The U-2VS: What is it good for?

[Q-Ball]

With all respect to Bono, what is U-2 good for? Is it good for WAR, to be blunt?

IRL, the U-2 had alot of features that the game doesn't really model.....cheap to build, can operate from pretty much anywhere, had very small logistical tail, and green pilots could easily fly it. These were all great traits for the RL Soviets. And while it didn't do alot of damage, they had an impact on German readiness and morale through night attacks.

IN GAME, they take up airbase space and support staff like any other plane, so there is a cost equal to a modern plane (which BTW you also have plenty of). Flying during the day vs. the LW is suicide in one of these.

So, is the payoff in night bombing really worth it? Or best to just forget about this model?

[Wiedrock]

No idea how it was balanced, but Night Bombing is completely screwed/useless for 2 reasons.
1. It essentially does 0 damage at all. Especially the biplanes which were historically used for such missions, simply to add fatigue to the enemy interrupting sleep, is not working at all - like not at all, not at all.
2. The enemy Fighters will try to intercept you, but will fail and instead will ram into the ground in ridiculous numbers, which can easily be exploited. Like you can fly 2k Sorties over German held territory (e.g. Poland at the start of the GC41) at night, doing whatever bombings and you may get 100 German Fighters destroyed by OPS losses while only losing 150-200 bombers or so.

[Q-Ball]

No idea how it was balanced, but Night Bombing is completely screwed/useless for 2 reasons.
1. It essentially does 0 damage at all. Especially the biplanes which were historically used for such missions, simply to add fatigue to the enemy interrupting sleep, is not working at all - like not at all, not at all.
2. The enemy Fighters will try to intercept you, but will fail and instead will ram into the ground in ridiculous numbers, which can easily be exploited. Like you can fly 2k Sorties over German held territory (e.g. Poland at the start of the GC41) at night, doing whatever bombings and you may get 100 German Fighters destroyed by OPS losses while only losing 150-200 bombers or so.

Good to hear, so night bombing is useless. That makes the U-2 airframe a complete waste (well, maybe you can use the RECON one, since the Soviets seem to run short on RECON planes, and it's a recon plane)

Running it just to generate Axis Ops losses seems gamey, and at any rate the Axis player could just turn "DAY ONLY" on the next turn to solve that problem

[Wiedrock]

Recon numbers available are rather limited.

~3k+ are transports
Those you can essentially use in 1 initial and 1 spawning AG (correct if there are more).
They are good for flying missions into Depots with Supplies int hem (with airfields) with units in/around the Depot (1 hex distance max) to trigger the "in turn logistics" supplying the units around the Depot. Those you can spam as much as you want, you will never rly run out of them doing this.
The bad thing about them is that they can not land supplies in areas with no Airfield (I assumed it'd rather be reversed, since those panes could land basically anywhere, but the Devs chos to do it this way).

~14k+ are tactical bombers
Some use them as normal GS planes. With their 4 Bomb loadout they are not too bad. If you have no surplus in IL-2 you may use the Biplanes in quiet parts of the front line or so....

[56ajax]

Absolutely nothing.

Though do use the transports as they are in short supply in the game.

[M60A3TTS]

The U2VS can serve the role of poor-man's tac bomber if the unit on the receiving end is in the open and not fortified. Otherwise, just stick with IL-2s.