Ventral turret

[SteveVonSteve]

is the ventral turret worth it at all?

[Patarack]

earlier missions, not really, just stick to a low altitude so fighter can't get under you and concentrate on upping your guns on the other 3 positions while armoring up your aircraft with the freed up weight from not have a ventral turret. For me, once I encountered my first heavy fighter and had a tussle with him, I threw on a ventral turret.

[Dirt Merchant]

Originally posted by SteveVonSteve:

is the ventral turret worth it at all?

At some point, you will be flying at high altitude on a regular basis. Especially if the mission requires you to drop a "Grand Slam" bomb which only works at high altitude. So YES, a ventral turrent is ESSENTIAL as the game goes on.

[SteveVonSteve]

Great, thanks a bunch!

[Ath3lwulf]

You will need them when when you start operation chariot

[Thodin]

You wont need the ventral turret for the first few missions. But later in the game you have to fly higher and of course you definetly need this turret to cover your belly.

Lategame you rarely use the upper central one :)

[Pindie]

It's more useful than chin turret.

[Doctor Lag]

Originally posted by Pindie:

It's more useful than chin turret.

This. Also, once I've got plenty of cash I like to get it for the technician to use before things start burning.

[Average coloniser]

YOU HERETIC HOW DARE THEE NOT ADD A VENTRAL TURRET (but to be serious get it its op against heavy fighters because they dont move when they are under you so you can take them down in one fell swoop

[legoking907]

Originally posted by SteveVonSteve:

is the ventral turret worth it at all?

for me, Only when your at high alt. but if you die after the first crit. you preaty much get one anyway.

[SteveVonSteve]

Do you guys have all three back turrets manned at all times? For extra firepower? if so, with which crew member?

[Dirt Merchant]

Originally posted by SteveVonSteve:

Do you guys have all three back turrets manned at all times? For extra firepower?

Yes.

if so, with which crew member?

My engineer. The only thing the engineer's station does is activate engine fire extinguishers (which anybody can do) and activate the Boost or Lean skills - the latter of which usually doesn't come into play until you're not being attacked.

When crew can get secondary skills, I make sure to have more than just the one engineer on staff in case something needs to get fixed but the main engineer is busy shooting stuff with the belly gun.

[SteveVonSteve]

Thanks!

[rgpass]

btw you will need it before you fight the third Ace. Buy one after you kill two. :)

[Thop]

My engineer is on it on the way to the bomb site, and I have my bomber man it while my engineer fixes everything on the return trip.

[Outis]

I have my Bomb Aimer as my primary Ventral Gunner and he moves right to the Ventral Turret when the game first loads on the Runway. Bomb Aimer is fully armored like my other Primary Gunners.

My Engineer is responsible primarily for the Nose Turret and Bombing. He is in the Engineer Station if not in combat. He can very quickly bounce between the two as needed.

Reason behind this is because the Engineer does not have to be as armored in the Nose Turret because it does not take as much enemy fire as the two turrets in the Mid-Rear section. This allows you to keep your Engineer relatively fast in case you need to do any repairs on plane.

I find it ironic that most people say they armor up their gunners as much as they can, but then throw a fast, lightly armored engineer into the same space as their Dorsal Guner knowing that it will receive a lot of enemy fire.

But this is just my personal loadout.

I think the ventral turret is absolutely worth it. Both turrets firing at side approaching fighters has saved me many times over. When an enemy fighter is a distance away on a strafing run, you can have 2 turrets firing at it, rather than one. That is 100% more firepower directed at the enemy fighter.