Russian Bombers

[SCAR]

What gives with the Russian bombers being so terrible? I am in late 42, so the bombers are a mix of the old and improved bombers and they never get any kills when they bomb units, even units without entrenchments. The U2s on the other hand can get 30-40 on a good run, and even 6-7 men and an art. gun against level 3 entrenched unit.

Is this really working correctly? A flight of 50-60 bombers gets 0, every time, while a flight of 20 U2s can cause damage?

Seems very wrong some how. If its by design, what's the reasoning behind it?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: SCAR

What gives with the Russian bombers being so terrible? I am in late 42, so the bombers are a mix of the old and improved bombers and they never get any kills when they bomb units, even units without entrenchments. The U2s on the other hand can get 30-40 on a good run, and even 6-7 men and an art. gun against level 3 entrenched unit.

Is this really working correctly? A flight of 50-60 bombers gets 0, every time, while a flight of 20 U2s can cause damage?

Seems very wrong some how. If its by design, what's the reasoning behind it?

basically the Soviet Level Bombers are not great killers, but if you run the combat resolution slowly (say at 3 or 4), you'll see the A-20s and Pe-2s are good for disruption. Your key tools should be the Il-2s, they do (should) generate impressive lossee and even better high levels of disruption,

remember a disrupted element can't fight in that turn and may cause fatigue in the next turn when/if it recovers. Your airpower is a force multiplier not a killer in its own right, the Soviets didn't have either the planes or the doctrine of the Allies in France 1944

[SCAR]

Thanks for the response. All good with them doing something, but again, seems odd that the U2s are more effective seemingly. Are they getting the same disruption effects as the PEs?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: SCAR

Thanks for the response. All good with them doing something, but again, seems odd that the U2s are more effective seemingly. Are they getting the same disruption effects as the PEs?

no, they do disrupt but its more limited. My instinct is the game gets the U2s pretty much right, they are a low level annoyance that can cause regular attrition. By 1943 you probably pack them off to the Urals as their value is exhausted.

If I want to disrupt a stack prior to launching a marginal attack then I'd use normal level bombers or, better, Il-2s. Once you get Sturmovik squadrons with decent morale and experience and the Il2-m2 version, just watch the disruption add up.

so if you are not going to attack, the U2 is quite good, it does tend to produce some direct losses, if you are going to attack, other plane types are a better source of disruption (and in truth outright kills at that stage are not really your goal).