Guesstimating Through The Clouds

[Monostripezebra]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMyQJezafg

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

Nice to watch like always :-) BTW shockwave, damage and movement physics of other planes in replays need some smooth out.

[Haza]

Dr Zeebra,

 

Although your films are interesting and at times entertaining, they are starting to become like the Rocky film series, in that they are pretty much the same thing just slightly different, as I'm not really seeing anything new!  It is obvious that you are good at high altitude bombing in the Pe2, therefore how about bombing some of the actual objective targets and giving us a debrief etc so that we can all learn how to drop bombs with such accuracy from up high using the bomb sight and a type of post recce debrief of the target area?  Or even better, if you haven't already, how about a 'How to bomb" type video similar to sketch's 'How to Rocket" video.  I'm sure that a video demonstrating how to obtain such accuracy would be really welcomed.  Just a thought!

 

Regards

 

Haza

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

Yep good idea, how to accurate bomb targets from 4-5km without gps ? I find that line up good amount before approaching target most challenging. Ofcurse not in WOL server where you can position yourself easy on the correct grid line. Help could be in landmarks on straight line to target ( must be directly above it) and with small wind drift. Ploting course before sortie. What else? I don't like Pe-2 autopilot course correction slowness.

[Monostripezebra]

I guess I could do that.. But the point is, that on servers like WoL it is rather pointless in my oppinon. Winning means nothing to me there, just a another map rotation and hitting the "mission targets" is rather boring affair that takes 3x as long in levelbombing compared to the hundreds of guys doing low-survivability attacker raids on the ground, simply for climb time alone.. so it is absolutly inefficent and the side that does it on a large scale is likely to lose the map, compared to a side doing oneway-trip low level things.

 

Not like the german side would ever do it.. i mean most WoL gameplay repetatively looks like this:

(sorry sherrif and bismark, if you read this.. but it´s true..)

 

German 109s hang out casually over a hotspot, mostly on "their side" of the hotspot and wait for low level russian attackers to trickle in.. and the occasional red fighter at mid altitude challenging their hanging out on that hotspot, while the occasional Stuka or He111 with ginormous bombs go over alone and hopes to not get found.. somewhere else on the map.

 

 

 

 

On FNBF or the ZG26 server I did see some nice bomber formations, but basically they died way too much and early because the fighter escorts are usually more interested in shooting enemies down then protecting the bombers. If you want to protect bombers, you must drive fighters away but conserve postition, not go in a full engagement saying "I shot my enemy down, so if another shoots the bombers, that is another mans fault because he had to cover him"... And sometimes the bombers just take not very wise routes. So overall I´m not seeing really the need for a bomber instruction-vid, because very few people do it anyways, then getting fighter pilots to actually care for it are even less..

 

Probably the best bombing school is Rise of Flight.. if you understand how to get through and hit targets in RoF then everything in BoS is a piece of cake.

Also, the bits and pieces of biplanes flying through the air look better ;=)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2z2oXjwjy4

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

If you gona make it (toturial), it will have universal operation range there will be more and more events, wars etc where level bombing will be only feasible way to wape out hard defended strategic target and there will be also penalty for losing life & plane which prohibit suicides attacks. Well you decide/ed yourself

[Bommel]

I would like to see such a tutorial aswell.

[Monostripezebra]

I would like to see such a tutorial aswell.

 

Ok, when I have time I´ll see what I can do.

 

So far, just take some pointers like:

 

A) go for a good angle towards the wind, somewhere in the range of 20-30° with, or against it works like a charm..

B) make the final targeting aproach somewhere between 10-30km, from a point of the map that is clearly identifiable on the map.. towns on rivers are great for that. Work with catch-lines to get there (ie long terrain features that you can´t miss, even if you steered a few degrees of course or had wind drift. Again, rivers are your friend. Once you do that, you can have the target lined up 5km out, so no last minute corrections that mess with the speed, and you can use drag elements like cowlflaps to keep the speed right on the numbers, though the long approach, obviously, altitude should be held equally precise.

C) DON´T trust the altimeter in the bombsight gui. It´s buggy, use the cockpit one.

D) Overfly the target as little as you can.. if the target is the north side of an airfield, don´t run in from the south.. flak tends to be agressive. Come in from the north and spend the least amount of time you can over a target.. you can even turn around before you are over it, because your bombs drop forward considerably from altitude. Don´t fly straight and level after drop, even at 6k the guns will get you once every 10 runs if you do fly straight for longer then absolutely necessary.

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

Great pointers Zeebra.

A is often not considered enough, a strong side wind can really mess up an approach.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Tripwire

[Sketch]

I agree; great pointers. I also agree that in servers like WOL, objectives means nothing. The (mostly) Germans pilots tend to worry about their stats, and pad them as Zebra stated. Additionally, I don't want to take away from Zebra's style of filming. He brings humor or an objective view that other youtubers don't. I really enjoy your films, Zebra; you don't need to change anything.

 

I started making my videos because I was frustrated with amazing pilots killing me so easily. Like, wtf do I need to do to not get killed so much. Their is a huge, huge learning curve and I think that deters newer pilots.

 

Having said that, I do feel that there needs to be some sort of balance between Russian planes (typically better a ground pounding at lower levels) and the German planes (typically have better fighter aircraft). I suggest an incentive to German bombers to make players want to fly them, and an incentive for flying Russian fighters. What that incentives are, I don't know.

 

I also feel there should be a limitation of bomb loadouts for low level bombers (less bombs and less powerful bombs), and something given to the brave pilot that leaves the safety of his side of the fence for more than 5-10 minutes and comes back with a kill. Finally, amount of damage should determine kill status not "last hit"; especially true for shared kills.

[E69_geramos109]

I like zebra videos, are so original.

Today i tried to make same tactic bombing arfield with a he 111 but i only find one on dispersal. 1000K bomb gave me the kill jejeje. 

About german bombers i like them a lot and are so good but their tactics requires time to prepare the run and is not as fun for a lot of people flying about 30 mins climbing with a stuka to make a single dive on targuet so... He 111 is a bit slower and have less defense options but it has more bombs and is devastating. A group can kill a good amount of objectives in a single sortie and flying over 5k with a pair of fighters escorting them no chance to get close for a russian fighter. 

If german bombers do things well in a campaign like TAW russians have poor posiblilities to win. But german list are full of individual and inexperienced pilots who think that they can do better only because have the best plane and they die and loose planes all the time. Russian rush tactic is better for this kind of situation.

 

Saludos.

[Monostripezebra]

Well, it can get repetitive, but I somehow enjoy a quick, relaxing round of Pe2 in the evening.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYYhgVHaWqc

[El_Babuino]

Hmm...Usually pilots instanly die then they get in blast cirle. But on 2:08, it looks like they stay alive, strange. BTW nice bombing Zebra!