Bomber strategies

from Sins Forums
Lately, I've been experimenting more with using Bombers, and was pleastantly surprised at how well they work early to mid game.

On the surface, you'd think that bombers wouldn't work well vs light frigates because they only do 50% damage against that armor type, but I've found that bombers do enough raw base damage to be fairly effective in that role.  And against structures and capitals they're pretty good.  In the early and mid game they're a good for raiding infrastructure and for putting a lot of fire down on enemy capitals.

Late game, they are effective against heavy cruisers, but this is where it gets complicated.  I'm not sure if it's a better expenditure of my supply points to field lots of carriers with fighters and bombers supported by a modest number of heavy cruisers, or it's better to field a modest number of carriers with purely fighters and many more heavy cruisers.  Heavy cruisers are so powerful that they may do better in the offense role than even a large horde of bombers.  I've tried both ways, and they both seem to work I'm just not sure which is better for fleet engagements.  Having bombers does force the opponent to defend from more threats, which is worth something in itself.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?  Lately, I've been playing so that in the late game I'll have an equal number of light carriers and heavy cruisers in a fleet.  My carriers have been splitting their hangar space 50/50 between fighters and bombers (fighters are absolutely necessary to suppress enemy fighters before launching bombers; otherwise, your bombers are butchered by enemy fighters and you lose a lot of your offensive firepower right at the start of the battle).

Early and mid game, though, the 50/50 fighter and bomber combo is deadly.  Fighters for suppressing enemy fighters and then LRMs, bombers to lay down fire on enemy capitals.  I've been pleased with the results so far.
strategy
4,283 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
better to justt make some flak to support your hc's.

HC's basically kill everything except bombers. (which is why bombers need survivability buffed vs. flaks..)

Vasari bombers for example have 140 hp.
3 per squad, IIRC.
4 flaks would in perfect conditions kill 4 vasari bombers in 6.5 seconds.(each of the 4 flak guns would be firing at one, using all their 22dps)

What other unit in the game does that? Bombers really should have 50% more hp. Even still flaks are more hard counter against bombers than anything else in the game except flak vs. fighter.

Flaks uber ability to kill fighters is fine though.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Depends on the faction you play as, I personally play as TEC only, though I have a base familiarization of the other 2 factions.

TEC it would be better to build Sovas, Lots of Sovas and use Flak, Heavy Cruisers, and Cobalts to protect them. Let the strike craft fly around the system, while the fleet stays at the edge of the gravity well. Thereby giving you an easy escape and a hard hammer to hit his infrastructure with. Remember for 50 fleet logistics, you get 7 percherons, so if you build 8 sovas, that is a total of 56 Pecherons... lots and lots of strike craft there... and for only 50 logistics a pop, whereas a Pecheron takes 8 or 12?

Remember: Capital Ships are your friend in the late game if you get a good mix. The problem is finding the right mix for your playstyle. I personally like Fleet carrier battle groups.

Good luck with finding your own playstyle.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
odd wont let me edit..

Oh and i'm assuming you're laying single player?

The AI isn't a challenge at all so pretty much any ships work in single player.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Remember for 50 fleet logistics, you get 7 percherons, so if you build 8 sovas, that is a total of 56 Pecherons... lots and lots of strike craft there... and for only 50 logistics a pop, whereas a Pecheron takes 8 or 12? Remember: Capital Ships are your friend in the late game if you get a good mix. The problem is finding the right mix for your playstyle. I personally like Fleet carrier battle groups.Good luck with finding your own playstyle.
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Truthfully, I find that using bombers en masse doesn't work as well for TEC. I think they have the least effective bombers. Advent bombers are purely nasty, though.

Late game, I can see this Sova-heavy strategy working. But early to mid game it ain't happening, therefore you're going to have to use some Percherons if you want to use strike craft offensively in any appreciable numbers in the early and mid game.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Well to the TEC bombers being ineffective I did some number crunching :) Note that all bombers and fighters of every faction have the same range of 2400. What I don't know is if the production time is the same for all races. If it were the same, then fewer, stronger ships would be more time effective than many, weaker ships. When I say squad health or damage, I'm just adding up all the ships in the squad together.

I'll start with Advent.

Fighters
#/squad:9
ship health:40
total health:360
ship repair rate:0.15
armor:1.0
ship dps:1.3(laser)
squad dps:11.7

Bombers
#/squad: 7
ship health: 75
total health: 525
ship repair rate: 0.15
armor: 1.0
ship dps: 2.5(beam)
squad dps: 17.5

TEC

Fighters
#/squad: 6
ship health: 60
total health: 360
ship repair rate: 0.25
armor: 1.0
ship dps: 1.6(autocannon)
squad dps: 9.6

Bombers
#/squad: 5
ship health: 100
total health: 500
ship repair rate: 0.25
armor: 2.0
ship dps: 3.3(missile)
squad dps: 16.5

Vasari

Fighters
#/squad: 4
ship health: 85
total health: 340
ship repair rate: 0.40
armor: 3.0
ship dps: 2.6(phase missile)
squad dps: 10.4

Bombers
#/squad: 3
ship health: 140
total health: 420
ship repair rate: 0.50
armor: 5.0
ship dps: 5.7(phase missile)
squad dps: 17.1

So to sum it all up. Advent get many more strike craft, their total combined health and damage are the highest. Since each individual ship is weak (especially in the armor and health regen department), they are vulnerable to AoE strike craft skills like the KOL's flak burst.

TEC fighters are the worst by far. Their ships aren't any more survivable than advent's but they have the lowest dps. Their bombers are also the weakest, and only second best squad health. They have average regen rates.

Vasari win. Their fighters have average strength, a measly 20 less squad health, but 2 more armor than everyone else. Their bombers have high damage, relatively low health, but much higher armor than other bombers. They have the highest regen rates. They also use phase missiles which get the wonderful shield bypass bonus if researched.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Oh and i'm assuming you're laying single player?
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I've actually used 6 CVLs early game as Advent and was able to stand off a numerically superior attack by two other human players, one TEC and one Advent. Basically my strategy was to suppress their interceptors first with my interceptors. Once that was done, I launched my bombers, and coordinated the bomber attacks with the Malice ability on my Mothership. After I destroyed the Advent player's Radiance, I turned all my attention to his light frigates. He had more frigates than me, but my frigates + Malice + bomber strikes made his frigates just evaporate.

Early to mid-game this seems to work well. But late game CAs are so strong that I'm not sure bombers are even necessary. It might be better at that point to convert all hangar space to interceptors and use them for defense against enemy bombers and LRMs. Haven't decided which will work best yet.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Vasari's are the best, especially as they have few with high hp(with advents a few die and their DPS is lowered, while with vasari they'd just have one about to die).
Also they BOTH use phase missiles, fighters and bombers benefiting from the same upgrade not to mention phase missiles are insane.

However, Advent has more support abilities to buff their squadrans and their carriers cost HALF the crystal. This makes Vasari's and Advents even, while tec's I'd rarely ever ever make especially since it's easy to just skip to Kodiaks.