Strategic Bombers

[Jazzer32]

A question from a begginer: What is the use of Startegic Bombers? Or to put it more precisely: When is Strategic Bomber more useful than Tactical Bomber? Somehow, I find them totally crappy units when attacking enemy tanks or infantry (compared to tactical bombers)

[MartyWard]

They are the best for attacking ships and once they get some experiance they are good for supression and reducing a units ammo and fuel. Try to get at least 2 in your core. You won't need them for every scenario but they are invaluable in others.

[Jazzer32]

Canu tell me an example, where they are better than tactical bombers? (except vs ships - rare scenarios) .Why would I want to reduce enemy's unit ammo instead of destroy it (with Stuka). Are they any good vs air defence, maybe? (never tried that)

[MartyWard]

Canu tell me an example, where they are better than tactical bombers? (except vs ships - rare scenarios) .Why would I want to reduce enemy's unit ammo instead of destroy it (with Stuka). Are they any good vs air defence, maybe? (never tried that)

Reducing a units ammo/fuel is very handy. That 4 range fort that keeps knocking out 2-3 points per turn can't do much with no shots. A PZ IVG can take out a JS II that has no ammo and no fuel to move away. A fully supressed ammo depleted AAA gun can't hurt your TAC's as they hit that artillery piece is is guarding the city you want to take. A unit without shots is useless. As the enemy tanks get stronger your TAC's won't do the damage they did earlier so you sometimes need a different approach. Plus they are the only plane that can take on an unsupressed AAA unit and take very little damage. An over-strength Strat can fully supress and ammo deplete a full strength AAA in one shot.

They are very useful to have around. It took me a while to appreciate them but I always try to get 2 x 4-5 star upgraded strats in my core.

[Jazzer32]

Canu tell me an example, where they are better than tactical bombers? (except vs ships - rare scenarios) .Why would I want to reduce enemy's unit ammo instead of destroy it (with Stuka). Are they any good vs air defence, maybe? (never tried that)

Reducing a units ammo/fuel is very handy. That 4 range fort that keeps knocking out 2-3 points per turn can't do much with no shots. A PZ IVG can take out a JS II that has no ammo and no fuel to move away. A fully supressed ammo depleted AAA gun can't hurt your TAC's as they hit that artillery piece is is guarding the city you want to take. A unit without shots is useless. As the enemy tanks get stronger your TAC's won't do the damage they did earlier so you sometimes need a different approach. Plus they are the only plane that can take on an unsupressed AAA unit and take very little damage. An over-strength Strat can fully supress and ammo deplete a full strength AAA in one shot.

They are very useful to have around. It took me a while to appreciate them but I always try to get 2 x 4-5 star upgraded strats in my core.

Thank you for the reply. Out of all these examples u mentioned, I can only see usefulness of STR bombers in case vs AAA. But again, I rather neutralize AAA with my artillery (usually with +1 range). I would rather have 1 artillery more, than "useless" str bomber. Regarding enemy tanks, I usually have better tanks (when playing as German). I dont think that I had any PZ IV vs JS-2 (Im totally upgraded to panthers and Tigers)

[JimmyC]

Early on the strat bombers are pretty hopeless. Its when the JU88A and especially the He 177A come along that you can get a lot of use out of them. I mainly use them for their suppression and ammo removing ability rather than for causing damage. Other than against ships, they are particularly useful against forts (both the pillboxes and the cannon firing ones). They are also good against heavy armour with low ammo (due to ammo reducing ability). My favorite use for them though is to cause suppression which allows you to destroy/capture/force retreat against an enemy. Sure your artillery can do that (and will usually suppress more), but you will be hard to find an artillery unit with a move of 12. So they are the perfect go to guys when you don’t have any artillery within range.

Tactical bombers are indeed good and cause more damage, but they don’t cause any suppression. So that’s the plus of strat bombers as I see it. And 1 last thing – they seem to take a lot less damage vs AA. So you can use them slightly more recklessly compared to tac. bombers.

[MartyWard]

Canu tell me an example, where they are better than tactical bombers? (except vs ships - rare scenarios) .Why would I want to reduce enemy's unit ammo instead of destroy it (with Stuka). Are they any good vs air defence, maybe? (never tried that)

Reducing a units ammo/fuel is very handy. That 4 range fort that keeps knocking out 2-3 points per turn can't do much with no shots. A PZ IVG can take out a JS II that has no ammo and no fuel to move away. A fully supressed ammo depleted AAA gun can't hurt your TAC's as they hit that artillery piece is is guarding the city you want to take. A unit without shots is useless. As the enemy tanks get stronger your TAC's won't do the damage they did earlier so you sometimes need a different approach. Plus they are the only plane that can take on an unsupressed AAA unit and take very little damage. An over-strength Strat can fully supress and ammo deplete a full strength AAA in one shot.

They are very useful to have around. It took me a while to appreciate them but I always try to get 2 x 4-5 star upgraded strats in my core.

Thank you for the reply. Out of all these examples u mentioned, I can only see usefulness of STR bombers in case vs AAA. But again, I rather neutralize AAA with my artillery (usually with +1 range). I would rather have 1 artillery more, than "useless" str bomber. Regarding enemy tanks, I usually have better tanks (when playing as German). I dont think that I had any PZ IV vs JS-2 (Im totally upgraded to panthers and Tigers)

To each his own way of playing. They take a little getting used to but once you get some experiance on them they become like an artillery piece with 8+ range and way more ammo. Their only drawback is weather, like all aircraft.

[MartyWard]

Early on the strat bombers are pretty hopeless. Its when the JU88A and especially the He 177A come along that you can get a lot of use out of them. I mainly use them for their suppression and ammo removing ability rather than for causing damage. Other than against ships, they are particularly useful against forts (both the pillboxes and the cannon firing ones). They are also good against heavy armour with low ammo (due to ammo reducing ability). My favorite use for them though is to cause suppression which allows you to destroy/capture/force retreat against an enemy. Sure your artillery can do that (and will usually suppress more), but you will be hard to find an artillery unit with a move of 12. So they are the perfect go to guys when you don’t have any artillery within range.

Tactical bombers are indeed good and cause more damage, but they don’t cause any suppression. So that’s the plus of strat bombers as I see it. And 1 last thing – they seem to take a lot less damage vs AA. So you can use them slightly more recklessly compared to tac. bombers.

Yes early on that are pretty wek but there are battles with Naval units in them where they can experiance up pretty quick. I don't use them every scenario but they are really good in some scenarios, they can save you a lot of prestige in a few. A pair in any Normandy scenario makes short work of the Allied fleet.

[captainjack]

Some other benefits of strategic bombers:
Units with passive air defence - AA [x] - don't fire back, so you don't risk a point or two of strength as your Tac bombers would when attacking Engineers and the like.
They don't get -5 to defence when attacking (hence slightly better against AA). However, they are still not immune to AA damage, just more resistant.
They can neutralise cities (but not victory hexes with the gold border). The AI can't place new units around a neutralised city for two turns. There are some scenarios where you have remote cities that it's handy to bypass or that you can't get to for a few turns. If these threaten your flank, the AI might create a pile of units there and cause a lot of inconvenience. Neutralisation is dependent on experience and strength (and halved in overcast weather), but not on the type of bomber.
Later in game they can suppress three or four strength off units that your artillery can hardly scratch. Chances of forcing a surrender or preventing a return attack are much improved by this. Add this to leaving more powerful units out of ammo after one or two attacks - not too shabby.
If you are lucky enough to get 2 +3 attack heroes, they actually damage almost anything on land (minced ship, anyone?)

The best advice is to give them a try and see how you get on.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

They also can reduce enemy prestige by 10 whenever you bomb a town. In this use, they are good for MP.

- BNC

[JimmyC]

...They can neutralise cities (but not victory hexes with the gold border). The AI can't place new units around a neutralised city for two turns. There are some scenarios where you have remote cities that it's handy to bypass or that you can't get to for a few turns. If these threaten your flank, the AI might create a pile of units there and cause a lot of inconvenience. Neutralisation is dependent on experience and strength (and halved in overcast weather), but not on the type of bomber.

I never seem to be able to neutralise cities when i'm bombing them for that particular purpose. Sure i sometimes neutralise other cities, but its usually when i don't care that its neutralised (eg. i already have somebody parked next to it). The chances of neutralising just seem too small to make it worth going after a city just for that purpose. But then again, i rarely overstrength to greater than 11, so maybe that's why?

[Rockety]

Well yeah it really depends how do you play the game. If you play on settings where you do not have to hassle with prestige levels then they are probably not that useful. However, if you are not steamrolling with 14-15 overstrenghted 4-5 star Tigers and panthers through the scenarios plus you need to save prestige then they become invaluable, especially against forts and russian heavy tanks in 43+ maps.

[captainjack]

I never seem to be able to neutralise cities when i'm bombing them

Neutralisation is related to Level Bomber Efficiency. Efficiency is what determines how much ammo and fuel your target loses.
I'm not completely sure if the formula has been published but it works out as something like
strength x (2 + experience) ( 105% at 15 strength and 5*, but only 20 for a brand new bomber).
The neutralisation chance is half this percentage (so you never get 100% neutralisation chance).
Overcast reduces the chance by half.

Level Bomber Efficiency is also related to how much enemy prestige is lost when you bomb a victory hex. I think prestige loss is half the efficiency.

At early stages, your bombers are both low strength and inexperienced, so have a low efficiency - 10% neutralisation isn't a big chance. Once at around 2 or 3* even a 10 strength bomber starts to have an efficiency of around 40 or 50% at strength 10 and 48 or 65% if full over strength.

10% neutralisation - hardly worth trying, although it's a nice side effect. 24% to 32% - worth a go. As noted previously, bomber type doesn't influence it, only strength and experience, and overcast always halves the odds. Once you are at about 3 or 4* it starts to become a useful tactic in its own right on top of the other bomber benefits.

[ThvN]

As a little sidenote: Strategic bombing to cause prestige loss only works on victory hexes that are also cities or airports! If you bomb a victory hex that is just a hill or something, it will attack but nothing will happen.

One great thing about strategic bombers is that they gain experience very rapidly, just like artillery units. When starting with a green unit, often a single scenario is enough to gain their first star. So they are a good unit to purchase later on to fill out a core. And giving them green reinforcments doesn't cripple them like it does for fighters, so if used carefully they can be relatively cheap.