How have you lost your bombers?

[LTChance]

I've finally done 7-10 missions without losing anybody and levelled my bomber up to where it feels pretty strong. So now, of course, I am even MORE terrified of misclicking my way into a lawn dart crash. So, I thought I'd ask for ways you guys have lost your whole plane. Here's mine:

7 lost bombers:
- sent the pilot to fix an engine on accident
- sent the pilot to do first aid on accident
- ran out of fuel over Britain because of shot up tanks
- ran out of fuel and tried to emergency land but pilot was aiming for water landing and ran into a cliff on the shore
- got tail shot off and crashed in channel
- tried to land with two starboard engines and no port engines, plane veered off course on runway approach and crashed into trees. a few guys survived.
- hydraulics went out after giving landing order and I couldn't figure out how to abort landing (still only know to give a manual Nav order if the Navigator had the ability)

[Gharm]

Keep losing to enemy bomber which has perfect cruise control to park under my bomber and shoot dead any gunner I try to send to the ventral gun (if I have a ventral gun) while I'm waiting for my pilot's corkscrew skill to recharge.

[klw10]

The worst for me was when I was going in for a landing with gas about to run out. I had an experienced crew from almost the beginning of the missions in the 3rd campaign. I forgot to lower the landing gear so the pilot pulled up and turned around. Ran out of gas before I could make it back and the plance crashed. All onboard died but he radio man. I think the developers should fix this bug. If the plane is going in for a landing on limited fuel the pilot should attempt to land or crash land even if the landing gears are not down.

[FrankTheMagicPotato]

Well, that was kind of your fault. The idea of this game is total management, so the pilot should put down the landing gear for you, even if you have low fuel. And it's not a bug, the people don't do thing for themselves. If you had put down the gear, they wouldn't have died.

[klw10]

Well, never said it was not my fault but it makes no sense for pilot who knows he does not have the fuel to leave and go back to try and land again. That is all I am saying. Regardless of my mistake he still should have landed the plane with that amount of fuel left. Better to try and crash land on the runway than to leave knowing you do not have the fuel to make it back.

[FrankTheMagicPotato]

The game makes you auto leave if you don't have your gear down. There isn't any point in that, it simply is supposed to kill crews that make mistakes. Survival of the fittest, if you forget you put down gear and run our of fuel, the crew is unfit. If you remember, the crew is fit.

[klw10]

A pilot would not do that. They have the survival deal for a situation like that. It would determine who survived the crash landing. Survival of the fitest is bull in this case. I had a plane that was shot to you know what and I landed with the gear down. Almost all the crew died. Was that their fault too?

[FrankTheMagicPotato]

If the gear were intact, then it was. If they were shot out, then it's no ones faults. There shouldn't be a feature where the pilot would autoland with little fuel. This game is supposed to be super dooper managment, of things that normal people should do by themselves. You even have to tell the gunners to shoot at enemies that are right off your tail. I've been shot down because I forgot to tag fighters over a bombing target and by the time I did, all my engines were shot. None of the people do anything for you in this game, regardless of circumstance. The devs should not, IMO, put in an autocrash if you have low fuel.

[TheCombatWombat]

I lost my first bomber today... there was a fire in the cabin.... right over the spot where my fire extinguisher was equipped, so nobody would go get it! I'll be carrying TWO from now on... at opposite ends of the plane!

RIP Mary Jane... you will be missed.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1286629859

[FrankTheMagicPotato]

Yeah, two fire extinguishers is a good idea. I almost lost a plane like that. I just had a crew member brave the fire.

[klw10]

Well, I had no idea the guy was going to turn around. Also, you do not have to tag fighters to shoot enemy planes if you use autotag. I still think it would be something the developers should look into. Nitpicking about lowering the gear... I was basically out of fuel anyway...

[TheCombatWombat]

Lost my second plane (and the full crew) today... :(

Was down low for a bombing run due to heavy cloud cover and running on three engines due to some enemy fire on approach. Lost a second engine (same side) during the run. But that's no problem, right? I can still fly on one, and I've got two left.....

So I reset my target for home, tell my pilot to pull up to medium, and then send my engineer to repair my busted hydraulics and two medics to pick up my two downed rear gunners... at which point I notice that my plane is DESCENDING, not ascending like I told it to.

Panic stations... send everybody to bail, but realise they're never going to make it from this altitude, given how much armour I've stacked on them all. Frantically try to get the pilot back into his seat for an emergency landing, but he doesn't even get the gear down before I impact with the loss of all crew.

A quick look at the replay shows me that the enemy Ace had appeared and, in a single strafing run, had knocked out both my other engines! /cry

Oh well... fare thee well, the Lucky 8's! You're flying in clearer skies now!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1286629910

[grandnovice]

I almost lost my epic crew. I have 1 crew that has survived over 100 missions. The pilot got knocked out. We managed to save him but the navigator was flying the plane until we got him back on his feet. That's the kind of stuff that happens when fighters are coming at you from both sides. Also lost 1 engine, 1 fuel tank, and 1 landing gear... but we made it home and with no loses.

[bgrubz]

Coming back from the first of the second tier missions (After Chariot), had two engines shot off, then as I was getting tothe channel, the other two caught fire, didn't have extinguisers on the engines, and forgot engineer was on the wing trying to put out the fire when doing a dive to put them out. Second set of fighters came in just as I was over the channel and got lucky shots in taking out one engine and setting the final one fire again but no extinguisers in the plane now, engine burned off just as hitting england, suffice to say...all but the engineer (Really need to remember to put a chute on the guy when I make him wing walk..), and tailgunner made it back.

[IL PALLINO]

There were two times I lost bombers. The first time I ran out of fuel in the middle of landing. I hit the runway hard enough to destroy the plane, but everyone lived.

The second time I hoarded a bunch of money, then I bought a bunch of parachutes, and then had everyone bail out over England for the sake of earning an achievement.

[static]

Every time I've lost a bomber, it's because I lost control of the situation and didn't turn back when I should've. Once you're down to two engines, it's definitely time to call it a day and head for home.