Bomber Help

[commissarhanish_MatrixForum]

Playing CHS as allied. Its March 42' and Id like some advice on how best to use my LRB against ships. Ive had very little luck getting bomb hits on any ships..even with strikes of 30 planes.

Any advice on best types, altitude etc...

[pmath]

I have only played stock to this point, but generally, lower altitude will result in more hits on the fleets as well as more damage to your planes. 2000 ft and under creates the opportunity to skip bomb for the allies if your squadron is experienced enough (60+). Skip bombing allows the bombs to imitate torps with devastating results. Both the damage to your planes and pilots as well as the enemy fleet will increase dramatically. Very inexperienced squadrons should bomb at higher altitudes until they gain a reasonable level of experience to be able to score hits at lower altitude. That way they don't get too shot up while their green and unable to score at any altitude. Some Jap Fanboys will whine if you send 4E Bombers to skip bomb so make sure you know the table rules.

[bradfordkay]

Skip bombing will only occur if the unit is set to 100' altitude. It also needs to be a fairly highly experienced unit to perform skip bombing.

In general, the lower the altitude of the aircraft, the greater the chance of getting a hit on a naval target. However, level bombers (LB) performing offensive mission below 6000' altitude will take a morale hit, so regularly using them below this altitude will reduce the number of attacks they make (due to failing the morale roll).

It is my experience that level bombers in WITP/UV have a far greater hit ratio than they did IRL (in real life), so I tend to keep them at higher altitudes. I will use twin engined bombers at 6000' (and the 75mm equipped B25s at 100') but my four engined bombers will nearly always be above 10,000' (in my PBEM with Chez they are required to be so, but in games against the AI I will use them at lower altitudes if the situation is desperate - such as an incoming invasion).

[AirGriff]

I have a similar house rule in my pbem.  4E's can only do naval attack at 15,000 or above (no skip bombing at all, even though I believe they did it).  And they are still probably unrealistically effective.  If a 4E group or sqdn has experience over 80, then they get more than a few hits it seems.  I could go into my rant about torp carrying Betty's and how they more than make up for the 4E issue, but I'll spare you. 
 
Everything else I typically run at 6,000', unless I'm trying to do something crafty to my opponent's CAP. 
 
I have a lot of fun strafing and skip bombing at 100', but it hammers morale and fatigue.  Plus, you need to make sure they have escort for enemy air dales, and keep them away from warships with good AA.  Both will eat up a low altitude attack.  Lots of fun chewing up barges, though. 
 
The smaller long range level bombers, like Hudsons, don't perform as well IMHO because of the small bomb load, but they do have the legs to reach out and touch someone, which is effective as a threat in itself.  They're great as naval search squadrons, too.

[engineer]

Privateers (navalized Liberators) routinely operated at low altitude, but they were typically on patrol and not massed formations going after TF's.
 
I'd say experience is the biggest factor for getting hits, altitude is a close second.  Since flak, ops, and fighters kill your experienced pilots, it becomes a judgment call for each mission.  If you're doing routine attrition, then preserving your pilots and morale will drive a higher altitude, less effective strike.  If you have a high value target or a desperate situation, then you bring the bombers down into the teeth of the flak.