Does maneuver matter for bombers?

[rader]

I was just poking through the editor and I noticed that bombers don't have maneuver ratings at altitude bands - they just have one maneuver rating. Their maneuver value for all altitude bands is listed as '0'. I wonder if this is an oversight and bomber manueverability dosen't come into play at all? Or possibly it dosen't come into play because of the ata combat engine, but that's a different story...

[Rob Brennan UK]

AFAIK manoeuvre bands add to the combat speed of a/c , this makes fighters more effective in those bands they have the best value. bombers just have the one value for all altitudes as i suspect its just a thing for fighters a2a combat model. Should bombers have manoeuvre bands too ? personally im not that bothered as it would be minimal for any 2E+ bomber compared to single seat fighters.

[Shark7]

It most likely does have some effect. I would guess it matters more with a DB, TB or tactical bomber than with a heavy bomber though (since those rely on numbers and guns for survival).

[rader]

I'm pretty sure maneuver makes no difference at all for bombers... I ran some tests and posted it in tech support. Even Betties with maneuver = 99 were dead meat!

Yes, compared to fighters, bomber maneuverability was low. But unless trying to stay in formation, most bomber pilots of course did maneuver (some light bombers even trying to dogfight) and it did on occasion make an appreciable difference in their survival. Plus I would expect manuever to include plane size. A 4E bomber makes a much bigger target than a Ki-51 Sonia!

[Terminus]

Bombers don't use MVR for A2A combat.

[mariof2]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Bombers don't use MVR for A2A combat.

Which begs the question.. What do they use MVR for?

[Alpha77]

ORIGINAL: mariof2

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Bombers don't use MVR for A2A combat.

Which begs the question.. What do they use MVR for?

To "outfly" (better word needed) ground aa fire ?

[Nikademus]

nope....not AA

[rader]

I think the answer is 'nothing' [;)]

Which to me means that maneuverable & light bombers with ~30 mnvr get the shaft compared with big heavy beasts where their ~2 manvr.

[michaelm75au]

Bomber MVR itself is used in AAA evasion. 

[Sardaukar]

I'd be careful using editor to "fix something that is not broken". [8D] It can have unexpected consequences, since bombers are treated differently in code than fighter vs fighter combat. 

[vonTirpitz]

In December 41, a PBY Catalina of the 205 Sqn. RAF was shot down by a G3M Nell reconnaissance bomber of Mihoro Kokutai around Malaya. Later in the war, there was another"dogfight" between a Mavis and a Catalina (the Cat won this one) around the Solomons. In October 42 another Mavis was attacking a PBY ahd was downed by a patroling B-17 that happened across them near Esprito Santos. From what little I've found browsing around the net, it appears that there were over 130 Jap multi-engine planes downed by USN patrol planes during the war. Encounters between patrol planes were much less rare than I had realized.

While it is pretty marginal and outside the scope of the game engine it is still interesting to know that these encounters did actually occur during the war.

[CaptBeefheart]

Don't forget the SBDs on CAP at Coral Sea.

Cheers,
CC