Nuclear Bombers

Bombers can be shot down. In fact, that is why most people will prefer to wait and get nuclear rockets... they don't have that annoying tendency.

Nuclear bombers are fairly fragile. Easily shot down.

The thing about attacking a group of units with a nuke bomber is that the anti-air guns will "defend" before the nuke detonates. So a bomber with 30 hit points can be wiped out easily by a stack that includes even a moderate amount of anti air if the X-factor is kind to the defender.

Additionally if there were enemy planes patrolling over the area their defensive fire hits before the nuke detonates as well.

There are some tips that do make them useful:

Nuke bombers have a blast radius, commonly described as 50 Km. For reference the range circle of artillery is 60 to 80 km So in theory if you can attack any target within that radius you should cause damage. My theory is that closer is better and units at the outside edge get less cooked, but ALWAYS keep your own and allies forces farther back than that.

So in this case I am going to attack the single armored car unit, instead of the larger stack. Larger stack will get the effect as well:

Or in this case the target will be the vacant province center instead of the unit marching away from it

In more challenging situations you might have an ally send a sacrificial unit into the blast radius and you can attack it, then return to peace afterwards.

Still I don't have a lot of use for nuke bombers. Average kill using the above tactics is under 20 units, which amounts to 500 rares per unit. 500 rares will also build a regular level 4 rocket which usually kills 2 units per rocket, so twice as effective.

VorlonFCW wrote:

Nuclear bombers are fairly fragile. Easily shot down. . . .

MontanaBB wrote:

I was going to make similar suggestions regarding nuclear targeting, etc., but you beat me to the punch, Kosh. Well covered and well said.

so if i would attack in a tactical bomber fleet would my Nuclear bomber get through or would my weaker bomber still get whacked?

Tactical bombers either on patrol or sitting at the target have a defense against other planes:

In this case 4.5 hit points for a level 5 Tactical Bomber.

So if the scenario was 5 tac bombers on the ground (not refueling) or patrolling over the target you could get 22.5 hp damage from them on the attack. It is also possible to get hit by the normal patrol tick of the planes every 15 minutes on your approach, which would also be up to a quarter of the 2.3 attack value, which comes close to 3. So 25 hit points gone leaving your bomber with 5 out of 30 hit points. Add in even a few infantry at the target with an air defense value of 1.5 and your nuke is toast before it can detonate.

You really need air superiority over the battlefield before a nuke bomber will do much. Even a few patrolling planes or 4 interceptors that can attack will prevent your nuke from reaching it's target.

VorlonFCW wrote:

Pretty sure I learned it from you Montanna, or one of the forum regulars anyway.

"Row well, and live."

if a fleet is attacking a land based city/unit; can a nuclear bomber attack without getting intercepted?

i noticed that land units cannot attack tactical bombers if they are in attack mode

Brawntar wrote:

i noticed that land units cannot attack tactical bombers if they are in attack mode