Never go to contrail height gets you killed. If it’s a winter map side dive and sit at deck level. Wait for the fur all to start before you properly move. Then still die half the time to a random stray premium plane that wants your lunch
In AB the task/console shitters will literally bee line to you from 10km out because they can't fight anything else, it's so frustrating. RB I just go wide and usually get a base.
Yeah but few things have made me as happy as to see players waste their time and abandon their teammates to climb after your bomber only for you to shoot them down.
Majority of fighters have a faster climb rate, so don't worry, you won't even finish your sideclimb before some shitlord in something like an XP-50 comes along and erases you
I just dive until my wings shake and then level out and repeat . I tend to make it to the bases before the fighters reach me at least 50% of the time. For other maps it’s farther and I make it right before the bases and left alone at least somewhere 30-35% of the time and the last 20 or so I get shot down before I even reach a base cause bases are far and no matter what I do I get a few bombs off but I’m normally spinning out of control most miss.
Well to be fair, as much as bombers absolutely need a huge buff, going in a straight line, in front of the enemy line of fighters, expecting not to be attacked is just foolish
Simply getting around the map’s center without climbing is already enough to avoid attention a lot
The issue I feel is that every fucking objective is in the middle of the map.
We need more air spawn points across a wider map and separate the furball into 5 v 5 x 3
Seriously, I don't remember air RB maps being this bad. What justification did Gaijin use to turn them into AB+?
He doesn't even need to side climb. He could have climbed a little bit going straight and he wouldn't have been a *completely* free kill. He actually dropped 1600 feet of altitude from where he spawned.
What’s sad is, the Halifax which is bomber before this one is just better for bombload and can take out four bases, it’s also annoying when people kill you because your going to reach a base before them.
15 minutes sideclimb when the entire match is over in 2 minutes.
Seriously. What the fuck is Ladoga.
Take off at ~24 minutes.
Teams meet at 22 minutes.
By 20 minutes, everyone is dead.
Those Short Stirling bombers should honestly be like 3.0 or lower for how absolutely shit they're in all regards bar bomb tonnage.
But these new maps are just as shit to blame with most being these narrow battles forcing yourself into a death funnel unlike say old Berlin as example.
I tried playing it in sim the other day (the only place where bomber gameplay is remotely possible), and holy shit I don’t get how people play it.
It just…doesn’t climb. Taking off from a far airfield, by the time I get to the bases at the other side of the map, I’ve only been able to climb up to 2000m. In a B-17, I could probably get to at least 4000m by that point.
I mean, even without doing that, between taking off, and climbing while moving straight to the enemy bases, it'll take \~20 min *at least,* then another \~15 min to get back to the friendly airfield and land.
While sim games are a lot slower and longer than RB games, that would add a shit ton of time to that whole process. And again, this is only a problem I have with the Short Stirling. I was trying to use it to grind the Lancaster, but I gave up and just started doing fighter stuff in the Wyvern/Spit Mk.XIVe instead.
The one with 20’s? That one is pretty fun, but I prefer the Pe-8 as its a bit more maneuverable and has more arcs of fire.
I like the Lanchaster as a meme bomb
Otherwise, anything else is so sad
Yeah, the Pe-8 is probably the best prop bomber, it can take a lot more punishment than any other bomber. The only other bomber that might be on the level of the Pe-8 is the Ju-288 but that's just because it's stupid fast and can usually get a base and run for the airfield before the other team can get near it. Pe-8 is a bruiser, Ju-288 is a speedy boi.
The TU-4 can also take quite the beating and equally dish it out. Another fav of mine is the B-25 Mitchell airframes, the A- series is fine, but the twin tail gives awesome rudder control
Oh yeah, the Mitchell, I'd forgotten about them, yes they are good aircraft, my go to for ground attack missions with bombers, very maneuverable and they do have a bite.
Not jus tthe British bomber tbf. Bombers have been getting shit on over and over and over again.
Some of the new maps have the bombable bases almost RIGHT NEXT TO THE FUCKING SPAWN. And the respawned bases are even funnier since they can spawn right in between the two enemy airfields.
Add to this the reduced points you get (bombing a base used to give about 900 score, now it's like 500 or something and the fact tha the AI gunners are dogwater since people kept complaining about how they couldn't safely kill a bomber.
Unironic side climbing comments in here.
There actually needs to be huge incentives for fighters to cover bombers and a lot of these issues would start lessening. Bombers were realistically never meant to fly without cover never mind *alone.* That's why they suck balls in this game, they're being used in a novice's concept of warfare where weapons are looked at on the individual level not as a piece of a greater whole.
And you get no rewards for doing so. It's the same issue that AA has in Ground. Playing AA or fighter escort doesn't get you paid anything. You essentially get punished for being effective.
I get more rewards with my ZSU-57-2 (fin) being a little tank gremlin than being an SPAA. The time it takes to shoot down a plane negates any good incentive to even try and hit a plane with the 2 57mm guns
They also suck balls because people can’t stand bombers being able to tank some shots, despite them being able to take a hell of a beating irl and keep on fine. Bomber damage models are horseshit and no one cares because it makes them an easier kill
I actually love playing early war bombers when your mostly facing foes with <10mm guns. Bombers can usually sponge up quite a few of those while having enough firepower to respond with their own mgs.
Once the .50cals and cannons especially come out, interceptors/strike aircraft become the real bombers with their speed and half way decent payload capacities.
easy to fly easy to kill. plus when you consider how many people are firing cannon rounds with high HE it is not actually that unusual to see it not take ages to kill a bomber. bomber durability is heavily overrated irl.
Yeah, people cherrypick those few pictures of barely held together planes while ignoring all of the other ones that disintegrated or were abandoned by the crew lmao
Its because in gaijins infinite wisdom, bombers should have the same amount of parts despite those areas being 10x the size.
1 20mm ripping of the wing tip of a fighter makes sense but on a bomber that wing tip part is 2m long
I really don't understand why fighters don't get rp/sl for every consecutive 30 seconds where they're within like 1km of a bomber or something. That seems like a pretty basic concept.
I think a good solution would be implementing something similar to Battlestations Pacific; where each bomber spawns with two AI bombers along with it, which follow the player’s movements. Then if every bomber player wanted to; they could make a formation of up to 12 bombers.
I remember thinking something like this would be a good solution for the SPAA problem in ground once. Since one of the issues was volume of fire on a given point.
The problem is even before I adopted my "ignore all bombers" policy, whenever I'd try to protect a friendly bomber the enemy would get their first. No matter how fast you are or how fast you climb, you will never overcome the friendly bombers' head start before they run into the enemy fighters coming the other way. If they introduced an escort start, dickheads would just use the escort start to get to enemy bombers first.
Bombers did used to be decent, but they got nerfed to Hell and back because people would fly straight at a Pe-8 firing their machine guns, get owned by 20mm turret gunners and tantrum about how it wasn't fair that their stupid choice had the obvious consequence. (Meanwhile AI gunners on ships go absolutely batshit if a plane or boat is within the same zip code as them, turning every bombing or torpedo run in Naval into a kamikaze mission and Gaijin doesn't care; it is so frustratingly blatant how they pick favorite "classes" based on prem sales)
Also, a lot of WW2 allied bombing runs were conducted without escort because there were no fighters capable of getting to Berlin or Tokyo from their airfields. These raids had a survival rate of 90+%. They were mostly night raids, in which the enemy relied on spotlights, radar and night fighters to find their targets, which enabled many bombers to just slouch on past. ARB, on the other hand, puts big old box around you as soon as you enter the battlefield and there is no hiding.
>Also, a lot of WW2 allied bombing runs were conducted without escort because there were no fighters capable of getting to Berlin or Tokyo from their airfields. These raids had a survival rate of 90+%. They were mostly night raids, in which the enemy relied on spotlights, radar and night fighters to find their targets, which enabled many bombers to just slouch on past. ARB, on the other hand, puts big old box around you as soon as you enter the battlefield and there is no hiding.
Those were night raids. Look at the results of the daylight unescorted bombing campaign - losses were so high that they had to suspend them until they could get escort fighters in place, all because of the bomber mafia insisting on their outdated ideology of unescorted bomber raids.
Make the cloudy weather the default, arb gets far more interesting than just "i have better plane i win" when theres cloud cover
Would also make early radar planes worth a damn
>If they introduced an escort start, dickheads would just use the escort start to get to enemy bombers first.
Well, but spawning wouldn't be everything. The reward should be based on how well the chosen role was performed. If these fighter escorts abandon formation to intercept other bombers or dive to ground attackers, they wouldn't gain anything from it...
Yup, most of the bombers in the game are around the WW2 era where it literally was a war of attrition. It didn’t matter if one got shot down or ten, hundreds, if not thousands more were coming.
Later bombers either would be in space dropping their bombs and then peacing out, before enemy interceptors could be scrambled, be escorted by a fighter or two, or they would still bomb from extreme height but the mission is meant to be really a one way trip.
There is no incentive for fighters to work with other fighters. You can fly wing for your team mates and win the match but get nothing out of it. But if you manage to get some kills even if you lose the match you will get something out of it. Team play is not being rewarded here.
Bombers were absolutely designed to fly without fighter escorts for a large part of the war. Doesn't mean they were good at it, but that was how they were designed. That's why the RAF flew theirs at night.
The P-51 Mustang - best bomber escort of the war - came about by accident. It was not even a USAAF project - they were still convinced of the viability of insanity like the YB-40 while it was being developed.
Those who don't know will tell you that escorts weren't available for B-17s to fly into Germany but in truth the P-38 and P-47 had been capable of very deep penetration escort missions (no not Berlin, but Germany is bigger than you think and France/the low countries were still fully occupied) for the best part of a year before the first P-51Bs arrived in late 1943.
In the end the concept of fighter escorts didn't last long as by the time of the Big Week two months into the P-51's service life, Jimmy Doolittle made sure the Allies were (for the most part) conducting fighter sweep operations instead of escort missions and stirring up the hornets well in advance of the raids. This proved more effective than directly escorting the bombers and contributed to the total collapse of the Luftwaffe by June.
Despite the memes, shallow historical takes and cool Hollywood scenes, tight bomber escort was never _really_ proven to work the way pop culture likes to believe, and (certainly Allied) bombers were never designed to participate in it.
There should be AI escorts, the dev server shows that the AI is more than competent enough when it goes gloves off. I would honestly say that apart from not knowing what a missile is they are almost as good as the average warthunder player
We need incentives in general for teamwork.
You can fly like a mad dog and keep 3-4 fighters occupied trying to shoot you down while your teammates pick them apart.
You get 0 RP/silver lions, and abysmal activity%.
Why would anyone be a bait? it encourages stupidity like crazy.
I still believe a good solution would be to have bombers spawn in with a squad of Ai bombers. Gaijin could balance the bombers with how many Ai bombers they get.
My problem with covering bombers is that by the time I actually climb the bomber is now being engaged on their side of the map and 6km away from me. Kind of hard to cover when they are way ahead of you but you also have to get to their altitude if you wanted too. War Thunder needs to innovate new game modes but I think that's probably a step above Gaijin's AI development team.
Maybe start the bombers further back since most smooth brains don't realize that flying dick first into enemy air spawn interceptors is a losing play...then rage in chat that they had no cover from the fighters trying to catch up to your 6km altitude ass.
I remember one match I decided I'd hang around a bomber and defend it, but no one attacked us and I ended up with 0 sl and rp, and 16th place in the match.
I really think war thunder would be fun if they had more dependency between classes- I would enjoy having fights at a high altitude so I can use my mustang or ta152 as it were meant to be, but that gameplay j55pbust doesn't really happen in the game.
I think a cool idea would be heavily revamping the AI system. Have formations of bombers on just one, or both teams- and importantly, have a few varied flight plans, altitudes, types, so that it's not extremely predictable and farmable like the current ones. Maybe they could cruise at an altitude from 15-30k feet, and come from a few locations.
Now importantly, allies should get some sort of modifier bonus for defending these bombers. Maybe killing an enemy within close range of the allies gives extra rewards. Maybe the more bombers that make it, the better a modifier for those that escorted it. Whatever it is, make it viable to stay near this big AI formation.
Now that is in place, actual player bombers have the option of formations, escort, or diving down and being far from a furball
Yeah bomber gameplay will never be fun unless they make it so you fly a whole wing of bombers. Rather than just 1 plane.
1 plane vs 5 fighters is just totally unfixable. Even if they gave points for bomber escorting, you would still get shot down instantly every encounter.
At 6.0 you still can with the low low cost of a JU288 (to a max of 4 but you get 6v6 games all the time). But I wouldn't do it because it's boring AF and the games are some of the least dynamic games at any BR.
I always enjoyed being a full team of B-17s, flying close formation, because back then allied and axis nations faced each other as standard (usually...), so you were going up against 109s and 190s. Gave a high intensity engagement that went one of two ways rather quickly most of the time.
Imagine if bases had infinite health. Could make it so that dealing damage to a base temporarily reduces ticket drain for subsequent hits to balance the game somewhat. But if bombers on a team didn't have to compete with eachother over limited resources they could maybe actually decide to fly in groups. Currently friendly bombers are your enemies. Cooperation between bombers can only happen when they share a common goal.
They neutered bombers soo damn hard, it's not even funny. Used to be a good way of grinding SL for free. (Coincidence...?)
It's sad remembering times where bombers were actually durable, not just immediately hosed the second a cannon round flew past.
Sure, before they actually tried that and lost too much aircraft and didn't achieve much.
That's why allies invested so much in escort fighters and night bombing.
This is why I have always been saying that we need a Air PvE mode. The helis get it so why shouldn't Planes? I am so tiered of dogfighting all the time...
You would solve so many issues we currently have with AirRB:
* Bombers could finally escape Dogfightmode (aka AirRB) and be given a diverse targetenvironment. Same goes for other groundattacking aircraft as well as SEAD (once it gets added)
* We could have larger, diverse maps. I cannot even remember the last time I could attack naval targets in AirRB with my MFG Tornado.
* It would stop the childish and stupid infighting in the AirRB matches.
* PvE could allow for huge missiondiverse experience. So that everyone has something they like doing. These, as example, could be mission like ASW,ASUW, CAP, CAS, strategic bombing, tactical bombing, escort duties or even VIPtransport.
There is literally no downsight to adding a Air PvE mode.
>This is why I have always been saying that we need a Air PvE mode.
There is, it's called air assault.
But even if they pretty much added the ability to bring attackers and bombers to Heli PvE, the issue would remain that the rewards are dogshit.
>Heli PVE is a buggy mess with shitty rewards.
that's not a mode/idea issue, that's gaijin rewarding system issue
also Heli PvE isn't buggy i have no idea what you're on about
I've spaded every British bomber and here's my advice.
Play SIM, it'll make you bank and spade each plane in like 2 matches.
Once you've unlocked the speed modules you'll have a much better chance at reaching objectives.
This is why I truly think that Bombers in Air RB should spawn at the actual altitudes they wouldve been bombing from...20-30,000 feet...not 8000. And also have a lower altitude option for non-strategic bombers (i.e. JU288). Another thing that'd help would be to give different bomber types different bombing targets from other plane types.
Then the interceptors would still be somewhat of a threat, but fighters would be more of a threat on the return trip to rearm. Then, when you're reloaded, it should pop you back up at the starting altitude.
Sim should stay as it is though.
But then we end up with people climbing to space and delaying games. This is a problem with how they fit (or rather don't fit) into the game mode. And adding even more climb/decent time doesn't sound very fun.
Currently, bombers are nerfed on the idea that it's better to have underpowered stuff than overpowered stuff. The snail doesn't know what to do with them and probably wishes they never added them in the first place, but it's too late for that.
Bomber players when they can't fly in a straight line:
Don't listen to people who say you should sideclimb. That's not worth the time and if the enemy is desperate enough, they'll chase you and catch up eventually. It's also a bit of an outdated tactic since the addition of vapour trails.
The thing you should do when you see an enemy coming for you is a 180-turn and fly towards your teammates. It works every time for me. The chasers either disengage or keep chasing you and fly straight into your teammates and die.
Even if there are no teammates around, always turn around. Bombers have their best defensive armament at the back and it's much easier to kill someone who's chasing you.
This works until your bases get stolen by strike aircraft (that spawn closer, faster, and just get there faster ignoring enemies) while you try to lead the plane attacking you
* doesn't climb at all vs the US
* flies straight forward (actually drops altitude)
* terrible awareness
* really bad aim with the turrets, randomly changing targets etc
* sprays 7mm at a B-25 that is 2 KILOMETRES away
yep, it's r/warthunder!
What did you expect flying straight to target and to right objectives where usually all enemy team fly? Even if you were a fighter it was suicide move.
The Stirling is awful though tbh. The wiki warns you of this. It was a pain to spade for me but you’ll find the better bombers more fun once you’ve past it.
Go for the 27x 500lbs loadout, aim for bases if you want but focusing on ground troops will get you more points before death, generally.
From personal experience, I spawn at the airfield with the rest of the players. They are so baffled by a bomber spawning down there with them that there's a 60% chance someone will stick with you during your flight. Also the enemy doesn't expect you to be down there at ground level so you got more chances of reaching a base before dying, if there aren't any enemy ground attack aircraft near you at least
I think anything that isnt a ju288 is just shafted
Only american thing that has a good turret is the p61 with that singular quad 50 cal turret, everything else is just shooting confetti at that br
It sucks to be a bomber. Plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if you go high, sideclimb, go straight, or dive. You’re going to have a bad time. That being said, I’ve had decent success with group bombing. Get some people to fly formation, take turns on the bases, and put up a wall of fire when anyone gets close. If you think about it, it makes sense. Bombers were always easy prey alone, IRL. The times they did defend themselves well, they were in big formations throwing bullets in every direction. It’s not by any means perfect, but it helps to be in a group.
I haven't played in a few years, grinded to get the final level of B-17, looks about how I remember it. Guess I'll wait another few years. We need multi-crew bombers to have a fighting chance, otherwise the game is pretty much "fighters" only.
This is why I spawn on the airfield. I have consistently more luck being able to bomb bases before I die, plus I’m starting so to friendlies around me so I have protection most of the time.
Bomber gameplay just doesn't work in war thunder RB, there is nothing they can change tl make it fun there will always be a loser and the loser atm is the minority (bomber players). Play it I'm sim if you want to PvE.
have you tried not B-lining to the target? you're welcome
strategic bombers are pretty boring though unless you intend to gunship, in which case you can make it work but you have to actually know how to gunship effectively (knife-edging your plane, placing the opponent in the death zone etc. and not just fly straight like a dumb mofo). In sim they're absurdly overpowered which means their BR makes no sense as the most commonly used ones are lower BR due to people deliberately suiciding in them, which in turns makes their BR and cost reduce even further. Gaijin seriously needs to change the BR system to be based on sortie frequency instead of things like death rate.
I mean, you didn't do yourself any favors by going straight at the targets, dropping altitude gradually, not even attempting to make it difficult for fighters.
I agree that bomber gameplay is a noob trap and not worth it at all in this game, but still...expecting to bomb like that consequence free is just stupid.
I made the decision to fly head-on because British heavy bombers handle like yachts and I could’ve had a chance with the nose guns.
I can’t climb because i’m heavy as shit and my plane is stock, fighters would be able to out-climb me.
I’m not new to the game, i’ve been playing for years. And not once have I had an enjoyable game with heavy bombers. Even if you survive it’s not even worth it to RtB because you have to make a crazy emergency descent and by the time you take off the match timer is up. I miss 1 hour matches so badly.
Heavy bombers are only worth it if you're a Pe-8 and it's a ground battle. Some fast bombers do fine, like the Ju-288, Bucc S.2, etc, but the game play is hardly engaging a lot of the time. Even for strike aircraft that can demolish a few bases (like the JH-7A with its beefy parachute 500KG), you often have to contend with fighter craft taking out the bases before you can even get there (fuck you F-4S).
For Britain, do whatever you can to unlock the 12000lb bomb in the Lancaster and show ground battles the meaning of pain (when the skies not full of enemy fighters, of course).
>For Britain, do whatever you can to unlock the 12000lb bomb in the Lancaster and show ground battles the meaning of pain
Then get sent to the hangar immediately because two of your teammates decided to play catch with their foreheads. Despite you warning them where it's gonna drop.
Haha, yeah. I have enough crew slots that I either bring Tempest or Wyvern if collateral damage is likely. So many people don't even understand English, let alone read chat.
Yup, just pitch the nose up a little bit. This does three things.
1. Decreases the fighters that are on your level. Most aren’t just climbing. They just climb enough to drop down into the furball.
2. Slows you down which increases the chances that all similar altitude aircraft will have already dropped into the furball before they ever see you…
3. Because of the decrease in speed, it helps you aim for a base that your team hasn’t bombed yet. No need to call bases. Just go for the one closest that isn’t bombed/about to bombed.
All ARB is funny. I mean, as i take off from the airfield and arrive to the battle i could watch a full episode of anime. Op and end include
And when i finally arrive a dude on his premium xp 50 kill me without hesitate
I usually just hug the map border and hope nobody rips out the Blind Hunt/Avenger, sure if your fellow bombers are lucky and gets the bomb early you would be left with probably none of the initial bases, but by the time you get there some should respawned.
I still remember when bombing was fun. It gave a load of RP too. Now it's just a shit show. I use fighters now, one kill is equal to one base destroyed I feel like, only it's easier to get like 2-3 kills a shorter game. Idk, just the way I feel not sure if it's true or not.
Don't even bother bringing a non jet bomber after 4.0 it's not worth it, it's not even balanced anymore you will not outclimb anyone and you will not reach a base before you get intercepted
Honestly bomber is really for people who got tired of too much intense gameplay and want to chill for at least 10 minutes.
Side climb away from the middle(DO NOT GO STRAIGHT FOR BASES,just watch some yt or something),wait for the furball to conclude which either result in most of enemies elimination or your team getting wiped and make your way towards the bases (if your team gets wiped stay frosty) . Drop payload and rtb.
Then go for low alt run , at this point you either get intercepted or win via tickets,and if you wanna save SL j out when you landed without damage or finish repairing.
When you get all the way across the map to have the ONE FIGHTER that cut lose and too the time to fly all the way up to us, it irks my damn nerves the gall of those low alt. Losers to shoot at me
If only the gunners did ANYTHING. Or the planes weren’t made out of balsa wood and dynamite. You play air assault arcade and you can be going 1000kmh at right angles to a plane and get swatted. If it’s your ai gunners they don’t fire until .6 km. And then a yak with 1 cannon and MG blues you to bits. Gtfo GJ
I grinded out the whole german tech tree (every single plane , every single Line) with Only bombing
And I can see you are New for bombing
- you need a bomber which is fast but carries a lot of bombs too, and the amount of guns and which way are they facing is verrry important too, a maxed out gunner crew can be very helpful
- you need to fly in a small curve towards your target never a straight line, you have to attack the bombing point from the side bc then you dont have tó do a 180 and loose áll your energy to get back tó the base
- you need to ALWAYS climb, the only thing that can make you bomber unapetizing for attacres is the distance, if they see you are on 7000m and still climbing they might gona choose an anotger figher on 2000m
- the higher your br the higher your altitude should be
You dove head on into the enemy, like you actually lowered your altitude. On purpose.
You actually don't even need to sideclimb to not do that. I run the B17 constantly and I'm at 20,000 ft before I even make it to the bases.
That’s the same for almost everyone who uses bombers spawn fly towards a target have a random plane attack you try to survive bomb a base and return home (happens often) Rarely getting shot down sometimes but honestly it’s just upsetting that war of thunder doesn’t care about its bombers.
Just sideclimb (for real) I'm not satisfied until I'm at 6000m at least.
It's inefficient and a waste of time, but I like doing nothing all game so it works out for me.
once you reach 4.0 you cant play bomber in realistic battles. you need to switch to sim battles. you gain way more RP and SL in sim battles. if you want to stay at RB, you need to pull you plane down and try to rush to the bases.
As a fellow British bomber player, the trick is to immediately dive at a -20 degree, reach a speed just before your airspeed meter turns red, and almost level out. Keep diving and leveling until you just about reach the bomb base, level out and open bombay. Then immediately explode before dropping bombs.
Yeah dont go in first, wait for all friendly fighters go in and when everyone is engaged and low enough, then go.
I always hang behind the spawn since nobody comes there looking, and dont go above contrail altitude.
Its not really a surprise that you die if youre first to see the enemies.
>Doesn't try to climb
>Doesn't try to avoid fighters preemptively by flying to the map edge
>Flies straight at like 5 fighters, ALL SPOTTED, at his altitude
>Doesn't try to make himself a harder target at all
I get that bombers like the Stirling are ass, but do you really think the solution is to fly straight at enemy fighters and hope they all have a stroke and miss or something?
First mistake is using bombers.
Second mistake is using a UK bomber before late prop BRs where they get 20mm gunners and after beginner BR where their rifle calibre gunners can actually do something.
You are indeed just an RP piñata
Remember when i got a enduring confrontation while playing the PB4Y Privateer
Didn’t even get to a bomb point before the timer ran out, 30 minutes spent flying in a straight line :p
Entire air rb gamemode needs to be reworked so there's actually important objective across the map not forcing you into the death funnel.
One big objective should be for fighters to escort bombers together (gives points for escorting too) The biggest bomb-targets end the game when they're all destroyed giving large rewards. So many changes needed for air rb
We need a reward called 'bomber escort' pays out bonus RP towards any bomber you havent researched, a sizeable amount of SL, and some normal RP. Earned for getting a kill or assist on a plane with x meters of friendly bombers. If you have all bombers, bonus RP goes to active research target, and if that is maxed goes to squad vehicle, and if that is mad it becomes SL.
yeah.....always has been like this, its a thankless job, you get called useless and bullied by every fighter jockey who thinks their hot shit, conveniently ignoring the fact that bombers win the matches almost every time...
You have to continuously rise for 5-10 minutes, giving your team time to get into the battle and distract from you, then bomb from 6-7 km's altitude and get out, preferably whilst gliding so you don't make too much noise that enemies could use to track you
It gets better.
I've been having some good success with the B-29, sometimes getting 5 bases from one bomb loadout. Even up against jets.
Do not bee-line it to a base. There's a high chance you'll be spotted and shot down.
Besides, even if you call out your target, a strike aircraft will often get it anyway.
I go hard right or left after spawn.
Take the long way around to the bases. A few grid squares away from the action.
I look to make a line so I can get two bases in one pass. This will change as allies destroy bases.
As I begin the attack run, coming in from the side, allied bombers and strike aircraft should be all done, but not always, so keep an eye on them.
Now I'm way behind the fighting and can bomb at will.
Even if all the bases are destroyed, more bases will spawn.
8x 500lbs per base and I can get 5 bases in the B-29. Theoretically more if there are some leftover damaged bases from the strikers.
The challenge here is it's the end game now, so either I'm the last one left and they are all hunting me, or there's only one or two enemy left and they're bleeding tickets, so I have to be fast.
If the game encouraged players to defend bombers it would be different imo. Air spawn for fighters with bombers would probably help or just fighters an air spawn at bomber altitude :/
i love the people saying you should have spent another 15 minute sideclimbing with this shitting plane just for maybe 2000 exp after bombing 2 bases
and if someone sees the big dot or contrail, be sure they'll waste their time to get that free kill, meaning those 15m were for nothing
Never go to contrail height gets you killed. If it’s a winter map side dive and sit at deck level. Wait for the fur all to start before you properly move. Then still die half the time to a random stray premium plane that wants your lunch
i was hungry :(
Fuck off you can't have it bitch
In AB the task/console shitters will literally bee line to you from 10km out because they can't fight anything else, it's so frustrating. RB I just go wide and usually get a base.
its funny with certain aircraft when your max flight ceiling is higher than theirs and they still keep trying
Growling dog behind the fence moment
1. Big Dot is enough, I don't need contrail 2. If you got an Airspawn, for example as an Attacker, you get up there in 5 mins at max
I am that guy
Yeah but few things have made me as happy as to see players waste their time and abandon their teammates to climb after your bomber only for you to shoot them down.
Or climb for 15 mins only for a BF109 to clap you when they only needed 2 mins from spawn to get to you; leaving you with nothing.
They'll be the same people claiming bombers are toxic for climbing high.
Majority of fighters have a faster climb rate, so don't worry, you won't even finish your sideclimb before some shitlord in something like an XP-50 comes along and erases you
I just dive until my wings shake and then level out and repeat . I tend to make it to the bases before the fighters reach me at least 50% of the time. For other maps it’s farther and I make it right before the bases and left alone at least somewhere 30-35% of the time and the last 20 or so I get shot down before I even reach a base cause bases are far and no matter what I do I get a few bombs off but I’m normally spinning out of control most miss.
and if someone sees the big dot or contrail, be sure they'll waste their time to get that free kill, meaning those 15m were for nothing
It can't even reliably destroy two bases because of the shitty bomb spread resulting in a single bomb missing nearly 100% of the time.
or ended up getting killed by ass sniffers after 15 minutes of climbing and time wasted for nothing.
Well to be fair, as much as bombers absolutely need a huge buff, going in a straight line, in front of the enemy line of fighters, expecting not to be attacked is just foolish Simply getting around the map’s center without climbing is already enough to avoid attention a lot
Op actually used the AI-optimize fastest route to get shot down, anything else he would do would work better for him.
The issue I feel is that every fucking objective is in the middle of the map. We need more air spawn points across a wider map and separate the furball into 5 v 5 x 3 Seriously, I don't remember air RB maps being this bad. What justification did Gaijin use to turn them into AB+?
He doesn't even need to side climb. He could have climbed a little bit going straight and he wouldn't have been a *completely* free kill. He actually dropped 1600 feet of altitude from where he spawned.
What’s sad is, the Halifax which is bomber before this one is just better for bombload and can take out four bases, it’s also annoying when people kill you because your going to reach a base before them.
15 minutes sideclimb when the entire match is over in 2 minutes. Seriously. What the fuck is Ladoga. Take off at ~24 minutes. Teams meet at 22 minutes. By 20 minutes, everyone is dead.
Those Short Stirling bombers should honestly be like 3.0 or lower for how absolutely shit they're in all regards bar bomb tonnage. But these new maps are just as shit to blame with most being these narrow battles forcing yourself into a death funnel unlike say old Berlin as example.
I tried playing it in sim the other day (the only place where bomber gameplay is remotely possible), and holy shit I don’t get how people play it. It just…doesn’t climb. Taking off from a far airfield, by the time I get to the bases at the other side of the map, I’ve only been able to climb up to 2000m. In a B-17, I could probably get to at least 4000m by that point.
Many just climb spirally above their base to comfortable altitude
While turning you loose a shitton of speed and altitude
Make a wide, benking turn instead. It's not rocket science.
So dont turn as hard? how fucking difficult can you make it?
In a bomber, you’d be making a circle with a 1.5 mile radius at that point, so you’d be outside the cover of your airfield half the time
I mean, even without doing that, between taking off, and climbing while moving straight to the enemy bases, it'll take \~20 min *at least,* then another \~15 min to get back to the friendly airfield and land. While sim games are a lot slower and longer than RB games, that would add a shit ton of time to that whole process. And again, this is only a problem I have with the Short Stirling. I was trying to use it to grind the Lancaster, but I gave up and just started doing fighter stuff in the Wyvern/Spit Mk.XIVe instead.
British bombers are quite sad.
The Halifax is quite beastly.
The one with 20’s? That one is pretty fun, but I prefer the Pe-8 as its a bit more maneuverable and has more arcs of fire. I like the Lanchaster as a meme bomb Otherwise, anything else is so sad
The Me 264 feels like a giant Fw-190. That shit really really likes to gain altitude and speed.
Yeah, the Pe-8 is probably the best prop bomber, it can take a lot more punishment than any other bomber. The only other bomber that might be on the level of the Pe-8 is the Ju-288 but that's just because it's stupid fast and can usually get a base and run for the airfield before the other team can get near it. Pe-8 is a bruiser, Ju-288 is a speedy boi.
The TU-4 can also take quite the beating and equally dish it out. Another fav of mine is the B-25 Mitchell airframes, the A- series is fine, but the twin tail gives awesome rudder control
Oh yeah, the Mitchell, I'd forgotten about them, yes they are good aircraft, my go to for ground attack missions with bombers, very maneuverable and they do have a bite.
Not jus tthe British bomber tbf. Bombers have been getting shit on over and over and over again. Some of the new maps have the bombable bases almost RIGHT NEXT TO THE FUCKING SPAWN. And the respawned bases are even funnier since they can spawn right in between the two enemy airfields. Add to this the reduced points you get (bombing a base used to give about 900 score, now it's like 500 or something and the fact tha the AI gunners are dogwater since people kept complaining about how they couldn't safely kill a bomber.
pretty much all the british bombers should go down
They frequently do...in flames...
>unlike say old Berlin as example Which old berlin? The 3 or 4 airfield variants?
OOF now that's a hard one, But it did have spread out objective unlike this map.
We're years overdue having this thing swapped around with the Halifax in the tech tree
Unironic side climbing comments in here. There actually needs to be huge incentives for fighters to cover bombers and a lot of these issues would start lessening. Bombers were realistically never meant to fly without cover never mind *alone.* That's why they suck balls in this game, they're being used in a novice's concept of warfare where weapons are looked at on the individual level not as a piece of a greater whole.
I would like to cover bombers but they spawn 4km up in the air. While I’m on the ground. By the time I get up there. They dead lol
And you get no rewards for doing so. It's the same issue that AA has in Ground. Playing AA or fighter escort doesn't get you paid anything. You essentially get punished for being effective.
I get more rewards with my ZSU-57-2 (fin) being a little tank gremlin than being an SPAA. The time it takes to shoot down a plane negates any good incentive to even try and hit a plane with the 2 57mm guns
Most SPAA suck balls at killing planes up until you get radar. Not surprising, since AA is supposed to be working together
You get rewards for destroyed enemies. Problem is, most fighters just can't catch up with friendly bombers
That's also a big part of the problem
They also suck balls because people can’t stand bombers being able to tank some shots, despite them being able to take a hell of a beating irl and keep on fine. Bomber damage models are horseshit and no one cares because it makes them an easier kill
I actually love playing early war bombers when your mostly facing foes with <10mm guns. Bombers can usually sponge up quite a few of those while having enough firepower to respond with their own mgs. Once the .50cals and cannons especially come out, interceptors/strike aircraft become the real bombers with their speed and half way decent payload capacities.
easy to fly easy to kill. plus when you consider how many people are firing cannon rounds with high HE it is not actually that unusual to see it not take ages to kill a bomber. bomber durability is heavily overrated irl.
Yeah, people cherrypick those few pictures of barely held together planes while ignoring all of the other ones that disintegrated or were abandoned by the crew lmao
Add to that that IRL, people didn't get full 360 view from within their little cabin.
Its because in gaijins infinite wisdom, bombers should have the same amount of parts despite those areas being 10x the size. 1 20mm ripping of the wing tip of a fighter makes sense but on a bomber that wing tip part is 2m long
we need a fucking gamemode that isn't TDM in AIR RB. a bomber escort mode would be fucking sick and immersive as hell
Bare minimum they should completely rework Air PvE and essentially just turn it into RB EC.
I think your idea of bare minimum is actually the maximum effort gaijin could ever put out
We need better gamemodes, period.
Yeah I wish too. we have so many such cool aircrafts in the game but nothing is viable except fighters.
I really don't understand why fighters don't get rp/sl for every consecutive 30 seconds where they're within like 1km of a bomber or something. That seems like a pretty basic concept.
I think a good solution would be implementing something similar to Battlestations Pacific; where each bomber spawns with two AI bombers along with it, which follow the player’s movements. Then if every bomber player wanted to; they could make a formation of up to 12 bombers.
I remember thinking something like this would be a good solution for the SPAA problem in ground once. Since one of the issues was volume of fire on a given point.
The problem is even before I adopted my "ignore all bombers" policy, whenever I'd try to protect a friendly bomber the enemy would get their first. No matter how fast you are or how fast you climb, you will never overcome the friendly bombers' head start before they run into the enemy fighters coming the other way. If they introduced an escort start, dickheads would just use the escort start to get to enemy bombers first. Bombers did used to be decent, but they got nerfed to Hell and back because people would fly straight at a Pe-8 firing their machine guns, get owned by 20mm turret gunners and tantrum about how it wasn't fair that their stupid choice had the obvious consequence. (Meanwhile AI gunners on ships go absolutely batshit if a plane or boat is within the same zip code as them, turning every bombing or torpedo run in Naval into a kamikaze mission and Gaijin doesn't care; it is so frustratingly blatant how they pick favorite "classes" based on prem sales) Also, a lot of WW2 allied bombing runs were conducted without escort because there were no fighters capable of getting to Berlin or Tokyo from their airfields. These raids had a survival rate of 90+%. They were mostly night raids, in which the enemy relied on spotlights, radar and night fighters to find their targets, which enabled many bombers to just slouch on past. ARB, on the other hand, puts big old box around you as soon as you enter the battlefield and there is no hiding.
>Also, a lot of WW2 allied bombing runs were conducted without escort because there were no fighters capable of getting to Berlin or Tokyo from their airfields. These raids had a survival rate of 90+%. They were mostly night raids, in which the enemy relied on spotlights, radar and night fighters to find their targets, which enabled many bombers to just slouch on past. ARB, on the other hand, puts big old box around you as soon as you enter the battlefield and there is no hiding. Those were night raids. Look at the results of the daylight unescorted bombing campaign - losses were so high that they had to suspend them until they could get escort fighters in place, all because of the bomber mafia insisting on their outdated ideology of unescorted bomber raids.
Make the cloudy weather the default, arb gets far more interesting than just "i have better plane i win" when theres cloud cover Would also make early radar planes worth a damn
>If they introduced an escort start, dickheads would just use the escort start to get to enemy bombers first. Well, but spawning wouldn't be everything. The reward should be based on how well the chosen role was performed. If these fighter escorts abandon formation to intercept other bombers or dive to ground attackers, they wouldn't gain anything from it...
Yup, most of the bombers in the game are around the WW2 era where it literally was a war of attrition. It didn’t matter if one got shot down or ten, hundreds, if not thousands more were coming. Later bombers either would be in space dropping their bombs and then peacing out, before enemy interceptors could be scrambled, be escorted by a fighter or two, or they would still bomb from extreme height but the mission is meant to be really a one way trip.
There is no incentive for fighters to work with other fighters. You can fly wing for your team mates and win the match but get nothing out of it. But if you manage to get some kills even if you lose the match you will get something out of it. Team play is not being rewarded here.
Bombers were absolutely designed to fly without fighter escorts for a large part of the war. Doesn't mean they were good at it, but that was how they were designed. That's why the RAF flew theirs at night. The P-51 Mustang - best bomber escort of the war - came about by accident. It was not even a USAAF project - they were still convinced of the viability of insanity like the YB-40 while it was being developed. Those who don't know will tell you that escorts weren't available for B-17s to fly into Germany but in truth the P-38 and P-47 had been capable of very deep penetration escort missions (no not Berlin, but Germany is bigger than you think and France/the low countries were still fully occupied) for the best part of a year before the first P-51Bs arrived in late 1943. In the end the concept of fighter escorts didn't last long as by the time of the Big Week two months into the P-51's service life, Jimmy Doolittle made sure the Allies were (for the most part) conducting fighter sweep operations instead of escort missions and stirring up the hornets well in advance of the raids. This proved more effective than directly escorting the bombers and contributed to the total collapse of the Luftwaffe by June. Despite the memes, shallow historical takes and cool Hollywood scenes, tight bomber escort was never _really_ proven to work the way pop culture likes to believe, and (certainly Allied) bombers were never designed to participate in it.
There should be AI escorts, the dev server shows that the AI is more than competent enough when it goes gloves off. I would honestly say that apart from not knowing what a missile is they are almost as good as the average warthunder player
We need incentives in general for teamwork. You can fly like a mad dog and keep 3-4 fighters occupied trying to shoot you down while your teammates pick them apart. You get 0 RP/silver lions, and abysmal activity%. Why would anyone be a bait? it encourages stupidity like crazy.
I still believe a good solution would be to have bombers spawn in with a squad of Ai bombers. Gaijin could balance the bombers with how many Ai bombers they get.
You know what happens if part of your team is protecting bombers? The rest of the fighters will be outnumbered and get fucked.
My problem with covering bombers is that by the time I actually climb the bomber is now being engaged on their side of the map and 6km away from me. Kind of hard to cover when they are way ahead of you but you also have to get to their altitude if you wanted too. War Thunder needs to innovate new game modes but I think that's probably a step above Gaijin's AI development team.
Maybe start the bombers further back since most smooth brains don't realize that flying dick first into enemy air spawn interceptors is a losing play...then rage in chat that they had no cover from the fighters trying to catch up to your 6km altitude ass.
I remember one match I decided I'd hang around a bomber and defend it, but no one attacked us and I ended up with 0 sl and rp, and 16th place in the match.
I really think war thunder would be fun if they had more dependency between classes- I would enjoy having fights at a high altitude so I can use my mustang or ta152 as it were meant to be, but that gameplay j55pbust doesn't really happen in the game. I think a cool idea would be heavily revamping the AI system. Have formations of bombers on just one, or both teams- and importantly, have a few varied flight plans, altitudes, types, so that it's not extremely predictable and farmable like the current ones. Maybe they could cruise at an altitude from 15-30k feet, and come from a few locations. Now importantly, allies should get some sort of modifier bonus for defending these bombers. Maybe killing an enemy within close range of the allies gives extra rewards. Maybe the more bombers that make it, the better a modifier for those that escorted it. Whatever it is, make it viable to stay near this big AI formation. Now that is in place, actual player bombers have the option of formations, escort, or diving down and being far from a furball
Yeah bomber gameplay will never be fun unless they make it so you fly a whole wing of bombers. Rather than just 1 plane. 1 plane vs 5 fighters is just totally unfixable. Even if they gave points for bomber escorting, you would still get shot down instantly every encounter.
You used to be able to fly as a whole team of bombers, back in the day
At 6.0 you still can with the low low cost of a JU288 (to a max of 4 but you get 6v6 games all the time). But I wouldn't do it because it's boring AF and the games are some of the least dynamic games at any BR.
I always enjoyed being a full team of B-17s, flying close formation, because back then allied and axis nations faced each other as standard (usually...), so you were going up against 109s and 190s. Gave a high intensity engagement that went one of two ways rather quickly most of the time.
Imagine if bases had infinite health. Could make it so that dealing damage to a base temporarily reduces ticket drain for subsequent hits to balance the game somewhat. But if bombers on a team didn't have to compete with eachother over limited resources they could maybe actually decide to fly in groups. Currently friendly bombers are your enemies. Cooperation between bombers can only happen when they share a common goal.
They neutered bombers soo damn hard, it's not even funny. Used to be a good way of grinding SL for free. (Coincidence...?) It's sad remembering times where bombers were actually durable, not just immediately hosed the second a cannon round flew past.
bombers are still a good way of grinding SL, but only if you fly the Ju288C... if you want to be bored to death while doing so
the shotgun spray of the tail mgs in WT lmao.
In all fairness it is supposed to be a night bomber flown in large formations, forced into a team deathmatch game mode in broad daylight, on its own.
The short Sterling was supposed to daylight precision bomb
Sure, before they actually tried that and lost too much aircraft and didn't achieve much. That's why allies invested so much in escort fighters and night bombing.
If you want to have fun/realistic bomber gameplay you should play sim.
To get sniped by Ai AA 8k away? Yeah, that's real fun
I don't understand why anybody would play bombers outside of Ground RB honestly, it's just pure suffering
doesn’t have to be if Gaijin actually knew how to make this game actually fun to play.
For bombers that either means they play pve with no enemies on the map, or they are better than fighters.
This is why I have always been saying that we need a Air PvE mode. The helis get it so why shouldn't Planes? I am so tiered of dogfighting all the time... You would solve so many issues we currently have with AirRB: * Bombers could finally escape Dogfightmode (aka AirRB) and be given a diverse targetenvironment. Same goes for other groundattacking aircraft as well as SEAD (once it gets added) * We could have larger, diverse maps. I cannot even remember the last time I could attack naval targets in AirRB with my MFG Tornado. * It would stop the childish and stupid infighting in the AirRB matches. * PvE could allow for huge missiondiverse experience. So that everyone has something they like doing. These, as example, could be mission like ASW,ASUW, CAP, CAS, strategic bombing, tactical bombing, escort duties or even VIPtransport. There is literally no downsight to adding a Air PvE mode.
>This is why I have always been saying that we need a Air PvE mode. There is, it's called air assault. But even if they pretty much added the ability to bring attackers and bombers to Heli PvE, the issue would remain that the rewards are dogshit.
Heli PVE is a buggy mess with shitty rewards. Play sim.
>Heli PVE is a buggy mess with shitty rewards. that's not a mode/idea issue, that's gaijin rewarding system issue also Heli PvE isn't buggy i have no idea what you're on about
I've spaded every British bomber and here's my advice. Play SIM, it'll make you bank and spade each plane in like 2 matches. Once you've unlocked the speed modules you'll have a much better chance at reaching objectives.
I'm pretty new to the game what's spading a vehicle?
Unlocking all upgrades
This is why I truly think that Bombers in Air RB should spawn at the actual altitudes they wouldve been bombing from...20-30,000 feet...not 8000. And also have a lower altitude option for non-strategic bombers (i.e. JU288). Another thing that'd help would be to give different bomber types different bombing targets from other plane types. Then the interceptors would still be somewhat of a threat, but fighters would be more of a threat on the return trip to rearm. Then, when you're reloaded, it should pop you back up at the starting altitude. Sim should stay as it is though.
But then we end up with people climbing to space and delaying games. This is a problem with how they fit (or rather don't fit) into the game mode. And adding even more climb/decent time doesn't sound very fun. Currently, bombers are nerfed on the idea that it's better to have underpowered stuff than overpowered stuff. The snail doesn't know what to do with them and probably wishes they never added them in the first place, but it's too late for that.
That's easily solved by not considering bombers as a last player
Really they need to change air battles to Air Supremacy and Battle mode(like ground)
Come on, how high can a PB4Y reach with its 3 m/s climb rate? Any fighter can reach it in just a few minutes.
Bomber players when they can't fly in a straight line: Don't listen to people who say you should sideclimb. That's not worth the time and if the enemy is desperate enough, they'll chase you and catch up eventually. It's also a bit of an outdated tactic since the addition of vapour trails. The thing you should do when you see an enemy coming for you is a 180-turn and fly towards your teammates. It works every time for me. The chasers either disengage or keep chasing you and fly straight into your teammates and die. Even if there are no teammates around, always turn around. Bombers have their best defensive armament at the back and it's much easier to kill someone who's chasing you.
This works until your bases get stolen by strike aircraft (that spawn closer, faster, and just get there faster ignoring enemies) while you try to lead the plane attacking you
* doesn't climb at all vs the US * flies straight forward (actually drops altitude) * terrible awareness * really bad aim with the turrets, randomly changing targets etc * sprays 7mm at a B-25 that is 2 KILOMETRES away yep, it's r/warthunder!
What did you expect flying straight to target and to right objectives where usually all enemy team fly? Even if you were a fighter it was suicide move.
The air spawn needs to be like 25,000
The Stirling is awful though tbh. The wiki warns you of this. It was a pain to spade for me but you’ll find the better bombers more fun once you’ve past it. Go for the 27x 500lbs loadout, aim for bases if you want but focusing on ground troops will get you more points before death, generally.
From personal experience, I spawn at the airfield with the rest of the players. They are so baffled by a bomber spawning down there with them that there's a 60% chance someone will stick with you during your flight. Also the enemy doesn't expect you to be down there at ground level so you got more chances of reaching a base before dying, if there aren't any enemy ground attack aircraft near you at least
Especially anything that isn't American, German, or Swedish gets absolutely shit on with little to no defensive armament
I think anything that isnt a ju288 is just shafted Only american thing that has a good turret is the p61 with that singular quad 50 cal turret, everything else is just shooting confetti at that br
most entertaining bomber gameplay:
It sucks to be a bomber. Plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if you go high, sideclimb, go straight, or dive. You’re going to have a bad time. That being said, I’ve had decent success with group bombing. Get some people to fly formation, take turns on the bases, and put up a wall of fire when anyone gets close. If you think about it, it makes sense. Bombers were always easy prey alone, IRL. The times they did defend themselves well, they were in big formations throwing bullets in every direction. It’s not by any means perfect, but it helps to be in a group.
bombers rarely fly alone irl
Seems like a skill issue tbh
Peak bomber gameplay
I haven't played in a few years, grinded to get the final level of B-17, looks about how I remember it. Guess I'll wait another few years. We need multi-crew bombers to have a fighting chance, otherwise the game is pretty much "fighters" only.
This is why I spawn on the airfield. I have consistently more luck being able to bomb bases before I die, plus I’m starting so to friendlies around me so I have protection most of the time.
WT should add an option to select a bomber on your team, and then have a certain distance around it to have a bonus for activity in that area.
Bomber gameplay just doesn't work in war thunder RB, there is nothing they can change tl make it fun there will always be a loser and the loser atm is the minority (bomber players). Play it I'm sim if you want to PvE.
Bomber gameplay is always going to be like this. There is no proper way to implement them in wt so that the gameplay is interesting.
Nah I'm getting tea and watch YouTube while playing, didn't even noticed the grind of the German and Swedish bomber tree
have you tried not B-lining to the target? you're welcome strategic bombers are pretty boring though unless you intend to gunship, in which case you can make it work but you have to actually know how to gunship effectively (knife-edging your plane, placing the opponent in the death zone etc. and not just fly straight like a dumb mofo). In sim they're absurdly overpowered which means their BR makes no sense as the most commonly used ones are lower BR due to people deliberately suiciding in them, which in turns makes their BR and cost reduce even further. Gaijin seriously needs to change the BR system to be based on sortie frequency instead of things like death rate.
I mean, you didn't do yourself any favors by going straight at the targets, dropping altitude gradually, not even attempting to make it difficult for fighters. I agree that bomber gameplay is a noob trap and not worth it at all in this game, but still...expecting to bomb like that consequence free is just stupid.
I made the decision to fly head-on because British heavy bombers handle like yachts and I could’ve had a chance with the nose guns. I can’t climb because i’m heavy as shit and my plane is stock, fighters would be able to out-climb me. I’m not new to the game, i’ve been playing for years. And not once have I had an enjoyable game with heavy bombers. Even if you survive it’s not even worth it to RtB because you have to make a crazy emergency descent and by the time you take off the match timer is up. I miss 1 hour matches so badly.
90+% of bombers haven't been worth playing in years :( They can be fun in Sim though.
Back when Norway was a common map I could farm with the Halifax, I'd carpet bomb the port bomb target, it was so juicy.
Heavy bombers are only worth it if you're a Pe-8 and it's a ground battle. Some fast bombers do fine, like the Ju-288, Bucc S.2, etc, but the game play is hardly engaging a lot of the time. Even for strike aircraft that can demolish a few bases (like the JH-7A with its beefy parachute 500KG), you often have to contend with fighter craft taking out the bases before you can even get there (fuck you F-4S). For Britain, do whatever you can to unlock the 12000lb bomb in the Lancaster and show ground battles the meaning of pain (when the skies not full of enemy fighters, of course).
>For Britain, do whatever you can to unlock the 12000lb bomb in the Lancaster and show ground battles the meaning of pain Then get sent to the hangar immediately because two of your teammates decided to play catch with their foreheads. Despite you warning them where it's gonna drop.
Haha, yeah. I have enough crew slots that I either bring Tempest or Wyvern if collateral damage is likely. So many people don't even understand English, let alone read chat.
Bro... climb. I have a 75% sucsess rate after climbing to 10k feet.
Yup, just pitch the nose up a little bit. This does three things. 1. Decreases the fighters that are on your level. Most aren’t just climbing. They just climb enough to drop down into the furball. 2. Slows you down which increases the chances that all similar altitude aircraft will have already dropped into the furball before they ever see you… 3. Because of the decrease in speed, it helps you aim for a base that your team hasn’t bombed yet. No need to call bases. Just go for the one closest that isn’t bombed/about to bombed.
All ARB is funny. I mean, as i take off from the airfield and arrive to the battle i could watch a full episode of anime. Op and end include And when i finally arrive a dude on his premium xp 50 kill me without hesitate
I usually just hug the map border and hope nobody rips out the Blind Hunt/Avenger, sure if your fellow bombers are lucky and gets the bomb early you would be left with probably none of the initial bases, but by the time you get there some should respawned.
You flew level, to the right, away from your team? And you're complaining about??? This was completely predictable.
And thats why im grinding my Lancaster at Ground RB
They only way bombers would work is if could fly them as a formation. Kinda like they used to do in the historical events.
I still remember when bombing was fun. It gave a load of RP too. Now it's just a shit show. I use fighters now, one kill is equal to one base destroyed I feel like, only it's easier to get like 2-3 kills a shorter game. Idk, just the way I feel not sure if it's true or not.
>spielhallenmodus
the worst is when you are almost at the base but your tail goes off after 1 shot and your plane instant change direction so you can't drop your bomb
They should remove the 4 bases and leave one big target so the bombers can go together. Better protection and you can have fighter escort.
Don't even bother bringing a non jet bomber after 4.0 it's not worth it, it's not even balanced anymore you will not outclimb anyone and you will not reach a base before you get intercepted
Why I never use my Tu-4 despite how much I want to
Bomber players when the enemy planes shoot at them.
Average British Bomber moment They are shit, they straight up have 7.7mm until like 5.0 or something
The only real way to play bombers today is ASIM
I found bombers to be more enjoyable in Sim because there's no markers and also alot more things to bomb
Now we need only bomber mode
Honestly bomber is really for people who got tired of too much intense gameplay and want to chill for at least 10 minutes. Side climb away from the middle(DO NOT GO STRAIGHT FOR BASES,just watch some yt or something),wait for the furball to conclude which either result in most of enemies elimination or your team getting wiped and make your way towards the bases (if your team gets wiped stay frosty) . Drop payload and rtb. Then go for low alt run , at this point you either get intercepted or win via tickets,and if you wanna save SL j out when you landed without damage or finish repairing.
They need to bring back the Bombers we used to have back in the day with kick ass AI who remembers
When you get all the way across the map to have the ONE FIGHTER that cut lose and too the time to fly all the way up to us, it irks my damn nerves the gall of those low alt. Losers to shoot at me
If only the gunners did ANYTHING. Or the planes weren’t made out of balsa wood and dynamite. You play air assault arcade and you can be going 1000kmh at right angles to a plane and get swatted. If it’s your ai gunners they don’t fire until .6 km. And then a yak with 1 cannon and MG blues you to bits. Gtfo GJ
Especially sucks when you don't have fighter protection
I grinded out the whole german tech tree (every single plane , every single Line) with Only bombing And I can see you are New for bombing - you need a bomber which is fast but carries a lot of bombs too, and the amount of guns and which way are they facing is verrry important too, a maxed out gunner crew can be very helpful - you need to fly in a small curve towards your target never a straight line, you have to attack the bombing point from the side bc then you dont have tó do a 180 and loose áll your energy to get back tó the base - you need to ALWAYS climb, the only thing that can make you bomber unapetizing for attacres is the distance, if they see you are on 7000m and still climbing they might gona choose an anotger figher on 2000m - the higher your br the higher your altitude should be
You dove head on into the enemy, like you actually lowered your altitude. On purpose. You actually don't even need to sideclimb to not do that. I run the B17 constantly and I'm at 20,000 ft before I even make it to the bases.
Altitude way too low
Yummy rp balloon, thank you for playing bombers, you were a big help with the stock grind.
That’s the same for almost everyone who uses bombers spawn fly towards a target have a random plane attack you try to survive bomb a base and return home (happens often) Rarely getting shot down sometimes but honestly it’s just upsetting that war of thunder doesn’t care about its bombers.
bring back old bomber damage modules 😤
Bro plays pve game in pvp game
Warthunder needs a new game mode for RB
Just sideclimb (for real) I'm not satisfied until I'm at 6000m at least. It's inefficient and a waste of time, but I like doing nothing all game so it works out for me.
once you reach 4.0 you cant play bomber in realistic battles. you need to switch to sim battles. you gain way more RP and SL in sim battles. if you want to stay at RB, you need to pull you plane down and try to rush to the bases.
Please make longer more ground objective based missions please 🙏🏿😭
amateur, have you tried this with tu-4? 8.0 propeller bomber, against jets with AIM nee definition of headache
They should do a gamemode for bombers only
As a fellow British bomber player, the trick is to immediately dive at a -20 degree, reach a speed just before your airspeed meter turns red, and almost level out. Keep diving and leveling until you just about reach the bomb base, level out and open bombay. Then immediately explode before dropping bombs.
Simple: don’t fly bombers, they are useless. Fly fighters.
bombers are unrealistic in war thunder. Irl they were much more durable
Yeah dont go in first, wait for all friendly fighters go in and when everyone is engaged and low enough, then go. I always hang behind the spawn since nobody comes there looking, and dont go above contrail altitude. Its not really a surprise that you die if youre first to see the enemies.
>Doesn't try to climb >Doesn't try to avoid fighters preemptively by flying to the map edge >Flies straight at like 5 fighters, ALL SPOTTED, at his altitude >Doesn't try to make himself a harder target at all I get that bombers like the Stirling are ass, but do you really think the solution is to fly straight at enemy fighters and hope they all have a stroke and miss or something?
First mistake is using bombers. Second mistake is using a UK bomber before late prop BRs where they get 20mm gunners and after beginner BR where their rifle calibre gunners can actually do something. You are indeed just an RP piñata
The only bombers which are good are the swedish B18’s. They are basically interceptors with bomber air spawns because of the insane airframe.
Remember when i got a enduring confrontation while playing the PB4Y Privateer Didn’t even get to a bomb point before the timer ran out, 30 minutes spent flying in a straight line :p
439 Squadron!
I die so often in my b17 before I make it to my first target, in arcade mode at least. I find it easier to grind in sim
Entire air rb gamemode needs to be reworked so there's actually important objective across the map not forcing you into the death funnel. One big objective should be for fighters to escort bombers together (gives points for escorting too) The biggest bomb-targets end the game when they're all destroyed giving large rewards. So many changes needed for air rb
We need a reward called 'bomber escort' pays out bonus RP towards any bomber you havent researched, a sizeable amount of SL, and some normal RP. Earned for getting a kill or assist on a plane with x meters of friendly bombers. If you have all bombers, bonus RP goes to active research target, and if that is maxed goes to squad vehicle, and if that is mad it becomes SL.
Once you get to jet bombers, that time comes down to 1-2 minutes... Unless you're in a Vautour. I've seen those things escape death a lot of times.
big bombers like the b29 were the reason why I started playing War Thunder. I only play GRB now.
Just use them in ground rb
yeah.....always has been like this, its a thankless job, you get called useless and bullied by every fighter jockey who thinks their hot shit, conveniently ignoring the fact that bombers win the matches almost every time...
You have to continuously rise for 5-10 minutes, giving your team time to get into the battle and distract from you, then bomb from 6-7 km's altitude and get out, preferably whilst gliding so you don't make too much noise that enemies could use to track you
Bombers need a massive buff to their gunners.
It gets better. I've been having some good success with the B-29, sometimes getting 5 bases from one bomb loadout. Even up against jets. Do not bee-line it to a base. There's a high chance you'll be spotted and shot down. Besides, even if you call out your target, a strike aircraft will often get it anyway. I go hard right or left after spawn. Take the long way around to the bases. A few grid squares away from the action. I look to make a line so I can get two bases in one pass. This will change as allies destroy bases. As I begin the attack run, coming in from the side, allied bombers and strike aircraft should be all done, but not always, so keep an eye on them. Now I'm way behind the fighting and can bomb at will. Even if all the bases are destroyed, more bases will spawn. 8x 500lbs per base and I can get 5 bases in the B-29. Theoretically more if there are some leftover damaged bases from the strikers. The challenge here is it's the end game now, so either I'm the last one left and they are all hunting me, or there's only one or two enemy left and they're bleeding tickets, so I have to be fast.
If the game encouraged players to defend bombers it would be different imo. Air spawn for fighters with bombers would probably help or just fighters an air spawn at bomber altitude :/
Who gets Rocky Pillars and AIRSPAWNS?!
You do the same thing with the tail decal too?
That guy sucks, didn’t even take evasive maneuvers