Zimme83]

Then again. U dont suffer from low numbers the way we do. W 5 people in flight on each team and a moron dropping hq there are pretty much nothing to do but to log.

[Grin]

Then again. U dont suffer from low numbers the way we do. W 5 people in flight on each team and a moron dropping hq there are pretty much nothing to do but to log.

OR look at the map and see what's flashing, or try to get a furball or GV fight going by talking to the other teams on 200 or by PM...

[Grin]

I put on a mini-airshow in an I-16 over a V base once due to low numbers. Some wiseguy in a wirble wasn't impressed.

[Zimme83]

OR look at the map and see what's flashing, or try to get a furball or GV fight going by talking to the other teams on 200 or by PM...

People dont want to fight. The weakest team get double teamed by the other 2 and are also the team that most likely get their hq killed...

[Grin]

People dont want to fight. The weakest team get double teamed by the other 2 and are also the team that most likely get their hq killed...

That sounds to me more like players without honor or sportsmanship than it does anything else.

[Zoney]

If we can get some guys to RAGEQUIT

This pretty much says it all.