Bombers

[Baron]

After reading the AAR I have some questions. How do the bombers manage to damage the cities so badly? I've had 3 or 4 level 3 bombers hit a city (lets say Paris) and all of them have taken 3 or 4 hits doing so. Is there a way to determine the amount of damage being done to the city attacked? Do the attackers have to be HB as opposed to fighters? Looking at the screen shots it appears that the fighters were also hitting the cities. I thought they didn't affect city reseource levels? Another thing do you need to hit a city with more than 1 bomber a turn?

[Liam]

Baron I do not know the exact science but in general the more you bomb a city the less the natural defenses will hurt your next bomber runs. Heavy bombers will just be more likely to do more damage. And there is a percentage chance increase that the bomber will hit the unit on the city with heavy bombers...

Also on top of this, if a resource has no unit on top of it a fighter will automatically hit the resource. The Fighter avoids AntiAir tech so it can be an advantage to use to soften a target before bombers go but they usually do not do much damage to resources especially lacking experience!

A strategic bombing campaign is a nice thing, as is a precision bombing campaign used to knockout the enemies ability to operate back to defend a spot after leaving it vacant... Generally you can expect a bomber attack without much experience to take out 2 MPPs per target, several increases in HB then could mean as much as 6 MPPs

Yes very deadly

[Terif]

Bombers as all other units need HQ support to be effective. They already start with a strategic attack value of 5 which means they will do 5 damage in average when at proper readiness. Bomber level 3 do 8 damage and with some experience and better HQs easily 10 damage. Which means after a few turns you can level a city from 10 to zero with one strike .

But at the beginning you just have to use 2 bombers for each ressource/city to bring it down to zero and after that also its defence installations are pretty much out of order. Bomber defence of ressources depends on their strength points, i.e. a damaged ressource can´t really harm a bomber any more, no matter which Anti-Air level it has.

So even if the enemy has high Anti-Air levels, the bombers only take real damage in the first attack when the ressource is still at full strength - after that it is a piece of cake for the bombers and except for a hit here and there by chance they won´t take damage any more.

Nevertheless it is very expensive and takes a long time to build all those bombers - so a real bombing campaing usually won´t start till 1943 and logically all those ressources will be missing for other things like ground troops. That´s why my western Allies in the AAR had no land units at all except for their starting units (that died in Norway..) and a few new built corps/Paras .

My airfleets were not used to attack ressources as they were all occupied by enemy land units, and with a unit on top a fighter can´t hit the ressources. Here there were heavy airfights over France/Spain as Axis sent all its airfleets there to wage the battle in the skies...which is a big mistake as airfleets are mainly useful to support ground troops: airstrikes demoralize the defenders so ground units can finish them off with low own losses. And western Allies here were clearly superior in the air with 8 airfleets Jets lv 4 in England. Germany also had lv 4 Jets, but not enough mpps to repair them...

[SeaMonkey]

I've been awaiting a thread with this theme, but I have a nice little twist to it.

WARNING....this could be a game breaker!

Do not read any further if you value the balance of SC2.

You have been warned!

Bombers are the single most powerful unit in SC2. They must be nurtured and for all of you that think its a tough go with the Axis, it is.

But Bombers pretty much lock an Axis victory if you use them effectively. First you must buy all three early and the Italian one needs HQ support, you'll need it anyway, so get the HQ early also.

You've got to get LR and you'll need all the Luftwaffe units. You will also need to research infrastructure for the Germans....this is a key issue.

Now with what.... 8 AFs(incl AeroRegia) and 3 bombers you form a fire brigade of 3AFs and 3 Bombers, that leaves 5 for USSR. During the winter you can use them in the South, during the summer if there's no Western Allied invasions, use them in Russia(8 AFs make for fast gains).

Opping back and forth at the hint of an Allied incursion, using bombers for recon all over the map, supported by HQs(one Italian, one German) and 3AFs for attacks, its all over for the Allies.

Let them invade, the bombers will kill their supply.....and the Allied Navies are toast with the Naval attack the bombers have.

Just remember, bombers don't do it by themselves, you'll need the proper force mix for each application and that includes some ground pounders and naval elements too.

Sorry!!! But this will probably change with WaW, that's why I decided to post it.

I'll hold back on the proper order of conquest for the Axis(just in case), .......got to leave something for the imagination.

I call it "AirAxis" in memory of our old friend Zappsweden.

[Terif]

Sorry, Axis bombers are no game breaker - already tried against me many times (often to bomb Manchester port out or order so England doesn´t get convois)...when Allies notice Axis bombers it regularly only leads to a short war and Axis beeing overrun by the red hordes...

Every mpp invested into Axis bombers is missing somewhere else - and bombers are not really useful in a land war which Axis have to wage against Russia...at least ground units or airfleets are much more useful and a better return for the invested ressources than bombers.

Axis bombers are in deed ship killers, but this only works against an unexperienced allied player - the ocean is large enough...

That doesn´t mean that Axis can´t build bombers or can´t use them to support their plans - they can...but all at its time and place...if the enemy expects you to go for bombers, then Axis will be in trouble with its expensive bombers .

[ July 08, 2007, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

[SeaMonkey]

Ha Ha! I knew I could count on Terif to dispel the AirAxis myth.

[Terif]

[Baron]

Thanks for the input. In the screen shot the Allies had 6 bombers so they were in effect killing 6 cities a turn. Hard to overcome those kind of losses.

[Blashy]

You can kill more than 6 cites, once you have one at zero, you can wait a turn or two and bomb others and come back to those after.

You could easily keep 10-12 resources under 2 of supply.

[jon_j_rambo]

Against intermediate Allied opponenets, I LOVE TO BUILD ROCKETS It's bye-bye England against these players.

[targul]

Havent tried the Rockets you win idea but I am very doubtful they are the key to victory. Not sure why with your extra air range you couldnt sit out of range and elimate those rocketeers.

[jon_j_rambo]

@Targul --- I've used rockets against many, many opponents with great success. Quite fun indeed! You game? Funny thing is, you think I'd use them against you & tell you in advance?

[targul]

What I find more funny is you think as the English I wouldnt have built air anyway.

Sorry but I do not play this game verses humans as a norm because players feel some strange need to play conquer every country in lieu of WWII.

Watch it you could lose my vote. I have yet to recieve that bribe.

[jon_j_rambo]

@Targul --- Ah, you're a historian type player, eh? Fine, pick your special rules, and I'll give you a special headcrack of a game.