Why and how use strategic Bombers

[McRoos]

I don't use them and still are very succesfull in my battles.
As I don't think that they are there for the show, so, how (many) should you use and when.

[bebro]

Mnny of them have good naval attack, so these are great against ships. All of them reduce the ammo of any unit they attack, which can be very useful to break strong units or defenses.

[gokkel]

They seem to get far more powerful the more experience they get and the better the model is. In my original campaign playthrough now I am right now in Stalingrad and have two of the upgraded Heinkel bombers at 13 strength and they became really powerful. I also bought two additional Heinkel bombers now and hope that they get some experience until USA still.

[Rood]

See this topic aswell.

And to quote myself from that topic

And to add one more thing Strategic Bombers can also 'neutralize' a city/airfield/port, so the flag goes white and the enemy can no longer place/build units there anymore.

Think not Strategic Bombers as unit to inflict losses to the enemy (except for naval units) but to prevent losses to your unit by reducing entrenchment, ammo and add surpression.

[brettz123]

Strategic Bombers are very useful in scenarios that have enemy naval units. For instance in the main campaign they are VERY useful in:

Norway
Sealion
America East

They also gain experience faster than any other unit in the game. Which is good because you can have three stars after running through two to three scenarios. This makes them the best unit to add to your CORE and not use every scenario. The down side is they do not get a lot of kills so good luck getting more than one hero.

As has been stated previously they are also very good at augmenting your ground forces by adding suppression to enemy units they bomb, neutralizing cities, and reducing their current ammo load. Two strat bombers can with three stars can reduce a fortress to one shot in a turn. This means that you will only take one shot from the fort before you can get your pionieres into contact with them.

During the DLC there are a not a huge amount of scenarios you will want to use strat bombers in but these are the ones where I think they are useful:
Modlin (absolutely essential for reducing the two fortresses and the armored train)
Russian Skirmish (not necessary but good for knocking down the ammo supply of the hero in the KV tank)
The Hague (three ships you can sink for the hell of it)
Dunkirk (good for taking down the fortresses and if you want you can use them against the ships)
Metaxas Line (good for the fortresses)
Crete (helpful for taking down the capital ships and destroyers)
Leningrad (three capital ships in the harbor)

[Aloo]

The further I go in the game the more I need strat bombers and care less about Tac bombers. Tanks get lots of armor and are hardly damaged by Tac's but strats cause suppression and take away lots of ammo (4star strat can take away most of enemy ammo in 1 shot).
They allow attacking AA guns with little risk of taking serious hits, suppressing them and taking their ammo allowing other bombers to attack units nearby.
Add to this that they can handle themselves against fighters and you get a good, strong supporting unit.

[Amaranthus]

Aloo, I'd agree with what you say. I think of strat bombers as highly mobile artillery that can get in behind the enemy lines and suppress critical defending units (arty, AA etc).

What I find amusing is you said you care little for Tac bombers, but your current forum icon is, coincidentally, a Ju87G

[brettz123]

The further I go in the game the more I need strat bombers and care less about Tac bombers. Tanks get lots of armor and are hardly damaged by Tac's but strats cause suppression and take away lots of ammo (4star strat can take away most of enemy ammo in 1 shot).
They allow attacking AA guns with little risk of taking serious hits, suppressing them and taking their ammo allowing other bombers to attack units nearby.
Add to this that they can handle themselves against fighters and you get a good, strong supporting unit.

I actually disagree with this. I only find the strat bombers useful in certain specific instances. I would much rather have the tac bombers (especialy in the DLC campaigns) where my three and four star Stukas can routinely knock off 5+ strength points on even the toughest tanks. But then again I take a lot of artillery with me for suppression. So it may matter how you have your CORE organized. I think this is one of the interesting parts of the game is that you do not have to develop your CORE a specific way to be effective.

[Aloo]

I would much rather have the tac bombers (especialy in the DLC campaigns) where my three and four star Stukas can routinely knock off 5+ strength points on even the toughest tanks.

I dont know how you do this All I can get out of my 3-4* Stukas is 2-3 damage to the new T34 and KV-1.

[brettz123]

I would much rather have the tac bombers (especialy in the DLC campaigns) where my three and four star Stukas can routinely knock off 5+ strength points on even the toughest tanks.

I dont know how you do this All I can get out of my 3-4* Stukas is 2-3 damage to the new T34 and KV-1.

Do you have them overstrengthed? Mine lay waste to T-34s and even can take 4 off a Matilda on a clear day easily.

[MartyWard]

Yes but they don't do much against the JSII or KV's. If you Strat bomb these then their ammo quickly goes to 0 and they might as well be a Tonka Truck

[brettz123]

Marty,
Have you played with them in the DLCs? In the main campaign I have never faced JSII so no idea how well that goes but I always update my JU-87s to FW-190s later in the war to deal with allied air power.

[Aloo]

I would much rather have the tac bombers (especialy in the DLC campaigns) where my three and four star Stukas can routinely knock off 5+ strength points on even the toughest tanks.

I dont know how you do this All I can get out of my 3-4* Stukas is 2-3 damage to the new T34 and KV-1.

Do you have them overstrengthed? Mine lay waste to T-34s and even can take 4 off a Matilda on a clear day easily.

Yes - always, same goes for strats.

If you Strat bomb these then their ammo quickly goes to 0 and they might as well be a Tonka Truck

Exactly! The damaging and suppressing capabilities of those units is an addition for me to their ammo and fuel removing capabilities, that actually get more effective against new units which are stronger but have less ammo.