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Dive/Torpedo bombers will eventually fly at 1,000/500 ft to launch attacks. Should I set a bomber's inital altitude to its limit (say at 30,000 ft) in order to minimize the effect of AA fires?

Level Bombers bomb from the height that you determine

Torpedo Bombers have a penalty in moral for flying to target below 6000ft, and as a general rule this is the height that I set them, also the higher they fly they gain an accuracy penalty.

Dive bombers get an advantage from bombing from greater than (I think) 12000ft, but I generally set them for 15000ft for the best results - they attack in groups of 9 rather than 3. I think above this height they have penalties to accuracy.

DoomedMantis: Are you sure that torp/dive bombers receive an altitude penalty?

I thought regardless of the altitude you start them, they dive to specific altitudes to begin their attacks. Because of this, previous posts suggested as high an initial altitude as possible to avoid AA.

Hi, If you look at a combat report after airgroups attack ships you will note
IJN torpedo bombers attack at 200 feet
USN torpedo bombers attack at 100 feet
This is regardles of where you set their altitude. They fly to target hex at assigned altitude but attack from lower one. They still take AA fire from the lower height. (And CAP has to lowers it's altitude to engage-one of the ways a combined torpedo/divebomber attack works is to move the CAP out of position. The early strikes take the brunt but clear the sky for the follow on strikes (the CAP that shot down all the torpedo bombers at 200/100 feet must now try to climb back to over 10k to engage divebombers)

Level bombers use the height you assign to fly to attack and return home.

Divebombers if set too low on flight to target have to climb before attacking. Divebombers will "dive" into AA during attack.

The to/from altitudes for torpedo/divebombers are most important concerning their escort fighters. At what heights do they preform best, at what heights do enemy fighters perform best. With the naval fighters (bothsides) I don't think one gains an advantage over the other excepting that Zeros climb better and Wildcats dive better.

No, Mogami. According to the manual, bombers first take AA fires at the initial altitude, then at the attacking altitude (1,000 fir DB, and 500 for TP). So If the initial altitude is high enough, bombers can escape from CAPs and the first round AA fires, right?

Hi, They might miss AA fire from higher height, but when they attack at lower height they get AA. As I tried to say the CAP will have to move from it's assigned height to the height of the attacking aircraft.
The "ideal" attack is one that has aircraft attacking from differing altitudes. Torpedo attack low and dive bombers high.
This is the reason it is so important for USN CV to be within torpedo attack range when involved in carrier battles. The torpedo planes might attack at extended range but then they carry bombs (and attack at assigned height, (as level bombers) negating the combined altitude attack)

Hi all,

Originally posted by Mogami
Hi, If you look at a combat report after airgroups attack ships you will note
IJN torpedo bombers attack at 200 feet
USN torpedo bombers attack at 100 feet
This is regardles of where you set their altitude. They fly to target hex at assigned altitude but attack from lower one. They still take AA fire from the lower height. (And CAP has to lowers it's altitude to engage-one of the ways a combined torpedo/divebomber attack works is to move the CAP out of position. The early strikes take the brunt but clear the sky for the follow on strikes (the CAP that shot down all the torpedo bombers at 200/100 feet must now try to climb back to over 10k to engage divebombers)

Level bombers use the height you assign to fly to attack and return home.

Divebombers if set too low on flight to target have to climb before attacking. Divebombers will "dive" into AA during attack.

The to/from altitudes for torpedo/divebombers are most important concerning their escort fighters. At what heights do they preform best, at what heights do enemy fighters perform best. With the naval fighters (bothsides) I don't think one gains an advantage over the other excepting that Zeros climb better and Wildcats dive better.

Can we (as group) write full and 100% accurate description for all aircrfat attack altitudes in UV?

I think this would be most usefull thing...


BTW this is what I found in most excellent Spooky's FAQ:


*****

Aircraft altitude setting

If the altitude is set to 100 feet, the aircraft will strafe the target at all times. Other than that, the following applies:

Dive-bombers and torpedo bombers attack at a specific, hard coded altitude. The altitude you enter is the altitude at they fly to and from the target. Dive bombers start at around 8,000 feet and dive to about 3,500 feet. If you set the altitude at any value other than 8,000 feet they will fly to the target at that altitude and then climb to 8,000 feet before they make the dive. Torpedo bombers attack at about 150 feet to 350 feet, depending on model. The same principal applies to these. So, setting the altitude to 5,000 will cause them to fly at that altitude until they get to the target, at which time they will glide down to attack altitude.

Fighter-bombers will tend to behave like dive-bombers.

Fighter aircraft on sweep missions will dive to 100 feet and strafe.

Level bombers will bomb from the level assigned.

Fighter aircraft assigned to escort missions will fly at assigned altitude until enemy aircraft are spotted and then close to about the same altitude that the bombers are flying.

Combat air-patrol will climb or dive to the altitude of the enemy bombers. (reported by Mark W. Carver)

*****


Leo "Apollo11"

Escorts assigned to a height within 3000 ft of bombers perform best

Originally posted by dtx
DoomedMantis: Are you sure that torp/dive bombers receive an altitude penalty?

I thought regardless of the altitude you start them, they dive to specific altitudes to begin their attacks. Because of this, previous posts suggested as high an initial altitude as possible to avoid AA.

Thats what I was lead to believe, but I have never actually tested the theory, when i get some time I might run a little test

What about torpedo bombers attacking land-targets? They bomb from the set altitude like level-bombers, no?