Defensive Fire

[palioboy2]

I have played through 35 turns in my BOB full 40 campaign and I still have not shot down a single enemy fighter with defensive fire from my bombers. For that matter I haven't even notice them damaging enemy fighters (though it is hard to tell either way). I understand that the German bombers were quite vulnerable to the RAF if un-escorted, but you would thing at least one lucky gunner would accidentally put a round into a Hurricane's cowling eventually. Is there something that require a patch to fix this issue? In previous games before the patch I don't remember this being an issue. Is there anything I can do to alleviate it?

[warshipbuilder]

"Is there anything I can do to alleviate it?"

Surrender <g>

[palioboy2]

Well played, but seriously is this WAD or is it an issue with the current patch?

[palioboy2]

Safe to say the community for this game is totally dead then?

[nelmsm1]

Well not dead but then again there aren't a lot of folks hanging around. I don't recall doing much damage to British fighters in any of my ED games either now that you mention it. However without looking at the stats I don't think German bombers were heavily armed and the die rolls just may be against you.

[palioboy2]

Well just to report back I started a campaign with out the patch and my bombers and definitely doing more damage to the RAF. I have been running in unescorted bombing raids, and though they get chewed up they at least knock down a few fighters.

[Wijter]

That does reflect reallity - and some bad dice rolls.

German bombers where designed to fly faster than enemy fighters, and one trade off was the limitation of defence armament. In BoB your german bombers will have few machine guns (rifle caliber). The bomber with the heaviest defense armament is an italian one. The SM 79 carries up to three heavy machine guns, even this is far less compared to late war allied medium bombers.

So your only chance is to use fast formations with a good layered cap to keep the fighters off your bombers.
In daylight attacks, do not mix different types of bombers and do not tie your fighters too close to the bomber formations. Try to get the fighters as early as you can and try to drive them away from the bombers as soon as they show up.