Making gunners work

One of the most frustrating things in War Thunder for me (Ok, I know. If you have ever played with me, everything in War Thunder pisses me off. However for the record, its usually the game and other players that get me angry, hardly you guys) is that gunners for bombers are useless. Other than turning tail, giving up pretty much all control of your bomber just to stay in gunner view, does anyone seriously have any knowledge/tips on how to get gunners to work at all?

My american bomber slot for example. It has 9 skilled gunners, and most of the bombers I fly in that slot are crew qualified with max accuracy and precision (50+30). So if I am flying along trying to drop on a target, a FW just flies up behind me and shoots the hell out of me without even one peep from the AI.

Serious suggestions/discussion please. Does anyone know what makes them tick? Or not (Gaigen nerf bat). Is it a matter of gun convergence? G's? Plane position?

I'll start.. With my B25 mentioned above, sometimes.. sometimes if I fly with the plane slightly pointed up and to the side (roll left or right 1 degree) the AI will shoot at approaching enemy planes. Give it a try and please tell me I'm not the only one who gets this kind of result.

I do want to fly my bombers more, I just cannot right now.

Grendelkitty

OK... 1st of all (for those who doesn't know) Skill points on gunners are unefective if you take control over the gunner possition.

If you move your plane arround, to try to avoid the plane incoming, your gunners are gonna miss all the time! You need to fly strait to make them to shot anything.

Tip for this?
- Turn off autopilot for gunners view and bombs view.
- Always turn arround (left and right) and set the enemy to your 6 about 2-3Km away.
- If your opponent is higher, turn your nouse down arround 1.3km away or closer so he can't get an easy kill to set all the gunners to him.
- If ur opponent is lower just climb a little more, so he can reach you with lower speed

Thanks for the tips Basekotboll, I will use this.
I am more of a figther plane guy but starting recently with bombers. I will use this in the future to kill more!

The higher tier you play the more chances are to get one shoted coz of the rise in firepower. I got my B17/E maxed with aced crew and never relay on the gunners to do the job. There is no AI that can be better than a human sitting on the gunners place, well at least for now. There are a couple of tricks you can use to make your gunners more effective but I suggest you to start jumping back and train with gunner view. For example you need to know the best angle of your plane witch will give most of your gunners a target. For the Wellington the the best angle for the most of your gunners to engage the enemy is with the nose a bit up and your enemy at 4 o'clock.

Mix of suggestions-
1-the 1-2degree banked turn is good.Keeps at least 2-4 gunners on target at all times
2-Learn to "SideSlip' evade. It keeps gunners on target,they get pretty good at hitting in that scheme.
3-Fly smart.DONT be first bomber out,or even 2nd/3rd. Do a 360 in spawn.Give the few fighters that cover a chance to work to altitude,and the enemy fighters a chance to get distracted with incoming other bombers,fighters
4-Part of ur frustration is at not "accomplishing' anything and being shot down,I'd assume. Again,fly smart! IF your team is behind on points,don't try to fly to the last subbase,across the map. Hit close ground targets *remember,only the blinking ones apply to tickets/points!).
5-Try to stay above the "Furball" when flying cross-map. It makes the fighters climb vertically.Sure,the Germans can do this for a short time,but then they get over-zealous,stall,and are easy prey for teammates
6-FLY WITH AOD! The guys I fly with in AOD have no problems playing "Goalie' for a bomber pilot. I've been "Bomber bait' for several WEEKS at the lower levels,and flew with guys whod walk out a match with 16-20 air kills just popping fools who climbed to get Me. Tactics My Man,tactics!
7-get in that gunner positions and practice! Its like a FPS game. Just know ur gonna die,alot,while learning. Eventually Your eyes/hand will do the work naturally,and Your mind will concentrate on flying/tactics. Good luck GK and remember-

"If all else fails,get out the flask,light a smoke,and enjoy the scenery on Your way down under the silk'-Quote attributed to "Iron Ass" Hill. My Grandfather,WWII RAF/USAAF/USAF fighter pilot. Spitfires/Mustang..shot down 3x..never captured...lol.He was called "Iron ass' cause He attracted metal/bullets apparently.Kill record stands at 25 confirmed,11 probable. RIP Grandpa Hill!

very nice suggestions here, but also i find it helpful when i do find myself in gunner view (mainly when someone is right on my tail) to completely disregard the aiming circle.. well, atleast to some extent.. it seems to be broken somewhat. just watch the arch of your fire and adjust..
the aiming circles seems to always stay in the same place for some reason so you can't always trust that.. i shoot more planes down shooting where i think i should shoot rather than following the aiming circle. :)

I think your misunderstanding the questions. I am more thinking of the whats and the hows of getting the AI gunners to actually work for the times you are not in gunner view.

The AI gunners got nerfed a couple patches ago. For a long time the AI was able to snipe and one shot and bombers were near untouchable. It was quite common to get into a match and have 75% of both teams flying nothing but bombers. For now, they're average.

My suggestions:

#1 - WEAPON MAINTENANCE! Max that shit out! Gunners will be able to stay engaged longer and have increased accuracy of spread.

#2 - RELOAD SPEED! Max that shit out! For obvious reasons.

#3 - Gunner stats. Max them out as well.

It's quite common that whenever I fly a bomber, I generally ket at least 1 ai gunner kill per match. Different bombers have different weak spots. Figure out your gunners strong spots and maneuver to keep your ai gunners having the best chance they can!

Hope that makes sense.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

I'm talking about factors and things that get the gunners shooting in the first place. In most cases when I fly bombers (different bombers, different nations), they don't bother to shoot at all, or maybe one of them does when the enemy plane is clearly in arc for 2 or more turrets.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AOD_Grendelkitty

I'm talking about factors and things that get the gunners shooting in the first place. In most cases when I fly bombers (different bombers, different nations), they don't bother to shoot at all, or maybe one of them does when the enemy plane is clearly in arc for 2 or more turrets.

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If you have enough experienced gunners, and they're not shooting, I would take a video replay, or screentshots, & post a bug report on the WT forums. Something doesn't sound right. Does it only happen with one specific plane?