Ground Attack in FC

[DakkaDakkaDakka]

I spent a little time yesterday doing some ground attacking, to see how it differs in FC from RoF.

 

My initial impressions:

- Machineguns don't seem to do as much damage to unarmored cars as before. It can take quite a few bursts to disable your typical lorry truck.

- You can disable the flak truck with machineguns but it will take a lot of passes, relatively speaking, even with decent on-target gunnery.

- I have no idea how bombs work now. In RoF, you dropped the bombs, they blew up. Now there are all these WWII-style fusing options and I guess there's either bugginess or user error or (mostly likely) both. Any tips appreciated.

- The trains are now bulletproof? I did a QMB and put dozens of bursts into a train locomotive with my Camel's guns and there was never any visual effect.

 

Anyone care to chime in with their tips and tricks? Especially as regards bombing. I typical do shallow glide bombing at low altitude, this seems appropriate with the planes in this planeset (I suppose you can level bomb with the Bristol and Halb but I honestly don't know which is more realistic for WWI)

 

Thanks and S!

[Garven]

It helps to aim specifically for the engine compartment of cars and trucks.  Use 5 second fuses on bombs.

[DakkaDakkaDakka]

6 minutes ago, Danneskjold said:

It helps to aim specifically for the engine compartment of cars and trucks.  Use 5 second fuses on bombs.

 

Thank you. One last question: is it necessary to explicitly arm the bombs prior to release, or is the 5 second fuse sufficient?

 

I'm not clear where the WWII ends and the WWI begins, in other words.

[Garven]

You don't need to arm the bombs just select 5 second fuses in the hanger.  Also you can usually stop shooting at vehicles when they start smoking no need to shoot them until they explode like in RoF in order to get the kill.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Danneskjold

[Zooropa_Fly]

I think vehicles in general take more to kill than they originally did. There's been a few DM changes

For general vehicles I find aiming for the driver gets the job done quickest.

Tanks can now only be killed with bombs, they can't even kill eachother which slightly ruins a tank fight ! This surely wasn't intended...

 

I'd leave the bombs on 5 seconds also - one struggles to blow oneself up as in RoF so count your blessings !

There was an issue with using certain fuses at certain altitudes on certain planes, not sure what the current position is.

 

S!

[DakkaDakkaDakka]

And the locomotives? Am I just a tremendously bad shot, or do they take bombs to disable as well?

[Garven]

28 minutes ago, DakkaDakkaDakka said:

And the locomotives? Am I just a tremendously bad shot, or do they take bombs to disable as well?

I haven't been able to kill them with guns either when I've tried in QMB.  Probably best to just bomb them and not even bother trying to strafe them.

[Zooropa_Fly]

Unless things have changed recently, trains can be machine-gunned to death.

It probably does take a bit longer than RoF though and you won't have many rounds left !

[J5_Konnecke]

Trains can be killed with machine gun fire,  it takes a few hundred rounds and several passes.  Same as the trucks, aim for the engine.  It is better to take out the train with bombs though,  you can destroy all the train cars that way.

[RNAS10_Oliver]

1 hour ago, DakkaDakkaDakka said:

 

Thank you. One last question: is it necessary to explicitly arm the bombs prior to release, or is the 5 second fuse sufficient?

 

I'm not clear where the WWII ends and the WWI begins, in other words.

 

1 hour ago, Danneskjold said:

You don't need to arm the bombs just select 5 second fuses in the hanger.  Also you can usually stop shooting at vehicles when they start smoking no need to shoot them until they explode like in RoF in order to get the kill.

 

The Bombs Safety Switch command however does work in these aircrafts. Your bombs are armed from default. And you can set them to safe during your sorite (lord knows how your pilot manages to do that) so guess watch out that you do not accidently do that. Started using the command so that when wanting to ditch them over Entente positions I am not going to be committing fratricide.

 

1 hour ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

There was an issue with using certain fuses at certain altitudes on certain planes, not sure what the current position is.

 

Seem to remember that I've last tested this about a month ago. And setting them to contact required me to drop the bombs from over 1,000 feet in order for them to detonate.

[DakkaDakkaDakka]

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I did a couple QMBs and with these tips was able to deal with the cars and trucks much more effectively (aiming for the engine does the trick).

 

And 5 second delay on the bombs worked great.

 

The locomotive continues to elude me, but I have faith I will prevail next time!

[RNAS10_Oliver]

1 hour ago, Danneskjold said:

You don't need to arm the bombs just select 5 second fuses in the hanger.  Also you can usually stop shooting at vehicles when they start smoking no need to shoot them until they explode like in RoF in order to get the kill.

 

Also though this is true with vehicles it's not the case with static weapons. The crew might run away but to get the credit on stats and complete the objectives you need to see them pop.

[Zooropa_Fly]

48 minutes ago, Oliver88 said:

 

Also though this is true with vehicles it's not the case with static weapons. The crew might run away but to get the credit on stats and complete the objectives you need to see them pop.

 

That's one thing that's irritating me, they run away and the weapon remains un-manned. At least I think that's the case.

On my server that means the object is prevented from re-spawning, i.e. one could permanently disable manned weapons in this way.

I've thought about screwing with 'on damaged' commands - but I've no idea how 'damage' would relate to the cowards deserting station !

One for the ME thread perhaps..

 

S!

[NO.20_W_M_Thomson]

Try shooting the train until it stops, go back and drop a bomb.

[ST_Catchov]

5 hours ago, DakkaDakkaDakka said:

And 5 second delay on the bombs worked great.

 

From any height? I haven't tried 5s delay but with contact or 1s they never explode in a low level attack. What am I doing wrong?

 

5 hours ago, DakkaDakkaDakka said:

The locomotive continues to elude me, but I have faith I will prevail next time!

 

Try flying a D7 into them. Obliterates the train and you fly away unscathed.

[Zooropa_Fly]

17 minutes ago, catchov said:

From any height? I haven't tried 5s delay but with contact or 1s they never explode in a low level attack. What am I doing wrong?

 

Not using a 5 second delay ?

Just a thought..

 

[ST_Catchov]

1 minute ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

Just a thought..

 

Lol ok you talked me into it Zoo. 

[J5_Konnecke]

22 hours ago, DakkaDakkaDakka said:

The locomotive continues to elude me, but I have faith I will prevail next time!

Fly along the same direction of the train and use a wide figure eight pattern, shooting the train engine from the sides during passes.  

[40plus]

17 hours ago, catchov said:

 

From any height? I haven't tried 5s delay but with contact or 1s they never explode in a low level attack. What am I doing wrong?

 

 

Contact and 1s fuses require a set amount of free-fall time before the fuse will arm. They are meant for high altitude drops. I'f you are too low they will impact the ground before the fuse arms itself and thus no boom. 5s+ fuses don't have such requirements.

[NO.20_W_M_Thomson]

Don't forget to set your gunner for ground attacks, Fly level along side the train, It has 2 guns, may stop the train better than the 1 gun unless you have the over wing guns in the Bristol. Bombing a moving train is a bitch so stop it if you can then bomb.   

[Zooropa_Fly]

6 minutes ago, NO.20_W_M_Thomson said:

Bombing a moving train is a bitch

 

Only if you're not very good.