Jump to content


Photo

C&C Tiberian History: Hints and Tips #28

orca+bomber tiberian sun gdi

  • Please log in to reply
No replies to this topic

#1 Madin

Madin

    title available

  • Hosted
  • 686 posts

Posted 10 January 2011 - 06:01 AM

Name: Orca Bomber
Side: GDI
COST: $2000
Tier: 3
ERA: Tiberian Sun
Base Asset: Old Reborn models www.cncreborn.eu staff


sosun8.jpg

Gameplay
A very powerful tier 3 Bomber!

The Orca Bomber represents a significant increase in GDI's aerial bombardment options, let's compare the Orca Bomber's usage with the Fire hawk (with Bomb load-out selected).

The Fire Hawk is a precision bomber, the bombs that it drops close into a single location. The Orca bombs on the other hand are dropped in a line, also while the Fire Hawk drops it's bombs all at once, the Orca bomber almost always drops its load in 2 passes. This obviously means that the Fire hawk can quickly do its maximum damage and start returning to base, minimising the time spent taking anti-air fire. The Orca bomber takes much longer, due to the time it takes for it to line up its second pass. The good news is that the Orca bomber is much tougher than the Fire Hawk.

v4ywci.jpg

The upgraded movement system that the Fire Hawks can gain, together with the fact that it drops its load very quickly means that there will be situations when a group of Fire Hawks are really the best option.

 

The fact that it is possible to destroy an intended target with the 'first' bombing pass is an interesting factor to consider about the Orca bombers. You could destroy multiple targets with a small group of Orca bombers.

With practice you'll get a feel of how much is 'enough' to destroy certain targets. If micro is not your thing, then you could leave the Orca bomber on 'Guard' mode, if it destroys its assigned target with its first pass, then it will seek enemy units or base defences with its remaining bombs. Also there is the option of leaving an Orca bomber on aggressive mode. If it destroys its assigned target in the first pass then it will seek out any enemy structure as well as the usual targets it would pick in 'Guard' mode. This usually means that the Orca bomber will pick the closest target for its remaining bombs.

x2mpp3.jpg

A key difference that I have yet to cover is the damage types of the bombs. The Fire Hawk does 'GRENADE' damage, which means that it is great for structures, stationary infantry squads, but not vehicles. The Orca bomber's bombs do 'CANNON' damage which means that it is a little less effective versus infantry and structures, but very damaging against vehicles. Do not be concerned about the "less vs structures" statement, the sheer number of bombs more than make up for any damage shortfall. In terms of using the Orca bomber against vehicles, if they are fast vehicles, forget it! Target slow moving vehicles (the large tier 3 vehicles for example) or large concentrations of vehicles. A group of Orca bombers can decimate a slow moving tank column, so do not underestimate the bombers anti-vehicle potential.

The Orca bomber is surprisingly difficult to take down. Together with the large devastation it can cause, an enemy has to respond if he sees that you are building Orca bombers.

The ideal counters for each side are the GDI Fire Hawk (anti-air load-out obviously!) Nod's Stealth tank & the Scrin's Storm column!
Expanding on the static air defence discussion, the Scrin as stated before, have the best solution with the Storm column. Not only that, but there is a good argument for the Scrin's anti-air Plasma battery being better than Nod and GDI's static defence efforts. Nods Sam-sites can be tricky in reasonably large numbers, especially if they are upgraded.

axzfiu.jpg

How many bombers you build is up to your style. You can build only a small grouping (4-8), which may prevent your opponent from going crazy on anti-air defences, which increases their chances of being effective (until they build some of the 'best' counters). Or you could saturate your enemy with Orca bombers!, keep building replacement bombers when any are downed, and just keep blasting away until your enemy can no longer keep up with building counters for your saturation bombing (being clever with your targeting can get you to this place in a match much quicker than random bombings, killing tech structures that provide serious anti-air opposition, than concentrating on structures that build the actual units, etc).

2dlm44m.jpg

If possible make sure that you don't have Orca bombers sitting around doing nothing! you can set a group of Orca bombers to 'guard' an area, they'll bomb any units or base defences within their radius after their bombs are depleted, they'll replenish at the air field, then return to the area they were set to guard.

 

Some Stats:

Speed: 155 (Firehawk = 190)

Health: 6,250 (Firehawk = 2,625)

Bombs

Weapon strength: 1750

Damage Type: CANNON

Bomb amount: 6 (8 when upgraded with Hardpoints)

Reload time: 12 seconds

Bomb ratings

Primary use: Anti-Structure

Anti-Structure rating: Very good+. Excellent damage, but takes two passes to drop all bombs. Bomb spread means small defences take low damage due to bomb misses.

 

r2j0vq.jpg

New for Release 4
The Orca Bomber now has an AA gun.
This is basically a forward mounted AA gun, that uses the exact same weapon as the Nod Vertigo Bomber's rear mounted AA gun. So the usage is exactly the same.
Because the AA gun does not need reloading, as long as the target cannot defend itself (or escape!), there is no reason not to use the AA gun.

New for Release 6

Health increased to 6,250 (was 5,000). The host of upgrades to static AA, and the new anti-air aircraft, meant that the Orca bomber quickly became too easy to shoot down (due to its slow speed). This should allow it to survive slightly longer.

 

New for Release 8

  • Orca bomber no longer has a special heroic weapon. Because...
  • The Orca bomber now benefits from the 'Hard points' upgrade! It only gets a couple of extra bombs, but that is more than enough, and these bombs drop slightly faster than the non-upgraded version.
  • Orca bomber now has very basic flying animations. They are not great, but they are a start.
  • Now has a specific damage nugget to deal with infantry. This nugget does 325 'SNIPER' damage. The high tier infantry could take far too many bomb hits (due to their resistance to 'CANNON' damage), and consequently too many particle FX ended up getting played, yes the main reason that this has been added is to reduced the number of FX played!

Edited by Madin, 12 May 2017 - 06:42 PM.





0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users