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Does extremely high altitude affect torpedo bomber or diver bomber accuracy? And how much does altitude really affect level bombers as AE stands now?

Also, aside from maneuverability ratings, does flying your CAP at high or low altitude really make that much of a difference?

No for Torpedoes. Not sure but I think not for DBs
LBs - A LOT.
CAP - Yes, time to intercept boogies.

ORIGINAL: fflaguna

Does extremely high altitude affect torpedo bomber or diver bomber accuracy? And how much does altitude really affect level bombers as AE stands now?

Also, aside from maneuverability ratings, does flying your CAP at high or low altitude really make that much of a difference?

LBs - ALTITUDE AFFECTS A LOT.

I understand that super low altitude bombing runs by LBs used to be way unbalanced, but that it has been fixed. Is it still a large factor in, say, static airfield bombings?

CAP - Yes, time to intercept boogies.

If I have a crappy type flying CAP, I can fly at 15k altitude and intercept basically anything spotted more than 15-25 minutes out, right?

If you set your dive bombers too high, they will level bomb and not dive bomb. That means they will hit much less than your torpedo bombers. Set your dive bombers to 10k altitude if you want them to be accurate. Set them higher if you want them to miss most of the time, but be slightly safer from flak.

Torpedo bombers will not be affected by altitude settings from what I can tell.

bc

I haven't played AE that extensively, but it used to be in WitP that the altitude setting affected the number of AC per (attacking) section of a squadron. So maybe your Altitude was set to 10k, you'd get something like 6x AC per section. But 24k you got 8x AC per section. And then each section would attack the same target. So in a 24x AC squadron with the above example, you'd get 4x sections of 6x AC on the same target at 10k; and 3x sections of 8x AC on the same target at 24k.

I don't remember exactly the break points and number of AC per section, but basically, the lower the altitude, the more sections with fewer AC are created.

-F-

ORIGINAL: Feinder

I haven't played AE that extensively, but it used to be in WitP that the altitude setting affected the number of AC per (attacking) section of a squadron. So maybe your Altitude was set to 10k, you'd get something like 6x AC per section. But 24k you got 8x AC per section. And then each section would attack the same target. So in a 24x AC squadron with the above example, you'd get 4x sections of 6x AC on the same target at 10k; and 3x sections of 8x AC on the same target at 24k.

I don't remember exactly the break points and number of AC per section, but basically, the lower the altitude, the more sections with fewer AC are created.

-F-

That might have been WITP, but it's definitely not WITP AE. I went through months of heart ache because I was trying to get my DB to attack in 9 plane groups, instead of 4 plane groups, and all I accomplished was a 1 in 20 hit rate vs large capital ships, and about a 1 in 100 hit rate vs DD's. (they were level bombing in groups of 4)

Keep them at 10k altitude, or your hit rate will be miserable.

bc

10k is dive bombing
20k is level bombing
15k-20k is glide bombing

Most accurate is 10k for divebombers

Good to know, thanks.

I never understood why it differed the number of planes per section in WitP. I never cared much. But I never understood why.

-F-

ORIGINAL: che200

10k is dive bombing
20k is level bombing
15k-20k is glide bombing

Most accurate is 10k for divebombers

Only partially so. Divebombing is possible between 10 and 20k IIRC.
And 10k is only most accurate when not taking AA fire into account. No accuracy will help you if your DB´s get ripped to pieces
by heavy AA @ 10k. It really depends on the target. [;)]
Don´t forget that AA fires 2 times, first at the approach altitude and then on release altitude.

Sorry for my ignorance but what is "glide bombing"?

I think that AA fires 3 times, first on the approach, second on bomb-release and when plane fly back to their set alt.

ORIGINAL: snuffl

Sorry for my ignorance but what is "glide bombing"?

I think that AA fires 3 times, first on the approach, second on bomb-release and when plane fly back to their set alt.

Glide bombing is shallow dive bombing, for example when dive angle in dive bombing could be 70 degrees, in glide bombing it'd usually be 45 degrees or so.

Good link to explain bombing methods:

http://www.eugeneleeslover.com/USNAVY/CHAPTER-23-E.html

Glide bombing is performed at more shallow angles (usually up to 30°) using AC that do not have divebrakes.
And you are right, it fires 3 times though i only counted two because the last AA phase doesnt influence the bombing run anymore.

IIRC less than 15K and DB will dive bomb in smaller packets (2 to 4 planes?), greater than 15K but less than 20K and they will bomb in larger groups (4 to 9 ?)

Never heard of this Raverdave, or witnessed it. I don´t think theres a correlation between attack formation size and altitude.
 
Where did you get this information?

Certainly under WiTP you would get bigger ship formations of DB when they were set above 15K...it might have even been 17K. Have not yet found any jap flat-tops to test this out in my current game (too busy running away from them).

ORIGINAL: Raverdave

IIRC less than 15K and DB will dive bomb in smaller packets (2 to 4 planes?), greater than 15K but less than 20K and they will bomb in larger groups (4 to 9 ?)

This was accurate for WitP. 15k was the threshold altitude. From what is being reported, there is no difference in the number of planes in a packet for AE. I don't have enough personal AE experience yet to say.

I've seen attack groups larger than 4 bombers, but it was always for 2E and 4E planes.  The DB's always go in using 4 plane groups, but then I always use 10k for their altitude.

I have tested this quite a lot. I tried to do the old WITP method of increasing the altitude above 16k to get 9 group bombing runs (helps to sink ships, and not just damage them). All I did was to set them to level (or glide) bombing tactics, and they'd do that in groups of 4, and I couldn't hit crap.

I have not seen or found any method in WITP AE to get dive bombers to bomb in groups larger than 4. I'm 99% certain that that feature was removed for WITP AE.

For the record, I'm kind of glad that they did it. You can set your DB for level bombing, (thus greatly reducing their flak damage) for attacks vs non-ship targets. And, you can set them for good accuracy vs ships (although taking more damage from flak.)

I do miss the 9 plane attack groups, though. I generally prefer to sink a ship than to damage two of them.

ORIGINAL: che200

10k is dive bombing
20k is level bombing
15k-20k is glide bombing

Most accurate is 10k for divebombers

[X(] OMG I never knew that!

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

ORIGINAL: snuffl

Sorry for my ignorance but what is "glide bombing"?

I think that AA fires 3 times, first on the approach, second on bomb-release and when plane fly back to their set alt.

Glide bombing is shallow dive bombing, for example when dive angle in dive bombing could be 70 degrees, in glide bombing it'd usually be 45 degrees or so.

Good link to explain bombing methods:

http://www.eugeneleeslover.com/USNAVY/CHAPTER-23-E.html

An example of glide bombing was what the Vindicators did at Midway. The pilots didn't have the experience to dive bomb so their commander had them come in at a much shallower angle than a true dive bombing attack.