Naval attack efficiency

[Mistmatz]

I'm in the 2nd week of a CHS2.08 gc as allies and although I set almost all of my level bombers to naval attack I haven't had a single hit on japanese vessels yet (in quite a number of attacks).

With the four engine LBs I wouldn't like to go lower than 10k for realism purposes, but the two engine bombers don't score either. Those I use at 6k. Is this altitude too high for crews with experience ranging from 45-60? Morale is of course not the best but usually at least around 40. I also try to attack within standard range to get more drops (at least thats what I believe) but this also doesn't seem to help.

The only thing I usually don't do is the naval search slider, I keep this at 0%. Up till now I believed that the intelligence from my patrol planes would help the bombers to find and attack the vessels in range. Considering my 'successes' I think I need to reevaluate this... So what are your experiences with the naval search slider for bombers on naval attack. Do yo use them, if so to what percentage?

[dtravel]

Level bombers with experience below about 70 (some say 80) are very poor at hitting ships.  You can't do anything about that except get them more experience.  Bombing airfields and ports is a good way.

[AmiralLaurent]

Yes at start Allied bombers will be better hitting AF or enemy troops to gain experience.

If you want to attack ships and have some success send them at 1000 or 2000 feet high. But your main anti-shipping aircraft will be torpedo aircraft (Swordfish, Viddlebeest, etc...).

By the way having your bomber also fly naval search will help to increase the detection level of the enemy ships a little more, and the better DL, the better chance you have to hit them (or at least you send more AC to attack them).

[niceguy2005]

In my experience after about two weeks is when you will start to register an occassional hit on a ship. LBA when bombing from 10,000 feet rarely hit anything. That's why starting in about late 42 the allies switched to low altitude bombing and got great results....they absolutely decimated Japanese shipping.

If you are in a PBEM there's not much to do IMO but continue bombing the shipping. Usually air fields are too well defended and you will lose a lot of bombers to CAP. If you are playing the AI it is a different story.

[Mistmatz]

Thats exactely the point niceguy, I dont want to wast my LBs against japanese CAP with only few replacements available (esp. dutch pilots). Brings me to another question... has the zero bonus any effect on CAP duty against unescorted LB? IIRC the zero bonus increased maneuverability which should be good enough to fight LB's already. An increased gun value would be a different story though...

Regarding the detection level you guys mentioned does it make any difference if a LB group searches itself versus an increased Naval Search level of a PA group? Example, a base has two units, one has 10 LBA and one has 10 PA planes (assume similar EXP, fatigue, range, etc). If I increase the NavSearch by 10% on the PA unit and lower it accrodingly on the LB unit would I experience any difference?

For the time being I'll lower the altitude and see if this helps, thx for the advice so far.

[bradfordkay]

After awhile (a couple of months of gameplay), your allied LBs will start getting hits on enemy shipping - if you don't lose all your experienced pilots first.

You do want to keep in mind that any LB unit flying combat missions below 6000' will take a moral hit. Some players don't find this to be a problem, I find that it causes too many aborted flights (hmmm.... do pilots gain experience on aborted flights?).

[zhengxuacmilan]

hi

I think the problem is mainly due to the experience of the pilots. Be patient, you will find the LBs can get some good results soon

[AmiralLaurent]

Zero bonus is on manoeuver and with or without bonus the Zero will still have huge advantage over any bomber...

By the way in combat animation of fighter vs fighter, you will see sentence like 'Unit A bouncing Unit B' or 'A6M2 firing on Buffalo from behind'. In fighter vs bomber I have never seen such sentence, it is always 'fighter attacking bomber' or 'bomber firing on fighter', so I strongly suspect that the game mechanisms of fighters vs bomber are different than fighter vs fighter and didn't count in account the manoeuvaribilty (sp?), that was not useful IRL in such case so that OK for me.

As for raising the naval search % of your PA aircraft, they should be at 100% all the time. In fact an 12-AC unit at 100% will fly (depending of the distance to HQ, supplies, etc...) between 6 and 15 sorties a day, not 24... I use them like that and also set the bombers at 10 or 20% naval search.

Attacking the enemy airfield is a good idea from time to time just to be sure that your opponent will keep a part of his Zeroes on CAP rather than send 100% on sweep over your own base. Also if you find a place where only Nate flew CAP, a B-17 raid (escorted by P-40 or not) will do a slaughter... By the way against Nate you can almost use your heavy bombers as a sweep, A2A losses will be far heavier on the Japanese side than on the Allied one.