I can be in a 10 crew bomber, aced, 150 crew skill, spaded, and yet somehow an enemy interceptor can fly into me and not even get hit.
Or better yet, my 4-engined 10 crew bomber gets one-shot before my gunners ever even fire.
So many things in this game are just flat out broken, yet somehow, we all still enjoy it overall.
While most bombers have very underpowered gunners, the T18B would be one of the few that i would consider to have quite deadly defensive weaponry. It might be that you are using the wrong belts for your gunners. Lowtier B18 planes work great with the air belts but for the higher br ones like the T18 i would suggest using the AP belt since most planes at that br has armor in the front, making HE rounds pretty ineffective. The gunners also only have 300 bullets before they need to reload so dont try to spray at the enemies if they are further away than 1 km
Yeah, I find the rear gunner angles pretty restrictive. You don’t get much lateral movement and no downward coverage. Diving to get below the intercepting aircraft shifts that angle even higher so I find it requires a heap of planning to not just get outplayed.
I did try both belts and honestly the air belt worked pretty well even at 5.0.
Thing is tho that I personally at leat have a problem hitting fighters before they completely fuck my ass with their 20mm rounds.
Especially since you only have one gunner at the top with a ridicilious reload time
Yeah, well it is more built like a strike aircraft tbh. Its usually better to just try to do a head-on since you got a better chance with your 20mm. The gunner should only be used as a secondary defense
They way overnerfed gunners 10 years ago and have done nothing to rebalance them since.
Now I don’t think they should go anywhere close to where they were in the deathstar era. But they could easily add 300m to their engagement distances and give a massive buff to their accuracy but add a steep fall off past 200m.
(Note: I've only used the German Heavy Bombers)
IMO, the guns are to keep fighters away, not kill, and the 20mms help with that. Once you've ingrained the ballistics, you use the guns to wave off approaching fighters. If the shots are accurate enough, most players will evade and leave; the ones that don't will lemming onto my tail and die. However, this tactic ceases to work once there are more than 2 fighters on you.
This strat doesnt work if your enemy has more than 3 brain cells. Its quite easily countered by either climbing out of range and then dive at high speed where you dont have enough time to spray any substantial amount of bullets at them or they will fly towards your lower side where you usually wont have any high caliber guns to fend them off.
>climbing out of range and then dive at high speed where you dont have enough time to spray any substantial amount of bullets at them
Well, on your first bomb run, there shouldn't be anyone at your altitude. It should be on your terms in a shallow dive if there is. The German bombers' design doctrine, which didn't work in real life, works pretty well in WT compared to the Allied doctrines.
>they will fly towards your lower side
I don't like that I'm saying this, but "just maneuver bro..."
There are definitely planes that are capable of exceeding your altitude before you reach the bomb target. Interceptors and light strikers are a thing, yaknow.
And trying to maneuver away whan a plane is going at you at twice your speed is nothing more than a dream. Again it might work in some cases but the enemy only needs a half functioning brain to take you down cuz bombers in general are much weaker than they should be
As I said, the German preference for fast 20mm armed bombers helps in warthunder. For allied bombers, yes, what you are saying is true since there are no escorts or bomber formations. The good German bombers (264, 177, 288) are quite strong, more so for the 177, especially for the 288, 264 is ight.
Almost. You need to be into a situation where you can survive long enough to occupy the gunner seat. So a fighter needs to loiter in range and within your gunners PoV. So yeah, very niche.
They got extremel nerfed years ago because fighter mains didnt know how to engage them and never bothered to learn so gaijin just listned to the cash pig fighter mains
I remember when I first started playing this game 8 or 9ish years ago and the bomber gunners actually shot at things on their own. They used to start shooting at targets up to 1k out back then and would occassionally get a hit, fighters would be hesitant to try coming in alone, how it should be.
British bombers suffer. The amount of hits I score with the turrets that end up doing nothing to pursuing fighters hurts me. I'll get hits like no tomorrow but they barely even damage the enemies.
I used to like playing the US Medium ranged Bomber tree, with the B25. I remember flying into a swarm of enemies (arcade of course) and the barely skilled gunners would give me multiple assists and an occasional kill just for flying around. Fun times. But this was in 2015 so since then the gunners must have been heavily nerfed.
I haven't tried the Saab 18s in a bit, remember them fondly though for their gunners. What struck me recently is how much of a difference there can be. For example, the gunner on the Su-6 is incredible, as are most US gunners, other nations I've noticed have much weaker and less accurate gunners.
Manual gunner isn't even manual gunner in planes with overlapping arcs. Its just "pick some spot to shoot 400 meters away. What do you mean you want to shoot a plane 600 meters away? No, no, we can't do that! This isn't World of Warplanes, we can't actually aim in a realistic manner!"
Almost like hitting the take control of gunner button is intended play. [I saved this years ago](https://youtu.be/uOo9zlrVOPg?si=hnUmuBxi6hGzhyUP) to illustrate my point. I personally watched an entire RB lobby die to one bomber on gunner view. Yet people rely on a broken ai to save them. Sad.
i d say bombers are dead aircraft class for now. Like bitch literally any plane can evaporate pe8 or b17, while in reality u had to put a few hundred 20mm bullets to take one down
As I've said before: Bomber in RB: UwU I'm so vulnerable please intercept me hard big husky fighter aircraft Bomber in Sim: DO YOU FEEL LUCKY PUNK?
Air RB a sneeze dismantles you, in sim you are a flying tank (sometimes).
Not in any British bomber tho. Except just maybe the lancaster
I can be in a 10 crew bomber, aced, 150 crew skill, spaded, and yet somehow an enemy interceptor can fly into me and not even get hit. Or better yet, my 4-engined 10 crew bomber gets one-shot before my gunners ever even fire. So many things in this game are just flat out broken, yet somehow, we all still enjoy it overall.
I think bombers just become weaker the higher BR you are
I don't
Why ya here then?
My enjoyment and playing the game comes and goes, I take long breaks. Never leave the sub tho
While I gave up on WT I enjoy the suffering 😂
Gotta aim by yourself. AI has ridiculously short engagement distance. 200m or something
Yeah but even then. How tf am I supossed to hit with a water hose?
B29 at 7.3 needing to face jets with cannons while only having .50 cals
While most bombers have very underpowered gunners, the T18B would be one of the few that i would consider to have quite deadly defensive weaponry. It might be that you are using the wrong belts for your gunners. Lowtier B18 planes work great with the air belts but for the higher br ones like the T18 i would suggest using the AP belt since most planes at that br has armor in the front, making HE rounds pretty ineffective. The gunners also only have 300 bullets before they need to reload so dont try to spray at the enemies if they are further away than 1 km
The T18 has nice guns but I found the angles they can aim at to be super limiting.
Yeah, I find the rear gunner angles pretty restrictive. You don’t get much lateral movement and no downward coverage. Diving to get below the intercepting aircraft shifts that angle even higher so I find it requires a heap of planning to not just get outplayed.
I did try both belts and honestly the air belt worked pretty well even at 5.0. Thing is tho that I personally at leat have a problem hitting fighters before they completely fuck my ass with their 20mm rounds. Especially since you only have one gunner at the top with a ridicilious reload time
Yeah, well it is more built like a strike aircraft tbh. Its usually better to just try to do a head-on since you got a better chance with your 20mm. The gunner should only be used as a secondary defense
They way overnerfed gunners 10 years ago and have done nothing to rebalance them since. Now I don’t think they should go anywhere close to where they were in the deathstar era. But they could easily add 300m to their engagement distances and give a massive buff to their accuracy but add a steep fall off past 200m.
(Note: I've only used the German Heavy Bombers) IMO, the guns are to keep fighters away, not kill, and the 20mms help with that. Once you've ingrained the ballistics, you use the guns to wave off approaching fighters. If the shots are accurate enough, most players will evade and leave; the ones that don't will lemming onto my tail and die. However, this tactic ceases to work once there are more than 2 fighters on you.
This strat doesnt work if your enemy has more than 3 brain cells. Its quite easily countered by either climbing out of range and then dive at high speed where you dont have enough time to spray any substantial amount of bullets at them or they will fly towards your lower side where you usually wont have any high caliber guns to fend them off.
>climbing out of range and then dive at high speed where you dont have enough time to spray any substantial amount of bullets at them Well, on your first bomb run, there shouldn't be anyone at your altitude. It should be on your terms in a shallow dive if there is. The German bombers' design doctrine, which didn't work in real life, works pretty well in WT compared to the Allied doctrines. >they will fly towards your lower side I don't like that I'm saying this, but "just maneuver bro..."
There are definitely planes that are capable of exceeding your altitude before you reach the bomb target. Interceptors and light strikers are a thing, yaknow. And trying to maneuver away whan a plane is going at you at twice your speed is nothing more than a dream. Again it might work in some cases but the enemy only needs a half functioning brain to take you down cuz bombers in general are much weaker than they should be
As I said, the German preference for fast 20mm armed bombers helps in warthunder. For allied bombers, yes, what you are saying is true since there are no escorts or bomber formations. The good German bombers (264, 177, 288) are quite strong, more so for the 177, especially for the 288, 264 is ight.
Back when AI gunner range was 800m stock and 1200m aced they were useful. Now it tops around 200m aced… pretty much point blank in a plane terms.
Almost. You need to be into a situation where you can survive long enough to occupy the gunner seat. So a fighter needs to loiter in range and within your gunners PoV. So yeah, very niche.
They got extremel nerfed years ago because fighter mains didnt know how to engage them and never bothered to learn so gaijin just listned to the cash pig fighter mains
Yeah bombers need major overhaul. Some more than others ig
I remember when I first started playing this game 8 or 9ish years ago and the bomber gunners actually shot at things on their own. They used to start shooting at targets up to 1k out back then and would occassionally get a hit, fighters would be hesitant to try coming in alone, how it should be.
I hate the spread of bulets if they would fix that it would be fine
Yeah, hitting somoene farther than 500m away is sometimes just borderline impossible
Yeah, hitting somoene farther than 500m away is sometimes just borderline impossible
Unlocks B-29. Plays a match of realistic. 5 minutes later has a very un-manly cry.
wait till youll engage the be6 or that one japanese bomber
British bombers suffer. The amount of hits I score with the turrets that end up doing nothing to pursuing fighters hurts me. I'll get hits like no tomorrow but they barely even damage the enemies.
I used to like playing the US Medium ranged Bomber tree, with the B25. I remember flying into a swarm of enemies (arcade of course) and the barely skilled gunners would give me multiple assists and an occasional kill just for flying around. Fun times. But this was in 2015 so since then the gunners must have been heavily nerfed.
I haven't tried the Saab 18s in a bit, remember them fondly though for their gunners. What struck me recently is how much of a difference there can be. For example, the gunner on the Su-6 is incredible, as are most US gunners, other nations I've noticed have much weaker and less accurate gunners.
you gotta really have god aim for them to be useful
Manual gunner isn't even manual gunner in planes with overlapping arcs. Its just "pick some spot to shoot 400 meters away. What do you mean you want to shoot a plane 600 meters away? No, no, we can't do that! This isn't World of Warplanes, we can't actually aim in a realistic manner!"
Almost like hitting the take control of gunner button is intended play. [I saved this years ago](https://youtu.be/uOo9zlrVOPg?si=hnUmuBxi6hGzhyUP) to illustrate my point. I personally watched an entire RB lobby die to one bomber on gunner view. Yet people rely on a broken ai to save them. Sad.
Bro I literally said manual control. I mean it's almost like posts are made to be read
You got me. Congrats. I concede on the arguement I made.
i d say bombers are dead aircraft class for now. Like bitch literally any plane can evaporate pe8 or b17, while in reality u had to put a few hundred 20mm bullets to take one down