FMB Help Plz!
Hope I can help Rudel
Firstly I would get some real flight stats on the B29 -
Max.speed @ 30,000ft (9150m) - 357mph (575km/h)
Max. continuous cruise speed @ 30,000ft (9150m) - 342mph (550km/h)
Economical cruise speed @ 26,000ft (7930m) - 220mph (353km/h)
Looking at these stats, I would set up a cruise speed somewhere in between max. continuous cruise and economical cruise - say 450km/h with full bomb load.
The historic B29's flew at between 26,000ft and 30,000ft which I think is a bit high for IL2 - I would put your formations at a max of 5000m (16,400ft).
Set up your bomber formation in a large 'V Shape' with each 4 plane formation having a 50m height difference and experiment with the distance between 4 plane formations - try and keep them as close together as you can - you get better bomb saturation over the target. The bombers on the outside points of the 'V' should be at the lowest altitude, stepping up each formation by 50m as you move to the 'V' centre.
Your fighter escorts should be placed on either side of the 'V' formation and 'tied onto' the second or third 4 plane formation from each side. Your fighters should be at least 100m above your highest bomber formation and each flight should be seperated by 100m.
You should keep all your bombers at a constant speed of 450km/h and your fighters slightly higher at 490km/h. Over the target each bomber group should have the 'G-Attack' designation which will make them all bomb at the same time.
I have not answered all your questions - my suggestion is to experiment a bit until you are happy with the results. Please refer to my Mission (32) in the 'Long nose Focke-Wulf - Eastern Front' campaign. This mission sets up a large B24 formation flying over the Slovakia map.
There is a fault in the game sometimes with the 4 plane bomber formations - the last bomber sometimes does not fly with the other three and dives up and down towards the ground - approaching the target it seems to fix itself. I had an email exchange between Oleg and myself about this problem and he managed to fix it on the earlier versions of the game. This fault appears to be back again on the later versions.
Good luck with your FMB.
DFLion
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