Bomber Crew

[BanzaiCat]

I suck at this game...my bomber is always shot to hell when I get back to base (IF I get back to base).

[Sir Slash]

So the Bobble-Head Germans are pretty tough. Who knew?

[jomni]

So... missions are not random? Or is it just me?

[BanzaiCat]

I started/restarted a few times, and in my limited exposure, each time it offered the same missions at start. You get to choose from three of them and as you complete missions, others unlock, but you're free to choose which one you want to go on first.

[jomni]

And there seemed to be crucial missions that you need to win (keep trying if you lose) to get to the next stage of the campaign.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yup.  There are "critical missions" in each stage that you need to complete in order to progress to the next stage of the war.  These are fully scripted ones such as the raid on St Nazaire, the attack on the Peenemunde research site, the dambusters raid, etc.  Besides these ones, each stage has a number of more generalized missions that are built on a template but have randomized elements thrown in. 

[BanzaiCat]

I think you (SDR) and JH have gotten a helluva lot further into the game than I have.

I found that the "low risk" missions tend to be rather obnoxiously difficult if you don't stay on top of tagging enemy fighters. It's too easy to be distracted by nav waypoints, bomb runs, and photo ops since those (except nav points I think) need to be acted on within a certain timeframe, unless you want to do a lot of circling back. While I'm trying to do all that, we get shot to hell.

So tell me, are you guys flying at medium or high altitudes? I found medium to be difficult because cloud cover almost always got in the way of my bombsight, but I understand that's part of the challenge. I haven't tried high altitude yet. Just curious if you've found a happy medium. Flying at low level tends to attract a lot of attention.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

High alt is prohibitive until you learn the nav by stars skill and get a lot of thermal protection for your crew. M drum is useful for hiding in clouds when things get too hairy but it makes navigating difficult.  I set a waypoint at low and then go to medium to hide in the clouds until I think I'm close then drop down to low to attack if the cloud cover prevents navigation.

[BanzaiCat]

^ Okay, I'll give that a shot later, thanks. Sounds like a solid plan. O0

[jomni]

I didn't know that. I was thinking of reasons to go med and high but I can't navigate so I'm back to low.  Is fuel consumption less ar high alt?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

^ Okay, I'll give that a shot later, thanks. Sounds like a solid plan. O0

If you're hiding in clouds, don't spot enemy fighters unless they are attacking you.  That way your gunners won't engage and you can sometimes sneak past.

[BanzaiCat]

I didn't know that. I was thinking of reasons to go med and high but I can't navigate so I'm back to low.  Is fuel consumption less ar high alt?

I've not played long enough yet, but I think there's a skill that your Engineer can get that allows them to mess with the fuel mixture in order to go faster (and use more fuel), or thinner (and go slower, but save fuel).

I've always managed (in my five or so missions) to make it back to base, except for the one catastrophic time we got lost over France. Each time we made it back, though, I barely made it with a bit of fuel to spare. I try not to think too much of it, at least not in the early stages. I imagine this will become a major factor as distances increase.

Would be cool if you could fly in a formation. Not sure if this is going to happen in future missions, but it's just weird being on your own.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Bomber Command didn't do formation flying with their heavies with the exception of a few specialist squadrons.  Planes went out as part of a dense bomber stream but each one acted individually.  There were a lot of collisions.

[BanzaiCat]

Bomber Command didn't do formation flying with their heavies with the exception of a few specialist squadrons.  Planes went out as part of a dense bomber stream but each one acted individually.  There were a lot of collisions.

Really? I had no idea. I must read up on this.

I figured formations wouldn't be tight since BC did mostly night bombing, but I didn't realize they'd be THAT loose. ;D

[matt3916]

It's a novel rather than history, but I highly recommend "Bomber" by Len Deighton.