A bunch of questions on aircraft

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by gap

Yes sure, share it here please!

So, a while ago I noted down from uboat.net two lists: one counting which aircraft were credited with U-Boat kills (including those sharing a credit) and second with aircraft killed by U-Boats while attempting to attack. Here's the result:

Kills and Losses

I used this to choose a list of planes to try to import. Of course, this doesn't give full picture, because it leaves out ASW/patrol missions that did not result in either aircraft or U-Boat being destroyed (for example, Avro Anson never sunk a U-Boat despite being commonly used for exactly that).

Many planes present in roster (and I mean TWoS roster because stock game is beyond repair) were not even used in theatre (Buffallo, Buccanneer) or would be unlikely to attack a U-Boat - this mostly concerns single-engined air superiority fighters (Mustang, Hurricane, Mig, Yak, La-5, P-47).

Only example I found of such planes attack on U-Boat is very telling:

"On 4 May 1945, U-155 was en route with U-680 and U-1233 from Germany to Norway through the Little Belt when they were strafed by Mustang fighters of 126 Squadron which were escorting Beaufighters of the North Coates Strike Wing. The flight broke off the attack after the leading Mustang was shot down, killing the CO of the squadron."

So it was unplanned attack on target of opportunity, which also failed - probably because attacking planes were not really trained or armed for ASW work. I think in game, such non-ASW planes, if present, should be relatively harmless and rarely attack.

Another thing - I don't know if TWoS already models this, but some some planes (USAAF-painted B-17, Avro Lancaster) would be more fitting doing air raids on ports than hunting subs at sea. Ideally, they should also behave differently: use "level bomber" AI setting and be set to fly very high. One could compensate for low aircraft numbers by making these "air raid only" planes carry more bombs (like, multiple "Bomb_Cluster" weapons) to really bring devastation to a port when player is unlucky enough to witness it.