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Well the title says it all. Sorry for another newbie query. Reading the manual it appears 5k is the best level for using level bombers? How do you find them attacking naval formations? Any benifits to coming in lower?
What planes do you set up at 100 ft? Are they effective......Can bombers say like A20 set at 100 ft bomb and strafe set at this altitude? Ie pop up to say 5k bomb and then come in and strafe away?

I may be mistaken, but I believe that if you select, say sweep, and go in at 10,000ft the plane will fly down to 100ft before actually doing the fightwer sweep.

Other than that I don't know if someone has a list of the correct altitudes or what.

Fighters on Sweep don't dive down to 100 feet to strafe as described in the manual. So if you wish fighters on sweep to strafe you have to set them to 100 ft from the start. Also if they fight a long drawn out air battle they (or some) won't strafe either.

As to level bombers, I personally set them at 6000 feet (would swear the manual says 6000 not 5000) for naval or ground attack. Depending on the enemy air defense I will use higher altitudes for other missions.

In any case, much this question was asked recently on the boards and you should be able to find the answers there. Maybe make a search with the term altitude. Or someone else could post the links here.

Marc aka Caran...

Regarding level bombers and altitude (as I recall...)

All alts less then 6000' detract from morale. Low morale means less chance of flying. If your formation gets slaughtered, that lowers morale too, but flying under 6000' will lower it additionally. Alts <6000' are supposed to be more accurate (altho I really don't believe this to have been proven true). Also, the lower you go, the more flak is a problem. Pretty much, if you fly over 12,000' flak isn't much of an issue. If you fly a American (maybe all Allies) bomber with 70+ exp at 100', you can skip-bomb. It's more accurate, but you also take the morale hit (again, your planes have to have higher exp to do this).

Fighters - Station your escorts about 4000' above your bombers. Station your CAP about 4000' feet above what he's flying at (you'll know this after the first time, from the combat reports). It also -seems- to be useful to stagger the alts of multiple sqdns on CAP by +/- about 2,000'.

Setting anything to 100' will also cause them to strafe whatever they are attacking (fighters or bombers). Setting planes attack at 100' will also get them attack PTs and barges (since everyone asks this). Setting CAP to 100' will get you killed.

Frankly, I can't remember if : You set a sweep mission to 12,000', whether your planes will come down to 100' to strafe after combat with enemy CAP. I actually think they won't come down, but I could be wrong.

-F-

Great Thanks
Yes I am referring to the manual 6k is the optimal with regards to morale.....
What about search A/C? Do you use 6k also for maximun viewing and identifying ships.

6k works fairly well for patrols also. You can bump it some, but it's supposed to be less accurate.

-F-

6000 on heavies, 1000 on mediums

ORIGINAL: Caranorn
Fighters on Sweep don't dive down to 100 feet to strafe as described in the manual.

I figured that too.

Any word on a revision on the manual? There are quite a few things that could be cleared up with a new draft.

Worr, out

I just wanted to add to the other responses that I've had a lot of success with anti-shipping patrols for mediums at 1000 ft altitude. They appear far more accurate. Of course, this is primarily on merchant shipping; when they come across warships they suffer from the flack, but the Dutch Martins sunk dozens of jap ships this way, and currently (late '42) my Bostons, A-20's, Beaufighters and marauders are chewing up scores of ships. Also, I've been messing around with B-25's at 100 feet and they strafe the hell out of everything as well.

the altitude depends on the mission and the target.

when attacking heavy guarded airfields (with alot of AA power) with my japanese level bombers, then i set the alt. on 8-10 k. the lower the alt., the bigger is the damage output of the AA on my bombers.

when attacking naval targets, the alt. isnt important for level bombers which carry torpedos (NELLS, BETTYS) and for the "conventionel" bombers (HELLEN&co.) i set 1 k alt.

i dont play the allies so i dont know very well about their bombing strategy, but at least in UV, i set houston bombers on 1k and fighter/bombers on 100 feet against naval targets.

bye

ORIGINAL: Caranorn

Fighters on Sweep don't dive down to 100 feet to strafe as described in the manual. So if you wish fighters on sweep to strafe you have to set them to 100 ft from the start. Also if they fight a long drawn out air battle they (or some) won't strafe either.

So Dive bombers/Torpedo Bombers will fly at the altitude you set, then drop to attack altitude and then climb back up due to the type of aircraft. Fighters will maintain the altitude you set no matter what mission you select?

Its been a while so I am rusty on the mechanics.

I set my bombers to 8K-10K against airfields or ports with a lot of AA, unless bearing in to get hits is really very important.

Against ships, again, you have to make the calculation of morale and casualty cost versus the value of getting more hits. Against a heavily escorted task force, with lots of enemy fighter and AA cover, bearing in at low level may be very important, since you can usually only get off 1-2 effective attacks against such a convoy due to aircraft losses and resulting morale hits.

Other than that, I would suggest keeping level bombers just above the max altitude range of the smaller AA guns in the target TF or base. So figure out what the maximum effective altitude for 20 MM and .5 inch guns are (if you are going after the Allies) and fly at the next 1000 foot interval above that effective altitude.

For torpedo attacks and dive bombing, I go in pretty high, usually at least 15K-20K feet. With these attacks, you get hit by AA at this "starting" altitude, and then again at 2000 feet (dive bombing) or 200 feet (torpedo bombing) when your bombers dive down to that altitude to release their payloads. So I figure that I will come in at a very high starting altitude to reduce the AA casualties from that first volley. It works pretty well.

One important thing to consider for dive bombers is that if they attack from 15000' or above, they attack in groups of nine. This tends to dilute the effects of AAA somewhat, as well as concentrating the ordnance on fewer targets. If you set the altitude for 14000' or less, they attack in groups of three. So if your target has one or two high value ship that you'e like to sink (CVTF), set for at least 15000. If you are going after, say, a convoy of transports, set for 14000 or less to take advantage of the weaker AAA, and spread the love around to more targets....at least it worked this way in UV; can anyone confirm this? I haven't come across any enemy CVs yet, so I haven't needed to use it.

ORIGINAL: SaintEx

I just wanted to add to the other responses that I've had a lot of success with anti-shipping patrols for mediums at 1000 ft altitude. They appear far more accurate. Of course, this is primarily on merchant shipping; when they come across warships they suffer from the flack, but the Dutch Martins sunk dozens of jap ships this way, and currently (late '42) my Bostons, A-20's, Beaufighters and marauders are chewing up scores of ships. Also, I've been messing around with B-25's at 100 feet and they strafe the hell out of everything as well.

Any one else mentally picturing a 100' strafe/skip bomb attack by a ... B-29? [:D]

Please excuse the noobish question, but what characteristics are you using above when you refer to "medium" bombers to delineate medium from heavy (I assume they are both types of level bombers, as designated in WITP)?

Thanks!

B17s and B29 are definite heavy bombers ... Liberators are heavy too I believe. B25 Mitchell bombers are medium bombers.

In general, two-engine (2E) bombers are mediums, 4E are heavy.

I hope they fix the super-high altitude bug soon. I find myself tempted once in awhile to set those 17's to 35k... but I've been able to resist so far! [:D]

6000 on heavies, 1000 on mediums

Frag, are you saying that the game only gives medium bombers the morale penalty if they drop below 1000' when performing a mission? I thought that it was 6000' for all level bombers. I'd just like a clarification there, if you don't mind.

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

6000 on heavies, 1000 on mediums

Frag, are you saying that the game only gives medium bombers the morale penalty if they drop below 1000' when performing a mission? I thought that it was 6000' for all level bombers. I'd just like a clarification there, if you don't mind.

No, not saying that at all. The "effect" overrides the "harm" in this case.

Heavies just take too long to repair so I keep them up higher. Mediums are much quicker so it's not a problem for me.