The use of strategic bombers has been brought up now and then. For some time they were directly unusable in 1.5, but AFAIR they were tweaked to make more useful.
However, I still have been unable to find any use for them. I have build some in the last 3-4 games, but never had any real use for them. It is more like an in-your-face thing I do to my enemies in the end-game.
Here's why I think they fail to fill a significant role:
- I find that tac-bombers can do most of the long range bombing (airfield strikes etc.) quite well.
- When you need to directly take out an airfield, missiles are better. One use for sure, but unkilable and much faster. Makes up for the cost.
- When prioritizing research, you cannot go for every branch. And in terms of necessity, strat bombers are low in priority. So I generally don't have the option to research strat bombers until the end-game, and the game is usually decided by then anyway.
-Start bomber tech comes too late. I could imagine the use of a strat bomber in the early-to-mid game, but as it is now, fighters are usually all over the map before the first strat bomber comes off the assembly line.
- I imagine strat bombers would be useful to damaging the enemys economy. Damage to the economy in the early to mid-game has some serious consequences that are often overlooked by players. However, I find that raiding is much more effective for that. Fast or stealth units can cause a lot of damage to rear areas and you need such units anyway.
- If the war is static and you cannot break a deadlock, maybe strat bombers would be good for reducing defenses or bombing nearby bases. But this situation close to never happens. I remember one game a few years ago on the world map, but since then it has been an all too familiar meta-game: war of the stacks bulldozing in one direction, then getting bulldozed back. Strat bombers have no role in mobile warfare of stacks.
To sum up, I think strat bombers need some better competitiveness. And instead of fiddling with their unit stats, my suggestion would be to reduce the availability of rockets. Sort of to make strat bombing the rule and rockets the exception (today it is opposite).
Rockets should have much increased cost or longer construction time- And perhaps strat bomber tech should be moved forward.
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33 Replies
13 Jan 2021, 19:02
Nice thread, I can share something related to this: We will soon (probably february) release an update to the game that overhauls how building damage and morale damage works, because the current values you see in the unit stats are basically false and in reality much lower than the numbers presented there, basically only 5-10%. Our upcoming change will fix this so that units really deal out the damage against provinces that is communicated there. Of course we also have to rebalance building damage values and building hitpoints as the current values would be whack after the fix.
But what I am getting to: After that update strategic bombers should be more useful and take less runs to obliterate province buildings. In a stalemate it can be quite useful to bomb down all production capabilities of an enemy. And try it in the early game, few players expect it.
We will also rebalance rockets to be better against morale than against buildings (tho still quite ok against buildings) to reflect the ww2 realities better. Could also be used to break stalemates by crippling your enemy's economy or bring morale down into the revolt range. Also ranged units will get better vs buildings or morale, depending if they're shell based or rocket based.
13 Jan 2021, 21:20 (edited)
freezy wrote:
Nice thread, I can share something related to this: We will soon (probably february) release an update to the game that overhauls how building damage and morale damage works, because the current values you see in the unit stats are basically false and in reality much lower than the numbers presented there, basically only 5-10%. Our upcoming change will fix this so that units really deal out the damage against provinces that is communicated there. Of course we also have to rebalance building damage values and building hitpoints as the current values would be whack after the fix.
But what I am getting to: After that update strategic bombers should be more useful and take less runs to obliterate province buildings. In a stalemate it can be quite useful to bomb down all production capabilities of an enemy. And try it in the early game, few players expect it.
We will also rebalance rockets to be better against morale than against buildings (tho still quite ok against buildings) to reflect the ww2 realities better. Could also be used to break stalemates by crippling your enemy's economy or bring morale down into the revolt range. Also ranged units will get better vs buildings or morale, depending if they're shell based or rocket based.
This is good news.
And here you have it, everyone: freezy DOES read suggestions
How about delaying balistic missiles? If flying bomb is all there is until ~day 10 or 12, as well flying bombs as strat bombers would also be more worth their while (and really: who besides the AI uses flying bombs?).
14 Jan 2021, 00:10
Well, realistcly Rockets didnt work in the real world because of bad aim. CoW should establish a 75% chance of Miss Target for rockets, which gets lowered when leveled up
“I do not love the sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior. I love only that which they defend.” “If you win, you need not explain!” “What difference does it make if destruction is wrought under the name of dictators or in the name of democracy?” War is Peace Slavery is Freedom Weakness is Strength
14 Jan 2021, 20:13
GrandEmpire wrote:
Well, realistcly Rockets didnt work in the real world because of bad aim. CoW should establish a 75% chance of Miss Target for rockets, which gets lowered when leveled up
They have EPIC range. In one of my games rn I'm France and I'm using a strat bomber to attack Prague from Strasbourg. No other plane could do that at lvl 1
16 Jan 2021, 16:08
They're great for ruining morale of core provinces prior to an invasion. Typically, if I'm playing England, by day 5 I can have 10 Level 2 bombers that are capable of crippling France and Germany's economies very quickly. If it looks like France and Germany will be taken over by Spain or other countries, I won't rely as much on the strategic bombers since I can't reach the core provinces of those invading countries from England.
That being said, they're like all other units, there is a time and place where they are most effective and other scenarios where they are useless. There is also the impact on the player's morale to be considered. It's not a small thing to lose infrastructure and core province morale early in the game.
16 Jan 2021, 18:21
Strategic bombers are useful in a long term war, but not in a short blitzkrieg style attack. As they damage buildings, you don't want to use strategic bombers on territories you will capture soon. One example of a time I used strategic bombers was when occupying sweden and re-building up my army to fight finland. Finland had a massive airforce, but at one point, I saw his planes seperated with 13 interceptors in the north and 40+ tac/attack bombers in west. I deployed 10 strategic bombers to take out the middle airfield, effectively splitting his air force in half. Without bomber support, I was easily able to wipe out his northern territory. While strategic bombers are useful against buildings, they are very vulnerable to anti-air placed in the province and interceptors. For this reason, do not attack a province a second time since the enemy will be able to react and set up anti-air. Instead use large stacks of strategic bombers. Strategic bombers can also be used to bomb cities over and over to prevent unit production (only works well against AI). Overall, strategic bombers are not very useful and are only good in a few situations. I would not invest heavily in them, but have a few reserves just in case.
17 Jan 2021, 08:11
YT_Scrappy BS wrote:
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All that is true.
But the point of this thread is, that what you did, can be done better and safer with missiles.
17 Jan 2021, 19:04
I'm telling you most of the time you will lose if you try to waste resources researching, upgrading and producing strat bombers. You have to focus on attack or tactical bombers instead. Plus compliment them with interceptors. The game is too fast right now to allocate resources to all those types. Strat bombers are just not the meta unit right now.
17 Jan 2021, 20:47
Telling who?
17 Jan 2021, 21:23
You in general haha
18 Jan 2021, 08:00
Well, no need to include me since you agree with me
20 Jan 2021, 18:26
NoobNoobTrain wrote:
YT_Scrappy BS wrote:
.
All that is true.But the point of this thread is, that what you did, can be done better and safer with missiles.
Yeah rockets are better for the job, but they also take longer to produce where strat bombers dont take as long and can be reused.
