Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Rich46yo on September 17, 2007, 04:57:13 AM
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I love this aircraft now. I cant help myself and I cant get myself out of the thing and back into my 17s, KIs, 25s, and 24s. I have even lost interest in the 234 since the B-26 upgrade.
Great climb rate, very good and versatile bombload, speed, toughness, range, fly-ability, and gunnery...I must ask, is the new B-26 the new uber bomber of the game?
What really changed the plane was the increase in speed, and thus the increase in energy. It simply gets high faster, and gets in and out of targets faster. Egressing at over 300 mph will put more fighters in the "sweet 6" position where the 26 has 1,600 rounds in the twin tail turret and 800 in the top turret. Even the door guns with their 400 rounds are quite shoot-able. The other night I damaged a 262 from the left side gun only. And anyone or thing that gets in front of the nose guns??? Splat!!! But most of all its the tailguns that make it so dangerous. They will simply incinerate anything coming up the 6.
Another thing I noticed is the bomber turns very nicely, and at speed. You can dump air quickly and get the 26 into those little one strip canyon airfield on the front lines. And you can do so with the 26 shot up so bad you wonder how its still flying.
And 4,000 lbs is a respectable bombload. I'd love to get a mission up with 6 Marauders loaded with 500 lbs bombs and aim it at an airfield. Before the fix it was a very good airplane but now??
Now it is a great airplane. In my opinion its the best medium bomber in the game and the best "all around" bomber period! Its only weakness is the lack of a belly gun but I even found a way to slice a fighter trying a belly attack. The key to the tactic is the energy the 26 now produces.
This is simply a terrific bomber. Thank you AH for giving us a tool like the Marauder.
:aok
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There's no reason whatsoever to fly a B25C in the MA---if you're goin med bomber, b26 is it (Boston IS the fastest of the lot, but is defenseless) Hardest thing to kill is B26's on the deck, cant get under em, and the frikkin guns ALways seem to hit you even before you roll in:furious
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Originally posted by bj229r
There's no reason whatsoever to fly a B25C in the MA---if you're goin med bomber, b26 is it (Boston IS the fastest of the lot, but is defenseless) Hardest thing to kill is B26's on the deck, cant get under em, and the frikkin guns ALways seem to hit you even before you roll in:furious
I dont believe in flying the B-26 on the deck. Ive always though altitude was the best defense. I also found a defense against belly attacks and have been chewing up fights with it, but, like anything eventually it will be learned and countered. The guns seem to be especially accurate at long ranges. I agree.
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I always take 26s on CV runs...usually on the deck and pop up once super-ack starts shooting...I take 4x 1000lbs and pickle them off in a salvo of 2.
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Originally posted by bj229r
There's no reason whatsoever to fly a B25C in the MA---if you're goin med bomber, b26 is it (Boston IS the fastest of the lot, but is defenseless) Hardest thing to kill is B26's on the deck, cant get under em, and the frikkin guns ALways seem to hit you even before you roll in:furious
Well, the Boston is only defenseless if you just fly along straight and level. Thus, I never fly a formation of Bostons, I take only one. That way, if intercepted, I can engage the attacker and slug it out. More often than not, I get it home with a few kills to boot. A well handled Boston can more that hold its own with noobs in fighters. The secret is to be very aggressive.. Catch them flat-footed.
My regards,
Widewing
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Originally posted by Rich46yo
I love this aircraft now. I cant help myself and I cant get myself out of the thing and back into my 17s, KIs, 25s, and 24s. I have even lost interest in the 234 since the B-26 upgrade.
This is simply a terrific bomber. Thank you AH for giving us a tool like the Marauder.
:aok
B26 was not changed too much, was deadly and before this patch, fast good climb, best tail gun amo load,kills from 1k, you can HO, voolch and dogfight in it in F3 mode, good firepower in nose. My favoritte CV killer, but many players go for better bomb load in much slower and vulnerable B17s,B24s,Lancs ,even if they don't need it,
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Well the B26 is certainly a lot harder target to catch now. And its really tough to get into a good firing position with a pilot who knows what he's doing.
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I haven't flown the B-26 since the patch. Guess I will have to give it a try again.
I like the KI for its speed, range, rate of climb and the 20mm in the tail. Wish it carried a bigger load though.
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I found a new use for the B-26. That of radar buster. I load it with 100 lb bombs and fly thru 4 or 5 front line enemy radar zones bombing their radars. While I usually get ganged up on by 5 fighters I also normally get to 2 to 5 radars,and, have some swell gunfights. I dont get many points doing this but who cares?
The 26 is actually well suited for this role. It carries enough bombs for salvos of 5 that allow you to bomb at full speed hitting radars. The KI-67 wouldnt be bad either but I like having more ammo or defense. The 67 is more hit and run.
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i honestly think b26's are over modeled. couple of night ago, i was on my last flight before i went to be. i upped a p38L from a nearby base and flew high over the cv for bomber cap. i looked down after patroling for about 5 mins and saw a formation of 26's headed straight for the carrier bearing 319. i turned the nose in the direction of the b26's and waited till they were right under me. i cut the throttle, rolled over, and dove in on the bombers. i was a little left of the bombers so i made a slashign attack to the right. when i was 800 out i let the lead fly as all 4 .50 cals and 1 20mm hispano began to score hits on the lead bomber. all i got was an aerlion off on the left wing of th lead bomber. and then i climbed back up to the right away from the bombers. i then began to grab again about 2k from the bombers, but just parellel to his flight path. i got a good 4k alt advantage and then went in from the left for another slashing attack. again 800 out i let lead fly from 800 out to 400 out and scored more hits then the first time, and to no effect. no flames, no parts coming off, nothing. i knew i hit him i saw the rounds flashing on his plane. i know b26's are tough, but geeze. i again waited and got some more and tried one mroe last slashign attack, with many hits, but to no effect. then i got to thinking that there was no ball turrent and the bomber might be softer from the belly. so on the slashing attack this time i went down instead of climbing diagonal to the bombers. i leveled out about 5k under the bombers and then pulled back on the stick and up into the bombers. i could see his doors still open. i started comign up on him fast and i began firing in front of the nose. my rounds where short of the nose and ended up striking the belly and the tail hard. i came to the top of my climb at about 800 feet above the bombers and was getting ready to go down under the bombers again when the tail gunner (who had been shooting at me the whole time with little success, or aim...) manages to not only kill one of my engines in the dive, but also PW's me. at that point i decided that this guy was no fun. i managed to crash land with the PW, looked at my ammo, and was shocked to see what i did. out of the 2000 .50's and 150 20mm rounds i had, i had 237 left, and im sure no less then 1200 of the .50's went into the aircraft, and i was completely outta cannon. all that ammo and not one kill was unbelievable. i mean heck, i can kill a b24, or 17 with 500 or less .50's.
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I fly 26's alot in the MA, either short or long range. I have noticed that fighters that slash attack have less success of knocking me down than those that come up low on my 6 (no belly guns). It seems that the 6 attack will do more engine damage than the slash. Granted, usually a 6 attack can be very risky to the fighter jock because of the tail gun. Now...on 17's and 24's the slash attack does well for kills. Perhaps the 26 is over modeled, but it's a great plane anyway.
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Ive had my 26s get incinerated by 38s. Ive had both experiences shooting against 38s, both the kevlar ones and the paper ones. I once had all 3 26s smoked by one 110 at 1,000 yrds in about 2 seconds. I couldnt believe it happened. I'm sitting there waiting to fire and the next second Im all blown up, "all 3 planes". Last night I had a fighter skip from 500 yrds away to 100 yrds in about 1/10th a second. Must have been a frame thing.
While I would rate the 26 as a fairly tough airframe the truth is this is a computer game and about anything can, and will, happen.
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Originally posted by Rich46yo
I found a new use for the B-26. That of radar buster. I load it with 100 lb bombs and fly thru 4 or 5 front line enemy radar zones bombing their radars. While I usually get ganged up on by 5 fighters I also normally get to 2 to 5 radars,and, have some swell gunfights. I dont get many points doing this but who cares?
The 26 is actually well suited for this role. It carries enough bombs for salvos of 5 that allow you to bomb at full speed hitting radars. The KI-67 wouldnt be bad either but I like having more ammo or defense. The 67 is more hit and run.
Who do you fly for? If its rooks, hit me up. I'd love to fly escort.
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Originally posted by DoNKeY
Who do you fly for? If its rooks, hit me up. I'd love to fly escort.
Bishes, tho Im thinking of abandoning them. Were you flying last night about 1930 EST when five of the Rook frontline radars went down, one after another? Yep, that was me.
If I switch sides whats your game name? Mine is "bombrich". Escort on my radar busting missions would be great. All I would need is for you to tie up enemy fighters for a minute or two.
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Originally posted by comet61
I fly 26's alot in the MA, either short or long range. I have noticed that fighters that slash attack have less success of knocking me down than those that come up low on my 6 (no belly guns). It seems that the 6 attack will do more engine damage than the slash. Granted, usually a 6 attack can be very risky to the fighter jock because of the tail gun. Now...on 17's and 24's the slash attack does well for kills. Perhaps the 26 is over modeled, but it's a great plane anyway.
Comet did you see my new belly attack defense tactics on the squad forum?
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Ok, I was asked to post my new B-26 defense tactic against fighters slashing low against the belly. I actually thought of it while setting auto-climb in squadron formation flying.
1, When taking off set auto-climb, ALT-X, to 130 ".speed 130"
2, When bogey approaches you underneath go into tailgun and go to F3 view. You'll see when he starts his climb, when he about 25% into his climb hit Alt-X and the 26 will almost go vertical as its trys to find 130 mph.
3, Right away jump back into tail gun and allow him to climb right into the tailguns at which time you just slice him in half long before hes expecting it. If something happens and he breaks off first you can go into a shallow dive to get your speed up to do it again.
The Beauty of it is that once you start hosing him his first instinct will be to turn away. Which hangs him up even more. And now that the 26 has more speed and energy the tactic works even better cause it can now go even more vertical.
The Tactic is also good just to mess with an enemy, and, climb quickly to rob him of energy. You have 1,600 rnds in the tail gun so as soon as you see his red lettering lay on the fire and let him climb right into it. Also when you go into this vertical angle you make yourself smaller as a target.
Ive just been murdering enemy fighters with this tactic. Good luck and tell me how it works for you.
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man yall are some vicious son of a guns, my p38 dont stand a chance! last time i flew a b26, i took the 3 plane formation to pork some troops at a nearby airfield. i came in at about 10k and killed all the troops and just as i turned to go back to base i spotted an enemy f4u about 5k away and hi on my 7 oclock. i continued my turn and began to egress, while watching the hi f4u above me. he passed over me and kep going. i was just waiting for him to dive on me but he stayed at 5k distance the whole time. i figured he was prolly afk or just didnt see me. so i made a small ajustment to make it back to base. next thing you know, the enemy base's radar comes back up. i didnt see the f4u anywhere so i didnt think anything of it. about 2 mins go by and im outta the enemy dar ring and im thinkign in the clear. just then i heard a engine behind me and i jumped in the tail gun to see the same f4u 400 out on my 6. no sooner did i bring my guns to bear on his nose i see a series of grey streaks coming off his wing. before i had a chance to pull the trigger, next thing i know, im back in the tower. the f4u had snuck up behind me and fired 6 rockets at me! poor SA on my part for sure. i admit it i got schooled, but rockets aint easy to aim, specialy at bombers so
who ever you were, thats was some amazing rocket firing on your part. i was a little pissed after the fact so i forgot to look who it was, which, for those of you who know me in the MA you know how short tempered i can be.
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Usually my "belly" defense depends wholly on the cons "know-how" of how to attack a 26. I would say in my opinion that about 1/3 to half of the cons I engage try the "belly attack". In the case of a seasoned fighter jock that comes from under, I try various maneuvers to throw off his aim. I'll climb steep to slow down so that my turret gun/tail have something to aim at. When the con is about 600-800, I drop throttle on the verge of a stall and bank hard either way. This I have seen will screw up his aim and over-shoot or try for one of the drones. I can do the same maneuver if he comes high on my 6, but pull way up on auto-alt so my turret has a good clear shot. Normally, for me, my defense is for the con to miss me and use his ammo before I do. I might lose one or even both drones, but usually not all three. Now this is a one-on-one scenario. With 2 cons, that defense tactic probably won't work, but, often times I will use the forward guns on a head on. I have had several kills because the con doesn't realize (or forgets) I have 4 stationary guns at my disposal. I can handle one con at a time, but once ganged up on, it's more difficult and alot of times just never make it home. I have on occasion have hugged the deck (500 or less) with good results but not advisable in those hilly terrains. I can out-manuerver alot of cons with an A20 at low alts by slowing down for the over-shoot and plus it's a tough bird. I usually make it 50-50 in an A20 other than the 26 which is 40-60...if that.
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I had a Mossie try the belly attack, and right after him a 110 lined up. I hit em both so hard they both exploded, and did so long before they thought I would have a chance to see them.
This tactic will work in a 25, a Boston, a KI-67, any medium bomber with an F3 view and without a belly gun. I never thought the surprise would last for long and guys would catch on to it. So just add this to your bag of tricks.
The beauty of Alt/X is you dont have to go into the pilots seat to set it and can do so while in the belly gun/F3 view. If you want to cancel it just hit X and you'll be back in auto-pilot.
I'll also say this for the Marauder, its steers great in the gunners seats using your rudders only. The great steering has allowed me to draw even with a few extremely good sticks attacking in the high angle slash. By steering into their slash, forcing headons, Ive outlasted some very good sticks. And if you can outlast a fighter, and send him home either smoking or low on gas, then youve won.
In this game speed is everything. The extra horsepower in the 26 means everything and opens up all kinds of options. In WW-ll they would retool an assembly line for an extra 30 mph.
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Originally posted by Rich46yo
Bishes, tho Im thinking of abandoning them. Were you flying last night about 1930 EST when five of the Rook frontline radars went down, one after another? Yep, that was me.
If I switch sides whats your game name? Mine is "bombrich". Escort on my radar busting missions would be great. All I would need is for you to tie up enemy fighters for a minute or two.
In game name is daDonkey. I fly with the 412th, so were always in Mustangs. Where ever you want to go, I can be right there with you lol. Let me know if you switch.
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Originally posted by DoNKeY
In game name is daDonkey. I fly with the 412th, so were always in Mustangs. Where ever you want to go, I can be right there with you lol. Let me know if you switch.
Cool, cause "happiness is a Mustang watching your back". Ive seen you out and about in a Mustang before. Very effective "radar busting" from a B-26. Best of all you can stay high and fast and dont need to dive onto the radars. I like to hit at oblique angles so that way after I take the radar down I can turn 90% to 180%, head for the next one, with enemy fighters hopefully headed downrange in the heading I was originally on when I approached the airbase.
Normally I can get at least 2 before they figure it out. But many times Ive gotten 4 or 5. Taking out the front line radars on an entire front opens up many opportunities for your team to go on attack mode and the enemy cant react as quick.
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Originally posted by Rich46yo
Cool, cause "happiness is a Mustang watching your back". Ive seen you out and about in a Mustang before. Very effective "radar busting" from a B-26. Best of all you can stay high and fast and dont need to dive onto the radars. I like to hit at oblique angles so that way after I take the radar down I can turn 90% to 180%, head for the next one, with enemy fighters hopefully headed downrange in the heading I was originally on when I approached the airbase.
Normally I can get at least 2 before they figure it out. But many times Ive gotten 4 or 5. Taking out the front line radars on an entire front opens up many opportunities for your team to go on attack mode and the enemy cant react as quick.
Oh, defiantly. And I for some strange reason love to take a break and run escort or NOE missions. Guess it's the teamwork involved during a sucessful attempt at working together to take a base/damage one.
So yeah, lol, hit me up sometime. I should be on Friday or Saturday night, not sure. Looking forward to some fun if you come over.:aok
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We met tonight my friend, right after the map was changed over that airfield. Your attack, in the Spit, was well thought out but you made the mistake of hanging in the 6 of my 26s. I had someone else do it right after you did. That is the last airplane you want to hang up in, in its 6. It has so much ammo in the tail gun the odds of surviving are very low.
I just took some KI-67s as radar busters. I took down 4 radars and got into a death fight on the way home. Incrediablly a P-51 survived numerous cannon hits and I ran out of ammo, "I went heavy on ammo cause it was one fighter and I was almost home". He shot down my drones and would have had me easy cause I was out of bullets.
He made the mistake of letting me make him overshoot to the right and I finished him with the right side gun, which was the only gun left which ammo. I did the auto climb/turn and forced him to my side. It was a pretty slick move and I somehow landed the shot up bomber.
If he only knew he ran right into the only gun with ammo I had. Thing about Radar busting? Your almost assured of seeing action.
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Originally posted by Rich46yo
We met tonight my friend, right after the map was changed over that airfield. Your attack, in the Spit, was well thought out but you made the mistake of hanging in the 6 of my 26s. I had someone else do it right after you did. That is the last airplane you want to hang up in, in its 6. It has so much ammo in the tail gun the odds of surviving are very low.
I just took some KI-67s as radar busters. I took down 4 radars and got into a death fight on the way home. Incrediablly a P-51 survived numerous cannon hits and I ran out of ammo, "I went heavy on ammo cause it was one fighter and I was almost home". He shot down my drones and would have had me easy cause I was out of bullets.
He made the mistake of letting me make him overshoot to the right and I finished him with the right side gun, which was the only gun left which ammo. I did the auto climb/turn and forced him to my side. It was a pretty slick move and I somehow landed the shot up bomber.
If he only knew he ran right into the only gun with ammo I had. Thing about Radar busting? Your almost assured of seeing action.
Your not talking about me right?
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Originally posted by DoNKeY
Your not talking about me right?
Yes, "daDonkey" right?
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Yeah daDonkey, but I wasn't flying a spit. Might have been the 51 though. Unless it was my dad playing lol, will have to ask.
Anyways. You thinking about coming over to rooks this weekend for some radar busting missions?:t :t :t
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What does an attack on the enemy's Dar do in relationship to taking out Strat Targets with a Bomber? Jabos can easily take out Dar....it only takes 250 lbs of Ords to do so.
Wasting Bomber Ords on DAR seems a waste of Ordnance to me. Flying B-26's to kill DARs is like flying LA-7's to kill A6M-2s.
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"What does an attack on the enemy's Dar do in relationship to taking out Strat Targets with a Bomber?"
The thrill man....the thrill......:cool:
My favorite use of the 26 is to "pot-hole" airfields. I line the bombsite right down the middle (not easy sometimes) set the salvo to 20 and delay at .75 seconds....release just when my cross hairs hit the strip...usually I am between 6K to 10k high. Works great. Another is to carry 1000 pounders set the salvo to 2 and delay at .05. Line up on the FH's...take 'em both out. If I kill radar in the process, good. I'd rather make the fighter jocks have diificulty getting off the ground. Plus...the thrill. A lot of times you have to fight your way out.....makes it more interesting. :)
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Originally posted by Patches1
What does an attack on the enemy's Dar do in relationship to taking out Strat Targets with a Bomber? Jabos can easily take out Dar....it only takes 250 lbs of Ords to do so.
Wasting Bomber Ords on DAR seems a waste of Ordnance to me. Flying B-26's to kill DARs is like flying LA-7's to kill A6M-2s.
I like to do this in the KI. Take the 100kg bombs, full fuel load, climb to 15k. Fly over all the front line bases and drop the radar. Take the time to hit any 'targets of opportunity' maybe some ord or fuel if I happen to be aligned after dropping on the radar or maybe make a run over a strat target and just drop what's left of my eggs before heading home.
What good does it do you ask? Well, my set of bombers can drop the radar at 8 bases in one sortie. That allows the rest of my fellow country men to hop in Jabo's and take bases. Thus me flying in a bomber taking out radar all over the front blinds the enemy's dotdar while only taking 1 single pilto out of the fight, and may draw an occasional enemy fighter or two from the fight to come chase me if they figure out what's going on.
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Tiger says it exact. One person can blind an enemy all along an entire front, freeing up everyone else to go for important targets. This is supposed to be a team effort right? The enemy not having working radars is a huge advantage because then your Jabos and bombers can fly whatever routes they want to their targets against an enemy that cant respond fast enough. Im not even just talking frontline targets but also 2nd, and 3rd tier targets. You can fly that much closer to them without being detected.
You would think during these porking raids somone would head straight for the bases radars but Ive seen radars stay up for long minutes while fighter sticks concentrate on their own kills, and personal scores, instead of fighting to win as a team. Man I'd love to get 30 guys together for a night, appoint an experienced leader, and fight the war systamatically as a team.
What does radar busting do for me ? Its fun #1, you help your team, its challenging, and you often run up against good fighter sticks. Ive never done a radr busting mission without also shooting down at least one fighter. As for points? I sure dont do it for that because you might come away from it with 2 or 3 points from the raid.
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Man I'd love to get 30 guys together for a night, appoint an experienced leader, and fight the war systamatically as a team.
Why not see if we could get a large group together and take out the HQ and knock out all the radar? Pretty much promise to get a few 163's after us....
:D
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I'd love to Comet. I pretty much fly every night at some time. Do you fly for the Rooks too?
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"Do you fly for the Rooks too?"
Always.
Maybe this weekend we can set up a mission or perhaps get our squad-gang in on it. It would be a long mission since we would pass alot of enemy bases.
I actually hit the bish HQ (using B24J) the other night. Long flight dodging radar (alt 24K). Made the hit and 20k out 3 163's came after me. Good fight...got both my drones and I had 3 engines, one wheel left, rudder gone and a fuel leak. I looked like swiss cheese. All but my belly and nose gunner were dead. Made it to one of the closer rook bases with a total of 450 rounds altogether. . Bellied in. Got one 163...he bailed. One started smokin' and the other not a scratch. It was a blast. Now....if I had 10 more guys....we could have taken out the entire bish radar for a little bit. It was fun....:aok
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I switched sides to the Rooks last night. So I will look for you.
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I don't remember when I saw the post about using rudder while gunning the the 26, but last night some poor shmuck got the suprise of his life while trying to get me. He thought he was safe in that blind spot on my six until I hit a little left rudder and lit him up at D600 with the waist gun. He nearly made me miss my bomb run! I ended up dragging 15+ fighters away from that furball at A4, until that 262 got me. Talk about fun!
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Originally posted by apcampbell
I don't remember when I saw the post about using rudder while gunning the the 26, but last night some poor shmuck got the suprise of his life while trying to get me. He thought he was safe in that blind spot on my six until I hit a little left rudder and lit him up at D600 with the waist gun. He nearly made me miss my bomb run! I ended up dragging 15+ fighters away from that furball at A4, until that 262 got me. Talk about fun!
Thats another thing. The Marauder turns quite well too. There have been a few times when Ive run out of tail ammo, one I recollect very well, when a Pony had me dead to rights with 0 left in my tail.
I turned him hard a few times, hit Alt/X, and forced an overshoot and he made the mistake of turning into me instead of just starting from scratch again. I was able to roll the 26 and put him right in my waist gun.
The Marauder is a great furball bomber. As long as you go in high enough you can control much of the enemies energy and when you get 3,4,5 fighters climbing over each other to get "easy" Buff kills they will make mistakes. Its a far different scenario then say 3 or 4 squad mates setting up on your bombers as a team.
You can get some really good looks out of the Marauders waist guns. A lot of fighters will come under you thinking they are safe when in reality you are rolling the waist guns at them. Even better, with a somewhat level side attack, when the fighter is within range you turn rudder hard into the side hes coming and not only can you prolong your waist look but hes going to turn hard back into you and hang up into your 6.
In other words a fighter coming from your left turn hard left into him, hit him with the waist gun, and then pop back into the tail while still turning rudder hard left. "Most" fighters will try and do to much with the pass turning hard left back into you which will cause them to hang up while they are trying to get a fire solution. Its far easier to move a joystick tail gun then to straighten out a fighter banking hard.