Remind me how much fun it is...

[Dantoo]

To be in level bombers. with wind. with complex calibration in FSO please.  I seem to have forgotten.

What is the point of asking people to go out there with no other purpose than to be a stocking filler?  If there are squads that truly think it's fun to fly buffs to a highly defended target, with next to no chance of actually hitting anything - could they please volunteer for 3 weeks of buff rides every time these setups come by? 

You could actually win these FSOs by climbing really high, dumping bombs at first sign of trouble and running for home just to get the landing bonus.  If you think this is just another crappy whine (I am whining for both sides though) please look at the amount of objects taken out by level bombing in this frame.
Axis flew 9 trios, by my count. for 2 objects. Only one of the pilots didn't land safely so they weren't all shot down.
Allies flew 20 trios for 9 objects.

Now, WTFG to RedBrd who actually knocked down a vh, killed a second object, shot down a 109 and landed safely!

[Becinhu]

Buffs in FSO is a tough gig. I felt sorry for the Bostons that tried to hit A13 unescorted. You flew into a two squad cap and it was ugly.


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[j500ss]

In FSO, bomber calibration is always a touchy subject.  It shouldn't be, but it is.   With a new game, and new maps, and base layouts, calibration should be MA standard.

We also have issue where bases are obstructed at times with clouds, and if you have a lower end rig, I hear you may have a tough time actually seeing the target to get bombs out in time.

It's a tough gig when you run into everything the other side has to throw at ya.   Given the setup, and how the Axis ran their ops, they had every fighter squad available for defense of targets when the Allies hit. 

Hopefully you get fighters in the next 2 frames, then maybe you will not feel like a stocking stuffer.

 

JDOG

[Joker312]

Dantoo makes a valid point. Why make it more difficult? OTOH unescorted buff runs really don't make much sense in FSO when you know the target is going to be defended.

No escort to target almost always ends badly. Same for NOE missions.

[ImADot]

It's tough to escort fast bombers with slow planes...

[Devil 505]

MA standard calibration would help greatly here.

[oakranger]

Buffs in FSO is a tough gig. I felt sorry for the Bostons that tried to hit A13 unescorted. You flew into a two squad cap and it was ugly.


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There was 2-3 of you pest that tangle with me.  Surprise the amount of hits I took.

[Becinhu]

There was 2-3 of you pest that tangle with me.  Surprise the amount of hits I took.

2 12.7 and 2 7.7 aren't exactly heavy firepower. Death by annoyance


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[Kanth]

I think one time we had to do the manual calibration for bombing and I"m pretty sure we all just carpet bombed. Except probably Drone. He's our expert!
Not enough people know how/are interested in manually calibrating.

If that was the setting then imo it's too much for non bombers.

[oakranger]

2 12.7 and 2 7.7 aren't exactly heavy firepower. Death by annoyance


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For one plane it is not but having multiple cons it dose.

[captain1ma]

we got wiped out pretty quickly last night. theres a large crater left over, where I dropped my daisy cutter!! JU-87's can be fun, but usually end up dead! and now with concentrated defenses, we're going to have to rethink volunteering for them. I don't mind getting killed, but I do mind when my entire squad gets wiped out.

[Drano]

It's tough to escort fast bombers with slow planes...

Absolutely! But if that's the case then the bombers need to slow down or offset their course a bit to maintain the interval. Fighters can't do their job from a half sector back. It's a coordination /communications thing. Furthermore the bombers need to make sure their exact location is known to the escorts by posting keypad, heading and altitude every minute or so. Somebody in the group needs to get that duty. There's a lot of that whole fog of war thing that emirates from your own side! Seen it a million times. Missions that have good comms will generally have a better chance of success than those that don't.

However, if the target is defended by an overload of numbers that's all likely to go out the window.

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[Vantec]

Buffs in FSO is a tough gig. I felt sorry for the Bostons that tried to hit A13 unescorted. You flew into a two squad cap and it was ugly.

Dantoo makes a valid point. Why make it more difficult? OTOH unescorted buff runs really don't make much sense in FSO when you know the target is going to be defended.

No escort to target almost always ends badly. Same for NOE missions.

Unescorted? I would like to call this out, and correct this as AK's were on scene and assisted in the best manner we possibly could. Flying P40E's last night was fairly difficult considering the circumstances. As pointed out by ImaDot fast buff vs slow planes escort was fairly challenging for both groups.

We were scouting ahead for the buffs for most of the frame just before approaching A13. We were calling out our position over range and monitoring the situation. After as we were approaching A13 buffs were full steam ahead on course pulling away fast. We attempted to cut the corner to catch the buffs as best we could as we did swing wide to avoid a reported 109 patrol. Ak's were just in shadowing distance and at 12-16k while buffs were around 8-10k on approch just off the coast of A13 . We had to maintain our alt as to not get bounced by the impending 109F doom that was soon to rain down upon us. (admittedly who where 5k above us) As the impending 109 swarm descended upon bombers all AK's dove in to help defend.

Id like to point out we had 7 AK's as the escorting squad. Considering the numbers we were facing we had no choice but to tangle with the 109's as best we could to at least try and distract them, there was little we could do vs the sheer numbers we had at A13. To say they were unescorted is untrue

[Nefarious]

Unescorted? I would like to call this out, and correct this as AK's were on scene and assisted in the best manner we possibly could. Flying P40E's last night was fairly difficult considering the circumstances. As pointed out by ImaDot fast buff vs slow planes escort was fairly challenging for both groups.

The first group we engaged was unescorted. I believe they were the 56th FG as indicated in the logs.

The second group that came in was escorted by P-40s, I'm assuming that was you guys.

[Vantec]

Thank you for the clarification Nef, I was unaware of the first group, as we did escort Dantoos group as was our mission orders. Just wanting to clarify and convey what Dantoo is referring to is about the difficulty he had with his mission due to manual calibration in heavy cover, Not that he wasn't escorted.