Airstrikes and high altitude?

[Jorgen_CAB]

I know about the coordination of Escorts and Bombers and at what altitude you do certain types of bombing etc.. my question are at what altitude I should send in my Japanese Torpedo bombers since the Zero plane have a very good high altitude maneuver bonus?

Will the torpedo bomber work with an altitude of 20-25000 feet as well as they do on 6000 feet that seem to be the default value for them when chosen from the start?

When should I equip my torpedo bombers with bombs?
When they are out of torpedoes or when they only attack non naval targets?

I understand that the dive bombers work best at 10-15000 feet but how many escorts should you assign to either the dive bombers or the torpedo bombers and how many do you leave on CAP?

Will any planes assigned to Naval attack ignore the Rest order, the manual seem to imply that... but does it actually work like that or have I misinterpreted the manual?

Phew... allot of questions... but it would help me clear up some tactical decisions.

[Misconduct]

ORIGINAL: Jorgen_CAB

I know about the coordination of Escorts and Bombers and at what altitude you do certain types of bombing etc.. my question are at what altitude I should send in my Japanese Torpedo bombers since the Zero plane have a very good high altitude maneuver bonus?

Will the torpedo bomber work with an altitude of 20-25000 feet as well as they do on 6000 feet that seem to be the default value for them when chosen from the start?

When should I equip my torpedo bombers with bombs?
When they are out of torpedoes or when they only attack non naval targets?

I understand that the dive bombers work best at 10-15000 feet but how many escorts should you assign to either the dive bombers or the torpedo bombers and how many do you leave on CAP?

Will any planes assigned to Naval attack ignore the Rest order, the manual seem to imply that... but does it actually work like that or have I misinterpreted the manual?

Phew... allot of questions... but it would help me clear up some tactical decisions.

Lets break this down a bit -
Basically if you are using Torpedoes your planes will fly at 2k off the deck, however I do keep mine flying into the target area at 12,000feet so escorts get maximum dogfighting benefits. Dive bombers I keep between 12 and 15,000 feet.

Usually you want to use bombs only unless its a capitol warship, I found this out the hard way and had the Lexington crippled because I couldn't fight back since i used up my precious torpedoes against transports, so use bombs on anything smaller then a cruiser.

For my escort ratio, I leave 40% cap 20% rest and that leaves 40% for escort, however I only do this for 2-3 days of attack then withdrawl due to combat fatigue.

Plays will not ignore the rest order, generally speakings random of who will rest, seems for me the higher Experience my pilots have the least they tend to rest, where my lower skilled pilots tend to rest.

[Mynok]

Coordination is all about altitude, so set the groups you want to fly together to the same. 11-15k seems a good range as the DBs will dive bomb and the TBs will descend to 2k and make torpedo runs. That's what you want. The escorts will fly a bit about the bombers' altitude (even though it is set to the same).

You can turn off torps if you haven't spotted any capital ships, but be careful. Search is a tricky thing in this game and juicy targets needing torpedoes can show up unexpectedly.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Ah... ok... cleared up some of my questions, especially about the usage of the Torpedoes.

For safety I should perhaps equip the torpedo bombers with bombs unless I have spotted enemy capital ships. It will save me some aircraft... on the other hand it might cost me a CV if I encounter an enemy CV TF unexpectedly... all these decisions!! [:)]

[LoBaron]

Which armament to put on your TBs should be based on the threats in the area and your intel/nav search ability.
Its probably ok in really safe waters, though I wouldn´t dare to use bombs where even the slightest chance is, that heavies show up.
 
Pilots do not ignore the rest order. But even if they did I´d never user it. You want alpha strikes from your CVs and do everything
you can to make the strikes as alpha as possible. [;)]
Rest order is for units you don´t want to check every day but need a certain mission routine to protect the area. So for LBA mostly,
though I sometimes use it on ship based squads with search purposes only.
 
 

[findmeifyoucan]

I don't know about that. I had set my torpedo bombers at 6000 ft and they did a torpedo attack at 6000 feet. 40 Torpedo bombers on a Capital ship and they all missed. Grrrrrr. Funny how my torp bombers that were set at 2000 feet never missed and dropped down to 100 feet in their attack on naval units

[Mynok]

That sounds wrong. Do you have the combat report? First, torp bombers should attack at 200', not 100'. Also, I believe anything under 6k should be LowNav bombing. Don't know whether that excludes torps or not.

[findmeifyoucan]

Well maybe you are right. I am at work right now so can't check now. It could have been 200' but 40 torpedo bombers at 5000 feet come to think of it with all 80+ experience pilots from the KB and well rested at 0 fatigue. Grrrrrrr.

[Mynok]

If they were level bombing using the LowNav skill at 5k, which I believe is probably exactly what they did, you will find that their skills are likely to be very poor.

[findmeifyoucan]

Which confirms my thoughts that I should have had them flying at 2000 feet elevation. After that I decided never again will I fly torpedo bombers at 5000 feet. Always at 2000 feet.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I currently fly my Torpedo bombers at an altitude of 16-20000 feet and that seem to get a better result than flying them at 6000 which simply seem to inflict greater damage on the airgroups and fighters that protect them.

The divebombers usually go in at 11000 feet which seems to be the optimal bombing altitude for them.

Whether to use Torpedoes or bombs is a hard call in my opinion... if you have several CV in the task-force you might even mix them depending on what area you are in I suppose. Currently I try to assess the level of threat and use the appropriate type of armament.

[FatR]

Beware - if torpedo bombers are set to an attitude greater than 9k they will make glidebombing attacks, releasing from 2-4k. Very much not recommended for Kates making port strikes or even attacking warships. Dive bombers, on the other hand must be set to at least 10k.

[Zeta16]

ORIGINAL: FatR

Beware - if torpedo bombers are set to an attitude greater than 9k they will make glidebombing attacks, releasing from 2-4k. Very much not recommended for Kates making port strikes or even attacking warships. Dive bombers, on the other hand must be set to at least 10k.

Why would a torp bomber do this, we need some offical guidlines as to what alt. set do what in this game.

[Mynok]

Elf already gave them. He laid out what happens at each altitude setting.

[Mynok]

ORIGINAL: findmeifyoucan

Which confirms my thoughts that I should have had them flying at 2000 feet elevation. After that I decided never again will I fly torpedo bombers at 5000 feet. Always at 2000 feet.

Um...they'll LowNav bomb at 2000 feet too. Set them to 7-9k.

[findmeifyoucan]

Yeah, and I forgot where exactly Elf posted what altitudes to set the respective aircraft for best results. I should have saved it somewhere but only read it and forgot.

So, if you set torpedo bombers at 7-9k feet in altitude they will drop down to 200 feet for torpedo bombing Capital Ships?

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: FatR

Beware - if torpedo bombers are set to an attitude greater than 9k they will make glidebombing attacks, releasing from 2-4k. Very much not recommended for Kates making port strikes or even attacking warships. Dive bombers, on the other hand must be set to at least 10k.

Err..those guidelines were for DIVE BOMBERS, not torpedo bombers. Torpedo bombers were not mentioned in altitude discussion by The Elf or other devs.

[Mynok]

I'm quite certain they were. Perhaps just not the most recent discussion. Now I'll have to go find it.

[Jorgen_CAB]

When I read my combat report it say that my Torpedo bombers release their torpedoes at 200 feet even if the mission is set at 16000 feet. The only planes that glide bomb as far as I understand are the dive-bombers if set between 16-20000 feet. My torpedo-bomber seem to survive much better at a higher altitude and do more damage since more of them survive.

So how does it work?!?

[Mynok]

Well, I couldn't find where Elf mentioned the torpedo bombers. But if it says releasing at 200', then they are making a torpedo run, yes.

Now if they have bombs, I seem to recall that they will glide bomb above 9k and level bomb below that. 9k sticks in my mind because I made a mental note to use that altitude for airfield attacks using Kates.

An easy test I believe would be to run some airfield strikes with Kates and Vals at differing altitudes and see what the release altitude is.