How NOD Bombers and GDI Firehawks Work

Thank you @EE_Elephterion! I really appreciate your response. Looking forward to the next update as well!

Hello Commanders,
I'll try to answer as best as I can, after some more testing with both units.

"SpeirFein;d-260614" wrote:
For clarification purposes:
1. How many targets do the firehawks and vertigos target on a run?

Depends! On the lifepoints of the target that is, on the speed of the unit and its range and fire rate. Which already breaks into question 2). In my test I managed to hit about 3 structures of the base that where place next to each other in one lane. Hence my previous statement about how often they attack. That is however only the attack animation we can see, so the actual number of hits on a unit that are performed for calculation might be different.

"SpeirFein;d-260614" wrote:
2. Is there a rule that dictates how much percentage of the payload is dropped per target?

I'd need to deepdive on the exact numbers here. But how the games visually represents the attacks might be different from the internal calculation per step. Taking fire rate and movement speed into account i'd say both units fire about 3 shots

"SpeirFein;d-260614" wrote:
3. Do defense structures count as a qualified target during a firehawk/vertigo bombing run?

Yes. And they consume ammo when doing so, unlike other attack units. There is actually a hint window when deploying the bombers for the first time on a world, that explains that. (Both are identical in that regard)


The major difference between Vertigo and Firehawk is that the GDI unit has an attack range of 1.5 cells, meaning it can also attack units on the lanes to the left and right of its own flight lane (if there is no target on its own lane).
The Vertigo is a straight carped bomber only attacking units "below", meaning on the same cell while passing over it.
Due to that difference the Vertigo has a bit more damage per hit/total than the Firehawk I believe. In my test with identical target setups both performed more or less equally well however with targets on their own lane. The Firehawk also has a higher fire rate with more shots to go with that range.
Both units at level 60 where able to destroy 2 power plants and damage the third in row to about half, the FH a bit less, the Vert a bit more.
On a level 60 CY on their lane however, the FH was able to bring down the structure to 29%, the Vertigo only manage to bring it down to 38%. On an "offlane flyby" the FH however only graced the CY down to 50%.

I know those are not the most straight forward answers you where hoping for. But the performance of both units largely depends on how well you know them and their strengths/weaknesses and put them to use.
From a different thread about the damage values displayed in the arsenal it has become clear that the displayed values there do not communicate a units damage not very well, so we are looking into reworking that info for the next update into something more useful.

"SpeirFein;d-260614" wrote:

For clarification purposes:
1. How many targets do the firehawks and vertigos target on a run?
2. Is there a rule that dictates how much percentage of the payload is dropped per target?
3. Do defense structures count as a qualified target during a firehawk/vertigo bombing run?

1. I'd say 3 or 4, it can't be 5 cause in any simulation I run, if the CY is too deeply buried in buildings and defense, there's no way I could hit it with one row of bombers. They take into account the health of each building, so if the defense and base buildings are at 1 to 5% health, bombers can easily reach the CY and damage it.
2. Can't say, my guess is the lower the building health, the lower the percentage needed. A 5% would probably only take 2% of the bomber's payload, at maximum, that would be around 25 to 30% per building if there's more than 4 buldings.
3. Yes, sometimes there's so much defense structures that by the time a bomber reaches the base, they have no ammo left. A good solution to this is to have your anti-structure units soften things first before sending in your bombers. Waves 1 and 2 should have a mix of anti-structure, anti-vehicle and anti-infantry units and waves 3 and 4 are where your bombers should be, along with some more anti-structure units.