naval strike 100ft

[WO Katsuki]

does naval strike at 100 ft use Low N or Straf skill?

when doing it, it says "squadron x is strafing"

but isn't that only for ground strike?

[CyrusSpitama]

100ft. should indeed be strafing. Why attacking at such a low altitude?

[Halsey]

ORIGINAL: WO Katsuki


does naval strike at 100 ft use Low N or Straf skill?

when doing it, it says "squadron x is strafing"

but isn't that only for ground strike?

100' naval attacks prefer to go after barge, pt, and landing craft TF's.
Though they will go after others, occasionally.

FB and Attack ac at 1000' naval will also drop down to straf.
1000' attacks will target the larger ship TF's, including Air Combat TF's.

So, 100' is strafing, and 1000' is bombing with certain ac types automatically dropping to straf.

[WO Katsuki]

using floatplanes for naval interdiction

wondering what's best - 100 feet or 1000 feet

seems to hit less at 100 than 1000

maybe they have really low straf. skill?

[Halsey]

For Floats, base it on the TF's your expecting to interdict.

100' for PT, Barge and Landing Craft TF's.

1000' for all others.

A reminder that your OP losses will be greater for air units operating under 6000".

[Sredni]

It uses both doesn't it? LowN to deal with dropping bombs, and STRAF to deal with strafing the target.

IE at low enough altitudes the aircraft will both strafe (on their way into the target) and bomb once overhead. Strafe to suppress AA (was this ever fixed to actually work?) and do some minor damage, and bomb to do the real damage.

Can't remember what altitude strafing starts, or what plane types are required. I would assume just attack bombers, fighter bombers, and fighters can strafe, but I dunno.

[jmalter]

take a look at the pilots, to see what type of skill gain they are getting. i had a sqn of P-400s set to Ground Attack at 100', they were dropping bombs as well as strafing in the combat animation, and were gaining LowB skill.

[dr.hal]

I thought that aircraft such as FBs and Fs in ground attack role, would attack with bombs at 1 K feet and then drop down to strafe if the target was "strafible" so to speak. Do I have that wrong? In other words, best to attack at 1000 ft no matter what (if using the right a/c), as the option to drop down presents itself.

[DOCUP]

I have seen bombs dropped at 100 ft and strafe.  Training for low G is 1k feet 100ft is strafing.

[Sardaukar]

100 ft is strafe and skip bombing.

[dr.hal]

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

100 ft is strafe and skip bombing.

Is skip bombing a factor that is recognized in the game? Has anyone seen it in a combat report? Has anyone game tested for it? I for one would be loath to put a plane down to 100 feet against a surface target if there were no advantages in doing so... Hal

[Sardaukar]

It at least worked previously. There has been so many changes, that I don't really know right now. [8D]

It could be for Attack Bombers only nowadays.

[Lokasenna]

When I last played the Guadalcanal scenario, I used P-39s and P-40s on 100 foot naval attack to great effect against merchant shipping. Those 250-lb general purpose bombs still wreck xAKs DDs, and the occasional CL.

As far as I know, it used the Low Nav skill, as I saw that increasing (in orange/green) in the pilots screen. It may also use Strafe, but the units in question already had decently high Strafing skills.

[Sredni]

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that skip bombing only happens if a squadron has 80 or 90+ average experience. ie not gonna happen without some major pilot selection contortions.

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: Sredni

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that skip bombing only happens if a squadron has 80 or 90+ average experience. ie not gonna happen without some major pilot selection contortions.

That requirement was removed, as far as I know.

[Biggus63]

All I can add to this is that I use Beaufighters at 100' regularly and as someone stated they will strafe and drop bombs. With regard to which skill I have noticed that both strafe and low naval seem to improve from these missions, but that strafe skill seems to increase at a faster rate than low naval. Typically, after a few missions (say 3) doing this almost every pilot will have improved at strafe but only some, maybe 25-30% will have done so at low naval. I should stress that this is something that I have not tested seriously, just a tendency that I THINK I may have noticed. Will the increase in low naval be tied to actually hitting? I ask this because almost every Beau in these actions will score strafe hits with the 4x20mm cannons but only some will hit with their bombs. If the increases in skills are in some way influenced by whether the target was hit this might explain the strafe/low naval experience gain differential that I think I've noticed.

As to who they'll actually target I've seen them target both merchant and naval surface groups. More often it's merchant groups but that might be influenced by where I'm using them, out of Port Moresby north to interdict supplies to Buna and Lae. The Beaus don't really have the punch to take on serious naval groups anyway, though I've crippled DDs often, but they will sweep the sea clean of anything small or medium sized merchant wise.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: WO Katsuki


using floatplanes for naval interdiction

wondering what's best - 100 feet or 1000 feet

seems to hit less at 100 than 1000

maybe they have really low straf. skill?

Well, that plus AA is more effective at 100 feet. Damaged planes rarely hit any target from what I have seen. Attack bombers will suppress flak but no other plane including FB or fighters will. I do not think the mechanics change at all with altitude. Anything below 6,000 feet and attack bombers will drop down and bomb at 100 feet-and strafe as well. The attack always goes off at 100 feet, and low nav and low ground are still the best skill as it is the bombs that do the real damage, not the strafing. Above 6,000 and attack bombers level bomb. Standard mediums level bomb at all altitudes but 100 feet where they will strafe. However, it is a waste because below 6,000 feet they carry 1/2 of a bomb load and my testing shows that they are better off bombing above 6k for this reason. If they are high skilled I sometimes set them to bomb shipping at 1,000 for the better accuracy but never for ground targets.

Fighters and fighter bombers if set to 1,000 feet will drop to 100 ft to bomb and strafe, but they will not suppress AA like attack bombers, so if there is heavy AA, this can be very bad for them. All other heights above 1,000 feet and these planes will level bomb.

I really wish fighters could suppress in the game. It really nerfs them
by late war the Allies were using fighters a great deal in both low ground and naval attacks.

[Lokasenna]

Using Low Nav with fighters out of Port Moresby seems pretty common...


Regarding the AA, against the IJN (in stock, at least) you don't have to worry much about the flak from ships - particularly xAKs and xAKLs, even DDs and CLs. I've landed plenty of hits on those. Anything that's a CA or bigger, though, and I don't get any/many hits...must be the flak?

[dr.hal]

I've just started reading Fortress Rabaul and the author indicates that his uncle in B-17 flew skip bombing runs!!!! And claimed they were effective....and done at night... Anyone else hear of this?

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: dr.hal

I've just started reading Fortress Rabaul and the author indicates that his uncle in B-17 flew skip bombing runs!!!! And claimed they were effective....and done at night... Anyone else hear of this?

Yes.

Well-known fact. Skip-bombing was first used and invented by B-17 group.