Stealth Bombers: Difference between revisions

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*Target painters will help against cruiser hulls, but what you really want is for them to activate their MWD

*Frigate hulls can shrug off a lot of torpedoes. You can whore on the mail if you really must, but if you haven't yet uncloaked and there's some intel value in not revealing your presence to anything in d-scan range, you may want to consider holding off.

== Bombing Techniques ==

The other thing that sets the bomber hull apart, besides the ability to fit torpedoes onto a frigate hull, is where it actually gets it name from - the ability to fit the Bomb Launcher I/II. From this module you fire the six flavors of bombs that exist. But what is a bomb actually?

=== The Bomb ===

It is a missile in essence that does Area of Effect damage of a certain type. It will shoot out from the front of your ship at 3km/s for 10 seconds and then blow up. However, unlike a missile, it doesn't require that you lock a target. It's essentially a 'dumbfire' rocket. Where your ship's nose is pointed at the time you cycle the bomb launcher module, is the direction it will go. This make the bomb a weapon that takes a fair bit of experience and skill to use effectively. And when you factor in that you have six other bombers also shooting off a bomb, then the complexity just increases and the skill of the FC is also a critical factor now. Then imagine that you have multiple bomber wings making a run on the same target... it sounds impossible to coordinate and pull off, but it can be done.

Bombs can also be separated into two categories.

Damage Bombs: Straight forward big explosions of either EM, Explosive, Thermal or Kinetic damage.

Utility Bombs: They require higher levels of skill with Bomb Deployment, but are useful in niche situations. The Void Bomb will neutralize a certain amount of capacitor energy from any ship within its area of effect. The Lockbreaker Bomb is an ewar bomb in essence. It will cause any target locks that a ship is maintaining to fail within its area of effect.

Now, back to coordinating bombers...there are two Bombing Techniques that can be applied:

=== Team Technique ===

This is where each bomber is co-ordinated by the FC. The FC will call for each bomber to approach/align to a target/target zone/bookmark. They will warp to the point where they begin their attack run, approach and call out ranges to target for the FC. The FC then has to judge the best time to order the release of bombs, whereupon the wing will warp immediately to the escape point. Onus with this technique is on how well the bombers act as a team, and actual piloting skill. Its versatile, flexible and the FC can call abort at any point, until the bombs are flying. It's also ideal for bombing single/small gang targets. It's weakness is that fleet management and FC-ing becomes impractical as soon as you grow beyond two wings of bombers. It also allows human error in aiming the bomb into the equation.

=== Quarterback/Flyhalf Technique ===

This technique uses a cloaked scout to sneak to within 30km of the enemy fleet/target. The FC then warps the fleet of bombers to a point where he can draw a straight line from his fleet, through the scout, and straight into the enemy targets. He will then squad warp the bombers to the scout at zero. The bombers in midwarp, will keep a close eye on their 'Distance to target' reading and speed. The moment they begin to decelerate, they decloak, and spam the Bomb launcher button, until it turns red. The effect of this is you will exit warp, and the instant your warp field collapses, a bomb will shoot out of your launcher. Bombers can immediately warp off to the escape point/align to random celestial (in the case of an ad hoc bomb attack) to escape, reload bomb launcher and cloak up. The advantage of this is that it allows for minimum amount of time on a dangerous grid, the aiming has already been done for the whole bomber wing by the scout, and the mid-warp shuffle that the game does to arrange the ships, has the effect of nicely overlapping the AOE damage of each bomb.

The Flyhalf technique also allows for the coordination of multiple wings of bombers. When the bomber fleet gathers at the observation point, they are assigned ranges to warp at. (John warps at 0, Jill at 10, James at 20, Harmony at 30, Guile at 50, Titus at 70, Steven at 100). This will prevent a mass cascade decloak of the entire fleet if one person DCs/makes a mistake, or in the case of a spy/awoxer, only one bomber wing will die. The FC can then squad warp each bomber group at will at the enemy. Ensuring enough time between squad warps so that their bombs have enough time to detonate, before the next wave of bombs goes off.

==See Also==

@@ Line 309: / Line 309: @@
 *Target painters will help against cruiser hulls, but what you really want is for them to activate their MWD
 *Frigate hulls can shrug off a lot of torpedoes. You can whore on the mail if you really must, but if you haven't yet uncloaked and there's some intel value in not revealing your presence to anything in d-scan range, you may want to consider holding off.
+== Bombing Techniques ==
+The other thing that sets the bomber hull apart, besides the ability to fit torpedoes onto a frigate hull, is where it actually gets it name from - the ability to fit the Bomb Launcher I/II. From this module you fire the six flavors of bombs that exist. But what is a bomb actually?
+=== The Bomb ===
+It is a missile in essence that does Area of Effect damage of a certain type. It will shoot out from the front of your ship at 3km/s for 10 seconds and then blow up. However, unlike a missile, it doesn't require that you lock a target. It's essentially a 'dumbfire' rocket. Where your ship's nose is pointed at the time you cycle the bomb launcher module, is the direction it will go. This make the bomb a weapon that takes a fair bit of experience and skill to use effectively. And when you factor in that you have six other bombers also shooting off a bomb, then the complexity just increases and the skill of the FC is also a critical factor now. Then imagine that you have multiple bomber wings making a run on the same target... it sounds impossible to coordinate and pull off, but it can be done.
+Bombs can also be separated into two categories.
+Damage Bombs: Straight forward big explosions of either EM, Explosive, Thermal or Kinetic damage.
+Utility Bombs: They require higher levels of skill with Bomb Deployment, but are useful in niche situations. The Void Bomb will neutralize a certain amount of capacitor energy from any ship within its area of effect. The Lockbreaker Bomb is an ewar bomb in essence. It will cause any target locks that a ship is maintaining to fail within its area of effect.
+Now, back to coordinating bombers...there are two Bombing Techniques that can be applied:
+=== Team Technique ===
+This is where each bomber is co-ordinated by the FC. The FC will call for each bomber to approach/align to a target/target zone/bookmark. They will warp to the point where they begin their attack run, approach and call out ranges to target for the FC. The FC then has to judge the best time to order the release of bombs, whereupon the wing will warp immediately to the escape point. Onus with this technique is on how well the bombers act as a team, and actual piloting skill. Its versatile, flexible and the FC can call abort at any point, until the bombs are flying. It's also ideal for bombing single/small gang targets. It's weakness is that fleet management and FC-ing becomes impractical as soon as you grow beyond two wings of bombers. It also allows human error in aiming the bomb into the equation.
+=== Quarterback/Flyhalf Technique ===
+This technique uses a cloaked scout to sneak to within 30km of the enemy fleet/target. The FC then warps the fleet of bombers to a point where he can draw a straight line from his fleet, through the scout, and straight into the enemy targets. He will then squad warp the bombers to the scout at zero. The bombers in midwarp, will keep a close eye on their 'Distance to target' reading and speed. The moment they begin to decelerate, they decloak, and spam the Bomb launcher button, until it turns red. The effect of this is you will exit warp, and the instant your warp field collapses, a bomb will shoot out of your launcher. Bombers can immediately warp off to the escape point/align to random celestial (in the case of an ad hoc bomb attack) to escape, reload bomb launcher and cloak up. The advantage of this is that it allows for minimum amount of time on a dangerous grid, the aiming has already been done for the whole bomber wing by the scout, and the mid-warp shuffle that the game does to arrange the ships, has the effect of nicely overlapping the AOE damage of each bomb.
+The Flyhalf technique also allows for the coordination of multiple wings of bombers. When the bomber fleet gathers at the observation point, they are assigned ranges to warp at. (John warps at 0, Jill at 10, James at 20, Harmony at 30, Guile at 50, Titus at 70, Steven at 100). This will prevent a mass cascade decloak of the entire fleet if one person DCs/makes a mistake, or in the case of a spy/awoxer, only one bomber wing will die. The FC can then squad warp each bomber group at will at the enemy. Ensuring enough time between squad warps so that their bombs have enough time to detonate, before the next wave of bombs goes off.
 ==See Also==